Nat and I were the youngest in our family. Growing up, I would always agree to race my kid brother because I knew I would win. But as we got older and I calculated that I might not be able to win anymore, I stopped racing him. I never dreamed that my little brother would finish his race course before I did.
When we both began to love and pursue the Lord as teenagers, I would be the first to agree that Nat loved the Lord more than I did. Even though we both later attended the inaugural term of the Fulltime Training in Taipei, Taiwan in 1986, I knew his dedication to serve the Lord was more intense than mine. When volunteers were needed to excavate a tunnel in the basement of our training center to enlarge the kitchen facilities, he would always be among the first to stand up to volunteer. I remember seeing a photo of him after one shift of tunnel digging, grinning from ear to ear, covered from head to toe with Taipei mud. Near the end of that term of training, when most of us trainees were too exhausted to get up at 5 am for morning exercise, yes, there was Nat, among the hardy few, still making the run from the training center to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park.
Although Nat has finished his course, may his life of loving the Lord and serving the Lord continue to be a pattern to all of us.