Nine Months After
this would not have been an im pressive fact, but under the circum stances w h i c h t h e n e x i s t e d it seemed a very impressive fact. It seemed to be the first item in what I believed would be a long answer to a large request. Not long after this event I re ceived word that an old friend had died in the state of Nebraska. It had been 30 or 40 years since I had been intimately associated with him. He was at that time a min ister, and was serving poor congre gations in one of the smallest of our church organizations. His children when they came to college were closely limited in their expendi tures. I had never known of any change in his circumstances, and had never requested any gifts from him for any department of college work. I think I should have natu rally thought of offering him some small token of brotherly regard rather than s u g g e s t i n g that he should do anything for the college enterprise. I was, however, notified that he had made the college one of his heirs, and a property was bestowed by him which would have netted the college $1,000, if a few years’ delay had been expedient. It was, however, sold at once for $600, which was needed then. About this time I received word from attorneys in Iowa that the college was heir to an estate in that commonwealth. Looking the mat ter up, I found that a lady whom I had never seen, but to whom I had written several years before, had willed a large portion of her estate to the institution. I had, as stated, never seen her, had written to her only once or twice, and then without any expec tation of any large gift. I had no knowledge of her resources. In fact, her close friends did not know what they were, and told me they were surprised to find them so consider able. Her executor proved to be a Christian gentleman, and expressed his readiness to pay to the college immediately the amount of her be quest less a reasonable reservation for possible bills yet to be present ed. CONTINUED
Through Gates of Splendor I by Charles J. Mellis Jr. Missionary Aviation Fellowship
■kl ine months ago, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint and Roger Youderian were martyred for Jesus Christ. These have been busy months; yet months in which we’ve seen God work in wonderful ways. Now we want to thank Christian people everywhere for their interest, their sympathy and their prayers. We’re sure that the other missions sharing this loss -—Christian Missions in Many Lands and the Gospel Missionary Union — join us in this deeply-felt “Thank you.” As we look back from this vantage point, we see much to praise the Lord for — and much to challenge our prayers. We praise God that the five fellows did make a friendly contact with the Aucas . . . from noon to sundown . . . for the first time in history. We pray that from this successful beginning, the Aucas will now move out to meet the mission aries, hear the gospel and eventually receive Christ as Saviour. We praise God for conclusive evidence that He planned their Home-going exactly that way. Had the Aucas delayed a few more hours, only two men would have been at “Palm Beach.” God obviously had a purpose in taking all of them. We pray for the accomplishment of this purpose — and His continued grace so wonderfully demonstrated in the lives of the wives and children they left behind. We praise God for the remaining proofs of careful, thorough preparations; for the testimony this has been to the world. We praise God for the understanding treatment in the secular press. (The August Reader’s Digest devoted its book section to Abe C. Van Der Puy’s new book about the martyrs, “Through Gates of Splendor.” ) We pray that this may continue to reach many hearts, introducing them to Jesus Christ. Yes, we even praise Him that He took “the best among us.” Through this, we pray, the Lord will challenge all His chil dren — with outstanding talents, too. We pray that never again in this generation will able Christian men, recipients of His grace, be guilty of relegating pioneer missions to “the ladies of the church.” Above all, we praise the Lord for stirring the hearts of His people. We earnestly pray that this vision will remain. Next year — and the next — may we, with Nate, still “. .. hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christ- less night . . . .” May we continually rededicate ourselves to reaching the forgotten men of the forest whom the Aucas represent. We thank God and His people for their sympathetic help in repairing the torn supply line in Ecuador. Now we pray that the Lord will continue to burden His people; that they might throw their weight behind every Bible-believing, prop erly administered effort to reach all those who have never had a chance. And we pray that it shall be done now.
17
SEPTEMBER 1956
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