Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Hitchhiker

A number of years ago we visited a church in Sydney where Paul had been invited to minister. At the end of the meeting a young red-headed man and a young woman came down the aisle of the church and came straight up to me.

"Do you remember me?" the young man asked.

I looked at him but had to apologize.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't remember you."

"You picked me up hitchhiking ten years ago."

I laughed and shook my head. "That wasn't me" I said, "I never pick up hitchhikers."

"Yes it was" he replied, and as he spoke I suddenly remembered. My mind went back ten years before and I remembered how I had been praying to the Lord. Our full-time Bible School was going strongly and my regular routine was taking the children to school, teaching in the Bible School until it was time to pick them again, taking them home, preparing dinner, and, at least twice a week, attending a fellowship meeting. It was a full schedule and I loved it. But something was stirring in my heart. I was constantly with Christians. This was wonderful, but I also wanted to reach people who didn’t know the Lord. One morning I woke up and prayed...

“Lord, out there you have someone ready to receive you as Saviour. Today, please lead me to them so I can bring them to you.”

I was so certain about it. I knew there was someone waiting to hear the Gospel. I took the children to school. I went and taught in the Bible School. 3 o’clock came around and it was time for me to pick up the children. I drove down the highway towards the school.

“Lord” I said, “There’s not much time left. When I pick up the children I’ll be going home, preparing dinner and then going to a meeting.”

Suddenly I noticed a hitchhiker on the road and before I knew what I was doing, I pulled over and opened the door. I remember thinking to myself “What on earth am I doing?!” In got a hippie. He had long red hair. I was so nervous and amazed at myself I didn’t say a word but just began driving down the highway again. I could feel the young man shifting uneasily in the seat. Finally he broke the silence.

“Er.......what do you do?"

I was thrilled at his question. What an opportunity, I thought. So I told him...

“I’m a missionary. I’m teaching at a Bible School”

Suddenly his demeanor changed.

“You don’t believe in God do you?” His voice had the sound of shocked horror. For me, it again seemed a wonderful opportunity.

“Yes, I do”

“Why....why do you believe in God!?”

What better question could there be? I told him why I believed in God. I told him how I came to know the Lord, how wonderful He is. I told him of miracles we had experienced and seen Him do. I told him.....

Suddenly he interrupted me...

“Stop the car! I want to get out!” He was very angry.

“But don’t you want to go further.?....” I stuttered. I couldn't believe he would want to get out. He was the divine appointment arranged by the Lord, I thought.

“Stop the car here!” he demanded.

I stopped. He got out and slammed the door after him and I drove on. I felt terrible.

“Lord, I’m so sorry. I messed it up.....” I said miserably. But then I encouraged myself. “No, he obviously wasn’t the one. There is someone else out there who is ready....”

But no other opportunity came. I picked up the children, went home, prepared the dinner, went to the meeting, went home, and went to bed so disappointed.

Here we were - ten years later!

“You don’t know what happened to me, do you?” he said.

“No” I said, intrigued, “Please tell me.”

“I had just left my wife. I had walked out of the door and told her I was never coming back and I meant it. I was furious because she had become a Christian and would go on and on about Jesus! I couldn’t stand it anymore. I began hitchhiking down the highway and you picked me up. And then you began to go on and on about Jesus! I was so angry. I got out the car and slammed the door after me...I don’t know if you noticed [I smiled at this]. I stood on the edge of the road fuming. I don’t know how long I stood there but after I calmed down I looked up at the sky and said, 'Well God, if it means that much to you....' and I went back to my wife and told her what had happened. She prayed with me and I received the Lord.”

What a lesson it was for me. The Lord of course had been faithful to His word that day. In His goodness He allowed me to find out about it ten years later.

Monday, February 19, 2007

The Challenge to David's Faith

In the midst of all that was happening since arriving in Sydney, living in Australia was certainly a new experience for the children. In their short lives they had been living as missionaries amongst people who had no knowledge of the Lord. Their concept was that people didn’t love Jesus because they didn’t know about Him. It was a surprise for them to come to Australia and many times, as we travelled on public transport or visited the shops, they would hear name of Jesus used but not by people who loved Him. They had never heard profanity before. That these people knew about Him but didn’t love Him was a totally new revelation for them.

Our new home was in a cul-de-sac with many young families and we enrolled David and Rebecca in the same local school the neighbourhood children went to. When we moved in, the children in the street gathered outside, curious about their new neighbours, and David and Rebecca went out to meet them and make friends. They all went up to the spare block of land next to our house to play. I was at the kitchen sink washing the dishes. I couldn’t see them but I could hear them playing and I was enjoying so much the thought that the children had made friends. After a little while the games stopped and I could hear David talking. He was telling them all about the Lord and how He had died on the Cross. I could hear him praying for each of them to receive Jesus into their hearts.

My feelings were mixed. I was so proud of him but I was also fearful for him. I knew what the possible reaction of these children would be. I could imagine the jeering and mocking he could get. I wanted him so much to have friends and fun as a child should. But sure enough what I feared proved right. Every day at school David experienced horrific persecution. He was ostracized and targetted.

Each morning we would pray with the children as they left for school. Some days, as they returned home, we would see the heavy spirit of rebellion that had come on David. Paul would deal with it immediately.

“Come on, son” he would say, “Let’s pray with you."

As we did, the heaviness would lift off him and he would be his normal happy self again. But every day we had to watch. One day David came home from school and said,

“Mum, I feel so dirty. The boys tell dirty jokes all the time and I can’t help but hear. Should I just sit on my own apart from them?”

He was already suffering so much from them I didn’t want him to suffer a total cutting off. He was experiencing the reality of living in the world but not being of it (John 15:18-19).

“Son”, I said, “You know when you are having a shower no dirt is able to stick to you? Don’t sit on your own, but when the boys begin telling their jokes, lift your heart to the Lord and have a spiritual “shower”. The “dirt” won’t stick.”

Off he went the next day and came home rejoicing.

“Mum” he said, “it works! I kept having a spiritual ‘shower’ and it works!”

I thanked the Lord in my heart for the wisdom He had given me.
What David was going through weighed heavily on my heart. Many times I would pray for him through the night.

It was during this period that David’s gift for writing became obvious. He came home from school with a poem that he had written called "Time". Paul and I were utterly amazed when we read it:

“What is this thing passing from breath to breath

Which is endless, yet so quick?

Time. Time.

Time is a book read right to the end.

Time is a tree falling to the ground

Or the earth rotating on its axis

From Atlantic to Pacific Oceans.

Time is Man

From Stone to Modern age.

This is the abstract span - Time.”

He was ten years old.

The ministry in Sydney was flourishing, with hundreds of people gathering and experiencing the wonderful presence of the Lord and His empowering in their lives. There was a good children’s ministry also flourishing and it was good that David, though he had no friends at school, had good friends there.

Then we, with the leadership team of the ministry, decided to also begin a Bible School and so a property was purchased...a beautiful old colonial house with 29 bedrooms. We called it “The House of Faith.” One of the ministries on the leadership team had a large family. “They need a house more than we do” Paul and I thought. So we decided to sign our house over to them, including the equity of $20,000 it had developed, and to move in to the House of Faith to be with the Bible School students. The house had four levels and we took the lowest one. The students nicknamed it “the dungeon” and it was rather dark and dank but I managed to fix it up to make it “home”.

David and Rebecca thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Bible School. We would all eat together in the Dining Room and the students were great fun for them. I always remember one meal time looking over at Rebecca sitting at one of the tables with students. She was hunched over as she was eating so I called out, as any mother would, “Rebecca, sit up straight!” It was so amusing to see every student in the room suddenly straightened up their backs. We all laughed.

The move to new accommodation also meant a move to a new school as the children, by law, had to go to the closest public school to where they lived. One Sunday afternoon, after the meeting, David came up to me.

“Mum, I need counsel” he said.

“Would you like me to get someone to talk with you” I asked, thinking he might prefer someone other than his mother.

“No” he said “I want you.”

“OK” I said, “when we get home we’ll have a talk.”

That night when I went in to pray with David before he went to sleep we had our talk.

“I feel so ashamed” David began.

“Why, son?”

“I start at the new school tomorrow and I’m afraid to tell them about Jesus.”

Oh, how my heart went out to him. I knew all he had suffered at his last school because of his witness for the Lord. As a mother I wanted to say “Well don’t say anything” but I knew that would destroy his faith. In my heart I prayed earnestly for wisdom how to answer him. It came. Two scriptures came immediately to mind.

“David, I want to read you something Jesus said.” I opened my Bible and began to read....

“Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven...”
Luke 6:22-23.

“Do you know, son, I haven’t been persecuted like you have. You have a greater reward waiting for you in Heaven than I have.”

The reaction on his young face was wonderful to see. The fear and guilt left and tears welled into his eyes ...tears of wonder and joy.

“And I want to give you a promise from the Lord” I went on. “We named you after the David in the Bible. David faced Goliath and you have been facing your Goliath - the persecution you’ve faced - and you have stayed faithful to the Lord. Do you know that the very next verse in the very next chapter after David faced Goliath says“Jonathan became one in spirit with David”(1 Samuel 18:1). I want to tell you tonight, son, because you have been faithful to the Lord as you have faced your Goliath, the Lord is going to give you a ‘Jonathan’ as a best friend.”

The transformation in David was miraculous. He went to his new school the next morning full of joy and anticipation. Each day I would collect the children from the school and David would get into the car and say...

“Guess what? I got persecuted today!”

He would say it with such joy. God had so ministered to his heart he said to me one day:

“Now I believe not just for your sake, Mum, but for mine.”

The trial of his faith had proved the very establishing and strengthening of his faith in the Lord (1 Peter 2:6-9). One day he told me...

“I have a trick question I ask them, Mum. I go and stand next to one of the kids and I say ‘Are you born again?’ And if they say ‘What are you talking about?’ I know they’re not.”

Weeks went by and there was still no sign of David’s “Jonathan” but he continued in his joy and anticipation.

Then one day he jumped into the car excitedly and said,

“Guess what, Mum. I asked a guy today if he was born again and he said ‘Yes’!”

This young boy, by the name of Craig, turned out to be David’s “Jonathan”. He was the son of missionaries in Thailand and was living with his grandparents in Sydney. From then on David and Craig were inseparable. In the years that followed, wherever we travelled and lived the Lord always had a “Jonathan” waiting for David.

During this same period of time I gathered a team of children’s workers with me and we began many “Faith Clubs” for children covering many parts of the North Shore and Northern Beaches of Sydney. We also held children’s seminars to run simultaneously with the adult seminars that Paul and other leaders in the city organized. 500 children gathered for an all-day seminar. It was lots of work but lots of fun. All the Bible School students were involved either as carers of the children (one for ten children - 50 carers in all) or as performers in the plays we staged to present the Gospel. Through these we saw many many children come to the Lord.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Unity in the City

Several of us in the city instigated a ministers' prayer meeting at the Ryde Four-Square Bible School. This was a good central spot and over 30 ministers from different groups gathered every Tuesday morning. Each of us made it the priority in our ministry. Out of this we started the "Holy Spirit Teaching Seminars" at the Wentworth Grand Ballroom where, every two months, 2000 regularly gathered for gloriously anointed times of teaching and fellowship. For each seminar the Lord showed us how to promote unity by inviting one teacher from different streams in the Body of Christ - the evangelical charismatic, pentecostal, restoration, and Catholic charismatic. This provided balance also and avoided sectarianism.

There were nine churches in the city that had particularly close fellowship. Believing that honour and recognition should be given to the ministers God has called to the city, rather than always tending to look to overseas ministries, I invited the nine ministers to teach at a teaching seminar on prayer. Each minister was to take 15 minutes. We did not instruct which subject on prayer each was to take. They were each to seek the Lord. It was a glorious day. Not one teacher overlapped another. Each brought a specific aspect of prayer, flowing from the other, and by the end of the day it was a complete and wonderful message on prayer.

United Prayer for Sydney

These expressions of unity were wonderful. On another accasion we held a communion service. Again, 2000 gathered. These were great numbers in those days in the early 70's. No one preached. It was a great time of worship and rejoicing as we shared the Table of the Lord together. At the end of the time I stood up and said...

"Our hearts and faith are together. Let's each find a partner and let us all pray for the city of Sydney."

A mighty rush of sound filled the air as they all began to pray!

We also met regularly at 5 am every Sunday at Wynyard Square in the centre of the city. Christians from different fellowships gathered and we walked the streets, praying for Sydney. At 7 am we would then all come together under Wynyard's clock tower. As the clock struck 7 our united voices rang through the city's empty streets as we sang ...

"He is Lord! He is Lord!
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord.
Every knee shall bow.
Every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord!"

Then we all went home to different parts of the city for our Sunday gatherings.

Genuine Unity Blessed by the Lord

We have found over the years that whenever unity is expressed the blessing of God is poured out. As King David expressed in his Psalm 133
..."How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head...." v.1-2.

Most of our seminars and short-term Bible schools in Asia have had sometimes up to 40 different denominations and groups represented. Without exception, every time, we have seen the outpouring of God's Spirit.The unity of His believers is the great desire expressed by the Lord Jesus in His prayer to His Father just before He went to the Cross....

"...I pray also for those who will believe in me....that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" John 17:20-23.

This is the level of our relationship together that God is after - the same unity as is expressed in the Godhead - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May this be the central focus of all of us who are in Christ - unity together in our faith in the Lord and His work on the Cross and Resurrection. It is through our unity that His glory will be revealed and the world will believe!