faith in His promises, of mountain barriers made like chaff, of divided seas, of conquests over the power of the enemy, and of closed doors swung wide. Through Isaiah 45:1 & 2, He has said, “I will loose the loins of kings to open up before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” An open door which no man can shut. The Word of God says that this Gospel must be preached to all na tions. More than half of this job for recording the languages is yet to be done. Before us are some of the most formidable barriers of all our experi ence. Pray with us for the records that are pouring out, free of charge, from our little shipping department on Glendale Boulevard at the rate of 1000 per day. Pray that multitudes may not only hear, but be converted through them. Remember our many workers who give their time sacri- ficially to make this work possible. Above all may we press forward un daunted until every tribe on earth has a witness. It is a great and effec tual door which is opened to us.
Now records ore playing in more than 140 countries to people in all walks of life. Many primitive illiterates are hearing the gospel for the first time through the "Talking Tracts."
our precious burden of recordings in thirty-three languages. This was our first missionary jour ney for the capture of languages. By the time our next trip came up — to Alaska in 1947 — which presented equally as many difficulties as the Mexico trip, we had the use of a tape machine. Through this facility now we are able to make records for pagan tribes where the people are most primitive. We have done so in hun- i dreds of cases. ' After Alaska, our burden was for the Philippines, where we went in 1949. Now this last trip, which has just recently been completed, was five and one-half years in a stretch. When the team of four of us were about to break away from headquar ters in 1952 to begin this last journey, which was e x t e n d e d a r o u n d the world' it was hard to leave our al ready overburdened voluntary full time and part-time staff short-handed. By any rule of common sense, we should have stayed home to help fin ish the records in the four hundred languages in which we were working at that time. But we couldn’t, for the need of the tribes of the South Pacific constituted a call that we could not disregard. We were stepping out by faith. If we looked at our staff, our facilities, our bank account, our weak bodies, we would have to say, “No, we cannot go.” But God had said, “Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it.” Our little team of four came to be a team of six field recordists. In answer to faith, God sent to us at headquar ters other helpers to lift the load and now at the end of the time, the grand t o t a l of l a n g u a g e s and dialects amounts to over 1,850. This tells a story of exploits through
portable disk-making equ i pmen t (there were no tape recorders in those days), a staff to carry on while we were gone, large supplies of record blanks, a good station wagon and per haps a little cash. Then ration cou pons for gasoline must be secured and a permit to cross the border at such a time. I went to the ration board to request these coupons for our trip, but was flatly refused. They not only re fused to grant the extra amount need ed, but did the cruel thing of taking away half of the apportionment we were already receiving. There is nothing like having an entree to the One who is over all. After a consultation with Him, I still i’elt we were to proceed to Mexico. That very afternoon, it was Saturday in early March 1944, Ann Sherwood brought word that was indeed excit ing. A doctor friend of ours in Pasa dena had been able to purchase an almost new Pontiac station wagon, which he decided to give to us for the trip, insurance all paid. In addition, it came supplied with ration coupons for gasoline even above the amount we would be needing! You can guess the story of the rest of the trip. Our motto in Gospel Recordings is, “Rejoice Evermore.” We know that God will open the way for us so we thank Him ahead of time. In the story just told we have a terrific example of how He makes even the hard things to work out for good. We made up our minds that we wanted to re member to rejoice in the Lord even before we saw the outcome, for He is faithful that promised. After ten months of absence and travel in Mexico and Central Ameri ca, we returned home, crossed the border too (by another miracle) with
Joy Ridderhof, Ann Sherwood and Sanna Barlow in Africa on the trail of tribal languages.
EDITORIAL NOTE: During the Thanks giving season, this story of God’s marvel ous grace and providence certainly should give all of us cause for praise and rejoic ing. What a privilege it has been for BIOLA to fellowship with the staff of Gos pel Recordings through the years. We thank God for His hand of mercy upon Miss Ridderhof and her dedicated workers.
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NOVEMBER, 1958
Made with FlippingBook Annual report