Testimonies of the Medical and Nursing Serving Ones
Brother Lin Zhiqing: I serve in the Department of Nephrology at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. It was a great honor to be able to serve my beloved Brother Wu medically during his two hospitalizations—from May to June last year, and on March 4 of this year. There were two aspects of Brother Wu's character that can become a pattern to us!
- Submitting to Suffering and Enjoying God's Grace
Although Brother Wu had diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease, and had gone through a kidney transplant and hemodialysis, he was not limited by his sickness; rather, he actively traveled around the world for the Lord's interests. In December 2018, he suffered a sudden heart attack on an airplane and received CPR, ECMO, and a cardiac catheterization with a stent. Yet the Lord still led him; he did not trust in himself but trusted only in the God who raises the dead, and he returned safely to Taiwan from the United States. Last May, Brother Wu had an abscess in his lower right abdomen. Not wanting to trouble the brothers in the medical field, he originally intended to observe his condition at home. When the brothers informed me, I conferred with Brother Xianggang and immediately arranged for him to be hospitalized; we discovered that it was a subcutaneous tissue infection following the earlier removal of the ECMO catheter. Marvelously, the pus drained outward on its own and did not flow into the abdominal cavity; otherwise it would surely have caused sepsis! This was just as 2 Corinthians 4:8 describes: "pressed on every side but not constricted; perplexed but not unto despair." Indeed, through submitting to God's sovereign arrangement, Brother Wu experienced God's marvelous grace in the midst of suffering!
- Striving with All His Might and Living Christ
On the evening of March 4 at 8:40, Brother Wu was hospitalized because of low blood pressure and general discomfort, accompanied by Sister Wu and the brothers. The examination report showed myocardial ischemia and a suspected myocardial infarction; treatment was given, the cardiology department was consulted, and he was arranged to be placed in the intensive care unit. However, from 11:10 that night until 2:40 in the early morning, he went through three rounds of emergency resuscitation. In the first two his blood pressure and heartbeat miraculously recovered, yet in the end he finally rested in the Lord at 3:54. During the resuscitation process, all the medical and nursing colleagues could clearly sense that every cell of his body had already striven with all its might! The grace that Brother Wu experienced was not the outward healing of his sickness but the most mysterious presence of the resurrected Christ.
Brother Wu's overcoming testimony in the midst of his sickness stirs us up to love the Lord and love the church. May the Lord Himself comfort Brother Wu's family, keeping His covenant and showing His lovingkindness forever!