I Survived the Deadly Knife Attack at School

Eastern Lightning|I Survived the Deadly Knife Attack at School|The Church of Almighty God

I’m Xiaoyu, 14 years old this year, and I have attended the junior middle school. Since I was five, my mom has believed in Almighty God. She often told me about God’s work and also sang hymns of God’s word for me. Though I didn’t know the meaning of them, I did know God is the God who created the heavens and earth and all things, and that He is the God who saves man. As I gradually grew older, my mom often said to me: “Now there are many crimes in society. So no matter what difficulties you encounter, pray to God. As long as we rely on and look up to God, we will see God is by our side anytime. Only God can save us!” I kept my mom’s word in mind. But when she asked me to read God’s word, I was a little reluctant to do so, because I thought it was okay to believe there is a God.

I am a resident student at the junior middle school, where all resident students are required to have the evening study session. On the evening of April 20, 2017, I was ready to do my homework as usual. But I had scarcely taken it out when the teacher on duty called me out and said: “Xiaoyu, you are in charge of the discipline in the classroom tonight. If there is anything wrong, come to the office and call me.” (At school, I am in charge of the sanitation, discipline, and patrol.) In the classroom, all students were all quietly doing their homework. But somehow, my heart couldn’t quiet down that evening, and I even couldn’t solve the simplest problem of my homework. So I went to ask my teacher but he wasn’t at his office. I didn’t return back to the classroom but stayed in the office doing my homework. At about 20:35 p.m., the teacher came back and said that he would go to the classroom to have a look and then return home. He asked me to lock the door of the office when I left. Not long after the teacher left, I heard the classroom was noisy, but another few minutes later (around 20:45 p.m.), the classroom suddenly became quiet. I thought: How come it is so quiet? Can it be that the students all left after they saw the teacher had left? I felt it was strange, so I went out to have a look. (The classroom is over twenty meters away from the office.) When I was within seven or eight meters of the classroom, I saw the front and back door were both blocked up. At first sight, I thought it was that the students of our grade were playing there. As I walked forward, I saw that a person was lying in the corridor, where there was blood on the ground. A man stood at the front door with a knife shining in his hand; the classroom was dead quiet. I immediately realized someone was wounded by the knife. I felt very scared and considered where I could hide. At that time, I thought of the switch-room, the restricted room for staff only, so I wanted to rush there to hide. (My feet have congenital joint dislocations. If I run fast, I will sprain my feet. So, in ordinary times, I don’t have gym class.)

When I went down the stairs, I saw a gangster who took a thirty-centimeter-long knife was chasing after me. Seeing that, my heart rose into my throat: Oh, my Gosh! This guy might want to kill me off. I’m so young and I don’t want to die. So I didn’t care whether my ankles would be broken; my one thought was to run for my life. In anxiety, I remembered what my mom often told me: “No matter what difficulties you encounter outside, pray to God. Only God can save us!” As I was running down the first stair, I hurriedly cried in my heart: “Almighty God, save me!” The gangster brandished his knife behind me. When my foot touched the second stair, I suddenly slipped down to the landing from the slippery stairs which were washed with a wet mop. At that moment, a knife whizzed past overhead. But wonderfully enough, the staircase was slippery as if being sprayed with oil so that I sat on the stairs and slipped downward, like playing on the slide, to the first floor from the second floor safely. In panic, I glanced back, seeing that the gangster was still chasing after me, so I hurried toward the switch-room. After entering the room, I instantly locked the door inside. At the moment, the gangster also arrived. He kicked the door with his feet, but he couldn’t kick it open; then he chopped at the wooden door with the knife. I was so scared that I quickly hid under the computer-table. I was even afraid to breathe, fearing that the gangster would break in. I prayed in my heart: “God! The man was chopping at the door outside. Please save me.”

Then, I looked up and saw three alarms on the wall. So I came up and sounded them all. Next, the alarm started blaring throughout the school. With the alarms sounding, there was no movement outside the door. I thought: The gangster may be gone. But just as I was going to open the door, I saw a shadow of a person through the crack in the door, so I didn’t dare to open the door to go out. Through the window, I saw several teachers were coming. I had thought they came to rescue me. Unexpectedly, they turned to the parking area and drove away. After they left, a security guard came over. The gangster gave him a cut and then ran away. After a while, several teachers arrived at the door of the switch-room and asked whether anyone was inside. Not until that moment did I come out. Seeing the cutting marks left on the door, I thought of the scene that I slipped down from the second floor to the first floor, as if in a dream. But I was very clear in my heart: It was God who saved me, or, I would have been caught by the gangster. That was God’s doing. God is so almighty and wonderful. Usually, the security guards looked majestic, but when an emergency happened, they fled faster than a rabbit. Besides, even though the alarm in the school sounded for a long time, none of the police cars arrived at the spot. Before the fact, I saw man is too insignificant; no one can save anyone else; and only God can save man. Between life and death, only God is man’s reliance; relying on man is useless.

Later, I went to the second floor together with several teachers, seeing: In the corridor, several students were lying in the pool of blood. In the classroom, it was in a mess. The computer was smashed; the desks and stools were turned upside down. A boy student was lying on the platform; there was blood on his body and on the platform. Some students who were chopped wound painfully huddled themselves up on the ground; some hugged their legs; some covered their breasts. … The classroom was full of wailing. A few minutes later, the policemen came, but they only took some photos of the crime scene and took some blood as sample, and then they left. The nurses and teachers took the wounded students to the ambulances and sent them to hospital for treatment. On that evening, there were more than 120 students having the evening study session. The wounded were sent to hospital and the remaining sixty-odd students were seemingly scared silly. After the policemen and nurses all left, the form master warned the students: “Nobody is allowed to speak out what happened tonight. If you spill the beans, you must take the responsibility of the consequences in the end.” After hearing the word, all students all left except me.

The chief of the dean’s office let me stay and do cleaning, saying that the classroom must be prepared for tomorrow’s class. So, I took the mop to do cleaning alone. For the sake of faith and strength given by God, I didn’t feel scared in my heart. At the moment, there were seven or eight teachers of other grades at the scene; the one near to me shrank back because of fear; one teacher said: “Why is this child not afraid? My heart is almost in my mouth, while she is still so calm.” Another one said: “This child is really different from others.” I thanked God from my heart when hearing these words.

On the evening of April 21, 2017, I came back home and told my mom what I had experienced. I said: Mom, if it hadn’t been for God protecting me, I might be unable to see you. After hearing my experience, my mom was so touched and said: “Thank God for His care and protection. God is so almighty!” Then, my mom and I read God’s word together: “Whenever Satan corrupts man or engages in unbridled harm, God does not stand idly by, neither does He brush aside or turn a blind eye to those He has chosen.” “Basically every individual has encountered many dangerous situations and undergone many temptations. This is because Satan is right there beside you, its eyes fixed on you constantly. It likes it when disaster strikes you, when calamities befall you, when nothing goes right for you, and likes it when you are caught in Satan’s net. As for God, He is protecting you constantly, keeping you from one misfortune after another and from one disaster after another. This is why I say that everything man has—peace and joy, blessings and personal safety—is in fact all under God’s control, and He guides and decides the life and fate of every individual” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”). My mom said: “From God’s words, we can see: Satan wants to devour us anytime, while God saves and protects us from Satan’s affliction all the time. Last night, you weren’t injured by the gangster, this is all God’s protection. So long as we come before God and worship God, God will watch over and protect us by our side. I asked you to read more of God’s word in daily life, but you didn’t take it seriously. This time, if it hadn’t been for God’s mercy, I’m afraid you wouldn’t come back today.” I replied: “God loves me so much. I thought believing in God was just a belief, but I never thought God is lively and practical, and is exactly by our side. Through this experience, I really see God is too almighty and that He protects me in secret. From now on, I will seriously read God’s word.”

In my personal experience this time, I truly tasted that only God can save man. God is my only reliance. I am grateful to God for His protection—saving me at the life-and-death moment. All the glory be to Almighty God!