Brother Paul Wu had a stroke for the first time at the age of 35. In 2005 he went through a kidney transplant. Then when he was 60 years old, he had a third stroke. Although we are sorrowful over his passing, we are grateful to the Lord for giving us all the time we had with our brother. On December 14, 2018, he took a special trip, from Taipei to Chicago, to attend the graduation of his second son as well as the memorial meeting of Brother Jim Reetzke. I was concerned that because of this trip he would miss a dialysis treatment in Taipei, therefore I flew to Chicago to try to make arrangements for him to receive the dialysis locally. The arrangement was not successful. Afterwards we flew to Los Angeles in separate flights on December 16. Because of the Lord’s leading, Paul’s seat was changed to the first row in first class. As the airplane was about to land, Paul’s heart had the failure and he became unconscious. The flight attendants discovered it immediately and it so happened that the passenger next to him was a medical doctor who revived him with a defibrillator. On the way from the airport to the hospital, he was unconscious three more times. Thank the Lord for His keeping hand. After staying in the UCLA hospital for over a month, he was discharged. I thank the Lord for giving him another year and some months to be with us.
Brother Wu was my spiritual big brother and my close friend. The two of us could converse about many things, from the Jerusalem on the earth to the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation. He came to the US regularly, at least six times a year. Every time when he arrived, usually around 11 PM, we would go to have a bowl of noodle soup at a Tian Ren Tea shop in Cerritos. He was an excellent stories-teller. When those around him were laughing so hard because of the story, he would still be there calmly and slowly relating the rest. In my memory, the most funnies story he told us was this one time on an international flight. He found that he was surrounded by mothers, babies, and noisy kids. He requested to have his seat changed, to no avail. So he buckled down and tried his best to go to sleep gradually. As the flight went on, suddenly he was awoken by an overwhelming silence. He discovered that the mothers and kids had all disappeared. He inquired with a flight attendant and was told politely that his thundering snores had driven the mothers and the children away.
Brother Wu was rather famous for his fellowship concerning financial burdens. After his fellowship, most of the times the churches and the saints were willing to pay the price and offer for the need. He testified that he learned all these things from Brother Lee. In 1985 when they were purchasing the plot of land in Linko, the cost for the land was astronomical at that time (NT$34 million, about US$1.12 million). The brothers were very hesitant about purchasing the land. However, Brother Lee fellowshipped that the churches are likened to a big eagle with two wings, one wing being the small group meetings and the other wing being the big meeting. In order to go forward, both kind of meetings are necessary, and a large meeting hall is needed for this purpose. Seeing that the brothers in Taipei did not have the measure of faith to commit concerning the land in Linko, Brother Lee volunteered to bring this matter to the churches overseas for fellowship and said that he would be responsible for raising half of the NT$34 million. The faith of the brothers in Taipei was hence strengthened and they agreed. Subsequently Brother Lee called a “service meeting” in which all co-workers, elders, and serving saints were gathered. About 1000 saints attended that meeting. After brother Lee fellowshipped about the burden for the plot of land in Linko, he immediately asked the saints to fill out a pledge form, according to the size of the church and the financial capacity of the saints. As the pledge was being collected, Brother Wu thought that the meeting could be dismissed. But Brother Lee did not stop there. He called a hymn and continued the fellowship while Brother Wu and others were asked to quickly tally the amount of money from the pledge forms. To all of their surprise, the total amount from the pledge exceeded NT$34 million, the needed amount. There was no need for Brother Lee to bring it overseas for fellowship. Brother Wu testified that in his experience he has never seen anyone who was not able to live because of his offering money to God. Instead, those who offered to God lived well and loved God even more. Furthermore, any church who offered to God often resulted in an increase in number. For instance, after purchasing the plot of land in Linko in 1985, in two years the church in Taipei increased from 3000 to 4000 saints. After the plot for Hsin-Ji building was purchased in 1987, in which the church in Taipei paid a price to participate, the number of saints meeting in Taipei increased from 4000 to 5000 plus. Brother Wu said that there was much learning involved in giving the saints the pledge form. The leading one himself needs to have faith, to offer in faith, and to have the boldness to fellowship this matter in faith. One time in a gathering, Brother Wu fellowshipped with the saints concerning the need of a church in Asia for a meeting hall. After the fellowship, he asked those who did not have a burden for this matter to please empty out the money in their pockets before leaving the meeting venue. He obtained a well-earned title after that: the high-pressure salesman.
We also enjoyed listening to Brother Wu sharing with us about his experience serving with Brother Lee. Besides the purchasing of the plot of land in Linko, the most scintillating tale was the process of bidding in 1987 on the land on which Hsin-Ji building now stands. When brother Wu spoke to us about the bidding in 2017, he exhibited his incredible memory by recounting all the details 30 years ago, including the change of bidding amounts and the removal of the 14 households that inhabited there illegally. This particular plot of land is about 300 Taiwanese ping (a ping is about 36 square feet). At the time the going rate was NT$900,000 per ping. In the morning of the day they were to submit the bid, the brothers in Taipei felt to submit at a lower unit price, to NT$800,000 per ping. However, in the afternoon Brother Lee called them together again and asked them to reconsider the bid; he said they should put in a bid according to their ability. As a result, the church in Taipei submitted an even lower bid, at NT$570,000 per ping, for a total of NT$1.6 billion. As the unit price was much lower than the current rate, Brother Wu and others felt that their bid was just a gesture; there was little possibility for them to get it. Little did they expect that they would win the bid! Moreover, since Brother Lee advised them not to make any loans, brothers and sisters in Taiwan sacrificed greatly to meet the purchasing price. This proved to be very wise because evicting the squatters and resolving other issues took more than six years to accomplish. The interests alone for six years would have been more than NT$70 million. Brother Wu said that without the experience of offering for the land in Linko, there would not be the capacity and measure to bid for the land for Hsin-Ji building. Even later when Hsin-Ji was to be built, he witnessed that where the churches and the saints were in one accord there was the Lord’s blessing. What the thing man cannot do, God is able to do through them.
Among the many virtues of Brother Paul Wu, the most outstanding was his broad heart. King Solomon asked for wisdom, and God gave him great wisdom and a broad heart (the Recovery Version has “understanding heart,” 1 Kings 3:9). One time I told Paul an experience of mine. In the 1980s, there was once I went to Brother Lee concerning a brother. I accused this brother before Brother Lee because this brother was not supportive of the ministry and of the semiannual trainings. I was armed with facts. Brother Lee looked at me and said twice, “You encourage to him. You encourage to him.” Brother Lee’s response made me ashamed. As I was relating this incident to Paul, he said, “This is having a broad heart; we ought to love our brothers, endure our brothers, cover our brothers, and recover them.” After the churches in South America left the recovery, in 2015 many churches in Brazil requested to visit the churches in Taiwan. I still remembered one night, Paul and I had a long fellowship. I advised him not to receive the visitors from Brazil because it would cause much controversy. He said to me eventually, “No matter what their motives are, if the brothers from Brazil could see the one accord in the churches in Taiwan, perhaps our testimony would cause them to turn one day.” In the latter half of that same year, the ITERO happened to be held in Brazil. Brother Wu asked me to accompany him to visit Brother Dong because Dong was ill and in a wheelchair. Brother Wu visited him in love and in the principle of the Body, with the hope that fellowship of the churches could be restored. This was an evidence of Brother Wu’s broad heart.
There was one thing I did not understand about Brother Wu. In every semiannual training, Brother Wu would go to LSM and personally pick up all the training badges of the saints from Taiwan. When he was physically still able, he used to give the badges to the respective saints one by one. I asked him why he would bother, for many others could take care of this. He explained that he did not know some of the names and this was a good opportunity to get acquainted with them. Among the saints on the island of Taiwan, Brother Wu was able to recognize more than 1000 of them by name. We jokingly called him the “census bureau” of the churches in Taiwan. When Brother Lee asked Brother Wu to serve in the Book Room, Paul did not want to drop his teaching job. Brother Lee then said that Paul could serve and teach at the same time. Perhaps it was because of this, Brother Wu was the only brother who slept in the meeting when brother Lee was giving messages. Nevertheless, when he woke up, Brother Wu was able to prophesy, covering all the main points in the messages.
I had not spent the Chinese New Year in Taiwan since I left in 1971. However, this year in January, a special occasion arose such that my wife and I were able to be in Taiwan and we spent a whole week with Brother Wu. On the Lord’s Day Paul took me and my wife in his car to attend the New Year blending conference of New Taipei City. At the end of the conference, he introduced all the serving brothers, including some younger ones who recently joined the coordination, to the entire congregation of more than 4000 saints. He spoke with a loud voice and a strong spirit. One could not tell that he was not well. Mark 10:15 says, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall by no means enter into it.” A couple of times when I was talking with Paul, he would burst out laughing, carefree and happy. I said to him, “Why is it that your laughter is exactly the same as my 6-year-old granddaughter?!”
Thank the Lord! Our brother finished the years and the course God had measured out to him. He also left with us many sweet memories and a good pattern.
Abraham Ho
Church in Cerritos, California, USA
March 11, 2020
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