In 1897, my grandfather - a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland - arrived in Faku, a town in rural Liaoning province . He had come to establish a congregation, and he stayed for 45 years.
In the compound where he lived, he built a church dedicated to the Christian martyrs of the 1900 rebellion by the Boxers, who killed 332 believers in northeastern China, one-sixth of the national total. Under the rule of warlords, Nationalists, Japanese and communists, the church continued to be used for worship. But in 1966 the Red Guards ransacked and closed it.
When I came here for the first time in 1987, the church was deserted except for a straw mat and the words - 'In agriculture, learn from Dazhai' [a famous Maoist slogan about a model communist production team] - scrawled on the outside wall. The faithful met in a small room in a compound of one-storey buildings that was headquarters to the town's small Protestant community.
Last month, I had the good fortune to visit the town again and found the church on the way to restoration. After nearly 40 years, the municipal government has finally handed it back to the local congregation, which has put in a new concrete floor and windows and painted the interior walls white. The pastor is Zhang Hongxiang, a short woman of 32 with radiant eyes, who has been holding services in a hall nearby, built in 1992.
'We have applied to the government for the right to reuse the church but have not received a permit,' she said. 'Perhaps the [church and the new hall] are too close to each other. We would like to use both. The new one is too small.'
Ms Zhang has 500 to 600 members, out of 5,000 to 6,000 believers in the county of Faku, which has a population of 450,000. 'The old church was well built and did not need major restoration work except for the floor. The repairs cost 50,000 yuan, which came from our members.'
