Finding Purpose in a Place Meant to Break You
Xu Yonghai looked around his 8-by-8-foot cell. A trained medical doctor, Yonghai was used to sanitized conditions—so what he saw was especially disgusting. There was no bathroom. Instead, there was a pipe in one corner from which water flowed continuously onto the concrete. Yonghai learned to use this pipe to wash human waste from his cell. He ate right there as well—guards slid his food under the door. He drank and washed himself with water from the pipe. For two entire years, he never once left this tiny, filthy room!
Yonghai, a Christian in Communist China, had worked with Gao Feng to get a house church legalized. For this “crime,” he was locked up in a Beijing prison for 24 months. Yonghai spent much of this time in prayer and meditation—and writing. On the walls of his cell, Yonghai scrawled the major points for a book, God the Creator. He wrote with soap, his deep-thinking, intellectual mind tying the points of his thesis together. When the writing was finished, he spent time memorizing the words.
After his release in May 1997, he put his cell-wall composition on paper. The result was a 50,000-word book! “My cell was the last stop for prisoners sentenced to die,” Yonghai said. “At times there were as many as three other prisoners in the tiny, damp room, awaiting their date with the executioner.” What a chance to witness! What an opportunity to introduce these men into God’s kingdom!
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Yonghai took advantage of it, sharing the Gospel with his temporary cell mates in their final days on earth. He reports, “These men were very open to the message of Christ.” “My living conditions were disgusting, but after four months, the Lord helped me get used to it. God was with me, even in my darkest times, helping me endure my years in prison. Only God gave me the strength to do it.”
You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:9-10
Date: 17th September 2022
Title: Writing With Soap
Martyr: Xu Yonghai
Location: Mainland China 1995
Source: Jesus Freaks
Author: DC Talk and Voice of Martyrs
Suffering Saturday 009
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