TIAN MINGE — TORCH CARRIER FOR THE REVIAL

China Aid Association
Zhang Yinan
Tian Minge, also known as Tian Jin, was born in 1938, at Weituo village, Silidian town, Fangcheng county of Henan Province.
Tian Jin’s mother was a devoted Christian for a long time. But Tian Jin did not become a Christian until he got terribly sick in 1977. He secretly went to different Christian meetings in different villages during his early Christian life. The churches in Fangcheng church were established by China Inland Mission which was founded by Hudson Taylor from England. Later on, the churches in Guaihe and Silidian were changed into self-supported churches.
In January of 1980, the famous evangelist Zhang Rongliang was set free from Xihua labor camp and returned to his hometown in Fangcheng. From then on, together with Zhang Rongliang, Zheng Shuqian, Ding Xiuling, and Han Rongqin, Tian Jin began to preach the Gospel. Silidian and Guaihe towns adjoin Lushan County. The two elders in the Church Assembly in Lushan Church, Brother Wang Xicai, and Brother Zhang Yunpeng were gifted with the power of revival. They organized a conference for evangelists from over hundred counties which brought a great revival in the churches in Lushan County. During the great revival, in order to baptize thousands of people who just receive the Lord, they had to set up tents along the river, and baptized new believers for three days and three nights.
Tian Jin, Zhang Rongliang and Zheng Shuqian, consistently went to the Church of Lushan County for fellowship. They also brought the fire of the revival to Fangcheng County. Tian Jin’s home served as the host house, therefore, many brothers and sisters went to his house for meetings.
In 1981, Brother Liu Zhengying ( later called the Heavenly Man), an evangelist from Liulao village, Hongniwan town, Nan yang county, together with several sisters went to a fellowship meeting in Silidian. The evangelist, Xu Shengguang from Yunyang of Nan Zhao County, also came for the meeting. Tian Jin and Zhangxin hosted them. They ask Xue Shengguang to share first, and then Xu Shengguang started with a long prayer which lasted about one and half hour. Zhangxin told Tian Jin, “He prayed for too long, let me stop him.” Tian Jin replied, “Leave him alone.” Xue Shengguang recited verses from the Bible while he was praying (Later on, Xu Shenguang founded a domination called: “Three levels of Servants”). After Xu’s prayers, Brother Liu Zhenying preached.
Called by the Lord Jesus Christ, some young and middle aged evangelists began to grow in the churches of Guaihe and Silidian. They included Zheng Shuqian, Tian Jin, Xu Taiheng, Zhangxin, Yan Baoguo, Li Liucheng, Dongzhi, Zhangsuo, and Lu Qingzhi, etc.
The senior coworkers in the local churches were Zhang Shixuan, Lou Jibin and Gao Huifang (the younger sister of Gao Yunjiu), etc. The senior evangelists Gao Yunjiu, Liu Airong, and Qiao Fudong frequently went to preach the Gospel in Silidian. Brother Zhang Shan from Nan Zhangzhuang village Guaihe town went there to share his testimony that how he came back to life after he was dead. Other brothers and sisters also came to preach the Gospel, such as Xu Yongze, Xu Yongling and Liu Fengxian.
Mr. Wei Qingyuan, an extremely conservative communist party secretary of Weituo village hated Brother Tian Jin terribly, because Brother Tian Jin was zealous about the Gospel and many people in the village became Christians. Tian Jin enjoys better reputation for Jesus than him. So, one day, Mr. Wei went to the local government to accuse Tian Jin and requested the local police to arrest Tian Jin. The cadres from Public Security Bureau and Religious Management Department went to Tian Jin’s home to do some research. They found out that Tian Jin’s belief was very biblical and orthodox. So they just told Tian Jin to be careful in the future, and they left. But, Mr. Wei, the party secretary was not happy with the result and he went on accusing Tian Jin to the government in the county.
On the day of China’s New Year in 1982, Tian Jin and some other evangelists held a meeting secretively in the mountain areas of Ye county. They were all on the most wanted black list of the local police, therefore, they could not return to their homes even during China’s New Year.
Tian Jin went to Wuyang county and got connected with Brother Chen Zhide and Brother Hai Lindeng, through them, he got to know one senior evangelist Liu Xiansheng.
In the summer of 1982, Tian Jin and Zhangxin went to the House Churches in Zhoukou city and conducted two-month Bible training in secret. They encouraged the young brothers and sisters to consecrate themselves to preach the Gospel. They also got connected with the churches in Wuyang, Xiping and Tanghe, etc.
Through this trip, they also got acquainted with evangelist Feng Jianguo, Sheng Yiping and Sheng Xianfeng in Tanghe area.
In the local church, Tian Jin was in charge of finances and spiritual literature. The church was very weak in terms of finances at that time. Brother Zhang Rongliang sold his only cow to buy train tickets for sister Ding Xiuling so she could go to Guangzhou to get donated spiritual literature. There was a used bicycle market at Beiwudu, Pingdingshan city. It only took 30-50 RMB (about 5-7 USD) to buy a second hand bicycle. Therefore, Brother Tian Jin bought many second hand bicycles and gave them to the evangelists from different counties. From then on, the evangelists would go outside to preach the Gospel with a bicycle which saved then a lot of travel expenses. Among them, the evangelist, senior Brother Feng Jianguo, his bicycle was given by Brother Tian Jin. The local house Churches in Tanghe county, donated 75 kilograms (about 165 pounds) flour. Brother Tian Jin carried it with his bicycle to a host house in Machang village Sheqi, where Brother Zhang Rongliang and other coworkers lived there secretively.
In the summer of 1983, any house churches accepted the messages preached by Watchmen Lee, were called: “The Shouting” by the Public Security Bureau; furthermore, any evangelists who did not join the Three-Self Government sanctioned Church, were also defined as “The Shouting”. But for Brother Tian Jin, Zhang Rongliang and Ding Xiuling who did not agree with the theology of Watchman Lee, either they hardly received any messages from “Stream of the Recovering.” They were still on the most wanted black list from the Public Security Bureau.
The cadres from local government forced Tian Jin to take part in the “religious training class,” and he would be sent to detention center if he refused to join the Three Self government sanctioned official church. Greatly encouraged by the respected Brothers such as Brother Zhang Rongliang who was jailed for evangelism, Brother Gao Yunjiu who was arrested four times for his Christian faith, Tian Jin felt that it was an honor to be thrown into jail this time. Therefore, he carried his baggage to the government with a ready heart to be arrested. While he was on the way to the town government, he met Sister Han Rongqin who said to him, “all the coworkers were being arrested now, the herds were scattered, what would you say to the Lord in the future if you do not take care of the church now?” Henceforth, Tian Jin left his home and went to visit the secretively meeting houses in difference places, encouraging and comforting the brothers and sisters.
Silidian police station of Fang Cheng county persecuted the house churches frantically. Whenever the policemen caught the Christians, they would force them to keel down on the bricks, let them to be insolated under the sun and beat them half dead. The young and harsh chief officer of the police station publicized that, “all the Christians at Silidian must write the declaration of confession to abandon their Christian faith” consequently; He was killed in a traffic accident shortly after he said that.
Together with Zhang Rongliang, Ding Xiuling and Wu Dangsheng, Tian Jin escaped to Beizhangwan village, Tanghe. Secretively, they held a meeting at Li Fengxian’s home. There was a dispute between Ku Quntai and the senior evangelist Gaodang from Ye county. Gaodang said with anger, “I would not be together with him (Ku Quntai) even he were my grandfather.” After a prayer while they knelt down on the ground, Liu Zhenying (The later called Heavenly Man) asked Tian Jin, “who is Zhang Rongliang?” then, Tian Jin introduced Zhang Rongliang to Liu Zhenying.
Before long, Brother Liu Zhenying was arrested and was put into the prison controlled by the communist party, he was beat severely and brutally, and he fasted for seventy-four days and eventually he was sentenced four years sentence in the prison. He gave his testimony in different places with the name of “The Heavenly Man.”
Tian Jin, Zhang Rongliang, Zheng Shuqian and Chen Hailu escaped to a remote village in the mountains called Chen Sigou in Lushan county. Very often, the local policemen and the village security guards would go to the local host family to search for the Christians. Whenever that happened, they would have to escape to the mountains, and sleep in the slope of the mountain in the night with shabby matting. When the China’s New Year approached, Tian Jin went back home with high risks, brought back some pork, a little bit sesame oil, then they had a big China’s New Year celebration in the mountains, by doing so, they escaped from the arrest from the local policemen on the day of China’s New Year.
In 1983, Tian Jin was deprived any rights to rent any land from the government. The communist party secretary of his hometown, Weituo village, even cancelled his citizenship; all these made him homeless, that he could not go back to his own house for 4 years.
In 1986, the famous evangelist Li Tianen from Shanghai went to Zhoukou city Henan province to preach the Gospel. Tian Jin and other Christian brothers accommodated him at Chushan town of Xiping county, they had a 5 days training there.
In 1987, as the persecution to Christians was easing, Tian Jin went back to his hometown and asked the permission from the communist party secretary of his village to rent some land from the government, the newly elected communist party secretary was also a baptized Christian. By God’s grace, Tian Jin rented some land form the government, then he built one house outside of his village, and his house immediately became the host house and meeting place for Christians and evangelists.
In the fall of 1988, Pastor Dennis Balcombe from Revival Christian Church in Hong Kong went to preach the Gospel in Machang village of Sheqi county, Nanyang city. Tian Jin and Ding Xiuling went together to the train station of Zhengzhou city to greet him. They spent 150 RMB (about 20 USD) renting a private truck to send them from Zhengzhou to Sheqi county. The driver was very curious about the prayers of Pastor Dennis Balcombe as he prayed in another tongue. Tian Jin covered it up by saying that “he is speaking foreign language.” In fact, Tian Jin had met Pastor Dennis Balcombe for several times in Guangzhou where they had great fellowship regarding the revival of house churches.
Tian Jin accompanied Pastor Dennis Balcombe to take part in the meetings at the villages in Sheqi and Fangcheng area. Pastor Dennis Balcombe prayed for them by putting his hands on them. In one secretive meeting at Dahetun in Tanghe county, Tian Jin was permeated with the Holy Spirit.
In November of 1989, sister Zheng and sister Xu from house church of Langfang city in Hebei province went to Fangcheng to join the meeting. They were full of joy and excitement after they were permeated with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, they earnestly asked Zhang Rongliang to send coworkers to Langfang city to pass on the fire of the Revival. Then, the Fangcheng church sent Tian Jin, Yang Maitun and Zhou Xiaogai to Langfang to explore the new harvest field. Tianji and the whole team went to Langfang oil field and found a Christian couple Cao Chengxin. Cao Chengxin and Zhang Xiuyun were in charge of the church management. The brothers and sisters there welcomed them with warm hearts. Sister Cao’s husband, brother Wang Qinglin, who used to be a communist party secretary, he had to resign from the communist party after he became a Christian. He followed Tian Jin to listen to his preaching wherever the meetings took place. Having noticed that so many Brothers and sister were permeated with the Holy Spirit, he became terribly thirsty for the Holy Spirit. At the meeting in Wanzhuang village, he knelt down to the ground and sincerely prayed, “My Lord! you asked me to work for you, but how can I serve you if I do not have the power of the Holy Spirit? ” All of sudden, the power of Holy Spirit descended upon him, immediately, he lost the control of himself. It seemed like there is one engine out of control in his mouth, he could not help speaking another foreign language. He was a little bit suspicious about the existence of God before, after this special experience, he never had any doubt about his faith.
The fire of Revival was lighted in the churches of Langfang city. Miraculous signs and wonders happened all the time and in every meeting. Great number of new believers were being added to the Church every day, many people asking to be baptized. Sister Bianyi’s husband was in charge of the public bathing house of the oil field, through him, the church rented the big public bathing house for one whole day, so that they could baptize new believers in the big public bathing house.
One day, Sister Cao Chengxin was permeated with the Holy Spirit in a meeting. She spoke in tongues and another sister translated its meaning, “You must go to preach the Gospel in Da Qing city, why don’t you go?” The Holy Spirit urged them to go to Da Qing city to preach the Gospel.
Zhang Xiuyun was in charge of the finance in the church. She said to Tian Jin: “The moneybag is full after every meeting. It has been 20 days after your arrival, brothers and sisters have contributed so much money which will cover all the travel expenses for your trip to Da Qing city, let’s go to preach Gospel in Da Qing city where it will be permeated with the Holy Spirit.” Tian Jin, Yang Maitun, Zhou Xiaogai and Cao Chengxing all agreed with her.
It was December which was the coldest time for Northeast China, Zhang Xiuyun worried that the brothers from Henan province could not stand the coldness of the winter. She gave them 500 RMB (about 70 USD) to buy some overcoat in the super market of Wangfujing in Beijing. But they thought the overcoats in Wangfujing were too expensive, eventually they borrowed some overcoats from the local workers of the oil field, and then they were ready to go.
The youngest son of Cao Chengxin also wanted to go to Da Qing city with them, Cao Chengxin persuaded him: “Mom’s going to Da Qing for a mission, you can not go this time.” The little boy prayed, “My God! Please ask my Mom to buy one more train ticket.” Both Zhang Xiuyun and Zhou Xiaogai were willing to take him. Eventually, five of the coworkers, together with a little boy, were on the way to Da Qing city. When they stopped over to visit one relative in Beijing city, one sister from Three Self Church derided them, saying: “You are either too old or too young, how can you preach the Gospel?go back to your home, otherwise, you will be arrested by the Public Security Bureau in Da Qing city.”
In December of 1989, Tian Jin, Yang Maitun and the whole team arrived in Da Qing city of Heilongjiang province. The local churches there were very reluctant to host them. One day, two young sisters among them started speaking in tongues. One spoke, another one interpreted: “You need to visit each church, one by one; you will go after you finished visiting each church.”
There were several different small denominations in the house churches in Da Qing city. Most Christians are sisters. Brother Pan Baoguo was elected as the leading Brother who was in charge of church management. The local church from “Stream of the Recovering” near Da Qing city put hands on Brother Pan Baoguo and prayed for him, asking him to be the coworker. Brother Pan also went to their coworkers training in Wuchang county of Heilongjiang Province, where they came from the background of Christian Assembly which was influenced strongly by Brother Watchman Nee. All the Brothers and sisters were very devoted to the Lord, they emphasized that sisters needed to cover their heads with hat, so their meeting were called by other denominations: “Hat meeting.” Tian Boxing and Li Keying preached the significance of The Lord’s Table, head covering and ordained minister; systematically they preached the truth of life. Pan Baoguo took 100% of whatever they preached. He also admired the eloquence of the evangelists for he was not good at preaching. 
Led by Cao Chengxin, brother Yang Maitun and Tang Xiaogai went to visit different Christian meetings; While Tian Jin and sister Zhang Xiuyun went to visit Brother Pan Baoguo in his house. In fact, Pan Baoguo was saved by God when Zhang Xiuyun preached the Gospel to him. They were also neighbors to each other. However, they did have some disagreements on some biblical doctrines when they met, for that they argued and argued until midnight, even without having any prayers before they left. Sister Liu, the wife of Brother Pan Baoguo blamed Brother Pan that he did not have any Christian love as he arguing with Sister Zhang and made her mad and she left with anger. Pan Boguo answered her by saying “she will not care that too much if she is the true servant of God.”
The team led by Sister Cao Chengxin also encountered many difficulties that she even wanted to quit. Zhao Xiuyun said to her: “Brother Pan Baoguo is in charge of 12 house churches in Da Qing city, the whole situation will be changed if we can get through him.” Then, they prayed more earnestly for help from the Lord.
One day, Tian Jin and Zhao Xiuyun went to visit Pan Baoguo again. They did not talk anything about the Biblical doctrine, rather fellowship in Christian Brotherhood. Sister Zhang said to him: “We were neighbors to each other before, and we are in the Family of God now, we can not be separated from each other as we are in the one Family of God in this world. In Christ, I am your spiritual father. It takes a lot of hardships and efforts for the brothers and sisters to come here from Henan province. Could you please bring some brothers and sisters for a small size meeting? Brother Tian Jin will preach a short sermon, if you do not like what he preached, we will go.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Xiuyun also went to have a fellowship with a senior sister Zhao Xiuyun in her house. Tian Jin and Pan Baogao, again argued about some Biblical doctrine, based on their own understanding about the Bible.
Tian Jin said: “It is the sign of authority on women’s head when they come to the meetings with their head covered. It is useless even they have their head covered by quilts if they are not humble in their hearts. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 14 said, Having believed, we were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance€¦ Covered by a hat can not be the seal of our salvation.”
Brother Tian Boxing from Wu Chang County also came to join the debate. Brother Pan Baoguo thought each of them have their own reasons, it is hard to judge who is right or who is wrong. Brother Tian Jin was a very mature Christian, with much experience traveling all of China, and rich in word and in wisdom. On the contrary, brother Tian Boxing was so angry that he condemned brother Tian Jin harshly, and he shouted at them saying that, they came to Da Qing to expand their own territory not for the sake of Gospel, while Tian Jin always smiled at him regardless what he said.
While they were debating, Pan Baoguo thought: Tian Boxing was very good at preaching, but was not able to control his own temper by showing anger with hard words to a brother who came from far away. There is not any Christian love manifested from him. Tian Boxing defended himself with victory by words, but failed with his own testimony. Pan Baoguo never thought there are so much politics and complexity in the church, what is the benefit by fighting with each other on that minor Biblical Doctrine? Eventually, he said to them: “From now on, you people from Wu Chang county and Fang Cheng county are not welcomed here.”
The next day, Zhang Xiuyun and Cao Chengxin came to visit Pan Baoguo again. Pan did not greet them with any food or tea; in stead, for the Lord’s sake, Zhang Xiuyun and Cao Chengxin went to the kitchen and cook the food for Pan’s family. For the friendship that they had before, Pan did not ask them to leave, which gave them the opportunity to talk with Pan, and then they asked Pan to take brother Tian Jin to preach in his house church.
Very reluctantly, Pan Baoguo invited about 10 people to have a small meeting in sister Zhang Yanhong’s house which located in No.2 village of Cheng Fengzhuang in Da Qing city. Brother Tian Jin led the prayer and preached. His preaching was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. Several sisters were moved with tears by his preaching, and they asked Pan Baoguo to keep Tian Jin, so that brother Tian Jin could preach more.
One evening, a couple came to the meeting with their 19 years old daughter who was a mute. Brother Tian Jin put his hands on this mute daughter and prayed for her, amazingly, before they left, the daughter began to speak: “Dad, Dad!” The Mom cried out with tears and excitement, while the daughter just smiled and smiled, they all praised the Lord for HIS grace and mercy.
Because of what happened upon this mute daughter, sister Zhang Yanhong advised to bring all the sick as many as they knew to the meeting. More and more people got healed in the meetings, the miraculous signs and wonders happened all the time and were spread throughout of Da Qing city. Very soon, the meeting increased from 10 people into hundreds of people. One sister who was a paralysis for many years, her husband carried her up to the meeting room on the second floor. Brother Tian Jin prayed for her, immediately she stood up. She was so overwhelmed that she walked up and down on each floor throughout the whole building. Totally there were over 30 people were being healed by the Lord during the meetings. Brothers and sisters were full of excitement with fire in their hearts, people were shouting and singing with tears, while it was terribly cold outside as it was in the deep winter in Northeast of China.
From then on, brother Tian Jin and Zhang Xiuyun preached in the communities of Ba Beixiang, Hung Weixing and Zhang Tijiang, etc. Many brothers and sisters were permeated with the Holy Spirit.
There was one brother whose name was Zheng Wanlin. After he was permeated with the Holy Spirit, he was so overwhelmed that he was total lost, for 3 days and 3 nights, he was in the meeting and he forgot to go home or go to work. Finally his wife, sister Han came to the meeting and found him, said to him: “Your company has come to our house to looking for you several times, you never go to work or come home for 3 days and 3 nights, what happened to you?” Then brother Tian Jin asked his wife to stay in the meeting, the wife was also permeated with the Holy Spirit. In the evening, she said to her husband: “Wanlin, you go home tonight, I will stay in the meeting overnight.”
At the same time, brother Yang Maitun, Zhou Xiaogai and Cao Chengxin, preached the same messages in the house churches shepherded by Brother Liu Gong and Brother Zhang Xianqiang.
Before they came to Da Qing city, the local house churches were separated from each other and hardly had any fellowship. Brother Tian Jin and Yang Maitun got them connected together. Based on the different gifts given by God, and the principals from the Bible, different people were signed with different responsibilities in the local churches. Therefore, Brother Pan Baoguo and Brother Zhang Xianqiang were in charge of the church management; Brother Zheng Wanlin was in charge of teaching, Brother Liu Gongliang was in charge of the service on Lord’s table and baptism. Zhang Zhen, Sister Luo and Sister Han were deacons. There would be coworkers meeting every month.
Totally, they preached in over 30 different house churches, all the brothers and sisters were permeated with the Holy Spirit. With the power of the Holy Spirit, they all became evangelists, they preached the Gospel to whomever they met, which brought a lot of fruits to the churches in Da Qing city.
During the China New Year of 1990, sent by the house churches in Da Qing city, Brother Zheng Wanlin together other 6 brothers and sisters went to Fang Cheng county of Henan province to get more training. Brother Tian Jin asked them to stay in the house of Sister Cui Guoqing who was very devoted in hosting the coworkers from Da Qing city. The churches in Feng Cheng county gave them many spiritual literatures. From then on, the churches from these two cities had set up very close relationship.
Before long, a great revival took place in the churches in Da Qing city, within 6 months, one meeting led by brother Zhang Xianqingg, its members increased from 40 people to 90 people. They have to rent two rooms from one company for their meeting. Later on, the company persecuted them by canceled the lease agreement. They have to divide 90 people into 5 different small groups. Very often, brothers and sisters went to pray in the forest.
The house churches in Da Qing city was regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters work corporately as one body with different parts, whenever they went to preach the Gospel, they went as a team. The churches became stronger and stronger.
On September 20, 1990, several leading brothers in Fang Cheng church were arrested by the police. They were Brother Zhang Rongliang, Yang Maitun, Ding Xiuling, Dai Baotian and Han Rongqin, etc. They either were put into jail or were put into labor camp. While brother Tian Jin, Zheng Shuqian, Qiao Zhonghua and Qiao Tianjun were serving as the leading brothers, the house church still faithfully serve the Lord by sending evangelists to other areas.
In the summer of 1991, Wang Cai, Tian Jin and Xu Dali went to preach the Gospel in Lixin county of Anhui province. Yao Huailiang, Zheng Xianqi and Brother Bai hosted them. One day, while they were having a meeting, the local policemen went to arrest them. Xu Dali escaped by helping one elderly sister, running out of the house. Tian Jin ran out to a bamboo garden, jumping into a lake and swimming away. The local policemen were in a big hurry that they chased them by over speeding the police car; eventually they hit one old man. Immediately the police car was surrounded by brothers and sisters. The policemen had to stay there for a long time to take care of the injured man, which gave brother Tian Jin enough time to run away from them. Finally, he ran about one mile away, went to a brother’s house, escaped from the local police.
One time, Tian Jin, Dai Baotian and Sister Liu Xiang went to preach the Gospel in An Kang of Shan Xi province, where they met brother Zhao Depu from Pu Cheng. Sister Xia, the wife of Brother Zhao, was one leader of the Three Self Government sanctioned church. While Tian Jin was praying before the meal in Brother Zhao’s house, Sister Xia was touched greatly. She felt clearly that Brother Tian Jin was a very faithful servant of God and invited Tian Jin to preach in one cave dwelling. In that evening, three sisters carried in one person who was a paralytic. In the name of Jesus Christ, Brother Tian Jin prayed for this paralytic, this paralytic was healed on the spot and she ran all of the meeting room. From then on, sister Xia left Three Self Government sanctioned church, starting to serve the Lord in the house churches.
One day, Tian Jin, Lei Xiaomin and Sister He Xiang went to preach the Gospel in Yanling Airplane plant in Xian city. One sister who had gallstones asked them to pray for her and she was healed. The next day in another meeting, one 19 years old mute came for the meeting. Tian Jin prayed for him and God opened his mouth immediately. With miraculous signs and wonders followed them, Tian Jian and his coworkers built many churches in Xing Town, Potou Town, Fu county and Yanan city.
On the day of China’s New Year of 1994, Tian Jin and Zhang Rongliang hosted Pastor Dennis Balcombe from Hong Kong. While they were having an overnight meeting with over 100 coworkers, they were surrounded by the police in Tong Dou village, Yang Lou town, Fang Cheng county. Covered by the night, most of the brothers and sisters were able to escape, but the police still caught Pastor Dennis Balcombe, Zhang Rongliang, Tian Jin and Zheng Xintai. The local policeman Mr. Lao Guo stared at Tian Jin said: “Oh! You look very familiar, where are you from?”
Calmly with smile, Tian Jin answered: “I am Old Tian Jin, from Silidian.” Mr. Lao Guo recognized him, laughing at him: “Oh, it’s you! You have a very fancy big house! We tried to go to your house to arrest you for many times.” Tian Jin smiled and said to him: “It is not a big fancy house; it is only a house with 5 rooms, and it only worth 400 RMB (about 53 USD).” While Tian Jin was chatting with the policemen, attracting their attention; Mr. Lee who is the chief security officer, went to search the room, asking questions to Pastor Dennis Balcombe etc. Brother Gao Guofu helped brother Zheng Shuqian and brother Weimin to climb up to the ceiling, they stabbed a hole in the roof, climbing through the hole and run away. While there was a mass, Tian Jin sneaked out and hide the movie camera in the piles of straw in the yard. Mr. Lee kicked Tian Jin, asking him: “what did you do?” Tian Jin answered: “I just washed my hands.”
When the dawn came, brother Gao Guofu went to the restroom. All of sudden, he raced out the door and ran away, the policeman shouted: “Someone ran away! Someone ran away!” but they could not catch up with him.
Tian Jin was put into the detention center of Fang Cheng county. Lao Cheng from Silidian was in the same cell room with Tian Jin. While they were listening to the short wave radio, they heard the program of The Voice of America, in which, they talked about the news that how Pastor Dennis Balcombe and Zhang Rongliang were arrested. All the people in the detention center thought Zhang Rongliang and Tian Jin were very important people because the foreign radio broadcasted the news about them, which made the remote and poor Fang Cheng county famous in the world. And it was China’s New Year, with help of some connection with local policemen, Brother Lao Cheng sent each one of them with one bowl of Jiao Zi (Chinese dumping), then they could still enjoy the celebration of Chinas’ New Year in the detention center.
Tian Jin had been hunted by the police for the past 10 years; he has a big account in the local police station.
Tian Jin focused on preaching the Gospel, the main messages that he preached were: The way of the Church is the way of the cross; Believing in the Lord is the spiritual salvation, how to get a new passport in the Kingdom of God; Wife shall obey her husband, daughter-in-law must love her mother-in-law; Christians must experience the baptism of water, spirit, blood and the word, must be permeated with the Holy Spirit, must consistently bear the fruits by preaching the Gospel.
The policemen could not find any problems about his faith. Over one month later, together with brothers and sisters from Bi Yang and Wu Yang, Zhou Jingfang and Zhao Huating went to Fang Cheng to visit Tian Jin in the detention center. They all prayed for Tian Jin, asking God to release Tian Jin. Tian Jin told other people in the cell room that: “I will be set free before I finish this row of toilet paper.” Nobody believed what he said.
All of sudden, Tian Jin was very sick. The doctors diagnosed it and said, “This is Cape Septicemia, and is very dangerous.” The police worried that Tian Jin would die in the detention center, which would brought too much troubles and shame to the police, immediately, they set Tian Jin free. Then Tian Jin went to stay in the hospital for couple days, and the Lord healed him.
Invited by church in Fang Cheng, Pastor Chen Gongliang from Tai Wan came to conduct a disciples training. He had chosen 10 young evangelists from Fang Cheng to participate the training, teaching them the vision of preaching the Gospel to the whole world. Tian Jin, together with other 7 elders also participated the training.
On May 1 of 1994, churches in Da Qing city organized one conference with 10,000 people. Pastor Ke Xineng from Taiwan preached for 10 minutes, his coworker preached for half hour. From 9:00am to 12:00pm, Tian Jin was there with Pastor Ke, while the local policemen also watched the meeting for the whole day. On that day, the traffics in Da Qing city stopped for 2 hours, the local policemen helped to smooth the traffic. Zhang Rongliang, Cao Wenhai and Ding Xiuling also came for the conference from Henan province.
It was 4 years ago when Tian Jin came to Da Qing city to pass the fire of revival. The fire now have been passed to surrounding counties, a mature team to preach the Gospel were ready to go.
On July 26 of 1994, seven deacons were elected in the mother church of Fang Cheng County; Tian Jin was elected as one of seven main responsible coworkers, whom were in charge of 13 teams of evangelism.
In the spring of 2002, one team led by Tian Jin went to Da Qing city for a conference of revival. Together with other Christian singers, Sister Yuan Zheng from Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble ( Now called China National Song and Dance Ensemble), came to give a performance by singing to worship and Praise God in Da Qing City. Brother Yuan Zhiming also came to shot the TV series called: “The Cross,” who collected many beautiful testimonies in the house churches in Da Qing city.
Whenever there are disagreements among coworkers in the churches in Da Qing city, Tian Jin would pray with them, asking them to forgive each other, love each and build up each other, encouraging them to preach the Gospel with one heart in Christ.