Chapter 19 The second part 2 The faith, hope and love of a few good people will not die

Fang Caodi, who traveled all over the country, drove a Cherokee on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, passing cars every time, while telling the Taiwanese writer Lao Chen who lived in Beijing some strange experiences. Fang Cao said that there is a happy village in the Taihang Mountains of Hebei, and the people in the village are very happy, but the media has been repeatedly ordered not to report, which may be related to a huge secret chemical factory upstream.After he heard the news from a drunk reporter in Shijiazhuang, he went to the village. When he entered the village, he found that all the villagers were very friendly with smiles on their faces and looked healthy. The woman basks in the sun with her bare upper body and drags a bag of milk, and she doesn't hesitate to meet strangers, which is something I have never seen in China.Fangcaodi walked another five kilometers upstream along the river valley. Sure enough, he saw a huge chemical plant with barbed wire and various warnings in the distance. airport.

Lao Chen kept listening, no matter what he thought in his heart, he dared not speak up, for fear that Fang Cao would be distracted.Driving at such a high speed, talking while driving, and passing by the rival car several times, it will be a reward to God if he can reach Henan alive. Lao Chen was unwilling to die like this before meeting Xiaoxi.He felt that if he died unexpectedly, he hoped that he would hold hands with Xiaoxi and face the last moment of life together. If he died normally, he hoped that Xiaoxi would watch him by the bed.He is willing to face old age with Xiaoxi as a companion, welcome aging, and share the last years of life.But Xiaoxi must be living in her personal hell now, with no way out. I must bring her hope, so that she will no longer be alone, and must pull her out as soon as possible, so that she will stop working hard and enjoy some time together. Fu, have a good time.Lao Chen took out a cloth handkerchief and pretended to wipe his glasses, and secretly wiped his wet eyes.

Lao Chen took a bite of a wonderful cookie, looking out at the endless North China Plain, and filled his heart with infinite love. He never thought he would feel this way at his age. Traveling southward from Beijing through Baoding, before reaching Shijiazhuang, Fang Caodi parked his car beside the road before the exit of an expressway leading to a branch road. Lao Chen looked at the car GPS and said: "Shijiazhuang, just go straight along the highway."Fang Caodi remained silent, and Lao Chen asked, "What's the matter?" Fang Cao said: "Sorry, I have a hunch."

Old Chen was afraid that he might have a premonition about Xiao Xi: "What's the premonition?" Fang said: "I have a premonition of the happy village I mentioned to you." Old Chen breathed a sigh of relief: "What's wrong with Happy Village?" Fang said: "I don't know. But I want to take a look, okay? Soon, it's not far away." Old Chen reluctantly agreed. Their car exited at this exit, turned westward, took less than an hour on the asphalt road to enter the mountain, and walked on the gravel road for more than 20 minutes. The two got off the car and walked for more than half an hour on the mountain road to Happy Village.

Happy Village is deserted.Fang Caodi went into the house one by one, came out and told Lao Chen: The villagers didn't even take away the farm tools and kitchen utensils, it was too weird. Lao Chen was attracted by another phenomenon.The houses in Happy Village are all typical rural buildings in North China, especially Hebei, which are rough and simple.The rural areas of Hebei are not considered the poorest, but among the rural buildings in China, Lao Chen believes that Hebei is the most unbearable, and has the least requirements in terms of style. Generation after generation will always be crude and simple. It is conceivable that farmers in Hebei must also be the laziest in terms of aesthetics. of.However, although the prototypes of the houses in Happy Village are also crude rural buildings in Hebei, every household has painted pictures on the outer walls, which taste like New Year pictures, but the style is much more free and delicate. With Lao Chen's current mood, he can still See the love in it.There are many pictures on the wall, and some walls only have a colorful flower the size of a real flower.This little bit of extra decoration and effort to beautify has never been seen in Hebei's original ecological countryside. Farmers have become graffiti artists, and Happy Village may be worthy of its name.

Old Chen thought to himself, it would be interesting to meet these peasants who painted colorful paintings, so forget it now. He saw Fang Caodi staring upstream in a daze, and asked, "What's the matter, shall we go?" Fang said: "It was less than a year ago, and everyone is still there." Lao Chen warned: "Don't ask me to go five kilometers upstream, I can't walk one kilometer." Fang Cao said: "There must be a car road that can drive to the other end of the chemical plant." Lao Chen wanted to completely give up Fang Caodi's idea of ​​finding the chemical plant: "That road may come from Shanxi. I can think of a hundred reasons why the villagers have all moved away, and none of them have anything to do with the chemical plant. Don't I've been thinking about some kind of conspiracy all day long."

Fang Caodi was still standing still.Lao Chen resorted to his trump card: "Old Fang, you know that your premonition can't change what is going to happen." Fang Caodi said helplessly: "You are right, let's go." ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henan, south of the Yellow River, in the middle of the world, in the middle of Kyushu, the birthplace of the Chinese nation, is a large province of theme tourism parks in China.Pangu created the world, Nuwa mended the sky, Fuxi and Nuwa married and created humans, Emperor Yan Shennong sowed five grains and tasted a hundred herbs, Yellow Emperor broke Chiyou, Dayu controlled the floods, Shangtang Revolution, King Wu defeated Zhou, mythology and history, all of which have caught up with Henan , can you not commemorate it?Can it be authentic?After that, more than 20 dynasties were established in Henan, and there were nearly 1,000 figures in the 24 histories who were worthy of biography, which was probably the most among all provinces. They were all the top priorities of the ancestors and clans. Do you want to praise and develop it?As a result, education is combined with business tourism and entertainment, and historical theme parks are blooming everywhere, driving the development of real estate in local scenic spots.

Wei Xihong, a Beijing girl, also known as Xiaoxi, and her latest online name is Maizibushi, her last part-time job was to sell popsicles in the hometown of the Yellow Emperor in Xinzheng City, Henan Province. Before that, she also worked in three places that claimed to be the hometown of Pangu and Nuwa City in Zhoukou. conductor.Looking at her whereabouts, the next stop is either Shennong Mountain or various scenic spots that are said to be controlled by Dayu here. Sure enough, she went to Jiaozuo, which seemed to be related to Pangu Fuxi, Nuwa, Shennong, Huangdi, Shang, Tang, Wenwu, and it was called Huaichuan in ancient times.There are 60 ancient cities here, and the legendary Shennong Mountain, where Emperor Yan planted five grains and tasted hundreds of herbs, is nearby. Needless to say, many historical theme parks have been spawned, so you don’t have to worry about being a tourist practitioner.However, she didn't immediately look for a job, instead she wandered around in a trance, because the word "Jiaozuo" evoked dark and personal memories in her heart.When she just graduated from university, her first job was as a court clerk in a county in Beijing, handling severe cases. At that time, the comrades of the six-member team of the public security, procuratorate and law considered her to be incompetent and did her job. The examples given were Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Four to fifty people were shot at a time in Luoyang, and even in places like Jiaozuo, more than 30 people were shot at a time.For some reason, Wei Xihong didn't think of the severe crackdown that year when she went to Luoyang, Kaifeng, and Zhengzhou, but when she arrived in Jiaozuo, she could vividly remember the situation that day.

What happened that year changed her fate and proved that she was not a good material to be a judge of the Republic. Wei Xihong lay down in a hotel in downtown Jiaozuo for two days as if she was sick, and then made a decision.She wants to get rid of the ghost of the crackdown in 1983 in Jiaozuo so that it will not haunt her anymore.In the early morning of the third day, she randomly took a minibus in the direction of Wen County and went to a place called Wenquan Town.She wandered around aimlessly, passing a house with the door open, and there were dozens of people inside and out, all of them kind-eyed and well-dressed.

Spring Festival couplets are pasted on the door frame of the courtyard. The first couplet reads "The tree of life is moved from the sky, and there is always faith, hope and love".Wei Xihong thought: Could this be a house church? Isn’t it an underground church? Why is it so blatant? At this time, people outside the door entered the room one after another, and there was only one middle-aged man standing by the door, looking at Wei Xihong.The man took two steps forward and realized that he was crippled.The man said to Wei Xihong, "Come in."Wei Xihong walked into the courtyard slowly, staring at a banner on the big house: "Wheat that falls to the ground will never die."

Wei Xihong thought: I have only heard that the spirit is immortal or matter is immortal, but here it is said that wheat is immortal, which is quite materialistic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wen County, Jiaozuo City, where the hot spring town is located, is a national high-quality wheat seed base, and there is an underground Protestant church called Landing Wheat. It seems to be God's will, but it is just a coincidence. The main person in charge of Landing Wheat Church is called Gao Shanchan.Looking at the name Gao Shengsheng, we know that his parents may be petty officials in the local area, so they actively sang and agreed with national policies and named their children with words such as production and planning. More than two years ago, five people including Gao Chancellor and Li Tiejun were arrested and imprisoned by the local Religious Affairs Bureau and the police because they organized an underground church in downtown Jiaozuo and had conflicts with the government's Three-Self Church.In prison, they called themselves "falling wheat", which means that if a grain of wheat does not die, it is just a grain of wheat, but when it dies and falls to the ground, it will produce more wheat.They already had the determination to be a martyr, but after being imprisoned, they became more determined than before, and they would never give up the cause of the Lord.After being released from prison, they are also more fearless than before.First of all, Li Tiejun, who once made money in business, bought a yard and built a big house in Wenquan Town, and established the first fellowship.Following the other three people, they also set up fellowships in Jiaozuo's towns and towns respectively, encircling the cities from the countryside, while Gao Shengchang shuttled between the four fellowships to preach. Unlike two years ago, the Religious Affairs Bureau, the Three-Self Church, and the police did not bother them again.What's even more strange is that the number of people requesting to join the teaching can be described as overwhelming. Now, the fellowship in Hot Spring Town holds daily testimonial meetings and Bible reading classes, with dozens of people participating, and there are three evangelistic meetings on Sundays, each with one or two hundred people.Every day, believers introduce new people to join the church, and some people come to the church automatically, like Wei Xihong. Gao Shengnan was a little worried that if the church was too popular, it would attract attention.However, Li Tiejun and the other three rushed forward with the determination to give their lives to the Lord, and Gao Shengchan couldn't stop him even if he wanted to.For example, when Li Tiejun wanted to hang Christian Spring Festival couplets outside the gate of the courtyard, Gao Shengsheng opposed it, thinking it was too publicized. There are some things that China can do but they must not be picky, but in the end Li Tiejun couldn't be persuaded.Li Tiejun believes that it is not enough to have a good product, and it must be accompanied by publicity, and the Spring Festival couplets are advertisements.Li Tiejun also said something that moved Gao Shengchan: Our business is aboveboard, and I refuse to be sneaky anymore.Sure enough, Li Tiejun was right. Many people knew that there was a church here only after seeing the Spring Festival couplets. They came to listen to the sermon and became believers. Later, officials from the Religious Affairs Bureau also came to find out and asked about the situation. Their attitude was very good, they didn't say anything, and they didn't take any action afterwards.In the past two years, the government's figure has indeed softened.When Li Tiejun wanted to hang a banner saying "Wheat that falls to the ground will never die" in front of the big house, Gao Shanchan didn't object any more. Gao Shanchan is a graduate of the Provincial Normal University. Before he was imprisoned, he was a middle school teacher. He subscribed to the "Dushu" magazine for a long time until he converted to Christianity. He is an intellectual. Unlike Li Tiejun and the others who were all peasants, sometimes he has a lot of worries.He is worried that the current relaxed situation will not last long, because all kinds of religions in the country are developing too fast, especially Buddhism and Protestantism.If house churches and Three-Self churches are added together, the number of believers in 2008 was 50 million. Now Gao Shengan has a figure in his mind: 150 million!Most of them have increased in the past two years, and the so-called underground house churches account for more than 80%.Since liberation, except for the workers and peasants, no single ethnic group has accounted for such a large proportion of the population.Back then, when the landlords and rich peasants, the bourgeoisie, or the rightists were suppressed, it was the dictatorship of the very few over the very few, not the 1.2 billion divided people and the 150 million believers who are united.Can the Communist Party treat Christianity like it suppressed Falun Gong?But will the Communist Party disregard Christianity, which has so many believers?On the one hand, Gao Chan hopes that the Christian population will grow rapidly, and on the other hand, he is also afraid that the Communist Party will turn its face at any time.He prayed to the Lord to give Chinese Christianity more than ten years to develop. He vowed to let the number of Chinese Christians reach 350 million within ten years, which is what he thought would be a quarter of the country's population in ten years. point. For the sake of long-term development, he advocated that each denomination and church should act independently for the time being. Evangelicals, liberals, fundamentalists, and charismatics should not communicate with each other, and different churches of the same denomination should not be excessively connected. He did not want to give the government an impression , I feel that house churches are developing trans-provincial and even national organizations.Many people in the church did not understand his painstaking efforts, and criticized him for not being open enough, self-admiring, and even saying that he wanted to set aside land to become king.Gao Shanchan said that the most important thing is that everyone faces God vertically, not horizontally. Another thing Gao Shengnan can do is to write articles and spread them among believers, in fact, he is also passing information to the government.His key message is: God belongs to God, Caesar belongs to Caesar, Christianity does not seek secular power, it is a force for stabilizing society, but secular power should not interfere with religion.He hopes to influence the government to change its inertia and accept the view of separation of church and state, and build a firewall between the government and religion, which is beneficial to the development of religion at this stage.He also blogged online under various screen names, supporting some Beijing scholars' demands for religious desensitization, which is also in line with the interests of Chinese Christianity at this stage. However, while desensitizing, Gao Shengren does not advocate adding pressure to the government, and opposes the demands of some radical Christian intellectuals in big cities to rectify the name of house churches, or to legalize, ground, and open underground churches.He believes that it is impossible for the government to officially recognize house churches. Desensitization is already the bottom line. After desensitization, it is best for the government to pretend that there are underground churches and the Religious Affairs Bureau has never heard of house churches other than the Three-Self. Nor do anything that would bring down the government.If you don't make a fuss, everyone will save face, and life will be easier. Gao Shengan thought that future generations might say that the present stage is the purest age of Protestant Christianity in China.Because apart from the Three-Self Church, Protestantism still has an underground color in China, and there are not many secular benefits to being a believer, so most of the current believers join the church with a pure heart. The starting point is relatively simple, and they believe in faith .Corruption of individual church leaders or volunteers is the exception not the rule.In China, people who really have ambitions for fame, fortune, and power will join the Communist Party or democratic parties, or interest groups, or gangsters, or entertainment circles. They will seldom choose religious platforms, and even if they want to vote, they will choose government approval Religious organizations or self-created cults are less likely to come to Protestant underground churches.On the other hand, in a country where Christians are the mainstream, such as the United States, it is inevitable that the church will be mixed with fame, fortune, power, and interest groups.Gao Shengsheng hopes that Christianity in China can grow underground for a long time. There will be no ambitious people looking at house churches, and Christians will always maintain their current purity. Landing Wheat Church is well-known in the Christian circle, and because the person in charge has been in prison, many foreign Christians came to ask for an interview. Li Tiejun and the others were very happy to associate with foreigners, while Gao Shengsheng was quite wary, fearing that the CCP would list them Collusion with foreign powers.From the exchange of overseas visits, Gao Shenghan realized that although Christianity does not seek secular power, it will be involved in politics.For example, in the United States, on issues such as abortion, stem cell research, and gay rights, Gospel Christians are often tied to the right wing of the Republican Party, which represents the interests of big capitalists.Some people from the U.S. came to Henan to look for Gao Sheng and instigated him to oppose the family planning of the Chinese government. He refused to take a stand, so the church in the U.S. has not invited this outstanding Christian intellectual and charismatic leader of the underground church to visit the U.S. or even visit the U.S. Meet the President at the White House. What Gao Shengchan can do now is to insist that the Wheat Church does not accept donations from foreign groups, does not accept illegally imported Bibles, and does not invite non-Chinese pastors to preach. Some people criticize Gao Shengchan as a patriotic church.Fortunately, Li Tiejun and others are still willing to listen to high production on these important decisions. One of the main reasons is that China’s economy is good, the believers donate a lot, and they don’t need foreign funding, let alone a few Bibles. There is an unavoidable benign development that sometimes makes high production a headache.After joining the church, believers have a cohesive force of mutual recognition, display the spirit of fraternity in Christ, help each other in times of trouble, and help each other. Whenever a brother or sister is in trouble, everyone will help without hesitation.I heard that in many places there have been incidents in which the rights and interests of the common people have been violated due to the collusion between the government and businessmen. Among the common people, there are members of house churches. The brothers and sisters in the church mobilized to fight against the government-business interest groups. This is easily interpreted by the officials. Due to the confrontation between the imperial court and the congregation, some local officials even regard house churches as thorns in their eyes and exert great pressure on the local religious bureau.There are many such incidents, and it is likely to reverse the current relatively loose central policy. This is why the appearance of Wei Xihong made Gao Sheng both happy and worried. Gao Shanchan remembered the moment when he saw Wei Xihong for the first time, his face felt hot.The Lord must have led her here, thank the Lord. Since the establishment of Landing Wheat Church in Hot Spring Town two years ago, he has led many lost lambs back to the embrace of the Lord at the gate of this yard.The difference is that Gao Shengchan can tell at a glance that Wei Xihong is not a local, has a special cultural temperament, and is an intellectual like himself.She listens carefully, asks quality questions, and is not obnoxious.What she most wants to understand is why people believe in God, and why Christians who have been suppressed underground not only have no resentment, but are also happier than ordinary people! Because we have love in our hearts, because we have the Lord Jesus, Gao Shengsheng said at the evangelistic meeting. Wei Xihong likes the mutual care of brothers and sisters in the fellowship, which is much more sincere than the class feelings she learned since she was a child.This kind of friendship reminded her of the intellectuals she met in Wudaokou in the 1980s, who had a similar kindred spirit back then.Now, everything seems to be gone with the wind. Wei Xihong couldn't help thinking, if there is no religious belief, can a good person persist in China?In a society with such national conditions, such a system, and such a culture, it is not easy to be alone, so what moral and spiritual force can drive a person to be a good person?Without faith, it is too difficult to be a good person. However, Wei Xihong has no urge to believe in religion.She has been a good student of materialism and atheism since she was a child, and she can't change her mind no matter what, which makes her intellectually resist theistic religions. The only object she can discuss at a higher level in the fellowship is high production.However, Gao Shengsheng is the main evangelist of the four fellowships of the Landing Wheat Church, and Jiaozuo and other house churches in Henan often invite him to preach, and he cannot stay in Wenquan Town all day, so Wei Xihong decided where Gao Shengshang would go. Just follow wherever you can, listen to his sermons, and then find time to ask him questions. Another point that Wei Xihong did not clearly realize at the time was that the devout and humble believers in the fellowship actually have a kind of truth in my mildly hyper-complacency, which made Wei Xihong feel a little uncomfortable subconsciously, and although Gao Yihong preached He is also very excited, but he is often preoccupied and a bit melancholic in normal times. In addition, he is crippled, which makes Wei Xihong feel that it is easy to communicate, which drives Wei Xihong to get closer to high production. Wei Xihong doesn't think of men and women, but Gao Shengchan is a little distracted, and even wonders if she should start a family.However, Wei Xihong is not a Christian yet, and her posts on the Internet using the name Maizi Immortal are all against the government and will cause trouble.Later, the Zhangjiacun incident occurred. Several farmers in Zhangjia Village are members of the fellowship. A while ago, the township government and interest groups conspired to enclose land and infringe upon it. Other brothers and sisters in the fellowship were discussing this matter. , everyone knew that she was a Fa-study, and they admired her knowledge very much. They planned to divide into three groups, going to the county to file a lawsuit against the township government, rallying and protesting outside the township government, and recording the live protests all the way. Together with all the evidence of corruption, it was posted on the Internet and widely circulated, because Wei Xihong told everyone: the Internet is the private Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the virtual public prosecutor's law.But in this way, the Landing Wheat Fellowship in Wenquan Town will be involved in the struggle of farmers defending their rights, and the consequences will be unpredictable. Gao Shengan discussed this matter with Li Tiejun, and asked Li Tiejun to dissuade the fellowship members from expanding the matter, so as not to shake the foundation of the church.Unexpectedly, Li Tiejun said Gao Chanchan instead: "Old Gao, what do I have to say? Everyone now thinks that you and Wei Xihong are a couple. She is Mrs. Gao. She is skin and you are heart. This lady who is not dead is wheat. It means you are talking."