God’s Love is Great – Ma Wei’s Story

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Mawei reading the Braille Bible. Photo:UBS/ Dag Smemo
Mawei reading the Braille Bible. Photo:UBS/ Dag Smemo

The first Mandarin Braille Bible published in China after the Cultural Revolution, was produced in 1996 by Amity Printing Company (APC) in Nanjing. Ma Wei, a visually impaired staff at APC, was there in 1995 helping to typeset and proofread the Braille Bible. His conversion story was featured in February 2003 UBS World Report where he shared, “God guided me to the place where Scriptures for the blind are printed so that I could encounter His Word. This has opened my heart to receive Christ Jesus as my Savior and to become a child of God.” In the last 6 years, God has blessed him beyond his imagination while working at APC. He is currently assisting in the production of the very Braille Bible he has helped put together.

In his own words (below), Ma Wei now shares with us God’s continual blessings in his life:

“I am visually challenged since I was a child. I have lived in darkness all my life. However, God has been very gracious to me, I did not go through much hardship, but it was definitely hard on my parents. As a child, my family grieved over me because of my visual handicap. As an adult, they were extremely concerned about these two aspects of my future — job and marriage.

I am very clear of my own predicament: I am visually impaired; I cannot see. I definitely need help in my daily living. I was not drawing a high pay. I did not own a house and I come from a humble background. Who would want to be my life partner?

Great is Your Love O Lord
Yet the God I serve gives me unimaginable blessings. In 2004, I met a girl 9 years my junior. She has signed up for an internship program at APC. Unlike me, she is not visually impaired. We fell in love despite our age and physical differences. All my relatives and friends were very concerned. Needless to say, my parents were against our relationship to the extent that I became confused and unsure of what to do. In the end, I reckoned that this was our relationship and the choice was ours to make. After all we were the ones who knew best. We decided against all odds to persevere on in this relationship. After being together for a longer period of time, contrary to others’ unfavorable prediction, our hearts knitted closer together. We are also not naïve about our future but more aware of the challenges we have to face in life. We have learnt to cherish all that we have.

Finally in 2006, with blessings from our parents, relatives and friends, we walked down the aisle together! One year later, God’s favor was on me again and He sent me another bundle of blessing — a son.

This new addition brought my parents, my wife and me unspeakable joy. Whenever I am told that our son bears a great resemblance to me, I would respond with a smile and hope that our child develops healthily in a safe and secure environment.

We continue to live simply day by day. We are not sure what our future holds for us; only God knows. However, we know that we are to cherish all that we have and not to worry over the things that we cannot see, touch or guess!”

Ma Wei believes that God has given him a job with APC so that he can encounter God through His Word and embrace the faith (see UBS World Report February 2003). His journey of faith has since grown stronger as he reads the Bible even as he helps out in the production of the Braille Bible. Reading about his story, we want to thank God for Ma Wei’s faith and pause for a moment to pray for him and his family.

Written by Pamela Choo & Yeo Tan Tan
Chinese Testimony by Ma Wei and translated by Ng Hwee Hong
for United Bible Societies, China Partnership