Whether you appreciate this popular young artist with diversified development or not, from this article, you can see that this Christian mother knows her son’s talent and persistence in not giving up, which has created today’s Jay Chou~
Jay Chou comes from a broken family and is “willing to give everything for his mother” because when he was the loneliest and most helpless, it was his mother who supported him with warm and loving arms, Jay Chou, an emperor superstar who was obsessed and worshiped by thousands of teenagers for his singing, and had a deep affection for his mother Ye Huimei because when he was the loneliest and most helpless, it was his mother who supported him with warm and loving arms. So Jay Chou has always said, “As long as my mother is happy, I am willing to give everything for her!”
The home of a musical genius cracked
Jay Chou was born in January 1979, his mother Ye Huimei is an art teacher at Tamkang Elementary School in Taipei, and his father is a physics teacher at Tamkang Middle School. When Jay Chou was 4 years old in kindergarten, Ye Huimei sent him to the Danjiang Shanye Preschool Music Class to learn piano. As soon as the usually lively and active little Jay stood in front of the piano, he was surprisingly quiet, and he could repeat it after listening to the teacher play it once, and the teacher told Ye Huimei that this child was very talented!
To cultivate Jay’s musical quality, Ye Huimei advocated using her family savings to buy a good piano for Jay and asked the best piano teacher to tutor Jay. Jay’s father thinks that there is no need to be so serious, boy, be casual, there is no need to invest all your savings. In the end, Ye Huimei still bought a piano for Jay behind her husband’s back, which made Jay’s father very unhappy. When he was in the third grade of primary school, Jay happened to hear the world-famous song “Swan Lake” and was fascinated by the sad and poignant tune of the cello.
Jay’s father scoffed at his wife Ye Huimei’s “desperate” approach, and when he came home, he accused Ye Huimei of not being the same, there was less and less warmth in the family, and there were more and more quarrels.
Jay didn’t know why his father always had to quarrel with his mother, so he used his immature poems to record his confusion and sadness:
Since I was a child, I only had my mother’s warmth, why was my father so fierce
If it’s true, I have a pair of wings, two pairs of wings, and I can go at any time
Secretly set off I will take my mother.
This sad poem Jay later composed a song for, which is the song “Dad, I’m Back” which made thousands of fans sad.
When Jay Chou was in the second grade of junior high school, his parents finally divorced. 14-year-old Jay Chou wrote: “Mom and Dad don’t love each other, is this the true meaning of life?” Silence, stubbornness, and rebellion have shaped another Jay Chou.
The world does not know the wandering in the anguish of the king
Jay Chou has a musical talent, but his schoolwork is terrible. The total score of the high school joint examination is only more than 100 points, and he has not even been admitted to ordinary high school, and the future is bleak, and the mother and son are relatively speechless.
Because he plays the piano well, plays the cello well, and is often active on the basketball court, Jay Chou has become the object of attention and discussion among many female students. However, Jay Chou is often expressionless, rarely showing a smile, except for their outstanding music scores, almost all other subject scores are red, teachers think he is mentally inferior, and his English teacher even bluntly said to Ye Huimei that Jay Chou has intellectual disabilities. Ye Huimei fell into deep thought, but she still decided to train Jay Lun to become a talent, at least to be a pianist. Ye Huimei did not blame Jay, she believed that Jay’s indifference and rebellion to the point where he is today was caused by the disharmony of the family, and she was convinced that her children had no intellectual disabilities, so she tried to “tame” Jay Chou with sister-brother care, stipulating that she had “three nos”: no nagging, no accusation, and no coercion of her son.
Sure enough, as the teachers predicted, Jay Chou was not admitted to university. After Ye Huimei inquired in many ways, she encouraged Jay Lun to take the music department at Taipei University, but he was not admitted. Jay Chou gritted his teeth and took the test for the second time, but he still failed. Mom and grandma are worried about Jay’s future, what can this child do in the future?
Jay Chou, who was extremely confused, had nothing to do, so he had to wait for his military service in the Navy, during which he got ankylosing spondylitis, which is frustrating because there is no cure for this disease, and it can only be relieved by drugs, and in the late stage, the whole body will even be stiff like a zombie, which may also lead to paralysis. Ye Huimei and her grandmother wept when they talked about Jay.
Mother’s love and care soared into the sky
After the illness was relieved, Jay Chou went to work in a restaurant, and as a serving worker, he was almost deducted half of his monthly salary because he often knocked over the dishes. There is a piano in the restaurant, and Jay Chou plays the song “Chopin Dance” in his spare time, which stuns the boss, and the boss has an idea, telling Jay Chou not to serve the plates, so he plays the piano in the restaurant, and then invited TV reporters to hype, which not only made the restaurant business boom, but also saved a lot of money for hiring a pianist.
Ye Huimei felt Jay’s musical potential, and she signed up for her son’s entertainment program “Super Fierce Rookie King” on Taipei Starlight TV. Jay Chou carefully created a song “Dreams Have Wings”, but he was not confident in his singing, so he invited a singer to sing. The singers couldn’t understand his style, and his piano accompaniment was so weird that the audience booed, and a fledgling performance was completely messed up.
Ye Huimei was anxious, and she mustered up the courage to find the host Wu Zongxian, and showed him the score of “Dream Has Wings”. Wu Zongxian was the boss of Taiwan’s Alpha Music Company at the time, and his first impression of Jay Chou was not good, so he picked up the score and glanced at it, his eyes lit up, and the score was not only copied neatly but also very complicated. The discerning man immediately changed his mind: “This kid is okay, call him to work in my company tomorrow!”
Jay Chou joined the music company as a music production assistant, and with the encouragement of his mother, he took the initiative to help his colleagues buy boxed lunches every day, everyone had a good impression of this taciturn but diligent young man. And Ye Huimei is always worried that Jay Lun is indifferent and stubborn, and he is not good at words, for fear that he will inadvertently offend the boss and employees, so she often stands at the door of the company during off-duty hours, prepares some delicious pizza and fried chicken for the employees, and asks them to bear with Jay. After going back and forth, Ye Huimei is more familiar with the company’s employees than Jay Chou, and colleagues know that Jay Chou has a good mother.
Jay Chou quickly wrote a large number of songs, but what made Wu Zongxian feel incomprehensible was that the lyrics he wrote were always weird, and almost no one in the music circle liked them. Once, Jay Chou took his proud work and sent it to Wu Zongxian for review. This time, Wu Zongxian didn’t even look at it, so he crumpled the song into a ball and threw it into the trash can next to him. Jay Chou’s tears couldn’t help but flow out.
Mom comes to the door of the company every day has become a landscape, if you give up, I’m so sorry Mom, Jay Chou is stubborn to support, he eats and lives in the office, and creates at the speed of one song a day. Ye Huimei visited Jay Lun in the company every night, looking at her son who was getting thinner, she held back her tears and tried to say some happy words of encouragement, and then took back the dirty clothes that Jay Lun had changed to wash them. For more than a month, when Wu Zongxian went to work at 8 o’clock every morning, he could always see Jay Chou’s new work on time. Finally, he was deeply moved by the young man’s diligence and talent, and he “sniffed” that Jay Chou’s songs had a faint smell, and promised to find a singer to sing the songs he wrote.
Wu Zongxian recommended Jay Chou’s “Knowing Tears” to the king singer Andy Lau, but Andy Lau rejected it after a glance. Soon, he recommended his “Nunchucks” to Zhang Huimei, who was popular in the Chinese music scene, but unexpectedly, Zhang Huimei refused without hesitation. Wu Zongxian decided to give Jay Chou one last chance to sing the songs he had written, and if that didn’t work, he had no choice but to ask Jay Chou to leave! He called Jay Chou to his office and said very solemnly:
“Aaron, give you 10 days, and if you can write 50 songs, and I can pick 10 out of them, then I’ll help you make a record. 」
The boss’s words stimulated Jay Chou excited, and after he called his mother to tell him, he ran to the street to buy a large box of instant noodles. He thought, that even if he fought hard, he had to do the last fight. Jay Chou wrote 50 songs as promised, and each song was written in a reasonable structure and neatly scored. Wu Zongxian finally had an approving smile, he picked out 10 songs and made Jay Chou’s first album “Jay” in early 2001.
The company didn’t have much hope for the record, and it would be nice if it could recoup the production costs. However, after “Jay” came out, it was like a violent typhoon that swept across Taiwan, and it was quickly snapped up by fans. “Jay” won three awards in one fell swoop: Best Pop Music Singing Album, Best Producer, and Best Composer in Taiwan that year. The success of “Jay” caught the company by surprise, and Taiwan’s singers were shocked, asking where Jay Chou came from. If the first album was a small achievement, then Jay Chou’s second album “Fantesi” has formed a storm, sweeping the entire Chinese music scene in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, and various awards have come one after another.
Jay Chou finally succeeded, he deeply understands that without the warmth of his mother’s light in the dark, he would not be able to support himself today, his mother has never remarried for him, and every bit is a love for licking calves. He gave all his income to his mother, and even though he had an apartment, he still went home every weekend to enjoy family fun with his mother and grandmother.
Ye Huimei had mixed feelings, her husband’s ridicule, the teacher’s shaking of her head, and the hardships of life all went with the wind.
After Ye Huimei retired, Jay Chou was always worried about his mother’s loneliness, as long as he was in Taiwan, he would go home to live with his mother. On weekends, he will ask his mother to watch a midnight movie together, his mother likes to watch classic movies, and Jay Chou will accompany him to watch them, Jay Chou likes to watch avant-garde films, Ye Huimei also accompanies his son to watch them, and the warm current of happiness lingers in the hearts of mother and son. Jay Chou’s fourth album is called “Ye Huimei”, which is a gift from his son to his mother.
On September 1, 2013, Jay Chou, the singer-songwriter of “Sanfang”, stood on the Sunday podium of the New Life Group Church in Taipei, publicly announcing that he had been officially baptized last year and joined the “big family of the Lord’s love”.
Jay Chou said that “Jesus Fashion” is the most popular faith and the most fashionable worship.
It was a great challenge for him to write the popular hymn “Jesus Fashion” for the church because it was not only for the brothers and sisters and the gospel friends but also for “God to hear”.
Moms are an important spiritual help
In Jay Chou’s life, he has met many “noble people”, among them, his mother Ye Huimei, and “Maji” friend Liu Genghong are not only “mentors and helpful friends” in his life, but also important others who led him to know and experience Christianity more deeply through “life testimonies”.
“If I meet Jesus now, I will say thank you to him and thank Him for giving me a good mother,” Jay Chou said, adding that when he went to the radio program of the church to Brother Wu Jianheng during the promotional period of the release of his latest album “12 New Works” last year, he drew the topic “If Jesus were with you now, what would you say to Him?”
Jay Chou said that God rewarded him with his talent for making music, and led him to have some achievements in the entertainment industry, and he wanted to give thanks to God for everything, especially his mother Ms. Ye Huimei.
Jay Chou’s mother cultivated that he could insist on developing on the road of music, and supported him unconditionally, Liu Genghong has been “accompanying” him when Jay Chou has not yet made some achievements in the entertainment industry and “has no friends”, not only playing with him, but also becoming his “good brother” in life and spirituality, and because his mother and Genghong continue to pray for him, now he can become a member of JESUS FASHION, and he and Genghong also open a film company together. Restaurants, become business partners.
Thank you to the church and friends for their prayer companionship
Gu Qiyun, the senior pastor of New Life Group Church, recalled that more than 10 years ago, Liu Genghong had just led Jay Chou to the church, and now he can stand up and testify for “Jesus Fashion” through music creation, Pastor Gu said that judging from Jay Chou’s achievements in the entertainment industry, it is already “Jesus Fashion”, but the Jay Chou he knows has always adhered to the attitude of “having the courage to try and break through himself”, constantly pursuing professional excellence and his spiritual thirst is also increasing day by day.
Pastor Gu Qiyun emphasized that for the New Life Group Church, many people do not get along with Jay Chou with the attitude of “superstar fans”, but like Liu Genghong, they naturally make friends with him and establish a relationship of mutual trust, everyone can discuss life and faith issues together, pour out their hearts and care for each other, and as time slowly accumulates, Jay Chou finds a sense of trust and security in the New Life Group Church, and when God’s time comes, he is baptized and joins this big family of Lord love.
“Evangelism, we must build relationships slowly and gradually, so that life can affect life,” Jay Chou said that when he first came to the New Life Group Church to participate in fellowship and Sunday services, he was often moved by poetry and found that music has the effect of healing people’s hearts. Jesus Fashion”.
Poetry is dedicated to God
“It’s a big challenge for me to write songs for God, and it’s not easy, because not only people in the world are listening, but even God is listening,” Jay Chou said. Music can lead more people to know God and understand God’s plan to create heaven and earth, in the past, he came to the church and was Xi sitting silently in the audience as audience. Don’t interfere with the meeting, this time to be able to stand on the stage and share God’s leadership and grace for him, and the spirit and poetry of Jesus Fashion, If we can continue to preach, more people will be able to come into church and know Jesus.
Share the positive power of love and faith
From 2011 to 2013, Jay Chou also served as the care ambassador of “iQier” together with Liu Genghong. Jay Chou said that God allowed him to have some influence among the young people, and his mother, Ms. Yip Wai Mei, taught him Matthew 6:3 from a young age, and when he has the ability, he should use his actions to encourage and help those disadvantaged groups, which is what he should do.
Lin Zhaocheng, CEO of the Angel Heart Family Foundation and deacon of Taipei Bread of Soul, said that in the process of contacting Jay Chou, he could feel that he lived a completely different life from many artists because of “listening to his mother’s words”, especially Jay Chou understands his position and influence in the entertainment industry, he strives to stand firm in his behavior and teachings of holding on to the truth, and when they meet together, they will pray for each other’s blessings together. God’s time has come, so it will come naturally.”
“Be thankful to God in everything, because everything is God’s guidance and reward,” Jay Chou encouraged his brothers and sisters.
周杰倫的媽媽栽培他可以堅持在音樂路上發展,並且無條件支持著他,而劉畊宏更是在周杰倫還沒有在演藝圈闖出一番成績,「還沒有什麼朋友」的時候,就一直用心跟他「相 交陪」,不僅陪他打球,也成為他在生活及靈命上的「好弟兄」,也因為媽媽和畊宏持續地為他禱告,現在他可以成為 JESUS FASHION 的成員,他和畊宏也一起開電影公司、餐館,成為事業上的夥伴。
Born in Hong Kong in 1951 in Cixi, Zhejiang, I am a fourth-generation evangelist in my family who spent the first 14 years of my life on a godly seminary campus. My parents, who were teachers in seminary and middle school, bent their knees together in prayer every day. The school rules are very strict, no smoking, drinking, dancing, playing mahjong, playing cards, or watching movies. However, life is quite westernized, because the school’s headquarters are in the United States.
Another point is that Hong Kong is a Cantonese-speaking city, but most of the aunts and mothers-in-law in the school speak Mandarin. So I had to understand Mandarin since I was a child. My parents are English teachers. His father didn’t talk much, he was well-dressed, and his students called him the king of hygiene. Chopsticks must be used at home, and the ice cream outside is only allowed to eat from the dairy company and Anyuan, and nothing else is clean. The family is not wealthy, but they must have a monthly budget to buy special fruits, and in any case, they also teach piano to our children.
When we were nine years old, our Sunday school teacher, my father’s student, taught us John 3 and told us to go home and receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. And when he came home, he did the same. Very simple, with no dramatic change. It was mid-October 1960. But I started reading the Bible and participating in youth fellowships on campus. Listening to the devotional ministry every week, I often watched her cry, and I knew that my relationship with God was a struggle.
At the age of fourteen, in August 1965, he attended two summer parties. Tearful confession and repentance in the first camp. In the second meeting, now known as the Hong Kong English Soul Training Association, he gave himself into the hands of the Lord, and the next morning after the meeting, he offered himself to the Lord and served the Lord full-time. At that time, I didn’t know anything about ministry, I just wanted to be a missionary in Africa, and I didn’t know anything else.
Fourteen years passed in peace. God showed me the godliness of the elders around me and cultivated a simple faith. The primary school is in the neighboring Pui Dao Primary School, which is a Chinese school, but the English teacher is very good. The middle school is an English school, but the Chinese teacher is very good. Xi piano at the same time. I can say that I never wanted to get ahead in society and do something. Loving God and serving God is the way to go in life, and I don’t know what else to do.
Three weeks after the dedication, my family arrived in the United States. My father was already studying theology at Wheaton, and I completed the 10th and 11th-year classes in that Chicago suburb, which was equal to the first and second years of high school. In the past two years, I have enjoyed the love of American believers and learned to live in American society. Every Saturday morning, go to the laundry to do your laundry. Although he has been learning piano since he was a child, in those two years, he received the most important piano lessons of his life in that town. That black teacher gave me some principles that I still use and use in other subjects as well!
In 1967, my father accepted the invitation of the Chinese Church in Philadelphia to pastor. It was a church supported by six major denominations. I completed my final year of high school in Philadelphia, a public high school with boys, mostly Jews. There were not many church members, and I began to reach out to the second generation of Peranakan teenagers. Every Saturday I would help my father type and make a Sunday weekly. During my three years of middle school in the United States, I worked part-time work, sometimes as a delivery boy, sometimes as a supermarket helper, and sometimes as a child tutor at a Salvation Army camp. My horizons in life began to expand. It is not clear how the giving will be fulfilled, but there is a great distance between the church and society.
He began college in 1968 and attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. It was the age of the hippies, and young people protested against everything with adults, full of ideals, against the Vietnam War, against the military industry and the government. The campus was like a revolution all day long. There was also a hippie among the teachers. At that time, there were Chinese students from Westminster Theological Seminary in the Philadelphia Bible study class, who taught us inductive Bible study, and at the same time gave us some theological and apologetic knowledge. They later founded the Chinese Theological Research Institute in Hong Kong.
At that time, I realized that formal theological training was necessary to serve God and that the humanities were the best preparation. Therefore, when I major in history, I am studying the history of Western philosophy. Graduated in 1971. During my college years, I read Dr. Zhang Lisheng’s “Critique of Humanism” and Xue Hua’s “Rational Avoidance”, which laid a very important foundation for apologetics. Apologetics and theology have taught me that the simple faith I experienced as a child can stand the test of reason! But the most important thing is to prepare for the discipline of Bible study. Since 1968, he has participated in the summer meetings of the Messenger of Christ Society and has participated in various aspects of ministry.
In the summer of 1971, Pastor Wang Yongxin sent me to the Philippines for a short mission. At that time, the term short-term mission had not yet been invented! There for fifty-nine days, the first evangelistic meeting in my life, the first outdoor sermon. For the first time, he led a Bible study in a stock market. Make unforgettable memories. In the fall of 1971, he entered Westminster Theological Seminary. The Reformed theology he received was a lifelong backup, but he didn’t know how to preach in the Chinese church at that time.
The deepest influence of Westminster theology on me is that since Christians are sinners who have found grace, they should always repent. Also, the church on earth is valued by God. God is Lord in every aspect of our lives. The Bible is our supreme standard. Van Terre’s apologetic theology is something I will never forget. In 1970 and 1973, he participated in the Student Mission Conference of the American Campus Fellowship, which was held at the University of Illinois. Hearing Pastor Stothe’s first-class expositional sermons broadened my ministry horizons. As for the path of ministry, it is still unclear.
Married in 1972, children were born in 1974 and 1978. In 1975-76, I studied for a master’s degree in theology, mainly to give myself a chance to test whether or not to study for a doctorate. In 1975-76, I went to a Chinese church next to Yale University, but Brother Zhang Bangheng of the Seminary Student Scholarship Committee advised me that if I could, I should study for the kingdom of God. As a result, I listened to his persuasion and studied Chinese history and church history at Temple University for four years from 1976 to 1980.
He spent his weekends in the church, spending the first two years as a youth at an elders’ church in New York’s Chinatown, and the third year as pastor at a newly established Chinese church in Princeton. At this stage, God allowed me to practice preaching and learn some lessons—youth preaching should be Xi obedience! I didn’t learn it well at the time. In those years, it was very hard, and I took my children long distances every weekend, either to New York or to Princeton. There are still several years of part-time work to support the family. My love for the church began to develop.
In 1979, when I was about to graduate, considering the Chinese church, the organization had a lot of needs and many invitations. However, he felt the need for ministry training, so he applied to join the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), a denomination with a strong emphasis on missions and church planting. They sent me to New York to plant a church. I learned a lot from my debriefing in the church in the southern United States. The American church knows how to accept newcomers from outside.
In the past six years, 1980-85, I began to learn Xi about broken lives, and began to find that seminary was not practical enough. Knowing that he couldn’t preach personally, he went to learn the Blessing Preaching Method. After a few years, there were more than 60 people in the church. 1986-89 I served at the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church, mainly looking for church-planting ministers among the Chinese. God didn’t give us new co-workers, so I left my job in 1989, and in the days after June Fourth, I founded China Outlook with three brothers, Chen Jimin, Liu Shaoping, and Mak Yupei.
The original goal of China Vision was to participate in the evangelistic work of Chinese scholars in North America. 1989-92 We explored the needs of Chinese mainland student workers in North America and visited various places for evangelistic work. In 1992-95, we supported two mainland scholars to pursue seminary studies. Today they are all well-known preachers. I was at the Chicago Chinatown Pastoral Society. It’s been a challenging time. Mainland scholars have ideals and strong thinking abilities, and they should learn theology in a short period. After mainland scholars come to Christ, they do not necessarily melt into the inherent Chinese church.
The Chinese church has had a tradition for many years, and newcomers, whether they are preachers or scholars, have to learn Xi adapt. I went on a journey with a few seminarians and preachers. In the crowd, under a thousand pairs of eyes, I struggled with the inferiority complex, the helplessness in myself. A deep sense of insecurity. Later, the Lord helped me to overcome, and I had no special experience, except that Jesus loved me, and I knew that it was enough because the Bible told me.
From 1994-97, I was in charge of the China Ministry at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton University, and I also taught several courses in several seminaries, such as Asian History, Chinese Christian History, Gospel, and Chinese Intellectuals. Chicago is an opportunity to gain insight into the ways of American evangelical senior leaders. I saw that foreigners love Chinese very much, but not all of them are wise. During those years, my ministry focus shifted from pastoral to apologetics for the Chinese church. In February 1993, I wrote this burden before God.
In the summer of 1997, Uchiko accepted an invitation from a Christian bank in California, and we moved to Rosewood. Life has taken another big turn. Located on the Pacific Coast, Southern California is a young society with easy contact with Asia. There are many Chinese churches, such as the headquarters of overseas Chinese Christianity. On the church side, we joined the ministry of Holy Congregation in the West District, a simple, united church that has been preaching the gospel to college students for more than 20 years. At this stage, China Outlook revised our work objectives to concentrate on theology and apologetics, to maintain the biblical faith foundation of the Chinese church by publishing books and conducting short-term theological lectures.
God opened the door to Southeast Asia, and I often traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, etc. to attend classes. The Lord also allowed me to engage in theological education among Chinese scholars. Seeing the next generation of leaders rise, they feel a great responsibility, and they expect a lot from our generation.
At this stage, I deeply feel that life is short, what can I do for the Lord in my lifetime? What kind of legacy of faith can I leave to the next generation? Can the godliness I experienced as a child be passed on? The humanistic philosophy I learned in college is now influencing the Chinese theological community, and how should I respond? May the Lord be gracious and let me be faithful to the end.
泽林经过一个多月时间的训练,已可以坐下来半小时到四十五分钟了,他的进步比我预料的要快。经过三个月的学习,他开始会写自己的名字Louis(路易斯)。又花了一个月时间,他学会写他的姓Wong。到10月份,他已能写简单的句子。10月20日他写出了“Daddy I love you!”(爸爸我爱您!)。我见后立即把它传真给我丈夫。他看见那张传真后,激动得泪水不禁夺眶而出,他突然意识到原来他的儿子虽然不会讲话,但也是有感情的。他马上给我打电话,告诉我此刻他觉得比升职和加薪还要兴奋。
a real miracle(真是奇迹)!” 那时正巧泽林学校的校长,为了泽林的转校事宜,邀请了一些自闭症的专家开会。他们中有心理学家、语言学家、儿科医生、特殊学校的老师等。我就将此录影带拿去放给他们看,他们看后,没有一个人能做出解释。我则有些沾沾自喜,觉得自己的孩子虽然不会说话,但可能是个数学天才。
In order not to hurt him, I had to clamp his feet with my feet. Sometimes he resisted so hard that my foot hit the leg of the table, and sometimes he even hit my head on the head, and it hurt me so much that I burst into tears.
What I’m telling is my own true story. If you are also a mother or father in pain, may my story bring you comfort and open a window into your life.
Countless sufferings I was born in Hong Kong. When he was eight years old, his father was depressed due to business failure and died of illness the following year. When I was in my fourth year of high school, my beloved mother passed away. In my grief, I began to complain that God had been so unfair to me. So from the year my mother died, I stopped participating in any activities of the church.
Since the death of my parents, I have struggled to survive on my own. I believe that “being a human being is on your own”, and I worked and Xi at the same time, completing my secondary school and nursing school courses. After graduating from nursing school, I was able to get a stable job. That was the time when I was most proud of myself because both my career and my studies were under my control. In such good times, I also decided to convert to Christianity but to be honest, I had no real faith.
I got married shortly after I started working and had two children– eldest daughter, Bowen, and youngest son, Zelin. Zelin was born in 1985, and as soon as he was born, I noticed that he had a cleft lip and a cleft palate, and his crying voice was very low, unlike that of ordinary children. It’s not like I’ve never seen such a child when I was a nurse, but I just can’t accept that my child will be one of them!
At that time, I was exhausted from taking care of Zelin every day, and it took me an hour and a half to feed alone. When some people visit, they ask me if I did something unlucky when I was pregnant, such as using scissors in bed. I didn’t know how to answer, so I had to swallow my tears.
When he was three months old, the doctor performed surgery on his lip filling. After the operation, for fear that he would touch the wound, his little hands were tied to the bed. So he cried and struggled with all his might, and the blood flowed out of his wounds and on my heart. I can only wash my face with tears every day, and I don’t know who to tell about the pain in my heart.
A year later, Zelin had another jaw filler, and after his surgery, I thought he looked good, so the family went back to church. Who expected that a wave would not settle, and a wave would rise again? Due to his hyperactivity and some out-of-the-ordinary bizarre behavior, after being examined by experts, he is suspected of having slight autism. At that time, we still took our children to Sunday worship every week, but then we left the church because we couldn’t stand the comments about him. At that time, I wondered if there was a God, and if there was a God in this world, why would He treat me like this?
Children who never speak In July 1992, my family immigrated to Perth, Western Australia. Zelin then enrolled in a local special school. Due to the change in environment, Zelin’s behavior has become very irritable. He often banged his head against the wall or punched the glass with his fist. He behaved even worse in public places, often screaming for no reason, or kicking indiscriminately, and his behavior was difficult to control. Half a year later, he was finally diagnosed as an autistic child with an “intellectual disability and no ability to speak” (Note 1). This diagnosis made our situation even worse because it led to an eighteen-month “qualified immigration” lawsuit.
Facing prosecution by the immigration authorities, my “astronaut” (Note 2) husband had to return to Australia immediately. We couldn’t work, we couldn’t leave the country, and for 18 months we went back and forth between the immigration office, the lawyer’s office, the school, and the councilor’s office every day for assistance, and the pressure was very heavy. The night before the court, our nervousness was at its peak and we couldn’t sleep. That night, my husband Zhaoqi suggested that he pray with me and ask God to keep him, but I refused. I said to him, “I don’t ask! I’ve been out of church for eight years.” If there was God, He would not pay attention to us. “I insisted on surviving on my own.
In January 1995, we finally won the case, but we used up all our savings and energy.
At the beginning of 1995, my husband returned to Hong Kong to work, and I was once again on my own. In February, Zelin made another comment on his report card: “I can’t learn Xi words at all.” This is the third time I’ve seen such comments. The first two times I didn’t focus on this because I was facing immigration lawsuits, but when this comment came up again and again, I had to face up to the problem. I thought to myself since the teacher has repeatedly said that my son is not capable of learning Xi words, it means that they are not going to teach him.
But I’m not reconciled. Zelin was nearly ten years old, and he still couldn’t speak, he couldn’t even hold a pen, and I couldn’t let his time go to waste. So I decided to ask a psychologist to introduce an expert who teaches autistic children to design a learning Xi curriculum for Zelin. The expert came three times and still couldn’t provide a substantive lesson, and his reason was that he was too busy.
Endless fighting Therefore, I had to teach Zelin personally. Since March 1, 1995, I have been collecting all kinds of pictures and pasting them on cardboard to make picture cards, word cards, etc. I spend almost a dozen hours a day preparing textbooks and reading reference books, but the most exhausting thing is that I have to fight Zelin one-on-one. Because of his poor concentration, it was very difficult at first to ask him to sit down for ten to fifteen minutes. In order to arouse his interest in learning Xi, I often switch the teaching tools such as colours, combinations and puzzles to attract his attention.
When he was obedient, I also constantly encouraged him and praised him for being a good boy. But sometimes he would lose his temper and keep patting his son, refusing to do what I asked. In this case, I grabbed his hand and forced him to do it. But this often made him even more rebellious, and he would kick the table foot violently. In order not to hurt him, I had to clamp his feet with my feet. Sometimes he resisted so hard that my foot hit the leg of the table, and sometimes he even hit my head on the head, and it hurt me to tears. Still, I had to catch him, and I would not give up until I had him finish his predetermined lessons.
I don’t know how many times during that time, after fighting with Zelin, I went back to my room hugged the pillow, and cried. At that time, my husband was worried that I would be disappointed and tearful after exhausting my energy and time, so he repeatedly advised me to take some degree courses for my future. However, whenever he mentioned it, I angrily said to him, “I am his mother, and I have no choice!”
After more than a month of training, Zelin was able to sit down for half an hour to forty-five minutes, and his progress was faster than I expected. After three months of Xi, he began to write his name, Louis. It took another month for him to learn to write his last name, Wong. By October, he was able to write simple sentences. On October 20, he wrote, “Daddy I love you!” I faxed it to my husband as soon as I saw it. When he saw the fax, he was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes, and he suddenly realized that although his son could not speak, he also had feelings. He immediately called me and told me that at the moment he was more excited than a promotion and a raise.
Ten numbers for a year While teaching Zelin to read, I also began to teach him to count and write. It took him almost a year to learn 1~10, and then the speed gradually accelerated, and it only took him a month to learn 11~20. By August 1996, he was learning to Xi simple addition problems with 1 or 2. On September 14th, I occasionally gave him some additional problems that needed to be carried out, such as 9+2, 4+8, etc., and he was able to write out the answers one by one. Since then, I have been giving him some additional problems that need to be carried in, and he can usually write the correct answers. On October 1st and 2nd, I suddenly had a few deep addition problems with two or three numbers, and reasoning problems that required the concept of multiplication, such as writing the next number after 5, 10, 15, and 20, and he was able to write the answers accurately. The only encouragement I gave him was to tap the back of his hand, which became a Xi habit every time he could concentrate on the Xi problem. Seeing him make such progress, I feel indescribably happy in my heart.
Soon after, a friend of mine, Rex, came to visit us from Canada. Rex was a zealous Christian. During my stay at home, he kept urging me to read the Bible, and I became impatient with this and turned down his offer on the pretext that I was busy. As we talked, I also constantly complained about God’s unfairness to me, and He patiently listened to my complaints. A few days later he went to a small town 400 kilometers away to visit his brother, but he still did not forget to call me every other day and continued to encourage me to read the Bible and draw closer to God. But I didn’t listen at all.
Am I going crazy? On October 24th, it occurred to me that I had never taught Zelin multiplication, so why did he have the concept of multiplication? The next week was the most exciting day of my life. Because I had to find more advanced math problems for him to do every day, I was amazed that he could accurately write the answers in two or three seconds from the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, fractions, decimals, squares, and algebra problems in the 11th grade.
I was a little overwhelmed when I saw this. My husband was on a business trip in Eastern Australia at the time, and he would call home every other day. At first, he was excited to hear that Zelin was progressing in mathematics, but when I told him that Zelin was able to do square and algebra problems, he couldn’t accept it. He is a computer engineer and has always been Xi with rational analysis of problems, and Zelin’s performance is contrary to his rationality, so he raises a large number of questions and asserts that it must be my godson’s heart, which has reached the point of going crazy. This made me very angry and told him to come back and see for himself. When he returned home, he was also amazed, and he filmed Zelin’s homework faithfully and prepared to show it to his relatives and friends in Hong Kong. He patted and muttered, “It’s.”
a real miracle!” At that time, it happened that the principal of Zelin School invited some autism experts to a meeting for Zelin’s transfer. Among them are psychologists, linguists, pediatricians, teachers of special schools, etc. I showed them the video, and when they saw it, no one could explain it. I was a little complacent, thinking that my kid might be a math genius, even though he couldn’t speak.
Write a 5 first When Rex called me on November 21, 1996, he urged me to read the Bible again, and this time I finally said yes. He suggested that I read the book of Proverbs first. The next day I read in Proverbs 22:17, “Listen to the words of the wise, and give ear to my knowledge.” ”
At around 11 o’clock, an old friend of mine, Peter, called me from Hong Kong. Peter was a doctor and a level-headed, analytical man. He told me that after watching the video my husband brought, the couple couldn’t sleep for a whole week, and they couldn’t figure it out. He didn’t think that Zelin was a genius, because geniuses were just people with special intelligence and talents, and the process of receiving things and learning Xi was shorter than that of ordinary people. However, Zelin made Xi that he had never learned, so Peter thought it might be a miracle. He suggested that I come up with some more advanced math problems such as trigonometry, geometry, or series in algebra for Zelin to do. He said, “If you give him the question “1+2+3++1000=?”, he writes a 5 as soon as he puts pen to paper, and I immediately salute him. You don’t have to ask anything more and take him back to church right away. I’m not a Christian, but I’m sure it’s a miracle. He then asked me, “You seem to have been a Christian?” and I was asked by him, and my face immediately turned red, and I replied, “I haven’t been to church for almost ten years.” ”
“Who taught you?” I told my daughter Bowen and my adopted son Zhicong about Peter’s idea, and they also thought Peter’s words were reasonable enough to try, and helped me with some math problems, including the one that Peter proposed. On November 24th, I gave these questions to Zelin. When he sat down and began to calculate, I was a little more nervous than usual, and I was anxious to know the result, so I stared at his hand tightly. I saw that after reading the question proposed by Peter, as Peter said, he wrote the word “5” in the first pen. In a panic, I immediately called my daughter. Then, I asked Zelin who taught him in the form of filler questions, and he wrote in front of me and my daughter that it was “God” who taught him. I was shocked again, and I was a little creepy on the spot. When she saw her brother’s “God,” she burst into tears, and she hurried out of the room to find the Bible.
I’ve always thought of myself as a confident person, but in the face of all this, I’ve become a little distracted and at a loss. In the past two years, I have taught him a total of simple addition and about 500 words. Everything I have taught is recorded, I have never taught him trigonometry, geometry, or algebra, so why can he answer without thinking? I have never taught him a word about religion, but how can he spell God? Seriously, even the dullest man should be awake by this time, because God has revealed to me by such a miracle. But my heart is hardened, and I can’t bow to God all at once. The first thing I thought of was my husband and Peter, and I wanted to fax them the math problems that Zelin had done and the answers he had written and hear their opinions. So I asked Zelin to rewrite the answer to who taught him math on an A4-sized piece of paper. He agreed to my request and wrote again that God had taught him.
Then I spoke on the phone with my old classmate Gao Meiyun because she often encouraged me to go to church. I used to find it annoying when she talked about the church, but now I was eager for her help. She was very excited after listening to my story, reaffirmed that it was a miracle, and decided to come to my house immediately and share the joy with me.
Then I called Rex again. This time, his usual cheerful tone became heavy. He told me that he and his brother had just been involved in a traffic accident and would have died if it weren’t for the Lord’s protection. I suddenly felt the fragility of human beings, who cannot even control their own lives. I didn’t talk to Rex about my son anymore because I felt that I could no longer rely on myself and others and that I had to go straight to God and the Lord of life.
When I decided to turn back to God, I remembered the rebellion and exaggeration I had been exaggerating all along, and my heart ached. As soon as I put down the phone, I gathered my three children and asked them if they knew of a miracle that had happened in their home, and they all said they did. I asked them to pray with me, and they agreed. So that afternoon, for the first time as a family, we prayed to God together. When I put my arms around Zelin and prayed to God, tears flowed out like a river bursting its banks. In prayer, I confessed my sins to God and resolved to repent, and I asked the Lord Jesus to be the Lord of my life and lead the way ahead of our family. After praying, my heart slowly calmed down.
Directions to all the information After a while, Miyun came, and as soon as she saw me, she came up to hug me. After that, we decided to ask Zelin a fill-in question, “Who loves Zelin the most?” and “Who is the Son of God?”, and Zelin immediately wrote “God loves Zelin the most” instead of “Mom”, and he wrote, “Jesus is the Son of God.”
After a few days, we found out that Zelin knew a lot about the Bible. My niece, who was living in my house at the time, thought that maybe God had given Zelin a lot of knowledge, and she suggested that he could be tested in every way. Over the next month, we were driven by curiosity to ask him more and more questions, many of which our friends had come up with after referring to the encyclopedia. It turned out that he could answer both natural and social science questions, and he could understand Chinese, Japanese, and French, which he had never learned. My family and I felt that we couldn’t figure out his limits with our limited knowledge.
On March 2, 1997, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Zelin wrote out a large portion of the gospel message. He wrote, “The Lord Jesus is the Son of God, who loved us and died for our sins, and who is God’s Savior for the world.” We are to let Jesus take charge of our lives. “At that time, I was taking Zelin and his Xi back to Hong Kong to visit relatives. I told my relatives and friends about this miracle, but there were still unbelievers among them. Some people also believe that whether it is Buddhism or Christianity, all religions are all persuasions to do good, and in the end they will all end up in the same way. I couldn’t agree with this because all the messages God brought to me through Zelin pointed to the Lord Jesus, so I insisted on explaining to them that the Lord Jesus is our only Savior. On March 3, 1997, I asked Zelin one last question on behalf of the crowd: “What is Buddhism?” to which Zelin replied, “Buddhism is a philosophy.” “I have never taught him the term philosophy, and he was able to express the essence of Buddhism so succinctly.
From then on, I felt that God had revealed His heart to me, and I no longer dared to question Zelin in any way.
The curse turned into a blessing Because of the misfortunes of my childhood and Zelin’s illness, I left God, and I tried to struggle on my own. I shut myself off in a state of solitude, miserable and with no one to talk to. Physically, I am a healthy person, but mentally, I look like an autistic person. For I have not seen the power of the Lord, nor heard his loving cry. I was like a sheep wandering apart, lost, wounded, trapped among thorns and unable to save myself. However, my Lord did not forsake me, but He took the initiative to find me and bandage my wounds so that I could experience His love again.
In the past, I used to complain about fate, feeling that my life was full of curses, as if anything unfortunate would happen to me. But today, I feel that all curses have turned into blessings. I wouldn’t have the fortitude to teach Zelin without the hardships of my childhood, and without Zelin I might never have returned to the Lord and enjoyed His love.
My whole being has changed dramatically. As Zelin wrote, he was an instrument of God, but he was still an autistic child, and I still had to face him every day, and my difficulties in life were not diminished. But because I know that I have the Lord’s presence and the support of my brothers and sisters every day, I no longer feel alone. No matter what happens, I have peace in my heart, and this peace from the bottom of my heart cannot be taken away from me.
Over the past few years, I have been invited to speak about my experience at evangelistic conferences in Australia, Hong Kong, and Canada, and have led more than 100 people to become believers. My family’s story was also filmed on video by the Hong Kong Evangelical Communication Centre and circulated more widely. I also go to help some families who have the same experience, so that they can have hope again, smile, and find meaning in life. To this end, I have been invited to Hong Kong and Canada many times to hold seminars on home learning Xi for autistic children for parents of children with autism, and also conduct individual counseling. In March 2000, Hong Kong Breakthrough Publishing House published a book I wrote about home studies for autistic children, Xi titled “Breaking Through Barriers”, so that more families could get help.
I used to cry and complain a lot because I had unspeakable worries and pains in my heart. I still cry sometimes today, but it is because I am touched by the love of the Lord. Dear readers, I hope that you will experience the love of the Lord as much as I did. As Pastor Ouyang of Perth Alliance Church wrote in the preface to my book “Extraordinary Testimony”: “Stories do not have to be accompanied by lessons, nor may they be prescribed according to prescriptions, but may this true story open a window into your life, let the fresh air blow in, and may he also create another miracle in your heart!” I think this is my hope and my heartfelt wish to you.