Escape from Prison with Angelic Assistance, AD 1997 – Bro. Yun

It was just before eight o’clock in the morning of 5 May 1997. To the natural mind, this time of day was the worst possible time to try to escape! There was normally so much activity throughout the prison, with all the guards at their posts.

I shuffled out of my cell and walked towards the locked iron gate in the hallway. My mind was solely focused on obeying God. I looked straight ahead and prayed beneath my breath with every step I took.

A guard who pushed a button when he wanted the gate to open and close sat at the top of the third-floor stairwell. It was impossible to see to the other side because the gate was made of iron and the small windows were covered with black cloth. At the exact moment I reached the gate, another servant of the Lord, Brother Musheng, was returning to his cell and the gate was opened for him. That morning he had been ordered to sweep the prison courtyard. As Musheng passed me I told him, “Wait! Don’t close the gate.” I walked through without even breaking my stride! The Lord’s timing was perfect!

As we passed, Musheng asked in a whisper, “Are you leaving, Brother Yun? Are you not afraid to die?” Then, with an astonished look on his face, he returned to his cell.

There had been a guard accompanying Musheng back to his cell, but at the exact moment he opened the gate for Musheng, a telephone rang in an office down the hallway and the guard turned and ran to answer it.

I noticed a broom leaning against the wall in the stairwell. I picked it up and continued walking with it down the stairs to the second floor. An armed guard was positioned at his desk facing the second iron gate. That gate was sometimes left open. Because an on-duty guard was assigned to watch the gate day and night, it wasn’t considered a risk to leave it unlocked. At that moment the Holy Spirit poke to me, “Go now! The God of Peter is your God!”

Somehow the Lord seemed to blind that guard. He was staring directly at me, yet his eyes didn’t acknowledge my presence at all. I expected him to say something, but he just looked through me as if I was invisible!

He didn’t say a word.

I continued past him and didn’t look back. I knew I could be shot in the back at any moment. I continued to silently ask the Lord to be ready to receive my spirit, thinking these moments were to be my last in this world.

I continued walking down the stairs, but nobody stopped me and none of the guards said a word to me!

When I arrived at the main iron gate leading out to the courtyard I discovered it was already open! This was strange, as it was usually the most secure gate of all. There were normally two guards stationed at the first-floor gate, one on the inside and one on the outside, but for some reason neither of the guards was present and the gate was open!

I discarded the broom I had carried with me from the third floor and walked out into the courtyard. The bright morning light made me wince. I walked past several guards in the yard but nobody said a word to me. I then strolled through the main gate of the prison, which for some strange reason was also standing ajar!

My heart was pounding! I was now standing on the street out side the Zhengzhou Number One Maximum Security Prison! I was told later nobody had ever escaped from that prison before.

Immediately a small yellow taxi-van pulled up next to me, and the driver – a man in his late 20s – opened the passenger door. He asked, “Where are you heading?”

I got in and replied, “I need to go to my office as quickly as possible, so please drive fast.” I gave the driver the address of a Christian family I knew in Zhengzhou and we drove away from the prison. I told him that if we came to a traffic jam to drive around it, and not to stop for any reason.

All of the events seemed to happen in just a few moments. It was like a daydream. I was unsure if the whole thing had really happened or if I was dreaming. I don’t know how the Lord did it or why all those iron gates, usually so tightly locked, were standing open for me. All I knew was I was sitting in a taxi and we were heading to the home of my friends.

When we arrived I asked the driver to wait while I went to borrow some money to pay the fare.

….

After we prayed together, I was given a bicycle and one of the family members rode on the back, directing me to my hiding place, traveling down small alleyways to avoide the roadblocks being set up on the main streets because of my escape.

The moment I started to pedal the bicycle was the first time I realized the Lord had healed my feet and legs! My mind had been so focused on obeying the Lord and preparing to be shot that I never even noticed that God had healed me. I never felt any healing power. From the time my legs were smashed with a baton until the day I escaped, my legs had remained completely black and unusable. I couldn’t even stand up, let alone walk. The most I could do was crawl a short distance by grabbing hold of the wall

Brother Musheng told me later that when he passed me on the third floor I was walking normally, so it seems the Lord must have healed my legs while I was still in the prison cell. As I rode along on the bicycle I was reminded of God’s Word, “ Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” Hebrews 12:13.

As soon as we arrived at the hiding place the heavens opened. Torrential rain blanketed the whole of Zhengzhou City and a howling wind rattled windows and blew bicycles over. I was a huge storm. Although it was still morning time, the sky turned black.

I entered the hiding place and was left alone. This dear family treated me like an angel from heaven. They placed a family member outside my door day and night to guard me.

Later, Christian friends told me they had seen a report on the television news on the evening of my escape. The Security Police, the Public Security Bureau and soldiers from the People’s liberation Army had been mobilized to find me. They searched every house in Zhengzhou from door to door. They set up roadblocks at all the major intersections and searched every vehicle. Officers were dispatched to every bus station, train station and to the airport.

I was told trained police sniffer-dogs were used in a bid to pick up my scent, but their efforts were all in vain. I was safe in the secret hiding place of the Lord. The storm had hampered the authorities and washed away all traces of me.

God reminded me how thirteen years earlier, during my 74-day fast in prison, he had given me a powerful vision of a series of iron gates opening, one after another.

Now, all these years later, his promise had come true. I marveled at God’s goodness and faithfulness to me. To this day I consider my escape from prison the most amazing experience of my life.

That night I slept like a content newborn baby in the arms of my Lord.

Excerpt from "The Heavenly Man," (The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun) by Paul Hattaway, OMF Literature Inc., Philippines, 2003. pp.255-260.

Great Wall of China image from http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Recent photo of Bro. Yun from www.churchinperth.com Info on his present ministry BTJ – Back to Jerusalem – is also found there.