The Church in Nanjing
Not with Excellency of Speech or Wisdom, but Shepherding with Life
From the autumn of 2006 to the spring of 2007 were the most difficult days for the church in Nanjing. We were in a situation without a single relative in sight, isolated and helpless; we could only cry out to God day by day, asking Him to calm the storm! Thank God! He sent our dear Brother Wu to lead the brothers from the island of Taiwan, in the feeling and burden of the Body of Christ, to fly across the strait and come here. With the riches of this ministry of the age, they helped and supplied us in a timely way in our paralyzed condition; within half a year the co-workers flew over one after another as many as eight times. How heavy their burden was and how laboring and exhausting their service was can well be imagined—until the turmoil was calmed!
Brother Wu went on to arrange for the co-workers to come several more times to help and support us. In the autumn of 2008, Brother Wu arranged a strong lineup of thirty-eight co-workers and elder brothers from the churches throughout Taiwan to come and visit and to "recharge" us! What encouragement and strengthening this gave to all the saints who had just revived! Brother Wu himself stood on the humble podium of the meeting hall and led more than a hundred saints to praise and sing aloud to the Lord together! The warmth of the atmosphere and the strength of spirit were unprecedented! It became a rarely seen open testimony of the Lord's recovery here. With such support from the Body, we could not but praise and worship the Lord, and we could not but express our deepest gratitude to our dear ones!
It was also during that visit that Brother Wu seized the opportunity of contact with the leaders in charge of religious affairs and invited them to make a return visit to the churches on the island of Taiwan (two of our brothers accompanied them on the trip). The visit to Taiwan, made in February 2009, was very significant; the government leaders began to have an initial positive understanding of the Lord's recovery and the church, and we also became a platform helping to promote the exchange of Christians across the strait, doing our part to win more room for the Lord's recovery in the mainland! This was truly God's good will!
For more than ten years, the church in Nanjing has continually enjoyed the support and supply of the churches on the island of Taiwan, never interrupted. For any need or request, whenever we sought the help of those on the island of Taiwan, Brother Wu always gave his full support and fully met it; besides arranging for other co-workers to come and serve, he himself came several times to visit, shepherd, and strengthen us. Today the church in Nanjing has received much grace, such as: from 2008 the young people's full-time training class opened and continues to this day, followed by four terms of perfecting in the middle-aged class, the beginning of the establishing of the new way structure of the gospel households, groups, and districts, and the successive rising up of the various special works (children, young people, and college students), all full of God's blessing! None of this can be separated from the supply of the Body, the support of the co-workers of the churches on the island of Taiwan, and the care and help of our brother!
We inquired, listened, and were taught before Brother Wu. The brother was not with excellency of speech or wisdom, but supplied and shepherded with life and experience, giving us many precious teachings and reminders from which we will benefit our whole life. We not only heard his words; even more, we sensed the brother's character and virtues in Christ. He was broad in heart, willing to forgive others, and toward people he was always full of love, compassion, and concern! He truly had the inward parts of the Lord Jesus—"A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoking flax He will not quench"—so that those who came before him were encouraged, and those who came before him found rest.
The responsible brothers of the church in Nanjing
Yan Sihong (嚴斯宏), Xiang Zebin (項澤斌), Qian Jun (錢駿) respectfully
March 7, 2020