In the fall of 2016, I, along with my husband, came to Korea, a foreign country that I knew little about. I felt uneasy about it. The moment the plane landed, my heart sank. I thought: “Am I really going to leave everything I’m familiar with and start a new life here?” Looking at those strange streets, unfamiliar faces and hearing a foreign language, loneliness filled my heart. I felt like a lost child who had left his mother and couldn’t find his way home.

Life in Korea was as tedious as a twice-told tale. Every day, all I did was just laundry, cooking, sending my child to the kindergarten and picking her up, and watching TV dramas that I couldn’t understand alone. Living in a foreign country made me feel depressed, gloomy and agitated. I became bad-tempered, found faults with my husband and even vented my anger on my daughter. I thought that she was naughty and liked playing more than learning. When she jumped around the house I would always snap at her. My irritability made the gentle and elegant person that I was turn completely into an unreasonable shrew. My husband and daughter had to be very cautious in front of me lest they made me angry and started a war. During those countless sleepless nights I was eager to change myself, but where was my way out?

By chance, I met a sister, through whom I got to know Sister Mu. After Sister Mu found out about my pain and confusion, she said to me, “In our life, we will encounter many unexpected things and situations. They are all prepared and arranged by the Creator. After we go through various situations, our experiences, insights and abilities to cope with life will improve, and we will realize what the Creator arranges for us is suitable for us.” Sister Mu’s fellowship made my heart brighten instantly. Afterward, Sister Mu and some other brothers and sisters witnessed the work of God for me. They said in order to save mankind, God has done three stages of work: in the Age of Law, God decreed laws to guide the ancients how to live their lives on earth, teaching them how they should conduct themselves, what sin is, how to worship God and how to make sacrifices; in the late period of the Age of Law, mankind became more and more corrupt, and they couldn’t abide by the law anymore. To save mankind, God was incarnated in the image of the Lord Jesus and was crucified for mankind as a sin offering. At that time, if people accepted the Lord Jesus’ salvation, and came before Him to pray and repent, they would receive His grace and blessings. However, our corrupt disposition is deeply ingrained: we still need God to do a stage of judgment work. Only then can our sins be cleansed. Although God’s name and work differ in the three stages of God’s work, they are all done by one God. After a period of meeting and fellowship, I was certain that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus’ appearance. I couldn’t wait to tell my husband about this good news.

However, something unexpected happened. After hearing this news, my husband roared, “Enough! Stop! Don’t you know that The Church of Almighty God is the one persecuted and oppressed most aggressively by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Haven’t you heard about the May 28 Zhaoyuan case in 2014?” I was shocked by what he then described, and shook my head and said, “It is impossible for the brothers and sisters in The Church of Almighty God to do such things. I have been in contact with them for a while. I’ve seen that they live a life of piety, nothing like what is said on the Internet.” He said, “Impossible? Go search on Baidu about it and you will know whether what I said is true or false.” I was confused for a moment by his detailed descriptions. I thought it over for quite a while, then I grabbed his hand, made him sit down, and said, “You’re a thoughtful person who knows a thing or two. We should be rational in dealing with things instead of listening to only one side and mistaking evil for good just out of fear. Your family believes in the Lord Jesus, so you should also have some knowledge of the Bible. It says: ‘the whole world lies in wickedness’ (1 John 5:19). The Lord Jesus also said: ‘This is an evil generation’ (Luke 11:29). In the Age of Grace, in order to redeem mankind, the incarnated Lord Jesus was crucified by the religious community and rulers of that time. In the last days, Almighty God, who has come to express the truth and do the work of judgment, is also being condemned and opposed by both the religious world and the CCP regime. He is being rejected by our age. The truth will always be rejected and condemned by the religious world and atheistic regimes. In fact, every time God does His work, He is always persecuted by the religious world and those in power, but no one can obstruct God’s work. At the time when the Lord Jesus came to carry out His work, He was persecuted and opposed by the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and the Roman government, but the Lord Jesus’ gospel still spread to the whole world. Today, although the CCP and the religious world have circulated so many rumors on the Internet to attack Almighty God, His gospel of kingdom is still spreading rapidly. What is of God will increase; what’s of man will decrease.” My husband said nothing, so I continued, “Do you still remember the ‘June Fourth Incident,’ the student-led demonstrations in 1989? It was intended to be a patriotic action by college students to fight against corruption and for democracy and freedom. However, the CCP had some unknown persons posing as students sneak into the crowd of demonstrators. They set fires, smashed and looted things, and even overturned military vehicles, in order to intensify the conflict. On top of that, the CCP used China Central Television and the mass media to make exaggerated reports and fake news, falsifying this incident as a ‘student riot’ so as to suppress the students’ demonstration and achieve their evil goals of consolidating their power and dictatorship. Since the day the CCP took power, it has done all sorts of cruel things to consolidate its dominant position. I think the May 28 Zhaoyuan case is probably being used by the CCP to blame, frame and smear The Church of Almighty God.” Hearing this, my husband shook his head with resignation and said, “No matter what, you cannot believe in Almighty God. Break all your ties with them from now on!” I refused determinedly and said, “No way! The Lord Jesus has returned. We shall accept God’s salvation.” He became exasperated, shook off my hand and pointed at me, saying, “Do you know what you are doing? Why don’t you go online and take a look?” A bitter quarrel then broke out between us and got out of hand. We had a sleepless night; however, it was only a prelude …

In the next few days, we talked about this frequently, but it always resulted in interminable discord. One night, my husband suddenly woke up, very anxious. He woke me up from my deep sleep and asked for my cell phone. Seeing that he was blacklisting all the sisters from The Church of Almighty God, I went up to him to snatch my phone back. I asked him: “Why did you do that? I have my right to freedom!” He raged, “Why did I do that? It’s for you and this family! I won’t allow you to contact them anymore. If you do, I’m going to smash your phone!” After I heard this, tears ran down my face. I felt as if I’d fallen into an abyss. In pain, I prayed to God: “O Almighty God, I feel so miserable. I don’t know what to do. Please help me, guide me and lead me.” On one side was my beloved family; on the other side was the truth, the way and the life. How was I to choose? My heart seemed to be suffering in purgatory. I recalled the days of meeting my husband, then our falling in love and getting married. These ten years were really not that easy. We had gone through opposition from our parents, and overcome a big age gap, a difference in culture and the pain of living apart in different cities. We had experienced all these difficulties. Were we really going to divorce because of my faith in God? If so, it would definitely hurt my little daughter very much. However, to give up believing in God would make me feel like my life had lost its soul.

In the following days, the pressure from my husband made me very distracted and depressed, so I stopped going to meetings and rejected the calls from sisters. I started to avoid everything. In those days without God, my life was in a mess and I muddled through the whole winter.

When the spring of 2017 had just arrived, the wind was still somewhat cold, like in winter. One day, I went to fetch my daughter as usual. On my way I saw Sister Mu standing in the wind waiting for me. On seeing me she said, “Sister, how have you been these days?” Hearing her cordial voice, I had a mixed feeling of joy and sadness. We talked a lot that day. I told Sister Mu about my difficulty, then she read a few passages of God’s words to me: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men and the interference of men. Behind every step of work that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … Everything that happens to people happens when God needs them to stand firm in their testimony to Him. Though nothing major is happening to you at the moment and you do not bear great testimony, every detail of your daily life is a matter of testimony to God. If you can win the admiration of your brothers and sisters, your family members, and everyone around you; if, one day, the unbelievers come, and admire all that you do, and see that all that God does is wonderful, then you will have borne testimony.” “You must possess My courage within you, and you must have principles when it comes to facing relatives who do not believe. For My sake, however, you also must not yield to any dark forces. Rely on My wisdom to walk the perfect way; do not allow any of Satan’s conspiracies to take hold. Put all your efforts into placing your heart before Me, and I shall comfort you and bring you peace and happiness. Do not strive to be a certain way in front of other people; does making Me satisfied not carry more value and weight? In satisfying Me, will you not be even further filled with eternal and lifelong peace and happiness? Your current suffering indicates just how great your future blessings will be; they are indescribable.”

Sister Mu fellowshiped this with me: “From the outside, it seems like it is hindrance from your husband, but it is actually a spiritual war. Satan sees that we have accepted and received God’s salvation in the last days. So, it gets red-eyed with fury. It uses all kinds of methods to disturb us and stop us from coming before God. It even exploits our weaknesses to attack us, make us negative and weak, lose faith in God, and in the end, make us stray far from God, betray God and perish with Satan. This is Satan’s evil purpose, so only when we see the spiritual war for what it is can we detect Satan’s trickery. In fact, the temptations of Satan that come upon us are all authorized by God. God uses every environment to examine our faith in Him, to see if we are able to stand witness for Him.” At that moment, I understood that although on the surface it seemed to be my husband who didn’t allow me to contact the sisters and obstructed me from believing in God, it was actually Satan’s temptations coming upon me. Satan does not wish to see me attain salvation, so it does everything possible to stop me, seeking to destroy my faith in God and making me betray God. Satan is so despicable and shameless! I must not fall for Satan’s tricks. No matter how difficult it is, I must hold fast to my faith in God and stand witness for Him. Meanwhile, my heart was lit up with hope again, and was filled with enough faith to face this situation.

Then, sister Mu handed me the book The Word Appears in The Flesh and said to me smilingly, “Sister, God’s words can solve all our problems and difficulties. As long as we rely on God more and do things in accordance with God’s words, God’s words will help us to make our way out of any plight.” I held the book with excitement as if I had got the whole world in my hands.

Afterward, I prayed every night and read God’s words when my husband was not at home. Through reading God’s words, I gradually understood some truths. I brought God’s words into my life, work and studies, letting God’s words be the compass for all my actions.

When my relationship with God became normal, the atmosphere at home turned much more joyful, and there was laughter when I interacted with my daughter. My husband noticed my change and said in wonder, “You’ve really changed so much recently. You are now so gentle and virtuous. You’re the woman I once knew.” I said to him, “It is God’s words that have changed me, and let me find the direction and goal of life again.” My husband fell silent, but I could feel that his attitude was changing. I prayed to God in my heart, “O Almighty God, I want to bear witness to Your work of the last days for my husband and bring him before You. Please lead me.” From that day onward, I played dance and song videos from The Church of Almighty God when I was free at home, and my daughter sometimes danced to the music. When my husband saw us enjoying the beautiful melodies, he asked me in a skeptical tone, “I thought you were always annoyed by loud music? How come you and our daughter enjoy it now? With your temperament, you should have gotten annoyed with her as soon as she started jumping around the house.” I answered with a smile, “God’s words have changed my bad habits, and I’ve learned to live out a normal humanity. You should take a look, too.” Then, I played the dance and song video God Has Brought His Glory to the East. My husband was very amazed at the video. He nodded and said, “This song and dance really impacts upon the spirit. I don’t know why my heart is so touched.” I said happily, “You have such feelings because you are touched by God.” I showed him a few more videos and he kept on clapping his hands and praised, “Their performance is so sincere, not pretentious at all, and really touch the heart. These videos can really bring strength and faith to us.” The changes in his attitude made me weep with tears of joy and thank God in my heart.

On one summer evening, my family was having dinner. Before we had finished, my husband suffered a severe stomachache. We quickly rushed him to the hospital. The doctor diagnosed it as acute ruptured appendicitis, very serious and requiring immediate surgery. After the doors of operating room closed, I panicked. I closed my eyes and prayed to God unceasingly, “O Almighty God, now I’m very scared. Please give me faith so that I can submit to Your orchestrations and arrangements.” After praying I remembered what God says, “Everything man has—peace and joy, blessings and personal safety—is in fact all under God’s control; He guides and decides the fate of every individual.” It is so true. God is the Creator, and all things are in God’s hands. Everything to do with my husband is also part of God’s sovereignty and arrangements. No matter what happens to him during and after the operation, I must not complain against God, and I must be willing to submit to God’s sovereignty. God’s words gave me faith and calmed me down. The door of the operating room opened, and the doctor told me the operation was very successful. I knew it was God’s grace, so I offered my thanks and praise to God in my heart.

During my husband’s stay in hospital, he was very worried that the time off work during the slow recovery would cause a financial burden to our family. The sisters from The Church of Almighty God learned about what happened to my husband. They came to the hospital to visit him, which truly warmed our hearts as society is so heartless these days. The sisters even helped us to contact an activity center to apply for a grant, which covered most of our medical expenses. My husband and I were very touched. One day, after the sisters had left, my husband said to me, “In the past, I listened to rumors, so I had a prejudice against The Church of Almighty God and misunderstood them. Now, actually engaging with them, I realize that they are all nice and kind. Their words, actions and living out are all like those of true Christians. I feel that only a church like this can be truly considered as God’s family.” I said to him, “Thank God! God not only sent the sisters to help us but also cared for and protected you during your operation. Before your operation, the doctor told me that you were in a very serious state. At that time, I did not know what to do but could only keep on calling upon God and praying to Him. It is God who has protected you and helped our family through difficulties.” My husband nodded and said, “Okay, I will believe in Almighty God with you.” Those few simple words made my eyes brim with tears. Thank God! The day that I had waited so long for had finally come.

When illness befell, it seemed like a bad thing looking from the outside, but this illness made my husband obtain blessings from misfortune. After my husband was discharged, we came into an agreement that we would take a break from our work to go back to China for rest and recuperation. The day before leaving, we walked into The Church of Almighty God for the first time.

A month later, we came back and walked into The Church of Almighty God together again, with our faces and hearts full of happiness! God, thank You for leading and guiding us to come before You!