Free The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun, Paul Hattaway Page A

illegal and would be arrested.
    Announcements were also made over the radio. People were warned not to listen to us and to tell the authorities if they knew where we were.
    We were conducting a meeting in a believer’s home outside Heping town in northern Hubei Province. A cold wind blew from Siberia in the north, causing the temperature to plummet to well below freezing.
    News came to us that Brother Enshen had been sentenced to prison just that morning. The situation was so tight, and the risks so great that even our Christian hosts decided they couldn’t accept us in their home that night. They knew they would go to prison for many years if caught hosting us. The mother of the family knelt down and begged us to leave.
    I spoke to her and asked, “We are strangers being chased by the police. Can you at least lend us a ragged old blanket so we can spend the night in the wet and cold?” She replied, “If you are caught, the PSB will see that the blanket is from our house, and we’ll be in big trouble.”
    Finally, without hope and without even a blanket, my co-workers and I left the house. We walked in the darkness shivering, hungry, wet and cold. Several dogs emerged and howled at us in a mocking tone. It was so dark I couldn’t see my fingers when I stretched my hand in front of my face.
    Even our own brethren had rejected us.
    This is the way God chose to train us, so that we would cry out and trust only in him for protection and provision. We cried to the Lord with many tears.
    The freezing wind lashed us. Zhang Rongliang, myself and the other co-workers walked on, trying to keep warm. We sang songs through gritted teeth. After wandering for a while we came across a haystack in a field. We dug a hole into the straw to escape from the bitterly cold wind, but there was room for only one person. One sister crawled into the haystack. Brother Zhang and I continued to walk on in the dark. We tried to warm ourselves by wrapping an old torn sack around our bodies.
    We jogged two kilometres until we came to a large fishpond. All night the PSB searched the village for us, but we were huddled in a bush next to the pond. After midnight the temperature plummeted even further. The wind blew more fiercely and it started to rain. Icy sheets of rain cut us like nails, right to the bone. Our teeth chattered and our empty stomachs groaned. Brother Zhang and I clung to each other, trying to keep warm.
    We knelt down on the embankment of the pond and prayed, “O Lord, for the sake of the precious blood you shedon the cross, please have mercy on our nation. Please disperse the dark clouds over China.”
    At about four o’clock I felt so discouraged that I walked to a spot by myself and cried out to the Lord. Suddenly, in the cold, I received a clear vision from the Holy Spirit.
    The sky was filled with darkness. A great sandstorm rose up from the desert and engulfed me. I heard the roll of thunder, but there was no rain. Suddenly I saw a great flood coming from the north. A wall of water raced towards me to carry me away. I cried out, “O God, save me!”
    Then in the vision I saw a huge jar, about three feet (one metre) tall. It floated in front of me. I grabbed the jar and jumped inside as quickly as I could. Immediately an umbrella fell from the sky onto the top of the jar. I held the umbrella above my head as torrential rain bucketed down, but I was dry. The flood waters swept me away. Rocks and debris knocked the jar around, but I was safe.
    While in the jar I lifted my eyes and saw how brothers and sisters from many parts of China were being arrested, beaten and imprisoned by the police. I saw this terrible wave of persecution but I was completely helpless to save them. I just cried out.
    After my vision ended I complained bitterly to the Lord, “Why do you have no strength to protect me or the other believers? I know that I will also be arrested. I will fall into the hands of the PSB. I have a mother and a wife. Why are you