﻿Du Juan, we're really poor.
Mom doesn't have any money to buy you a satchel.
When you grow up and earn money, you can buy whatever you want, okay?
I was born to a poor rural family,
and ever since I was young, I was looked down upon by others.
Because my family was poor,
I didn't know where my next meal was coming from.
And from a young age, I always wore my sister's hand-me-downs;
the clothes swam on me.
My classmates all made fun of me
and didn't even want to be associated with me.
My childhood was really painful.
With a worn-out satchel on her back.
Don't you think she's funny?
Yeah, she is so poor.
Look how poor she is. Let's go.
From that moment on, I resolved to myself:
When I'm grown up, I'm definitely going to earn lots of money,
I'll have good times, and no one will look down on me again.
Because my family was poor,
before graduating from junior high school I was forced to give up my studies
to go to do temporary work in the county pharmaceutical factory.
To earn even more money,
I would often do an additional shift until ten in the evening.
Later, I heard that my older sister could earn what I earned in a month,
selling vegetables in just five days!
I immediately quit my job at the pharmaceutical factory to sell vegetables.
After a while, I realized it was easier to make money selling fruit,
so I went into the fruit business.
After I got married, my husband and I opened a restaurant.
I thought to myself:
I'll make even more money running a restaurant!
Once I have money, I'll be able to live a grand and dignified life.
I'll finally be the envy of others, and they'll think highly of me.
But after managing the business for a while,
I found that we couldn't make much money running a restaurant.
I started to worry:
When will I finally live the life of a rich person?
In 2008, a random opportunity came up.
I heard a friend say that in Japan what you earn in one day
is roughly equal to ten days' wages in China.
When I learned this, I was overjoyed.
I thought that finally I had found a good opportunity to make money.
Although the agent's fees to go to Japan was expensive,
I thought to myself: No pain, no gain.
As long as we had jobs in Japan,
we'd be able to make the money back quickly.
No pain, no gain. Let's have a try.
And so, my husband and I decided then and there to go to Japan.
Once we arrived in Japan, I threw myself into my work.
Every day, my husband and I worked at least thirteen or fourteen hours.
The pressure at work was intense, and I was exhausted all day.
When the workday was over, all I wanted to do was to lie down and rest.
I didn't even give a thought to my eating.
My health couldn't stand up to the quick tempo of my life,
but then, I thought about the fact
that if I gave it all I had, after a few years I'd finally be well off.
I encouraged myself:
Although the work is hard now, later on, life will be beautiful,
I have to stick with it.
This is how I summoned all my strength every day.
I was like a money-making machine, going all out in my work.
Unexpectedly,
in 2015, I collapsed with exhaustion from the strain of the work.
I'm sorry to tell you, Ma'am,
you have a slipped disc in the lumbar vertebra,
which is pressing down on a nerve.
And if you continue to work, it could lead to paralysis,
after which you won't be able to look after yourself.
The doctor's words hit me like a lightning bolt right out of the blue,
and after listening to him I felt weak all over all at once.
My life had just been getting brighter as I grew closer to my dream.
I never thought that I would get sick like this.
I wouldn't accept it,
and I thought to myself: I'm still young.
If I just grit my teeth, I'll be able to put up with being just a little bit unwell.
If I don't earn enough money now and I go back to China with so little,
won't I be embarrassed?
And so, I gritted my teeth and dragged my sick body to work,
to keep making money.
But only a few days later,
I was so unwell, I couldn't even crawl out of bed.
While I was lying in my sick bed,
how I wished that I had someone by my side to keep me company,
but my husband had to go to work,
and our son had to go to school,
so I had to face this on my own.
Looking around the sick ward at all of the patients,
each struggling with their own pain,
I felt forlorn.
How could I have found myself in such a terrible situation?
Could it really be true that I was going to be paralyzed and bedridden?
There was a feeling in my heart that I just couldn't express,
and I couldn't help pondering:
What does man live for after all?
Could it be just to make money and live well?
Can you really be happy if you have money?
Is it worth it to wear yourself out to make money?
After nearly thirty years of pushing myself to the limit,
what did I have to show for it?
I had worked in a pharmaceutical factory, sold fruit, run a restaurant,
and even come to Japan to work.
Along the way, although I had made some money,
yet it came with so much bitterness that I had no way to express.
I had thought
that by coming to Japan to work, my beautiful dream could be realized,
that I would quickly become a wealthy person,
and live a life that others would envy,
but now I was lying in a sick bed,
and facing spending the rest of my life in a painful existence confined to a wheelchair …
When I thought about this,
I truly regretted the fact
that in order to make money and to be a cut above the rest,
I had ruined my health through overwork.
As I thought it over,
aggrieved, painful, bitter tears gushed from my eyes,
and I couldn't help calling out:
Oh, God! Save me!
Why is my life so tiring, so hard?
And it was right then, when I was helpless and in pain,
that God's salvation of the last days came down to me.
After I left the hospital,
by chance I came to know two sisters who believed in God.
Through reading God's words together with them
and having fellowship in the truth,
I understood that nothing in the world is naturally formed,
but created by God,
that God is the Master of the entire universe,
that man's destiny is also in God's hands,
that God has guided mankind all along,
supplied mankind, and constantly looks after and protects mankind.
But I was puzzled and sought their help.
If God is the Master who controls our destiny,
and we ought to be happy and joyful,
then why do we still suffer illness and pain?
Why is life so hard?
So where then does life's pain come from?
Can you explain that to me?
Of course.
Du Juan,
this question that you've raised,
I used to mull over this before I believed in God: (Yes.)
Why is there illness and pain in our lives?
Why is life so hard and so tiring?
Regardless of whether a person for the whole of his life is rich or poor,
ordinary or eminent,
how is it that he cannot escape being born, growing old, getting sick, and dying?
I could never find the answer.
It was only when I read the word of God that I found the source of the problem.
Has God told us the reason for man's pain?
Then tell me, please! (Sure. Fine!)
After we've read the word of God, you will understand.
These words put it really well.
This is the first time I heard it like that.
All our pain in life was brought to man by Satan;
only after Satan corrupted man did it come about.
So how did Satan corrupt man?
I don't quite understand that part.
Can you tell me more about that?
Okay.
At the beginning, when God created man,
man listened to God and submitted to God, (Right.)
God was with him, and He protected him.
At that time there was no illness or death,
nothing for man to worry about.
Man lived free of anxiety in the Garden of Eden,
enjoying everything that had been bestowed by God,
mankind lived happily and joyfully under God's guidance.
But ever since man was enticed and corrupted by Satan,
mankind betrayed God,
no longer obeying Him but instead heeding Satan,
and for this reason, mankind lost the care and protection and blessing of God,
and fell under the domain of Satan.
For thousands of years,
Satan has used heresies, like materialism and atheism, even evolution,
as well as absurdities and lies from demons and famous men,
to deceive people and harm them.
They say "There's no God in the world,"
even that "There's never been a Savior."
"One's destiny is in his own hand."
"Be a cut above the rest, and bring glory to your ancestors."
"Man will do anything to get rich."
"Money makes the world go round." And so on.
After mankind accepted these absurdities and heresies,
they denied the existence of God, denied God's sovereignty,
and they betrayed God,
and man's disposition became arrogant and conceited,
more and more selfish, crafty, and evil.
People amongst themselves schemed and competed against each other
for fame, position, and wealth,
cheating each other, fighting each other,
growing increasingly anxious.
Ailments followed, pain came,
and then emptiness, emptiness of the heart came as well.
These pains and anxieties made us feel that
man's life in this world was too hard and tiring, too difficult.
This all came about after Satan had corrupted man,
it was Satan harming us,
and it was also the bitter fruit of mankind denying God,
distancing itself from God, and betraying God.
With regard to how Satan has corrupted mankind,
let's have a look at a video of the word of God,
and you'll understand.
Oh, good!
Having heard the word of God,
the sisters then told me the facts
and explained the truth of Satan's use of fame and gain to corrupt men.
I then understood,
after thousands of years,
Satan's use of atheism, materialism, and evolution to deceive and corrupt mankind
has reached a peak,
and led mankind to be distanced from God and to betray God.
It was only then that I felt
that books I had read in the past were all filled with Satan's poison,
Satan's philosophy, and Satan's logic.
If it were not for the word of God
revealing how Satan and its demons had corrupted mankind,
I would still be deceived and controlled by Satan,
desperately struggling in darkness.
Man has ideals and aspirations, that's correct,
but in the process of man trying to satisfy his own ideals,
Satan uses all kinds of methods
to imbue men with its mode of existence and rules for existence,
to entice men to live only for fame and gain.
As soon as men are mired in fame and gain,
they no longer search for the light and for the things that are of goodness,
because the allure of fame and gain is too great for us,
and we are so bogged down with it that we have no way of extricating ourselves.
This is Satan's shackle worn on our bodies,
and it is Satan's ruse for corrupting men.
In order to be a cut above the rest,
to earn more money so that others would think highly of me,
I had lost my sense of self, become a money-making machine,
and even sacrificed my health for the sake of fame and gain without balking at it.
I had truly become a slave to money and fame and gain.
Because I was under the control of a mistaken view of life that
"If I have money it will make others think highly of me,"
I made great efforts to struggle on,
always wanting to be better, always wanting more.
My desires became greater, and I was never satisfied,
and I was only able to stop once I had ruined my own health.
The pursuit of fame and gain had made my life so hard, and so tiring!
If it wasn't for the revelations of the words of Almighty God,
I would never have known
that my pursuit of wealth and fame and gain were mistaken,
that these were other methods Satan uses to harm people,
and I would never have known about Satan's scheming and sinister motives to corrupt men.
After this, the sisters read several more passages of the words of Almighty God to me,
and by her talk about the word of God
and the different methods and ways in which Satan corrupts mankind,
I understood that by constantly seeking fame and gain over these years,
I had become overwhelmed by pain,
and in the end I had fallen ill.
All of this pain had originally been created
because I had been harmed and corrupted by Satan!
Sister Qin went on to tell me:
Well, Satan is God's enemy,
it particularly hates God,
and it hates mankind created by God.
Therefore, everything that it does throughout the world
is to deceive mankind and corrupt mankind,
using every possible means to entice men to follow the evil trends of the world
to be distanced from God and to betray God,
to place mankind under its influence to be enslaved and ravaged by it.
This results in the lives of men being desolate and miserable, painful and empty,
and it also makes the entire world increasingly dark,
and all the more evil,
and it's already come to mankind having no way to exist.
God cannot bear to see mankind being deceived, corrupted, and afflicted by Satan,
and twice He came as God incarnate to save mankind.
On the first occasion,
He was incarnated as the Lord Jesus and had Himself crucified
to redeem mankind from sin as a sin offering;
in the last days, God is incarnate once more to come among men,
to deliver the truth, to purify man, and to save man,
and to undertake the work of judging man,
to save us from the domain of Satan and then to be obtained by God,
and from now on we will no longer be harmed by Satan.
As long as we receive the word of God,
obey the word of God, and practice the word of God,
and then we'll understand and obtain the truth from the word of God,
and be able to see the various ways that Satan works to corrupt mankind
and see through Satan's evil essence,
and at the same time know God's disposition of righteousness and holiness
that does not tolerate man's offense,
and develop a heart that reveres God. (It's great.)
In this way, we have the power to forsake Satan, to abandon Satan,
throw off the bonds and harm of Satan,
and be saved by God,
and finally be brought by God into a wonderful destination.
When I heard Sister Qin
bear witness to God Himself having come among men to deliver the truth and to save man,
I was excited.
I didn't expect that such a person as I who had never believed in God
could today hear the word of God and be able to obtain God's salvation.
This is such a great blessing, such great grace.
I am truly very blessed!
And so I happily received God's work of the last days.
After this,
Sister Qin often came to communicate to me the words of God.
Slowly, I confirmed over time God's work of the last days,
I was able to differentiate a little Satan's ways and methods of harming men,
and I understood that the most important thing is to believe in God,
read the word of God, seek the truth,
and submit to God's rule and arrangements.
Only by living in this way would I receive God's praise,
and only then would my life have most meaning and be most happy.
While I was unwell,
the sisters of the church often called on me.
I did not dare to move my waist too much,
and a sister with medical skills massaged and cupped me.
She also told me
which acupuncture points were effective in alleviating my condition.
They actively helped me with housework,
and cared for me as if I were a family member.
As a stranger in a foreign country,
I was truly deeply moved to be cared for today by the sisters
even better than if I were family.
I said to them repeatedly "Thank you!"
Thank you so much. Thank you, sisters!
No need for thanks! We're family.
Yes.
Hearing this,
I was so moved that I hugged the sisters and wept.
From this time on,
I felt all the more an inexpressible closeness with the sisters,
and I was even more grateful to Almighty God.
After a while,
I got to know a female colleague
who had come with her husband to Japan to go all out to make money.
Although she had earned some money,
her husband's health later suffered,
and he had to return to China for treatment,
and the result was that he was diagnosed with late-stage cancer.
After learning the result,
they were no longer in the mood to come to Japan to make money,
and their family lived in terror and sorrow.
My colleague's misfortune made me feel deeply
the fragility and preciousness of man's life.
If man did not have life,
what was the use in having more money?
Can money buy life?
The words of God helped me see more clearly
that Satan uses money and fame to bind and control man.
Many people fight and battle each other in the pursuit of money and fame,
losing their conscience and sense and the dignity of a man,
and some even ruin their own lives.
But we cannot see through Satan's schemes,
and we cannot see that money and fame are Satan's methods for harming people,
for this reason we are sucked into this whirlpool
from which we cannot extricate ourselves.
In spite of ourselves, we are fooled and harmed by Satan.
At that moment, I considered how lucky I had been
to be able to receive the last days' work of Almighty God.
Had I not read the words of Almighty God and understood those truths,
I would never have seen through the truth of
Satan's use of money and fame to harm people,
and sooner or later I, too, would have been swallowed up by Satan.
Under God's care and protection,
before I knew it, my condition began to improve.
Now, apart from going to work normally,
I often gather together with my brothers and sisters to read the word of God,
to share our own experiences and knowledge, and to learn hymns.
My heart feels at ease and peaceful as never before.
Du Juan, why don't you read? (Okay. Yeah.)
I'll read the next passage. (Sure!)
Thanks be to God!
After reading the words of Almighty God …
The word of God is so practical,
each word speaks to the bottom of my heart.
I understand from God's word
that God is the Creator, and we are His creatures.
The life of every person is in the hands of God,
under His control and arrangement.
All that we obtain in life is under God's control
and is preordained by God,
man's rushing about all over the place is certainly not a deciding factor.
As much as God bestows on us, that's how much we can obtain.
If God doesn't bestow it upon us,
no matter how much we work, it will be work in vain.
It is just like the sayings:
"Man plants the seed, but Heaven decides the harvest."
"Man proposes, God disposes."
That's why, in our lives, we should obey the Creator's control and His plan for us.
That is the secret to real happiness in life.
That is what life should be!
At the same time, I also understand
that it doesn't matter how much wealth a person has or how high a position they hold,
because these are just the worldly possessions of a person.
In devoting yourself to the pursuit of fame and gain,
what you obtain in the end is completely empty and full of pain,
and the final outcome is being consumed by Satan.
I thought back on how I was controlled by the mistaken idea
that in life, "I had to be in the upper class,"
and how I had sought to be a cut above the rest all along the way.
I had thought that I could have a happy life that way,
and have the respect and envy of others,
but I hadn't expected that what I would get instead was pain and bitterness.
I didn't have the slightest peace or happiness.
I already experienced that painful path.
Now that I have read the word of God,
I understand God's will.
I no longer wish to do battle with destiny,
and even less do I desire a pursuit of fame and gain.
I know that is no longer a life that I want.
I've resolved to embark on a different path in life, to start anew.
I only wish to obey God's control and arrangement,
to hand over to God completely the rest of my life for Him to arrange,
to strive to be a person who obeys God, who truly lives for God,
who lives to repay God's love!
Now, I work for three to four hours each day.
My boss is Japanese.
Although we have language difficulties,
my boss takes good care of me.
Whenever she tells me to do something,
she always uses simple words that I can understand;
she never gives me any pressure.
I know that this is God's pity on me and His blessing.
I feel very grateful.
At the same time, I understand even better now
that if man listens to God's word and submits to God's control and plan for him,
only then will he have a relaxed and joyful life.
Whenever I am alone,
I often think back on my course of how I came before God.
If it weren't for my illness,
I would never have halted my pursuit of money and fame,
I would still have been nothing but a complete money-making machine
until I was cruelly killed off by Satan without ever being aware.
Satan used fame and gain to harm me and caused me to become ill,
while Almighty God, through my illness, led me to find Him,
enabling me through the word of God
to see through Satan as the chief culprit in the corruption of man,
and to see clearly the schemes of Satan
using wealth and fame to corrupt man and to consume man,
which led me to see through many things in the world.
From this time onwards, I often read the word of God,
and the more I read, the more my heart brightens,
and without knowing it, I understand many truths.
I know from where man came and where he is going;
I also know the source of man's sinning;
I understand how God saves mankind stage by stage,
what man should live for,
how he can live a meaningful life, and so on.
I understand now
that it was thanks to disaster that I received so many blessings.
Under the guidance of God's word,
I've thrown off the bonds of Satan and have the right outlook on life.
I'm now walking on the right path in life,
and my heart feels truly free!
God really is so wise, so omnipotent!
I thank Almighty God with all my heart for loving me and saving me!