Jeanette Li: A Girl Born Facing Outside

Jeanette Li: A Girl Born Facing OutsideGod will build his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. As a girl, Jeanette Li was stubborn, sassy, and suspicious of her parents Buddhist superstitions. The only girl at her rural school, she learned to read by age six. Before his death, her father gave her a nickname: Yu Xiong, meaning, doctrine prospers. Li was converted to Christianity as a child, and her nickname took on special significance over the next half century.

God will build his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. As a girl, Jeanette Li was stubborn, sassy, and suspicious of her parent’s Buddhist superstitions. The only girl at her rural school, she learned to read by age six. Before his death, her father gave her a nickname: Yu Xiong, meaning, “doctrine prospers.” Li was converted to Christianity as a child, and her nickname took on special significance over the next half century. Through tumults of family beatings, estrangement, and foreign occupation, the doctrines of Jesus prospered through the life of this dedicated woman. In 1949, the People’s Republic of China declared the annihilation of all religion and instituted the doctrines of communism. They confiscated church properties and deported foreign missionaries. The Chinese church—and Jeanette Li—disappeared from Western eyes. Still in China, Li herself was accused of treason, imprisoned, and brainwashed. In the late 1960s near the end of her life, someone asked her if she thought the gospel of Jesus Christ in China would be obliterated by Communist indoctrination. Li answered: “The church of Christ is his body. He purchased [her] with his own blood….You ask me if the church in China will be destroyed? How could it be, in the light of all these great promises?”

Publisher: Crown & Covenant Publications
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781884527968

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Jeanette Li is unlike me. She lived in a different time, on another continent, facing separation and persecution (from family and foes alike) that I have never known. But we are alike in one thing: we both are sisters in Christ.

Her book inspired me as only the words of an older sibling can. Her antics as a child made me laugh; her logical and calm retelling of the gospel made me consider my own evangelistic efforts; and her raw persistence in the face of sickness, uncertainty, emotional abandonment, and sheer pain inspired me to live a life worthy of Christ, no matter the cost.

Jeanette Li's autobiography certainly is unlike anything I've read before; it is foreign, uncomfortable, and pushed my faith in God's work. It pushed me to want to be like her, insofar as she is like Christ. I hope it will do the same for you. Becca Byers