After a simple rebirth

They said we could eat, but even after we got our bowls and chopsticks, we still had to wait together.

Aunt Fu clasped her hands together in front of her chest, closed her eyes, and whispered, "Dear Heavenly Father, I bless your holy name. You are my Abba Father... Amen."

Everyone knew that Aunt Fu was a Christian and would pray before meals, so no one would disturb her while she was praying.

In fact, the earliest and most devout believer in the Fu family was Grandma Fu. When Fu Ying heard the familiar soft and dense prayer voice, she remembered that when she was a child, Grandma Fu also had to pray before meals.

In addition to praying before meals, Grandma Fu also pays attention to important Christian festivals. Before Fu Ying went to elementary school, Grandma Fu would go to the Holy Communion meeting every Sunday, which is often called worship. Therefore, the family would not call it Sunday, but would follow Grandma Fu's example and call it Sunday.

Worship is one of the main worship rituals of Christians, mainly to commemorate the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The process of worship usually includes reading scriptures, praying, singing hymns, etc. These activities are also an important way for church members to communicate with each other and strengthen their faith.

On Sunday mornings, little Fu Ying would walk with Grandma Fu from home, even further than the Xinhua Bookstore, to a residential building that looked like an ordinary building from the outside. There was no special Catholic church here, so people only gathered at the homes of believers. When they walked in, there were several elderly people about the same age as Grandma Fu, all women, no men, only one young wife, and Aunt Fu was there too.

The reason why Aunt Fu and Grandma Fu, a pair of mother and daughter, meet each other every week is because of church services.

After everyone gathered, an old lady hosted the event. She took out a mat and everyone knelt on it facing the TV. There was a cross above the TV. Then she played a tape of Jesus being crucified and Jesus' resurrection.

After watching the video, everyone put their foreheads to the ground, closed their eyes quietly and began to pray. Fu Ying also closed her eyes and carefully felt their piety. I forgot the content of the prayer, but it was generally praising Jesus, praying for God to bless the family, and finally thanking God, and it must end with Amen. When she heard Amen, Fu Ying knew she could open her eyes.

After the prayer, the mats were put away, and they sat around the fire, took out the red "Original Bible Dictionary", turned to the page the host grandmother mentioned, and began to recite the sentences on it. Grandma Fu could not read, and many old ladies could not read either. When Fu Yu was there, it was Fu Yu who read to them. When Fu Ying was there, Fu Ying had not gone to school and could not read, so the host grandmother recited the previous content, and they followed along.

After the reading, we started singing hymns. There were only a few songs, and everyone knew how to sing, praising the beauty of God.

The ceremony ended here. Those who had nothing to do could stay and watch the video of Jesus, while those who had something to do could go home and do their own things.

Fu Ying remembered the worship process like this: Grandma Fu's health was not very good before she passed away, and she did not attend worship services very often.

After Grandma Fu passed away, there were no more Christians in Fu Ying's family, and no Christian-related things.

A person's life may be very miserable but he may be powerless to change it, so he will place his hope on a belief that resonates with him.

Fu Yu once said that when she was young, she didn't believe in Christianity even though she saw Grandma Fu believe in Christianity. But as she grew older and faced the uncertainty of reality, she began to believe in Christianity a little, especially when certain words touched her heart and she began to understand them with her heart.

Fu Ying thinks that Fu Yu did not become a Christian because Christianity is good. Rather, when facing mental stress and physical pain, he would suddenly remember the words of Christianity he had come across many times, and wanted to seek more recognition and spiritual sustenance through faith.

Just like what everyone talks about more about mental illness, everyone has psychological problems, and different people have different ways of relieving them, and Fu Yu just happened to feel that this method was suitable for her at that time.

Fu Ying feels that believers and faith mean that when people are suffering and confused, they want to find an inner path and a little strength to persevere.

For example, Fu Yu's life is not very poor, but Wang Changjie works away from home all year round and does not care about the family. He only gives her living expenses every month and acts as a hands-off boss. Fu Yu manages the family, takes care of the children, and often has to help her unreliable family judge lawsuits. Under multiple pressures, Fu Yu needs the power of faith to support her life.

For example, Aunt Fu, whose husband died early, left behind two sons and two daughters to raise, and to take care of her children and grandchildren. She has a strong temper and keeps things to herself. The ethereal words and spirit of Jesus are a more suitable sustenance for her.

Faith is not necessarily wrong or shameful. Fu Ying also told Fu Yu that faith is good. You can find the strength to persevere in life, find ways to relieve the depression in your heart, and use the words of doctrine to support the power of life to move forward. How can it not be a good thing?

As long as you don't hurt your family or others, don't spend money recklessly, don't buy health products blindly, and just want to believe in something, what's wrong with that? Moreover, even if the old ladies in the countryside believe in Christianity, they don't put all their hopes in God. They still work hard, face reality, and live every day.

What Chinese people are best at is combining the strengths of various schools of thought. No matter what religion it is, they can always find something that suits them, but they will not blindly follow it to the end.

Existence is reasonable, and within the reasonableness, tolerance and understanding are more important. Fu Ying also sometimes comforts herself, doing her best and leaving the rest to fate, how can this not be considered a belief!

Aunt Fu has always been a devout believer, but apart from praying before meals, she has no other special behavior.

After dinner, before Fu Ying asked for help in cleaning up, her eldest cousin's wife had already finished cleaning up quickly.

Because Fu Ying and the others came early, it was only noon now. The eldest cousin's wife was afraid that Fu Ying and Fu Zhe would be bored, so she asked Xiaoye to take them out to play.

Xiaoye asked Fu Ying if she wanted to go into the mountains to play, where she could pick wild chestnuts and carambolas. Fu Ying's mind automatically changed, carambolas are wild kiwis.

Fu Ying seemed to have never eaten wild chestnuts. The Fu family rarely bought them. Maybe they had bought them, but Fu Ying had no impression of whether they tasted like ordinary chestnuts.

She ate the wild kiwi fruit that Fu Ma brought back from the reservoir some time ago. It was very sweet when ripe. Of course she wanted to eat such a nutritious fruit.

However, Fu Ying, standing in the field, looked at the mountains opposite and remained silent.

The people in Fu Dagu's village live scattered, with more than a dozen families living on the mountainside near the top. Fu Dagu's family lives in this area. Her family is on the far left, and there are a few families further to the right. More people live at the foot of the mountain on the far left, where the village center and primary school are also. Children have to go down and climb the mountain every day to go to school.

But when Xiaoye mentioned going into the mountains, Fu Ying remembered asking about it before. The destination of the mountains was behind the opposite mountain, and one had to climb a distance before reaching the deep mountains.

To get to Aunt Fu’s house on the other side, you either have to go down the mountain and then climb up, or go around a big circle along the horizontal line from the mountainside to the other side and then climb up again.