April, 1937
THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS
128
L ed to B iola As he groped for. light to point him to the Way, his attention was directed to a newspaper announcement of evening classes held at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and a few weeks later, he enrolled as a student. By some unusual oversight at the time of his registration, nq ques tion was asked concerning his personal relation to Jesus Christ as Saviour. Thus as he entered the classroom on that first Thursday evening of his attendance, not a per son near him knew of the longing that tore at his heart. He might have resented any human word about his need that night. But he could not resist the appeal presented in reverent affection by the speakers of the evening as they unfolded the Scriptures. There were three classes. In the first, the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Love-Gift to sinners, was shown as the One to be greatly desired. The listening lad with the hungry heart never before had heard this simple story of God’s great love. In the second class, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ was set forth. This sublime truth likewise was en tirely new to him. And when, in the final hour, the mis sionary journeys of Paul were traced, the youth from beyond the Mediterranean felt a strange nostalgia, a kin ship with the traveler who, like himself, must have known poignant loneliness in lands foreign to him. Wonderful night of revelation that was for the Hollywood dancer! He went back to his work—and back to his Book—con tinuing to attend night classes at the Institute. F in d in g a F r ie n d Within a few weeks, an announcement of no seeming great significance was made, but it became a contributing factor in Andrew’s conversion. The students of the Eve ning School were told that arrangements had been made to serve them in the Institute dining room at the dinner hour. Andrew went. He watched the Day School students file in. He saw that the young men were happy, free, strong. The girls appeared to be beautifully unlike the girls he knew. He watched as the young people surrounded the tables. They stood quietly, and somebody started a hymn: [Continued on -page 158]
ANDREW DERCHAR is going home. For the last time, he has danced before Hollywood audiences and glowed to their applause. Not again will he pay seven dollars repeatedly for each single lesson to im prove his art. The long, painful climb from the obscurity of an alien to the recognition of a professional entertainer is over. The achievement seems as nothing to him now. He is going back to Jugoslavia, the land for which he vowed he would never forsake the freedom of America... Back to the scene of the happy memory of a bent old woman reading covertly to a little grandson from a for bidden Book . . . Back to move among his own people, thirteen needy millions of them, countrymen who have not one resident Protestant evangelist in their midst. On the eve of his leaving Los Angeles for New York, from whence, the Lord willing, he will sail in March as the first missionary to be appointed from America to serve under the Russian Gospel Association, Andrew Derchar told his story timorously, with undisguised modesty. He apologized for what he thought was faulty and hesitant English. And he did not add that in the use of the Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Roumanian languages he is proficient. No I n n e r J oy He began with a simple sketch of his early experiences in Europe. With a childhood of loneliness and hardship behind him, and in an effort to satisfy an unvoiced yearn ing for love and encouragement, Andrew came to America in 1920. Several years passed, but he found no peace of heart. Told that if he would enjoy happiness himself he must spend himself in giving pleasure to others, he plunged into a study of dancing and the stage, and into gambling. His fervid exercises yielded him no joy. Evidently sensing the lad’s soul need, but being unable to meet it herself, a motion picture star with whom he worked procured for him a copy of the Bible. He began to read the Book, finding its message sweetly familiar. Years earlier, his Catholic grandmother, in Catholic Jugo slavia, secretly had read to him from the Bible and had taught him it was a good book, one to be obeyed.
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