Special Letter

1 February 2019

Dear Phyllis,

A couple weeks ago I wrote you asking prayer for my left eye. Last night we went to an eye clinic. This is the third doctor I have been to. She was very alarmed and insisted that I must go to an eye hospital immediately and gave us the name of a doctor she recommended. She said it looked very much like a tumor and the probability of surgery was very high. I replied, “No I don't want to do that”. The doctor came back, “It is important that you sacrifice your eye to save your life”. “Look, I'm 83 years old. I have been here long enough. I don't need to do anything like that to stay here longer”. We had quite a talk.

I have said for years, if the Lord would send an angel with an exit visa to get me off this planet to go to heaven, I would say, “Welcome, I have been waiting a long time for you”. What joy would it be if Jesus said, “Bill, you have been there long enough. You can come home now.” If that isn't good news I don't know what is. I have sat in a large number of airport boarding areas waiting for flights, but after sitting there forever, when they started boarding, I never once thought, “Oh no. It's time for me to get on that plane.” Boarding time is always a great relief. My goodness, that is what I am there for.

It's been a good life. Jesus has given me a life that has been radically different from the average. I have done everything from flying super sonic jets to driving a honey wagon. I have done everything from being a tree topper to being a mortician. (They don't have morticians in Japan. Missionaries and pastors have to take care of the dead.) I have built dozens of houses and churches and taught others carpentry. I have been the director of a Japanese language school, pastored two churches, taught in several Bible schools, and taught English to everyone from little children to police officers. I have served the Lord in the Orient for over six decades and been in nearly every country in Asia from Siberia to Nepal. It has been my great privilege to help underground Christians in SEA for 15 years. My goodness, what more can you ask? Admittedly I have done a very poor job in serving the Lord, but who has had more opportunities than me? Isn't it time to call it a day?

My friend, Steve Tigert, many years ago, had eye cancer. He had his eye removed but died anyway. I don't want to waste money on something like that. The doctor last night told us that I must see that specialist immediately, but we flat don't have that kind of money. That was a tremendous miracle when Jesus provided the money for my Thai visa two weeks ago. Something like that happens once every ten years. It cost us 1,000 B ($33) for that eye doctor last night and that is all our budget can afford this month. Anything beyond that is big bucks and there is no way we can think abut that. Thai medical is a fraction of what it would cost in the states or Japan but I have never carried medical insurance and Jesus has always given me excellent health.  Healthy have no need for a physician . I don't need insurance. Jesus is my insurance. When I cut my hand, NLL paid for that. I can die for free. You don't have to pay for that. Funerals in Thailand are dirt cheap. I don't know what they cost but I doubt that it would be over $100. Pammy can afford that.

Not surprisingly, Pammy and I do not agree with how to handle this most recent crisis. She has some strange idea that she wants to keep me around as long as possible. It is not that I don't enjoy living. Being here is a lot of fun. I love carpentry. It is an inexpressible privilege to serve Jesus and tell others about what He has done for them. But it will not be much of a loss for the Lord if I am not here, and, apart from my wife, I have virtually nothing to leave behind. If I was a significant witness for Christ and had an important ministry it might be worth while to think about staying here a little longer, but no one will miss me sitting on the end of the bench. I don't want to waste money on something that will keep me here for another few months. It is not that human life is not precious. Jesus paid for us with His Blood, but that is the price He paid to get us into heaven. At the end of His prayer in John 17 Jesus prayed, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am: that they may behold My glory”. Oh my goodness! How wonderful! Oh to think that my time may have come to be with Jesus. How can it get better than that?

Please join me that the will of God be done.

Gratefully in Jesus,

                               bill

Ant's View

27 January 2019

Dear Phyllis,

If an ant would set out to walk around the earth and write a letter home each day describing the wonder and the marvel of what he saw, the frustration of the ant would not be as great as the problem we have with the limitation of human speech and knowledge to describe the beauty, the greatness, the worthiness, (and I don't know what other adjectives) of God and His wonderful Son. As I sit down to attempt to write you a letter today and I have no idea where to start. I feel like I am sitting before a table with 100 pieces of a puzzle, each one of which is more wonderful than the other. But how in the world you can put these pieces together to make one composite picture I don't know. My mind is filled with thoughts that I long to share, but they are so disjointed that it is impossible to make one theme.

We see Jesus in three phases. There is the pre-Bethlehem Jesus who was with the Father in eternity past. It was this Jesus who was commissioned by the Father to speak all things into existence. It was this Jesus by whom all things were created and for whom all things were created (Col. 1:16). We know very little about this Jesus other than He was with the Father, He was One with God, and He was God (Jn. 1:1-3) . It was this Creator-Jesus that holds all things together. To comprehend this Being is utterly beyond any possible human thought or imagination. This tells us something about His power, but very little about His moral character.

The mystery of all mysteries, this Creator-Being divested Himself of all the attributes of God to became a Man and lived here among us within the confines and all the limitations of humanity. He was born as a baby, grew as a child, was tired, slept, hungered, thirsted, and suffered physical pain. He participated with us in every experience common to man. This is the Man-Jesus. By this He physically demonstrated to us His real nature and was a Being we could comprehend. He identified Himself with us so that we could identify ourselves with Him. This is the Jesus of the four gospels and the one we know best.

Then there is a third Jesus who has returned to be with the Father and is now there as our representative, advocate, and mediator. We know a little about this Jesus as He has sent His Spirit to be with us and live in us. This is the Resurrected-Ascended-Seated-in-Heaven- Jesus But even so, this Jesus is so far beyond us it is difficult to fully appreciate. To know this Being is as difficult a task as it would be for an ant to walk around the world and write home telling about what he has seen.

At a very low time in my life the Lord reminded me of the verse I had chosen to be my life goal, but had never pursued. It was the David's goal in life. He wrote, “One thing have I desired of the Lord: that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquirer in His temple” (Ps. 27:4). That was a good idea to emulate David, but I had never done it. When I decided to quit every thing else and devote myself to seeking that one thing, I came up with a blank. I said, “I am not going to pray asking the Lord for anything, but just sit here for an hour beholding the beauty of the Lord.” I did - and I didn't see a thing. That raised a lot of questions. Are you supposed to see something? What are you supposed to see? How do you see it? And if you don't see anything – why? Twenty five years later I know the answers to those questions and I have seen the Lord. Oh my goodness He is beautiful, but I can't describe Him. Todd Bentley said He has been in heaven and seen Jesus several times. He said Jesus has huge biceps and a massive chest. Really? That doesn't sound like the Lamb of God John saw (Rev. 5:6). If John had a problem describing Jesus in heaven; it is so much beyond me I won't try. Let me simply say the first thing the Lord taught me is that the beauty of the Lord is not what He physically looks like but His moral character. When I started to examine this, I began to see some of the beauty of the Lord. But He is even so much more beyond this. There is a spirit world and it is only by the Holy Spirit that we can see spiritual things. We don't get that by intellectual reasoning.

Perhaps the greatest thing the Lord has taught me in recent years is the inverted ways of God. The ways of God are dead opposite to the ways of man.

The greatest joy we can have in this world is not by gaining the positive, but getting out of the negative. It is not by climbing a hill but by getting out of a hole. If you climbed Mt. Rainier and looked from the top you would not be a thrilled as you would be if you were stuck in a mine shaft for a week and got out. I was delighted when I got my one year Thai visa in Laos last week, but I wasn't as happy as I was when I got my lost waist pouch and passport back in Udon Thani last Wednesday. I appreciate the blessing of God but they are not as wonderful as the mercy and grace of God to cleanse me of my filth.

An innocent man may stick his chest out and thump his chest declaring, “I'm right”. But that man knows nothing of the joy and relief of a man who is guilty as the hound, and knows his only hope of salvation is mercy, and is then be forgiven. Forgiveness has greater joy than blessing. Job might have appreciated the blessing of God, but that did not compared with the joy that was his when he realized he was a guilty worm before God, repented in dust and ashes, and was forgiven. A healthy man knows nothing of the joy of a sick man who recovers. It is a blessed sickness that summons our wonderful Physician, our Lord Jesus, to our bed to stretch forth His tender hand and heal our sin-sick soul. Without our problems we would never know the wonderfulness of our Lord.

It is my needs that qualify me for a candidate for Jesus provision. Oh thank God for all the minuses in me that provide an opportunity for Jesus to fill with His plus. I am not a mound for Jesus to stand on but a hole in the ground for Jesus to fill. And that makes Jesus wonderful. Oh what cause do I have to thank, praise, and worship Jesus every day! Oh, the beauty of the Lord is tremendous!

Yesterday the Lord reminded me of the marriage of Cana. The governor of the feast was right when he said, “Every man sets forth the good wine first at the beginning.” This is the way of the world, but Jesus holds His beat wine for last. What a message this has for us! I was thinking the other day about the sad finish many of God's greatest servants have. Corey ten Boon's last years were terrible. She lay helpless imprisoned in a fragile body unable to do anything. Watchman Nee died in obscurity in prison having never been released to continue his tremendous ministry. Henry Martin died alone and was buried in an unmarked grave in Persia. Many of God's great heroes burn out like a candle down to the end of the string, flicker, and die. How sad. But our book and God's book are different. We might get to the last page of our book, but God still has many more chapters left in His, Our end is not His. He has saved the best wine for last; and regardless of what the scenario may look like for us at the moment our best days are still in front of us.

Gomen nasai (I'm sorry) for a poor disjointed letter. What I am trying to say is that Jesus is wonderful, beyond our comprehension, but His ways are different than ours.

Thank you for your fellowship in Christ,

                                                        bill

Laos

20 January 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Today I am in Laos. I am writing his letter a couple of days early but will send it out on Sunday. In many ways it is obvious that this time in Laos has been ordered of the Lord.. It is really natsukashi (nostalgic) to be here. I have a long rich history with Laos. Some of my greatest experiences have been played here.

The primary purpose for this trip has been to get a Thai visa. This is costing us an arm and a leg, but I thank God He has miraculously provided for it. I have been out of my mind several times over the confusion of what is going on, and now all I can do is thank God someone else is handling this, as I have no idea how to do it. In the mean time I am trying to keep my eyes on Jesus for what He wants to accomplish beside getting a visa.

My mind goes back 21 years when I first set foot in this unique isolated kingdom. I have been reminded of a time when I spoke to 80 young people from the states who had come to Thailand to help carry Bibles into Laos and Vietnam. I spoke to them about Four Abilities,

I said of the four “abilities” the least important is ABILITY. God is not looking for gifted people with great ability. He is looking for simple people with clean hearts who can get the job done. You don't have to be gifted to be a candidate for God's service.

A basic qualification to serve God is AVAIL-ABILITY. God has a problem finding people who are available. We all have our projects and pet things that to us are important. When I first left Japan to go to SEA friend asked me, “Bill, why are you going to Vietnam?” I replied, “That isn't the question. The need is there. The question is why don't you go?” “Well, I have my job and family here and I can't go.” “Fine, You stay here. I'll go.” Availability is one of the requirements for someone who wants to serve the Lord.

Then the next requirement is DEPEND-ABILITY. This is critical wherever you are and whatever you do. Paul told us that “it is required of a steward that the man be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2) In a critical mission, if a person is not dependable you simply cannot trust them and God can't use them.

In the work that I came here to do sometimes EXPEND-ABILITY is important. Some missions are impossible if you are not expendable. Bows are not expendable – arrows are. Guns are not expendable – bullets are. Airplanes are not expendable – missiles are, But guns and airplanes are worthless without bullets and missiles. Someone has got to be expendable to do some jobs. Psalm 127:4 says, :”As arrows are in the hands of a might man so are children to the youth”. What the Lord needs today is not a basket full of bows but a quiver full of arrows. If someone isn't willing to give their life for Jesus sake, please don't get in line to serve the Lord. What, pray tell,, was Jesus talking about when He said “Unless a man bears his cross and follows Me he cannot be My disciple” (Lk 14:27)? What is a cross for, if it isn't something to die on? Is it a surf board at a beach?

I was sitting in a restaurant here in Vientiane one morning where the wife of a close friend was at another table with two visitors from the states. After a while one man came over to shake hands with me and said, “I understand you are Bother Andrew (the Dutchman who founded God's smugglers) and the bravest man in Laos.” I replied, “I'm sorry, sir, but you have been misinformed. I am not a great mission leader but simple donkey. And I am not the bravest man in Laos. I am simply one of the most expendable turkeys in the Lord's inventory.” The fact that the Lord made me expendable enabled me to do things that would have been difficult other wise.

As I have been here in Laos this time I have been reminded of the amazing ways the Lord has miraculously lead in opening up contacts. All I had to do was be there and the Lord led me to people. The first night I landed in Bangkok, I was walking out of arrival and asked a business man if he knew a good hotel to stay in. He gave me a business card of a hotel that I gave to a taxi a driver. I was later stunned when I discovered that was the closest hotel to the church that was the key to lead me to contacts that ended up with me working with the underground church in Vietnam.

I told you about the time I was eating in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Luang Prabang (Laos) and the Lord sent an angel who checked me out in Laos telling me where to find Christians.

One time I was coming down the Mekong River on a slow boat when I met a Christian man from India who told me of the Philippine embassy in Vientiane. That turned lout to be the most profitable contact I have ever had in Laos. In retrospect I wonder now if that might have been an angel. After I was well established with the Philippine Embassy church they had never heard of him.

I told you about the time I lost my bus with my back pack in northern Laos, and that wound up opening the main route that we used for many years getting Bibles into northern Laos.

Oh my goodness any one of these incidents would have been the epic experience of a lifetime, but they have been the legacy of a 21 year sojourn in SEA.

There are just a couple side notes to mention. You don't have these experiences when you are wading ankle deep in water. You have to get out in water over your head before you feel the arms of Jesus supporting under you. And secondly all these things have happened while I have been moving. You don't experience these miraculous leading of Jesus sitting at home watching TV. If you move He will guide. All you have to do is be available and He will lead you.

One or two more stories. Two years ago when Pammy and I were over here we wound up at a guest house where I never would have gone. The taxi driver who took us from the bridge crossing from Thailand to Vientiane didn't know my usual guest house, and wound up taking us to a guest house that I would not have chosen. I was bad sick and didn't care where we went. Pammy went in to check and said it was slightly higher than what I wanted, but I didn't care. We discovered an American missionary was staying there. Roger has turned out to be one of the most significant men I have ever met in Laos.

He is not a professional missionary. He has never been a minister. He is just an ordinary layman that is totally sold out to Jesus. He was a very successful business man who made a lot of money. His wife died, and, as he was getting up in his 60s,, he wondered, what am I doing here just making money? Roger decided to go to Laos to see what was happening. When he got here he discovered that Laos produced some of the highest quality coffee in the world, but their marketing was terrible. With his business skill he got involved helping the producers market their product better, and has elevated it to be the #1 coffee in Laos, and America. The business is booming, and he is turning most of the money back to the Laos. Then he got involved in pigs. He said the main point in raising pigs is feed. The Lao feed was terrible. He sent to the states and had some high quality pigs sent out for breeding. Then he devoted himself to growing high quality feed. He set up several farms under his strict supervision to grow and dry corm properly. He went to Christian rehab centers and got men to make the equipment for producing feed and raising pigs. What he is doing is on a level never before seen in Laos. The government is highly impressed and is 100% behind him. He is right up front and says all of this is in the Name of Jesus. He now has over 200 farms all over Laos growing feed and raising pigs. Roger is really, really, big news with the Laos government officials, and he has given Christ a face never before seen.

When I first came to Laos 21 years ago, Laos had the reputation as being one of the most dangerous, hostile, countries in the world. Today Laos is totally different. They are having open Christian rallies in Vientiane and churches are considerably more open. I don't know if it is all because of Roger, but what he is doing is certainly unprecedented.

Yes, of course, Pammy led a guest house employee to Christ this morning. There is much more to say but I am out of space. It has cost a fortune but the Lord had His own way in sending us to Laos to get this Thai visa and giving me another glimpse into the wonderful, wonderful, ways of God.

Oh thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus,

                                                     bill

PS: Praise the Lord we are home to Chiang Mai. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I have a beautiful one year Thai visa stamped in my passport. The bad news is that I lost my passport in the border town of Udon Thani last night. BIG PROBLEM!

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Eat The Apple

13 January 2019

Dear Phyllis,

This is my second letter to you today. Yesterday I wrote another letter to send you but this morning during devotions my heart was burning so hard I decided to forget that and try to write a new one. Oh I can't tell you what I have seen. All I can say is that it is indescribable - if that means anything to you. There is much I would like to say but words are not an adequate means of expression. There is only one way to share with another person the inexpressible flavor of a Japanese apple. That is, to have them eat one. Words just don't do it.

The first letter I wrote for you was about the Song of Solomon. I have found in it the greatest treasure of the Bible and I spent several pages discussing why people don't like it. This morning I went to my computer to do some research about Xiao Min and my heart got overloaded. Now there is so much in my mind that I don't know how to reduce it to a simple letter.

The theme I wanted to share with you yesterday was the relationship Jesus has with His Bride. Perhaps the most bewildering feature of the S of S is the amount of space that is devoted to Jesus talking about the beauty of His Bride and His love for her. This speaks to us about two subjects – an unusual glimpse into the heart of Jesus and the beauty of His Bride. Both of which are impossibly unknown to the natural man. Only the Holy Spirit knows these two things and He alone is able to share them with us.

Let me start with an unusual thought the Lord gave me this morning. The face of the Body of Christ has changed. When we talk about the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ we are talking about the same person. The Bride of Christ is the Body of Christ presently living on this planet. And the Body of Christ is that mystical cooperate gathering of all the people where Jesus has chosen to take up His residence by living in their hearts.

We might have a tendency to think that the face of the Body of Christ is white. For two millenniums Christianity has basically been centered in Europe, England, and America. These are Caucasian countries and for 2,000 years Christianity has been 90% a white mans religion.

I believe in the Back to Jerusalem movement. I believe the Gospel is a spiritual tsunami that is traveling from east to west around the globe. It started in Jerusalem, and in the 1^st century it basically went across the Mediterranean. For nearly a thousand years there was little movement out of Rome or the Middle East. At the time of the Reformation under Luther and a few others, the Gospel moved up to Germany. The Moravians were probably the finest Christians the world has ever seen and they were Germans. Then in the 18^th century the Gospel moved from Europe to England. There were some might men of God in Scotland and Ireland in 1600 at the time of Knox, Rutherford and a few other giants of the faith along with some fairly stiff persecution, But at the time of Wesley in 1700 the Gospel transformed the British society..

At the beginning of the 20^th century the center of the Gospel crossed the Atlantic to America. For most of the nineteen hundreds the USA had the strongest churches and was responsible to 90% of world evangelism. But then around 1980 we saw a new phenomenon where the Gospel jumped the Pacific rim to go to Korea. Today Korea has overtaken the USA as being the #1 mission centered country in the world. But at the same time the Holy Spirit was also doing a hidden work in China. Today China is on its way to being the strongest Christian county in the world and will probably take over as the greatest mission sending society. Significantly the strongest military and economic power of the world has always been associated with the center of Christianity and soon China will be the lone super power in the world.

Along with the amazing rise of Christianity in the Orient, today Africa is seeing an unusual moving of the Spirit, and several African countries are nearly totally Christian. This is the first time the Body of Christ has taken on a black face. Obviously the Father is concerned that all flesh worship His Son. I believe it is safe to say the tsunami of the Holy Spirit is basically in the northern hemisphere, but God is also saving millions in both Africa and South America.

Quite obviously both Europe and America have entered into the post-Christian era. The sun has set so totally on Europe and England that in a very few years they will be Islamic countries. This is almost demographically incontestable. At the same time the sun is rising in the Orient and today the Body of Christ has an Oriental face. The prayers of millions and the blood of tens of thousands of martyrs has brought forth fruit. And what has sprung up is beautiful. Tears flow every time I look at You Tube of worship services in China. And China has produced probably the greatest hymnologist of the 20^th (and maybe the 21^st ) century.

Xiao Min is a simple minority peasant girl from central China. She was saved as a young teenager 30 some years ago. She had no music training but shortly after Jesus came to live in her heart she began to hung and sing new songs. People asked, “Where did you learn that?” Xiao Min replied, “I don't know. This song just came to me.” Today there are over 1,000 Canaan hymns that have been published and they are the most beautiful music I have ever heard.

I can hardly listen to that music without weeping. My friend Scott had an unsaved Chinese girl frequently coming to his house. I asked Scott to please let that girl hear some of these hymns. I was stunned when the girl was totally unimpressed by these hymns in Chinese. That was one of the clearest illustrations of the working of the Holy Spirit (or lack of His working) I have ever seen. To me they are indescribably beautiful and to that unsaved girl they were boring. To me the Body of Christ has never looked more beautiful than she does with her new Oriental face.

What does all this have to do with the Song of Solomon and the heart of Jesus? Vaguely we know that spiritual truth can only be understood by the Holy Spirit. The natural man can learn much about the Bible. An unsaved man can teach biblical facts as well as any saved man. But it is only by the Holy Spirit that we can see spiritual reality. And there is a huge difference between knowing something in your head and seeing something in your heart. That is why the Body of Christ looks so beautiful to me with her new Oriental face, and the Hymns of Canaan melt my heart every time I hear them. In the Spirit, I agree with Jesus. His Bride is absolutely gorgeous. To the world most of the Body of Christ is hidden. I fear very few people know what the Holy Spirit is doing today in the Orient. Tragically most of the visual portion of Christianity is fleshly religion. It doesn't matter if a man is liberal or evangelical, the natural man is the natural man and that belongs to a different world than the Kingdom of God. That is spiritual. To try to read the Song of Solomon through the eyes of the natural man, is as much foolishness to him as the Gospel is to an unsaved man (1 Cor. 1:18).

Tragically we live in a culture and society that has so horrible polluted our minds that it has nearly rendered us incapable of reading the deepest recesses of the heart of Jesus and the relationship that He has with His Bride. God has taken a terrible risk in sharing some of this truth with us and to the natural man much of this looks pornographic.

I have spent 60 years living in the S of S. When I first found it in the Bible I was stunned and wondered what in the world is this? I felt that it was a treasure box with a locked lid. I asked Jesus to give me the key. He did. And the treasure I have found in it blows my mind. Today I read it and it is as clear, and makes as much sense, as the gospel of John. To me nearly every verse is as clear as John 3:16. But this brings me back to my original dilemma. How can I explain this to someone else? I can't. It is like talking about Japanese apples. You've got to eat it. I could spend pages talking about the problem of seeing the Body of Christ and the way Jesus loves His Bride, but I won't.

On a totally different subject, this coming week is a very critical one for me. Tomorrow I plan to go to Laos to get a new Thai visa. I shared with you last week how Jesus, in such an incredible, miraculous, way, provided for the expense of getting this new visa. Now that I have the money in hand all I have to do is get on a bus and go. The visa agency assures us that they will handle everything on that end. It is going to take longer than I thought and I will have to spend most of this week over there. I have spent many years traveling the length and breadth of Laos but it has been a long time since I have been there for several days. The only question is what does the Lord have for me this week?

Ya'll pray for me now - heya, bill