Loving Care, Perfecting
Enlarging, a Pattern
In 1995, the Memorial Day conference was held in Atlanta. At that time the saints in Taiwan were not yet so accustomed to attending the Memorial Day conference in the United States. I remember that year, the only ones who came from Taiwan were Brother Paul Wu, Brother Lin Hong (林鴻), and I. One evening during the conference, after the meeting ended, Brother Wu asked me to come to his hotel room to fellowship. At that time Brother Wu and I were not yet so familiar, and my heart was uneasy, not knowing whether something had gone wrong in the service that he wanted to fellowship with me. When I arrived at his room, my first impression was that his room was neat and tidy, as if no one had stayed in it. Then, taking his father in the army as an example, he told me a story. He said that after serving a certain number of years in the army, one could generally be promoted to lieutenant colonel; but if by a certain age one could not be promoted to colonel, one could only retire as a lieutenant colonel; and after a colonel reached a certain age and could not be promoted to major general, he could only retire as a colonel, and so on.
I did not know why he told me these things, but not long afterward, I was informed that I was to be transferred to serve at the training center. At that time I had just completed three years of service in the church in Hsinchu and had just gotten the hang of it; this gust of storm blew me to the full-time training center. It just happened that the theme of the Memorial Day conference that year was the book of Ezekiel, speaking of the experiences of wind, cloud, fire, and electrum.
In the five years of serving at the training center, following Brother Paul Wu, Brother Lin Hong, and other older co-workers, I learned much in the coordination of service. At that time, every Monday morning, all the brothers serving in the general deacons' office of the church in Taipei had to come together to fellowship and discuss the various issues, even the going on of the various meeting halls or the churches, and I also attended as a representative of the training center.
Brother Paul Wu often admonished me that the most important thing in the fellowship of service is to be assured that a proposal can be passed in one go. Of course, in order for a proposal to be passed in one go, much preparation had to be done beforehand—for example, the content of the text in the announcements, the times and dates that could not be wrong, and even some proposals that might affect other special services or even the churches; all these had to be understood and communicated beforehand, so that the proposal could be passed in one go. These lessons are still of inexhaustible use to me today.
After five years of serving at the full-time training center, when the National Taiwan University student center was newly completed, I was transferred to serve NTU at Taipei Hall 19. Before I left, Brother Paul Wu asked me what thoughts I had about my future service. I said that if there were an opportunity, I would like to go abroad to be enlarged in service. After the winter training of 2005 ended—by which time I had served NTU at Taipei Hall 19 for three years—while I was waiting at the China Airlines departure lounge at the Los Angeles airport to board my flight back to Taiwan, Brother Paul Wu's eldest son ran to the lounge to find me, saying that his father had something to discuss with me in the adjacent lounge. My heart again began to be uneasy, not knowing what had gone wrong in my service to NTU. Later I learned that he remembered I had mentioned to him my heart's desire to go abroad to be enlarged in service; it just happened that at that time the church in Chicago, USA, needed a brother who knew both Chinese and English to serve, so I was transferred to Chicago.
Brother Wu continually cared for my service in Chicago and even came several times to visit. In these two service arrangements, I was greatly perfected and enlarged. I feel that to serve the Lord all my life is truly so valuable, so glorious.
Brother Paul Wu's outlook in perfecting young people, and his heart of loving the brothers, set a beautiful pattern for me.