Chapter 12

I Come to America: 1989-1993

    1. An Opened Dead End

                It was through my niece that I was issued a visa to visit relatives in America.  She wrote that she hoped I could first come to America and then go to Taiwan when there was an opportunity.  After arriving in New York, I spent the first night in her home.  There was only one room in her apartment, so she put up a curtain between our sleeping areas.  She and her husband slept in one corner and my sister-in-law and I shared a bed in the other corner.  I learned that my nephew would arrive here soon, so there was really no room for me to stay with my niece.  The next morning I left to visit a relative of Sister Zhang.  When I was in Shanghai Sister Zhang had written to the wife of her cousin, (called a sister-in-law) and asked a favor for me.  The cousin wrote that she could accommodate me for two weeks.  The house of this relative was within walking distance of the apartment of my niece, so I walked there.  She, too, lived in a small apartment, which was very crowded.  She occupied one room, her daughter and son-in-law, another, and her youngest son slept in the living room.  I slept in a corner of the living room behind a piano so it provided a space to study the Bible and pray in the middle of the night.  Fortunately the family all went out to work in the daytime and her youngest son came home very late because he worked in a restaurant.  In the morning, I read the Bible and prayed with Sister Zhang’s sister-in-law.  During an operation for her illness, she was revived in the spirit when she saw a vision of the Lord’s paradise.  Therefore, when she learned that her cousin, Sister Zhang, planned to come to America, she was willing to provide temporary lodging for her.  Sister Zhang’s application was turned down, but although she did not know me, she was willing to accommodate me for a while.  The Lord will remember her love.  The Bible says that “anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my discipline, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”  Every word of the Lord will be fulfilled.  Sometime after I left, this family moved into a high and large mansion, which they purchased by themselves.  God also blessed this sister’s children in Hong Kong.  They joined together to buy a house so that she could spend her remaining years happily.             

               When I lived with them, the daughter and son-in-law were working very hard to make money.  One day when we were chatting, the son-in-law told me that the rent of their apartment was seven hundred U. S. dollars a month.  He asked if I knew how much that cost per hour.  I understood what he was trying to say.  How could a missionary like myself coming from China survive in America by leading a life of faith?  I prayed earnestly that when the two weeks were over the Lord would make a way for me.

                The whole family of Sister Zhang’s relative attended a big church in New York every Sunday.  That church had a women’s fellowship, which met once a week in the home of individual families.  When this women’s fellowship invited me to give a testimony, I brought my sister-in-law along.  An old lady who wore heavy make-up sat at my left- hand side, and my sister-in-law sat at my right.  When I spoke of how I used to worship idols with my mother at a certain valley in Zhejian when I was a child, the old lady started to chat softly with my sister-in-law.  I heard her continue to say, “Aunt A-lan.”  How strange it was that she knew my mother’s nickname.  I could not concentrate on my testimony so I waved to them as a signal to stop talking.  As soon as I finished, the old lady spoke loudly to everyone,  “This sister is my relative.  During the Chinese and Japanese war, my whole family took refuge in that valley where her father had built a house.  Her mother lived in her own Buddhist convent built by her father.  Every word of her testimony is true.  This sister used to be a spoiled child with such tantrums.  It is beyond my imagination that she is serving the Lord Jesus now!”    After she spoke, all of the sisters came to talk to me and warmly invited me to go out for lunch.  That elderly lady is a younger brother’s relative by marriage.  Everyone called her Mother Le, which was her husband’s last name.  Later her whole family moved to Taiwan.  After her husband passed away, she came to America with her children.  Although her children were dutiful and obedient and she was rich, she preferred to live alone in the senior apartment.  When my time at Sister Zhang’s relative was over, Mother Le invited me to stay in her apartment, a bright and commodious place.  I could only stay for a short time, however, because according to the regulations of the building, no one was allowed to stay on a long-term basis except one’s spouse.

                I was not worried about this because I truly believed God, who guided Abraham to the Promised Land, would guide me as well.  I fixed my eyes only on him because orphans found mercy in Him.