A Faithful and Prudent Steward
Brother Paul Wu received grace from his youth. He grew up in a family that loved the Lord, actively threw himself into the church life and service, and was faithful and diligent, sparing no effort. In the summer of 1982, while the brother was still teaching, he was charged by the Lord's servant Brother Witness Lee to shoulder the heavy responsibility of being the manager of the Taiwan Gospel Book Room.
In the autumn of 1984, Brother Lee returned to Taiwan to lead the churches to practice the God-ordained way. Brother Wu fully coordinated in every aspect of the service, and in the summer of 1985 he laid down his profession and entered into the service full-time. In the summer of 1986, the full-time training began in Taiwan; of the six or seven hundred trainees, half came from various countries overseas, and all were housed together, so that the daily provision was truly of the utmost importance. By the Lord's grace the brother bore the heavy responsibility, was one with the ministry, and labored without complaint, so that the training could proceed without hindrance.
In early 1989, the work of the five-year gospelization of Taiwan began. Brother Wu was again entrusted with the service of provision, preparing vehicles, housing, and so forth for each newly propagated church. Under Brother Wu's leadership, the brothers coordinated harmoniously, overcame difficulty after difficulty, and met every need. Strengthened by the Lord and with extraordinary energy, the brother personally went each month to visit the various propagation teams; he often drove late into the night and, before sunrise the next morning, would arrive at a propagation meeting hall without prior warning. His serving in this way kept the serving ones of each propagation team always watchful and never slack.
In 1991, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, Brother Lee raised up the Lord's move in Europe (LME), spreading to the region of the former Soviet Union. The next year, Brother Wu keenly perceived that this was a move of the Body, urged the brothers in Taiwan to care for it together, and invited the brothers to visit Russia; on the way back, passing through Anaheim, he fellowshipped with Brother Lee about the Lord's blessing he had seen and heard. Brother Lee charged the churches in Taiwan to do their best to have a part in this move, coordinating practically in both manpower and finances. From then on began the precedent of the churches in Taiwan being one accord for the propagation throughout the earth; through this also began the twice-yearly blending of all Taiwan. The fellowship concerning each person in all Taiwan offering toward the overseas work each year according to a target also originated here. From 1993 to 2007, more than two hundred young co-workers from Taiwan went to Russia for the propagation, their footsteps reaching Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other places, and they established two hundred churches. The brother's foresight, together with his full coordination with the ministry, deeply received the Lord's grace in the move to propagate in Russia.
At the end of 1992, Brother Wu was enlightened by the Lord to realize that, in the regular conferences of the Lord's servant Brother Witness Lee in the United States, the Lord's timely speaking and the flow of the Holy Spirit must not be neglected; he thereupon led the serving ones of the bookroom to immediately compile the corresponding Holy Word for Morning Revival, which has supplied the churches to this day. From 1994 on, he further encouraged the churches and the saints to seize the opportunity of the Lord's servant's ministry in his later years and to go to the United States to attend the conferences and trainings. It was just the time when Brother Lee was releasing a series of high-peak truths of the divine revelation, and all the churches in Taiwan were thereby perfected in the same vision. Such serving brought tremendous blessing to the churches in Taiwan.
In 1994, when Taipei was building the Xinji Building, the financial burden was extremely heavy, the budget requiring one billion New Taiwan dollars. Brother Wu had wisdom from the Lord, fellowshipped the burden of mutual supply, and pioneered the offering. This not only caused the churches to be one accord and complete the building of the building; even more, it caused the churches, through the tangible fellowship of finances, to receive the great blessing of spiritual blending and to enlarge their capacity for offering material things. Its influence is such that the churches still benefit from it to this day.
In the summer of 1995, the Lord's servant Brother Lee pointed out that the Lord's recovery had reached the high peak of the truth, and he hoped that the propagation could also reach a high peak; for this he put out the burden of establishing twenty publication stations throughout the earth. In the early period these were all participated in by the Western brothers, reaching several countries in Europe. In early 1997, Brother Wu was again entrusted by Brother Lee to encourage the young co-workers in Taiwan to go successively to Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, India, and Ghana—on the one hand learning the local language, and on the other hand seeking translators to spread the publications of the Lord's recovery. The capacity of the saints in Taiwan to participate in the Lord's work throughout the earth was once again greatly enlarged.
In 1997 Brother Lee departed. The churches affirmed with one accord that the practice of the seven conferences and trainings each year would remain steadfast and unchanged—not only for the release of the truth but even more for the blending of the Body of Christ. Brother Wu was faithful in this matter, encouraging the co-workers to go often to the meetings to blend with the overseas saints, and also encouraging the churches in Taiwan to closely follow and to strengthen the blending. In this way he laid a firm foundation for the churches in Taiwan to go on with one accord, steadfastly continuing in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles.
In 2003, through the fellowship of the co-workers, the work among the Mainland Chinese students and scholars in the US (MSW) was established. Brother Wu received the burden and led the churches in Taiwan to support it with all their strength, coordinating with the Chinese-speaking co-workers in the United States; whether in manpower or in finances, they offered all they could, and to this day this has brought tens of thousands to salvation and raised up dozens of full-time co-workers.
In 2009, the serving co-workers throughout Taiwan repented for having neglected the practice of the God-ordained way for many years. On the one hand Brother Wu encouraged the churches to establish the structure of gospel households, groups, and districts, and to practice begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building; on the other hand he encouraged all Taiwan to set a common goal of gaining ten thousand young people each year. In the eleven years since, more than a hundred thousand new ones have been baptized, and the churches have increased and multiplied year by year.
In 2010, Brother Wu received a burden in fellowship to blend together the co-workers of the countries in Asia that already had churches and established the Lord's move in Asia (LMA), supporting young people with a heart for propagation to go to countries that did not yet have the testimony of the Lord's recovery. In just ten years, no fewer than a hundred young co-workers went out to propagate, all of them learning the local languages, raising up three hundred and two churches and bringing in eighteen thousand new ones.
In 2014, Brother Wu received a further burden in fellowship to care for the brothers in business and industry from regions where the gospel is restricted, so that they could be perfected overseas. Because of Brother Wu's service, in recent years many have completed the perfecting training for the middle-aged, becoming living and functioning members in the Body of Christ in their various localities.
Surveying Brother Wu's several decades of service, not only were the results manifest, but they also have lasting value; the key lay in his affirming the ministry and closely following it. Moreover, he was diligent and laboring, with a steadfast character that always accomplished his commission; he also had a broad and generous capacity to bear with the brothers; and he was able to harmonize the co-workers so that all could coordinate together, often yielding opportunities to the young people—in every respect a pattern to the co-workers. We will forever remember the pattern the Lord gave to us.