o lde r sister.
fa ll over a steep precipice and be lost if I did, bu t the word trust rescued me. I tru s ted th a t God’s arm s re ceived me, th a t H is S p irit had taken c o n tro l.” For Joy R idderhof, su rre nde r was an act o f the w ill, not an em otional experience. In th e fo llow ing months, as she watched God tu rn her in to the kind o f person she fe lt a m issionary should be, her heart fille d w ith gladness. M iss R idderhof likes to say th a t life began fo r her then. Imm ediately ahead o f her lay seven years o f tra in in g and patience and then a c ris is o f decision about her m issionary call. Several th in g s in those years could have held Joy back from m issionary service. A man she loved p ro posed to her. She tu rned him down because o f her m issionary comm itm en t. S till, the desire to have a home and fam ily pulled strongly. Later the frien d sh ip was renewed. Because Joy had no imm ediate plans fo r going to fie ld , she decided to say “ Y e s " to him but was prevented in the s im p lest possible way. He never “ popped” the question again! For two years Joy d id church w o rk in M iam i. In a fast-grow ing comm unity, she saw much fr u it among needy people. Lives were tran sfo rm ed . Prayers were answered. Young people were steered in to Christian service. Should Joy remain in Florida and continue to serve God there? Perhaps some o f the young peo ple she influenced would become m issionaries in her place. Bu t fam ily needs in Los Angeles recalled Joy to the West Coast. There she tu rn ed her face once more towards A frica as she set to work to com plete her studies a t U.C.L.A. fo r a teache r's credentia l. About to graduate, Joy looked around fo r m ission ary openings. There were none. The depression had closed the doors. M issions were conside ring re tren ch ment. What should she do? She had already bypassed m arriage and a successful m in is try in M iam i. Joy possessed a b rillia n t m ind. Her high grades and recommendations b rough t her an in v ita tion to teach in th e Los Angeles school system. She was de lighted. She could earn a com fo rtab le salary in spite o f the depression. She could save money fo r her m is sionary o u tfit and she could help pay her own way to A frica. When a college B ible class teacher asked Joy what she planned to do a fte r gradua tion, Joy to ld her, “ I’m going to teach fo r a year o r two and then app ly to the Sudan In te rio r M ission o r A frica Inland M ission .” The teache r looked a t Joy in su rp rise and said, “ But you know the tim e is s h o rt.” Joy went home and faced the m atter. She prayed, “ Lord, if You want me to go abroad now, show me an
“ N e ithe r do y o u ," reto rted Amy. “ No, bu t I expect to when I’m you r age.”
Yet Joy was no be tte r as she grew older. She d is appointed herself daily. Was she to rtu rin g her con science unnecessarily? Going outside the Quaker fe l lowship, Joy found preachers who to ld her she could never expect anyth ing more in th is life than daily defeats. Outside o f her home, Joy seemed a model C h ris tian . She invited her schoolmates to church youth classes and attended the meetings fa ith fu lly herself. She never le t down the s tric t standards o f her home and church. She was active in a ll sorts o f Christian Endeavor, stree t meetings and c ity m issions. As soon as she enrolled at U.C.L.A., she hunted up o the r C h ristians and found a prayer group th a t met every m orning. Joy made it her p rim a ry ob liga tion in life to attend those 7 :45 a.m. prayer meetings each day. The need to w itness fo r C h ris t rested heavily upon her, and she forced herself to speak to other students about her Saviour. C h ris tia n ity fo r Joy R idderhof, college freshman, age twenty, was a lis t o f a rb itra ry negatives and a parallel lis t o f arduous obliga tions. Ever w ith her was th e nagging consciousness o f her fa ilu re s at home. Surrender? Of course, the solution was to su rren de r her life com plete ly to God. Joy trie d it . . . no re su lt. She went on praying, fre ttin g , hungering. Du ring fin a ls week, Joy was drawn away from her anxieties about her grades by a conference a t the Friends church. Dr. R. C. McQuilken was scheduled to speak on “ The V icto rious L ife ,” basing his messages upon the book o f Romans. If the subject b rough t M iss R idderhof to the firs t meeting, the speaker kept her com ing. The assurance in his voice, the radiance on his face, the freedom and joy o f his s p irit gave a ring o f rea lity to his words. “ What a s u rp ris e !” says Joy, de sc rib ing the im pact o f those sermons. “ Instead o f ha rp ing on the sins o f anger o r bad tem per, he bore down hard on the w o rst o f my defeats— worry. ‘Worry is a s in ,' he would say. " I was undone. W ith all my s p iritu a l inadequacy I had thoug h t th a t a t least my concern fo r my own cond ition was commendable. But now I saw it fo r what it was— w o rry— a slap in the face o f a loving, a ll-powe rful God. No wonder my a ttem p ts a t su rre n der h a d n 't worked. I’d never surrendered my righ t to fuss over my own s p iritu a l life .” S ittin g in the church, hearing the words “ su rre n d e r” and “ tr u s t," Joy a t last let go o f her own e ffo rts to live like a C h ristian. “ It seemed as though I would
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TH E K ING ’S BUS INESS
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