A Journey of Promoting the Recovery Version,
Witnessing the Victory of God's Word
Brother Wu, burdened with a myriad of affairs and a "frequent flyer," took along us young fellows—green and inexperienced, having seen little of the world—to promote the publications, which was absolutely real suffering, truly "killing." At that time the goal of the publication-promoting team was very clear: to promote the Recovery Version of the New Testament. While doing the promotion pre-training in Taipei, Brother Wu, who insisted on only selling and not giving away, personally took the lead, saying: "I myself also promote. I invite my schoolmates to a meal, and then I promote, telling them, 'Today I will pay for the meal; you don't need to pay. But this Bible is precious—the money to buy it you must pay yourselves; I won't pay.'" In this way he sold several dozen copies. Brother Wu led from the front.
As for the manner of promotion, Brother Wu did not organize us to take the ordinary marketing route; rather, he had us form into teams together with the local saints and go out coordinating, visiting one by one the relatives, friends, and lambs of the saints. Reading word by word, introducing page by page, we shared with people what we ourselves enjoyed. Even when we entered into Christian groups, it was the same. With this kind of approach, some people very much received it, buying a dozen or more copies at once, while on other whole evenings the total sold added up to only a few copies. Think about it—there were two hundred thousand copies! When would these be promoted out? In terms of sales volume, it really counted for nothing. But in terms of the promotion of the truth—for the saints, for the lambs, for ourselves—every time we went out, it was an enjoyment of the unlocking of the riches of the word, a witnessing of the glorious victory of God's word.
The promoting team needed to move from place to place. The general itinerary was that Brother Zhang Daixin (張代新) diligently and laboriously took us along to fellowship and coordinate with the local saints. Once, when we were to visit a church in a remote rural area, located inside a nursery, I remember that that day Brother Wu personally came down to drive us there. As we were about to arrive, Brother Wu slowed down and said that the fellowship to come would be somewhat different, and that in practice it would also be a little different. Not until the promotion itinerary was over did Brother Wu appear again, concerned about our condition; and seeing that our enthusiasm remained the same, he was set at ease. We asked what this was all about. The brother said, "The work we do is the work of promoting the ministry of the word, but even more we must take care that this is a local church. In our fellowship we must respect the local church and treasure the oneness of the Body of Christ." This was a priceless teaching, of which we will make use all our lives.