It was about seven years into the physical and psychological abuse I have suffered at the hands of covert agencies (gang stalking and through-the-wall microwave and acoustic based torture). I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time.  One Sunday, I attended a meeting that provided a wellspring of encouragement, deepening my determination to bear up under injustice without wavering. I was at the Sunday meeting of the local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, when it was announced that it was being cut short to allow for a special interview. My ears lit up when it was announced who would be our special guest speaker. She was an 83-year-old Chinese woman, perhaps no more than 5 feet tall, whose life story I knew very well. Her name was Nancy Yuen. Why was she so significant? She had endured more than 20 years in Communist Chinese prisons and work camps because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. The Chinese authorities tried every tactic imaginable to break her faith . . . and failed. In fact, many of the tactics employed by covert agents on me were pioneered by the Communist Chinese as they perfected brainwashing techniques in their prisons. Now, I was to hear her speak and meet her. What a treat!

When you suffer a covert, long-term injustice that few can understand or find hard to believe, it imposes a form of psychological isolation. You cannot share your experiences with everyone. And when you do, you can sense either the fear they have or the disbelief. However, Nancy Yuen had endured for twenty years a plight far worse than what I am undergoing. Her life story and example of unbreakable integrity is well known and admired by most Jehovah’s Witnesses. After being released by Chinese authorities, she had settled in San Francisco with her family.

As she sat at the podium, I took a good look at her. She was a petite woman, surprisingly youthful and spry for her age. Sharply dressed, she had an easy smile that punctuated her vivid conversation. Her presence and physical bearing spoke volumes. How would you expect someone to look who had been denied access to her husband and children for twenty years, most spent in solitary confinement, while undergoing repeated interrogations? Haggard, downcast, worn out? Not Nancy Yuen! She looked 63 instead of 83 and was a ball of energy. That in itself was a powerful encouragement. It taught me that God can sustain us through the most terrible ordeals and preserve us quite well in the process.

I listened carefully as she told her story before the congregation. I was close to tears, repeatedly thanking Jehovah in silent prayer for having this opportunity. Nancy Yuen did not need to know me or my trials personally. Just her being there provided me with encouragement that could not have come at a better time. I could now see a living example of someone who shared my plight and know that her success in overcoming adversity would be mine as well.

I believe that Jehovah God himself had a hand in providing this needed form of strength and encouragement. I later discovered that she had come to Albuquerque as a scheduled guest for another congregation the preceding Saturday. Because her Sunday was free, her associate contacted our congregation, chosen at random to see if we would like her to be on the program. Why was my congregation chosen from the more than twenty in Albuquerque? I am convinced that God himself directed that decision so that I could experience needed emotional refreshment and strengthening. I felt that this meeting was a reflection of the tender care and loving attention God gives to his servants on earth. “To this one, then, I shall look, to the one afflicted and contrite in spirit and trembling at my word.” -Isaiah 66:2

To be continued . . .