Name: Zilong Li
Age: 24
Residence: California
Level of Injury: Paraplegic
Occupation: Student
Date of Interview: January 24, 2025

1) Could you introduce yourself, tell use your name, your age, and where you're from?

My name is Zilong, and my last name is LI, it is a Chinese last name. I’m an international student and I came to the US in 2021, for college. I attended the Masters University pursuing the music degree. I graduated just last month, and I am now 24 right now, I’m turning 25, I was born in 2000.

2) Can you tell me about your story, before and after the injury?

So, I didn’t grow up in a Christian family. Before I was 10, I didn’t hear about gospel. When I was 10, I was walking on the way to school and then a car just hit me and that was the accident and also that’s why I’m on the wheelchair. It was that accident that caused the paraplegic, and then in the hospital, I heard the gospel. A nurse shared the gospel to my mom and I, and we became the first Christians in the family. Yah, it was a tragedy, but the Lord just turned it into a blessing. When I was 12, I moved to a Christian school and then it was there that I learned the attributes of God and doctrines of man, doctrines of sin. It was there my spiritual life really grew a lot. Also, it was there I learned English, and it was there that I found my interest in music, and after I graduated my pastor, my Chinese pastor, recommended me to come to TMU (The Master's University, Santa Cruz CA). Because of the solid teaching here (in the US), the Biblical teaching. My pastor always said that there’s only one reason we go to another country to study, which is that is that there are faithful Christian’s teaching truth, and willing to put their beliefs into education. So that’s why I applied, and I came here. Yah God led me through the visa and the finance, and everything. Yah it was a great challenge, and my family couldn’t believe that because they just thought that’s a crazy idea. Because I’m on the wheelchair and how was I going to live in another country just by myself. They couldn’t believe it, but yah faith is not based on what we see, and if that is what the Lord is calling, then just step forward and go ahead. Yah so I came here and every day in my life there are numerous challenges. Like the stairway, just one of few stairways could hinder my steps, but thankfully, there are so many Godly friends here and they are willing to help when I’m in need. So, in the school, like on campus, the faculty, they try all they could to help me to live in there (on campus) comfortably and they try to help me solve the problems I have on campus. And, thankfully I graduated and lot of thanks, that I couldn’t name all of them because there would be too much.

3) Can you share with us how you met God, and how the gospel was introduced to you?

I was in the hospital, and I didn’t know what had happened to me. I didn’t remember the accident. I just remembered I was on my way to school then just suddenly, blank. As I woke up again, I was in the hospital and I still remember the sky outside was dark, and in my brain, I felt like so noisy, so many noises in my brain. I felt, I could feel like oh, it’s so noisy, something must have happened, but I didn’t remember what happened. I felt like it that was a dream or something. Just like a noisy dream, because I was on a bed when I woke up, and thought wait I was on the way to school, and why am I on a bed right now. But I felt so tired then I kept sleeping. The next time I woke up I realized I was in the hospital and my parents told me what happened. I was just 10, I didn’t know like what the accident meant to me. I’m in the hospital and don’t have to go to school now! That was literally how I felt. But later on, I realized that I became unable to move. Not even able to sit straight. There were like pains on my body, on my elbow, on my upper body just not on my lower body, because I lost the feeling of my lower body. So, in the hospital I became very impatient and angry, and I scream a lot because I wanted to go to the outside. Yah because I could run very fast before the injury, and I really enjoyed doing sports with my friends. But, after the injury I just couldn’t I was just lying on the bed, and so I became very impatient. I screamed a lot, in the hospital and the whole room could hear me. Even the rooms next to me could hear that. Then the nurses in the hospital tied me on the bed with the rope because they wanted to prevent me from hurting myself. So, they tied me on the bed and I became even more angry. Then one day a nurse came in, and she was unlike all the other nurses. She was willing to listen to me, she was gentle, and she asked me like what happened and like how are you feeling. I just told her I felt uncomfortable, and I told her all the feelings I had at the time. Then she listened and she asked my permission for me to pray for me and read Psalms 23 to me. She said that “Man is always limited, doctors are also limited, there’s limited things that doctors can do. But there’s unlimited things that God can do. So, if God’s willing He can just heal you in a moment. He could touch your spinal cord and make it perfect again.” She read Psalm 23 to me, and of course I didn’t know like, who the Shepherd was, or what the rod mean, or what the oil mean, because I never heard the gospel before. That was the first time I heard someone talking like that. In my understanding, the oil was used to cook. I said wait, you put the cooking oil on your head, that’s unbelievable. But, she explained to me, she said that the oil stands for blessing, and yah it was a cultural thing that they did that , and its a good oil that they put on your wounds and it would help healing. So, I listened to her, and she prayed for me. At first, I didn’t understand but later on she kept coming to my room every day just reading the Bible to me and then praying for me. Then as I got better, she started to invite me to the church. Then when I was 11, I moved from the hospital to a small village, and it was a quiet village. I lost all my friends and every day I stayed in the small room, and I couldn’t talk to anyone because it was a very quiet village with few people. I felt so lonely and that was hard. Especially because when the night falls, I couldn’t fall asleep, I thought of my previous life, like I could run very fast and do sports with my friends, play with them, but now I just couldn’t. It was a very tough time. Then I cried before God and asked God for healing because I wanted to become well again. I prayed for healing, cried a lot, but God did not heal me. I thought that was because of my sin, that God didn’t want to heal me. So, I confessed my sin before Him. But I was… at that time my understanding about sin wasn’t that deep. I was just probably just confessing the wrong actions I did in the past. After a long period of time like that, I felt that my heart was changed one day, and I just felt like peaceful and joyful. Everyday nothing physically changed, but I gained the confidence to continue, to continue to live every day. Then when I was 12, I moved to the Christian school, and it was there I learned more about God, and I met Godly friends. We had devotions every morning, and I found my interest in music and started to play piano and guitar when I was 13 and 14. Then I continued to play. I thought that was Gods calling for me, to use music to honor him, because I went to a national competition and then I got first place playing the classical guitar and second place in the vocal solo, and those things. Yah, I want to share this not because I want to say I am so good in music, but because God, through the platform, the national student convention, to help me to figure out what He wants me to do. So, like after I play people came to me and said, “wow, you are very encouraging” and stuff like that. Then I just start, I found this is a very good start for the gospel topic, and to edify the believers, and to encourage them, and also gospel topics for the unbelievers. So, after that I learned more about music and after I graduated the high school, I came here (USA) and became a music major at TMU. I was a vocal major because playing classical guitar, I’m sitting on the wheelchair, there’s still kind of limitations and yah that’s not so convenient. So, I just became a vocal major.

4) What gives you hope and motivates you to be the best person you can be?

It is because of God’s grace. I have learned a lesson from my fellowship at church. Yah the brother said one sentence I still remember, and I will remember for the rest of my life, it is that joy comes from the unchanging attributes of God. So, there are numerous things that can make us happy, right? But being happy is different from joy. So, whenever I feel sad or frustrated or accidents happen that can make me very frustrated. I will be focusing on the attributes of God, because I know God is with me and that is the source of my joys. Also, I always think about my salvation. Yah because there will be an eternal place that we will be going to. So, yah everything on earth is just temporary, and we just need to try our best to take care of ourselves on earth. Then we can try our best to honor God with whatever we do. The unchanging attributes of God, that’s the source of joys and that gives me a lot of encouragement, every time, every time I have difficulties in my life. When you focus on God, then nothing can take away your joy and the joy comes back. When you think of the current situation, and look at your difficulties, you’ll just be very frustrated and depressed.

5) What is a story or testimony of Gods Faithfulness to you?

I can share one thing in my life is that I had a recital in December, at the Masters University, the school of music, and that is a requirement for my graduation. So, yah I couldn’t think of it when I was a freshman because the recital is basically like signing in front of your audience, there can be hundreds of people. Yah so I was scared to think of this, when I was a freshman, but as I continued to study, I became more confident. Actually, it happened last year, is that I lost my voice 2 months before the recital. It was very very bad because a vocalist losing the voice is like a soldier losing his gun. You can do nothing; yah can do nothing. So that made me really really frustrated, like almost depressed, and I even thought of like, “God is my voice coming back, can it come back, is it possible? If you take away my voice, what do you want me to do?” I even thought of these questions cause for more than a month, I couldn’t see how my voice was getting better. I couldn’t see that at all. I even thought that would be a permanent vocal cord injury or something because that happens to a lot of vocalists. Like vocal nausea, yah I thought of that. Then I thought, no, this not going to happen to me. “God, you called me here to study, and I’ve studied so hard for you, and now you’re taking away my voice. I don’t believe that.” So, yah I was very very frustrated but thankfully I have some very Godly friends, like college friends. Then we pray together, we read Bible verse together, and that made me feel much better. As we did that we were focusing on God, on the goodness of God. Yah my friend also talked to me and said, “Even if God takes away your voice, it's ok, you still honor him. You still love Him; you still honor Him and He will open another way for you to honor Him as well.” Yah so, at that time I jumped back and forth from being frustrated to joyous. In the end thankfully, my voice came back and I did the recital with not a normal voice, healed but kinda affected, but I finished it. So, this is one event that I experienced in the past, that you need to always focus on God. Because whenever you see your current situation you’re gonna be frustrated. Just give all you can to be responsible for what you’re doing and then give tomorrow to God because God holds the future, and He directs you.

6) What is your favorite Bible verse that keeps directing you back to God?

I always like the book of Romans, because the book of Romans tells us that our salvation is not earned, but it is just God’s grace. So, Romans 5:1-4 “Since we have been justified by faith, yah this faith come from the grace of God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So here it says we rejoice.” Then the verse three, verse three and four, “Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance; endurance produces character; and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame.” These are my favorite verses, because first of all it tells us that we are justified by faith, not just by our own works, but by the grace of God. Then it’s the road of sanctification, if we just continue being rejoice and even through suffering, and then suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, is for our good. I think all of wheelchair people, they will have challenges in their lives and that’s going to be tough. If they don’t focus on God, if they just try through amends or for their work, try to be happy, that's gonna be temporal and yah that’s going to be very challenging. But we as Christians have a connection with God and we just keep asking God for strength and those Bible verses will keep encouraging us. We know everything we do on earth is temporal, and there for our good.

7) What encouragement would you give to a SCI survivor?

Stay close to God, and if he is a believer, I would say pray a lot and stay close to God. Numerous things can frustrate us in our lives, and we must stick to God, very very closely, build a very close relationship with Him and then gain strength from him. For unbelievers, I would say continue the treatments that the doctors give you and if possible, find a pastor to pray for you. Get to know who Jesus is, how good He is, because once you taste His goodness, its gonna change your life.

8) What is something you wished people without SCI’s could understand?

Cherish the things you have right now. Yah even though like we have been through, the injury and part of our body functions are affected, but still, we still have the normal functioning body parts. Yah gives thanks to whatever you have, try your best to… if you can move your hands, try your best to use your hands to help you. And if you can use your voice, try your best to use your voice, develop your voice. Look for the things that you have, don’t look at the things you don’t. And if you are a normal healthy person, give thanks to God for being normal. Because we get used to enjoy God’s grace on us. Like we can move our hands, we can move our fingers, we get used to those things. Like a normal person can use his legs to walk to everywhere, and they just get used to it. Don’t forget this also God’s grace and if you find its hard to give thanks, ok. Sit on the chair, sit on the chair, don’t use your legs. Don’t use your legs for 10 minutes for 15 minutes and try how hard that feels. Yah like try to get water, just sitting on the chair and don’t use your legs, use your hands only and see how hard it can be. So always give thanks to God, for whatever you have and don’t get used to enjoying God’s grace to you.

9) Can you tell me how you got connected with the Bonus Years organization?

Well actually before the last year (2024), the idea of driving came to my mind because I live in the US and it’s an essential skill that you have to master. I didn’t have any experience, driving experience in China or even the knowledge of the roads or of rules of traffic. I didn’t know all of them. The idea just came into my mind. Then last year, 2024, the summer, I had a lot of time because school was off and then I was searching on the internet looking for information about how wheelchair people drive. Then I saw so many videos, like they have the modified cars, and it’s like a permanent modification, it cost a lot of money and stuff like that. And I said “wow that’s hard, this is going to be hard”. Then one day, as I was going to Walmart with my friend, we just saw an old man, driving on the wheelchair. Really driving because he modified the wheelchair and turned it into a 3-wheeled wheelchair, and he was driving, and I thought wow that’s amazing! Then we stopped and we said hi and he told me it’s not that hard for wheelchair people to drive. Then he told me that there are two types of modifications I can do. One is the permanent modification, which costs a couple thousand, and the other one is like a temporary modification. All you need to know is to find a stick, you can just buy on amazon, like the hand control that you can put on the gas and brake pedals. Yah and you’ll be able to use your right hand to do that and I said “wow that’s great”! Then after that I also asked my friend Aubreeanna Church because her brother had an accident as well. So, I asked her about his situation and then I asked more details about how he drives because his injury is more serious than mine. Also, Aubree connected me to Mr. Wes Price. She told me that Wes has like a non-profit organization, and he would have some great ideas about how wheelchair people drive and how wheelchair people live. So, she sent me Mr. Wes’s number and then I got connected with him. Then after that I started to learn driving in the summer from my school friends, and also Wes invited me to zoom meetings on Friday. He told me he had an idea of connecting all those wheelchair people, like to meet once a week online. Just share how our lives are doing and also willing to share how to help wheelchair people to live a better way. So, yah that’s how we got connected. We share testimonies, we encourage each other, and yah we share our life stories, and Wes was surprised that I was a music major at TMU. Then he came to the idea that “could you please sing a song to us” and then I had my guitar with me, I played a song, and they loved it, we all loved it. We just praise God for His grace on me. Since then, we’ve started to meet every week and sharing what we learned this week, from the Bible or what is God teaching us, and or challenges in our week.

10) Is connecting with this group important in your life, and with others, and if so why?

That’s a great question because wheelchair people are the minorities. You go to the street; you don’t see that many wheelchair people. Especially in California, its kind of mountainous and you have stairways everywhere, you don’t see many wheelchair people. So yah, it’s very very important to have this community, because we know there are other people experiencing the same thing as we are experiencing. So we don’t feel separated from the world, and also, we can learn from each other. Like how to live better sharing experiences with each other. Like I had the diarrhea last year, and it was chaos. Then I asked Wes and asked the other wheelchair friends and I asked them what do you do when you have the diarrhea. They said it was the same, like chaos. So, you have to be very careful about what you eat and take care of your health, extra carefully. Yah that’s what we share. Also, in winter its extremely cold, our bodies just feel freezed. Especially like wheelchair people we don’t use our feet. Like we don’t walk or do sports, and so it's easier for us to get cold. So, I shared with Mr. Wes and David as well, David is also a wheelchair friend, that we meet on zoom. I shared with them that we can have the knee protection, we can wear the knee protection under our pants, because the knee protection is supposed to protect the knees, like for athletes, but, we can also wear them to keep us warm. Also, there are some knee protections that are designed to keep us warm. So, I also shared this with them, and I was surprised that Mr. Wes Price didn’t know that. So, we share those tips with each other, like how to live better in the world. Yah I’m sorry I missed one point and that is the most important point is that we share what we learned in the past. Also, we encourage each other. Like we give thanks to God like how God has been gracious to us. That is a very very crucial point in this meeting, because without… if it is without God or without talking about God, or without a Biblical topics, this meeting would be less meaningful. This is the very very important part of this meeting. So, gospel topics, or Bible topics, and then tips, and then encouragement, and friendship as well.

11) What is your current situation and what are your plans for the future?

I had a Bachelor of Art in music degree, and my emphasis study in vocal studies, so I was involved in the group singing, like singing ensembles, and opera, and solos, and just different kinds of singing. During my time here I’ve also joined Santa Cruz Baptist church and I’ve been serving in the choir for 3 years now. Right now, I graduated from TMU and its also God’s grace that I’m now in seminary. It’s the master’s seminary. It’s a heavy workload, but I’m very happy here, because every time I sit in class and read the books, they teach me new things. The books teach me new ideas, and professors teach me new ideas. I really love this. Yah this is just a little sharing. We can give thanks to God about this. I have already known that God’s calling for me is to use music to glorify Him. Also, I have a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree, so I will use music to serve Him for sure, every day, every day. Yah that’s what I have been doing as well, and I hope to continue to use the gifts God gave me to serve at church, whatever church I go to. I hope to serve in the music ministry, and also because I’m in the seminary, there’s more responsibilities for me now. I want to study hard and then I want to involve in different ministries, whatever ministries I can be involved in, I would love to. I’m willing to give my life to God, He has been so good to me. I need to respond to His love by giving Him myself, because my life is His. It’s not I want to use my life to do something, but God wants to use my life to do something. I’m just responding to His love.

12) Would you share a song with us that has inspired you throughout this injury?

This song just kept in my heart and it become my favorite song.

He Will Hold Me Fast

When I fear my faith will fail

Christ will hold me fast

When the tempter would prevail

He will hold me fast

I could never keep my hold

Through life's fearful path

For my love is often cold

He must hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast

Those He saves are His delight

Christ will hold me fast

Precious in His holy sight

He will hold me fast

He'll not let my soul be lost

His promises shall last

Bought by Him at such a cost

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast

For my life He bled and died

Christ will hold me fast

Justice has been satisfied

He will hold me fast

Raised with Him to endless life

He will hold me fast

Til our faith is turned to sight

When He comes at last!

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast