From the beginning of our marriage, Gladys and I used our vacations to either hold special meetings, or to distribute tracts.
The story really began the summer that A. N. O’Brien, an older brother who meant much to us in our spiritual life, called from Duluth, Minnesota. Dedicated to giving his life to the Lord’s work in the Midwest, he was pained to learn that he would not be able to conduct two weeks of gospel meetings in the community of Hibbing, about 40 miles northwest of Duluth. Since this little assembly needed a substitute speaker, he asked me to consider going in his place.
Gladys and I prayed and felt a definite leading of the Lord to go. However, this would be a trip of faith. We had already spent almost all of our vacation money on printing tracts, planning to distribute them house to house, so we only had enough money to get us there–about a two hundred-mile trip. We had been practicing trusting the Lord for everything, and making our needs known to none but the Lord. Did we dare trust the Lord to supply our gas money for the journey back? And what about food for two weeks?
We went, and the Lord did indeed supply for us, providing for all our meals and needs while we were there. Our prayers had been answered those two weeks, but when it came time to leave, we had nothing to get back home. At the end of our resources, we didn’t want to have to borrow from those Christians, but we wondered to ourselves just how our needs would be supplied. The Lord was able to do anything, but could our faith be lacking? Just when we were about to leave, I looked in the little box by the door. Now when we came, we had made it clear that there would be no collections for us. We were going to pay our own way, not wanting to be a burden on these poor folks.
Nevertheless, the saints said the contents of the box, if any, would be a love gift. I had noticed that the box always looked empty up to this time, but now in that box happened to be just the amount we needed. Just happened? No way! It was the Lord answering our prayer. Since this was the amount we had prayed for, we took it, thanking the Lord for His goodness, and for strengthening our faith.
The meetings had been good; several souls were saved. The saints were overjoyed, and asked us to spend next year’s vacation there as well. We promised to pray about it, and we thought we probably should. It was such an open door.
Over the course of the next year, we heard of another assembly in the town of Alexandria. It was a much larger assembly than Hibbing, and had a nice large chapel building. They were planning two weeks of children’s meetings, and they wanted us to help them. We began to think that it would be nice to go there, but in the meantime the folks at Hibbing wrote us to be sure to come. We really wanted to go to Alexandria, though–it seemed that it was the better place to go, and we could reach more children there.
We basically shut our ears to the inner call of the Lord to go to Hibbing even though deep down we knew it was our duty. Just the way bright lights of the city attract some, we were attracted to Alexandria. We made arrangements to arrive on Saturday, giving us plenty of time to begin the first meeting on Sunday. These meetings were to be advertised, and maybe I was a little impressed by my name being in large letters on the flyers and signs.
After all the arrangements were made, Gladys turned to me and said, “Honey, I have a strong feeling that we should go to Hibbing; those poor folks really need us.” I was growing more and more uneasy about our decision and I too wished we were going to Hibbing because I feared that we were doing our own will, rather than the Lord’s. However, the advertisements had gone out and the folks in Alexandria were expecting us, so we decided to go and make the best of it.
It was only a three-hour drive, but we left early Saturday morning so we would have plenty of time to set up for the meetings the next day. As we pulled out of our driveway, Gladys said, “I sure wish we were going to Hibbing.”
I replied, “Me, too, but it’s too late now.” We stopped and prayed, asking the Lord to bless the trip, keep us safe, and use us to His glory. There really wasn’t much spirit in that prayer, though, because we already knew that we were acting outside of the Lord’s will for us.
This trip would be different from the previous year when we went on faith, setting out without having enough money to make the trip. This time we had all our vacation money in hand, plus some extra that we had saved up for the trip. Plenty of money; nothing to worry about.
We were hardly out of the city, when “Bang!”–a tire blew out. As I was changing the tire, Gladys said, “Vernon, I think we should have gone to Hibbing.” I agreed.
Back on the road, about ten minutes later, “Bang!”–another blowout. Now we had no spare, so we had to buy two new tires. The Lord is good to us, though, even in rebellion. This blowout happened just about a quarter of a mile from a filling station, thus making it easy on us. Already, our money was beginning to be depleted faster than we had planned.
I should state that before we left home, I had inspected all the tires. They all looked as though they were in good shape, with enough tread left to last another 20,000 miles.
Impossible as it seems, we had not gone another fifty miles before we had two more blowouts. Altogether we ended up purchasing five new tires–at premium prices. Every time we got going again, Gladys would pop up with, “I sure wish we had gone to Hibbing.”
Finally, all the obstacles seemed to have been surmounted. We were purring along nicely with all brand new tires, when suddenly a pounding noise in the engine signaled more trouble. Again, the Lord was mindful of us in our folly, a garage being right at hand, and we pulled in.
When the mechanic lifted the hood, he let out a long “Uh, ohhh!” Our hearts sank. We had blown a piston rod. He could fix it, but it would take the rest of the day. The cost cut very deeply into our funds again. While we walked a bit with Vernon Junior and the dog, Gladys reiterated that she sure wished we had gone to Hibbing, and believe me, I did, too. We were out of the will of the Lord, and He was letting us know it in no uncertain terms.
When we got the car fixed, we still had about sixty miles to go. Arrangements had been made to stay with a family who had agreed we should bring both our little boy, and our dog. We could tie the dog in the yard, and they assured us it would be no trouble at all. We were sure we could reach their home before they had gone on to bed.
We were feeling better as we set out on that last sixty miles. Surely everything that could happen already had, and we would buzz right up to Alexandria. Not so. A rainstorm came that was so severe it made it impossible to drive. We ended up parked beside the road the entire night. To make matters worse, the dog insisted on going out every so often and every time he came back in, he would shake himself until we were all sopping wet. What a night! There’s no telling how many times we said that we wished we had gone on to Hibbing. We slept as best we could, and in the morning the sun came out. It was a lovely day, but we smelled terrible!
Finally arriving at our hosts’ for breakfast, we tied the dog outside, changed our clothes, and went to the meeting. The children’s meeting was a flop. The attendance was only about a tenth of that expected, and my message was bogged down. I never felt like such a failure in all my life.
Our host had arranged for us to live in the basement of his home. He had fixed up two guest rooms, complete with a bathroom. Brother Black, an evangelist, occupied the other guest room. He had dropped in unexpectedly, and I agreed to share the meetings with him. He would speak to the adults, and I would speak to the children.
Monday morning, Gladys and I were feeling down. The dog had broken loose and dug up all the flowers and shrubs in the yard. If we only had gone to Hibbing! Brother Black was a gracious brother and sought to comfort us, as he knew we were feeling discouraged. How could we expect to feel, knowing that we were out of the will of the Lord?
The climax came when Brother Black noticed a leak in the basement bathroom and suggested that we ought to fix it. He had tools in his car, and this would be a nice thing to do for our hosts. In the process of fixing the leak, the water pipe broke. Our hosts were off shopping, and the water shut off valve was nowhere to be found. By the time they came back, their beautiful thick carpet was completely underwater. If we’d only have gone to Hibbing!
At last, it was too much. We got on our knees and confessed our sin in forsaking what we knew to be the will of the Lord. Then leaving the meetings in the hands of brother Black, we tried to make amends to our hosts, who graciously forgave us. All packed up, we headed rather sheepishly back home. The people were probably glad we were gone–I know we were! What a lesson we learned! That trip has remained in our memories throughout the years, constantly reminding us of the folly of taking a selfish, self-centered path.
Please pray for the Schlief family. At time of writing, brother Vernon is very ill with cancer. As well, the Deep South in general and Louisiana in particular need a real investment of prayer made by the saints. It can be a difficult area to work with much satanic opposition.