Mannford

14 December 2008

Dear Phyllis,

 Several years ago a lady asked my advice for a good church for her husband. She had found two or three acceptable churches in her city, but didn’t know which one to choose, that would be most advantageous to see her husband saved. I replied, “Choose the one with the most life.” She inquired, “How do I know which one has the most life?” I told her, “Find the one that has ‘tsukare wa nai’ (no fatigue).

When my very dear friend, Takako Yamamoto, moved from Karuizawa to Tokyo, and started going to the Kichijoji meetings, she became almost fanatical for Kichijoji. This was very uncharacteristic of her. I asked her, “What is so different between the church in Karuizawa and the one where you are going in Tokyo?” When she replied, “Tsukare wa nai”, I knew immediately what she was talking about.

In many churches in Japan, a typical Sunday goes like this: You get up in the morning feeling fine. There is joy in the Lord and a bit of a song in your heart. You go to church, and two hours later you come home exhausted. It has been a draining experience to sit through an hour and a half of dead religion and a long boring, meaningless, sermon. I greatly admire most believers in Japan. It takes a well-committed Christian to tough it out week after week, year after year, of putting up that that draining religion. But there is the rare meeting where you get up on Sunday morning with a headache; you don’t feel like going to church, but you go anyway. Two or three hours later you come back marvelously refreshed. Your heart is bursting with praise to the Lord. It was so good that you hated to break off and come home. What is the difference? One place has fatigue and the other place has life.

 I have always said that the spiritual thermometer of a church is measured in the foyer and the parking lot. Fifteen minutes after the benediction and the last Amen is said, if the parking lot is empty and everyone has taken off like a covey of quail, you know that that is a pretty cool church. But if at 12:30 or a quarter to 1:00, the janitor is futilely trying to shoo people out of the building so he can lock the door, and there are still four or five cars sitting in the parking lot with people joyously fellowshipping in the Lord, you know that that is a pretty warm church. I have been in churches where things got started at 9:30 in the morning and believers were still fellowshipping all over town at midnight. I have been in meetings that started at 7:30 or 8:00 on Saturday night, and the meeting was still going strong at 2:00 and 3:00AM because no one wanted to quit. That is life.

 We are enjoying a little bit of that now here in Chiang Mai. The other night after our meeting, Scott said, “I really felt tired after supper. I just wanted to go to bed, but I feel great now.” Me too. I really didn’t want to go to a meeting that night, but I felt marvelously refreshed when I went home.

It all started about three months ago when Scott asked me if I would speak with a fellow professor at Mae Jo University. I have mentioned him to you before. Mannford is German who had lived in the states for many years. He has been here in Thailand for two or three years teaching English. He was a Christian simply my nationality. That is, he had had some German state church background and would consider himself a Christian simply because he was born there and not in some Islamic or Buddhist country. He had suffered from horrible debilitating migraine headaches for years. A few months ago he was so desperate he called on to Jesus to help him, and seemingly was miraculously healed. Scott told me about him; and so when I first met him I said, “I heard you had an encounter with Jesus.” He looked at me blankly and replied, “No. What are you talking about?”

 “I heard you were healed.”

Then he told me how he was down flat and asked Jesus to help him. Within hours he was recovered.

I asked, “Do you know the Lord?”

“No.”

“Would you like to know the Lord?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, let’s set up a schedule to have some Bible study. Let’s meet at Scott’s house.”

Mannford started out flat unsaved, but after or first Bible study I said he was about 2/3 saved. Then the next week he told me that he didn’t need the Bible and had no interest in reading the Bible. That put him down to considerably under half saved. But then the next week his stock shot up to 3/4 saved. I know there is no such thing as half saved, but from our human perspective, this is my rating of the working of God in a person’s heart. Praise God, he is clearly a child of God today.

I have no idea what happened. It is a total mystery. And I doubt that even Mannford himself is aware of what the Lord has been doing in him. From my vantage point, of being external from him, I see a radically changed person. It is almost amusing to listen to his comments at the Bible study. He could not be more emphatic – “Jesus Christ is the Lord! The Bible is the Word of God! The Bible is wonderful! You must accept Jesus as your savior! I have eternal life!” On and on he goes. What a contrast to the man I first met three months ago! The thing that is so wonderful and mysterious to me, is that all of this are things that he has not learned from me, but he has clearly been taught this by the Holy Spirit. He bears all the trade marks of a person who is born-again of the Spirit of God. He has all the right answers to the questions. It is like he has hacked the computer of my brain and when I ask a question he instinctively has the correct answer.

Our sturdy last week was the 7^th chapter of John. One of the key verses in John 7 is verse 37: “Jesus stood and cried, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink’.” Oh Phyllis, it is so wonderful that those words that Jesus uttered 2,000 years ago are still pertinent and applicable today. I asked Mannford, “Did you go to Jesus?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Did you drink?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How did you drink?”

“I believed what Jesus said.”

Isn’t that amazing? Mannford actually got to Jesus. Mannford drank and the result is exactly what Jesus promised would happen. The reality of it is tremendous.

 I wish there were 100 that were coming to that Bible study, but at the moment there are only three outsiders plus Scott and myself. One of the other fellows is a Karen boy. I assumed he had been a Christian for sometime, but I was surprised to hear that apparently he also is a new believer in the Body of Christ. He gives very clear evidence of someone who is born-again, but he told us last week that this has only been quite recent. And there is a Thai young man who seems to clearly be saved. He too is a very new believer. The Karen and the Thai boys are university students at Mae Jo. All of this is the fruit of Scott’s influence on campus. I just come along to lead a Bible study. The thing that is so refreshing about our times together is the strong awareness that Jesus Himself is meeting with us. Our Bible study isn’t a time where we are opening up the Scripture to try to learn some new thing from the Bible, but these are times of real encounters with Christ. That is why there is so much life in the meetings.

I will be a little late with my letter next week. I have to go with another brother over to Laos to see if we can get new visas for Thailand. John came here thinking he could get a one year visa on arrival, and didn’t know it was such a hassle. My Thai visa is up soon and I have to get a new one. If we can get visas at the Thai embassy in Vientiane that will be fantastic. If not, we both may have to return to America and get our visas there. Last year was the first time in 25 years that I had a real good time in America. I thought I would almost like to do this every year, but it may be that I will have to get a visa while still in the Orient. It sure is a whole lot cheaper. I’m sure Jesus is aware of our dilemma, but if you see Him you might mention this to Him that we need some help to get visas.

Tonikaku (anyway), thank you again for the privilege of your fellowship; until the next time I remain your lonely brother in the Orient,  bill