Anshan, China
Doctor Brings Hope to Disabled
When I was a teenager I read a book called “Joni” written by Joni Eareckson (now Joni Eareckson Tada). In 1967, at the age of seventeen, a diving accident left Joni a quadriplegic, and that book is her account of the mental, physical and spiritual struggles she went through during that time. Before the accident she had been struggling with her spiritual relationship, and she asked God to draw her closer to Him and make her a more committed Christian.
At the time I read this book, I was thinking a lot about what it meant to be a Christian and how my Christianity was reflected in my life. I identified strongly with the book; yet it was very challenging and even threatening to me. Frankly, after reading her story, I was afraid to pray for a deeper relationship with God because I realized such a prayer could bring very difficult things into my life.
Joni went on to write more books and is the founder and president of Joni and Friends, an organization “accelerating Christian outreach in the disability community that number 550 million people worldwide.” Throughout her life, Joni has given testimony to the truth of the promise given in Scripture, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.” She recognizes that it took being placed in a wheelchair to bring her to the place where God wanted her to be and where He could use her mightily.
When my husband, Wrede, told me about a Chinese physician who became a Christian through the Holy Spirit working in his life while reading “Joni,” I was eager to hear the rest of the story.
Dr. Zhang Xu is an orthopedic surgeon who, while working in Yemen on a medical mission of the government, had a diving accident and became paralyzed from the shoulders down: a quadriplegic. Dr. Xu was employed with the Chinese government and had embarked on a promising career. Like many of his fellow countrymen, he was raised an atheist. When he became disabled and could no longer work as a surgeon and care for his family the way he did before, he believed he had no value. Dr. Xu did not hold the fundamental belief that he was made in the very image of God. Without that identity, when he became disabled, he lost the very essence of who he was.
While in physical therapy, a doctor gave Dr. Xu a book and told him it was written by a quadriplegic and could give him hope. This book was called “Joni” and it was written in English. Dr. Xu was fluent in English but his mother, who had become his caretaker, spoke only Chinese. She sat by his bed and turned the pages while he read this book. Through the grace of God, Joni’s story brought Dr. Xu into a joyful relationship with Jesus Christ. He was filled with hope and discovered a new and different purpose in life. Those who were working with Dr. Xu saw such a visible and remarkable change in him that they asked Dr. Xu the reason for the change. When he told them he had read a book that changed his life, they encouraged him to translate it into Chinese. He did this and it is now published in China.
Dr. Xu also felt a new calling, a calling he was uniquely qualified for. He desired to reach out to the disabled people in his home city of Anshan with the compassion of Jesus Christ: to teach, preach and heal in His name. When Wrede first met him, Dr. Xu told his story and expressed his hope. He had been able to facilitate a wheelchair distribution but was not equipped to do any more work because of lack of funding and support. After hearing Dr. Xu’s ideas and vision, Wrede, as director of The Luke Society, made a commitment to come alongside him, and in 2005, with the support of The Luke Society, Dr. Xu founded Bethesda Rehabilitation Ministry of Anshan (BRMA), a ministry whose goal is to assist people with disabilities in Anshan both physically and spiritually.
This past February, Wrede and I traveled to Anshan, China, with our friends, Dr. Greg and Margaret Kuiper (the Partnership Ministry Team for Ben and Suzie Cayon of Philippines). We were thrilled to meet Dr. Xu and to hear his testimony and see his faith lived out in his work. While we visited with him and the staff of the ministry, we were able to get an overview of what the ministry accomplishes.
While the actual staff of BRMA is few, Dr. Xu has the integrity and leadership skills to bring many volunteers with loving hearts to work alongside him in this ministry. His personality and effectiveness have prompted other organizations to partner with him and provide additional aid for the ministry. The ministry of Joni & Friends has visited Anshan and provided wheelchairs to those in need, which gives those disabled people a level of mobility they never experienced before.
Other projects undertaken by the ministry include providing a summer camp in the mountains for the disabled and taking disabled children to the seashore where they are able to fill their senses with the sand, sea and sky. Regular home visits are made to poor families, and during these visits we saw how the expression of compassion by a believer can be a very real expression of the gospel message. When Dr. Xu and his colleagues show their love for the disabled, it leads to questions of what would motivate someone to show that love. He and his staff answer with the testimony of their faith and what Christ has done in their lives.
We saw this testimony played out when we made a home visit to a young mother and her five year-old daughter with cerebral palsy. This woman and her daughter became Christians just a few months earlier. The mother, so impressed with the love and assistance extended to her family, questioned why anyone would do this for them, and through their testimony, was led to Jesus Christ. She was so excited to share with us her knowledge and belief in her Savior.
On another home visit, we met a middle-age couple who were committed Christians. They were very poor and lived in a small two-room home. The woman had a tumor and was unable to walk. The small amount of money they owned was spent on medical care. Some years earlier, their only daughter committed suicide.
As they greeted us, they were quite emotional and tearful while expressing thanksgiving and honor that we came to visit them. They said that even though they were very poor, God had been faithful and gracious to them, and they believed God loved them and provided for them. After a few moments of this heart-given testimony we all had tears in our eyes. Then the woman gave a beautiful smile, wiped her tears away and said, “but the Lord tells us to be joyful.”
This couple then proceeded to pick up a well-used song book, slide closer together, and sing songs of praise, one after the other. The presence of God was so palpable in that little room that, even while writing this two months later, I feel overwhelmed with the emotion I felt at that time. I was filled with the conviction and assurance that Jesus Christ does indeed dwell among His people. This couple testified powerfully to the gift of the presence of Jesus Christ in their hearts.
God has also given Dr. Xu this gift. Though the world may view his accident as a tragic, senseless event; the result of which caused him to lose everything, in reality, Dr. Xu believes it was the path to his reconciliation with God, the origin of his image. Dr. Xu has discovered that that Jesus Christ truly provides him with hope, joy and contentment. He now works with the desire to fulfill God’s purposes and plans in his own life and in the lives of the disabled of Anshan. What a privilege we at The Luke Society have to partner with him in this endeavor!
Barb Vogel