Rev. Samuel Lamb (Lin Xiangao) passed away in Guangzhou on August 3, 2013. He was 88 years old.
The son of a Baptist pastor in southern China, Lamb was imprisoned in the 1950s for refusing to bring his own congregation under the authority of the Three Self Patriotic Movement. He spent most of the next twenty years laboring in coal mines, where he experienced God's protection amidst dangerous working conditions. Lamb's wife passed away during that time. He was not permitted to attend her funeral.
Reopened after his release from labor camp in 1979, Lamb's house church at 35 Damazhan attracted not only thousands of local worshippers but also guests from around the world including Billy Graham and more than 140 other dignitaries and diplomats, whose visits Lamb studiously recorded in the church guest book.
Although Lamb has not figured too prominently in the church's more recent development, he has been one of the few remaining "pillars" bridging the pre-Cultural Revolution church with the church of today. He was also, especially during the Deng era, one of the few representatives of the unofficial church who could speak on behalf of China's Christians to the outside community, thus providing a valuable window into the state of the believers.
