“You’re throwing your life away!” was my workmate’s retort, when I resigned my job as an accountant to follow the Lord’s leading to take the gospel to those who had never heard it. “Give up your career? How are you going to support yourself?” an older Christian barked out when I told him of what I believed the Lord wanted me to do.
After spending my savings on further training, I graduated from the Missionary School of Medicine in London, and set out for Lukolwe in Zambia (then N. Rhodesia) to join John and Eleanor Sims in a new outreach. I took with me all that I owned in this world—a tin trunk not much larger than a suitcase, a small second-hand tent, two very old motorbikes, and the equivalent of about $8—all that was left of my savings.
As I bumped along in a local bus for three days, getting covered in red dust, the questions I had been asked when I left my secular work kept coming back to my mind. After all, no one had promised to support me in any way! In fact I had been told by a group of elders, “Don’t look to us for support!”
Thoughts kept coming: I could have still been back in my old office, responsible for administering over £2,000,000 each week. Yet here I was, heading out into the bush with no visible means of support. Was I throwing my life away? Had I made a terrible mistake? But I had heard my Saviour call and, having put my hand to the plow, there could be no going back.
Furthermore, the Word of God graciously assured me that “my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). I realized that just as I had put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ some years before to save me, so now I must quietly go forward with my faith resting only in Him, the One who was sending me, and I must depend on Him alone to provide for every need.
After some months of language study, I joined the Sims in reaching out into the surrounding area. This included a weekly motorbike ride of about 40 miles, on what were only “tracks” through the bush, in order to take the gospel to three schools. It was hot and tiring but thrilling to do the “circuit” each week and see the entire student body of young people crowding into one classroom, drinking in the gospel message—in spite of my faltering Luvale. Some turned to Christ in repentance and faith, and some of those who were saved then, are today elders in assemblies in distant parts of Zambia. Was my life being thrown away?
On the last day of the school term I was riding home, when I hit a rather bigger bump than usual, and my precious motorbike broke right in half! I was shattered! It wasn’t the sixteen-mile walk home or the loss of the bike so much as the thought that without transport I would no longer be able to do the rounds of these schools and give the gospel to these young people. The bike was so old that it had metal fatigue and proved to be beyond repair. The devil then reminded me of all the questions he had thrown at me earlier.
While I had been commended to the work of the Lord by the elders of my assembly, no human being had promised to support me. I could not write to my elders asking them to send me a new bike. I poured out my soul to the Lord as I trekked through the heavy sand along the winding footpath, until I finally arrived back at my little grass roofed house on the station. I was reminded again and again that it was the Lord who had sent me. Yes! Not only had He sent me, but He had also promised to supply my every need. I could give my “report” to Him.
But what about the problems? Were they not too big for the Lord to take care of? After all, the schools would re-open in only three months time! I would need something to use if I was to continue in this outreach! Only three months! How could a new motorbike come to me in this remote corner of Africa in three months? Where would it come from anyway? How could I possibly find money to buy a new motorbike? As these questions and many others filled my mind, the Lord quietly reminded me that while there was nothing I could do about it, I could just simply tell it all to Him. Yes, just tell Him the whole problem and leave it there. He would know what to do. He knew about it anyway, but He delighted to hear one in need pour out his heart to his Lord. Needless to say, I did this many times in the ensuing weeks.
Three months later when the schools opened, I was riding the “circuit” again—on a brand new Triumph Tiger motorbike!
His ways are past finding out. He had had it all planned long before. There was a young missionary needing encouragement to continue living by faith. Far away there was a group of very new believers, whom I had never met, wanting to get involved in being “workers together with Him.”
Without any requests or “reports” being sent, the Lord simply brought the two together—we met at the throne of grace. They had heard about the work at Lukolwe and in their first love for their Master, with their hearts in tune with Him, I guess He found it very easy to get their attention. Although I did not know them at all, they wrote and asked if I could use a motorbike! Not only that, but they sent it just in time for the school outreach to continue, without our missing a week! So there I was, back in the saddle, going down the same path through the forest, ready to tell the young people once again about the wonderful Saviour. The only difference, instead of the “cry” from my heart, there was now a “song” in my heart. I had learned in a very practical way that it is, indeed, no vain thing to trust the living God.
Forty years have passed and Grace and I are able to echo the same song I sang that day, as we see the Lord alive and at work in so many ways in our daily routine. He seems to delight in such “three way” conversations.
One morning, as Grace had her time of quiet with the Lord, she felt led to give a blanket and a dress to a certain very needy sister. So she put them together in a package. To her surprise that very sister came later in the day for a visit. As she opened the package which Grace handed to her and saw what was in it, her face beamed, and raising her eyes to heaven, she burst forth in prayer, “Heavenly Father,” she said, “now I know that You really do care for me. It was just this morning I told You about my need of a blanket and a dress, and You have already heard and answered!” We were as thrilled as she was, to be reminded that whether we live by faith, or give by faith, God is very much alive, hearing our prayers, guiding our giving and keeping His promises.
Written by David B. Croudace