⇐ An Interesting Telephone Call
Bible Sunday. The director of Wycliffe Bible Translators was the visiting preacher at our church. I have no idea what he preached about now, but I did respond by writing to him. I had often thought about writing letters to different people about various matters, even newspapers, but had never followed through with it. The upshot of this letter was an invitation to attend what was known as a Simulator weekend. These weekends, among other things, consisted of a series of simulated practical exercises which missionaries might be expected to have to go through as a normal day-to-day activity during the course of a foreign field assignment. I remember that my wife was not at all happy with this so much so that during one activity – a simulation of getting a visa while in a foreign country – she raced ahead of me just to get it all over with. Of course, we should have been working together as we attempted to jump through all the bureaucratic hurdles of getting our ‘visa’. The last hurdle was to get the ‘visa’ stamped and validated by the ‘High Commissioner’ who in this simulated exercise was the director to whom I had originally written. Needless to say, he turned her away sending her back to join her ‘husband’. This did not help my wife’s attitude much but not to worry since she had a plan ‘B’, or was it subconsciously plan ‘A’, because we had persuaded a better qualified and much younger friend of ours, together with his, also well qualified, girlfriend to accompany us. The idea was that maybe the Lord was using us as a catalyst rather that actually calling us specifically. As it turned out our friends decided it was not for them and to make matters even worse, we were invited, at the end of the weekend and much to our surprise, to attend a two week ‘Discovery’ course.
We were still not specifically hearing from the Lord, but we duly signed up for the next available Discovery Course. The idea of this course was to allow potential applicants to the organisation time to test out any possible calling they felt they had and for the organisation to see if the potential applicant could not only fit in but also fulfil a role within the organisation. Sounds all very simple really but in reality, it was more like being completely broken apart and then slowly put back together again. We didn’t think we would make it and would probably have been relieved if we hadn’t, after all we were the oldest by far in the group, I being in my mid-fifties, so it was again much to our surprise that we were among the few who were invited to take matters further by submitting an application to become ‘Members-in-Training’.
On our way home we decided to make a detour and visit one of our sons’ and his wife. We would use this visit as a means of putting out a ‘fleece’. Remember Gideon? If they were happy, we would go ahead and explore the idea of becoming ‘Members-in-Training’, if not, that would be the end of the matter. After an hour of chit-chat, they suddenly asked us where we had been, so we told them in some detail what we had been doing. Much to our surprise they thought the whole idea was fantastic. Maybe we should have put out a second fleece so as to make doubly sure but then there was always the question of support – the organisation being a faith mission means that members are responsible for garnering financial support usually from their local church and individual church and family members. This is no small commitment since usually missionaries commit themselves for the long haul which is quite different to raising support for a Gap Year between school and university or a short two or three-week visit. Actually, we were still looking for some sort of ‘sign’ so we decided we would go and spend an afternoon sitting on the cliffs overlooking the sea at Cromer off the north Norfolk coast and seek the Lord’s mind in the matter. While we were praying, we heard the sound of a military jet fighter aircraft approaching and flying along the shoreline at a height directly in and across our line of sight. We could clearly see the pilot and when the plane was directly opposite us, he turned his head toward us, dipped his wings, raised his arm and waved to us. We both simultaneously remarked that that was the sign we were looking for and departed for home!
Membership training consisted of various courses designed to equip the potential member to efficiently carry out their eventual roles within the organisation. The administration decided that we should both take an initial course in linguistics followed, in my case, with a specialist course in computing. There was one problem however and that was I had six months of a twelve-month contract still to fulfil, not to mention the whole question of funding. The starting date for the first semester of linguistics was rapidly approaching with no decision made as to whether we would actually attend when I received a telephone call informing me that regrettably, due to a management buy-out, all external consultants were to be released from their contracts with immediate effect – one down.
Finance was still however an issue when on the following Sunday evening we had an unexpected visitor who informed us that the ‘Lord’ had told him to fund our first semester of training. One might think that I would have accepted this offer graciously and with an open hand but, being the independent individual that I am, I must have spent at least an hour interrogating him, much to my wife’s embarrassment and his frustration if not annoyance, that he eventual reached for his cheque book and wrote out a substantial cheque which was more than enough to cover our potential expenses, then left. I remember my wife asking what we should do with the cheque to which I replied that it was simply a piece of paper and in consequence was of no value until cashed, so it remained on the coffee table upon which he had put it.
On the Monday evening I attended an area house group leaders meeting. I was rather late and when sitting down on the only available seat I became aware that I was sitting on something other than a cushion. It was indeed a large envelope with our name upon it, so I proceeded to open it when, to my horror and surprise, I found it filled with large denomination bank notes. Hoping that no one had noticed I stuffed the money back into the envelope and sat on it for the rest of the evening. I still do not know to this day who had donated such a large sum despite my inquires – most embarrassing!
Wednesday evening the director of ‘Members-in-Training’ rang to ask if we would be attending the proposed course which was due to start on the following Monday. I was still being rather non-committal when he remarked that if finance was still the problem we were not to worry as they would simply write the course fees down as ‘Waiting upon the Lord’. Imagine his comments when I told him about being released from my work contract, the cheque and the envelope containing the large donation! We immediately packed our bags and moved into on-site residential accommodation ready for the commencement of our first element of training on the following Monday.
We were by far the oldest students, course material bore no relationship to that of our previous careers, the pace was fast and furious, and the days were long and exhausting, but we made it.
I attended a second, more specialised, linguistics course while my wife stayed at home taking in an overseas language learning student as companion and help with general living expenses. Occasionally a bag of groceries would appear mysteriously on the doorstep, and it would be true to say that we were never in need of anything.
It is quite normal at this stage of potential membership to start seriously thinking about support. We actually did no personal canvassing but there were those within our church whom I think were quite excited by the whole project. One commissioned bespoke mugs for sale and another embarked upon a sponsored diet routine! The church council decided to support us for the long haul, and we were to rent out our house to supplement. We had set a target which was considered sufficient to meet our immediate needs and I remember we met that to within literally one pound, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Our final training course before we left for our assignment took place in the United States of America. My course was to equip me for the role of computer consultant to field linguists. I had a background in computing, but this was of a more specialist nature. One day I had the idea of searching the bookshelves of a local bookstall scanning for material which I thought I should brush-up on before going to the States. I had always bought technical books so that I could keep up to date with the latest publications. I selected a number of potential books when I sensed some disquiet in my spirit, the problem seemed to be that previously any money I spent on books I always considered was money I had earned myself but now things were different in that any money I now had was not mine to do with what I pleased, someone else had earned it. But then a different ‘voice’ joined in arguing that it did not matter, just go ahead and do what you please. After some deliberation I put all the books back on the shelves and left with a clear impression that the Lord would ‘specifically’ provide if I needed ‘Books’ for my future studies in the USA. Upon returning home I found a letter awaiting me which contained a cheque and a note stating: “The enclosed is to fund any ‘Books” – yes that is exactly what was written – “you might need in connection with your course in the USA”. I was even more surprised to discover that the cheque had been signed three months earlier but somehow had been delayed. It’s amazing to me how the Lord seems to be able to get all the correct pieces into precise order and at just the right time. To me this too was a humbling experience.
I have always tried to be a good steward of money so much so that when I understood we would need ‘cash’ for our final ‘Orientation’ course of three months in the country we were going to serve in, and that US dollars in cash would be the best currency to take, I would watch, on a daily basis, currency exchange rates and buy dollars if the rate was advantageous. By the time we eventually set out for our assignment I had sufficient dollars in cash to fund our first three months, but the Lord had other ideas and there was a lesson I had yet to learn.