A Faithful and Prudent Steward
Brother Paul Wu was saved in his childhood, grew up in a family that loved the Lord, and actively participated in the church life and service, in which he labored tirelessly, faithfully, and diligently. In the summer of 1982, while our brother was still a high school teacher, he was commissioned by Brother Witness Lee to shoulder the weighty responsibility as the manager of the Taiwan Gospel Book Room.
In the fall of 1984, Brother Lee returned to Taiwan to lead the churches into the practice of the God-ordained way. Brother Wu fully cooperated in every aspect of the service and dropped his teaching job in the summer of 1985 to serve full-time. In the summer of 1986, the full-time training began in Taiwan with six to seven hundred trainees, half of whom being from overseas and all being accommodated in one place. The daily provision was exceedingly burdensome. Through the Lord’s grace, our brother bore these weighty responsibilities, was one with the ministry, and labored without complaint so that the training could proceed unhindered.
At the beginning of 1989, the work of gospelizing Taiwan in five years commenced. Brother Wu was again entrusted with the provision service, which was to prepare vehicles, accommodation, and other facilities for the establishment of each new local church. Under the leadership of Brother Wu, the brothers coordinated harmoniously to overcome difficulties and meet the needs everywhere. Strengthened by the Lord, our brother was extraordinarily energetic. He made monthly visits to each gospel team, often driving overnight so as to arrive at the new meeting halls before sunrise without giving prior notice to the serving ones. Our brother’s service in this way caused the serving ones of every gospel team to be watchful and not be slothful at all.
In 1991, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, Brother Lee initiated the Lord’s Move to Europe (LME) for propagation in the former Soviet Union. The following year, Brother Wu keenly sensed that this was a move of the Body and urged the brothers in Taiwan to share the same burden. He invited the brothers to visit Russia together. Passing through Anaheim on the way back, the brothers told Brother Lee of the blessing they witnessed. Brother Lee charged the churches in Taiwan to do their best to have a part in this move by cooperating practically in the matters of manpower and material offerings. Such a practice established a precedent for the churches in Taiwan to participate in worldwide propagation in one accord. This brought in the semiannual blending conferences of all the churches in Taiwan. This also initiated the fellowship concerning every saint in Taiwan offering with an annual goal for the overseas work. From 1993 to 2007, more than two hundred young co-workers were sent from Taiwan to propagate in the former Soviet Union, reaching Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. Two hundred local churches were established. Our brother’s foresight, coupled with the full cooperation with the ministry, invited the Lord’s great blessing upon the propagation move in Russia.
At the end of 1992, Brother Wu was enlightened by the Lord to recognize the Lord’s timely speaking and the flow of the Spirit in the annual conferences conducted by Brother Witness Lee’s in the United States, which should not be neglected. In view of this, he led the Book Room serving ones to prepare The Holy Word for Morning Revival based on such conferences, which has since been a crucial supply to the churches. From 1994 onwards, he also encouraged the churches and the saints to seize the opportunity to attend the conferences and trainings in the United States during the crowning years of Brother Lee’s ministry. Those were the years in which Brother Lee released the messages on the high peak of the divine revelation, and all the churches in Taiwan were perfected in the same vision. Brother Wu’s service in this regard caused the churches in Taiwan to receive indescribable blessing.
In 1994, the construction project of the Hsin-Ji Building began in Taipei. The financial burden was extremely heavy, the cost being projected to be one billion New Taiwan Dollars. Brother Wu received wisdom from the Lord and fellowshipped about the mutual sharing of finances among the churches. An unprecedented pattern was thus set up in the matter of material offering. Not only were the churches brought into the one accord for the eventual completion of the building; even more, the churches, through their fellowship over material things, received great blessing from spiritual blending and were enlarged in their capacity for material offering. Because of this, the churches continued to receive boundless benefit to this day.
In the summer of 1995, Brother Lee pointed out that the Lord’s recovery had reached the high peak of the truth and aspired that it would also reach the high peak of propagation. To this end, he proposed the establishment of twenty publication stations. This burden was initially picked up by the brothers from the West, and the work was started in some European countries. In early 1997, Brother Wu was entrusted by Brother Lee to encourage the young co-workers from Taiwan to go to Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, India, and Ghana to learn the local languages and to look for translators to put out the publications of the Lord’s recovery in the respective languages. The capacity of the saints in Taiwan to participate in the Lord’s work worldwide was once again broadened.
Brother Lee passed away in 1997, and the churches affirmed in one accord to steadfastly maintain the practice of having the seven annual conferences and trainings, not only for the release of the truth, but also for the blending of the Body of Christ. Faithful to this cause, Brother Wu encouraged the co-workers to attend the conferences and trainings in person to blend with overseas saints. He also encouraged the churches in Taiwan to follow the ministry closely and strengthen the blending. Thus, a solid foundation was laid for the churches in Taiwan to move on in one accord by continuing steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles.
In 2003, in the fellowship of the co-workers, the Mainland Scholars Work (MSW) was established. Brother Wu received the burden and led the churches in Taiwan to support it unreservedly, in manpower, in material offerings, and in coordination with the Chinese-speaking co-workers in the United States. This work has brought about the salvation of almost ten thousand scholars and the raising up of scores of full-time co-workers.
In 2009, the co-workers serving in Taiwan repented for their negligence in the practice of the God-ordained way. On the one hand, Brother Wu encouraged the churches to practice begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building in the framework of gospel preaching, home meetings, group meetings, and district meetings. On the other hand, he encouraged all of the churches in Taiwan to strive toward a common goal—saving 10,000 young people every year. In the eleven years since then, around 100,000 new ones have been baptized, and there has been a steady increase in the churches year after year.
In 2010, Brother Wu received the burden in fellowship to blend together the co-workers from countries in Asia where local churches have been established to initiate the Lord’s Move to Asia (LMA). Young people who had the heart for propagation were supported to move to countries where the testimony of the Lord’s recovery had not been established. In the last ten years, no fewer than one hundred young co-workers have participated in this move. They learned the local languages, raised up 302 churches, and brought in 18,000 new ones.
In 2014, Brother Wu received a further burden in fellowship to care for brothers who work in the industrial and commercial circles in areas of the world where the gospel is restricted. Provisions were made so that they could be perfected while overseas. Such provisions have enabled many to complete their middle-age training in recent years and become living and functioning members in the Body of Christ in various localities.
An overall view of Brother Wu’s decades of service reveals a labor which was not only effective but also of longstanding value. The key to this was his firm recognition and close following of the ministry. In addition to this was his diligence, his resoluteness to fulfill any commission he received, and his magnanimous capacity to accommodate all the brothers. He was able to blend the co-workers and cause everyone to work together in good coordination. He often gave opportunities to the younger ones. In every way, he was a pattern to the co-workers. We will always remember this pattern which the Lord has given us.
The Co-workers in the Taiwan Gospel Work
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