岳胡燕萍姊妹的见证
愛主
這是家母生前最後幾天還能發聲時竭力拚出來的兩個字，這也是她畢生的寫照。
家母是在1919年1月3日生於溫州市中心的五馬街鬧市，家道頗為殷實，但少年時代不幸家道中落。身為長姐在十六歲時被迫隻身漂零上海，勤奮苦讀一年就考進了國立上海醫學院護士學校。因感世事虛空漂泊動蕩，就在1937 年於上海哈同路文德里會所，藉聽倪柝聲弟兄傳講福音，因而受浸得救，時僅年滿十八歲。兩年後護校畢業名列前矛，被優格錄用於上海英租界的天主教醫院，方有經濟能力貼補家中弟妹。26 歲時隨醫護隊遷往重慶，在重慶陸軍醫院工作時結識家父岳揚弟兄，當時家父服役空軍通訊大隊尚未信主，但因同受戰火洗禮，因此相濡相親，於1945年5月20日結為連理。之後隨夫調往成都，任職華西大學醫院婦產科護士長。
於1949年1月隨軍遷台前在國內育有二子，在台又生一男二女。先在台灣衛生署護理科工作，負責督導全島省立醫院。但因軍眷生活清苦，家母就腳踏實地克勤克儉任勞任怨，為改善家中經濟，應徵參加美軍越南醫療隊工作一年，回來後就轉入美國陽明山海軍醫院工作八年，另有遠房親戚郭項桐英姊妹幫助，家中五小才得到妥善照顧教養，不虞匱乏。1951年家父也因小妹骨癌怪病得以回轉信主，全家都在台北召會第三會所過教會生活。1971年家母為照顧長孫女來到紐約，就感覺需要留下配合主在美國的開展行動。
家母意志堅強、秉性堅韌、也經歷主賜智慧，用大能大力托住她的身體，晝夜不休的勤讀三個月後，竟能以52歲高齡考生，一次通過紐約州的專業護士RN執照考試，從此取得永久居留身分，並儉食少用理財有方，逐漸奠定經濟基礎。
自幼家教甚嚴，見證家母律己克儉，但樂於助人，卻又極為慷慨，而且蒙主祝福能聖別理財，耄耋之年卻能成為多人的祝福。1981年就能以財務擔保在大陸的六位弟妹家人移民美國。先有計劃的辦四位姪兒來美探親留學，之後就業穩定後，全家都移民過來，目前已有過百親屬定居美國。其中絕大部分都因家母的見證而受感信主，也有不少留在教會生活中。她一生助人無數，費財費力，把自己都傾倒出去了。
在1983年受主引導並經過交通，就在紐約召會第一會所隔壁購屋，為著安家在召會中，方便享受召會生活。經常開家愛筵，傳福音牧養人。不僅接待照顧許多華語聖徒，也積極配合英語的福音行動，搭車出外發放單張，看訪聖徒，如此高齡就成為眾聖徒的榜樣。
曾在2001年參加安那翰的壯年班訓練，82高齡好學不倦，犧牲午休裝備真理，至今仍為許多同期受訓者津津樂道。先母心思敏捷記憶超強，親屬及聖徒的姓名、電話號碼都能熟記於心，曾有數年久未蒙面的姊妹，她能立刻喊出名字，眾皆嘆服，足見平日禱告中多有題名記念。紐約召會年前推動讀書背經計劃，她以96高齡當場背頌羅馬書，激勵年輕聖徒急起直追，此乃何等榜樣。
她學會隨時都操練靈，在任何聚會中都運用靈，高聲歡呼唱詩呼求主名，滿了新鮮活潑。在年長的常青聚會中經常申言，經綸重點言簡意賅，句句用靈推出，供應澆灌眾人，也常能拔高聚會的靈。也勇於操練在主日大聚會中用英語放膽講說主話。
四年前先父被主接去後，她身體各方面也都受到影響，外面的人雖然在毀壞，但裏面的人卻日日在更新。近兩年因爲肺積水、糖尿病足等毛病，進出醫院多次，臨終前殷殷叮嚀囑咐子女們要愛主，無主活著枉然失意。終在10月21日上午五時因為心肺功能衰竭而安息主懷，年邁過百、壽數満足，子女皆隨侍在側，真是何等蒙大恩的女子。
她活著是向主活，死了是向主死，或活或死縂是主的人，如今到主那裏原是好得無比，但我們這些活著還存留的人還是不勝追思感念。願所有親戚子孫後代都能蒙主保守活在召會中，以基督居首位。榮耀歸主！哈利路亞！
岳鐳敬上
Biography of Elsie Yueh
Love the Lord
“Love the Lord.” These were the words that my dear mother tried her best to speak out in the last days of her life, when she still had in her the strength to speak audibly. These words were also a portrayal of her entire life.
My mother was born on January 3, 1919, on Wuma Street in downtown Wen Zhou, Zhejiang province. While her family was quite wealthy, they experienced an unfortunate decline during her childhood. As the eldest child, she went to Shanghai alone to study at the age of sixteen. After one year of hard work, she was accepted into the Nursing School of the National Shanghai Medical College. Feeling the emptiness and turbulence of the world, she attended a gospel meeting preached by Watchman Nee, which was held in 1937 in the meeting hall of the church in Shanghai located at Hatong Road, Wente Zone. After hearing Brother Nee’s preaching, she was saved and baptized. She had just turned eighteen years old then. She graduated two years later as one of the top students and was hired by a Catholic Hospital in the British concession in Shanghai. Only then did she have the ability to support her younger siblings financially. At the age of twenty-six, she moved to Chongqing with the medical team. She met my father, Yang Yueh, while she was working at the Army Hospital in Chongqing. At that time, my father was serving in the Air Force Communication Brigade and had not yet received the Lord. Despite the war era surrounding them, they fell in love and married on May 20, 1945. Later, they moved to Chengdu where my mother worked as the leading nurse of the Obstetrics and Gynecology department in the Huaxi University Hospital.
My parents had two sons before they moved to Taiwan with the army in January 1949. My mother gave birth to one more son and two more daughters in Taiwan. She first worked in the Nurse Division of the Health Department of Taiwan, supervising all the provincial hospitals on the island. Like most of the military families in those days, they lived a poor life and were always scrambling to make ends meet. But my mother worked very hard without complaining. To improve the family’s financial situation, she applied to work for the US military medical team in Vietnam for one year. After returning, she worked for the US Yangmingshan Naval Hospital for eight years. Her distant relative, sister Ruth Kuo, helped to take care of her five children while she worked, and they were all well cared for and received good educations. In 1951, my father received the Lord because my youngest sister suffered from bone cancer and experienced the Lord miraculously. Our whole family enjoyed the church life in Hall 3 of the Church in Taipei. In 1971, my mother came to New York City to care for her oldest granddaughter. While she was here, she sensed the need of the Lord’s move in the United States, and decided to stay and cooperate with the Lord’s move.
My mother was strong in her will and perseverance with long suffering. At the age of 52, she was able to study vigorously for 3 months, strengthened in her body by the Lord’s mighty power. She passed the New York State RN license exam the first time she took it. Because of her RN credential, she not only obtained her permanent resident status, but also gradually established a solid financial foundation for the family through her frugal living and wisdom in financial management.
From my childhood, my family upbringing was strict. I witnessed how my mother was very disciplined, being hardworking and frugal. However, to others, she was always willing to help and extremely generous. Because of the Lord’s blessing and His sanctifying of her finances, she was able to be a blessing to many even in her advanced age.
In 1981, she helped her six siblings and their families immigrate to the US from Mainland China, as their financial guarantor. She had planned for her four nephews to visit and study in the US. After they found jobs and settled here, their whole families were able to migrate. Now, there are over one hundred of her relatives settled in the US, and most of them have received the Lord because of my mother’s testimonies. Many of them are in the church life. Throughout her life, my mother helped a great number of people, spending money, time and pouring her whole being out for them.
In 1983, by the Lord’s leading and through fellowship, she purchased a house next to Hall 1 of the church in New York City so that she could settle close to and enjoy the church life with convenience. She often opened her home for love feasts, preached the gospel and shepherded the saints. She not only cared for and gave hospitality to the Chinese-speaking saints, but she also actively cooperated with English-speaking gospel outreaches, taking public transportation to go out to distribute gospel tracks and visit the saints. Her steadfastness in preaching the gospel at such an advanced age made her a pattern to many saints.
In 2001, my mother attended the middle-age training in Anaheim. At the age of 82, she studied diligently, even sacrificing her lunch break to be equipped with the truth. Many of the fellow trainees in her term still remember her diligence fondly.
My mother had a keen mind and superb memory, able to remember the names and phone numbers of family members and the saints. She could immediately recall the names of sisters she had long not seen in person, surprising many and demonstrating her frequent remembrance and mentioning of the saints’ names in her daily prayer. When the church in New York City promoted a Bible memorization plan a few years ago, she recited, on the spot, the book of Romans at the astonishing age of ninety-six, motivating the young saints to keep up in their pursuit–what a pattern this was.
She learned to exercise her spirit all the time and in all meetings. She exalted in singing hymns and in calling upon the name of the Lord, full of freshness and life. She often prophesied in the senior saints’ Evergreen Meetings. Her prophesying was usually brief but with profound truth, focusing on God’s economy. She exercised her spirit to speak forth, ministered and watered many, and often uplifted the spirit of the meetings. She was also bold to exercise and spoke forth the word of the Lord in English during the prophesying meetings on the Lord’s Day.
After my father went to be with the Lord four years ago, her physical health was affected in many aspects. Although the outer man was decaying, her inner man was being renewed day by day. In the past two years,, she has been in and out of the hospital several times because of a number of illnesses, such as pulmonary edema and diabetic foot. Before she passed away, she had charged her children again and again to love the Lord because a life without the Lord is meaningless. At 5:00 am on October 21, she rested on the Lord’s bosom due to cardiopulmonary failure at the age of one hundred years while all of her children were by her side. She was indeed a woman who had been graced!
When she lived, she lived to the Lord, and when she died, she died to the Lord. Whether she lived or she died, she is the Lord’s. It is far better that she departed and is with the Lord, but to us who remain, we still cannot help missing her. May all her family, relatives, and descendants be preserved in the church by the Lord, giving Christ the preeminence in everything. Glory be to God! Hallelujah !
Source: https://www.facebook.com/churchnews/posts/2696983610323536
