Build yourself a cell
Wang Ming-Dao spent decades in prison in China. Yet, even in solitary confinement, he found ways to preach the gospel. More, his story shows that persecution – or seasons of hardship and difficulty – are a simplifying force. They push distraction away and force us to be totally dependent on God.
In 1955, Wang Ming-Dao was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison. He lived during the Cultural Revolution in China; back when China was the equivalent to what NK is today – the front runner in the failing race to destroy God’s church.
One day Wang Ming-Dao was told that he could go free if he signed a confession to say he was not a Christian and would stop speaking about God. He signed the confession; and walked away free. And then only a few steps away from the gate, he stopped.
He realised he’d made a terrible mistake, he walked back to the prison authorities and told them to rip up the confession and take him back in.
He spent the next few years in solitary confinement.
"When I was put in jail, I was devastated. I was an evangelist," he said.
But Wang Ming-Dao soon realised he could actually preach down the pit toilet in the corner of his cell, as all the sewage pipes were linked and sound carried through them.
His prison cell became his pulpit, the sewage pipes became his megaphone... and over seven years 96 prisoners came to faith!
He said: "I had no Bible, no pulpit, no audience, no pen and paper. I could do nothing. Nothing except get to know God. And for 20 years, that was the greatest relationship I have ever known.”
“When I was in the cell the only thing I was focused on was getting to know Jesus, it was only me and Him in that cell. You need to build yourself a cell where it’s only you and Jesus.”
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