At the end of December 1947, Sister Peace Wang, Sister Rachel Lee, and I first visited the church in Hong Kong and then proceeded from there to visit the churches in Canton, Swatow, Amoy, and Foochow, Watchman's hometown. During our three-week stay with the church in Foochow, a revival came in.

Before returning to the south, I composed and compiled The Chinese Gospel Hymnal. While we were staying in Foochow, Watchman inspected the manuscript and polished some of the gospel songs, especially the one entitled You Need Jesus.

Following the conference in Foochow, we stayed with Watchman another two weeks to fellowship with him that the recovery of his ministry must be sped up. When the other co-workers and leading ones heard about this fellowship, they also would not leave, but asked us to obtain permission from Watchman that they might also participate in the fellowship. At first he would not give his permission, but on further entreaty, he agreed for them to be present on the condition that they would sit a distance away from him in another section of his spacious living room. Only Peace Wang, Rachel Lee, and I sat together with him for fellowship. I opened the fellowship by asking him why all the churches in the provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung were filled with confusion. Immediately he responded by releasing a message on the line of Jerusalem. The word poured out of him for over an hour. We sat there astonished. To our surprise a sister sitting among those far away burst out, "Why should we not do it right now according to Brother Nee's message?" Brother Nee responded, "If you wish to do it, you must all hand yourself over to the work (the ministry). Sign a note indicating your consecration, and pass it on to Brother Lee." This they all did.

When the leading brothers of the church in Foochow heard about this, they came that evening and handed over both themselves and the church to the work. This stirred up all the saints in town, and Watchman decided to call a meeting of the whole church. He asked me to speak at that meeting, but I told him strongly that if he would not go and speak, I would not even attend the meeting. He therefore took up the burden and spoke at that meeting. All of us realized that this was the beginning of the recovery of his ministry. Hundreds of us rejoiced over this. These events transpired in March 1948.

I then told him that over forty co-workers and seeking ones would be attending a conference in Shanghai in April, which had already been scheduled. I asked him if he would take care of this conference, and he agreed.

In one of the conference meetings in Shanghai, he requested that we sing the spiritual prose on the life of the grapevine. His desire after so many years of suffering was to express his spiritual sentiment through the singing of that prose. I then put it into meter, and we sang it in the meeting.

That conference broadened the revival which had already been brought into Shanghai. Also through that conference Watchman's ministry was fully recovered. At that time he decided to have a six-month training in the training center on Kuling Mountain. Peace Wang, Ruth Lee, and I were assigned to stay in Shanghai to care for the church and the supply of the training.