Note 115 - Personal Attacks
Aracaju, Brazil
On February 16, 2009, the leading brothers in Aracaju, Brazil, chose to stop following Brother Dong's ministry. In an e-mail dated February 17, 2009, Luciano Lima dos Santos, a leading brother from Aracaju, reported:
Dear brothers, we need your urgent prayer and fellowship. Yesterday there was a meeting with the responsible brothers in Aracaju where it was decided by a majority of the saints (six) that we were going from now on to speak only the words of the unique ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ. Only two brothers opposed. Even though the letters from Mexico were read, they tried to convince us to listen to Peter Dong's word defending Brother Dong's ministry, saying that he was John with the ministry of the Spirit and life and the rest of the world that follows the word of the unique ministry is judicial and in dead letter. This made us more clear to see in what kind of division we were in before.
No co-workers from North America were involved in their decision. Shortly thereafter the brothers in Aracaju learned that Brother Dong's co-workers intended to come to the area to try to turn some back to Brother Dong's ministry. As a result, they invited some brothers to come speak to the church to strengthen the church and help make the situation clear to all of the saints. They also wrote a letter on March 2, 2009, to Ezra Ma and the other co-workers of Brother Dong in which they stated:
By means of this letter we desire to make clear the position of the church in Aracaju (SE) related to the present situation in the Lord's recovery, as well as our feeling concerning the probable coming of some of you to our locality.
At first we want to make clear that we have nothing against the brothers, for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh (Eph. 6:12). However, our goal is to remain in the unique present move of the Lord, with the aim to the building up of the universal Body of Christ. After all, "We all agree with this sevenfold oneness doctrinally concerning the one God, the one Lord, the one Spirit, the one church, the one recovery, the one testimony, and the one work" ( One Accord for the Lord's Move , p. 42, W. Lee).
We are thankful to the Lord for our turning back to the central line of God's New Testament economy according to the healthy teaching of the apostles, which was opened to us by brothers W. Nee and W. Lee. Therefore, we are now absolutely convinced that we are one in teaching (1 Cor. 4:17; Rev. 3:13), practice (1 Cor. 11:16); thinking and speaking (Phil. 2:2; 1Cor 1:10), essence, appearance, and expression (Rev. 1:11-12).
Therefore, assured of the divisive character of the particular ministry and leadership of Brother Dong Yu Lan, the church in Aracaju is, finally, receiving the bountiful supply of the Holy Spirit by means of the ministry of the age, and we do not want to lose this blessing. The saints here are happy, and the meetings have more reality than ever before. As a church, we receive all saints in Christ, but we have a responsibility before the Lord to protect the church against different teachings, and to keep it in the oneness of the universal Body of Christ. For this cause, if someone from that ministry comes to our church, we will receive him, but we will not permit him to speak in the meetings.
Finally, we reiterate our love to all the saints in every church on all the earth. Nevertheless, from now on, we want to remain in the unique flow of the Spirit without any influence and control in the administration of the church, preserving, thus, its local autonomy, as states the Word of God.
Of the co-workers' visit Brother Luciano wrote on March 10, 2009:
We have no words to utter about the great help we received! It was a cleansing! A comfort! An unspeakable comfort! We really felt that we were never alone in this battle. Hallelujah!
We have never experienced before the organic fellowship of the Body with such a reality, being supplied, completed, and adjusted in coordination.
The meetings were full of freshness and much joy. The number of saints varied meeting by meeting between 45 and 60 saints.
Brother Dong's co-workers did visit the area around Aracaju and spread evil speakings about the saints in Aracaju. Brother Luciano wrote:
We were greatly persecuted, slandered, calumniated; the past sins of some saints were exposed. We even got sick with so much pressure from Brother Dong's co-workers. Just this week four of them came here (Ezra, Roque, Jackson, and Paulo Lomi); it was a massacre! They went from home to home, trying to bring back the saints that were not clear about the situation, and the emphasis was always to expose the feebleness of those who decided to follow the unique ministry.
Only the Lord knows how much we have suffered and are still suffering! How frightful it is to leave such a divisive ministry! It is much worse than when we left the denominations. But hallelujah for the supply that the Lord gave us with the saints coming! It was just in time! They were always wiping our tears, anointing our wounds with balm, and dripping eye salve on our eyes. May the Lord reward them!
Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Brasilia, March 14, 2009, Message 1:
I know they [the U.S. co-workers] went to Aracaju and took over the meeting hall Some sisters here are from Aracaju. You know the situation. They used the leading brothers there, all of whom have criminal records. They used these people with criminal records as representatives to take away the meeting hall, while we were having a conference in Estancia.
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Dong Yu Lan, National Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 12, 2009, Message 5:
Recently in Aracaju, Brazil, we acquired and remodeled a meeting hall. The leading co-workers forgot to register the property under the names of some main persons. Some were deceived by the U.S. [co-workers], and the meeting hall was taken over. I was very angry at this.
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Note: On March 13, 2009, Brother Dong told a meeting of saints in Goiania:
The next day [after hearing of the decision of the church in Aracaju to turn away from his ministry] I immediately went to Aracaju to comfort those fifty some brothers and sisters that remained.
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This statement is very misleading. It gives the impression that many saints in Aracaju did not agree with turning away from Brother Dong's work. It is true that Brother Dong did have a meeting with approximately 50 saints in Aracaju, but they were saints that we gathered from all around the area. Only a handful were from Aracaju itself.
Chile
The same kind of undermining through personal attack on the leading ones was practiced in Chile.
Statement from Miguel Angel Lagos and Luigi Espinoza, Los Ángeles, Chile, June 16, 2008:
Concerning our experience of the undermining evil work being done to the serving brothers in the church in Los Ángeles, we know of a close co-worker of Brother Dong Yu Lan who has spread in another country rumors about Brother Luigi going back to the world and sin. This is a false accusation and a characteristic of those who follow after the lie.
Statement from the church in Concepción, Chile, June 16, 2008:
Regarding Juan Rubilar, a responsible brother in the church in Concepción, he has been the target in this country of most of the attacks and slander.
It has been said that he took the money from of all churches' tithes to purchase a fleet of buses. He was never the treasurer of the church in the 30 years of the Lord's testimony in Concepción. He has no buses and receives no money from the churches. The saints who are naive believed this accusation.
They claimed that he received a free load of LSM books to damage Dong Yu Lan testimony in Chile. This is a false accusation.
Floriano, Brazil
Statement from Josué de Carvalho, April 2008:
After a regional gathering at the meeting hall of the church in Floriano, Brazil, in March 2008, it was reported to me by two brothers that unfounded rumors were being spread concerning my morality, in particular that I had "girlfriends."
