The result is that we are all extremely proud of our church and take great care of it. However, owing to the explosive growth of Christianity in the area, a third church was soon being planned. A piece of land was found, and for the next two years a group of Christians, mostly elderly women, met together every day to pray for God s help in the fundraising effort. The new church, now half-finished, will be seven storeys high and will seat 3,000. Some members have even borrowed money to donate and used their own properties as collateral.
Gifts range from large sums of money to whatever a person can afford.
Some have given a bag of cement, some have brought wood or other kinds of building material, while others have adopted a window, an electric fan or the baptismal font. The Cultural Revolution helped in the rebirth of our church, says You Qian Cheng, a volunteer in charge of Lofu Church, Yongjia County. Founded in 1877, it is comparatively old, but by 1958 only 11 families were still Christians here. In 1972, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, an incident happened that had a great impact on our community, he said. One day, during morning prayers, Shan Bao Ai s family were trapped in their house in the middle of a fight between two rival groups of Red Guards.