Introduction
I’ve thought for some time about writing an article with this title. There will be no linear sequencing of these experiences. I’ll write about them as they come to mind.
Narratives
When our granddaughter was eleven years old, we took her with us on a mission trip to New Zealand and Australia. While in Sydney, on an off day to do a little inculturation, we visited the Opera House. I asked Pam and Megan to go to the top of the stairs so I could take a picture. Just as I was ready to snap the picture, a deep southern voice cried out, “We beat you!” The occasion was my UGA cap. As I turned to see the origin of the voice, about ten feet away stood a fellow wearing a Georgia Tech cap. You know, it was one of the few years that Tech had beaten Georgia just a few weeks before.
While teaching at CCEF in the 1970s, I asked the class to pray for me so that I could figure out how to fulfill two Saturday speaking engagements that were too far apart to make by car. At the break, a brother came up to me and said, “The Lord answered your prayers. Have your wife take you to Lancaster airport when you finish the morning address. I will fly you to South Jersey and bring you back to Downingtown airport when the day is over.”
That led to several more surprises. Bill picked me up. We took off, and at about 1,000 feet up, as we climbed toward a 5,000-foot flight path, he asked, ‘Have you ever flown one of these?’ I said, “Yes, I had one lesson when I was eighteen years old.” He responded, Good! Take control. This led to another surprise as over the next three years, I logged about a hundred hours of flying time under Bill’s instruction—he was a certified instructor pilot. And all it cost out of pocket was nothing, as all he would take was whatever expense money was given by those I ministered to.
When I enrolled in the graduate ThM program at Dallas, I needed a job. A casual conversationled to a senior student who had just been granted a senior internship by Dr. Howard Hendricks said, “Let me introduce you to my boss at Sears; perhaps you can take my job there.” He did, and I was hired. With commissions, most Saturdays yielded a $60.00 paycheck. That amounts to $575.57 in today’s dollars according to Google.
I had not intended to major in theology at Dallas, but in church history. However, in the first week of class with the church history professor, I decided to major in theology instead. Three weeks into the semester, my wife had not found a job, and we were invited, along with Dr. Ryrie’s other theology majors, to his home for an informal gathering. As we were leaving, Dr. Ryrie asked me to stay till the others had departed. We sat in his home office and visited a bit,and then he said, “Howard, I am aware that your wife has not yet found employment. I asked you to stay to tell you that if you need your tuition paid, groceries, or rent, let me know, I want to help.” Now, to appreciate this, you need to understand that until I walked on campus three weeks before, this man had never met me.
The same student who introduced me to his boss, after a very successful career, resettled in Birmingham and began attending our church. He and his wife chose the pew in front of where my wife and I regularly sit to make their” pew home.” Within a few weeks, we spoke at some length after Sunday night church, and we reminisced about our 1967 connection. Then, more recently, there was another pleasant surprise when I discovered that he had served as Director of Christian Education in the very church where my best friend from Faith Theological seminary days was the principal of their excellent day school.
Some twenty years ago, a missionary friend invited me to accompany him to Romania and provide a training seminar on biblical counseling. My translator was a female lawyer who had taught herself English by watching John Wayne movies. About mid-way through the workshop, she said, “I am having a hard time translating for you (my immediate thought was my English is a bit different from John Wayne in the old west, however, when I ask her why, she responded, because I am listening so intently for myself. We completed the seminar, and Pam and I flew out to Vienna for a three-day stopover to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Our friend departeda day later for the States. When we arrived home, I had a pleasant surprise: Genuta, my Romanian translator, wanted to know if she could come to the States and do an intensive internship the following summer. The Lord blessed our fundraising efforts, and we were able to facilitate her trip to Birmingham. She has since established a counseling center in her city.
I returned to college for my senior year with no aspirations of finding a wife. My best friend and I planned to buy a Corvette and drive to LA the day after graduation. A friend offered us housing, and her father arranged jobs with a contractor friend who was building swimming pools.
This was before computers. I needed to stand in line to get the Dean’s signature granting permission to take eighteen hours. In front of me stood Pam. We knew each other enough to say Hi. But that morning in line, we talked for over an hour. That night, I sent a note through the Inner Society campus mail and asked her if she would like to attend church with me on Sunday. It was a pleasant surprise when she accepted my invitation. Pleasant surprise two came one month and one day later when she agreed to get engaged at Christmas. Sequentially, yes, but yetsurprise three, fifteen days shy of that first date, we were married. I stood at the front when she came down the aisle and said to myself, “Lord, she is really going to do this.” That will be 63 years ago on September 01.
I will continue to add to this list, as there are many others on the journey, but they are not coming to mind at present. However, here are two verses that come to mind:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11