All Is Mercy; All Is Freely Given
In 1985, after I recovered the normal church life, I followed everyone in calling you Big Brother Wu. You truly were our big brother, giving much care to the brothers and sisters of our family. I remember once you saw me and said with a smile, "Xiujing, you look more and more like my younger sister (my build)." At my engagement meeting, my wedding meeting, and my wedding banquet, you were never absent.
After I attended two years of full-time training and returned to the workplace, you were still at Hall Sixteen, and you encouraged me to keep the resolve to serve full-time and to continue serving.
At Thanksgiving in 1990, you and Brother Lin let me and Zhicheng join the full-timers—who had completed a year of the gospelizing of Taiwan—on their visit to the churches in America. On that visit, Zhicheng listened to many testimonies, and declared that after he finished his graduate studies he would attend the full-time training and go to the towns and villages of Taiwan to spread the gospel. I remember that on the journey of that visit, I even climbed with you up into the head of the Statue of Liberty.
Zhicheng attended the full-time training in 1992, and at the end of December 1993 went to Russia to spread the gospel. In April 1994, you and the saints of the book room sent me and my four-month-old daughter to Russia, opening up our family's life in the northern land. The next year, when I returned to Taiwan, you asked me, "Still alive? I heard you could hardly go on living?" I knew that you had been caring for me in secret all along. Under your encouragement, and in the mercy of God, because of my weakness, there were nearly two times when I wanted to leave Russia and return to Taiwan. But you and the brothers always supported me, and so I was able to stay in Russia for thirteen years, all told.
That time when you came to Russia to see the spreading work, because your back had ached for a long time, you were afraid you would have another stroke. You used a blood-glucose lancet to prick the tips of all ten of your fingers to draw blood. Yet to all the meetings and fellowships that needed you to attend, you still went striding as if flying; none of us could keep up with your pace. To see that, though you bore sickness and pain in your body, you were still serving with all your heart and all your strength, truly left a mixture of all flavors in my heart.
According to the fellowship of the gospel work in Taiwan, after the gospel-spreading work in Russia came to a stage of completion in January 2007, the co-workers sent from Taiwan to Russia were one after another transferred back to serve in Taiwan. It was planned that at the end of June 2007 our whole family would return to Taiwan. At the end of April that year, because of my father's sudden passing, I telephoned you from Moscow; I remember that the moment I heard your voice, my tears could not be held back and flowed down, and before I had even opened my mouth, you comforted me, saying you already knew. According to your charge, I first brought my two preschool sons back to Taiwan to keep my mother company, while Zhicheng and my daughter would return to Taiwan after my father's burial. Because Zhicheng still had much service in Russia, and my daughter still needed to finish that semester, they first went back to Russia. I stayed three weeks in Taiwan and then returned to Russia to pack up and settle things. For our family you made careful arrangements in love, caring for our needs in every aspect. Zhang Heng was able to complete her seventh-grade studies smoothly, and Zhicheng was able, according to plan, to accompany five Taiwan co-workers in spreading the gospel to Kyrgyzstan and in the first visit to Uzbekistan; our whole family returned to Taiwan in mid-June and continued to serve.
This weak vessel that I am had countless situations, yet always, in your comfort and encouragement and your many hidden intercessions, I was again and again strengthened to go on. In truth, when it all happened, I found it inconceivable, and I also felt ashamed. I thought, who am I, that I should even need you personally to help me, to explain all the reasons—I truly felt that I did not know my place and did not appreciate the honor shown me. I can only say, all is His mercy; all is freely given.