In Yet a Very Little While
The Coming One Will Come and Will Not Delay
I cannot clearly remember the day I first saw Brother Wu; my impression of him then was of a responsible brother sitting on the right side of the platform, the older brother of Brother Wu Fulin (吳福臨).
After I began to take part in the simplified-character literature service on March 1, 2001, I had more opportunities to hear Brother Wu fellowship up close and to receive his supply, shepherding, and perfecting. I heard and saw how he led the service, how he treated those who coordinated, and how he perfected the young saints. In these nearly twenty years of serving, there were days and nights, mountains and valleys; with just a few words the brother could strengthen us so that we did not lose faith. In treasuring and spreading the ministry, and in the use of finances, fellowship, and encouragement, Brother Wu led us on the way—truly a vivid pattern.
Brother Wu spoke sincerely, sometimes with fitting humor; he spoke the truth through experience, never making you feel condemned but strengthened; never giving you pressure but releasing you. I marveled at how he lived out our dear and lovely Lord.
In August 2008, by the Lord's grace, I went to the Taiwan Gospel Book Room to be trained for two weeks. During that time, from morning to night, the work fellowship, training arrangements, and three meals a day were all in the finest detail, full of the love and perfecting of God's house, because Brother Wu's pattern was there. I remember on August 19, when Brother Wu returned to Taipei from out of town, there was a meeting at eight in the morning, and all the serving ones of the bookroom came to the Xinji Building. I thought a meeting was just a meeting, but after the prayer ended Brother Wu said, "Where were we? First, Second, and Third John, and Jude. Whose turn is it to share?" After the brothers and sisters shared, only then did the work report begin.
The next day at noon, Brother Wu personally drove and treated us to a meal at the observation-deck restaurant on the eighty-sixth floor of the Taipei 101 building (I felt a bit overwhelmed by the honor). What we ate I can no longer recall, but I remember that at the table he spoke of buying meeting halls and the blending center. In those years, to build the Xinji Building, many saints went to the bank to take out loans of three or four hundred thousand to offer, and every one was blessed; by year's end there was even surplus left over…. All of it, from the brother and in his conversation, was so warm, so natural, with enlightenment and encouragement, and not without righteous reminders, so that deep within you there was a strong response impossible to refuse….
From Brother Wu's kidney transplant until now, everyone especially cared for his body and often remembered him in intercession. Those whom we keep in our intercession we feel closer to. Every time we saw the brother, he always greeted us with a smile, and every time we could not help asking, "Brother Wu, how has your body been lately?" He always answered frankly and freely, "Thank the Lord, still alive…"
When Brother Jiang departed in those years, we felt we had lost one who held up the umbrella; now that Brother Wu has gone, it is as if we are missing one who settles the heart….
In our missing him, words seem pale and powerless; bit by bit, comfort and encouragement, for others and for ourselves.
"For you have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, you may obtain the promise. For in yet a very little while, the Coming One will come and will not delay…." (Heb. 10:36-37)