by Ruth
While my husband (a retired pastor) and I served together at three churches from 1987 to 2020, many students and visiting scholars from Mainland China attended the Chinese congregation of our church. A majority of them initially identified themselves as atheists. They came to church out of curiosity. The work of the Holy Spirit was beyond my comprehension. One by one, hundreds of them accepted Christ as their personal Savior. From them, I heard numerous stories about the Cultural Revolution, the most trying period in modern Chinese history. The Lord put an idea in my mind: Someone must write those incidents down. I compiled some of them into a draft and self-published the booklet, “Ninety Degrees of Separation,” about twenty years ago.
In 2020, I received another inspiration from the Lord and began to revise my draft into a full-length book. This time, instead of depicting the horror and hopelessness of people at that time, I focused on showing how Christians prevailed under intense suffering and persecution. Many scenes depicted in the book took place in real life.
Here is some information about this book:
Words: 85,000
Blurb:
Live or believe. Take your pick.
Ordinary Christians. Extraordinary circumstances. Beliefs under siege outside and conflicts within. Where do these women stand?
Leesan wants to produce heirs to carry on the Lee family name and manage their enormous estates. When she delivers identical twin girls, Ann-Ann and May-May, just before the Cultural Revolution in China, she cannot imagine how much their world is about to change. Now, with her husband dead, their land forfeited to the government, and their lives in jeopardy, Leesan, her mother-in-law, Su-Ann, and her daughters must surrender all that’s left of the past, even as they struggle to hold on to their Christian faith.
As the persecution intensifies, Red Guards murder those caught attending their home church, and the survivors are scattered in different directions. From Beijing to Inner Mongolia, from Hong Kong to California, hardship and the clash between ideologies challenge their faith, love, and loyalty.
Should they choose survival over God?
Dedication:
I dedicate this book, first and foremost, to my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, I dedicate this book to my brothers and sisters in Christ who have supported us in our ministry over the years.
Last but not least, I dedicate this book to numerous Christians in China who remain steadfast under tremendous pressure and suffering even today. As the writer of Hebrews 11 states, “They were… destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy.”
They are the heroes and heroines in this book and in real life.
