An Intimidating Big Brother
Who Served the Family of a Little Sister
After finishing the training in 2008, I returned home to Taipei to prepare for the examination to study abroad and to begin afresh in the church life at Hall Six; during the day I studied at Hall Six on the third floor of the Xinji Building. One day Brother Lin Hong (林鴻) asked the serving ones at Hall Six for a set of materials, and I ran the errand on their behalf, delivering the materials to the general deacons' office on the fifth floor, where I discovered that Brother Lin and Brother Wu both happened to be in the office. After I handed the materials to Brother Lin and conveyed the message that was to be passed on, I turned to leave.
I had just turned and taken my first step when I heard behind me Brother Wu's sonorous and forceful voice: "Where is Lin Jieti now?" Even now, more than ten years later, I still remember that when I heard him ask, I was so startled that I forgot even to swallow, and many question marks and exclamation marks rose up in my mind. "How does he know who I am? How could he remember my name?" Still, I quickly turned back, stood at attention, and answered Brother Wu, "I am at Hall Six now." At this I heard him ask again in a murmuring voice, "Hall Six? I thought you were from Taichung?" Again many question marks and exclamation marks rose up in my mind. "How does he remember that I am from Taichung?" So I answered Brother Wu again, "I was sent from Taichung to attend the training, but my home is near Hall Six." Seeing that Brother Wu had no more questions, I took my leave and departed. And so ended my startling "fellowship" with Brother Wu.
To this day I still do not know why Brother Wu remembered me and my name, but my conclusion is that Brother Wu's memory is truly intimidating.
In 2011, before I was about to be married, my future brother happened to come to Taiwan to visit my family. Since there would be no ceremony or meeting in Taiwan, in order to care for the feelings of the saints at Hall Six, and also to set the saints' hearts at rest by letting them meet my future vital companion, we fellowshipped with the brothers, hoping to have an informal love feast and fellowship at the meeting hall. The brothers at the hall suggested that we could use the thirty minutes before the Lord's Day love feast for an informal gathering, so that the saints could become acquainted with this family we were about to establish.
I remember that on that day, after the gathering had begun with hymns, I saw Brother Wu walking slowly into the meeting place, bringing with him a brother from the church in Cerritos, California, and they sat in the empty seats in the first row. At this my future brother quietly asked me, "Did you invite them?" I shook my head blankly, with a mass of question marks in my mind: "Why has Brother Wu come? He meets at Hall One; how would he know that we were gathering at Hall Six today? And how would he bring a brother from the church in Cerritos along with him?"
Since the gathering that day was neither a wedding meeting nor an engagement testimony meeting, we had not arranged any meeting program. The whole gathering was simply to thank the saints for their care in the past and for their concern and intercession in love. The saints did not know who my future brother was, nor were they clear about his background. That brother from the church in Cerritos perhaps sensed the atmosphere pervading the place—the saints wanting to ask yet not daring to ask, and not knowing how to ask. He stood up and said in a robust voice, "Don't you know this Tim? He is the Wang family of the church in Cerritos! Don't you know the Wang family of the church in Cerritos?" Then he began to relate in detail the history of Tim's family in the church in Cerritos.
To this day, whenever Tim and I bring up this past event, Tim always says he is very grateful to that brother for introducing him at the gathering that day. Otherwise, Tim jokes, he could feel the "hostile" looks the saints cast at him during the gathering that day—not knowing where this young upstart had sprung from, who, the moment he appeared, carried off their sister. After that brother from the church in Cerritos had given his introduction of him, Tim said he felt the saints' looks toward him became much "gentler." This was the very unintimidating service that Brother Wu—a big brother who was equally intimidating whether seen up close or from afar—rendered to me, a little sister. We miss him very much.