Exhorting and Encouraging without Condemning or Criticizing
Practical and Sincere, Speaking Only Words That Build Up
Last November, when the Advanced Studies Class training in Taiwan had ended and we were preparing to scatter to various places to preach the gospel, I was called up at the last moment. As soon as I got off the plane, the one who came to meet me was actually Brother Wu! And he had only recently returned to Taiwan after that serious illness in the United States. For a responsible brother like Brother Wu, the burden upon him was beyond reckoning, yet he served a little sister like me with such whole-hearted devotion, doing it all himself and in person. Such service let me see a pattern! He was not only a slave of the Lord; he also served the brothers and sisters as a slave.
During the summer scholars-and-academics training in New Jersey, there was no telling how many blending co-workers, brothers, and sisters there were to receive; yet that day Brother Wu specially drove to take me and another brother to a restaurant for lunch, because he was very concerned about that brother of mine who was not meeting normally. Brother Wu asked me about his recent situation, and was concerned for my family and for the other brothers and sisters where we are. However busy he might seem, he held every brother and sister upon his heart!
A few years ago, for the sake of spreading the gospel, I moved from Vancouver to the city of Victoria. The gospel work was very difficult at the start, with no foundation and no coordination. Brother Wu personally flew over from Taiwan to add strength to us! I still remember that the meeting that night was very warm and sweet, and several were baptized that very evening. That was our first formal small-group meeting, and from then on a normal church life began. Under Brother Wu's sustaining, many brothers and sisters coordinated their way in, so that during our five years in Victoria we held several large-scale gospel meetings as well as business blendings and trainings; several dozen were saved, and the attendance at the Lord's Day meeting ranged from a few to several dozen, never once breaking off. Besides this there were also Bible-reading meetings and meetings for the young people. For the propagation in the various places, Brother Wu always offered up his own body; no matter how toilsome, he sustained it in person. His heavy body sat in economy class; he did not adjust to the time difference, did not take an afternoon nap, and as soon as he got off the plane he entered into blending with the brothers and sisters. How could he not be weary!
In these years—whether the first business blending in Hong Kong, or Jeju Island, Malaysia, the Los Angeles winter and summer trainings, the New Jersey scholars-and-academics training...—everywhere one could see his figure, and each time one could hear his words of exhortation and encouragement to the brothers and sisters in love. He had no condemnation and no criticism; what he had was all humorous utterance, all practical and sincere words that build up.
We will surely take the brother as our pattern, pouring out our whole life as a drink offering upon this ministry, putting our body into the church, and in this last age striving to cooperate with the Lord, to bring the Lord back at the earliest day!