A 53-year-old male believer Dou Guizheng and a 43-year-old female believer Dong Piao are a couple living in a 55-square-meter public rental housing suite in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Both being disabled, Dou rides a trike motorcycle designed for the disabled in order to carry passengers, while Dong knits cross-stitch products at home to earn some income. Each one rides a mobility scooter to attend church services on Sundays. The couple have a good relationship with their son (the child of Dou and his ex-wife). Their first granddaughter is three years old, and the daughter-in-law is about to give birth to her second child.
Speaking of wishes, Dou said that he would take care of Dong as long as he could breathe. He also instructed his son to look after her if he passed away first.
They have two quotes about marriage and faith respectively: marriage is to" hold hands for a lifetime" and faith is to "live to testify for God".
In 1969, Dou was born in a rural area in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. He ran into an accident at a construction site in Xinjiang when he was 20 years old, which only caused mild inconvenience in terms of his mobility rather than a great negative impact on his life. In 1998, Dou had a serious illness, the cause of which was related to the accident ten years ago. Consequently, he had to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His wife left him with their four or five-year-old son without saying goodbye at the time. Starting from 2001, Dou embarked on a difficult journey to find his son with his crippled legs. Fortunately, the child was found before the SARS outbreak in 2003. Along the way, he was homeless and miserable sleeping in farmer’s markets and sometimes on the street. When the police came in the middle of the night and tried to stop him from sleeping in these places, he would just find a similar place nearby to sleep without being noticed by the police. "I was like a dirty and messy beggar with purulent wounds in which sometimes there were maggots."
Even with so much suffering, Dou was more willing to talk about the kind-hearted people he met.
The first unforgettable person is Rev. Li Nancheng, senior pastor of Nanjing Mochou Lu Church. "A male Christian rode a tricycle and took me to attend the Sunday service at the carport of Mochou Road Church. I was very dirty, covered with a quilt, sitting in the tricycle which was parked near a trash bin. Rev. Li approached greeting me with care and help," he shared. The pastor's behavior was outside of Dou’s expectations, bringing a huge influence on him, for which Dou opened his heart to God.
Rev. Liu, whom Dou met while passing through Jining, Shandong Province, preached the gospel to him, providing help as well. Once again, he felt the warmth and care from the Lord, completely turning to God.
Dou finished the divorce procedure, gaining the custody of the son in 2004. After finding his son, Dou once thought of giving him away to a good family for adoption. Rev. Zhang in Beijing tried hard to persuade and help him, which saved him from making a lifelong regrettable decision.
After returning to their hometown to live, Dou attended church services with his son. When Rev. Liu from Shandong heard the good news, he bought Dou a motorcycle trike for disabled riders. Since then, Dou has been making money by carrying passengers to support himself and his son to go to school.
People who have been in wheelchairs for a long time are prone to growing cysts. In 2006, Dou had a severe fever and could feel nothing in the body. He prayed to God asking for His help. Next, he touched the pustule with his hand and tore it open with fingernails. As a result, the dirty pus came out, and the fever was gone very soon. Dou shared, "I operated on myself and got cured. Wouldn’t you believe it was a miracle?"
After the fever was gone, Dou was simply bandaged and went out to work again without proper treatment for the wound. The illness affected him repeatedly for a few years. In May 2011, Dou suffered from severe bedsores, for which he was unable to move but could only lie on his stomach in bed. This time the situation was so serious that it was beyond the capabilities of the hospitals in the county and the small city, so he was directly transferred to the hospital in Nanjing.
Dou tried his best and put together a total of 30,000 yuan RMB (about 4,722 USD) for treatment. After being admitted to the hospital in Nanjing, Dou was afraid that he could not be cured, but end up with a loss of both his money and his life. A patient in the same ward told him that the person who stayed in his bed had just been discharged from the hospital a few days ago, who restored to health from a condition much worse than his. He was able to ask her to reassure him if he had any doubts. Thus, Dou got Dong's phone number from the hospital administration and made the first phone call between them. With Dong’s encouragement, he gained confidence in the operation. He was hospitalized for more than 70 days. After being discharged, he called Dong to update her with his status and thanked her for her encouragement. Unexpectedly, they became acquainted with each other, and the more they chatted, the closer they became.
Dong, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian, is 10 years younger than Dou. In 2008, she was paralyzed due to a car accident, completely losing consciousness below the chest. Subsequently, she was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Accompanied by her Christian mother, she attended church activities. Once, her Christian aunt advised her, “Your parents would grow old and leave you one day. Therefore, you should pray God for a husband who can take care of you for the rest of your life.” Listening to her aunt, Dong began to pray for her marriage every night before going to bed. "After praying for over a year, God really gave me a husband." She revealed.
After Dong had surgeries for her car accident in 2008, she suffered from paraplegia, for which she couldn't turn over her body during sleep. But, this motor dysfunction could lead to bedsores that would be difficult to treat. For that reason, she came to Nanjing for treatment in June 2011 and was discharged after 40 days. Dong often said, "Thanks for being afflicted with bedsores, which was healed in Nanjing Ruixin Hospital, God then gave me a husband."
Dou was thankful that Dong gave him a home with warmth. "My mother-in-law and my sisters-in-law are all very kind to me." Dou said.
Dong’s affliction with bedsores for not turning over will never happen again after marrying Dou. Helping his wife flip the body every 2 hours has become Dou’s muscle memory, for which his biological clock has been set to wake up every two hours in the evening. Day after day, year after year, even his son admires Dou, saying: “My dad, a disabled person takes care of my mom as a paraplegic person. He has achieved what even a normal person may not be able to do." Dou is responsible for all the family affairs including keeping the house clean and tidy.
As for Dong, knowing that her son had a girlfriend in college with whom he wanted to marry, she paid the down payment for her son’s house in the county with the remaining compensation received after the car accident, after she had deducted the cost of treatment.
Dong had 9 surgeries for the traumas caused by that accident. She prayed and trusted in God before each surgery, and all procedures were indeed successful.
In 2015, the couple moved from the Fuzhou suburbs to downtown. After settling down, they signed a corpse and organ donation form, willing to donate corneas and corpses after death. Because of this donation, a reporter learned about their story and helped them get on the CCTV program "Going to Happiness".
Rev. Chen, who met them in Fuzhou, bought them each an electric wheelchair, which greatly facilitated their travels. The local government assisted them in applying for public rental housing, which they moved into within four years.
Rev. Li in Nanjing has been in contact with them over the years. Li pays attention to their needs in a timely manner. He greets and cares for them every Christmas, New Year's Day, and Spring Festival. Rev. Liu in Shandong, visited them in their home last month. Rev. Zhang in Beijing has transferred them money to pay for living expenses and children's tuition from time to time for more than ten years. As for a female believer surnamed Dai, she helped with the son and daughter-in-law's finding jobs. The couple would tell Rev. Chen when they leave Fuzhou so that he wouldn’t be worried about them.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
今年53岁的窦贵争弟兄和43岁的董飘姐妹住在福州一间55平米的公租房里，他们都是残疾人。平日窦弟兄开残疾人三轮摩托载客补贴家用，董飘则在家织十字绣产品。周日一人开着一辆电动轮椅去教会参加礼拜。两人和儿子（窦弟兄和前妻的孩子。）关系融洽，有一个三岁的孙女，儿媳妇马上要生二胎。
说起生活的愿望，窦弟兄说活着一天就照顾董飘姐妹一天。他嘱咐儿子，如果他先走了，一定要照顾好妈妈。
他们有两句话，一句关于婚姻，一句关于信仰。婚姻是“要么不牵手，牵手就是一辈子”。信仰是“活着就是为主做见证”。
1969年，窦弟兄出生于江苏徐州一个农村。20岁那年在新疆工地发生的事故，这次意外造成了行动上的不便，但没有对他的生活造成很大影响。1998年窦弟兄生了一场大病，病因和十年前的事故有关。大病之后，他接下来的人生都要在轮椅上度过。妻子带着当时四五岁大的儿子不辞而别。2001年开始，窦贵争拖着残废的双腿，踏上了寻找儿子的艰难旅程。在2003年非典爆发之前找到了孩子。一路上颠沛流离，睡过菜市场，睡过街道，半夜警察来赶，说不要睡在这里，他挪一个地方，接着睡。“身上有伤，化脓，就像乞丐，非常脏。这都没法说，有时候伤里面都有蛆。”
虽然受了很多苦，他更愿意说遇到的好心人。
第一个不能忘的人南京的李牧师。“有一个弟兄骑着脚蹬三轮车带着我在莫愁路堂的车棚处参加主日礼拜，我就坐在三轮车里面，还盖着被子，身上也很脏，距离垃圾桶很近，李牧师走过来对我嘘寒问暖，给予关怀和帮助”。李牧师的行为给了窦弟兄很大的冲击，实在想不到牧师会过来看他，给予关怀和帮助。因此，窦弟兄对信仰打开了心。
经过山东济宁的时候遇到的刘牧师，传道的时候遇到窦弟兄，给他传福音，也在生活上给予帮助。又一次他感受到了主内的温暖和关怀，彻底进入了信仰。
到完成离婚手续拿到儿子的抚养权已经是2004年。找到儿子之后，窦弟兄一度萌生了把儿子送给一户好人家的想法，北京的张牧师苦苦相劝，也给予帮助，避免了窦弟兄做出遗憾终生的决定。
之后父子俩回到家乡生活，窦弟兄带着儿子，主动走进了家乡的教堂。山东的刘牧师听到好消息出钱帮他买了一辆残疾摩托三轮，自此，窦贵争载客为生，供养孩子上学。
长期坐在轮椅上的人很容易长包，2006年有一阵窦弟兄发烧很严重，身上都失去了知觉。心里想着，主啊，你要帮助我啊。自己用手摸到了长起来的脓包，用指甲撕开，里面的脏东西流出来，烧就退了。“我自己给自己动手术，你说这不是神迹吗？”
退烧之后，伤口没有妥善处理，简单包扎窦弟兄又出门干活了。几年之内反反复复，到2011年5月，窦弟兄患了严重的褥疮，只能在床上趴着无法行动。这次情况很严重，县里市里的医院都看不了，直接转到了南京的医院。
为了看病，多方拼凑才凑出3万块，到了南京的医院，窦弟兄害怕治不好最后人财两空。同一个病房的病友说之前住你这个床的人刚出院几天，情况比你严重多了，也治好了，不信你可以问问她。就这样，窦弟兄问院方要了董姐妹的电话，打了他们之间的第一通电话，得到了董姐妹的鼓励，有了做手术的信心。在医院七十多天才出院。出院之后给董姐妹打了电话报平安，感谢她的鼓励。哪知一来二去熟络起来，越聊心越近。
董姐妹比窦弟兄小10岁，来自福建福州。2008年因车祸瘫痪，胸部以下完全失去了知觉，终生只能坐在轮椅上。她的妈妈是基督徒，也跟妈妈一起去教会。舅妈也是基督徒，有一次舅妈对她说，你的爸妈会老，会走的，你要祷告，求神给你一个丈夫，能照顾你下半辈子。听了舅妈的话，董姐妹开始每晚睡觉前为自己的婚姻祷告。“祷告了一年多，神真的赐给我一个丈夫。”
2008年董姐妹车祸手术之后，由于身体高位截瘫，睡觉时自己无法翻身，但不翻身容易患很难治疗的褥疮。因此在2011年6月来到南京治疗，40天之后出院。因为这个，董姐妹常说：“幸亏患了褥疮，借着南京瑞鑫医院这个平台，神赐给我一个丈夫。”
窦弟兄感谢董姐妹给了他一个家，让他感受到家的温暖。“岳母，妻姐，妻妹都对我很好。”窦弟兄说。
因为不翻身患上褥疮的情况在遇到窦弟兄之后再也不会出现。2个小时给妻子翻一次身已经成了窦弟兄的肌肉记忆，生物钟变成睡觉每隔两个小时就醒一次。日复一日，年复一年。甚至儿子都敬佩父亲。“一个身体有残疾的人，又照顾一个高位瘫痪的人，我妈妈，一个正常人估计都做不到，他一个残疾人做到了。”窦弟兄包了家里大小事务，家里收拾的干净整洁。
董姐妹呢，知道儿子大学谈了女朋友，结婚要买房子。车祸发生之后拿到的赔偿，除了治疗的费用，剩下还在手头的，全都拿出来给儿子付了首付在县城买了房子。
董姐妹前前后后做了9次手术，每个做手术前都祷告交托给神，手术也确实都很成功。
2015年，两人从福州农村移动到福州市区，安顿下来之后签署了遗体及器官捐献志愿书，愿意在死后捐献眼角膜和遗体。也因为这次捐献，记者了解到他们的故事，帮助他们走上了央视《向幸福出发》节目。
在福州结识的陈牧师帮助他们每人买了一辆电动轮椅，大大便利了他们的出行。政府帮助他们申请公租房，四年就申请下来住了进去。
南京认识的李牧师，这些年来常常联系，及时关注他们的需要，每年圣诞、元旦、春节都会问候关心他们。山东认识的刘牧师，上个月才去家里探望过他们。北京的张牧师，十多年来不时给他们寄生活费，孩子上学的学费。戴姐妹呢，儿子儿媳的工作是蒙她照顾。陈牧师，俩夫妻离开福州都要和牧师请假，免得牧师挂心。
一对轮椅夫妻的生命见证：人生是一场爱的接力
A 53-year-old male believer Dou Guizheng and a 43-year-old female believer Dong Piao are a couple living in a 55-square-meter public rental housing suite in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Both being disabled, Dou rides a trike motorcycle designed for the disabled in order to carry passengers, while Dong knits cross-stitch products at home to earn some income. Each one rides a mobility scooter to attend church services on Sundays. The couple have a good relationship with their son (the child of Dou and his ex-wife). Their first granddaughter is three years old, and the daughter-in-law is about to give birth to her second child.
Speaking of wishes, Dou said that he would take care of Dong as long as he could breathe. He also instructed his son to look after her if he passed away first.
They have two quotes about marriage and faith respectively: marriage is to" hold hands for a lifetime" and faith is to "live to testify for God".
In 1969, Dou was born in a rural area in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. He ran into an accident at a construction site in Xinjiang when he was 20 years old, which only caused mild inconvenience in terms of his mobility rather than a great negative impact on his life. In 1998, Dou had a serious illness, the cause of which was related to the accident ten years ago. Consequently, he had to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His wife left him with their four or five-year-old son without saying goodbye at the time. Starting from 2001, Dou embarked on a difficult journey to find his son with his crippled legs. Fortunately, the child was found before the SARS outbreak in 2003. Along the way, he was homeless and miserable sleeping in farmer’s markets and sometimes on the street. When the police came in the middle of the night and tried to stop him from sleeping in these places, he would just find a similar place nearby to sleep without being noticed by the police. "I was like a dirty and messy beggar with purulent wounds in which sometimes there were maggots."
Even with so much suffering, Dou was more willing to talk about the kind-hearted people he met.
The first unforgettable person is Rev. Li Nancheng, senior pastor of Nanjing Mochou Lu Church. "A male Christian rode a tricycle and took me to attend the Sunday service at the carport of Mochou Road Church. I was very dirty, covered with a quilt, sitting in the tricycle which was parked near a trash bin. Rev. Li approached greeting me with care and help," he shared. The pastor's behavior was outside of Dou’s expectations, bringing a huge influence on him, for which Dou opened his heart to God.
Rev. Liu, whom Dou met while passing through Jining, Shandong Province, preached the gospel to him, providing help as well. Once again, he felt the warmth and care from the Lord, completely turning to God.
Dou finished the divorce procedure, gaining the custody of the son in 2004. After finding his son, Dou once thought of giving him away to a good family for adoption. Rev. Zhang in Beijing tried hard to persuade and help him, which saved him from making a lifelong regrettable decision.
After returning to their hometown to live, Dou attended church services with his son. When Rev. Liu from Shandong heard the good news, he bought Dou a motorcycle trike for disabled riders. Since then, Dou has been making money by carrying passengers to support himself and his son to go to school.
People who have been in wheelchairs for a long time are prone to growing cysts. In 2006, Dou had a severe fever and could feel nothing in the body. He prayed to God asking for His help. Next, he touched the pustule with his hand and tore it open with fingernails. As a result, the dirty pus came out, and the fever was gone very soon. Dou shared, "I operated on myself and got cured. Wouldn’t you believe it was a miracle?"
After the fever was gone, Dou was simply bandaged and went out to work again without proper treatment for the wound. The illness affected him repeatedly for a few years. In May 2011, Dou suffered from severe bedsores, for which he was unable to move but could only lie on his stomach in bed. This time the situation was so serious that it was beyond the capabilities of the hospitals in the county and the small city, so he was directly transferred to the hospital in Nanjing.
Dou tried his best and put together a total of 30,000 yuan RMB (about 4,722 USD) for treatment. After being admitted to the hospital in Nanjing, Dou was afraid that he could not be cured, but end up with a loss of both his money and his life. A patient in the same ward told him that the person who stayed in his bed had just been discharged from the hospital a few days ago, who restored to health from a condition much worse than his. He was able to ask her to reassure him if he had any doubts. Thus, Dou got Dong's phone number from the hospital administration and made the first phone call between them. With Dong’s encouragement, he gained confidence in the operation. He was hospitalized for more than 70 days. After being discharged, he called Dong to update her with his status and thanked her for her encouragement. Unexpectedly, they became acquainted with each other, and the more they chatted, the closer they became.
Dong, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian, is 10 years younger than Dou. In 2008, she was paralyzed due to a car accident, completely losing consciousness below the chest. Subsequently, she was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Accompanied by her Christian mother, she attended church activities. Once, her Christian aunt advised her, “Your parents would grow old and leave you one day. Therefore, you should pray God for a husband who can take care of you for the rest of your life.” Listening to her aunt, Dong began to pray for her marriage every night before going to bed. "After praying for over a year, God really gave me a husband." She revealed.
After Dong had surgeries for her car accident in 2008, she suffered from paraplegia, for which she couldn't turn over her body during sleep. But, this motor dysfunction could lead to bedsores that would be difficult to treat. For that reason, she came to Nanjing for treatment in June 2011 and was discharged after 40 days. Dong often said, "Thanks for being afflicted with bedsores, which was healed in Nanjing Ruixin Hospital, God then gave me a husband."
Dou was thankful that Dong gave him a home with warmth. "My mother-in-law and my sisters-in-law are all very kind to me." Dou said.
Dong’s affliction with bedsores for not turning over will never happen again after marrying Dou. Helping his wife flip the body every 2 hours has become Dou’s muscle memory, for which his biological clock has been set to wake up every two hours in the evening. Day after day, year after year, even his son admires Dou, saying: “My dad, a disabled person takes care of my mom as a paraplegic person. He has achieved what even a normal person may not be able to do." Dou is responsible for all the family affairs including keeping the house clean and tidy.
As for Dong, knowing that her son had a girlfriend in college with whom he wanted to marry, she paid the down payment for her son’s house in the county with the remaining compensation received after the car accident, after she had deducted the cost of treatment.
Dong had 9 surgeries for the traumas caused by that accident. She prayed and trusted in God before each surgery, and all procedures were indeed successful.
In 2015, the couple moved from the Fuzhou suburbs to downtown. After settling down, they signed a corpse and organ donation form, willing to donate corneas and corpses after death. Because of this donation, a reporter learned about their story and helped them get on the CCTV program "Going to Happiness".
Rev. Chen, who met them in Fuzhou, bought them each an electric wheelchair, which greatly facilitated their travels. The local government assisted them in applying for public rental housing, which they moved into within four years.
Rev. Li in Nanjing has been in contact with them over the years. Li pays attention to their needs in a timely manner. He greets and cares for them every Christmas, New Year's Day, and Spring Festival. Rev. Liu in Shandong, visited them in their home last month. Rev. Zhang in Beijing has transferred them money to pay for living expenses and children's tuition from time to time for more than ten years. As for a female believer surnamed Dai, she helped with the son and daughter-in-law's finding jobs. The couple would tell Rev. Chen when they leave Fuzhou so that he wouldn’t be worried about them.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
Testimony of Wheelchair Couple: Life Is a Relay of Love
