Nora Lam

China Cry: the Nora Lam Story by Nora lam (2004) I liked the book a lot. There are happy moments but it’s mostly sad. I think it’s a very amazing book. It’s a true story!
China Cry is about a Chinese family that goes through a lot of problems. It starts off with the Japanese taking over. The main character (Nora lam) and her family are kicked out of her home. They go and depend on their grandmother (on the fathers side) she takes them in but the grandmother is very mean. Nora Lam becomes Christians as this is happening. They leave to Hong Kong it’s a very hard journey. They live in Hong Kong till the Japanese leave. They go back to their home, and a new governor is being elected. They elected Governor Moa. He is very mean and hates Christians. He had a lot of soldiers line Nora Lam on a wall and they shot at her and all 6 soldiers missed! She then moves to a labor camp and works there. She has three kids, but the third is born in Hong Kong and she is free. She also gets her mom out of Hong Kong but her father died. Nora Lam moves to the states and preaches for allot of churches. She goes back to china to save other people’s lives. I recommend this book to anyone it’s really an increasable book.… (more)

What was it like to grow up in China during the Japanese occupation the early years of the PRC? China Cry answers this question. It was not an easy time. Sung Neng Yee was a spoiled child, but her family is forced to flee Shanghai and she grows up learning to be helpful.

After the war is won and the communists have taken over she is at first happy and believes it will be a good change. Soon, however her family learns the difficulties of having been wealthy. She becomes a law teacher for the state and her husband becomes a judge, but the his history of wealth also catches up with them and soon they are looking for cause to interrogate Neng Yee. She had attended Christian schools and she found that although her logical mind told her to say "No," she could not do it. When asked if she were a Christian, she said "Yes!" It was a difficult time and place to be Christian, made worse by the fact that she had not declared her Christianity at the start of the PRC because at the time she had thought it a passing phase of her childhood.

A difficult life gets even more difficult, but God, who had sent an angel to help her as a child, was there for her. Through the difficulties she learns to trust completely in Him. Several times when to anyone else, and occasionally to Neng Yee herself, it seems that God has abandoned her, but those times were just preludes to some breathtaking miracles.

Eventually Neng Yee comes to the United States adopting the name of Nora Lam (Lam is her husband's family name). Up to this point the book was very engrossing, but it becomes somewhat disappointing. From an intensely personal autobiography, we are distanced form Nora. It's as if with the name change the point of the book is no longer biography, but evangelism. I have nothing against evangelism as long as it isn't pushed on unwilling listeners, but changing from the intimate details of life to the grand sweep of her evangelical work is a let down. We got to know Lam Neng Yee, but we don't really get to know Nora Lam. Instead we learn about Nora Lam Ministries.

I was also disappointed to learn that Nora Lam Ministries has a very poor rating at Charity Navigator. I would not recommend sending them a donation until they improve financial efficiency, although I think the cause is essentially good. However, the book is still good reading for the first three fourths and valuable as record of the history of China during WW II and a few years following, and of the power and faithfulness of God.… (more)