Brother Andrew Yu

In Memory of Brother Andrew Yu

With Br. Andrew Yu, 11 July 2016, LSM Campus, on Monday morning after serving one's fellowship.

I first met Brother Andrew Yu in person on 3rd July, Lord’s day morning at a restaurant in Anaheim over breakfast where I presented the budget for the Recovery Version translation in 6 Indian languages. The meeting was all related to the translation project and I did not have any personal fellowship, it was an official meeting as we prepared for the colossal work of translating the New Testament into 6 languages simultaneously. This is, by far, the most any literature center has taken up a project. Everything, to me, was the Lord's sovereignty and it is He who has been leading us through and through all this years. 

After the semiannual training, on the 11th of July 2016 I was invited to attend the serving ones' fellowship at LSM Campus on Monday morning. After the pursuing on a chapter from The Character of the Lord’s Workers, brother Andrew Yu spoke and surprised me. He said something like, "Today we have a brother from India and he will share with us his testimony; how he got saved, how he came to the church life, and how the propagation in India is going on, and how the distribution of the ministry books is done in India." I took that as the Lord’s arrangement and exercised my spirit to speak though it was an impromptu announcement. Then I testified of how the Lord saved me, how the Lord led me to His recovery, and how the Lord blessed His move in India especially through the distribution of the ministry of the word.  After my testimony and sharing, brother Andrew Yu encouraged all the saints present in the meeting to pray for India. After the meeting I went to greet him, shook hands, and took the photo together. That was perhaps the only personal interaction I had with him.

On 20th Dec 2020, I was at court premises in Gurugram, stamping and notorising the copyright agreements signed between LSM and the translators in India when I saw a message from my wife about brother Andrew Yu being taken to glory. I felt sorrowful for the great loss yet I thanked the Lord for such a faithful brother who indeed has been a pattern to many young serving ones like me. May the Lord continue to raise many young serving ones who would be faithful, diligent, and prudent in service, especially in the literature service.

Today, I received a message from Brother Jerusalem about Brother Andrew Yu's memorial day service which I attended online, being held by the Gospel Work in Taiwan. I was amazed at the capacity and gift our brother had in his lifetime. His service, to my understanding, is a fruitful one spanning the whole globe. His burden to propagate the ministry of the word, and his labor to bring out the Collected Works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and his burden to defend and confirm the truth are proofs of the special gifts the Lord had bestowed upon. To me, its glorious! I am glad and feel blessed to have such a pattern to learn from. I would personally thank the Lord for such a brother who had gone before me. Praise the Lord!

But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with you all.

Philippians 2:17

For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand.

2 Timothy 4:6

 But you have closely followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, endurance. 2 Timothy 3:10

These are the Bible verses that describes him best. Some of the exerpts from his memorial service are below:

In 1994 Brother Lee had the burden to publish the journal Affirmation and Critique to defend and confirm the pure and orthodox truths among us for the English-speaking Christians. Brother Andrew immediately invited some Chinese-speaking co-workers to participate in the writing of the Chinese edition of Affirmation and Critique. As he had been nurtured by Brother Lee over a

long period of time, Brother Andrew had a deep knowledge of Brother Lee's inner burden and was thus always able to carry out his burden strongly and absolutely.

In 2000, in a fellowship with the co-workers in Taiwan, Brother Andrew earnestly said that he had no thought of reputation and position and only hoped to follow the ministry singleheartedly, and he vowed to remove all stigmas and accusations against Brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee during his lifetime. Eventually, our brother truly spared no effort in this endeavor until his death. For the defense and confirmation of the truth, Brother Andrew encouraged co-workers to endeavor to attend any truth seminars or theological forums held in China. In addition, he also encouraged brothers in other countries to hold similar forums and invite scholars from different fields to participate in the discussion. This caused people from various backgrounds to have a reversal in their understanding regarding the orthodoxy of the theology in the Lord s recovery.

With regards to the completion of the entire set of 62 volumes of The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, and the entire set of 138 volumes of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, Brother Andrew not only was tireless in the areas of planning, coordinating, and supervising, but much more, he was personally involved in the areas of collecting the materials, editing, translating, and publishing. Take The Collected Works of Watchman Nee as an example, Brother Andrew went all over the world to search for and collect materials. As long as there was any clue of where the materials were, he would not give up. After the Chinese version of The Collected Works of Watchman Nee was published, there was the need to translate it into English. At that time, it was not easy to find someone who was fluent in both Chinese and English and could properly translate Chinese into English both faithfully and elegantly. Without any hesitation, Brother Andrew took up this enormous burden. Regardless of how busy his service was, he set the goal for himself to translate 30 pages a day and thus tirelessly and diligently completed this difficult task. Actually, oftentimes he worked late into the night, without sleep or rest.

Another exceprt from Brother Andrew Yu's testimony:

I remember this story. So, going back to the matter of buying the air-ticket, bro. Lee did not respond to that brother’s question. But in the following week, in a fellowship with a number of brothers, he mentioned about living by faith. The week before when the brother asked that question, bro. Lee did not reply. One week later, what he spoke was the answer. I also received an answer. That is, to serve the Lord we need to live by faith.

When the working ones hear about living by faith, they will turn pale. But our Lord is the All-mighty One who is real and living. He is living to bro. Nee and bro. Lee, and He should also be living to you. How far your faith is, how much His faithfulness will be manifested. Serving the Lord is like this. It is impossible to be rich. It is also impossible to starve. These two lines summarize my testimony. That time bro. Lee told me, “You consider so much and still you are not clear. For me, in two weeks everything is clear.” That time, my wife was still working. So her earning is a “reserve” to me. I also have one year of savings. So I thought, I would take one step at a time. I did not announce that I became a full-timer. I only gave all my time privately. One time, bro. Lee said next to me and said, “How come you still have not made it clear?” I felt very ashamed, seemed I was still dragging along. Anyhow, some people ran faster, some went slower, the Lord did not mind. Some people struggle for three years or five years, and the Lord still bears. The important thing is to follow the Lord’s leading and not arrangement by people.

That time I spent all my time to help bro. Lee. But bro. Lee is not my Lord. Only the Lord Jesus is my Lord. When I can give my portion I give and serve Him. No matter what we do, we are serving the Lord, and we are responsible to Him. Then the Lord will be responsible for us. We are the same as Peter. We do not have faith. That’s why the record in John 21 is very human. It is the test that we often face. Anyway, Jesus is Lord.

In 2004 I fell sick. At the end of that year, I counted, from 1979 (when I started to serve the Lord privately) until the end of last year, I have served the Lord for 25 years. At 3 a.m. on 1 January 2005, I woke up and prayed to the Lord, “Lord, in the past 25 years, it was so valuable. Along the way, you have been holding my hands, it was so sweet. Outwardly I was serving people and things, inwardly I was serving You. Lord, I did not have any interest in this world. I consecrated everything to you. But if you have mercy on me, I pray that you can give me another 25 years, so that I can live another 25 years of such a worthwhile life. This is my only hope.” I don’t know if the Lord heard my prayer. Anyway, it is His mercy that I can serve Him until today. I thank the Lord from the deepest part of my being. My fellowship ends here.

Praise the Lord for such a wonderful pattern of a propagator of the ministry of the word!