I am reminded that it is 50 years since I first set foot on the Mount of Olives on Ascension Day. It was the beginning of my love for Israel and it also introduced me to some remarkable workers in that land.
Firstly that lover of people, Tom Lambie, the veteran US doctor from Ethiopia who was building his seventh hospital in the Valley of Beracah. He had heart trouble, liver trouble, blood trouble and bleeding when we joined his team six years later, and he had to be carried up into the building to supervise the work. The Muslim sheikhs from Hebron came occasionally and threatened his life if he continued to preach, but the witness went on. He died preparing his sunrise service message, whilst at the Garden Tomb talking of the seven appearances of Christ after his death.
Then there was Dr Eleanor Soltau, his successor as leader of the work. She had already lost half her right lung from TB. She was dismissed by the Mission for her responsible and independent spirit, so she and Aileen Coleman, a young Australian nurse, moved to Jordan, built their sanatorium and began to serve the Bedouin with God's help from many quarters inside and outside the land.
They allowed no Muslim activities in their compound but served with skill and love, talked freely of the Lord Jesus, saw the Jesus video go out in hundreds and saw many come to a living faith, including Franklin Graham, now head of the Billy Graham organisation. We visited them this summer. Despite a severe road accident, Aileen was supervising the hospital whilst Eleanor had retired, and now aged 80 plus was pioneering a work down near Aqaba. There too literature and videos 'disappeared', and from time to time she would have to transport a case of TB back to base (at breakneck speed)!
Both were thinking of retiring soon and spending their time visiting their many friends throughout the Middle East, fully equipped with flannelgraphs, books, videos - in case 'anyone would want to know about Jesus'. Sadly, Eleanor was then fatally burnt in a fire in her house. Her funeral was a gospel celebration, attended by more than 300, mostly Muslims, from the palace to the desert.
Then there were Ida and Ada, the Mennonite identical twins, whose school in Hebron which they started almost 40 years ago is still functioning as the only Christian witness there. They left the work only when age and loss of sight demanded it. No one knows how many local children had responded to the Lord Jesus through them and their team. I came across one this year.
And there is Florence. She worked in the Lilian Trasher Orphanage in Upper Egypt until made to retire. She came to Jerusalem after 1975 feeling that there was work for her there. She got Government approval for her Church School Service to supply churches throughout the Middle East. Some years ago she had severe trouble with crumbling bones and left to organise support in the USA. She wrote recently 'I have a broken wrist and painful teeth, but I feel that with a few months rest I shall be fit to carry on again'! Her most recent letter acknowledged that the time had come to retire, at 85!
Spiritually, there is no retiring in this war and we are enjoying various ways of serving the Lord. To our joy our children and some of our grandchildren are following on.
It has been well said:
The world is crying out today for working visionaries.
Firstly that lover of people, Tom Lambie, the veteran US doctor from Ethiopia who was building his seventh hospital in the Valley of Beracah. He had heart trouble, liver trouble, blood trouble and bleeding when we joined his team six years later, and he had to be carried up into the building to supervise the work. The Muslim sheikhs from Hebron came occasionally and threatened his life if he continued to preach, but the witness went on. He died preparing his sunrise service message, whilst at the Garden Tomb talking of the seven appearances of Christ after his death.
Then there was Dr Eleanor Soltau, his successor as leader of the work. She had already lost half her right lung from TB. She was dismissed by the Mission for her responsible and independent spirit, so she and Aileen Coleman, a young Australian nurse, moved to Jordan, built their sanatorium and began to serve the Bedouin with God's help from many quarters inside and outside the land.
They allowed no Muslim activities in their compound but served with skill and love, talked freely of the Lord Jesus, saw the Jesus video go out in hundreds and saw many come to a living faith, including Franklin Graham, now head of the Billy Graham organisation. We visited them this summer. Despite a severe road accident, Aileen was supervising the hospital whilst Eleanor had retired, and now aged 80 plus was pioneering a work down near Aqaba. There too literature and videos 'disappeared', and from time to time she would have to transport a case of TB back to base (at breakneck speed)!
Both were thinking of retiring soon and spending their time visiting their many friends throughout the Middle East, fully equipped with flannelgraphs, books, videos - in case 'anyone would want to know about Jesus'. Sadly, Eleanor was then fatally burnt in a fire in her house. Her funeral was a gospel celebration, attended by more than 300, mostly Muslims, from the palace to the desert.
Then there were Ida and Ada, the Mennonite identical twins, whose school in Hebron which they started almost 40 years ago is still functioning as the only Christian witness there. They left the work only when age and loss of sight demanded it. No one knows how many local children had responded to the Lord Jesus through them and their team. I came across one this year.
And there is Florence. She worked in the Lilian Trasher Orphanage in Upper Egypt until made to retire. She came to Jerusalem after 1975 feeling that there was work for her there. She got Government approval for her Church School Service to supply churches throughout the Middle East. Some years ago she had severe trouble with crumbling bones and left to organise support in the USA. She wrote recently 'I have a broken wrist and painful teeth, but I feel that with a few months rest I shall be fit to carry on again'! Her most recent letter acknowledged that the time had come to retire, at 85!
Spiritually, there is no retiring in this war and we are enjoying various ways of serving the Lord. To our joy our children and some of our grandchildren are following on.
It has been well said:
| 'If you merely work, and have no vision, you are a drudge; if you have vision, and don't work, you are a dreamer'. But if you have a vision, and work towards making that vision a reality - then you're a missionary - wherever you are, at home or abroad.The late Dr Stanley Browne, in the 1984 Maxwell Memorial Lecture. |
