11. Trust and Obey God's Word  -- Gold Was Returned

After I came out of the jail, all the relatives tried to avoid my mother and me; because they were afraid that they might get into trouble, if they got close to us. Our own house was occupied and used by the Liberation Army to train officials. We had no place to live. Later Ms. Ge, daughter of a pastor of a small church, took us in. We lived in the hallway upstairs. Everyday I helped my mother to write the investigation report explaining the origin of those two bottles of gold. If it came from my father, it would definitely be confiscated. If we reported that my mother earned it, then we had to tell them how she earned it from the beginning to end. Who would believe that she earned all of the gold by doing business? Even I could not believe it. Moreover, at that time there was a Mrs. Ju, whom we had never known, though we attended the same church Lin Lian Tan. She came everyday to borrow one hundred dollars from my mother, because she was in trouble. She ran a small store selling umbrellas. Since the movement of San Fan Wu Fan started, the workers in her store criticized her and demanded this amount of money. She went to church in tears, and one of the elders accompanied her to see my mother. At that time my mother had her own troubles and was unable to fend for herself. She was full of complaints. One day just after we finished lunch, my mother was complaining again: "I asked her not to come, she still came today to borrow money from me." I was just going to shut my ears to it and leave, but what I read this morning in Proverbs 21:13 worked in my heart:

"If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered."

Immediately I asked my mother what the matter was. Then I read this verse of Scripture to her. I said: "Mom, if you do not lend money to her, God will not listen to our prayers. Do we not pray every day to God to move the government to return the gold to us?" "But where do I find so much money to lend to her?" One hundred dollars was not a small amount of money when China was just liberated. My mother said: "I am so angry. After I had trouble, Deacon Yong, who cooperated with me in doing business, now turned against me and took advantage of me. He denied that he should return money to me." I simply prayed with her asking the Lord to move Deacon Yong to return the money, so that mother could lend one hundred dollars to Mrs. Ju. The Lord listened to our prayer. Two days later, he returned part of the money, but he never paid the rest of it. My mother immediately lent one hundred dollars to Mrs. Ju. From the viewpoint of men, what we had done was a silly thing, and we lost too much. We had never known her; moreover, she had absolutely no ability to return the money she borrowed. It was just like we had thrown it into the sea. However, early the next morning she came, holding our hands, and insisted that we should live in her house. She let two of us live in her little bedroom upstairs which faced south, and she moved to a corner downstairs with a dirt floor, which she covered with a piece of cloth. Every morning Mrs. Lin from next door and Mrs. Chu across the street came to the attic where I lived to study the Bible and pray together. Once after the fellowship I had a conviction, and I told my mother: "Mom, Mrs. Ju is absolutely not able to return that one hundred dollars to you. If God listens to our prayer and moves the government to return the gold to you, will you not ask Mrs. Ju to return this money?" She nodded to give her promise. Before long, grace came upon us. The government notified us that the result of the investigation was to return to us all of the gold! At that time this was completely impossible according to men's understanding. Only God could make the government believe that my mother had earned the entire amount of gold by doing business. We would have been very lucky if the authority had even returned part of it. Unexpectedly they returned all of it! (It was in the middle of the big storm of San Fan Wu Fan. When many people were forced to commit suicide for groundless charges, they jumped from the building, hanged themselves, jumped into the river, or took poison…) Our case was the only one of its kind. The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom. It seemed to be a loss, but in obeying and keeping His word; lending one hundred dollars to the poor, God listened to our prayer and did wonders for us according to what He promised. Amen!