Chapter 3

The Salvation of My Family

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household." (Acts 16:31)

1. My Grandmother Believed in the Lord

My grandmother has always worshipped idols and ancestors. She was especially zealous on that New Year's festival shortly after I believed in the Lord. On the first day of that year she went on the Chipan Mountain, and for each stone step she kowtowed and burned incense in the temple on that mountain. In addition, she asked a lot for my uncle. When she returned, she asked me to explain it to her. I advised her: "Grandmother, what is told in this lot is not very good. It is better that you convert to the true God, Jesus. He can change the bad fate of uncle to a good one. If you believe in those false gods who gave you this lot, then you can wait for your luck to go down." My grandmother was a deep-rooted idolater, so she answered unhappily: "Forget about it! You take your way and I take mine." So I stopped advising her. About one week later, I went home after school (I audited the graduation class for half a year in high school). The maid told me that Grandmother was sick. She had never been sick; however, it was said that today she had had such a stomach ache that the doctor came to give her a shot of painkiller. Then she felt better, but she was still lying in bed. I knew about it, but I did not pay attention to it at all. Another three or four days later, I was awakened in the middle of the night by the groaning of my grandmother in the next room. I was so sleepy that I was unwilling to get up. I only heard the maid, who was with her, say that she would go to call my mother. Next I heard my mother sending people to fetch the doctor and asking the maid to fry salt to warm Grandmother's stomach. Though I heard their voices of panic, I was still reluctant to get up. Then the Holy Spirit reminded me sternly: "If your grandmother dies tonight and her soul falls into Hell, you will be the one to be blamed for it." I jumped out of my bed at once and walked into the next room. I saw my grandmother with her eyes closed and hollowed. Her lips were purple, and I could not stop blaming myself in my heart. My mother immediately passed me a bag of hot salt and asked me to continuously massage Grandmother's stomach with it. She ran out to see if the doctor had arrived. "Grandmother, hurry and call Jesus to save you!" I said to her. I used the salt to massage her while I told her this. She actually followed me saying, "Jesus, save me!" However, she was so full of pain she could no longer bear with it. Suddenly, she threw herself out of bed, and she cried, "The pain is killing me!" It scared me so much that I spilled the whole bag of salt all over the bed and fled to my room at once. I knelt before my bed and prayed aloud to the Lord to forgive my sin that I did not preach the gospel at a time of peace. I only asked the Lord to save the life of my grandmother. Now I would preach the gospel to her. Gradually I sensed that it was quiet in the next room, and I fell asleep. The next day as I came back from school, the maid told me: "It was amazing last night. You ran back to you room to pray and your grandmother calmed down little by little. When the doctor arrived, she had fallen asleep and her stomach was not painful any more." I walked to Grandmother's room and thought that she might not have believed in Jesus so easily. I gathered up my courage and asked her: "Grandmother, do you believe in Jesus?" "I do, I do." She immediately answered, "I worshipped Buddha for my whole life. This New Year I especially went to the Chipan Mountain, one step, one kowtow. I have never been so devoted in worshipping it! If he were a true god, then why did he not protect me? Instead he let my stomach ache so much that I was almost half-dead. It was not until you prayed to Jesus for me that I began to feel better. I believe in Jesus." I could hardly believe that she simply accepted the Lord like this. Since then every Sunday she has gone to church with me to worship the Lord. For the first time when the offering bag was passed to her, I looked secretly to see whether she was willing to offer some money. She did. I quietly prayed and asked the Lord to open the storehouse of Heaven to award her abundantly. (My grandmother was poor all her life. My parents rarely gave her money, and even when they did, she always gave it all to my uncle and aunts.) Afterward, a miracle happened. My mother was out of town to visit a friend. Every morning my grandmother was responsible for preparing breakfast for my father. One morning he did not see grandmother. "Where did she go?" My father questioned about her. Everyone thought that most likely she went to the house of my aunt. My aunt was not rich, and grandmother was usually concerned about her. Upon hearing this, my father was enraged. It was almost time for him to go to the office, and his breakfast was not ready yet. How irresponsible she was! Suddenly, he saw grandmother rushing in with a big bag of delicacies, and she brought it to my father. There were many servants, maids and drivers in our house, but she had not sent any of them. Instead, she ran all the way by herself to a far away newly opened store, "The Golden Dragon," which was famous for Cantonese food. She bought chicken buns and caronado buns for my father's breakfast. My father was so touched that his conscience must have been stricken. He then asked me to go to his room. I saw there a lot of brightly colored new bills. "Take them to Grandmother," my father told me. What! I was so happy! God truly opened the storehouse of Heaven and poured out blessings on Grandmother. I shouted: "Grandmother, grandmother, you offered a little to the Lord. Now look how much he returns you!" She was so overwhelmed with joy that she grinned from ear to ear and kept on saying: "Thank you Jesus!" After that, my father gave her money often. This was because God directed his heart. All things serve for God's words. What God promises, God will accomplish.

"'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.'" (Malachi 3:10)