In this sermon transcript, the speaker shares his personal testimony of searching for God and finding hope in Jesus Christ. He reflects on his experiences during World War II and the fear and uncertainty that people face without knowing God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of sharing the message of Jesus with others, so they can have a better way to die and experience the joy of the Lord. He also mentions his decision to become a missionary and the miraculous way God led him on his path.

In this message, The Surprising Ways of God, I'd like to include my testimony of the early years that I spent in Holland. We were during the Second World War. Bombs were falling all around us. We lived too close to this railroad, which the Germans were transporting all their artillery. The Allies were bombing, and we'd have to go to bed at night, and just scared, unsaved, and the whole family is unsaved. And we were just fear, trembling, because these blasts. In the morning, us four boys, we'd go and see who'd been hit, and there'd be a crater where a house had been. It was, the ambulances were going up and down the street, and this kind of thing. Then you've got to go to bed again at night. But this city was resistant, so they gave us a lot of attention. But towards the end of the war there in 1940, well, 44, D-Day came in France, and the Allies were coming through France, through Belgium, right to Arnhem, the Rhine River, which was southwest. That's where they were defeated, and they had to go back, retreated. We could hear the bombing and the fighting in Arnhem. We gave the last of our food to the people of Arnhem as they came, carrying knapsacks and some with wheelbarrows, whatever they could carry down to our city. And then we had to make it through that winter of 1944, 1945, which was very, very difficult, because the food was pretty well gone. There was no heat, no electricity. And so that was a time of great heart-searching and a great crying out to God. Finally, we were freed in May 1945. But in that very end of the war, when the Allies, it was the Canadians that set us free, they came in from Germany, from the east side. Can you imagine? They freed part of West Germany and came in from that side. And when they finally came to our city, they blew out all the bridges. So we were on this river, and so they couldn't get across. And the fighting was incredible. The whole city was burning on the east side. And we were in this bomb shelter my father had made with his men, and it was underground with thick dirt on top. And so we were huddled together there. We had very little food. We couldn't last much more than just a couple of days and nights. We were in there with three other families. The neighbors from next door to us were a Roman Catholic family, large family. They were wooden shoemakers. And so they were there with us. The other family from next door was a mechanic, a man and a wife and his daughter, and he was an atheist. So we had an interesting group. And then it was another newlyweds, a young couple who were also Protestants like us. So we sit there in this bomb shelter praying. Can you imagine? We couldn't withstand a direct hit. And nobody was saved, okay? Three families had religion. One didn't, but nobody was saved. And now you hear them all pray. And I remember the Catholics praying. Those of you that have been Catholics know how they had the rosaries. And we had great respect as they went bead by bead and prayed. I mean, there's long nights when we didn't sleep in that bomb shelter. And they prayed to Mary and prayed to God and went around the rosary. And we all, you know what my father shouted out? He said, oh God, if the Catholics are right, hear their prayer. And that was, you know, and then when they were finished, he would pray. And then the Catholics said the same thing. Oh God, if the Protestants are right, hear their prayer. And then the atheist starts to pray. And he says, God, if any of them are right, hear them. You can't be, you can't be an atheist in a foxhole. But you know, after the war, when it was all over, they became atheists again, where we lived in that house next to, between those two families. But I remember those, I asked my mother, sitting beside her one night, I said, mother, if we die tonight, will we go, will I go to heaven? And she says, Otto, nobody knows that. Only God knows that. And that's up to him. And I'm thinking, and I asked her that several times, and she could not say to me, we're going to heaven, because she didn't know herself. Nobody in our large state church knew that. There wasn't. And so nobody in the bomb shelter knew that. And I'm thinking, if this is the night we die, I hope God is in a good mood. You know, if it's up to him, he's going to make that decision. And I'm trying so hard to be good. But you know, all little boys, especially when you've got an ornery brother like I had, you know, we, he's just perpetual orneriness. He's just made that way, I guess. But we got to the end of the war. Well, it was only a couple of days, and then the Canadians had laid bridges across the canal while they're shooting at them. It was, many lives were lost. They came down the streets, rolled their tanks and their artillery, and the Dutch came out of their bomb shelters and danced in the streets with their wooden shoes. They called them Klumpendansen. And they danced with the soldiers. But we were all so thin, and they gave us whatever food, and it was very stale stuff. But anyway, I remember dancing up and down for joy. Now I won't have to worry about dying. You know, I'm just a little boy. I'll be a long time till I get to be an old man, and I can maybe find out then. So I tried to forget this miserable experience, because it was. But you know, we, my father felt it was better first to emigrate to Canada, because he had four sons, and he's a businessman. So we emigrated. We are on the Atlantic, on this large Dutch boat, which was in New Amsterdam. There was 2,000 people on this boat. It was a huge ship. And we were in March of 1948 crossing the ocean. March was a terrible month for being on the Atlantic. It was a huge storm the whole way. That thing bounced. It was a huge boat, but we were like a matchstick, you know, on that ocean. The waves were like mountains. And so, well, at first we enjoyed that good food, which we hadn't had. But oh, we couldn't eat anymore. After the second day, we stopped at France Le Havre, and then Southampton, and then on. But oh, the storm was terrible. We were so sick. It was so bad that all the sailors were sick. They closed all the dance halls, and then they let the water out of the swim pool. Well, they couldn't keep the water in anyway, the way the thing was going. And so, the only times you weren't sick were you're flat on your back, on your bunk, or in the fresh air, on deck. That's where you... And there was seven stories in between. We were immigrants, and we were in the lowest person deck. And way back, we didn't even have portholes. We couldn't have seen out of them anyway. We were probably below the waterline. And we were in the middle of this big boat. And so, we'd rush down those corridors. And you don't ride the elevator when you're seasick. Well, the elevator, it's strange how that thing goes when the boat's going up and down. You can imagine, you either really go or you don't go at all. But if one person gets sick on those elevators, I mean, the whole place, it is a terrible thing. So, we would run the stairs, all four of us, and try to get down to lay on our bunk before we were in trouble. And so, oh, I remember my brother made me go to the top bunk. My father and my mother and my little sister were in the next cabin. The four of us were in this cabin. So, he made me. I was up on this top bunk, riding this thing out, holding on. You can only hold on so long. And that was such a storm. Then the life... The steward came and threw these life jackets down on the floor. And they said, you boys practice putting these on because you never know. Well, the way the thing was going, they were handing them out. You know things were bad. Nobody was eating anymore. And I looked down and saw those life jackets. Now, I had no God to trust in. We had religion, but no salvation. And I was full of fear. I had been so fearful as a boy during the war. My parents were so fearful of thunder and lightning. And that came down to us. When parents are afraid, the children are afraid. And then the war and the bombings and so on. So, my life was one... Started one of great fear. And so, I see these life jackets and that didn't help me any. And I remember trying to stay awake at night. Now, we were out there 10 days. Can you imagine? They couldn't move very fast because of the storm. And we were out there 10 days. And you can't stay awake that long. But man, in the middle of the night, I remember when it first happened, somehow the ship, the tail end of the ship came out of the water. And these huge screws that churned through the water came free of the water. And they vibrate. I don't know. Any of you ever been in a trip like this? They vibrate like crazy. Yeah, you all want to be right with God. I mean, I wish I could tell everybody in my audience, take everybody on a trip like this. They'd all want to be right with God. You know, but they stay clear of the water and then they... No water resistance and they vibrate. That whole ship vibrated. It just shook when that happened the first time in the middle of the night. I mean, we thought she was coming apart, you know. And we all jumped out of our beds, grabbed our life jackets down the corridor as we went in our pajamas. And well, we wore our clothes to bed later on. And we were... I don't know where we're going. I mean, you're seven decks down. You don't want to be caught in the middle of this. We could almost, you know, think the water was coming under the door. And the steward told us, get back in bed. He asked us where we're going. Well, it's just sinking. Well, he says, get back to bed. So we got back to bed. But that happened about twice a night for 10 days, two or three times. Friends, you... I confess sin I never had committed. I wanted to... I wondered if God could hear me down there. You know what I mean? Way down in a big black ocean in this huge ship. Then I thought of Jonah. He was further down than I was. So God heard him. So I took courage. But I... My grandmother... See, our Dutch pastors had told us never to read the Bible because we commoners could not understand it. And they would interpret it for us, you see? So we were told not to read the Bible. Well, they were so educated that we couldn't understand them neither. So I didn't do it. But my grandmother had given me a little Dutch New Testament. I don't know why she gave that to me. She didn't give it to my brothers, but she gave me to me. And I was named after her husband, so after my grandfather. But I thought maybe it's time for me to read this Bible because I was so scared. And I didn't know where to start. I didn't know anything about it. I started at the back in Revelation. I shouldn't have started in Revelation. I was... It didn't help me at all. I was scared enough before I started reading. So I put that aside. There was no answer there. So now I'm... There's no answer in the Bible. There's... And I'm laying there and I'm confessing sin and I'm praying, asking God to get us safely to New York. And I made all kinds of promises. The first promise I made said, God, I promise you if you get us to New York, I'll never cross the ocean again. I promise you. Well, now that wasn't an important thing to him. But another one I made, which was a couple of nights later, I said, God, if you get us to New York, I will serve you the rest of my life. I'll do whatever you want me to do. And I, at that point, really believed that that was going to be in a monastery or something like that. You know, if you give yourself totally to God, doesn't he make it as miserable for you as he can? I mean, doesn't he demand everything? You'd be surprised how many people in the world believe exactly that. That is not true. If you give yourself wholly to God, he will bless you for it and help you and guide you. But that's a demonic deception by Satan. Anyway, I believe that. And so I made those promises to God, and I didn't know what would happen if we got to New York, where I would end up. And that's why I got to the cannibals and headhunters of New Guinea. You say, why did you ever choose to go there? Well, it wasn't as bad as a monastery, I thought. But I had told him anywhere, and when he showed me that, I couldn't say no. But we got to New York. After all, we were thin as a rail again, hungry. We'd been sick the whole trip. I stood looking at that big boat. I couldn't believe how big it was now on the shore. And I said, God, if there's anybody here in the new country that knows how to get to heaven, let me meet him, because I don't want to go through another storm. I don't want to go through another famine or war. Next time I'm facing death, I want to know where I'm going. And I was so, as a boy of 12, stood there in New York on the harbor and said, God, if there's anybody, and nobody in Holland knew, you know, the Catholics didn't know. We asked the pastor. They didn't know if they were going to heaven. My parents didn't know. So we wondered, is anybody in the new world here? No. So we got on this train, went by Buffalo and into Hamilton, Ontario, and that's where we lived. Now we were an immigrant family. We had nothing next to nothing. My father didn't talk the language. He couldn't start a business. He couldn't take any money with us from Holland. So we had nothing. He worked in a factory. We had this little rented house, a little wood stove in there. We cut the firewood as boys, and we had very, very little, very poor. And my parents, after a year or two of this, wanted to go back to Holland so bad, but they didn't have the money to go. So that's where we stayed. And I praise God for that, because in Canada, we got saved. But I remember this pastor lived three doors from us, and he was kind to us. And he was so kind that we went to his church, but it was the most liberal church in Canada. And they didn't know anything about being saved neither, but I was hoping, and I'm going to church every... I never miss a service. I'm listening. I'm trying to learn English. My whole motivation to learn English was to find out how to die right, to find out how I could go to heaven. And so that's the first question I'm going to ask him when I can talk to him. So I'm learning English and listening, and I'm sitting still in church, and my brother's with me, and I couldn't understand anything for quite a while. But finally, I'm starting to learn. And then when I joined a choir, I thought all choir members go to heaven. I mean, they sing for the Lord. And I'm sorry to say, choir members, that I don't believe that anymore. I believe there's a lot of them that don't go to heaven. Anyway, I sang loud. I did everything right. The only thing I didn't do that bothered me, I didn't have much money to give to the church, but I wondered if God would let me into heaven even without that. And so went on. Finally, I learned enough English, and I went to the pastor one day, and my heart was beating. And I said, Pastor, am I going to heaven when I die? How do I know? And he says, Oh Otto, you're the best member I got. If anybody's going to make it to heaven, it'll be you. Well, I knew I was the best member. I tried harder to be a good member. But I said, Well, can't I know for sure? He says, Nobody knows for sure. But just keep doing good works like you are, and you'll likely make it. I walked home from that meeting with that pastor, and I was so dejected I was down. I thought, He doesn't know. And what went through my mind is nobody in the new world knows they're going to heaven. You can't know for sure. It's obvious the one man that should have known. He only asked one man, but he was a pastor. And so I was discouraged, and I said, God, I don't want to go through another war. And then this thunder would roll into Hamilton. There's a mountain brow comes in over Lake Ontario, and it hangs there. That storm hangs in there. And all the lightning and the thunder, I'd be so scared. You know, I thought, God, if I'm going to die, my mother would wake me up in the middle of the night. I'd still be on my knees next to my bed praying to God for forgiveness and fall asleep there. It was cold winters in Canada. And she said, Otto, get in bed. And I thought, Oh. And see, I was always praying, Oh, God, save me. You know, and any one of you could have led me to Christ real quick, I would have accepted. I was searching and seeking. And then I saw in the Hamilton newspaper, Youth for Christ. And I thought, Youth for Christ. I'm a youth, and I'm for Christ. Certainly not against him. So that's where I must belong. So I found out where this was. And this small town, I hitchhiked in a town that's about seven miles into the city. And there in this huge, huge church, about 3,000 people. And I sat at the back row. You know, I, you know, as Dutch, we don't just walk into a church and sit in the front. We just barely make it to church anyway. So I got a seat on the back row. And I'm so glad. And I would encourage all of you, especially you Baptists, leave the back row empty for us Dutch people, so we can. And then put the biggest guys you've got on the row before, so we can hide behind them. Because we do good to get into an evangelical church. We really do. So give us a chance. But I remember them singing, since Jesus came into my heart, floods of joy fill my soul like the sea billows row. I just, and these guys weren't even using books. I mean, we in the Dutch church, we had these, these psalters, you know. And we say, oh man, those hymns were 19 verses long. It seemed like they were that long. And I don't mean to make fun of the Dutch state church. But it seemed to me as a little boy that way. But these were quick choruses. And oh, you people don't know how lucky you are. You sing these nice little hymns here in America, you know, and only four verses. And you usually skip verse two and three. And if I were a songwriter, I wouldn't even read, write verse two and three. I just, what a waste. But you know, we, we sang. We never, we didn't dare skip a verse, lest God, see, come thundering at us. Now, and you for Christ, oh, they sang those choruses since Jesus, they didn't, they had them memorized. I could, you're not supposed to enjoy singing like that. I never, church, you don't enjoy singing in church. But these people seem to enjoy it. I thought, what a strange church this is. And I wonder, and then the guy got up to preach and says, you can know you're going to heaven. He said it over and going, you can be absolutely sure you're going to heaven. I sat there. Can you imagine after five years of searching, I was 17 now, I sat there and I couldn't believe the guy. I thought, I've got to talk to this man. And, and he had this green suit on. And these, these youthful Christ speakers were, they rotating, they was different one from out of town. And I never met the guy with the green suit again. I just thought I missed him. You know why I missed him? Well, he, he preached and I sat there listening and then they give this invitation. Us Dutch, we don't know what to do with invitations. So, but these people apparently went to join the church. I was already a member of one church, so I didn't need to join another one. I didn't think so. I just watched and watched and they were going up there and the man with the green suits talking to him and, and it was getting late and I had a hitchhike back home. And so I, I, I was so excited to tell my dad, I found a man. That knows he's going to heaven. And I said to my dad, he's got a green suit. Now I didn't know they had more than one suit in Canada. See, but I said, I'm going to talk to him next week. He told us all to come back. Well, I came back the following Saturday, greatly excited, waited all week to meet this man who's going to heaven. I didn't know all these 3000 people were and never met him again. Oh, did I feel dejected. Can you imagine you search for five years for a man, tell you for longer than that, a man tell you how to be, get to heaven and you don't, you don't meet him one time. But the singing started again and I, I got sitting down and I mean the same thing again, this preacher, he seemed to know two of them in eight days. I'd been searching all my life for a man that knew how to go to heaven. And, and they, they, they were joining this church again. I came home, told my father again and, and I said, there was another one. And so I talked my father into coming and he said, well, that's strange. They're so, it seemed happy people. And, and my three brothers came and I got everybody going. And, uh, but sometimes they didn't go, but I would go every Saturday night. I finally caught on. These guys were getting saved up here. They were. And I thought, Oh, so I went home and said to my dad, can I do that? Can I go up there like that? And, and shake his hand and, and know for sure and get saved. And he says, no, no, no, no. Out of that's not for you. That's for sinners. Now he's the reason he said that by now I'd gone to a summer camp, the camp director had talked me into becoming a minister. My pastor had said, he's the most serious kid in my church. He ought to become a minister of the church. So they came to my house and my father, uh, wanted all of us to go to work. I mean, income money was scarce in our house. And he says, so I was the only one out of four boys got the chance to go to high school. And I was going to be a minister, but I dreaded that thought because what would I tell him? I, I don't like poetry like those guys used. And, and so I'm, I'm wondering about that, but now, so my father said, no, you're a ministerial student. You're, you're going to be a minister of the church. You don't need that. Those, those people, that's for sinners. I said, Oh man. And I was so envious of those sinners. I wish I, you know, I could, I finally, I faked it. I acted like when I studied how they walked and hung my head and I got up here and this preacher shook my hand and God so convicted me for my deception that I said, preacher, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here. I'm, I'm faking it. I'm acting like one of these sinners. I'm a ministerial student. He said, no, anybody can get saved here. And so he led me to the Lord. I couldn't believe it. And so I told my father, I said, you've got to come and get saved too. And he says, man, I put a great pressure on him because, you know, he didn't want to really give up some of the things he was doing. But finally I got all my brothers saved and my, and my, my father, well, no, my older brother, he didn't get saved, but my younger sister and my parents got the assurance of salvation. Well, it was a fantastic thing in that youth for Christ rally. But I remember that singing and the contrast between it and a hope, a church where there's hopelessness, you know what I mean? And a war where they drone those hymns in the major and the minor key, you know, and all, and all this was a big church that, that, that organ would thunder out, you know, I mean, that it was like the thunder on Mount Sinai, you know what I mean? Where everybody's afraid that that's how it hit us. You know, these stained glass windows would rattle when that organ played. I mean, they, they, they, they, I mean, they did it loud and, and they sang long and us four boys, there was no children's church. I mean, we had to sit still, the ushers had little sticks, they'd tap you on the head if you got up and, you know, we would play with the books. And especially when my mom and dad went up to the table to take communion, only about 10% did. The rest were so afraid of God, they thought he'd slay them right at the table. My mother and father went up there and I don't think they drank any of the wine. Some of them just put that silver chalice to their mouth and that's about it because of fear of God in that place. But, oh, it was a, uh, but his services were long. Those hymns are, I mean, 19 verses and then they'd announce the next hymn, you know, and oh brother, it was torture. It was penance we were doing, see? And, uh, and so I'd asked my brother what verse are they on? He says verse 11. Oh man, how can we make it? So, uh, you know, it was good. The Queen Wilhelmina was in our city and went to our church. There was the biggest church in the city. She had a special throne there. And so we could always watch the Queen. We had to do something during those long services. We counted the, we didn't have cheap lights like this. We had, we had chandeliers. I mean, huge pink. I mean, and we count the lights that have been burned out and we count the tracks in the stained glass windows and the pipes on the organ. We had contests going, which candles would go. We had to do it, folks. We just had to do it to stay sane. And, and we weren't bad boys, but you know, they, oh, I don't know if any of you have been in the old country where they take the offerings with these, uh, black sacks, you know, this velvet, you know about them. Now the ones we had, they were on long poles where it is. Have you seen those? Well, some of them now have the ones with the two handles, but they had a long post. My father was one of these men that took up the offering and they'd have to, they'd have to, uh, they wore gloves and they'd fork out that long post and stop in front of each one. They didn't move it until you put something in. It wasn't as easy. You people here in the church, I mean, you're, you know, past that plate long, but we are. And so then they, and they, and they get to the end of the row and that stick would bend because Dutch would put a, put a lot of coins in. And so they'd get heavy and then they'd have to lift that over the first row and bring it back in, reel it back in the second row, bring it back in the third row back out. But they'd have to lift that bag over the tops of the people at the end of the row. And many a hat came off with those kind of things and people mercifully will help lift it over. But there was a plume on the bottom of the bag. That was a great temptation for us boys that were, you know, so bored. And my brother, oh, that brother of mine, my older brother, he was, he's just always thinking, he went to Niagara Falls with his parents and he couldn't find a place to park. And there was a sign there, no parking beyond this point. So he pulls up, my father says, you can't park. He says, oh, who says I can't? He goes out the car, picks up the sign, puts it on that side of the car. He says, no, no, I mean, I'm not saying that that's the right thing to do, but he, he would always carry a bag in his car and he'd stop at a parking meter and he'd have this little brown sack and it said on there, out of order, slip it over the meter and he'd always park. He's just always thinking about things. Now, can you imagine him in a Dutch church with that plume? You know, so one time he talked us into all bringing, we walked to church, we had these rocks. So, you know, little hands, we had our rocks. And so we all, you put your hand deep in the sack. That's what the adults do. So nobody sees what you put in. And, and so we put those rocks in there. He could hardly get that thing over. And then, then can you imagine as he reels it back in, the people across the aisle and that stick is just coming over your head. Can you imagine the temptation in church, just to yank on that stick and that bag, bag would bounce. And we had to do it, folks. We had to do it just to, just to stay sane. We, we couldn't get up. Oh, those. And so, but now I'm in youth for Christ. Can you imagine the difference coming into any evangelical service where people enjoyed the gospel? And that's where I was saved. And not long after my salvation, missionary spoke. He spoke to us young people. He said, can you imagine what it'd be like to, to live in a place and to, and to don't know anything about God? Can you imagine how hopeless it gets? Can you imagine facing death and not knowing God and not knowing how to die? Man, I sat there and the whole thing was going back through my mind, that war, that, that ship, that, that storm, that famine. And I said, oh man, I just, that's the way he says, that's the way people are. That's the way people die. They scream when they're dying, they die in trembling and fear. He says, if you were in a situation like that, wouldn't you want somebody to tell, come and tell you about Jesus Christ, a better way to die, the joy of the Lord. Why? I thought, man, that's, I had made that promise on the boat. So he gave an invitation, who will, willing to go as a missionary. I stood up, I stood up so fast, I beat the gun. He told me, sit back down. He explained it more fully, better, because he couldn't have gotten a recruit that quick. I was the easiest recruit he'd ever recruited. I came up, he explained it more fully. And I finally said, oh, I was in the war. I know what it is like to have faced death. And he says, well, son, told me to be a missionary. And so I finished high school and went off to Bob Jones to college to study, to be a missionary. And that's where I met my wife and we, after we both graduated, she was called to be a missionary before, even before I was, I think, for that same country. So when I found that out, I thought, well, this must be the one I should marry. And we accepted by this, we end up, accepted by this mission board, we end up in this, in the Oyu tribe in New Guinea, right in the middle of nowhere, the end of the world. I mean, there was a missionary there before and his wife got so sick and left. And now we were to take their place. But this missionary was at the wrong place. Some natives wanted them to come, but they didn't get the right spot. So they got in a place of terrific resistance and it was miserable going. Now, if you listen to the tape and tape number three, you'll hear those first two years, it describes what happened there those first two years. But finally, we, there was another village, Abhoy, that wanted us to come there. So these people showed up and they seemed friendlier. And so my wife was so fed up with this place. Well, we both were. And she says, why don't we build a house? I said, you're going to have to live in a native house. We won't have this house, the wood house. And she says, I don't care as life. We were here to minister. And so I went, well, I told those natives, I said, build an airstrip because where we were, the float plane would come in right on the bigger river. We had a lifeline. But Abhoy, that was the end of the world. It was four hours in from the river, right in the middle of a huge swamp. How would they ever find us in there? And I said, all right, if you want us to come, we got to build a house. You got to build an airstrip. So they came back two weeks later. We got it done. And they had a helicopter around circles. One of the guys had saw a helicopter land at some government post somewhere. And so they said, I said, no, no, the bird we've got is a different one. Needs a long run. They said, well, get another bird. I said, I'm not in control. Make this airstrip. So finally, they made this long airstrip about a thousand feet. And they had this huge, huge, yabby tree. It was a tree connected with witchcraft and the occult and demons. And they had this huge tree sitting right in the middle. They cut everything down but this tree. It has huge roots coming out. I mean, it was so big. And I said, well, what's that big tree sitting there? Oh, Tom, we can't cut that. He'll have to go around that one. We had a time getting that out of there. Oh, man. But anyway, we started, came there to build a house. OK, so we had this house partly started. And I had a corner, a roof on the corner of it so I could have a place to stay. Their homes are so full of smoke, you just choke. They make smoke to take care of mosquitoes. But they get the smoke instead. And so I have a mosquito net. So I had this. But on about the third day, I told my wife, well, I'll go and fix the house, get it half decent. Their houses aren't much good. I'll make them get a good pitch on the roof. So I went and I said, I might be. I don't know how long I'll be. And so I about the third morning, we were just starting to work with the guys, about half a dozen guys helping me. And there came this war party down the airstrip. Well, no, it wasn't the airstrip yet down the clearing. All right. And they were weapons and spears. And I thought, whoa, it didn't look good at all. They were running towards us, not making a sound. Man, it shakes you up. I've come into villages sometimes, you know, where you walk in and they have all these sticks on the path on the way in and they have a skull on every stick, you know what I mean? And then they have one empty stick, you know, with no skull on it. And I look at that thing and boy, you start, I think too much, you know what I mean? And I, on one place, I just pulled the stick right out and threw it. I said, we won't need that. And I didn't realize it would have been easier to get a skull on it when it was done. But anyway, these people, I wondered what this group meant. All of a sudden, I look around, you know what? I was alone. The other guys had gone. I mean, this made me feel, what would you feel like? They went into the jungle. And I said, what do I do? Face these guys or go into the jungle? I can't survive in a jungle with all the thorns and all the snakes. And oh man, the swamps, somehow they can live there. And it came down to a decision, whether, you know, whether you die fast or slow. And I always go for the fast one. I'm a chicken. So here they were, they were all around me. They grabbed me by the arm, these guys. One guy, their leader, an older guy, his graying hair. He had the most terrible nose. I hope he won the biggest nose bone contest because he had ripped the bottom of his nose out. He could lift that nose right up to his forehead. It was terrible. It was the ugliest, but bounced as he walked along the trail. And then this guy gets right up to my face. And he says, come with me. I said, no way. Come with me. But I had no choice. They were already half dragging me and carrying me along. These young, they were in a great hurry and they got me through this village. We're going out the other end of the village. I've never gone that way before. I don't know what's there. I came in this way from the, from the river. My boat is out there on the river, you know, hours away. And now where am I going? And I said, hey, let go of me. But they wouldn't. I said, I can walk myself. And man, I thought, how do I get away from this bunch? I mean, these guys are quick. And so we're in the swamp now. And they curl their toes around those rotten things that, trees, you know, beams. And then they go wherever the tree falls and you slide off. I've got these tennis shoes on. And man, I'm falling off. They laugh. They were a cruel bunch, just laughing at my struggling. I was so afraid I couldn't keep any coordination. I don't have any coordination anyway. And oh, I fell in, but they pulled me out of the muck and set me back on the logs and I'd fall off again. Oh, good night. What a mess. And they just laughed. And I thought, if I get away from these guys, which way is home? Because by now we had made so many curves and I didn't know where I was. And now I start praying. I tell you, man, this is the time you start confessing sin, real, you know, you, it was like that boat trip, you know, confess all kinds of sin. And, and I said, God, I need you, man. If I ever had prayed that, I don't know where I'm going. I, I, you know, I'm thinking and see this big black pot at the end of the trail somewhere, you know, they're, they're, they're, you know, they're going to try white meat. They're cannibals. You know, I mean, I'm thinking about them being cannibals. And I think about that more than about God who said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Any of you like me? You, you think on the wrong stuff when you're in these predicaments. Anyway, I'm, I'm going along. One good thing they did, they picked the leeches off my legs, the leeches that are in your swamps. So I should have caught from that, that they weren't meaning evil or they, they didn't want the leech to get me. Whatever. I don't know. But, and, and, and, and I'm walking and I don't know where I'm going. I'm saying, when are they going to leave me? How am I going to get back when I don't know where I'm supposed to go? I can't survive. We finally got through. I fell in more times. I was covered with mud. I was hurting. I mean, I'm can't walk on this, man. I'm desperate for a drink of water. I'm scared. And finally we get to this river. I don't know. They told me never drink that river water, but oh, it sure is tempting. You know, my wife's a nurse and she tells me that, but you don't always obey your wife because sometimes you have to survive. Right? So, and I sitting in this canoe now, there's, there's all these guys paddling this canoe. It's about six of them. They stand up. They have tall paddles and they are, I've seen 21 guys in one canoe. Can you imagine a tree that long where they all stand paddling and, uh, and they can balance it. I'm sitting, I'm too tall. I'm sitting down in the middle of this canoe. I got some bark that I found to sit. There's always water splashes in there. So I'm sitting on this bark and men were going and he's hollering at the guy with the nose, hollering at them and they dig deep and they're going and they're all chattering away. And I thought, Oh, they're thinking about the meal, you know, they're going to have. And you know, I was a whole lot skinnier then than I am now. And I'm very small boned. Look at my wrist. I'm very, so I showed him, look, look, you know, there's not much, you're wasting your time. There's not much here. You know, I, I tried to, but it didn't seem they kept right on chattering. And I always felt good when a heavier missionary was with me because, uh, you know, I always, that, that happened when Don Richardson came to my station later on. And, uh, uh, it's not a matter of me out running the natives and me out running him. And, uh, and so, but you know, with him around, I was, uh, I was in no danger. Uh, anyway, I never wanted to look too good. You better believe it. Um, but I'm sitting in this canoe and I'm trailing my hands in the water, you know, to cool off. And he says, crocodiles. And I pulled my hands in. I mean, I'm scared of the guys and I'm scared of crocodile. I'm just a bundle of scared, you know, and, uh, Oh, I'm praying and man, I, my tailbone is hurting. Oh, sitting in that. I'm, I'm trying to, you know, balance this thing. You know, you'd finally, you, you just roll with it, but I was tense. And, uh, when I'm sitting in a canoe, I wish I'm walking on those logs. And when I'm walking on those logs, I wish I'm sitting in a canoe. It's one of those trips, you know, you never feel good. And finally we got to the shore and I was glad to stand up and, and, and they said, come on, they dragging me again. I said, I mean, no use. I can walk myself. If I'm going, I'm going, you know, and I, so I'm walking through this other swamp, not as bad. We go through a village. The people all looked at me, you know, they'd never seen a white man in this village before village of Hybu. Got a church there now, but the village Hybu. And we went on through there and to another swamp and mud. And finally I'm exhausted. It's almost noon. We'd gone since six o'clock in the morning. And he offers me a coconut, that guy with the nose. He said, I should have, man, that coconut milk tastes good. Uh, you know, and, and, and, uh, I'm sitting across from his fire and he's talking, he is talking so quick. I can't see. I know a bit of the Aboi dialect, a bit of the Jufo dialect and not much of the Aboi dialect. And now this is where is this? I didn't even know the place. There was all these old coconut trees there. So they've been there a long time. It was quite a large village. And I'm sitting across the smoky fire from this guy with the bad nose. And he's, uh, talking and I'm just sitting there scared. I just, you know, this is my last chance, I guess, you know, and then he spits in the fire. He's disgusted because he's waiting for me to answer him, to talk to him. And I don't know anything. And finally talking some more and he's so disgusted, he bangs that floor into the hanging floor. And man, the whole thing rattles like bang. And I jumped. I mean, the clatter just when he hit it, he knew I was scared. It is bad when a headhunter cannibal knows you're afraid. If you're ever, ever in a situation like that, don't show fear. Okay? Because, because man, it's bad. So I'm just giving you good advice. Anyway, uh, he says, get up. Well, I could understand that. I'd had my chance. He jumped off the house. I jumped off the house behind him. He yells. I said, oh God, I've had my chance. I begged God for the gift of tongues. I begged God. He did it for the disciples there. And you know, and I'm not, uh, you know, coming out of Bob Jones University, we don't ask for tongues. But, uh, when you're getting a predicament like that, when you need some way of communication, I begged God never gave me the gift of tongues. So I had to learn the I've had my chance. I think about my wife and my little baby boy. And I thought that's it. They'll never know where I went. They never know where I went to and or where, what became of me. And we were, they dragged me along. We'd go out this village. I don't, it was, it was the same path we'd come in on, but I didn't know it. And, and we go through this swamp and I wonder where this execution ground is going to be and what last chance they're going to give me if I can get away. But how could I survive? And I didn't know. And finally we got to this river and it was a canoe and he says, get in this canoe. And it was the same one because I could still see the bark that I'd sat on, on the way going. And so I, I wondered, we're back on the same river. And so he's, they're on this trip now. They're totally quiet. When people you can't understand are totally quiet, that's even worse than, you don't know what's going to happen. It was eerie. They never said a word and they just rushed me along and they're paddling. The guy shouts and they paddle deeper and man, we're sailing through this river and it's afternoon now. It's about four o'clock in the afternoon by now. And they're rushing for somebody and we get through this other swamp. And I mean, that we went right back, but we came into my village where I was building a house from the other direction. I didn't recognize it. It was just another village we came to. I mean, we'd seen a lot of villages and, but they, through that swamp they have carried me. They helped me. Some of them walked in the mud and, because they were in a hurry. They got me in from that side of the village and they marched me all the way down this path, right to it. And all of a sudden I see the house. I'm back where they got me that morning. I know where my boat is now. I know which way is home. I've been scared of these guys all the whole way, especially the guy with the bad nose. And, and I, and I just looked at the house in my surprise and they were gone. They had to go all the way back, back to their village, I guess. I don't know what happened to them that night. But all of a sudden I'm alone. The Envoy people didn't come out, not with those guys around. So you knew there was something going on between these, these tribes. And I hung up my mosquito net, blew up some air in my air mattress, tried to go to sleep. I couldn't sleep that night. All I could see was the face of that guy. And I was scared. I'm looking, I'm listening for noise to see if they're coming back, you know, in the dark. Maybe that's when they're going to do their dirty work. I don't know. And I'm waiting for the morning. Have you ever spent a night waiting for the morning? How wonderful the light of the morning is when you've been in a terrible night of darkness. And when the morning light came, I rolled up my mattress and my net and I packed everything up, my tools, and I waited for guys. And there came some Envoy guys. I said, I'll pay you guys, carry my stuff to the river. I'm getting out of here. And they said, where are you going? I said, I'm not going to come over here. No way. Not with that guy around this, in these jungles. And so I, they, but see, they had to run away from them so they could understand why I'm running away from them too, I guess. And so I, we got to the river and downstream. I got home. My wife says, oh, that was quick. You get the house done? I said, no way. We're not going to move. She says, why? I said, there's a guy there, the ugliest guy that I've ever met. He's after me. He's probably following me now. I mean, I'm a bundle of fear. And, and I said, we're not moving there. No way. He's after me. He kidnapped me once. I'm lucky to be alive. I spend 12 hours thinking I'm going to die. And she says, well, we can't stay here. I said, well, we're alive here. We're together. And she says, no, you've got to go back, finish that house. She's got more courage than I have. She laughs at the jungle, at those natives. You know, she disarms them with her laugh. She's phlegmatic, real easy going, you know, she just laughs at them. They say, well, we can't fool her. And so she said, finally, she talks, she says, I'll go back. I'll pray for you. I said, yeah, you're here. But I said, I'm with those guys. And well, finally, about three months, I went and finished the house. And, and then we, the natives, they came, that whole village came, moved all our stuff, carried it to that swamp. You should have seen it. And we moved into this native house. And my wife was content in a native house because the people were friendly. But I was always looking out for that guy with a nose. And he came. When he came, I was out of sight. I hid in the house. I mean, I'm not going to go with that guy again. I'm not going to get kidnapped again. No way. I didn't know. I met him. I saw him so often. That was a problem. I didn't know that every village had several of these guys with ripped out noses. They all had those contests, I guess. So whenever I, and I couldn't tell one from the other, none of them wore clothes. And, and so I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm scared whenever, right now I start learning language and years went by, I learned the language. I had to store and they, all the villagers come and I'd see these guys with bad noses and I wanted what to do. And, but as I learned more language, I realized that they weren't no, any worse than the rest of them. And, and as I learned that they, I talked to him and I found out how this got broken that way. And, and, and so we went on. And then after about four years, folks, I, I had my first two converts and it was one man from Aboy village, from my village. And it was one man from somewhere else. I didn't know. I couldn't really understand that good, but he said, I want to follow Jesus. And Jaycee, the guy from Aboy would help me. And so, and this guy had a bad nose, but by now I'd, you know, I'd forgotten that escapade. And, and so it didn't bother me. And I baptized those two guys and the river there. Oh, it was a short baptismal service. You don't spend much time in a river where there's crocodiles. You do all your talking and preaching on the shore and you go in there and only once under and you're out, man. And I did this twice. And then I told them now from now on, you guys do the baptizing. I stand on the shore and I'll tell you what to do and so on. So I trained them to be good pastors, even though they, they were still, I mean, those guys all had multiple wives. None of them could be pastors. There was nobody to qualify. But anyway, I had them do the baptizing. But this one fellow with the bad nose, his name was Nottaway. And he said, Natuan, come to my village. I've told them build a big building for us to have church. And my sons, I've been telling them about Jesus. And I said, OK. And I said, OK, on Sunday morning, we'll come. And he says, I'll bring a big canoe. So on Sunday morning, I was ready to go to this village of, he said, was Hashima. And so we went through the swamp. By now, I'm doing a little better on the logs. I'd lost more weight. You do a bit better. And I sometimes carry two sticks. You know, they call me the old lady. But anyway, we went through the swamp, and they had this canoe, and we went by canoe. By now, I knew enough to carry a nice little seat with me that was a little bit more comfortable when I'm in this canoe. So the priest would, Catholic priest, I see him each way down there. He'd have him build a little house on there. And he'd sit in this shaded. But he'd teach his paddlers as they went. We Protestants had motorboats, so we saved time. But he was winning people while he traveled. It was interesting. But I'm going through this river and then through this other swamp. And I come to this village of Hashima, big village. And he said, no, it's not time for church yet. And so I sat in his house. He says, when they all come back from fishing, then we'll have church. And you speak to all my people. Tell them that they need to go to heaven. And so we're waiting in this house. I was sitting across the fire from him. And he says to me, he says, Tuan, I've always meant to ask you, why were you so afraid when I brought you here last time? I said, I've never been here before. Oh, yes, Tuan, you sat right there. I said, are you sure? He says, oh yeah, Tuan. Remember that when you were building that first little house, your baby was real small. And I thought, I said, was that you? Yeah. And then he lifts up his nose. I said, yeah, that's you, not away. He says, that was me. Tuan, I didn't think a white man could get as pale as you got. He says, Tuan, why were you so afraid? I said, not away. I thought you were going to eat me. I said, I said, you've eaten people, haven't you? You know, he's got skulls all over the place. And he says, yeah, but I said, well, I thought you were going to eat me. He says, I never eat my friends. Just the enemies that they're killing about. I said, I was your friend. He says, yeah, you hadn't done me any wrong. I said, I'm glad to hear I'm your friend. Man, I wish I'd known that the first time I came. He says, Tuan, I wasn't, I mean, all I wanted you to tell me how to diorite. I wanted you to tell me how I could go to the pleasant side of the river. That's the word for heaven, not the fire side, the fiery side of the river. He says, Tuan, all I wanted you to tell me how to diorite, and I'm getting older, and I brought you here. You were so dumb you couldn't tell me. I didn't think you'd ever get smart. He said, you were so long, if I tried to learn your language as long as I've, as you've tried to learn ours, why, I'd know it real well. I said, what, not a way? You wanted to know how to diorite? Man, and I went back to my Dutch bombshell there, how I wanted to know how to diorite. And I had prayed God, this missionary had said, can you imagine there's people there that are anxious to know how to diorite? Wouldn't you want somebody to come? And I said, God, if there's people like that, send me to people like that. That day, that man says, I was longing to know how to diorite, and I was hoping you would tell me, but you were too dumb, and I was so disgusted. And that night, I could hardly sleep. I said, God, you brought me to a people that were searching and longing and hoping for something. They didn't know anything about Jesus. They never heard anything about God, that they were spirit worshipers, animists, but I found them, and I said, God, I found a people. But I talked to him, and he says, Tuan, you were so afraid. I said, well, I was afraid of you, not of me. I was afraid of your men with the spears. He said, we always carry spears, you know that now. He says, that's to kill things on the way, but you know, never go anywhere unarmed. And then he started talking to me. He says, Tuan, I'm sure glad you came, but you know, Tuan, I wish you'd come sooner. My father died where you're sitting on that side of the fire, and my father told me to believe your message, and he wanted so much to meet you, and he died, and when he died, he says, my son, don't follow me now, don't follow me now. I don't know how to diorite. Find a better way to die. If the white spirit or the white hoi comes in your day, take his hand, walk with him, listen to him, and find a better way to die, because I don't know how to die. You've been a good son. You've learned witchcraft. You've become chief in my place and all that, but don't follow me now. Find a better way. And he screamed, and he says, Tuan, you've seen people die. I said, oh, yes, I've seen people die in fear, the fear of demonism, the people that are spirit worshipers, when they die, they scream, and it's terrible. Anyway, I said, your father told you to follow me? He said, yes, Tuan. Your father knew I was coming? Yes, Tuan. I said, hey, this is way out where they're getting it. The mission board didn't even know this tribe existed until two years before I came there, and I said, how long did your father know that? He says, ever since he was a boy. Before I was born, his father knew that I was coming. Now, can you believe that? I mean, it's almost too much. I said, he knew? Oh, and he goes on to tell me the story how his father knew. Can you, would you like to hear that? I mean, here, all right, they're standing at the bank of the river, way upstream, way up there by Hashima. Only get there when the water's high, and a boat, a patrol boat, probably from the Dutch government, it was Dutch New Guinea at that time, came up the river, and they called it, it was a huge canoe, it was a high canoe, and it had a cold skin. It had to be a metal boat, a metal patrol boat, and he says, we could hear it. Can you imagine these people in the jungle, and you hear that boom, boom, boom, this diesel engine pounding away. You could hear them come all the way up the river, you know, for hours, yeah, and they were all gathered. What is this noise? They were afraid, yet they wanted to seek curiosity, and this boat comes there and stops where they are, and he says, there was this one-armed man on the boat. They were all black people. There was one one-armed man on the front of the boat, and he had just a piece of arm. It had been cut off, probably, maybe a crocodile had bitten it off, whatever, but he had this arm missing, and they said, the one-armed man told us that you were coming. I said, who was this one-armed man who told you I was coming? And he said, Tuan, he knew, and he said, when he comes, listen to him, and you'll know how to die right. That's the message they got. I said, well, and you people believe, your father believed? Oh yeah, everybody believed. I said, how could this one-armed man talk your language? Did he talk your language? He says, I don't know, that's what they heard. Now, our people had never seen the coast, the ocean. They'd never seen the mountains in the center of the island. They're locked in there between warring tribes. This guy on the boat, no doubt an Asmater, I don't know where he came from, but I believe God did a miracle here. In the tongue of this man that stood on the boat, or in the ears of the people on the shore, but there was a miracle happened. They understood that there was a white devil or white spirit, white Hawaii coming, and he was going to tell us how to die, so that in the afterlife we'd live forever, and not burn in the fire. That's the message. That's how God prepared it. Probably before I was born, I don't know, many moons ago, you know. When I was young, well, you don't know when that was. You don't even know how old these people are. Nobody's got birthdays. You don't have clocks and calendars. You're never late, it's neat. You just go by the sun, you know. But many moons ago, and he told them that, and I said, now, you didn't yet. You ever seen this one-armed man before? No, Tuan, never seen a one-armed man before. I said, well, you believed him? He says, oh, everybody believed him. Well, I said, why should you believe him? He might have been lying to you. He said, no, Tuan, he knew the truth. He knew the truth. He'd already died once and came back. I said, what are you talking about? He says, he's already been on the other side. He reported to us. I said, how do you know he's been on the other side? Well, because he had one arm. I said, what do you mean? What's that got to do with it? He says, oh, Tuan, you're so dumb. You can't live. If you have a wound that big, you can't live. You die. So he's already died, but he came back. Because everybody that had a wound of any size would die from infection. They never bathed. It's so dirty jungle. And you never see a man with a finger missing, or hand, or arm, or leg missing, foot missing. They will die for sure. And they said, this man's already died. So they went, can you imagine these people? The one-armed man that's been there told us a white spirit's coming. They're all sitting there. Can you imagine now? What does a white spirit look like? I mean, what does he mean by that? And, you know, they're talking. But it went on. And time went on. And they don't live that long. And many of them died, but none of his fathers still remembered. When he lay dying, he says, my son, he's going to come. The one-armed man told us. And if he comes in your day, find a better way to die. So that was preparation for my coming. We call it redemptive analogies. Have you read the book by Don Richards on redemptive analogies? How God builds into these native tribes something in their culture. And when you hit it, it opens the door. They understand the whole thing. Oh, it's a fascinating truth. Redemptive analogies. Anyway, he sits there. And another way he says, one thing bothers me is, I'm going to be the first black man in heaven. And all you white people. He says, do you know anybody there? I said, oh, yes, I've read the Bible. It tells us about the people and some of our, my own people are there. He says, I'll be the first one of my people go there. I said, don't you think anybody's there? Not even the children. He says, no, the children weren't there. They were all dedicated to the holy, to Satan before they were even born. There is none. I'll be the first one. He says, I'll be sitting there in the corner, one black man and all these people talking this English language like you and your wife talking. And I won't know the word. I said, no, no, no, no. Let me teach you something. In heaven, we all speak the same language. He says, hope it's going to be all you. Only one I know. I said, I don't know what it'll be. And he says, but I'll be that black man sitting in the corner. I said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, in heaven, we're all going to be the same color. Do you believe that? We're all going to be like Christ. Okay. The same color. He says, you mean you're going to be black? I said, I said, I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. Whatever Jesus like, that's what we're going to be like. He says, it's just the same too. And I won't know anybody. I'll tell you, I'm getting old. He says to him, you bury me and then you die real quick and you can show me all the people and we'll be up there again and I'll know somebody. He says, just quit drinking water. You'll die. I said, yeah, I'm sure I would. I said, well, I don't know what I want to do that. He says, well, you said that you are looking forward to being there. You know, he said, why don't you help it along? But I said, no. But then he described to me, this is from now, from the native perspective. All right. He said, I'm looking for this white devil. And he says, then one day I hear that way north of here, this white devil and his wife came and everybody was talking about you, about the other guy coming first with his wife, got sick and he had to leave. And then about you and you stayed and you didn't go away. And, and he says, but I, I knew you were the man that's going to tell me how to die right. But I couldn't get to you because of the enemies. I mean, Jufo, that's wild. I mean, he'd get killed if he ever came that far down, down river. And, and so he says, can you imagine his predicament? Here's a man that was in a heathen condition. He couldn't pray and he knows that the answer is Jufo and he can't get to it. Can you imagine this situation? And now he says, and I wondered what to do. And I, my father said, you would tell me that I'm getting older and I'm afraid I'm going to die. And I, and I can't get to you. And he says, then two on, after many moons, and it was two years after many moons, I heard, we all heard that you were moving to Abahoy halfway. And he says, oh, that's wonderful. Now they're enemies too, but not as bad as Jufo. He says there, you know, if we get in there quick and get you, and that's what that kidnapping was all about. He, they didn't give me a chance to talk. They said, we can't talk to him there. He can't tell us how to die right there. We've got to get him out of there before the Abahoy people get any spears and arms and get an army together. And we got to whiz him out. That's why that big hurry. And they snatched me out of there and I couldn't do anything about it. And then I sat in this house and now, can you imagine now that the native has waited so long, many, many years since I came to Jufo and then Abahoy. And now he's got this white devil or white spirit right in his house, sitting there across the fire. Now he's going to hear how to die right. And he says, you were so dumb. You couldn't talk. Can you imagine the disappointment, what this guy has gone through in the meantime? And he says, two on, you were so dumb and you were so long learning that I, I got so sick, two on, and I almost died. I got the fever. And he says to himself, he said to me, he says, two on, you know how I lived through it. I kept drinking water. He says, you see, the demons are so control of their minds that they, that they just say, you're, you're, you're finished. And everybody starts wailing at funeral dirge around you and you give up the ghost, you know, I mean, what else can you do? And so they, that's how they, that's how they die. And, and he says, no, no, don't sing that stuff. Don't put those armbands on me. I'm not going to meet the demons. That white man at Abahoy is going to, my mentor is supposed to tell me how to die. I'm not ready to die yet. And so he says, I kept drinking lots of water. And he says, I got better again. So then I'd come again and I'd come to your, your place, Abahoy, and I come to see you to see if you're getting smart yet. And he says, you're always hiding from me. And I'd go back home and I'd ask the people, is he getting a little smart yet? And he's getting a little smarter. And finally, he says, I got so sick, I thought I was going to die. And, and I almost went unconscious. And, and he says, I kept drinking water, told my wife to keep giving me water. And he says, I survived again, but I'm getting old. And he says, I thought I'd die before you'd ever get smart. He says, finally, you got smart in time and you showed me the way. Oh, then he grabbed my hand and thanked me for coming. He says, thank you for coming. But why didn't you come sooner? My father would have listened to you. My father would have gone to heaven. I said, are you sure of that? He says, yeah, no, that baffles. Yeah. You know, the, the theologians that believe in predestination, you know, was he, when they say that he would have believed, you know now I said, then he sits there rubbing his nose. That's how they think you, you know, this poor guy with a loose hanging nose, he has needs two hands to think, you know, he'd have to hold it with one hand and, and, and rub it with the other hand. Well, I took advantage of that. He started walking with me. We go through the swamp, always carries weapons. I have a place where it was all mud. He couldn't set his weapons down against the tree. And I'd save a hard question right for that moment, just to see what he would do with his hands full. And, and I'd say, not a way. What about this? And he said, no, no, no, don't ask me questions like that. You know, see, he can't think. And then he comes to a place and he says, now, what was that? What was that? Oh, I had a great time with that guy. But anyway, he, he says, why didn't your, he says, is your father Christian? I said, yes. He says, why didn't your father come tell my father about Jesus? Whoa. Can you imagine that one? Now, I went back home and told all the people that are old enough to be my father. I said, why didn't God call some of you? Didn't he show you go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature? Didn't he ever call you to be much conviction? When I, when I talk like that, and older people went to the mission field, can you believe that? And one man went to Rhodesia, it was Rhodesia, now it's, I think Zambia now. And he helped a doctor there. And he, he went to the mission board and the mission board said, no, we don't take people in their 60s to go to mission field. And he says, well, I'll pay my own way. Look, I've sold my business, sold my house. Look, I'll pay, we have money even to pay for some others. He says, please give me it. And they said, why? He says, we're so miserable. It's so miserable living for ourselves. I've lived for myself my whole life. He says, give me a chance. I want to go, I want to give the rest of my days to God, die there. And, and, and so they let him go. He became a helper to the doctor. He even assisted in surgery. He became the grandparents to the doctors and the missionaries' children, taught, the wife taught him piano. I mean, what they, they were such a blessing. And if I were God, I'd let him live to a hundred, wouldn't you? He's such a blessing. And he says, now this is what life is all about. I've never realized how good life could be when I start living for others. And I trust all of you, all of you will start living for others. It's so much more enjoyable living for yourself is miserable, miserable Christianity or miserable living. Anyway, Nottoway said, oh, if your father had only, I said, my father couldn't come. I said that they didn't invent the plane. You know, we had to fly in here. And I said, Nottoway, I don't know what to say to you, but that really bothered me. And, and he became one of my choice Christians. He could never be a pastor because he had many wives, but he would have a son read a few verses from my book and then he'd preach on it. And he'd say, read some more, you know, he'd talk to him. He became like an evangelist. No, he couldn't be the pastor, but he would sure, sure leave that church and tell him to worship God. And so what, what a situation. And you know, as I think back of the whole thing, I was so afraid of this guy. I was afraid of the guy that was assigned by God to take care of me. Now, why did God, why has God got such a crazy sense of humor to take the worst looking guy in the jungle and make him my guardian? We walked, well, maybe, see, we walked through that hybrid village where they were so antagonistic towards me. But when Nottoway was with me, man, they knew he was an old warrior of renown and maybe because he was so ugly, nobody touched us. And I felt so safe whenever Nottoway came with me everywhere we went and God had prepared him to take care of me. And I, I think of this, you know, when I went out there, I was thinking, you know, it all depends on me. I've got to learn this language to reach this tribe. And I thought it all depended on me. And I'm asking God to bless my ministry. And really, God had already prepared the whole thing. He had, he knew those people there longing for truth. And what he's wanting me to do is get in step with him and quit. So, let's quit asking God to bless our ministry or bless what we're doing. And let's say, start saying, God, where are you moving? Where are you going? I long to know so I can get in step with you and help do it. And that's a whole different way of looking at ministry. And then it doesn't all depend on you. Then you don't have the fear to be a missionary. You say, well, you can't do it. Hey, God does it. And you just follow in his steps and along wherever, if he kidnaps you someplace, just go smiling and rejoicing and don't be afraid of the headhunters. Just go and love your enemies to steal all your pineapples and, and, and just go along with, and just do what he says. And he knows exactly how to handle it and what to do. And that's what I learned. There was so much pressure on me. I have to do this. No, no, no, no. God's already done it. He's already walked the way before you have. You say, well, what are we going to do this year or next year or five years from now? Hey, God's already, he's probably before you were born, already worked things out and combinations so on that he has you step in it if you're in his will. He'll have you walk right there where he's prepared it for you. And you'll see his mighty hand at work and glory. And oh, when I think of people like this longing for truth, sitting in heathen countries, one that they've got general revelation, you know, they've got the stars, they've got the seasons and God, they know somebody made all this. They've got general revelation, but they need the specific revelation of Jesus Christ without him. And I, I remember a similar story to Moscona people up in the bird's head of New Guinea. There was a missionary there named Doug Miller. These Muscona people observed the Christians at missionary Miller's station, how the wives of one man didn't fight anymore. That's what they said. And how they lived and went to gather food and harmony. And, and these people from the Muscona tribe, different language, they were tree people, live in trees way up there. They built their houses way up there in trees. And, uh, and there, and when they see a stranger coming by, they, they'll just be so quiet and you miss them. If you, unless you happen to look up, you usually look down the path, watch for snakes and so on. And you, they'll pull up their bamboo ladders and their vines. And you won't, you'll miss the whole village. And you, you walk through, then they'll ambush you coming the other way, maybe, you know, but, uh, tree people in Muscona. And they came and they said, we want one of these missionaries come and tell us so that we, our wives don't fight anymore. And so that we can live in peace like these people living. And so Mr. Miller said to them, I will do what I can. I will write letters. And they had to do this through a bilingual that knew both languages. Many times these men in a, in a jungle, uh, they, they find women gathering food from the other tribe. They snatched these women and they, they, they know both languages then. So then you have these people that are bilinguals. And so that all this went through, he says, I will write letters to my village of America, to the church and see if we can get you a missionary to come to your tree people. I hope he's going to be able to climb trees. Uh, if anybody here knows how to climb trees, that'd be a good place for you. Uh, but these are high. Uh, anyway, he said, no, this, this chief went back to his field, to the, and he says, that white man, he's wrote the, he's written a letter. A white man is going to come to our village. Why? They're all expecting him the next day. Well, it took three weeks to get this letter from Mr. Miller to the coast, to the nearest post office. Right? They already had his house built in the trees. And they picked a nice big tree and built a house for the missionary. That letter hadn't even, and then, then it has to go over back to the States. And, and then, you know, you tack these letters up on your missionary prayer board. Right. And sometimes people even read them. Right. And some of the people pray for him, but you know, what happens is so many requests. We need more missionaries. Okay. So nothing happens. And, and these, can you imagine the chief cuts a new window in his house to look to direction where the missionary is supposed to come from and day by day, he's watching. And the people says, ah, he's lying to you. No, no. He says, he looked me right in the eye. He's going to send a missionary and, and they're waiting and he waits every day. No missionary comes. He's getting older and older and afraid he's going to die. And there's no money tell him yet. And finally the house rots and falls out of the trees. And he says, let's build it again. They said, oh, forget it. He lied to you. He's not coming. And, and let's, if, if he ever comes, we'll build him a house then. And so they went on 10 years went by. I remember Mr. Miller saying to us at annual conferences, Oh, Ken, there's a new missionary. Can't he go to Moscona? There's a tribe there once in the chief came and, and, but there was always missionaries having to leave the field and it was never enough. And they take over other stations and we never could open up this new Moscona tribe and Miller felt so bad and he's praying and God, I promise this guy. And this finally this, this old chief in the Moscona got so sick and he thought, Oh, I'm going to die. And I won't know the message that he brings, that gives peace to these people. And he wants this piece so bad. And so he climbs down this ladder one more time and he says to his wife and family and his grandchildren and everybody, I'm going to find this missionary. I'm going to find him. I'm going to go all the way to Minyambo. They said, well, you're, you're so sick. He says, well, then help me carry me or help me. And, and he can't pray again. And he says, and they say, you know, what's going to happen? You're going to die in enemy territory. They're going to eat you. He says, I don't care. I've got to find out. I've got to know the message of peace and hope. And so he starts out, you know, Mr. Miller's heart was so exercised that he'd written letters to his home church and said, you know, I feel so bad. I've got some Christians here in Minyambo. I hope they'll accept them. Maybe they can go and be their missionaries, but we have no missionaries. I've got to tell the man that I've tried. And so he says on a certain date of a certain month, I will set out to this territory. I don't know what will befall us. Nobody's ever been there before. Would you pray for my safety? Would you pray that I'll be able to find this chief? Would you pray that I'll be able to find his village? And, and so on. So he said, I'll set out on a certain day. And if you would pray for at least so many weeks, every day that I'll find this chief. Now, what do you think the date that he months before wrote that he would set out for the do you think that date was? That was one in the same day when that man climbed down his ladder and started out to find this missionary. Now, can you imagine only God can do a thing like this? And I would have loved to have been in heaven and looked down and said, Hey, I bet everything stopped up there. And he said, now watch, watch, I've got, I've got them coming. And there's so many, so many paths, you know, I've got them right on the right path and they're going to meet halfway because this fella can't, can't walk much further. And so can you imagine them coming? And now there were one day out. So they were, there was four days. Okay. The one day out. So now they're only two days apart and then they go another day. Hey, they're just about ready to meet. And then they hear, now this is, they hear on the path of party coming. Well, that's bad news. Most of the time, right? From the other direction, they all hide and both parties are afraid of each other. I've been in a party like that. They're afraid of, you know, you look on the peak. Well, eventually it can't be that way forever. Then a man, the most courageous one will step out onto the path with no spear, just with his hands empty. It's even better if they have a baby. If you have a child, then you, then you mean peace. But if they have no children and not like they had on this trip and he stood there and then a man from the other group came out and there, they stand facing each other with no arms and they walk toward each other. Hey, that old man, the chief is still hidden. The missionary, Doug Miller is also still hidden. See, and they talk, do you mean peace? And he says, we've come to seek a certain village, a certain chief. We've come to tell him that we don't have a missionary. That's what we're coming here. The missionary is with us. He is here, the white man. And then the other guy says, well, we've got the chief. And he shouts back to the chief, come on out here. Can you imagine? And then they come out and the missionary hugs that, that old chief, hugs the same missionary. He's frail and sick. And finally, you've come to tell us how to have peace, how to die with hope. And they're just both weeping there on the trail. And then Miller says, no, I've come to tell you there is no missionary for you. And then the inevitable question, how many Christians are there in the village of America? Oh, there's quite a few, isn't there, in this village? It isn't exactly a village, this country of ours. Well, why doesn't anybody want to come? And what, what do we missionaries, they've asked me the same question. What do you answer? Well, they, they just don't want to come. What a sad answer. Well, we, we would treat them right. We would build them a house. You know, it's nice a house. I mean, it's nothing compared to what we have over here, but they don't know. And, and, but that is, but then he says, I've, I have some young men that are Christians now. They will come and teach you about Jesus. But they're very afraid. Are you willing to take them in? And then he says, yes, let them come. I will, they will live in my house. And so now the Moscona has been reached. After all those years, the Moscona have been, that man became a Christian before he died. So wonderful, but friends, people longing for truth, people longing for answers. And, and we just, I don't know, we're so busy here building churches and doing all kinds of things, but we're not getting the job done. And I'm wondering if we, in our Christendom here in America are really believing the verse in Matthew 24, 12. It says, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come. Now it shall be preached in all the world to all nations. What's the difference? Remember when Rachel had the twins in her womb and God says, there are two nations in your womb. Remember the Jacob Israel and Edom, Esau, it's Edom. They're two nations. In other words, when the Bible talks about nations, it's people groups, it's language groups, it's culture groups. And it says that there the gospel shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come. And we read that in Revelations, don't we? And then in 1 Peter, 2 Peter 3, an interesting verse, the Lord is long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish. And you know, what does that really mean? And we take that, well, God's not coming back yet because he gives more people a chance to be saved. But really what this says, he's long suffering towards us Christians, because we haven't done the job. He's giving us time to get with it, so that the thing, the Great Commission can be completed. And then in verse 12, it says, what manner of man therefore ought we to be in all holy conversation, hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord. And other translations say, we're to speed towards the day of the Lord, we're supposed to hasten the day of the Lord. In other words, we've got to get these people reached that are longing for truth, otherwise the Lord can't come yet, because all those nations are going to be represented. And many people are being born every day, and many people that die, thousands die every day. It's almost one per second now, 27 million a year, that's the whole population of Canada. And that's how many are dying. And we're in a race against time, folks. It's a race against time. The sooner we reach these people, the less people will be eternally lost. But it has to be completed, the bride has to be completed. And as I so often say, who wants to marry a bride that isn't all there? The bride's got to be complete before the groom comes, that's all there is to it. And so, I see today in Christendom all kinds of distractions. Satan knows that when we get the last tribe represented in the bride, that his day is over. The groom will come, the Lord will be back, and he's in the lake of fire, he knows it. And Satan wants more time, he knows his end is coming, but he wants more time, you would too. There was a time when I preached the snake story, the authority over Satan, that message, and there was the most resistance to that message, because it was enlightening people about how to stand and resist him, and so that they could flee, Satan would flee from them. You know what the biggest resistance in preaching today is? There's this message of finishing the Great Commission. You know why? Because Satan knows the sooner we get it done, the sooner he is in the lake of fire. And he, you know what he's doing? Distracting the church with all kinds of things. He has them think this is important, and that is important, and doing this, and building this, and everything, and the church's missionary budget is paying for all kinds of things, which has nothing to do with the Great Commission. Really, we ought to think seriously. The money we spend ought to go to reaching unsaved tribes, unreached tribes, so that it can usher in the finishing up of the Great Commission. I'd like you all to think seriously about it, that the money you spend for God, all the things we spend money on are very good things, but they're distractions to the real thing, which is to get the Lord to come back to get this thing completed. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, help us to realize the seriousness of this. We realize that if all of us as churches would really put all our money and effort into this, that we could reach the remaining unreached tribes that are still lost within the next two or three years. But oh God, we realize Satan has laid stumbling blocks in our way, and he's distracted us from the main cause of getting done what you want done, and so it's dragging on and on and on. And Father, in the meantime, thousands are dying every day without hope, and many more are born only to die without hope. So Lord, help us to realize the seriousness, deal with every heart that hears this message, that your name might be glorified, and that many might say, yes, I'll go. I'll get in step with Jesus Christ. I'll get in step with God and help him in his program to get done what we're supposed to be doing. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.