ADDITIONAL QUESTION AND ANSWER
Question: There is a newly saved woman here who has received the eternal life, but she has two husbands. One lives away from home and works for others (because they are poor); the other is not a real husband but always lives in her house and receives his livelihood from her. Can this type of person be baptized?
Answer: She must leave the relationship with her improper husband and produce fruits of repentance to prove that she is a person who has really repented, believed, and been regenerated. Then we can baptize her and receive her into the table meeting.
Witness Lee
NEWS FROM YIN HAN CHUANG, HUAI AN,
NORTHERN KIANGSU
Greetings to the dear brothers in the Lord,
Brothers Nee and Chang:
I was in the second ten-day conference and the Bible study meeting that followed. After the end of the meetings, I returned to northern Kiangsu and have not been able to write and fellowship with you until now. I have only communicated indirectly with you through two previous letters that were written by other brothers. But I have not been purposely hiding anything; I was just immature and did not know how to love the brothers with the love of the Lord. I did not know the importance of asking the brothers to pray for me. I was living in the clouds and fog. Thank the Lord for giving me light recently. I know that He is my Head and each of us brothers and sisters are His members making up His one Body, so we should act together and should not hide ourselves. Two years ago, I wanted to write several times to greet you, but the enemy always stopped me with a lying voice that said, "If you write your letter wrong, people will laugh at you." I did not realize you are my elder brother and I am your younger brother, so it does not matter if I write something wrong. Thank the Lord for taking away the veil of my shame so that I can do my best to write about the meeting and the condition of the environment here.
The place where we meet on the Lord’s Day is a sister’s house. There are about thirty people in the meeting. Most of them were brought by the Lord out of the China Inland Mission. There are five brothers and eleven sisters who break bread on the Lord’s Day. There are others who have not been baptized. Some have only been saved recently. Aside from the meetings on the Lord’s Day, there is a meeting for prayer and reading the Bible on Thursday. Brothers Hsu Li Sheng and Yin Ko Ch’u come and meet together with us in that meeting. There are about seven or eight people who attend that meeting. The rest of the brothers and sisters do not come because it is not convenient to travel on the wild country roads at night. They sing hymns and pray in their homes. But we cannot meet during the day because most make their living by farming. Aside from the meeting on Thursday, we brothers sing, pray, and read the Bible individually at home on the other evenings. We all read strictly from the Bible because some brothers and sisters do not know many words. Thank the Lord, on the afternoon of the Lord’s Day we remember and worship, and then there is some opportunity to stand up and speak so that we all can receive the help. This spring, on February 14, which is the time the farmers rest, the brothers and sisters here were blessed by the Lord to have six days of meetings which we then continued with three days of gospel meetings. Thank the Lord, He saved another two sisters in our meeting.
About one year after I believed in the Lord, my wife went to sleep in the Lord. First Corinthians 7:29-31 often works in me. Two months after being baptized, my son returned home sick from Huai An County Central Teachers’ School and also went to sleep in the Lord. First Thessalonians 4:13 has comforted me much. Before my son went away, I knelt before the Lord and cried, not because my son was going to die, but because the brothers and sisters in the meetings of two localities, Chang Chia Yao and Yin Han Chuang, were all in an immature condition and did not have any knowledge of the Bible. I was afraid that my experience would affect them, stumbling them and disappointing them, so I cried. Thank the Lord, His power is great! Thank the Lord, His way of salvation is marvelous! The believing ones did not stumble and become disappointed. On the contrary, they even became stronger and bolder. The unbelieving ones saw that he slept without any of the bitterness of death, and they went home and believed the Lord. In these two years, the Lord has saved more than twenty people in Chang Chia Yao. I lived there for five years. The first three years I both taught school and worked for the Lord. The last two years, I quit my teaching job and used all my time to work for the Lord. Last year, the Lord wanted me to return to my home town (Yin Han Chuang). I was blessed by the Lord to build three huts on the foundations of the old home. Because my flesh brothers and I have not separated financially yet, I temporarily teach a few students in these buildings together with a brother in the Lord, Han Ch’ao. Therefore, our meetings are still held in the sister’s home. This sister is Ruth Han. Her husband is a member of the China Inland Mission and is also saved. He was not clear about the truth, so he was called by some neighbors to join the army. There has been no news from him since he left. After this sister received the truth, she was persecuted much. Outside the home, the enemies threatened her, and in her home, she was rejected by her husband’s family and sometimes tempted by her mother’s family. The enemy, Satan, surrounded her with thousands of traps. Thank the Almighty Lord, each time He led her out of danger. Unfortunately, she is too young. We can only commit her to the Lord’s hands. Her flesh has been gradually wearing away, so she is often sick. Last winter and this spring, she was extremely ill, and to man’s eyes it looked as if she could not live anymore. Thank our Lord, He blessed her and she was able to get up. Now she and Su Hua (my daughter) have gone to Yi Lin together to learn the lessons of the Lord from Sister Chin. Brothers and sisters, please do not forget to pray. I greet the brothers and sisters in the meeting at Wen-teh Lane with this! I also greet all the brothers and sisters in the fellowship!
Your little brother,
Han Shang Chen
April 13
(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 25: Collection of Newsletters (1), Chapter 8, by Watchman Nee)
