Elderly Believers Learn to Read

By Zhang Bailing

Hongtuling Church is situated on a hill near Benxi Lake in Benxi Town, Liaoning province. Since the implementation of the Reform and Opening policy, the congregation of Hongtuling Church has been growing steadily. To serve the many elderly members who cannot read, making Bible study sessions very difficult, the church started a Bible study and literacy class.

The class uses the Easy Reader for Christianity as its basic text and is taught by literate elderly believers. There was special interest in the class among people in their fifties to eighties, mostly grandparents, people very keen to learn. One teacher had said, “They all came with their reading glasses, like very learned men and women.” Everyone laughed at this, but there were tears of thanksgiving, too.

The students shared the difficulties being illiterate had caused them, how they hated being “the sighted blind.” They were at the end of their wits, and if it had not been for the Lord who saved them, they could not even hope to live, let alone learn how to read and write. God who saved them from their sorry state, they have been showered with the grace of God and they were filled with thanksgiving.

Some of them had done menial labour for years, some had been sold to other families, or taken into wealthier households as child brides, and many were denied schooling because the old society thought females better left ignorant. One elderly sister said that she had begged her father on her knees to allow her to attend school, but he refused. Now God has given them abundant grace, and all love.

Some brothers and sisters said, “Before I could not even read my own name, but now that we have this free class and can study the Bible, we are eternally grateful! We “sighted blind” people have had our spiritual eyes opened, and we now know the true and living God, and enjoy his embrace everyday. Our parents had given us our bodily life, but God has given us all that we need, even eternal life.”

These students, their hearts filled with gratitude, progress very quickly. They ask questions during class, and are very serious about learning. In doing their homework, they form their characters conscientiously and very tidily. They are very diligent about their studies and make time for them. If they encounter problems, they ask their children, grandchildren, even passers-by to teach them. With God’s guidance and their hard work, they learn Pinyin romanization and how to use the dictionary. They find the word of God by using the Bible and the joy they feel in the sweetness of God’s words is incomparable.

“Lots of people do not understand us,” they say, but it is enough that the Lord alone understands us. We rely on God to remove every obstacle and pressure, because the Lord is our help.”

The brothers and sisters in the literacy class are seeking for God, relying on God, and looking up to God. They have grasped the knowledge of truth and are maturing in their spiritual life. They rely on God’s words to discern good from bad; they resist cults. They rely on God’s grace to strengthen their confidence. They live for the Lord and glorify God. God has guided the literacy class from the start, so that these elderly brothers and sisters may benefit from their learning. When they were disappointed, he has given them courage and strength to persevere, so that they may receive the heavenly hope which comforts their hearts. Through such literacy classes the whole church progresses and develops.

Translated from Tian Feng No.351 March 2009 by Cinde Lee