NEWS FROM HUA SHE, SHAOHSING,
CHEKIANG PROVINCE
Greetings to the brothers and sisters who meet
in the Lord’s name in every place:
Through the publication Collection of Newsletters your brothers in Hua She have come to know how God uses His faithful servants to work in every place. We cannot refrain from giving glory to our Father. We weak, little ones have received much help from Collection of Newsletters, but we also feel very ashamed because we have seen that we are very immature in many areas.
Nevertheless, we still believe that all things work together for good to those who love God. For this reason, we have written the following to briefly explain the origin of the meeting in our locality.
The Period of Confusion
There were about twenty different branches of the Hangchow Ch’ing T’ai Men Chinese Independent Inland Mission. Each branch was independent in each locality. Hua She was one of those localities. The number of those who confessed their faith outwardly was over one hundred. However, they were all confused and not clear about the matter of salvation.
The Period of Light
After Brother Hu Chi T’ang went to Shanghai to work in the silk brocade business, he received clear salvation from God’s servant. Every time he returned to Hua She, he would preach salvation to us causing us to become clearer step by step.
The Period of Pursuit
After we understood salvation, we knew that we were nothing but babes. We spontaneously desired the pure milk of the word. Brothers Shan Kai Fen and Hu Chi Fu attended the conference in Shanghai in 1931.
The Period of Transition
God released the truth concerning the church in the 1931 conference in Shanghai. Brothers Shan and Hu knew that they should not remain in the denominations. After returning to Hua She, they withdrew their names from the denomination and resigned from their positions as board members and treasurer of the church. At that time, the Seventh-day Adventists were working in Hua She, so the members of the Inland Mission were in turmoil. If Brothers Shan and Hu met some place else, many people would not know what to do. For this reason, many faithful ones invited Brothers Shan and Hu to conduct meetings in their denominations. The goal was to strengthen and exhort them and to wait for the time (God’s time) to move.
The Period of Practice
After the truth of the church was preached in Hua She, it was several months before it was put into practice. Finally, Brother Watchman Nee came to Hua She on March 4, 1933. In a fellowship meeting, he clearly solved many difficult problems in the Bible, and many people were satisfied. A few days later, the entire congregation decided to leave the denominations. On April 2, we began to practice meeting in the Lord’s name.
The Preaching Meetings
Every Lord’s Day we preach the gospel at 9:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon. There is a edifying meeting at 10:30 in the morning.
The Lord’s Table Meeting
At first we had the table meeting at 7:30 in the evening because we were afraid that unsaved ones would be mixed in with us. At that time, there were at most seventeen or eighteen and sometimes only four or five people because of the distance (most of the people live three miles outside of Hua She) and the weather (storms, heat, or cold). On June 24 of this year, we changed the meeting time to 8:30 in the morning for the convenience of the brothers who live far away. We meet in Brother Hu’s house in order to avoid disturbance. The number in the meeting is usually about twenty. If all those who break bread come at once, there are more than thirty. Furthermore, there are still twenty to thirty people who are saved but have not yet broken bread with us. The immaturity of our spiritual life is sufficiently demonstrated by this condition. We ask and hope the brothers and sisters in each locality will pray for us.
Your brothers,
Hu Chi Fu, Yang En Fu, Shen Yung Tao
Mailing Address: c/o Mr. Hu Chi Fu, Hua She, Shaohsing, Chekiang
(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 25: Collection of Newsletters (1), Chapter 10, by Watchman Nee)
