As I
mentioned in my piece about my call to serve the Lord abroad, I had a number of
concerns about becoming a missionary. The first was my lack of experience and
ability to do what I felt those in Christian work should be doing.
From the time I had spoken with
the elders about my call to Japan
and finally being sent out to Japan ,
God graciously taught me some important lessons.
On the elders’
recommendation I went to a Bible school in New Milton in Hampshire run by Dr.
A. Hudson. This was a small Bible school
which offered a one year course. Each term focused on a specific area of
study. The first term was Bible study,
the second term was leadership, and the third term was missions. I really benefited from time out to get into
the word and to learn from Dr Hudson and other lecturers who taught the various
subjects. I particularly remember Mr.
Webb-Peploe who took four sessions on personal evangelism. His anecdotal class lectures with Biblical
references were very helpful to me and I remember being challenged about my
lack of experience in evangelism, and this was the impetus that prompted me to
look at ways to meet this lack. That was
in the first term. The studies in the
Pastoral Epistles and on leadership in the second term too provided a good
foundation for me as I prepared for service abroad.
However, my
biggest concern was how to overcome my inexperience in Christian service. I did not feel that the third term on
missions would benefit me much. I felt I
needed practical experience rather than the theory. I saw three possible options open to me. The first option was to decrease my working
hours at the hospital and use the rest of the time to serve in the local church
in whatever ways I could. The problem with
this option was that there wasn’t really anyone in my local church I felt who
could mentor me and from whom I could receive training in the work of the
church. The second option was to go with
a mission’s organization like GLO or OM, or something similar to Europe . The
experience would be good but the draw back was that I didn’t really feel I
would get the most from the training because of my inability with the European
languages. The third option was to go to
the Republic of Ireland Dublin , Ireland
By this
time I was going out with the girl who was later to become my wife. At the mid term break in the first term of
the Bible school, we met up and during that time she mentioned that she had
applied to go on the Ireland Outreach Team.
This came as rather a shock! I
hadn’t had any inkling that she had been thinking this way. I did not want to give the impression that I
was going to Ireland
because she was going. I wanted to be
clear in my own mind and so for the next six weeks or so until the Christmas
break I was much in prayer about it. The
application needed to be in by the beginning of January. During the Christmas break I realized I
needed to make a decision and soon. So
my first night at my parents’ home I asked the Lord to give me a clear
indication the next day which way I should go.
I asked that if I was to go to Ireland then it would be drawn to
my attention very clearly. In the
morning I came down stairs and mum was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. After a few pleasantries she started to ask
if I had heard about my younger brother’s plans to go on the summer team that
following year in Ireland ,
not knowing that I was also thinking about Ireland Outreach. I hadn’t heard that news but felt that this was
the confirmation that I needed from the Lord. So without further delay I filled out the
application form and sent it off.
The next problem that we needed
to deal with was how we would cope with the strict boy/girl relationship rules on
the team considering where we were in our relationship. As a consequence I proposed to her that
Christmas holiday and we made the decision to go to Dublin as a married couple.
So we left for the Republic of Ireland
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