Broad as the Sea
Tender as a Sprout
In October 1977, the international conference was held at the Chinese Gymnasium; the practical service for this conference was completely handed over from the older generation of saints to the younger generation. These young saints were the ones produced one after another after Brother Lee greatly reformed the church in Taipei in 1975. For that service, the brothers established eighteen service groups and put to use more than a thousand young working brothers and sisters; Brother Wu was one of them, coordinating with Brother Liu Tianyuan (劉天元) as the conveners in charge of cleaning and arranging. That coordination made them partners in life and death, unchanging unto death, the same for several decades as for a single day.
In that conference service, we discovered that Brother Wu was full of leadership talent and a spirit of hard, practical work. His leading was not giving orders but doing it himself, taking the lead to set a pattern. On the night of the last session of the conference, a meeting hall for ten thousand had to be cleaned up spotlessly, and immediately afterward another training venue for a thousand had to be arranged at the Taipei First Girls' High School gymnasium for use the next day. The arrangement was completed by one o'clock in the middle of that night; we were full of gratitude, for if not for Brother Wu's skillful leadership, it would have been impossible to complete the task. We thank the Lord for giving us such a precious brother, a gift to the Body.
After Brother Wu laid down his profession to serve full-time in the Taiwan Gospel Book Room and the church in Taipei, the time we spent coordinating together increased, and my knowledge of him deepened. He was a child who grew up in a military dependents' village—loyal and ready to take responsibility, a "big brother" type of person; while I was a country child born locally in Taiwan—yet our coordination had not the slightest difficulty.
After Brother Zhang and Brother Lee successively departed and rested in the Lord's bosom, the Lord entrusted the heavy responsibility of the church and the work to Brother Wu, and he did not disappoint expectations: lowering his shoulder to bear the load, diligently laboring, serving faithfully and prudently. Over these several decades his fruit and accomplishment are plain for all to see.
In this life of his, for the church, for the ministry, and for the Lord's work throughout the earth, he was also like a spinning top, spinning every day, every month, every year, spinning without ceasing, until the last moment. When I watched, I truly could not bear it and very much wanted to share his labor.
In the governing of the church, Brother Wu set up many standards so that the churches could coordinate harmoniously and grow continually; in the work, he perfected young people in great numbers, cultivating the next generation of the church, yet he also did not neglect the older co-workers, caring for their feelings and giving them opportunities to function. His heart was so broad as the sea, and yet so tender as a sprout. He brought the churches into the fellowship of the universal Body; whenever a church anywhere had a need, whether on the island or overseas, he, in the feeling of the Body, served their need. In the propagation throughout the globe, whether LME or LMA, he saw to every aspect of the need with prompt action. In the literature service of the bookroom, he even more fully expressed the burden of serving the ministry of the word.