​Why I Choose God Over a Block of Wood

A Taiwanese woman tells of two remarkable answers to prayer.

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

As a small girl, Zhui Wen-Zhi worshipped a god called Mazhu in her hometown of Puli, Taiwan.

Wen-Zhi’s family were poor farmers who followed a Chinese religious tradition, and they bowed down to an idol of Mazhu.

When Wen-Zhi grew older, she moved to Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, to work. While there, she heard about Jesus for the first time at Seventh-day Adventist evangelistic meetings. She started going to church every Sabbath, and she became best friends with another young woman named Shan Xi Qi Zi, the Japanese wife of a Taiwanese doctor who served as president of Taiwan Adventist Hospital.

When Wen-Zhi returned home to visit her parents, she told her mother about her new religion.

“Christianity is a nice religion,” she said. “I want to become a Christian.”

Her mother didn’t like the idea. “We have a lot of gods in Taiwan,” she said. “We don’t need to worship the God of the Americans.”

Even though her mother opposed Christianity, Wen-Zhi studied the Bible regularly with Shan Xi Qi Zi, her best friend from church. Then she read in Isaiah 44 about how people make idols. She read, “The carpenter cut down trees and makes a god, his idol. He bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, ‘Save me; you are my god.’ No one stops to think, ‘Shall I bow down to a block of wood?’ But this is what the Lord says, ‘Is there any God besides Me? No, there is no other Rock’” (verses 8, 13-14, 17; NIV).

Remembering an Idol

Wen-Zhi remembered her family’s idol and wondered whether it also was just a block of wood. She was determined to find out, so she went to the place where idols are made.

“I saw that they made Mazhu with wood just like it was described in the Bible,” she said. “So, I concluded that the Bible is right.”

Wen-Zhi resolved to worship Jesus.

At that time, she was engaged to be married, and she told her future husband, “I’m going to be a Christian.”

“You can be a Christian,” he replied. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

But one rainy day after they were married, her husband climbed up onto the roof of their house to repair a hole. He asked his wife to pass up some tiles, but she refused.

“No, today is Sabbath,” she said, “Let’s not work on the leaky roof today.”

Her husband grew angry. He came down from the roof and said, “This religion that you have is not good.” He took his wife’s Sabbath School lesson book and burned it. Fortunately, he didn’t burn her Bible.

“Why are you so angry with me?” Wen-Zhi said. “I told you before we got married that I was going to be a Christian.”

Her husband didn’t know what to say, but he began to treat Wen-Zhi rudely because he didn’t like her faith in Jesus.

Wen-Zhi was sad, but she continued to study the Bible with Shan Xi Qi Zi. During one Bible study, her friend said their church was planning a baptism ceremony the next Sabbath and asked whether she was ready to be baptized. Wen-Zhi wanted to be baptized even though her husband and her mother didn’t support her faith. She decided she could be baptized without telling her mother but she needed to speak with her husband first. She didn’t think he would hit her, but she didn’t know what he would say. So, she began to pray.

The Big Question

On Friday, the day before the baptism, Wen-Zhi announced to her husband that she would go to church on Sabbath to be baptized.

Her husband replied with only one word, “OK.”

Wen-Zhi was surprised. She wondered whether his “OK’ was a real “OK” or a fake “OK.”

Then her husband said, “Last night, I was looking at the stars in the sky and thinking, ‘Why am I being so rude to my wife?’ I felt that I should treat you better, so I promised myself that I would grant your very next request, no matter what it was.”

The next request that Wen-Zhi made was to be baptized, so he granted it.

God answered her prayer quickly. But she waited 40 years for God to answer her next big prayer — for her husband to be baptized. Wen-Zhi prayed for her husband every day, and finally he declared, “You are a Christian. Our two children are Christians. I am the only one who does not belong to God’s family. I want to be baptized.”

He was baptized at the age of 65.

“God always answers prayer,” said Wen-Zhi, who is now 87. “He is not a block of wood. There is no other God.”