A Door for the Gospel

"Lord, give me a door for the Gospel"! I was sitting at our kitchen table in Houston, Texas. The year was 1975. We had just returned from weeks in Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.  After eighteen years of ministry in visible churches in California we had packed and moved to Houston where for three weeks we met our new congregation and settled our two younger children: our daughter, 14 and her nineteen-year-old brother. ...then left to rendezvous with Ed and Loretta Murphy of Overseas Crusades in San Francisco to begin the long flight to Tokyo, Japan. This mama cried all the way across the Pacific Ocean,  split down the middle of my soul for knowing I had to leave our children in a new culture, new city, new church, new neighborhood. ...new life.  All through their growing- up years, their dad's rightful need for me to be alongside him had often trumped their needs. This time was the hardest ever. Our little girl would be entering a whole new life and her mama was half 'way around the world.

Our time in the Orient would be a turning point in our lives. ..but we did not realize it then. In my shell-shocked mind were images of millions of people who had never heard the Gospel even once. Our last week was spent in Viet Nam, dedicating a medical clinic established by two American doctors. Both had closed down their lucrative practices to serve the Su Tong tribe, located in the highlands near Dalat. Bunkers and exploding shells were all around us. On our last night we were gathered in a circle with Sai, chief of the tribe and his two sons who had given themselves the American names of "Jimmy" and "Johnny". In the circle were our doctor friends, their wives.and missionary John Newman and his wife.  We were holding hands,  praying and singing when a persistent knock on the door startled us. A uniformed policeman ordered us to leave at once or "You won't be able to get out."  We quickly packed our suitcases and fled down the mountain to Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the war. At the airport Catholic nuns placed in our arms babies whose daddies were American military men. Ted and I cuddled and quieted two precious dark-skinned little ones until we reached Hawaii where we left the flight to sleep and rest.  We were exhausted. We had been too busy to even note our twenty-fifth anniversary.

With a big chunk of my heart left somewhere out there in Asia,  one morning I was reading Colossians 4:2-4.  Paul was in prison when he wrote to a cluster of believers in Colossae and asked them to pray that God would "give him a door for the Gospel".  I cried out: "Lord, if Paul, in prison can pray that way,  so can I!"  Deep in my soul it did not seem reasonable that church-goers were fed doctrine upon doctrine, and millions had never even once heard the simple, life-changing Gospel. On TV we were watching as the Vietnamese people were fleeing by boat.  Many had already arrived in Houston and were moving into our communities, finding work in 7/11's or anyplace that would hire them.  Missionary John Newman had somehow managed to get Jimmy and Johnny out of the ravaged country.. He called and asked if he could bring to our church these two young evangelists who had been running the trails from village to village, sharing the Gospel since our American missionaries had led them to Christ.  We rounded up all the Vietnamese we could find and some from our new church came to hear Jimmy and Johnny's testimonies, interpreted by John. A year or so later we learned that the boys had disappeared. John knew that they had attempted to get back into their beloved country, but the last I heard,they had not contacted John. The Lord had spared the Su Tong tribe when there was no human reason that they were not murdered by the Viet Cong. Their only defense had been poison-spiked poles placed in a deep ditch around the compound. One captured Viet Cong told our military men: "We could never penetrate the white army that always surrounded them."  You will meet many Su Tong in Heaven.

Weeks after my kitchen-table plea in Houston a business woman named "Lou" called me over into her Macedonia.  We went to work together to bring the Gospel to women. Soon Billie joined me to reach other lost women.  About that time I met Gratia, wife of astronaut, Colombia Commander Jack, and she joined me. ... or rather I joined her. That woman had outrageous ideas about how to reach the wives of the astronauts, the scientists who launched them, students and anybody she could round up. ...and just last night she called me and we talked a long time. Then there were other women and men who joined us in the marketplaces and communities of our enormous city. Nick and Euphanel teamed up with us and through miracles and very hard work,  Round Top Retreat was born. Thirty-some years later, thousands of people have found new life and hope in that hallowed place that continues to bear fruit that bears more fruit.  Unsolicited financial support came in.  We started small groups around the spokes of the city.  Ted and I were invited to teach the Young Life leaders of the city who were meeting in the home of the District Attorney of Harris County. At the end of the evening our host asked us: "What do you think of Chuck Colson? Is he for real or a phony?" "Come with us, we replied, "and hear Chuck speak to your fellow attorneys this coming Thursday. You can decide for yourself."  That morning, listening to Chuck's  moving, Christ-honoring testimony the District Attorney of Harris County received the free gift of salvation offered by the Lord Jesus Christ. He cut short his term and joined Chuck's Prison Fellowship ministry. Chuck is in Heaven now with his beloved Saviour.

...and so went the next seven years in Houston, Texas. The decision to leave was wrenching. My physical health had taken a nose-dive.  Ted knew he had to get me back to a dry climate where I was not bedridden for days with allergies to pine and mold. We took a fledgling pastorate and remained in it until the building was built, then once more, away we went. ...into Samaria and the uttermost parts.

The joy of my life is teaching God's powerful Truth to people who have never heard the Word of God, nurturing them and turning them loose. ...not a bit unlike parenting. I will ask the same question I asked last week: If and when the visible church is forced underground, are you prepared to stand alone on scripture, while encouraging others around you to do the same?

                          OLD HYMN:  JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY

Some day when life's journey will be o'er; and I shall reach that distant shore.
I'll sing while entering heaven's door: "JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY."

If God should let me there review the winding paths of earth I knew.
It would be proven clear and true: JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY.

And hitherto my Lord hath led; today He guides each step I tread;
And soon in Heaven it will be said, JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY.

JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY; LED ME STEP BY STEP EACH DAY
I WILL TELL THE SAINTS AND ANGELS AS I LAY MY BURDENS DOWN
JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY.

Love,  Jo