On Saturday we had the privilege of not only getting to hear speak, but meeting, and amazing man of faith.
If you have never heard of him, this is Brother Yun, also known as the Heavenly Man.
Brother Yun is a missionary from China – something, as you may recall, it is illegal to be. He was saved as a teenager and was invovled over many years in planting house churches in provinces all over the country (all very illegal). He also spent ten years total in prison because of sharing the gospel (including being arrested and taken away from his wife on their wedding day).
His story is absolutely remarkable and challenging to the core as he shares of all the ways in which God provided for him and used him in different situations. Many will have a hard time reading this book as he shares about the time that God chalenged him to fast from food AND water and ended up without either for 74 days (something science will tell you is impossible, you should be dead after 7), or about the time he heard God tell him to get up and just walk out of the high security prison he was in, which he promptly did with none of the guards noticing him, all of the doors opening for him and all this despite both of his legs having been broken from beatings (miraculously healed).
I thoroughly encourage you to read his account.
He now lives with his family in Germany, travelling occasionally to the states and around Europe to share his story and encourage believers, and this is what he was doing in Novi Sad where we hear him speak.
The evening also involved songs from a Serbian group and a chinese choir, and hearing also from Yun's son who travels with him. It was kind of funny when Yun shared because he would speak in Chinese, his son would translate into German and then a translator would translate it into Serbian. For us, we then had a translator sat with us who translated that into English. that's 4 people (Michelle, sat next to me, could not hear our translator so I would relay what she said – that's 5 people)!
Yun on the right, his son on the left, their translator to his left.
Before the service we spotted him sat at the front and were able to speak to him, through a translator (who fortunately spoken English as well as Serbian – no long chain of translation here) and shared about our time in China. We had stayed in Henan province and as we shared about the city we stayed in, where he is from, and about Zi-Ping's upcoming adoption, a tear came to his eye and a longing to his face for the place he will never be able to see again without being immediately arrested and likely killed.
We spoke, he signed journels for some of us and we took a few pictures. Here is Dusty meeting him, I'll stick up one of me when I get a hold of it from a teammate.
Following the service, Yun and the conference stewards prayed for people, and so it was an honour to be prayed for by this inspiring man.
