This is how it happened: Brother Yang, a minister
from a house church in Pingdingshan City, He Nan Province,
received a call from Ai Yan Ling, a minister from a house
church in Yuzhou city, He Nan Province, on April 28th, 2001.
Ai said that Sister Li Shu Xia of the church in Yuzhou(both
Ai and Li were EL spies) had an older brother Lian, a very
godly preacher, who had just come back from Singapore and
desired to meet some house church ministers and to talk with
them. Yang agreed to go to Yuzhou to meet Mr. Lian in two
days.
Two days later, Brother Yang went to Yuzhou
City, taking a coworker Brother Jia with him. Ai and Li took
them to the house of a relative of Lian’s, where they
met Mr. Lian, his wife and his daughter Lian Lili. From the
conversation, they learned that Mr. Lian was the general secretary
of the Singapore Haggai Leadership Institute. He owned two
companies in Beijing and Guangzhou respectively. Apart from
his living expenses, he gave all the rest of his income to
Haggai Institute. His wife and his daughter both were serving
in the Institute. This Institute had been cooperating with
the TSPM (Three Self Patriotic Movement) and CCC (China Christian
Council) for a long time, training teachers and pastors for
Chinese churches. Mr. Lian said, “Our Institute has
a great burden for Chinese house churches, and we are willing
to help Chinese house churches train leaders; at the same
time, leaders from Chinese church are very welcome to study
theology at the Singapore Haggai Leadership Institute.”
Afterwards, Mr. Lian asked Brother Yang about the spiritual
condition of mainland house churches. Brother Yang said, “House
churches grow very rapidly. There is a great number of believers,
but a small number of teachers and pastors. At present the
teachers and pastors are weak in theological foundations.
They need more training.” Hearing about this fact, Mr.
Lian proposed to go back and inform their Institute about
this and see if the Institute could train house church ministers
through legal channels. Mr. Lian asked Yang to write a résumé
to cover his church office, family and church status, desire
for training, phone number, picture, and a photocopy of his
ID card. He also added that the résumé had to
be signed by Yang’s leader to be valid. Mr. Lian hoped
that Brother Yang could discuss the training program with
other house church ministers and the leaders of China Gospel
Fellowship. To make himself available, Brother Yang left his
phone number with Mr. Lian. Then he went back to Ping Ding
Shan city to meet one of the CGF top leaders, Shen, to tell
him the whole story of his conversation with the general secretary
Lian of the Haggai Institute. Shen expressed that the training
program could be considered, but he would not make any decision
until he met Mr. Lian in person.
