A LIFE SENTENCE FOR "SISTER QUAN"
The moving story of a courageous Chinese House Church leader. By Dan Wooding
It was on a fateful day in September 1983, when Sister Quan, a courageous house church leader from Henan Province in China, received her "life" prison sentence for her Christian activities.
However, after a harrowing imprisonment, she was eventually released from prison and immediately returned to active leadership status in the house church.
Now Sister Quan has agreed to tell her story to Open Doors, the ministry that was started more than four decades ago by Brother Andrew, the Dutch-born author of the best-selling book, "God's Smuggler."
A "WHOLE" CHRISTIAN
Sister Quan's family members were all (and the living ones still are) Christians. Quan is not her true name, but her story is true. As is common for these types of interviews, the name is changed for her protection. The name Quan means "whole."
"As I listened to this dear sister in the Lord share her experience and saw the expression in her face and eyes, I watched her cry with tears of love and joy when she prayed, beam with a smile of pride when talking about her children, laugh when recalling all the crazy methods she used to keep her Bible hidden in during her long prison stay and share honestly about an experience that I couldn't have even imagined," said the Open Doors coworker who interviewed her at a secret location. "One of the many things that gripped me was that even with all she'd been through, she was emotionally 'whole'. Her relationship with the Lord had sustained her through everything and she had experienced His healing even as she had gone through the deep dark valley."
The Open Doors researcher discovered that in the summer of 1983, one of Sister Quan's older sisters became ill and finally died. "It was a hard time for the family," he said. "Then, just a few days after the sister died, the police came and arrested almost all the family members -- brothers, sisters, and older relatives -- all but two of their family were arrested. For over one month they were questioned and then the sentencing took place in September 1983. "After the sentencing, her husband and mother-in-law were then executed by firing squad. Sister Quan was given a sentence of life in prison. (At that time her son and daughter were ages one and four.) Her younger sister was sentenced to 15 years. Her other sister and two brothers received two, three, and four year sentences. The remaining ones also received various sentences.
"At that time, all the leaders in their church were arrested. Sister Quan and her two younger sisters were sent to a women's prison hard labor camp in their province. The two brothers were sent to two separate prison labor camps."
In 1983 many Christians in their area got into trouble with the police. At that time, the excuse of the police was "idolatry" or "mysticism/superstition" since they didn't understand Christianity.
The Chinese secret police (PSB) told those they arrested, that they were being held, "because you have blind worship/ superstition" -- but they did not say it was specifically for being a Christian.
At that time when evangelical Christianity was growing in Henan Province, a "sect" called "The Shouters" was also growing.
"The Shouters seemed to be very brave and bold," said the Open Doors staffer. "In the early 80's, the activities of the Shouters became 'excessive' according to the government. Also the state-sponsored Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) church had been formed by that time -- so any leaders who wouldn't join TSPM in the area were caught and arrested -- whether or not they were a Shouter. The government was trying to 'clean up' the society. In 1983 and 1984 this was called the 'anti spiritual pollution campaign.'
"This was at the same times as Sister Quan's family's arrest---they were house church leaders, but they actually were not a part of the Shouters' group."
HARD LABOUR
Sister Quan said during the interview that life in the prison labor camp was hard, stating that the PSB would use different methods to try to pressure Christian prisoners to deny their faith.
"The prison was not a place fit for people to live, yet I could feel that God was with us, so that was the only way we could endure all that time in that place," said Sister Quan.
In the prison, she and her sisters used the opportunity to preach to the other prisoners. Some of them were regular criminals, so they preached to them also, and many came to the knowledge of salvation in that place. Still, the prison authorities tried to pressure the Christians to deny their faith, but despite this, the number of Christians increased instead of decreased because they shared their faith so much. "The system was that for a non-Christian, there was a chance of sentence reduction for good behavior, but thee was no chance of this for Christians," said the Open Doors interviewer. "She could see how the Lord was with them all the time -- even when the prison officials tried to come up with plans to give them a hard time, God still worked it out."
"The prison had about 500 people held there. After some time, more than 400 came to know the Lord. Some prisoners, who were so sick that they couldn't work, were brought to the hospital and doctors said there was no hope -- but then the Christians in prison prayed for the sick and they were healed -- even after the doctor had said no hope. Consequently, even the officials had to stand back and look -- thus many people came to know the Lord.
"When the authorities were seeing the Christians increase in number rather than decrease, the officials did mean things -- like putting the Christians in underground cells in solitary confinement -- with no light of any kind. Some couldn't take it and denied their faith. They were underground and alone - with no natural or electric light."
The Open Doors coworker said that in prison, there was a points/reward system -- so that at the end of a year required number of points could be exchanged for a reduction in prison term -- but for Christians -- they were not given any points/rewards no matter how well they performed.
Sister Quan revealed, "If they would only say 'I don't believe' they could get a one year sentence reduction -- they didn't even have to say they didn't believe in Jesus, but praise God, even the new Christians had the strength from the Lord not to say this. Christians in prison live one day at a time."
Speaking about meals, she said that for breakfast they got half a bowl of very light porridge -- mostly water with a few grains of rice. Noon was the same - half a bowl of light porridge but the added one or two pieces of vegetable and for their evening meal, they got the same.
"Friends could visit us and also bring the children one day per month," she said.
Sister Quan stated that she didn't have a Bible with her in prison and the visitors (one day a month) could not easily pass one because the prison guard is right there the whole time. They had to pass it fast and hide it while the guard went to the toilet.
"A few times a week the guards would search the entire area of where the prisoner's cell is and if something is found, the prisoner is punished," said the Open Doors worker. "They had to find creative ways to hide the Bible. They don't know when the search will be.
"Some were assigned to prison house with 20 per house and they normally didn't do body search -- but then when they found out that Christians had Bibles, they sometimes did body searches and found books, so some got half a month in solitary confinement because of this. From that time on, they didn't carry the Bible in their clothing. If they were caught reading the Bible it would be confiscated, so they had to wake up at one or two in the morning and secretly try to read under the blanket."
At this point in the interview, Sister Quan actually smiled and laughed as she recalled the ways they used to hide the Bibles. "We would break the Bible into parts and one brother would keep one part and one sister kept another, so at least if it's discovered, they would still have some," she said.
After some time, Sister Quan's sentence was altered to a specific number of years instead of. "life". Finally it was down to 16 years, but then after 131/2 years she was released in July 1996.
"They said she had good behavior, but she believed that God moved in their hearts to reduce her sentence," said the Open Doors worker. "God had given her strength to perform the prison tasks well.
After she was released, she told her church group about the situation of those who are believers and still in that prison, so the church began praying more for those in prison and now all of their faith is strengthened as a result.
"The prisoner's attitude is that they are doing the hard labor not for the prison, but for the Lord," said Sister Quan. "This is what gives them the strength. Because of this, the fellow bothers and sisters in the area have also received more strength from the Lord. This has caused them to all cooperate with each other now. One goes out and preaches, and another one will watch after the family and farm while he's gone."
Now that she has been released and living on the outside again, she says that all in all five people (including her) are left in her family. All are 13 years older now, but the Lord has helped her to adjust because conditions (life) is easier now in the sense of things being more modern and it is easier to travel.
When asked how her children were and effect the long separation from her and the loss of their father have on them at search an early age, her face beamed pride as she described her children. Her daughter is now aged 17 and her son is age 14.
"She said she is very proud of them and they are strong in Lord," said the interviewer. "She was proud to announce that her 17 year old daughter has just come and told her that she wants to leave school early so she can go ahead to preach the gospel full time. Both children are doing well. The Church is better organized.
"Sister Quan was a leader before she was arrested and is a leader again now that she's out. She smiles a lot and is very enthusiastic. Friends warn her to lay low, but she says it doesn't matter -- she's used to prison anyway. She believes that nothing worse could happen to her than she has already experienced. The more hardships they faced in prison the more their faith grew."
Open Doors is in the middle of "Project Yuan," in which it is supplying China's house church Christians with some with some two million Bibles and other "spiritual helps."
Source: Assist Communications, PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 E-mail: assistcomm@cs.com
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