In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being concerned for those who are suffering, such as the elderly, prisoners, and refugees. He challenges the audience to examine their own lives and consider if their goals and ambitions are trivial in comparison to the needs of others. The speaker also shares a personal anecdote about a technical issue he faced and how he praised God for His ability to provide grace in both major crises and minor inconveniences. The sermon concludes with a message of encouragement, reminding the audience that God's grace and goodness are always present and that there are no exceptions to His plans.

Our Father, we thank you that you give grace, and when the burden grows greater, the grace grows equivalent, and even greater. And as we've visited with Jonathan, we've seen just what your grace can do, and the reality of your ministry in moments of crisis, when people, most people, would be in utter despair. You, because of the reality of your Holy Spirit, give hope, and grace, and expectation. Well, we believe that you want to speak to us individually. We believe you want to speak to us as a movement. I don't think we are, perhaps, as a movement, slow of heart to hear, but we sometimes seem to be a little slow to obey. We ask, Lord, that you help us to, in our own lives, know what you want us to do in these moments, in these days ahead. We pray for Marguite, and she's visiting with Jonathan now, that you'd minister through her, the grace, the finale, the modus. We thank you, Lord, for all the little pieces in this unusual puzzle of life that you have put together, and we know that there are things we can't understand here, but that we will understand all so wonderfully someday. Guide us, Lord, now, as we just consider something from your Word, and as we think toward the future, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Well, I think this is a very special time in the history of OM. And this particular tape will probably be listened to by a high percentage of OMers all over the world, so it's good to have a few people who are actually here, that I can just share these thoughts that have come to my mind as a result of the accident in Spain, in which our brother Pedro Arbolet has been injured, broken arm and broken leg. I'm saying some of these things because some people hearing this tape won't even know about this until the moment they hear this tape. And he was driving a vehicle coming home from Portugal, and Jonathan and Trevor were in the back of that vehicle, Trevor Allen, who has serious injuries to his ribs, splintered vertebrae, needs to lie in the same place, he's gone home now, near Barcelona, has to stay in the same place for about six weeks, so we want to remember him and write to him. I'm sure Jonathan will be getting a flood of letters, he's already getting many, but some of those other brothers are not as well known, and their injury is not as serious, but we know they will need our encouragement as well down there in Spain. Pray for their wives, Trevor's wife Manoli, Pedro's wife Antonia. And then in the same accident, our brother Jonathan, as many of you know from the telexes, had a break in his, they call it a complete break in his spinal cord, between vertebrae six and seven, which means that doctors, including one of Spain's specialists, a man that we were in an amazing way able to get to visit Jonathan, all the way from Barcelona, he even, with the permission of his patient, postponed surgery on this patient in order to take that whole day and fly to Guadalajara. Give us a second opinion, very important opinion, on Jonathan's position, whether he could be moved, and a number of other things. We praise the Lord for many, many answers to prayer in connection with everything that's happened in the last few days, to give Jonathan the best care, to get prayer mobilized, and to determine just what was the best course of action. I've just come from visiting Jonathan, I tried to go immediately after the accident, very seldom in 25 years since I've had a passport, have I ever been hindered, I can't ever remember being hindered going anywhere for losing my passport, once I was delayed and had to run around and get it. But I just could not find my passport, we've had major, major searches, we never did find it, and I think that was in the providence of God because there were dozens and dozens and dozens of communications and phone calls that needed to be made, and in connection with all that was taking place, some of the initial communication, the facts weren't even straight, you may have heard initially thought it was a curved road, it wasn't a curved road, of course with LN it's just a network of people across the whole world, everybody immediately wants to know, it's just unbelievable, the complexity of communicating just to our own people. But the Lord worked it out, and on Monday morning first thing down to the embassy, new passport, tried again, I had my luggage checked in, just about going to the barrier, get on the plane, decided to phone my wife, found out the doctor had already seen him, wanted him moved immediately. I actually ended up going down into the bowels of Gatwick airport, hunting for my suitcase, and I got it back, got my ticket back, and went back home and made the necessary phone calls to get this Swiss Air Rescue Service and the other thing set up for Jonathan to be brought back, they thought come back actually a day later, then we were able to get him back here, so we were thankful for that. And then I didn't feel I could come over to see him when he first landed here, because I didn't think he'd be able to see anybody. I decided to take my meetings there, anywhere I move I have to cancel meetings, except today, I had meetings in Cornwall last night, came through the night from there by train, fly out tomorrow to Minneapolis, so I'm sorry I won't be here very long. I think we really do have a lot to thank God for. You know, if Jonathan is thanking the Lord, I don't think anybody else around has any excuse for not engaging in thanksgiving and praise, even though we know, some of us know all too well what's involved. In some ways the Lord has prepared me for this, for the last couple of years I've been very much wrestling with a subject of suffering more than any other subject in the scriptures. If you've heard any of my messages, you know how this occupies my mind. I just finished speaking on the doulos, giving a very, well a different message than I'd ever given before, about the basic suffering that often comes upon us as human beings. Not necessarily suffering for the gospel sake, but other kinds of suffering. Went through a whole list of things. The Lord led me, some years ago, to a quadriplegic person who went to the same college I studied at. It was a sister of Prita, the leader of our work in Thailand, he was only a volunteer leader, he's with the Lord now, died of cancer. I visited his sister, total quadriplegic. Quadriplegic means no movement of the four limbs. Jonathan is a paraplegic, means he has no movement of his legs. And there this woman was, in the back of Prita's house in Thailand, on one of these strange kind of beds. Everything totally paralyzed from here, right from here, nothing. Not all of us, of course, have in some way been prepared by the film Johnny. Jonathan has seen that film, I haven't seen the film, I read parts of the book, read part of the second book and ministered together with her in Chicago, heard her testimony. And then lately in England, we've been greatly exposed to a man named Max Sinclair. His book has just come off the press. And Valgary, the chairman of our board, had just finished reading the book the morning that I phoned him to tell him about Jonathan. Max Sinclair had a similar kind of accident. He was really in bad shape, never thought he'd ever walk again. And through prayer, and through the best medical care in the world, and Stoke Mongol Hospital, the hospital in England that specializes in paraplegic people, this man is walking. It's been years, couple years. They found out that his spinal cord was not totally severed, but was just extremely pinched. Of course, Christians lead mainly through prayer. All the satin medical people, they sometimes have different explanations. I talked to the man who was responsible for Max Sinclair. We were in consultation with specialists in about four or five countries in order that we might understand and make the best possible decision in regard to Jonathan. Now, we know the Lord could choose to raise Jonathan up. There are not too many cases in history of people with his same situation, if the diagnosis is correct, that have ever been raised up. But we know that God could raise him up. I don't think Jonathan has any doubt that God could do that. But he may have some doubt as to what God chooses to do in this particular situation. This is where, of course, you could get into some controversy. One sister that was with Peter Maiden and I, when this first happened, she just couldn't believe it. She just couldn't believe that we weren't just all immediately claiming immediate, instant, total healing. It was somewhat of a rebuke to us that we had prayed for total healing. I think most of us pray at least sometime or other. Then we can walk around with a guilt complex the rest of our life that in our heart we didn't quite believe it or weren't even quite sure what it was to believe. And the more you read on the subject, if you read widely, as I've read on the subject of healing for 27 years, and sometimes the more complex it gets. But we're still praying. Maybe the Lord wants it to be an inch-by-inch battle, as we like to battle in prayer for his fingers. We saw him exercising his arms today. It's quite amazing. When we first told the specialists in England about his arms, they were very encouraged by that, that he would have so much movement in his arms. Sometimes the world is a rebuke to us, and I think I was rebuked this afternoon as this Pakistani Air Force pilot came wheeling in. I think he had even been in a plane crash and never been hurt. But in a car crash, he was declared almost quadriplegic. I don't know what he said. He only had the eyeballs. Everything was paralyzed but his eyeballs. He came wheeling in to meet Jonathan, bright, chirpy character, making all kinds of jokes from the horror, and just shared a little bit about life in that hospital. I'm sure Jonathan's going to have quite a ministry in that hospital once he gets a little more mobile. You have to mainly talk to Jonathan through the mirrors, otherwise you're looking down on him. So you sit and relax. I gave him a brand new stereo and left him with a half an hour of Montevanni. It looked like he was really going into orbit. And the whole New Testament on tapes and the psalms and a few other psalms and hymns and music. He might get some encouragement out of that, I'm sure he will. So we want to be praying, and you're going to have the privilege of visiting him. It has to be very slow and present. And I really didn't even stay there very long. I was in there when this lady came in to do all kinds of things to him. So I went out and we came back and gave Jonathan some ice cream. That was Casey's idea. Then somebody else came in and gave him his exercises. I met Margie briefly and she was feeding him. Isn't it amazing that this hospital, one of the best hospitals for this kind of accident case, is a walking distance from Margie's, from their house. I mean, this is amazing. Some people have to move their entire family in order to get the right treatment. Because it's very important that your family be with you or around you during this treatment. Doctors even say it's important that the person, John, is not taken away from you. Now the main thing that Jonathan asked are his heart, his tongue and his brain. And all three of those are in absolute top condition. Maybe he's going to be forced to delegate more under his new ministry or new operational base. He's always had a little difficulty delegating some things. He likes to run around. We just don't know what the Lord has. The Lord is going to maybe surprise us, maybe surprise some people there in the hospital. But we want to pray and we want to maintain our own spiritual life in the midst of this crisis. Because there's no way that we're going to continue in this task of evangelizing the world with 1,600 people, some people that want a lot more. I actually am trying to keep the numbers down. With hundreds of vehicles and two ships, there's no way that we're going to go forward without having further crises. Just before this crisis, my close friend Roger Foster got a phone call that his son, 15 years of age, was in a hospital with cancer. He cancelled all of his meetings, spring harvest, and flew back to London. They mobilized tremendous prayer. They gave him this chemotherapy treatment. They thought all his hair would fall out and all kinds of things would happen. And that hasn't happened. And they've just taken a further check and there's no sign of this cancer in his lung. Whether they totally have it yet, I can't say because it's hard to keep up with all that's happening. But we know that as we go forward in this tremendous work, there are going to be the crises. He's going to be suffering. Jonathan was sharing with me today, he's not always an optimist, but he seems to be quite optimistic right now, optimistic. And he was sharing how he hasn't had really too much pain. Now what he meant by that, I don't know. But he doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain right now. He's had a hard night. He didn't sleep much last night. We can pray about that. Later on, from what I understand of the treatment he will be getting there, they turned him right upside down on this bed. This Pakistani pilot said he didn't go for that. He was a pilot. They're used to going upside down, so I don't know how Jonathan will handle the upside down treatment. But it certainly is something, regardless of any human factors involved in the accident, that obviously God has allowed. I think some of us are a little slow to say we believe God caused it. I heard a wonderful message by Dr. David Seamans, the teacher and preacher at the church at Asbury, where a lot of the students go, once giving a beautiful explanation about the permissive will of God. I'm afraid I can't explain it as well as he did. But God does allow things. We are his children. We are his children. He does protect us, but he allows things. It's amazing how one of the main books being read in Ohio in the last couple of years is Desperate for the Throne and Don't Waste Your Sorrow. Maybe it's time to reread that. Another major book that we've been pushing all over the world, we brought out the whole edition, is Affliction. The Lord knows how we have felt very strongly that we needed to communicate balanced truth on this subject. Another book we've been pushing a lot is Where is God When It Hurts? Books that bring a balanced teaching about suffering. Some of you know the Malcolm Muggeridge quotation about the dignity of suffering. That one really blew me away when I first read it. You know the tremendous argument that as evangelical Christians we have against euthanasia. What about all these old people? Some of them live for weeks, have weeks in pain, in continual pain. They don't die. Sometimes people even start praying they'll die and they don't die. Marilyn Sears' father has been in and out of the intensive care so much, she hasn't been able to return to the work. I don't know how much pain he's having in that. Certainly the emotional pain alone is very, very great. And maybe in God's sovereign purposes, he is going to help through this experience to grow up a little more, to become a little more mature, a little less naive. You can preach about balance until your eyeballs fall out. But God has to allow things into people's lives to bring them into balance. It was crises in my home with my children, with my wife, with myself that taught me more about balance than any of the books I'd read on the internet. And of course, I'm still learning. But let's look at a scripture that the Lord used in my own heart during this time. I think there's a place for sorrow. I don't think we all are going to run around with, ha ha, this has happened. There's a place for sorrow. I've had seven days of tears bottled up. I think I left them all on the floor by Jonathan's bed. I hope he knows how to swim. But we're all human beings and if I get through this tape without a few tears, that will be great. That's probably why the Lord left me in London. If I'm a little bit away from something, I can objectively attack it. But when I get near, there's something in me that just starts to come apart. And I think most of us are going to have our great struggle over this when Jonathan's wheeling down the driveway in some electronic wheelchair, especially those of you that may be hoping that and praying, as all of us would in one sense, that he would be able to walk. I think you need to understand if treatment goes at a normal pace, he'll be many months before he'll be ready even for the wheelchair. In some cases, he may be ready earlier than that. But this is a very serious thing and I think you realize it years ago when this happened to people. I mean, he has broken his neck. I mean, years ago, if you talk about a man breaking his neck, I mean, that was it. You didn't expect to see him around anymore. But somehow today, medical care, things are different. Well, let's look at this scripture in 2 Samuel chapter 12. Now, any comparison we may have with a modern situation, a contemporary situation like Jonathan, and something from the Word of God, the situation may not be identical. And this situation is not identical, what I'm going to read here. But there's something I believe we can learn from this passage, even though the situation is not identical. Nathan has just rebuked David and David is now praying for the child. Verse 15, After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he was ill. Now, David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted, he went into his house, and he spent nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to keep him up from the ground, but he refused. He would not eat any food with him. On the seventh day, the child died. After all that prayer, fasting, the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought while the child was still living, we spoke to David and he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate. David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves, and he realized that the child was dead. Is the child dead, he asked. Yes, they replied, he is dead. Then David got up from the ground. After he washed, he put on lotions, changed his clothes, went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Let's read that again. Then David got up after he heard the child was dead from the ground. After he had washed and put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request, they served him food and he ate. His servants asked him, why are you acting in this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat. He answered, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live. But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him and he will not return to me. It's very easy when something like this happens, for subtle forms of regret to come in. It can come in especially to the people that might have been in the accident. And I think always the one who's driving the car, regardless of what the circumstances of the accident are, that person always has a little bit of an extra battle. And I know that in different trials that I faced in life, regret has stuck its ugly head up in a very, very ferocious way. And I just was again reading a book the other day, a book about leadership or something along that line, and it just pointed out the absolute drain that regret is, even on our emotions. And just as David, seemingly in this situation, was not bitter with God and was not filled with malice or regret or some other emotion. So I think in this accident and in this situation, the Lord doesn't want us to get involved in some form of regret trip. If only we had done that or if only we had done this. That doesn't mean we can't learn on a practical level from some of these experiences. And that is something separate that has to be dealt with down the line. But I believe that it's such a beautiful picture for us to gain something from at this moment. God wants us to worship. God wants us to lift our hearts in thanksgiving for all of his mercy. 23,000 people have been on Operation Mobilization in 25 years. And in those early days, I will tell you, it wasn't as safe as it was today with the many improvements we've been able to make and a lot of other things that we do. In 1962, I was the only truck driver, apart from one other Australian man in the whole work. And I wasn't a truck driver, I can assure you. I just happened to have a little more experience than the rest. There was no mechanic at all in 1962. And we distributed 25 million pieces of literature covering, I mean, I can't even tell you how many miles figured out all over Italy, all over Austria, Germany, Holland. People driving vehicles. I mean, I remember Dale Roton for years was telling me he didn't believe in glasses. He was reading books sight without glasses squinting trying to figure out what it was saying. I don't remember if he was wearing his glasses by then or not. But he had one of those very, very big lorries, big furniture lorry. And he was driving all over Eastern France. We could have so easily in any stage of this work, I remember crossing the Alps absolutely petrified, 25 people in the back of this old lorry. At any stage down through these years, we could have wiped out whole truckloads of people. When I was in Nepal recently, the very road we were traveling on a bus just right over the edge, they're all wiped out. God has been very, very gracious to us on the highway. And yet somehow, in God's purposes, he's allowed even the one who always teaches, gives the exhortations on driving safety and all that kind of warning to be in this kind of terrible accident. And I think that we need to, as we've been praying and many have prayed the Lord would raise him right up out of the bed in Madrid. It hasn't happened. I think we need to specialize now in worship, thanksgiving, and praise, waiting upon God. I think there's some subtle ways the enemy can try to use this. You know, in any work like OMV, the enemy isn't sitting still. Far more subtle things the enemy can work than, say, getting us into a car crash. That isn't his major method. It certainly seems to be an unusual thing. The number of missionaries killed in car crashes is phenomenal. It's hard to believe that sometimes there isn't something sinister going on. I don't know. I don't know. One of the best up-and-coming young preachers in America, a young man named Jahan, somehow got the inspiration eight months ago to learn how to fly small planes, something we've never got along with in OM. He took it up and he never came down. He's dead. And his wife's first husband was killed also in a small plane. Five missionary leaders were all killed in Alaska just recently in a small plane. This morning in Brown, they played a, or showed a Super 8 teaching tape that I made about two years ago. I don't know if it's ever been shown here, but I open up by giving the illustration of that Whitcliffe mechanic who, for a moment, turned away when he was tightening a bolt on the small plane. He turned away to do something. He forgot to tighten the bolt, and he saw the plane explode in midair, killing seven people. And he knew, for one reason only, they were all killed. He'd forgotten to tighten that bolt. And he got, after agony and despair and suffering of mind, God gave him the victory. And he wrote that article. Oh, I like going to Reddit to use it in my message. We know God tests us. When we're in his work, he tests to the very core of our being. Preparation for things that perhaps we'll never understand. I think one of the dangers when something like this happens is that we can all get into little mini and sometimes maxi guilt trips. And we can all feel, we can all feel that the problems we have now are meaningless. You know, the big thing in Brownlee was Jerry Davey's knee. We're all praying for Jerry's Davey's knee. And really, it's quite serious, a lot of pain. The operation hasn't gone very well. He's on crutches. When we get this news, Jerry Davey's knee. What's Jerry Davey's knee? And more than that, I mean, I find that some of the things I'm doing, I just feel ridiculous. My crisis, the other day, just before I went up to speak, I think at the night of prayer, my crisis was wrestling with a broken dog leash. My son, Daniel, in a moment of inspiration, this dog didn't cost my daughter anything. It's her dog. I told her I wouldn't spend a penny. So she's got this dog and it's won its way to my heart and everybody's heart. My son, Daniel, goes out and spends 11 pounds on an automatic springback dog leash. And I tell you, it was the grace of God that kept my mouth shut when he walked into the house with that thing. But I've learned with my son. And lo and behold, my wife and I took it that night to show it to a friend, and the dog bit through it. And I didn't know how to explain this to Daniel. He's sometimes sensitive about some of my weak points. And so Benji and I tied a knot, and I took the dog out, and the dog chased another dog, and as he went, the knot just disintegrated. I was trying to fix this dog leash. I was thinking about Jonathan, and I'm trying to fix this dog leash. And I thought, this is, you know, this world, we're living in an absurd world. You know, here I am, wrestling. I was actually, I think I actually started to pray for help. The dog leash was, you know, 11 pounds. In my, you know, I don't know where you live, but in my family, you know, 11 pounds is a lot of bread. Of course, my son paid for it. He's got more money now. He works at McDonald's when he's not at university. Anyway, when the leash broke, the thing popped back inside this container. So the only way to get it was to open the container. So I carefully opened the container, and a spring popped out, and another spring popped out. And I will tell you, this was some, I'm not technically minded. Anyway, I managed to fix it. I was really praising the Lord about that. You know, and I was just thinking that night, isn't it, isn't it wonderful that our God is so great, that he can minister grace in a massive crisis, as Jonathan's situation. For us, it is a massive crisis. It's a big thing. And he can still have enough grace left over to take care of whatever little hassle you may be having here, even in Solomon. And you don't have to feel guilty about it. You don't have to feel guilty about it. You don't have to feel, well, I'm selfish. I can't come to God and talk about my problems when Jonathan's got that problem, or when someone else has got some big problem. No, God doesn't operate that way. If you've got some problem, no matter how big, no matter how small, you can bring it to the Lord. Now, if you magnify it, if you get preoccupied with it, if you overemphasize it, yeah, that's wrong. Casting every care upon him, he cares for you. But to take it to the Lord, to cry a little over it, or to share it with someone. You may feel for the next seven weeks with this crisis in You know, you can't share any of your problems here now. I mean, the leaders are either saying, how can you share this problem when we've got this bigger problem? And, oh, and for a couple of weeks worldwide could become the most uptight missionary work in Europe. With everybody preoccupied for this, thinking how big it is, thinking how is he going to face life in this way, and therefore unwilling to talk about our own situation, some of the things that are hurting us. You may have two good legs and be a paraplegic spiritually. And I think Jonathan would be the first to say, that would be our greater concern. In fact, it's amazing, the illustration God put on my heart in England was the same one the Lord put on his heart. I think it's on the French tape. I wasn't sure which tape it was on. And I thought, what a far greater crisis. When some dear exoemer or maybe an oemer, that hasn't happened much, suddenly their marriage disintegrates or their life disintegrates. I think it's a greater trial on the physical level when people's minds disintegrate. That is still a mystery that sometimes just baffles me. Some things have come across my desk lately. One was the suicide of the son of a Christian leader. The other was something similar and I just fall down. It's wonderful when we're totally overwhelmed. We can fall at the feet of Jesus, just as David did, and worship. There must have been a sense here when David was just overwhelmed. All the emotion of the past experience, the failure, the dead baby. He must have been overwhelmed and he fell down and he just worshiped. I think this is God's way that when we feel so overwhelmed, so gripped by fear, some are gripped by fear through this accident. I talked to someone, he said, I don't want to go in any cars anymore. I've had a stage in my life where I never want to walk in an airplane again. All the accidents I've read about, all the small planes especially. I think of that verse, God has not given us a spirit of fear. What are we going to do? Go out there and burn all of our vehicles? This is it, isn't it? This is where they all come from. We can really get guilty around here, man. We can chew our fingernails right down to the cusp. But somehow God has called us to world evangelism. Somehow we know the greatest crisis is a lost soul going out into eternity without God. That makes even Jonathan's crisis, in one sense, look small. I believe one of the reasons that Jonathan is rejoicing, the doctor warned him he was going to go into total despair. Jonathan said, it hasn't happened yet. He might have to battle through some of that. That wouldn't be abnormal to go through times of despair and depression. I know quite a few people that have that without getting into that kind of situation. But I am convinced that if there was ever a time when we want to take Ephesians 6 literally and put on the shield of faith, it's now. We're plunging very rapidly toward a summer crusade. What should we do? Call it off? Think of the danger. All these cars, much younger drivers, they've never driven Europe in their life. They don't even know what the signs mean. Here's a sign that says, don't curb your dog, and they think it says curb your car. They don't know what they're doing, a lot of these people driving around Europe. We've had, I don't know, several more accidents in England in the past couple of months. Now I think in England we're going to somehow make some changes. We're going to put people to driving school, British driving school, even if it costs us a few pounds, because we're dealing with a different side of the road and I think we've learned some things the hard way there. And then other parts of the work, maybe the things that we need to change, we need to do. But one thing for sure, God doesn't want us to be gripped by fear. God doesn't want us sitting in cars trembling, because you can't live life that way. We had someone die right in this building or just down the road and in the shower. That was a tremendous blow to all who lived here, dear sister. And we cannot allow fear to grip our hearts. We must stand courageously, even though some of us are maybe fearful types. Some mornings I don't want to get out of bed. What in the world is going to happen today? People said to me a number of times, hey, what do you think's next? Turkey man dies in his sleep. The next month, a massive fire and a quarter of a million dollars worth of damage. The next month, a truck in Sudan. In fact, Jonathan administered along those lines in Portugal. He just told me today, saying, you know, what were you going to expect for April? What about May? But you know, if you start living that way, you can end up losing your mind. And that's worse than losing your legs. And God, I believe, is wanting to say to us now, as he said to Joshua, be thou courageous. This is a time for us to be courageous in what we're doing. Life is filled with risks. Think of the risks the British Isles are taking right now as they sent these submarines and this entire fleet down to an island that hardly anyone in Britain even knew what it was four weeks ago. Now we may spill the blood of a thousand or two thousand British young men on the beaches of an island that has less than two thousand citizens. As Russia begins to think of backing Argentina, and as America seems to be more committed to Britain, who knows what's going to happen in the world in the next couple of weeks or months. This is not a time for fear. This is not a time for retreat. This is not a time for regret. This is a time to recommit our hearts to be God's people. Courageous in the midst of the battle. Courageous in the midst of suffering. Refusing to turn back even though something in us says, run, man, run! Some of us probably are natural cowards, but now we've got the Holy Spirit. And he is saying, full steam ahead. We also have one another. Think of the difference between John from the cross with all of his friends. Tens of thousands are praying for him. Letters are pouring in from all over the world. He knows Christ is a savior. He's on the way to heaven. He's got a wife and three children who love him beyond words. And some unsaved man who has nothing, hardly any friends, and is in the same accident as lying somewhere in a paraplegic ward with nothing but maybe a nurse. That might even pull him through. We've been saying for the last two years to OM teams, why don't we visit hospitals more? Why don't we visit the elderly more? Why don't we visit the prisons more? I know you don't all read the memos. Well, maybe the Lord has something to say to us in all of this. It's a time in which we must keep our perspective, and we know Jonathan would want us to do that. It's a time for us not just to think about Jonathan, but maybe to open our minds and think about others who are suffering, and maybe increase our letter writing a little bit. What about your aunt who's sick, hasn't heard from you for months? What about your own parents who may be in some suffering because they just don't hear from you very much? There are people all around us who are suffering, and maybe Jonathan's suffering will be an alarm bell in our minds to somehow be more concerned for those that are in special need in times of suffering, for the elderly, so neglected, so forgotten, many of them, for those in prison, for the refugees. Maybe through this some of you will change the direction of your life. If you're really honest, your aim in life is still incredibly trivial. Maybe it's just to go back to somehow to your own country, and get a nice job, and get a nice little bungalow, and a little car, and make payments the rest of your life, and somehow have a tombstone at the end of the road. Here lies John Evangelical, a nice guy, he tithed. Maybe it's a time to think about getting our lives a little more on course. It would be better to run all out for Christ and die young, than to waste your life away in the school of mediocrity, which is so prevalent in our day. Let's rethink about where we're going. Let's rethink about the future. So often it seems to me that decisions about our future are made in some kind of introspective existential cubicle. Rather than considering the whole world situation, rather than putting enough emphasis on the need, and considering other people's situations, we tend to be very subjective. I think that gets us down many a dead-end street. Not that God is not concerned about your personal needs and emotions, because we've already emphasized that he is. Keeping things in perspective, how many of us in OM, a movement known for its evangelistic zeal, really have a concern for the lost. They go out into eternity every day. The ambulances rush by us, the funerals drive down my street, and I have to sometimes just acknowledge a lack of compassion in my own heart for the lost. I find myself sometimes these days even forgetting to take my gospel track, something that would have been unheard of in my life some years ago. Maybe it's part of my forgetfulness. I lost my Bible again last night. I guess I'm getting old. But oh my, to keep this in perspective. I personally feel that Jonathan, and I want to bring this to a close, has been such a tremendous example to the church. He's always kept a low profile. I noticed quite a few prayer partners I talked to the last days, they weren't quite sure who this was. Was this Dale or who? Had it mixed up, who was he? I didn't even know he was the president of the committee for Mission 83. Somebody told me that. Ian Newberry was walking through my back garden when I was out shouting for the dog. We had some fellowship, that is Ian Newberry and I, and told me that Jonathan was the president of Mission 83, the committee. Is that right? Here's a man that God has mightily used, and yet often he's been behind the scenes. The last thing we do in our life is try to exalt people. It's just not our way. But maybe God through this is going to exalt Jonathan in terms of ministry, in terms of opportunity. I remember him. You know how Jonathan expresses things. He's not exactly moaning, but he's not exactly rejoicing. He was talking about the invitations I was getting to speak, and he said, I'm not getting so many invitations to speak all over the place like that. Then he said something along the line, they don't invite me back so much. Well, he may get a real change in course, because I know what happened to Jeff Bohm in England. I know what happened to Jeff Bohm in England when he tried to rush for a train and had both his legs cut off by a railway train. By the way, a lot of people prayed for him. He was from that side of thinking where they really believe very strongly in healing, but there wasn't anybody in Britain that put his legs back. But I will tell you, God gave him ministry. He's got a really unique wheelchair, and he is all over the world. People in Britain know Jeff Bohm. I believe that we're not in any way going to organize it in a sense. The word just gets around. It is a big thing. It is a serious thing. There are thousands of Christians that are praying, and maybe the Lord has a change in direction for our brother in some ways. We have no intentions of putting anybody else in the European coordinatorship slot for quite a while, but Jonathan's always been the kind that would be willing to step out at any time. His heart's really in Africa. I just somehow believe that God really wants to speak very, very strongly to people through the life of his brother. We've seen that so often people won't listen when they're just messages. Man, those of us who are preachers, we're ready to throw in the sponge. Somehow when a life goes up on the altar, somehow when there's suffering, there's a louder voice, like the voice of Johnny, like the voice of Fanny Crosby, like the voice of many, many, many mighty men and women who went through somehow the cauldrons of suffering and through that became more Christlike, more powerful, and more greatly used. We don't know. We have our ways. God has his ways. One of the great struggles in life is to try to get them together. Well, these are some thoughts, and I hope that somehow each one of us will take courage, stand against the fiery dark, realize God has enough grace not only for Jonathan but for any problem, any burden, any hurt that you have, big or small, maybe. So don't hesitate to take it to Jesus. Jonathan didn't sleep well last night. What about you? Some of you are not sleeping well and carrying your problems to bed. That doesn't bother me in O.M. It's quite normal, but when a person has that and never shares it, never gets anybody to pray with them, that bothers me because we want to be more concerned for people. We are well aware, those of us in leaders in O.M., I'm one of them, almost have a permanent guilt feeling because we sense that so often we have failed those who come on O.M. That's why I almost cried that we cut the numbers down so we could try to get more personal attention, but it's not as simple as that. And I know that sometimes when you're in O.M. you don't get all that you want. You go away disappointed. You know, if I saw it any better, and I've just searched everywhere in the world, I've read, I don't know how many Christian magazines, I interview everybody that comes across my path and I have opportunity to see, you know, where are we going wrong? Where are we doing something wrong? Where do we need to emphasize more? I tell you, for 20 some years looking around, I don't really see that it's happening much better to any great degree anywhere else. I thought for a while the answer is all these house groups. People get in a house group, there's only 15 people, a couple of pastors, look at the ministry they get, look at the care they get. They're never going to get that in O.M. The last couple of years I'm picking up people hurt, walked on, broken apart by house groups. They got in situations where people cared so much they even cared when you didn't care. And last night I had another one, a man so hurt, him and his wife, so bitter by the house group movement, he's now become an extreme arch-Calvinist and is attacking the house group movement, the charismatic movement at every turn. Isn't it interesting how people somehow with the disappointment, the idealism, always looking for the perfect place, the perfect group, the ideal situation, seemingly are blown about by every wind of doctrine and go from one extreme to the other. And I know sometimes people leave O.M., disappointed, hurt, because of course at times we do fail. And of course at times sometimes things get out of control. But most of them, when they get to the age of 35 or 40, they look back on that experience. Now with a greater circle of life around them, they generally realize that at least to a large degree they were wrong. We may have also been wrong. How much better it would be if somehow now we could get a more healthy and more sane view of life. The greatest damage often being done in a work like O.M., an automobile accident, it's sin. The sins of the tongue, the gossip, the lack of communication and other failures in that area that believe me even now in O.M. are doing undue harm. But you know what? I believe God can overrule that as well. And the last thing I want to do is get all uptight. Because there's a little bit of gossip going around at times in O.M. I declare war against gossip with all my heart. But when it comes, I'm not surprised. Because I'm on planet Earth. I'm working with humans. And I'm sure the rest of you are in the same situation. Let's praise the Lord. Let's take courage. Let's keep things in perspective. Let's allow this experience to make us more mature, less naive. Let's get our priorities sorted out. And let's go full speed ahead. I don't mean in a wild way. And I'm convinced that in O.M., in a number of areas, we've got to slow down. You say, that doesn't sound like George Burroughs. Sorry. But I think discernment tells us that in a number of areas, we have to slow down. We feel it's a great victory in India that we have 100% unity to cut down from 450 people to 300 people. If you think that's going backward, then you try a little book in here and a little man in here named Gideon. And I believe God is not impressed with big numbers. I'm not as impressed with some of our man-made statistics. And that in O.M., as I've been saying in the past couple of years, the Lord wants us to think, to pray, to consolidate, to some cases back up, cut down, and move forward. God's invasion army. There's a lot more I'd love to say, but I think that's enough. And if there's anybody that wants to write to me as a result of what you've heard on this tape, realizing it's shared from the heart of weakness and inadequacy, I'd be happy to hear from you. I don't always get the replies back. One of the reasons is sometimes I can't read what people are writing. Let's pray. Father, we thank and praise you that you are a mighty, great, sovereign, living, overruling God. And we worship you. And we praise you for the answers to prayer we've seen in the midst of this crisis. We praise you for the way that you lead us through the dark moments and the difficult moments. Sometimes with tears in our eyes, you take us through to that place of blessing. And you meet us there. And you know all about us. You know every one of us right down to the hair on our head. They're all numbered and labeled. They're in that heavenly computer. And you love us still so much. May we just somehow rejoice in your love in these days. Deliver us from any subtle emotional tricks we can get into as we see Jonathan. Or maybe we don't see him for some days. And then eventually as we see him come down this driveway, whatever condition you choose to allow him to live in. We do thank you, Lord, for all the people praying around the world. And we thank you, Lord, that you're going to use this. We hope not to bring great attention to Jonathan. He wouldn't want that. Some will probably come. But we pray that attention will come to Europe. We pray that attention will come to the Muslim world that was so on his heart and still is. And that you'd raise up labors for those countries like Senegal and other Muslim lands that burn on the heart of Jonathan where he longed to be. And Lord, that you would cause people to understand the need in Portugal and Spain where they were serving you and where they were in this accident because they were pouring their life into that particular vision and challenge. We pray for Trevor, for Pedro, wives. We pray for others involved like Daniel Gonzalez who a little over a year ago had his own wife at such a young age taken home and was seen suffering eyeball to eyeball. Our hearts, Lord, go out to you in praise. We would worship you in Jesus' name. Amen. Then now follows a short message from Jonathan himself while still in the hospital in Spain. Then follows a short message by Marguite, his wife. So here I am. This is Jonathan McCrossie speaking from Guadalajara, Spain, from the hospital where I've been since last Wednesday after the accident that I was in with Trevor Allen and Pedro Arbogast. We were just coming back from Portugal on route to Barcelona. I think most of you have heard the details of the accident. Trevor suffered a little bit of a concussion. He's been able to go home but must stay lying down for a while. Pedro suffered a broken leg and a hand and he's still in the hospital here but I think will go back this next week. Actually, I have suffered very little pain but had a problem of a broken back which has left me paralyzed from kind of the bottom half of my chest down and a bit my hands. Although, as you can see, as you can hear, I'm Steve Hart who's kindly come to visit and help me make this little recording to give greetings to you. You can see that my mind is functioning and my voice, though probably not quite as bellowy as it used to be, is still functioning too and I have the use of my arms so I really praise God for that. I do really want to tell all of you how much you and I have appreciated your love and prayers. It's really fantastic how much the family of God stands with each other. I think I probably cried more just thinking of how wonderful this family is. It was so great to have Daniel Gonzalez come down and he was such a comfort to me and to Margie. As you know, he lost his wife last September and then just to, as a Christian nurse in the hospital, the guys in touch with the two pastors of the Evangelical Church here and they have really been so helpful to Margie, giving her a place and Antonio, the wife of Panto, to stay and also Steve Hart and Mike Evans and really just we've heard that the believers in Spain were praying even the first night and every news item we've gotten, as Margie's heard from quite a few by telephone, dear George Miller who's tried everything to get here but couldn't find his passport but he seemed to have gotten in touch with almost everybody in the world, just had a telegram from Greg Livingston saying they were praying and fasting and loving us and so we really, it's marvelous to see how many are concerned. In fact in some ways it makes us sorrowful that so many have to experience sorrow on our behalf. I sometimes feel a bit like Epaphroditus when he was sick and he was a bit concerned that everybody else would be sorrowful on his behalf so I do pray your own hearts will really be encouraged I can say that most of the time I've had real peace both Margie and I, real peace of God in our hearts. In fact even last night as I was thinking about what I could say to all you dear ones at Soventum and I hope this little message can be, perhaps it can be duplicated and just sent to other teams because I don't think I can dictate letters to everyone, at least not too quickly, but I really can say that whenever I've thought about any team and I've thought about many particularly those who've been injured in the past, can't help thinking of Nan George and the accident in Yugoslavia and different ones because I've thought about them and about different teams, my heart really has gone out and just realized that far better to be right with God and injured than to have a spirit that's out of, out of joint with the Lord and I thought about married couples I thought my how much better it is to be disabled or even dead than divorced and I really pray for all our teams and all the married couples and all the young people that each one of you would really walk on with God I know in the past I preached a lot about perseverance and I probably have a new phase now to learn but especially in trying to do a bit of therapy and rehabilitation I can say I think the Lord really answered prayer the first night as they were able to get my back in position again and that I think was definitely an answer to prayer at 2 30 in the morning that Wednesday night and we thank you for those prayers I really don't know how much progress I'm making physically we have to kind of wait and see we are praying that it might be possible to continue the treatment in Belgium and we're working on that so that would make it easier to be near the family and I trust to carry on some ministry when people come to see me to kind of encourage them and maybe help some with my own assembly and bible study and leading the assembly but I do want to leave this little message with you you know the car that we were using which case Rossi's kindly lent us has the initials AKX and I think most of you know me well enough that I like to make little expressions that go with those letters and as I thought last night I thought about the A and that that surely must stand for all and so often in scripture we read God does all things well all things work together for good to those who love him he's the God of all grace he wants us to always give thanks in all things his grace is all sufficient and though that car won't be used again I think that that letter A really needs to remind us of the fact that God does all things well we don't always understand it but he does all things well and both Margie and I and she's really been tremendous too thank you for praying for her and thank you for praying for the children that God will do all things good for them too as they fly back to Brussels today and go back to school so that's what the A stands for is all and then I thought about the K and I thought that's knowledge there's a lot of things I don't know there's many things I don't understand but God knows everything he sees the beginning from the end and like Daniel Gonzalez said to my wife before he left to go back to Barcelona and he was gonna he's taking the children to the airport this morning I think he asked her do you have peace with God and she said yes and he says realize that God knows it all from beginning to end we just see a little part of it God knows all and that's our confidence and then what can I say about the X I think the easiest way no exception no exception God does all things well his grace and goodness is always there and is always the best his plan is always the best for us his knowledge is supreme and we rest confident in that and there are no exceptions and that's my little message of encouragement to you thank you so much for all your prayers and love it really has been fantastic thank you hello everybody this is Margaret speaking I had talked already once on this tape but somehow it didn't record when we tried it there was no sound so here we go again but I said how glad we are to be able to send a word along with Steve as he returns to Sargenton tomorrow it's been so good to have several of the brothers here Mike Evans has come yesterday and will probably stay on a few more days also Daniel Gonzalez was here and was a tremendous help as many of you know all of you know that he lost his wife Lily only a few months ago through leukemia and I was especially touched by his encouragement and his advice and he felt very strongly that I should stay here and let the children go back on their own George and Steve and all the others felt the same so I know this is the right thing to do at this time just a few minutes ago George was on the phone from England and he had been in contact with many top specialists in various parts of the world and they agreed that it is good for Jonathan to come back to Belgium apparently the center there at Brickman is very competent the question is when and this might be maybe in a week or even before that so please pray that Jonathan's condition will stabilize and we can then come back there's a swiss rescue service private apparently that has all the equipment to for transports like this and I could then come back on the same flight but we realize the lord is in control and his timing is best another thing that was where we were really conscious of the lord's overruling and working things out the there's a little church here right in Guadalajara which is rare for Spain since there are so many cities and towns without any gospel witness but the pastor here comes from Chile but his mother was German and the father Swiss so he knows German very well he translated and helped with driving us around to various places to the police and then looking at the car that was in the accident out on the road and also they had over for lunch the first day and so it's really been so good to see how the lord stepped in to different people and we were so overwhelming between laughing and crying sometimes we we are so touched of just being part of the family worldwide also here in the hospital has been very helpful and and I'm happy like they say in Spanish we're learning a bit more Spanish even Jonathan said he's picking up a bit more and the nurses there in the intensive care ward have been very helpful and the doctors also at the telephone reception really we've sensed that we're not just depending on men but that God was in charge all over even if we do not understand also Daniel Gonzalez was telling me yesterday reminding me of the fact down here our life is just a little bit then up there he says that is the real thing and he asked me Margie do you have peace looking at me straight and I said yes do you believe God is good God is mercy that's how he put it and I could honestly say yes and he said for himself and his daughters it it seemed cruel in human eyes first that well Lily was taken and yet he says on the other hand what blessing and what deeper experience and wider vision broader understanding of God and his plans he said they wouldn't have missed it and just talking with Mike Evans here I hadn't known it as a little boy of nine he was put in hospital for 19 months in a frame because of tuberculosis in his hip bone and afterwards another nine months in a cast and Jonathan hadn't known about it either he was so touched and said so many of you have suffered more than us and some of us and yet God has a special plan for each one of our lives okay goodbye as there is still some space left on the tape here are some of the latest prayer requests from George Verwer I don't know how much information you have about Sri Lanka but that visit was absolutely phenomenal and I just heard the testimony of one of the men converted to Christ when I was in Sri Lanka so it's good to get some new personal communist Methodist you've probably heard about before gave his testimony on the ship and I found out some things I didn't even know and now how God is using this man I made a tape also at Manchester that same day I was there for the study program on the ministry of Dulos and if any of you that's that was because I was just over in Dulos as well and if any of you at times just you know you have a few doubts about the ship ministry or the Dulos ministry just listen to that tape not one I made 10 years ago it's one I made just a few weeks ago because I saw in Mexico again just how God uses that ship and the open doors it gave I was only there a few days one of the days I was there I was able to speak to over 200 pastors and the Lord gave me a very strong message I was almost frightened to give it these pastors I thought boy I'm going to get in real trouble here especially with my Spanish but I gave it and the response was overwhelming it was accusing them of not growing up as a church and I gave my illustrations how Mexicans pray for missionaries Lord here I am send some gringo to the farm field they really took that well I thought that was a dangerous line and 104 of them signed up and paid money for that cassette tape and a similar message I gave in Mexico City that one was in English and Spanish I understand that tape is also going all over Mexico in fact one man stood up in the pastors conference he said this message is needed in every church in Mexico we must spread it and start preaching it everybody to spread the vision and spread this message you know the great problem in Mexico is not just the young people wanting to go the greater problems the church doesn't want to send them they're Mexican young people they want to go not a lot but the church has done hurt them missionaries Muslim world you know and this is a very radical message but Dick Griffin feels that his 25 years of labor in Mexico is because of this God wants to make the Mexican church a missionary sending church and it's got to be the church it cannot be just a few renegade individuals it's got to be the church and pray pray for that they've had some very good Easter crusades in different parts of the world one of them was in Mexico it was exciting and challenging to to be there again so that's another item of prayer and praise you know when I get going about these things I could keep you here for a long time a lot is happening they've asked us to mobilize prayer for the Argentina situation I'm sure the British are especially praying especially any of you in the deserts but another major bank in Argentina just folded we have Argentinian young people on the ship and none of their support money now can be sent out of the country we have Luis Perfetti down there it does affect us even though that is minor isn't it compared to the total thing but we can see the enemy really at work in that in that situation so let's pray especially for that and keep it in mind regularly we'll try to keep you informed if we have any news from the ship I'd like to just also continue to request prayer for Jerry Davey he's got this very difficult knee he's had a lot of pain they weren't even able to do therapy it was so swollen he's operating from the house with his telephone and they have a number of real staff needs in SDL especially desperate for somebody in the accounting department John Dirksen the head of the accounts department gave me a note yesterday and I could just tell they really need somebody they need also a computer somebody up on the computer we do have a new sister coming on our team in a week or two as a secretary I met her at one of the meetings of Earth Invaders she sort of was waiting for a letter from OM just to tell her you know come I'm a secretary ready to resign her job so I said look I think you better come so we're encouraged by that Vera my secretary has been away because of the death of her father I talked to her on the phone she's coming back she'll actually work with me in the states for a couple of weeks before returning and that will be a great answer to prayer because Mei Wei has really had almost double the work Mei Wei's other sister who works as a secretary and I would ask you also to especially pray for Neil Porter he's now the team leader Jack Rendell is on a three-month preaching tour and break people like Jack Rendell we cannot give him a year off you just cannot do it so we give him three months meanwhile Neil Porter is our team leader Gary Dean heads out for ministry in Pakistan I was in Pakistan I think you have heard that take part two of the North Africa tape which ended up in Pakistan I am very very excited about Pakistan in fact the aim of my wife and I is to live in Pakistan for one month next the end of this year or next year and then one month in Nepal whether we can swing that considering other factors we're not sure but we feel with with now over 500 people committed in the subcontinent even when we bring the numbers down we need to be out there to just labor together a little more with the brothers and the sisters there I could go on but I think that perhaps is a good place to end you never keep up on all the news in O.N. so don't complain oh I didn't even hear that there's all kinds of things I never hear about anymore and today alone I prayed for over 60 reports that's uh that jet foil that's really nice to read reports and I had four semi-drunk incredibly noisy people behind me and with great joy I put my earphones on turned up the music and prayed through reports from all over the world and I was amazed to read about some of the things that are happening because I can't keep up on it all it's good that the holy spirit has far greater ability in organization coordination follow-up greater initiative than any of us and I can tell you you may not think so people are playing for example people know that you're in the battle here and I know the brother Ted Davey in some ways would like to move on I think you all know that I hope if you did well I'm in trouble but he would like to move on but he did tell me on the phone a couple days ago that maybe he should reconsider another year we have challenged one or two other people latest person we have challenged is Des Harper dear brother has been one of the main leaders on Logos and he is praying about laying his Columbia Bible College year of study on the altar if Zobington needs one or two others have been challenged people are not exactly jumping out of the trees to be team leader at Zobington but that's not because of Zobington as some of you may sometimes think it's because very few people feel that this is their gift and this is their ministry to be a team leader of such a large complex team that has a number of other leaders they just don't feel they've got you know what it takes not that this is such an unpleasant place I will tell you my wife a fair number of places she hasn't appreciated she certainly you know always liked Zobington we had the one little room or so down the end of the hall behind some boxes maybe I should come back here for a year boy you'd all quit except Steve and maybe uh maybe Edwin a few others but uh we seem to have stuck a little bit in England until our daughter finishes her school is there anything you'd like to ask anything at all you'd like to ask me looking forward to being over here of course in the summer with our coach boy that is the greatest single tool to help me survive that has ever ever come out of the omp that coach that is I can bug it on my coach lecture everyone has a heart attack ha ha ha he was in some place where they had 20 coaches for sale oh he's now down to six and he wanted me to come over right then and look at all these guiltiness I said look we haven't got the other leaders convinced about the one coach yet but I had this earth invaders tour of course the whole tour through the Middle East and the coach and I found it such an enormous help to have my office right there outside the place I was preaching and making use of the time also I'm the kind that gets emotionally involved in the driving and the navigating now I go to the back of the coach I close the door the more they get lost the more letters I do I'm telling you for me it's a big thing for me to stay in that back room and keep my nose out of the navigation because they do get lost and we had a great time we had 13,000 people total attendance in those meetings every night there are people that either came to Christ recommitted their lives every night there are people interested in coming on a limb and the interest in recruits has increased in Britain we're under a lot of pressure as you can imagine to see them the right people come not just people but the right people it really proved to be effective we could carry the literature I hate to carry little dinky quantities of literature and we just packed the whole men's dormitory converted into books to squeeze people in there between the books and we sold 3,000 pounds sterling on that little trip of books from the bus so it's really like a bookmobile we really were encouraged about that well let me close in prayer and I hope you will take those requests in your morning prayer time and I'd like to somehow be able to spend a little more time with Margie and Crosby tonight so I only had a few minutes with her I'm not sure if that's the Lord's plan before I go back through the night I go off to the states my itinerary should be floating around here and I would really ask prayer Bethany Fellowship Church Sunday morning St. Paul Bible College or college first time ever on Monday another one of Mickey Walker's churches on Sunday night Mickey's probably going to stay in the states in a year he really wanted to go out to Taiwan I tried to get him to Cyprus we're not ready to start a permanent uh especially Mickey Walker base out in Taiwan so it seems that he may stay in the states for a little longer period and then I'm at a missions conference of the first federated church in Des Moines Iowa and I've heard that this is one of the most aggressive missionary minded churches that are just looking for mission groups to get behind those groups are not exactly queued up at the OM prayer letter desk so I was I had very strong pressure to go there I'll be speaking twice every day for five days a lot of it on television around the one city I appreciate prayer for that my wife's going with me and then a number of other churches and cities Denver Cedar Rapids following up on the conference we had there a couple of years ago then on to uh Roger Ballstead's church in Durango from churches around Denver and seminaries in Denver and to their utter surprise I phoned up No Chimaras in Dallas and I said hey I'm coming to your wedding imagine I was in England they sent these wedding invitations out it's always just sort of a token send one to George Burwell and if your wedding's in New Mexico you don't expect anybody to come except perhaps a few Indians and uh I sent a telex I'm coming to your wedding so now they sent me a telex back I'm supposed to speak I don't know what language they speak out there but we're looking forward to I think it's good to go to one wedding a year somehow to the nostalgia of your own wedding comes you sit there repenting for being such a lousy husband sort of a rededication let's pray father we thank you that we haven't just come to focus on this crisis but that we can focus our hearts on the great challenge you have set before us we think of Stephen launching out into this challenge in the streets the next minute he's stoned to death and that didn't stop the church one inch in that day could have prayed for deliverance maybe some did but he died and many others died much other blood was shed before that gospel went to the ends of the earth so lord we pray for India we pray for Pakistan and Bangladesh we pray for Dulas and Lagos we pray for other missions like our brothers and sisters with you for the mission their ship seems to now be slowly getting ready to go thank you lord that we're all in this together and we just rejoice together what you're doing strengthen men like George Miley, Dale, Fritz, strengthen Frank Dietz, Alan Adams, strengthen lord's sister Manjula Shah out there in India with all those women Linda lord you know every need you know every situation just as it was in the new testament sometimes some get left out in the distribution we pray you help us to sort out our problems with that everybody might get included in the distribution the fellowship the love the reality that we believe is flowing by the power of your holy spirit thank you for this time together and for what you're doing in Jesus name amen the recording about the Dulas referred to by George and various others such as the Bombay fire disaster and the report of George's recent trip to North Africa and the Middle East are still obtainable either from P.O. Box 17 Bromley Kent postcode BR1 3NR or alternatively 142 Danzig Street Manchester postcode M4 4DN this is the end of the recording