Some Memories I Had of My Father（B）

Father’s Reminder: No Throwing in the Towel

for Full Time Service

When I was in graduate school in Taiwan, I mentioned my desire serve full time in the future to my father. But he wept! I was confounded. He says to me that full time service is a very hard life, that I must consider carefully. And now I thought that it was great that father gave such a reminder. Which is why I never considered throwing in the towel when encountering difficult situations in full time service.

God Led Our Family to walk the “New Way”,

“New Grace” Is Declaring Our Realization of God’s Blessing

At the end of 1981, I and Sophia got married at Taipei Hall 14, in Shipai District. Father was very happy that day, and spoke many words of encouragement in the meeting. In the summer of 1982, I went to the USA for training, that was the last time I’ve seen Dad alive. In 1983, I was working at a Chinese restaurant in Dallas. The work was hard and I was feeling down, but thru my eldest daughter’s birth, father spoke many words of encouragement. He said that he believes God will lead my family to walk a “new way”, thus he named my eldest daughter “Hsin-Lu” meaning “New Way”. In the later years, God did bless my whole family as father had prophesied, so we named the second daughter “Hsin-En” (New Grace), declaring our realization of God’s blessing.

When father passed away in 1985, I was in graduate school in Texas, and did not went back for the funeral due to not being able to afford it. It is until 2013, and father’s grave get transferred to Grace Terrace in Southern California, that my regret can finally die down.

Looking Back at Father’s Entire Life:

1. It’s not just he that loves and serves the Lord, he also encouraged his children to do the same. Even today, our whole family considers serving the Lord as most glorious thing. The proclamation in Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my family, we shall serve Jehova.” Is father’s life testimony.

2. Concerning propagation, he is willing to break the alabaster flask and pour out everything for the Lord, and go to the harshest region to propagate. When father and mother first went to Hualien for propagation I was born, and mother suffers from chronic migraines since then. The second time father went to serve in Hualien, he suffered the stroke, severely limiting his mobility ever since, but he never held it against the Lord.

3. Concerning the service in the work, he absolutely put himself under the authority of the leading brothers. And wouldn’t have his own choices due to concerns with family, nor the children. The boxes for moving is always ready and prepared for directions to the next destination.

4. On shepherding and perfecting the saints, father doesn’t mind, and took care of them family by family, from house to house. Another impression I had of my father when I was little, is that he always rode his bicycle out every night, be it to meetings or to visit the saints. After the stroke, he served the saints with his prayer.

Father’s example, and his personal character deeply affected me, and helped me a lot in my service. I am very honored that I have such a father.

Respectably, and Sincerely:

Second Son, Li-Shi Liu

May 3rd, 2016 in Jerusalem