Notes 19-20 - Brother Dong Claims Brother Lee Did Not Want Co-workers to Visit
19Brother Dong's Claim That Brother Lee Did Not Want His Co-workers to Labor in South America
Letter to 21 co-workers from "Your brothers and co-workers in South America," June 20, 2005:
Due to the negative experience with Austin Sparks, Brother Lee has advised Brother Dong not a few times, in private fellowships, not to invite other co-workers to minister the word in South America, in spite of Brother Dong's insistent attempts in bringing the co-workers from the U.S. to come minister the word in Brazil. Time after time Brother Lee discouraged Brother Dong from doing so, and encouraged him to take the lead in the work in South America, advising him to only follow the leading of the Spirit according to the needs of the churches in South America and to be faithful to the burden given by the Lord Himself.
Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 22, 2007, Message 11:
One time two US co-workers, John Ingalls and Benson Phillips, wanted to go to Guatemala to preach the gospel. They had the burden to go and had already found their translators. At that time Brother Lee was in Taiwan leading the training. When he heard about this, he made a long distance call to me, saying, "Brother Dong, two American co-workers are going there to work. The Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking work has been entrusted to you by the Lord. It should be you going there to preach the gospel. You should also bring your own translators such as Pedro, Miguel, or Ezra, or your son, Andres."
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Miguel Ma, Conference in Uberlandia, Brazil, June 2, 2007:
Brother Lee told Brother Dong, do not invite the co-workers that are around me to come to South America so that they can speak things. Brother Dong asked why. Brother Lee said they can speak the right things, but the way they do things is different, and by the fact that they speak, they can transmit a different way to do things and they can create problems there. So don't do that.
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Dong Yu Lan, National Conference in Barranquilla, Colombia, August 16, 2008, Message 1:
Why did Brother Lee for more than twenty years forbid the American brothers, co-workers, or other co-workers to come to Brazil? Why? Because he knew that Brother Dong's leading is completely according to his burden and his work of life.
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Brother Dong's statement is self-serving and inaccurate. As he often does, he takes a statement that may or may not have been made in private in a particular situation and, if it suits him, continues to trumpet it decades after it was made. In doing so, he neglects all public and private statements that would contradict his application of that statement. Brother Lee made many public statements concerning his desire for his co-workers to visit South America (see notes 21 and 22), and he also stated that he himself would not go to South America because to do so would be to build up Brother Dong's work (see note 29), which was different from his (see note 30). This directly contradicts Brother Dong's claim here that Brother Lee would not allow his co-workers to come to South America because he knew Brother Dong was doing the same work that Brother Lee was.
Letter from the responsible brothers of the church in Cali, Colombia, October 18, 2007:
On many occasions the church in Cali tried to invite the co-workers from the USA, but [brothers] who follow Brother Dong Yu Lan's leadership and are his assigned co-workers for Colombia, did not approve. They argued that Brother Lee instructed Brother Dong not to invite co-workers to visit the churches in South America. Brother Dong himself made the same claim in a conference in Bogotá, Colombia, in April 2005.
Note: In 2002 Gary Kaiser proposed to Ezra Ma that two of Brother Dong's co-workers in Colombia travel with the North American co-workers to Cali. Ezra responded that this was a very good idea but that Gary needed to fellowship with Brother Dong. When Gary did so, Brother Dong said, "No," because to do so would give the brothers in Cali a "further excuse for rebellion." He also expressed concern that Gary would speak differently than Brother Dong and told Gary that he should read Brother Dong's books to learn how he teaches. This was a further indication that Brother Dong realized his speaking was different from that of the co-workers throughout the Lord's recovery and that he wanted to keep his own work separate from the one work in the Lord's recovery. (Interview with Gary Kaiser, January 30, 2009)
20Regionalism Misused to Isolate South America from the General Ministry and Fellowship in the Lord's Recovery
On July 7, 1991, Brother Lee met with Brother Dong and his co-workers along with others from South America. This fellowship took place the day after Brother Lee had shared the message entitled "Knowing the Body," printed as chapter one of Further Consideration of the Eldership, the Region of Work, and the Care for the Body of Christ and as chapter 12 of Elders' Training, Book 11: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (3). In this message he said:
I am concerned that in the Lord's recovery, the brothers in a certain country may consider that the work there is their work. Then some brothers in another country may consider that the work there is their work. Thus, we have many works. This shows that our situation today is abnormal, yet probably not many of us have the sensation of abnormality in the recovery. There is a practical situation that is abnormal, and the biggest point of this abnormality is the different works.
I hope that we will consider our present situation before the Lord. Are we doing the same one work for the recovery? If not, we should let the Lord have the freedom to adjust us. Thank the Lord that due to the riches of the truth, the Lord's recovery is being welcomed everywhere on the earth. In the Lord's move in His recovery, there should only be one work, not different works. Our situation is different from this. We have different works without any consciousness. This is dangerous. (p. 19)
He then spoke concerning how the current state of the world in terms of transportation and communication had made it possible to carry out one work throughout the earth:
In Paul's time, because of the lack of modern transportation and communication, it would have been logical to have the work divided. However, there was only one work. Today the globe has been made small by modern conveniences. All the modern conveniences have made the globe just like a city. Despite this we do not have one work but many works. If we stay in this situation, a negative result may come out eventually. We do have an existing problem among us. I hope that we would reconsider our situation. (p. 19)
The next day he repeated this point to Brother Dong and his co-workers:
In the Bible there are regions of work, as I mentioned last night, but there are only two regions: the Jewish region and the Gentile region. There are no sub-regions in either one.... Paul's region covers greater area than Peter's. Within this region, historically and geographically, Antioch itself can be one region, Asia Minor can be another, Macedonia, Greece... Spain—they all can form their own regions. But were there so many sub-regions in Paul's region?...If this was the case 2000 years ago when transportation and communication barely developed, how much more should we not have sub-regions today? Now we have telephone, telegraph, fax, etc. If in Paul's times there were no sub-regions, much more we should not have sub-regions. But look at us today: there are many regions among us....
There are only two regions in the Bible. Is there a third region? No. No sub-regions, even though there was a vast territory [in the Gentile region]: from Antioch to Asia Minor, to Eastern Europe, to Mid-Europe, then to Western Europe. At that time, Spain was the utmost part of the earth. All these huge areas were only one region. According to the truth, the Body of Christ is one. We must preserve the oneness of the Body. This is Eph. 4:2-4. You must keep the oneness of the Spirit: one Body and one Spirit. To keep the oneness of the Spirit is to keep the oneness of the Body. Obviously, to have so many sub-regions does not keep the oneness.
This fellowship is directly contrary to Brother Dong's speaking that:
- Brother Lee appointed him over the work in the region of South America (see note 74).
- Brother Lee charged him to keep the work in South America isolated from other parts of the earth (see note 19).
Rather than keep the churches in South America in the one work of the common ministry in the Lord's recovery, Brother Dong has misused Brother Lee's fellowship to say that the churches in South America should be in the one flow of Brother Dong's own ministry.
Brother Lee was really wise in the way he conducted the work and in giving direction to his co-workers. He spoke several times with me about what happened when the brother from England was in Taiwan (the matter that was mentioned in yesterday's portion of the Daily Food), always warning me to be careful to lead the churches in only one line...
Much damage is caused when serving brothers and co-workers are doing different works among the churches in a region. Some brothers begin to seek new things according to their fallen, natural mind and they become cold in the church life and eventually begin to speak negative things. May the Lord Himself preserve His churches and keep them in oneness, in the flow of the life of the Body! (Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: Practicing the Book of Acts, Week 11, Saturday)
Brother Dong's representation of what Brother Lee told him in private is contrary to both the available record of their conversation of July 7, 1991, and Brother Lee's public statements (see notes 21 and 22). Given Brother Dong's evident misrepresentation of the content of Brother Lee's fellowship with him in their July 7 meeting as a vindication of Brother Dong's ministry and work, his characterization of Brother Lee's fellowship concerning not inviting co-workers to South America is also untrustworthy.
