An old soldier returns home with his son- as told by Kevin Stellick

Last January Roy Pan was baptized and continues to be a faithful follower of ehe Lord Jesus.  I'd like to share a bit about Roy and his family, a family he never knew existed until 3 years ago when his father first told him.  For
more than 40 years Roy's Dad concealed the fact that he had been married and had two children while in Mainland China.  He grew up there, married, had kids, joined the military and then was forced to flee mainland China when the Communists took over.  That was 1948.

Roy just returned from Mainland China where he had gone with his father to visit relatives.  What an interesting and sad trip he had.  His Dad grew up in China and married there and had 2 girls.  When the communists took over China, Roy's Dad 'withdrew' along with Chaing Kai Shek and a million other people, to Taiwan.  After a dozen years in Taiwan it looked as though they would never had a chance to return to China. Because of this feeling that he would never again return, he like 1000's of others, remarried in Taiwan and began a new life.

His Dad remarried in Taiwan and had 4 more children, Roy is one of these. Ten years ago Roy's Dad was able to return to China for the first time since 1948.  He was able to find his wife and his now grown and married daughters & grandchildren (whome he saw for the first time).  His daughters are 56 and 58 years old. Needless to say, his daughters children are grown and married and have children of their own.  Because Roy's Dad had been in the military under Chaing Kai Shek his family in China was all blacklisted by the communists and given no educational opportunities and no assistance of any kind from the govt'. 

Two weeks ago Roy and his Dad went to China and found out that the Mainland Chinese wife had died 7 years ago already and no one told Roy's Dad for they new he would be greatly saddened.  His younger brother had died 9 years ago. This was a hard trip for Roy's Dad.  He went with great hopes of a reunion with his brother and his first love and both had already died.  Praise God for the hope that we Christians share in knowing that we will see one another again around the throne of the Lord Jesus!  Pray for those that do not know of the hope that we share in Christ.   

During their two weeks in China they were finally able to find Roy's Grandparents gravesites.  The site was not cared for and was in fact on someone else's land.  Because of this they exhumed the 4 graves (his grandfather had 3 wives), bought new coffins and placed the bones into the new coffins and reburied them on family land.  This brought a bit of joy to Roy's father knowing now that he could care for their remains in a respectful fashion. 

The stories Roy told of poverty and 'thirdworld' condition are unbelievable. There is a bathhouse where you pay to take a shower.  But this bathhouse is in the center of a town of 300,000 farmers.  Because of the inconvenience to go and bathe, few do.  There is no indoor plumbing.  They did have one water faucet outside of the house.  Bathrooms consist of a hole in the ground surrounded by a 4 foot fence with no roof.  There is no toilet paper or sink. They live a few hours west of Beijing so the climate is not unlike southern Wisconsin.  Heat for the house comes from a wood stove in the middle of the room.  They make about $400 US dollars a year.  Their main crop is corn and they give a portion to the Mainland Government as rental payment for the land they farm.  They then sell the rest that they do not need for themsleves so that they can buy everything else they need for the coming year.

Roy talked to his sisters about Jesus and faith and learned that his sisters seem to be atheistic.  He shared a bit about Jesus as he was able.  His sisters are illiterate because the communists blacklisted their family and so it would be no use to give them a Bible or materials to learn more.  They need someone to talk to them about the Savior.  Roy said that he learned of ununderground Christian churches in the country town where his sisters live.
Pray for Roy's family in China that they may have opportunity to meet other Christians who can be the light to show them the way to Jesus.

This trip changed Roy's way of thinking.  Our visit tonight with Roy opened our eyes to many things: the material and spiritual poverty in China's rural areas; the lack of real firsthand knowledge of these conditions outside of China; the glut of wealth, greed, materialism and spiritual apathy among so many of us from the Western world.  I pray that the Lord would use us in some way to serve His people in China.  We pray that we can be a part of building a church in Taiwan so that Chinese brothers and sisters can reach the millions (1.6 billion) of people just 90 miles on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

Kevin Stellick