[Nell]

Quite a few years ago, John was visiting the home of J&J in Plano, Texas. It wasn't a time of "ministry" but visiting. In one of our sessions, I reminded John of something he had shared in the "early days" in a conference in Dallas where he and James Barber were sharing. At the time James and John traveled together frequently for conferences and some of the brothers had given them the nickname "sons of thunder!"

In that conference John had said something like: "I will never forsake this way...Christ and the church. Even if Bro. Lee might someday take another path, I will not."

Of course, by the time of this visit, John and WL had indeed parted ways. In John's mind, WL had begun to take another way from the "vision" of Christ and the church. John could no longer abide the corruption taking place there, as outlined in his book "Speaking the Truth in Love", but in John's mind he never abandoned his vision. Clearly, "Christ and the church" were not connected to the man...Witness Lee.

After I reminded him of what he had said in Dallas, this little look came over his face as though he were trying to remember, or reflecting, or something...he was deep in thought for a few seconds. Then he said "I said that?"

We all smiled. I said "Yeah...you did!" Then he smiled, too.

In the light of what had gone on since that Dallas conference, it was clear that John was true to his word. He did exactly what he said he would do.

Nell