I am so glad to share the story of Heavenly Church (Tian’en Church – Chinese pronou-ciation) in Shanghai.
It was established in1932 by an American and is one of the oldest churches in Shanghai Chuan Sha Area. The picture on the right is of the little house (406m2) in which the church began – now a dilapidated building.
I was not told its history from 1949 to 1987, I just know the general history for almost all the churches in China from 1949 to 1966. During that period, a lot of churches were closed. The buildings were used as factories or government offices. Even today, the history from 1966 to 1976 is taboo for people to talk about in China.
Shanghai Heavenly Church was reopened in 1988. At that time, the number of brothers and sisters in this church was less than 100, but in 2006 the number reached over 1,000. The church needed to solve the space problem by finding a new place to meet. It rented an old industrial building, Shanghai Asian Towel Factory, which is about 1000m2 including some offices. However, the rent was about 230,000RMB per year, and the church could not afford to spend money on decoration after paying the rent.
From 2006 to 2015, the number of brothers and sisters increased very quickly, reaching over 1,600. The factory was still not big enough for the increasing number of brothers and sisters. In summer, the temperature could reach 40ºC and in winter it could drop to -3ºC. However, the people were happy to take part in services in this place, even without air-conditioning. Nevertheless, they were worried about the terms of the rent, which would end in 2016, because the new rent could be much higher than that in 2006.
Answered prayer
In Shanghai, one of the most developed cities in China, land is very scarce. People come to Shanghai to find work and enjoy better social welfare. As a dream city for Chinese people, house prices have rocketed by eight to ten times that of ten years ago. The government is happy to do some profitable projects with spare land, especially for residential construction. Using land for a non-profitable project would seem impossible, but God has made the impossible come true. He has heard the prayers of his people. At the end of 2014, the government agreed to provide a piece of land in Chuan Sha for Heavenly Church.
The construction of the new building began in 2015, and the main structure has been finished. All the funds needed were collected by brothers and sisters from Shanghai Heavenly Church and other churches. Now these churches are collecting for the decoration of the building. Please pray. God bless you. Thank you.
