A story about me, an unbaptized Jehovahs Witness in China
I am 22, about to graduate from college, and soon I will be heading to the United States for 3 months short stay. But my journey into faith began just a few months ago, in February. I came across Jehovah’s Witnesses online and, curious and searching, I registered on their official website. At first, I imagined a community—people gathering, studying together, sharing hope like what I used to see on their website. But the reality in China was strikingly different. We have no church. No organized congregation. No formal Bible study. In a country where this faith is considered illegal, our community exists almost entirely in whispers, in fleeting moments, in hidden corners. Our “meetings” are surreal. Members meet, not in halls, not in homes large enough to hold a congregation, but in cars. We drive through quiet streets, taking turns sharing our thoughts, reading verses, discussing interpretations. The car becomes both a sanctuary and a cage—safe from the eyes of authorities but confined in space, limited in time. I am unbaptized cause of insecure, those endless fearness coming from the people surrounding you, the feds and everything, hopefully I will get baptized one day so I can devote myself into the greater thing, living free without getting a heartache everytime when someone's knocking at my door. I haven’t participated in any ceremony, and yet, I feel connected to a network of people bound by faith and secrecy. It is a lonely kind of faith—intimate yet isolated, spiritual yet cautious. Every conversation, every verse, every shared reflection carries with it a sense of risk. Living as a Jehovah’s Witness in China is like walking a narrow line. You practice devotion in silence. You find fellowship in movement. You seek guidance in a faith that exists largely in the shadows. And yet, despite the fear and the secrecy, there is something profoundly human about it—the desire to belong, to understand, to connect.
I'm scared, I'm insecure, I always got the dread haunting me at night. I hate the environment around me, I don't like this country but as so Jesus said to them: “Pay back, then, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.”. I really hope I can change things or if not, I can change myself. Wish I could stay longer in a land with religion free.
This is my story. Not of grand ceremonies or public sermons, but of whispered prayers, car-bound Bible readings, and the quiet perseverance of faith.