Author Description

The story of Yin is a stirring one. General Arnold Brown of The Salvation Army wrote about this remarkable man. As a thirteen year old boy, the floods destroyed his home. Helping with the rebuilding was a member of the Salvation Army and this was Yin’s introduction to the Army. He eventually became a soldier and an officer. When the Red Guards took power in China in the fifties, churches were greatly affected and The Salvation Army lost its formal identity. It fell on the shoulders of Major Yin to dismantle the Army and turn property deeds and possessions over to the Government. If it was not enough that everything was gone and his 34 years as a Salvation Army Officer finalized, Yin was sent to a commune where he was to labour as a servant of the state. On the commune bulletin board, Yin would see his name. This proud minister of the gospel was relegated to the piggery, to clean the pigsties and see that the animals were properly fed and watered. There were days when the heavy rains seemed endless. Swill, offscourings and excrement melted into a sickening sea of slime. How things had changed for Major Yin! General Brown recounts how this lowly servant kept his faith amidst such difficult surroundings: As weary workers swelled the procession trudging homeward in the dusk, Yin would fall behind the group and sing. It became a nightly exercize of worship, an act of devotion, a confession of his love for God. It was a simple ritual, but for Yin it was both Doxology and Benediction. As the months lengthened into years, Yin held his private “divine service” in the semi-darkness at the end of each working day. There were twilights wrapped in bitter cold and blowing snow; others when Springtime peace greened the hills with beauty and daytime lingered; still others when a fiery summer sun reddened earth and sky and magisterially posponed the darkness. There were also disagreeable dusks when the rains drenched the homeward bound workers and turned the commune into a sodden wasteland. Yin sang in English, softly enough not to annoy the others, but confident that the prayer was reaching the ear of God: All my days and all my hours, All my will and all my powers, All the passion of my soul, Not a fragment but the whole Shall be Thine, dear Lord, Shall be thine, dear Lord.