Chapter Eight: A Lasting Influence—A Testimony from Pastor John
Source Note
The core testimony in this chapter comes from A Lasting Influence, written by Pastor John (John Van Valin). A Chinese translation was prepared by Professor Ai-Chun Chang.
The original English manuscript by John Van Valin has now been supplied directly for this publication project. It is therefore preserved separately in this publication batch as an Authoritative English Original, rather than being reconstructed by back-translating the Chinese version.
This chapter has a different authorship identity from the first seven chapters:
the first seven chapters are primarily the narrative of Little Wheat's father, Paul Zhang; this chapter preserves the independent testimony of another eyewitness to Little Wheat's life.
The editor may provide necessary background, chapter structure, and source identification, but Pastor John's first-person experiences must not be rewritten as the father's own memories.
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- Our Story Had Already Begun Before Little Wheat Was Born
Pastor John's story does not begin with Little Wheat's birth.
In his recollection, he and his wife had already developed relationships with Chinese people through ministry years earlier.
He remembers how the church entered the Chinese community and came to know Chinese restaurant workers, gathering late at night and early in the morning; how they ate together, built friendships, and shared the gospel; and how, on one occasion, about 140 restaurant workers and the city mayor gathered at the church from midnight until 2:30 a.m.
Over time, these relationships gradually developed into a Chinese church.
The original English witness records the first official service and the subsequent birth of the First Chinese Free Methodist Church.
So, in Pastor John's view, Little Wheat's story was not an isolated event.
It took place within a cross-cultural friendship, church life, and gospel partnership that had already continued for many years.
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- A Name Connected Two Families
While Paul and Sue were waiting for their child to be born, Pastor John was asked a very special question:
Could this child be named after him?
Pastor John later recalled that when Paul asked whether they could name the child after him, he felt both deeply honored and shocked.
The discussion eventually came down to a small detail that would later become especially meaningful:
Should the child's middle name be Ernest, or Earnest?
Pastor John explained that the English word earnest carries characteristics such as sincerity, honesty, trustworthiness, perseverance, and seriousness of purpose.
Paul chose:
Earnest.
And so the child formally received the name:
John Earnest Zhang.
This explanation was not created later as part of the memorial story. It comes from Pastor John's own recollection of the naming process, now supported by his supplied original English manuscript.
From that point on, Pastor John had a special relationship with this child.
He was not simply another child in the church.
His name itself carried the love of a spiritual family.
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- A Child Who Was Different
After little John was born, life did not unfold like the newborn story people usually expect.
His physical condition required his parents and the whole community to learn how to receive and love a life that was different from many other children.
Pastor John especially remembered the attitude Paul and Sue expressed toward their child's condition:
“This baby is God's gift to us.”
Those seven words made a deep impression on him.
As time passed, Little Wheat gradually became part of the life of the church community.
People came to know him.
They held him.
They watched him grow.
They spent time with him.
A child whom some people at first did not know how to approach gradually became a child the whole community loved together.
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- The Day That Suddenly Changed Everything
In August 2024, Little Wheat suddenly became critically ill.
Pastor John's testimony preserves another point of view.
He remembers seeing a picture of Sue holding little John at home while 911 emergency personnel were there.
He and his wife then hurried to the hospital.
After arriving at Riley Hospital for Children, they gradually realized how serious the situation was.
PICU.
Tests.
Discouraging blood work.
Blood pressure that at one point remained around 44/22.
Lengthy EEG monitoring.
Medical staff working constantly.
Brothers and sisters from church continually arriving.
People putting on isolation gowns, sanitizing their hands, entering the room, praying, and then leaving.
Again and again.
For thirteen days.
Concerning medical language heard at the time, including “Noro virus,” this book continues to follow the rule already locked in the preceding chapters:
it belongs to the medical possibilities heard or considered at the time and is not upgraded into a confirmed final cause of illness.
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- How a Community Stayed with a Child
In Pastor John's account, those thirteen days were not only the suffering of one family.
They became thirteen days carried by a community together.
People came to the hospital room.
People prayed.
People cried.
People sang.
People stayed.
Many things could not be solved.
Many questions had no answers.
But people could remain.
This is also one of the important testimonies Little Wheat's life left with us:
Presence does not mean that we can change the outcome.
Sometimes presence simply means refusing to let a suffering person bear everything alone.
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- Pastor John's Final Personal Memory
Near the end of A Lasting Influence, Pastor John records an experience that only he can tell in this way.
After the hospital staff completed their final care, family and friends were asked to leave the room again.
Later, a young woman arrived to take little John to the funeral home.
Pastor John was also preparing to leave.
But just before he walked out, she asked him:
“Would you like to stay?”
He agreed.
According to Pastor John's own recollection, she wrapped little John in a small blanket. After the wrapping was complete, Pastor John stood there holding him for several long moments.
He wrote that words could not express the surreal nature of that event, “frozen in time and space,” and that it was a memory he would carry to his grave.
He then placed the wrapped child on the young woman's shoulder.
He pulled back the curtain and opened the door.
She left the room, walked down the hall, and departed the PICU with two security guards escorting her.
As they disappeared down the hall, Sue remarked:
“that was his favorite position, on my shoulder.”
This is Pastor John's witness record.
It is not the first-person experience of Little Wheat's father, Paul Zhang.
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- The Influence Did Not End at Nineteen Months
At the end of his article, Pastor John writes that the true ending of this “Lasting Influence” will never appear in print, but only in heavenly records revealed at Christ's coming in glory.
In his understanding of faith, the ripple effects of these memories will continue through the lives of people who carry them into their walk with Jesus.
We respectfully preserve that judgment within his testimony.
Because this is also why this chapter exists:
Parents will, of course, regard their own child as precious.
But when another person, speaking from his own lived experience, can say in effect,
“This child changed me too,”
Little Wheat's story gains another independent layer of witness.
So this chapter is not a father explaining to others what Little Wheat meant.
It is the father stepping aside and allowing another person who loved this child to speak in his own voice.