The way of serving the Lord full time is the way of the cross; it is a way that leads to death, a way without any future. However, the cross issues in resurrection. Therefore, our future is resurrection. The way we are taking does not end with death; our death issues in a living way. Consequently, it is not a way without a future. This way has a bright future.
Based on my experience of following the Lord for more than fifty years, I can testify that the Lord is true and living. I was born into a Christian family. My mother belonged to the Southern Baptist Church. On the Lord’s Day we all went with her to the service. Even though I heard the gospel many times, I never was saved. One afternoon in April 1925, out of curiosity I went to hear a lady preacher. At that time I was twenty years old. As I listened to her preach, God came to me, and I was caught by Him. As I was walking home after the meeting, I was called to consecrate myself to the Lord. So I stopped, and looking up into heaven, I said, “O God, I want You. Even if the whole world is given to me, I do not want it. From now on I would like to be a poor preacher carrying my Bible and going to all the villages to preach the gospel. If there is nothing to eat, I will eat tree roots and dried sweet potatoes; if there is nothing to drink, I will drink water from the mountain streams.” This was how I consecrated myself to the Lord.
After this I began studying at an English college that had been established by some Americans in northern China. I thought that I would go to the villages to preach the Lord Jesus when I graduated. The summer I graduated, I fulfilled my vow to God and went out to village after village preaching the gospel. No pastor encouraged me, and no preacher instructed me to do this. I was just a young person who went out to the villages to preach the gospel. The first gospel tract that I wrote was entitled The Wonderful Way for Souls to Be Saved. In those days printing was not well developed, so I used the old style of typesetting and printed on red paper the characters: The Wonderful Way for Souls to Be Saved. I took my Bible and a bundle of tracts and went from village to village passing out tracts to everyone. I felt that this was enjoyable. I wanted to be a gospel preacher for the rest of my life.
The Lord accomplished His heart’s desire, and soon a local church was raised up in my hometown. Afterward, the Lord opened a door and quickly brought me to Shanghai, which was the largest city in China. Later, during the war against Japan, I was in Chefoo. In those days the churches had a number of saints with outstanding abilities and capabilities, and among the brothers in northeastern China, there were several wealthy brothers. They all loved the Lord and gave financially; thus, the Lord’s work spread very quickly.
I told the brothers many times that we needed to use the human resources from northern China and the financial resources from northeastern China to spread into northwestern China. Hence, in March and April of 1943 seventy brothers and sisters migrated out of Chefoo to Inner Mongolia in the northwestern region of China. When they went, they consecrated all they had to the Lord. The church provided them with only their traveling expenses plus three months of living expenses. During their first three months, they had to find a way to make a living. Some taught in elementary schools, and some opened small businesses. All those who migrated were apostles. The following year an elder from the church in Chefoo went to visit the brothers and sisters who had migrated and saw that more than forty churches had been raised up.
Prior to the war, Western missionaries had sowed the seed of the gospel and shepherded some believers. During the war, the Western missionaries were held in custody by the Japanese in concentration camps, and the believers in the denominations that they had raised up were like sheep without a shepherd. When these seventy ordinary saints arrived, they did not bring only the gospel; they also brought the truth. They taught the truth and brought the wandering believers onto the way of the truth. Therefore, more than forty groups turned to take the way of the church. The seventy brothers and sisters migrated in March and April of 1943, and by wintertime they had raised up many churches.
In addition to the seventy saints who went to Inner Mongolia in the northwest of China, another thirty brothers and sisters went to the Yalu River region in the northeast. Later, we lost contact with them because of the changes in the political situation, and we do not know what happened to them. Hence, one hundred saints migrated in 1943; seventy of them went to the northwest and thirty to the northeast. This testimony shows that even when it may seem as though we are taking a way that leads to death, a way of termination, in resurrection the Lord opens for us a living way, a way with a bright future.
I never thought that I would go to America. In 1938 a saint from Beijing sent me two checks; one check was for a round-trip ticket to America, and the other was to cover the living expenses for my wife and children in China for one year. The saint who sent the checks said that she had received the leading from the Lord and wanted me to go to America. I replied that I did not have the burden to go to America, and I asked her what I should do with the checks. She insisted that I keep the checks because one day the Lord would send me to America. In 1958 I was invited to England and Denmark, and I passed through the United States on my way to Europe, but I did not labor in America.
The Lord’s leading was beyond what I could imagine. In 1949, when the Lord brought me to Taiwan, the Lord’s recovery was only among the Chinese-speaking saints; there were approximately one hundred churches in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. In 1962 I was led by the Lord to go to America to begin the work there, and in 1963 I began to put out The Stream magazine in English. I also published books in English. Due to these few English publications, the Lord’s recovery quickly spread to all six major continents. Of course, it first spread in America. Now there are more than ninety churches scattered across America. From the East Coast to the West Coast, the situation is very promising even though their numbers are not large. All kinds of people have been gained, and we can clearly see the Lord’s blessing.
The Lord’s recovery also went to Germany. Although Germany is not an English-speaking country, German is related to English; hence, the Lord’s recovery was able to go to Germany by means of the English language. Not long after the recovery went to Germany, it spread to several other countries, such as England, France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and even Finland. There is a small church in Helsinki, Finland. The Lord’s recovery is still spreading in Europe. Last year and this year we had trainings in Germany with more than eight hundred brothers and sisters meeting together. Most of them came from Germany, but a few of them came from other nearby countries. It was very encouraging. The saints who went from Taiwan thought that they would encourage the saints from Europe, but in the end they were encouraged by the saints from Europe. This strengthened the European saints.
In Europe the truths of the Lord’s recovery have been translated into several different languages. Our books have not only been translated into German, French, and Spanish; they have also been translated into Russian. The book The Economy of God has been printed in Russian and sent to Russia. In addition, approximately ten booklets have also been translated into Russian and sent to Russia. The Lord arranged for a Russian-speaking Jewish scholar to be a professor at a university near Seattle, Washington. He has doctorate degrees in both Russian and English, and he is happy to help us translate our spiritual publications. There is also a Russian sister in America who is helping our translator with the spiritual terms. They are currently translating The Experience of Life and other books of this category. A responsible brother from Seattle recently went to Russia to observe the situation. He discovered that there are many underground churches. The believers in these churches told him that they already have the Bible, but what they really needed was spiritual books like the ones he brought them. I hope that we will pray much for this.
The University of Manchester in England has a large body of students and a sizable campus. Recently, their librarian wrote a letter to the Living Stream Ministry in America. In his letter he said that he had received a few of the books put out by Living Stream Ministry, which had been sent to him by the saints in the church in Blackpool. He enjoyed reading the books, and he requested that we send them a set of all our publications in Chinese, English, and any other language. He wants to put our publications in the university library. We immediately sent him copies of all our publications in Chinese, English, Spanish, Japanese, German, Korean, and even Filipino. This was the Lord’s doing.
The Lord’s recovery has also gone to Central America, South America, and Mexico. The Lord’s recovery is flourishing in the mountainous region in Mexico. Our work, including our publications and videos, cannot keep up with the demand. They are on fire with zeal, and churches have been raised up in many places. There are now more than fifty churches in Mexico. We sent them six or seven video players, and the localities take turns watching the Life-study training tapes. This has been very effective.
In Brazil there is an amazing desire for the Lord’s recovery. The brothers there purchased a large piece of property in a town that is a two-hour drive from São Paulo. In 1981 they finished building a meeting hall that can seat more than one thousand people. Recently, they purchased an old hospital in São Paulo, and they converted it into a big meeting hall. This is where the literature and printing work is done.
The testimony in Brazil began in 1959 when a few brothers from Taiwan and the Philippines migrated there. However, it was not until I went there in 1965 that they began to meet as the church. There were many Christians, and the brothers were desirous to meet with them as the local church. But after much consideration we felt that the local believers had a very strong religious, denominational atmosphere and that it was impossible for us to bear the one testimony together with them. Hence, in 1965 we began to meet as the church. In those days there were no Brazilian saints meeting with us; all the saints were Chinese, and the meetings were in Chinese.
I went there again in 1970 and then again fourteen years later in 1984. I was surprised by the progress that had been made. More than eleven hundred brothers and sisters attended the meetings, and more than one thousand of them were local Brazilians. There were only forty or fifty Chinese saints. In addition, there were fifty to sixty from Argentina, and there were others from the neighboring countries of Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia. Most of the Brazilian brothers and sisters have college degrees; several of them were pastors, ministers, or seminarians before they began to meet with us. Some of the saints are also doctors and medical students. The situation there was similar to what I see this time in Taipei. Their sharing was completely according to the contents of the Life-study messages. This proves that the Life-study messages had done a great work within them.
At present there are at least one hundred and fifty churches from Mexico to Brazil. Colombia, a cultured Spanish-speaking country, also has churches. Some brothers have begun meeting in the capital of Guatemala. Before they took the ground, they sent us a letter inviting the brothers and sisters in America to attend their first meeting.
In Africa the Lord’s testimony began in Ghana. Ghana is on the west coast of Africa. It was called Gold Coast when it was a British colony, and it became the Republic of Ghana when it gained its independence. The Lord’s testimony in Africa also began through our publications in English. From Ghana the Lord’s recovery went to Nigeria. Nigeria is the largest country in West Africa. Its capital, Lagos, has nine million people. There is a church there. There is also a church in North Africa, in Libya.
In recent years the Lord’s recovery has also gone to the Republic of South Africa, which is on the southernmost tip of Africa. Due to amendments in their constitution, Chinese people there enjoy the same rights and privileges as the Caucasians. There are three churches in South Africa, two of which are in the capital, Pretoria, and in Cape Town. There is also a church in Zimbabwe, which is a country to the northeast of South Africa. Not long ago they sent me a letter asking for permission to translate the Life-study messages. They also want us to supply them with our publications.
These African countries are economically weak, so we have been supplying them with free publications for the past few years. To date we have supplied books and tapes worth over fifty thousand U.S. dollars to Ghana alone. The situation in these countries is encouraging. The testimonies in these countries were not raised up by our going there; they were raised up by the publications. After being helped by the publications, some of the believers attended the trainings in America. Afterward, they returned to their country to raise up the testimony of the church.
When we speak of Australia, we are including New Zealand. The situation in these countries is very encouraging. There are three or four churches in Australia, including churches in Sydney and Melbourne. There are approximately ten churches in New Zealand. We thank the Lord that the churches in the Lord’s recovery are now in all six major continents in the world.
The Lord’s recovery has been in China for more than sixty years, but there was nothing happening in India or Burma (Myanmar). Many years ago some saints moved to the island of Ceylon, but the situation was not clear. However, over the past year or two the Lord has been working in India and Burma. The first church has been established in Burma, and the church in Bangkok, Thailand, has been in contact with them. There is also a local Burmese young man who has been in contact with us by letter. His written English is very good. In his letters he told us that there are approximately nineteen groups meeting in Burma. They are not very clear concerning the way of the church, but he said that they receive much help when they read the Life-study messages. They have requested permission to translate all the Life-study messages into Burmese. He said that he is a young person who loves the Lord and is pursuing theology. We believe that in the future he will be brought into this way. We have also received a letter from another believer; based on his writing, use of words, and his name, he is probably a missionary from England. He said that they have several meeting places and several Bible-study groups. Since he has received much help from reading the Life-study messages, he wants to use the Life-study messages to supply the needs of their Bible studies. He asked for permission to use and translate these messages. These are two good situations.
In the southern part of India there is a brother who is a high-school teacher, and he is about forty years of age. He began to fellowship with us because of our publications. He has lived in America for approximately one year. After this year’s winter training, he will return to southern India and begin the church life there. I hope that we will all pray for this matter.
In recent years I have been receiving letters from believers in many countries telling me how much help they have received from the Life-study messages. I have saved all these letters, and I hope that one day the letters will be printed in a book entitled Letters of Appreciation.
Some brothers and sisters are ready to go to Italy and India, and there are other brothers and sisters who want to go to Africa, Australia, and northern Europe. Every move involves specific steps, just as every military attack must have a strategy. Fighting a war requires not only skills but also strategies. One must not move too quickly; a desire to do something quickly prevents a person from being thorough. I look to the Lord’s Spirit to work in you.
I have been living in the English-speaking world for more than twenty years. During this time I have visited Sydney and Melbourne in Australia as well as several cities in New Zealand; I have also traveled to Europe and to South America. I have a clear understanding of the situation in these places. From my observation of their situation, I feel that the churches in Taiwan have the most potential, because they have a history of more than thirty years. During these more than thirty years, the Lord has truly blessed Taiwan and made it peaceful and secure. The most necessary thing for the gospel work is a secure environment as well as a well-educated population. Then when the Lord’s recovery comes with the gospel and the truth, it will be easy to “catch fish.”
During the first six or seven years, our numbers increased one hundredfold, from five hundred to fifty thousand. Later, our increase was interrupted because too much emphasis was placed on “spiritual pursuit.” The thirty-five years of our history in Taiwan can be divided into five seven-year periods. During the first seven years, the number of saints increased from five hundred to fifty thousand. Due to the interruption we no longer had a definite direction. Hence, we have not increased in numbers for the past twenty-eight years, or the past four seven-year periods. At present, there are only forty-five to fifty thousand brothers and sisters in all of Taiwan.
A certain group in Hong Kong put out a book with statistics. This book said that in Taiwan the Presbyterian denomination has the largest number of Christians; it has more than eighty thousand people. The second largest group is the “Local Church,” with forty-five thousand people. The third largest group is the True Jesus Church. This group is mainly in the mountainous areas and has more than twenty thousand people. Our numbers are low because for the last twenty-eight years our work has mainly been to stabilize and maintain; we did not do a work of spreading as we did in the first seven years. Of course, we must thank the Lord for the stability of our present situation.
We confess that we have many weaknesses and shortcomings, but our situation is better than the situation of other Christians groups. We have been equipping many saints for more than ten years. When I returned to Taiwan in 1966, many of the young people wanted to serve the Lord full time, and they wrote down their consecration. That was eighteen years ago. We still have their consecrations. I believe that more than one thousand saints consecrated themselves. What they wrote was a contract with the Lord. Therefore, as one who represents the Lord, I have come to tell you that it is time for you to fulfill your contract.
When I began the work in America, I was clear that my burden was not to do a Chinese-speaking work, because if I did such a work, the English-speaking work would be neglected. If we wanted to do a Chinese-speaking work, we should not have gone to America. Since we went to America, we needed to carry the Lord’s testimony to the English-speaking world. Hence, for the past twenty years I have worked only among the English-speaking. Praise the Lord that we have seen the Lord’s blessing in this matter. The American government changed its immigration laws two years ago and increased the quota for Chinese people immigrating to the United States from twenty thousand per year to forty thousand per year; hence, the number of Chinese immigrating to America has drastically increased. When I observed that many brothers and sisters who immigrated to the United States were not receiving any care, I fellowshipped with the Chinese brothers and told them that we had to begin to pay attention to the work among the Chinese-speaking. There are now five or six highly educated Chinese brothers in America who left their successful careers to serve the Lord full time and work mainly on the university campuses.
The many students from Taiwan who go to the United States to study are on almost every campus in the country. Because these students do very well in their studies and get excellent grades, they have improved the reputation of the Chinese people. The second-generation Chinese children, who grew up in America, are also top students in elementary school, junior high school, and high school. It is difficult to compete with the Chinese students. Even in Great Britain there are Chinese professors in the math department of most universities. In other words, math departments have become the domain of Chinese professors. Two-thirds of the graduate students in the department of computer science are Chinese. A weekly news magazine in America published an article last year saying that America and Japan are competing with each other across the Pacific Ocean in the field of computer technology; however, the competition is not between America and Japan but between the Chinese and Japanese people, because most of the computer people in America are Chinese.
Since we began the Chinese-speaking work by visiting the students on the university campuses, we have discovered that all the campuses have Chinese Christian associations. Every university in America that has Chinese Christians also has a Chinese Christian association. Since most of the leaders in these Chinese Christian associations were raised up among us, when we visit these associations, we are warmly welcomed.
The church in Taipei has been blessed financially and with many competent saints. In addition, the country and society are in a good condition. By the Lord’s mercy, we have been on this island for more than thirty years, and our brothers and sisters are in all levels of society. Taiwan today is densely populated; there are almost two million people in the city of Taipei. The people in Taipei can be compared to two million fish swimming around us. We should go out to catch the fish. We have a rare opportunity. All the young saints and middle-aged saints should go out to catch fish.
Our first step is to spread the Lord’s recovery all over Taiwan. We should pray and ask the Lord to gospelize Taiwan. The gospel should not be spread merely in Taipei. It should also spread to every town. The entire island of Taiwan must be evangelized, and it must be truthized. We must spread the truths that the Lord has shown us to all the people in Taiwan. We must spread the truth until every household in Taiwan knows the truth. We must let the truth saturate the entire island of Taiwan. According to our calculations, it will take five to ten years to gospelize and truthize Taiwan.
The Gospel Book Room is established and has been publishing books for more than thirty years. Our books are pure; they speak only of the gospel and the truth. These are what the human race needs. We truly believe that the gospel and the truth are two strong factors that will cause God to bless this country and to gain thousands of believers from this country.
The brothers and sisters who want to spread the gospel in northern and southern Europe should not be impatient. We must concentrate our efforts on Taipei. Taipei is our Jerusalem. We must be the Lord’s witnesses in Jerusalem and then all of Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. We cannot skip Jerusalem and go to the land of Judea. No, we must begin here and then spread out. We believe that one hundred saints going to Africa or three hundred going to South America will not be sufficient. The need in every place is great.
All six major continents are open to the Lord’s recovery, mainly because of the truth in the Lord’s recovery. Our greatest need is to produce a model in Taiwan for our spreading. Therefore, we must begin in Taiwan and spend three to five years to develop a model. Then we can take this model to other places. Hence, our first step must be in Taiwan, and we must begin with Taipei.
Serving the Lord requires time and energy; thus, we need some saints who will offer up their time and their energy. This is a must. However, we should not have the concept that as soon as we offer ourselves up, we are a preacher. We do not have preachers among us; we are all the Lord’s witnesses. If the Lord moves in our environment so that our living is provided for, then we can serve Him full time. If the Lord does not provide for our living in this way, we must have a job. This is the pattern left to us by the apostle Paul.
Paul was a full-time serving one, but there were times when the churches did not support him; that is, the offerings from the saints were not sufficient. Therefore, he made tents with his own hands to supply not only his own needs but also the needs of his companions. This does not mean that Paul was a preacher for a few years and then opened a tent factory when he was not paid. We should not say that when we are full-time serving ones, we are members of the clergy or that we have entered a religious organization. We do not have a religious organization; we are brothers and sisters just like the other saints. But the Lord has blessed us with the burden to use all our time and energy for the Lord.
Even though some brothers do not serve full time, we cannot say that they are not co-workers or that they are not in the Lord’s recovery. Were Aquila and Priscilla full-time serving ones? It is correct to say that they were full-timers, and it is also correct to say that they were not full-timers. This couple did not only serve the Lord with their time and energy; they also opened their home for the Lord’s use. Wherever they went, there were meetings in their home; this was the case in Rome and in Ephesus. In this aspect they served full time. However, in Acts 18:1-3 when Paul was in Corinth, he remained with them and worked, because their profession was also tentmaking.
We have fellowshipped in the past about the need for the church in Taipei to produce five hundred serving ones. Two hundred of these will serve full time, and three hundred will serve part time. Some saints are able to offer up all their time, but others cannot give all their time; they can give only part of their time to serve. This is still very good. This helps with finances, it is a good testimony, and it helps bring people to salvation.
We have a desire that our university graduates would not work immediately after graduating or upon completing their military service. Instead, they should fulfill two years of “church military service.” During these two years, they should spend four hours every morning to read the Life-study messages and the Recovery Version with the footnotes. They will be able to finish reading the Recovery Version with the footnotes in two years. Moreover, they will be able to finish reading all the Life-study messages; this is roughly twelve hundred messages. This is a good education. In the afternoon they will have time to rest and fellowship, and in the evenings they will either attend meetings, go to the campuses to contact people, or go visit people in their homes.
After two years we will see what the Lord has manifested in them and what their desire and burden are. If there is a clear manifestation of the Lord in them, and if their burden is strong, they can continue to serve for one, two, or even three more years. This way we will be able to determine who should get a job. Some brothers and sisters must obey their parents; they cannot make their own decisions. If their parents do not agree for them to be in such a program, the saints should not argue. We hope that through this practice, the church would not be just a home and a hospital but also a spiritual school for the saints to be educated in the truth. This will have a tremendous influence on the churches.
There are four areas that we must develop in Taiwan. First, we must recover the brothers and sisters who have been absent from the meetings for a long time. In Taipei there are at least ten thousand such saints. We need to go and fellowship with them. Second, we must do a gospel work on the campuses. The junior high schools, the high schools, the junior colleges, and the universities all need such a work. We need enough full-time serving ones to do this work. Third, we must actively promote the children’s work. We hope that within one year there will be ten thousand children in the children’s meetings of the church in Taipei. Fourth, we must preach the gospel in the community. We must take advantage of the people we know, and we must contact our relatives, colleagues, and friends. We need many saints to do this.
We must be clear that this is the Lord’s leading, and we must have faith that the Lord will bless His church. The Lord will also bless this country and this society because of this move. We should pray for our country and for our society. We must especially pray for the president and the officials of this country and ask the Lord to give them wisdom so that this country would progress until it is full of the gospel and the truth.
