In the summer of 1989, students and civilians were massacred at Tiananmen Square. The university students were the main protestors and in the subsequent months, the Communist Party sought to find anyone who participated.
Mr. Lee was a Communist Party Secretary of the Political and Ideological Works Department at a university in Beijing. He was the officer in charge of ideological supervision, and he had a strong loyalty to communism and the Party.
Mr. Lee took it upon himself to seek out university students and have conversations with them. He always took an audio recorder with him and if a student said anything negative or critical about the Party or its leaders, Mr Lee submitted it as evidence. Twenty-two students were reported to the Party Security Leader by Mr Lee, and six of them were sentenced to 5-10 years in jail. Mr Lee was awarded and honoured at the university for his effectiveness in this work.
One day, 10 years later, Mr. Lee was walking down a street when he was approached by a woman. She handed him a booklet on the life of Jesus and asked him to read it. At that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to Mr. Lee, and he heard His voice, “Just read it.”
Mr. Lee sat down on a nearby seat and opened the booklet. When he came to the part about Judas’s betrayal, he compared it to his own acts against the students and said to himself “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” Then he read about the governor, Pontius Pilate washing his hands before the multitudes, and thought “Can this hand washing make him innocent of the blood of the true innocent?”. Struggling in his conscience he felt deep sorrow and desperation. The Holy Spirit touched him again and helped him to understand what he had just read of Jesus, when He said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” Mr. Lee said to himself, “Yes, I need the way out of my desperation, out of a lying and deceitful world.” Daring to know more, he walked the same street each day, to look for the lady who gave him the booklet. After a few days, he found her
The Christian lady bought Mr. Lee to church, and he accepted Jesus as his personal Saviour. Soon after, at his baptism, he astonished everyone present by announcing, “I will try my best to find the students who suffered from my secret reports to the Party Security Leader, to apologise and ask for their forgiveness. I know that the Lord God had already forgiven all my sins, but I also want to give my apology and testimony before all those I have sinned against.”
Mr. Lee found 19 students whom he persecuted and informed against, presented his honest apology, and also tried his best to provide practical support, to any of those who were having difficulties resulting from the political pressure they had faced.
Mr. Lee shared with the former students why he did this; It was because of his new-found faith in Christ. Most of the students forgave Mr Lee. Amazingly, two of the students followed him to the church and later accepted Christ.
The University Party leaders found out about Mr Lee’s conversion and met with him several times, hoping to convince him to not believe this ‘Western’ religion.
Mr Lee refused to renounce his faith, furthermore, he made it known to the high-ranking officers, that the Lord Jesus is his Saviour, and his Christian faith is unshakable. In response, the Party removed all his honours and cut his pension to the lowest living supply. But Mr. Lee accepted all the suffering and the persecution. He described later, that, just like the Apostles in Acts, he rejoiced, that he had been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.
In the following years, his benefits were cut entirely, and the police ‘visited’ Mr. Lee frequently, but Mr. Lee saw these things as the price had to pay for following Jesus, saying, “What I have experienced is nothing compared to the suffering of our Lord.”
In his later years, Mr Lee became a bold evangelist, he walked the streets each afternoon and shared gospel tracts, “I heard the gospel and was saved through a lady evangelist, so I will also share the love of our Lord in this way.
“In China, the Party controls TV, broadcasting, newspapers – all media, but it is full of deceit. We Chinese need the truth and the light. There is no fear in my heart even though many times the police have arrested me and warned me not to do this. They can do nothing to me, an eight-five-year-old man. I’d rather be in jail than stop street evangelising, ‘Lord, make me the furniture and a tool of your light among my fellows’.”
VOM’s gospel tract project is helping many street evangelists including Mr Lee. Thousands of tracts and booklets were distributed by Mr Lee’s hand and many, many lost souls have come to know the salvation of Jesus.
Please pray for today’s brave warriors of the gospel in China.
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