Choose the Right Side

23 Jun 2013

Dear Phyllis,

There is a testimony that has been on my heart for many years that I would like to share. You will never hear about Bob and Jay Holsten or read their testimony in any book, but I feel they are the finest Christian family in America.

There are two kingdoms of God. There is the visible one of public Christianity. This is man's religion. It is man's production and it operates entirely within the realm of natural law. This is the popular one. This is the TV production. This is the one that promotes health, wealth, and prosperity. There are two ways of doing things. There is the natural way and there is the spiritual way. Both systems work. The natural way is by operating by the laws of public relations. Get your product out and promote it.

The other kingdom is the real Kingdom of God. This is the hidden one. This is what I describe as The Inverted Kingdom. This is the one where the laws are reversed from the natural laws of this world. In the visible Kingdom of God, when you make a decision for Jesus, life becomes rosy. Your business prospers, your family problem decrease. You are isolated from problems. God smiles upon you. In the hidden Kingdom life is much different. You make a decision for Jesus, and immediately you encounter persecution, and the roof falls in. In the visible Kingdom the verse in Phil. 1:29 is deleted. “For unto it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” In the hidden Kingdom heart-ache and major problems are very real. The Bob Holstens have had more bad things happen to them than any family I have ever heard of. I know of no one who has tried harder, is more worthy; and yet have had more things go sideways for them. Not surprisingly, they stand on the podium as the finest family I have ever met.

I first met Bob and Fay in 1972. We were on our way south in America and stopped in Greenville see Joe Carroll. Joe was out of town that weekend, and Bob and Fay came up from Savannah to say the Lord had directed them to join the work there as staff members of the newly organized Evangelical Institute. Monday morning, I drove Mable Carroll out to the Greenville-Spartanburg airport to pick up Joe. On the way home, Mable said to Joe, “The Holstens from Savannah came up Saturday to say the Lord has given them the green light for the Institute.” Joe responded, “Who are the Holstens?” He had forgotten that he had previously spoken with Bob about the possibility of them coming on staff. I knew from that moment that Bob was in for a hard time.

Bob is as genuine a follower of Jesus as ever walked on this planet, and is a good Bible teacher, but he is very quiet spoken. In the visible Kingdom the dynamic, flashy speakers are the ones that move forward. They are the ones with high support. The system at the Institute was that every member must live by faith. That meant no salary. Everyone must trust the Lord for support apart from any visible income. Joe did divvy up the money and occasionally give gifts to the workers there, but not on a regular basis. Bob was very low-keyed, and there was little incentive for others to support them. They never discussed finances or made appeals for funds – and very little came in. One time some friends stopped to see them when no one was home. The door was unlocked and Louise took the liberty to look in their refrigerator. She was shocked to see it was totally bare. There was absolutely no food in the house. Three hours later when the Holstens came home they were stunned to see that Louise had gathered together some friends and had bought several hundred dollars of food to replenish exhausted supplies. From that time on, the folks who sit in the middle rows in the church would occasionally check to see is they had anything to eat. Joe insisted that all staff members attend all meeting at the Institutes, and he was unhappy that sometimes Bob was absent. Years later Bob told me the reason he didn't go was because he had no gas for his car. Joe didn't realize that.

Bob got relegated to the closet at the Institute. Others were promoted and Bob was put to one side. He told me that his years at the Institute were the most stressful of his life. He told me that the main thing that saved him was the hours of devotions he had quietly in his office. But I was surprised to hear years later what an impact he had on students suffering from depression who found great comfort and consolation in talking with the man who himself was struggling for air in deep water.

As a young man Bob had dedicated himself to full-time Christian service. He had gone to Bible school and planned on being a pastor. But after being on staff at a couple of churches with disastrous results, and his highly unsuccessful time at the Institute, he decided to give up on his plans for full-time ministry and return to Colorado to his first love of ranching.

Bob was born in Colorado and from a young man had a vision of becoming a professional rodeo cowboy. He was an excellent horseman and a good cattle man. His mothers brother, Uncle Herbert, owned a huge cattle ranch and needed a ranch foreman. Uncle Herbert lived in town and had very little involvement in the 30,000 acre ranch except to occasionally check the 13 wells with his airplane, and accept the check for the profit from the cattle. Everything else was in Bob's hands.

In 1980 we returned to the states for a furlough and I was going through the most challenging time of my life (up to that point) in Greenville. Bob called and asked if I would come out to make a kitchen for them as they were fixing up an old house for their residence. Oh my goodness, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! JD was the only other cowhand working with us and I spent more time chasing cows for three months than I did with a hammer. It was the time of my life. But at that time I saw what unusual sorrow Bob had gone through. In addition to the hard time Bob had had at churches in Georgia and the Institute, Bob had a vision for raising registered Appaloosa horses. He had used virtually all his savings to buy an expensive mare. One day there was a severe thunderstorm. He was in the barn and heard a tremendous clap of thunder with a lighting strike near by. He looked out in the barnyard to see his mare dead. He said, “There were 50 cows and one horse and that lightening killed my horse.”

Later he had another expensive mare and paid top dollar to have her bred by a registered stallion. He kept his prize mare out at the north place which was unoccupied at the time. The mare had a lovely colt which was Bob's hopes for the future, but there was a bad snow storm and it was a few day before he could get out there to check on his mare. He was sick to discover that the coyotes had killed and eaten his colt.

The year before I was with him, they had an unusual fall blizzard that threatened 3,000 cows in the open range. Of necessity, Bob had to execute an emergency cattle drive to get those cattle off that range to their wintering facilities. For a cattle drive of that magnitude it would require at least five to ten cowboys. But Bob could get no one out to help him. In desperation he attempted to do the drive alone with only the help of his children on ponies. Along the way some cattle got in some neighbors corn field, broke down a fence, and got mixed in with neighbors cows. It was a horrible mess. Bob nearly died freezing to death on that drive, but he did save the cattle. Ten months later, while I was there, the sheriff came one day to arrest Bob for cattle rustling. The sheriff was apologetic and extremely polite, but the neighbors had accused him of stealing their cows. The sheriff apologetically said, “Bob, I know we have ridden your heard three times with the brand inspectors, and never could find one cow that wasn't yours, but Strange has accused you of stealing their cows.” Bob said, “Sir, I don't want any problems with our neighbors. I will pay for the cows.” Fay had been saving money for years to buy a piano and Bob had to spend Fay's piano money to pay for the lost cows. Uncle Herbert said, “Bob, you are the only man in Colorado that would pay for those cows.” But he never offered to cover the expense.

The litany of disasters that has fallen in on the Holstens is endless. I know of no one who has had such a bewildering record of everything he has touched, or attempted to do, in life, go south. He left Uncle Herbert to help Blanch Preston who was a widow desperately trying to keep a run down ranch going. He spent a tremendous amount of time and money pulling that ranch back from becoming sand dunes. That fell through. He took the pastor of the Roggen Bible Church, but the devil got in so badly, that to save Fay' from a nervous break down, he lad to leave Colorado to return back to Savannah. Over the years Bob has put his hand to many projects. He has always done well, and yet all have fallen through.

That is the negative side. What has all this produced? If in heavens sight character counts, Bob Holsten is a gold medalist. He has suffered trials that would have closed down any other man, and each time has come out brilliant. His spirit is impeccable. He is a man free from any rancor or ill will towards anyone. In character he is faultless. There are many who have gone past him ascending up the ladder of success, as he has been by-passed or put down, but none can match him in Christ-like spirit. There is no question but what, in heaven, Bob Holsten will be at the front of the line.

If it is true that the test of a mans life and ministry is expressed in his family, there he is a champion. They have four children, all of whom are explanatory. The Holstens oldest son Danny, is the finest young man I have ever seen. When he was 16 he had already established a life practice of Bible reading. Using the system of reading three chapters a day to cover the Bible in a year, when Danny was 16, he had already finished the entire Bible four times. I know of no lad who started that at 12 and has been so consistent.

Dan was such a serious minded young man he never had time to show interest in girls. He had finished college and had never had a serious girl friend. But he had established himself with an outstanding reputation in Christian circles in a wide radius where he lived. He had a friend who knew a fine Christian girl in Brush, Co., 60 miles away. His friend asked the girl if she would be interested in having a blind date with a Christian boy. Indignantly, she turned down that offer. They had never met, but she said the only boy she would be interested in meeting was Dan Holsten. They are a beautiful couple.

Dan was never an outstanding athlete but he did play football and had an ambition to be a Christian coach. The Lord rewarded him by giving him the job as coach in Orchard, where he had gone to school. Being a committed Christian, he insisted on high standards for all his players. He had a winning year going, but before a key game he learned that two of his star players were smoking and drinking. It was disastrous, but he refused to compromise his convictions and benched both players. Miraculously, the Lord rewarded his stand by allowing his team to win without their best payers. But the parents were furious. They were influential people in town and started a campaign to have him fired. At the awards ceremony at the end of the year the parents planned to make a public display of their disgust for him. At the time in the program, when Dan was to receive an award, the parents and friends stood up and walked out. The principal of the high school had learned of their protest and had changed the schedule. He said, “Now I would like to give the award to the outstanding athletes of the year, but I don't see them.” They had just walked out. Then he went on, “And the award for the coach of the year goes to Dan Holsten”. The auditorium burst out in a standing ovation.

I think that is the way it is going to come out in heaven. There are two Kingdoms representing God in this world. The visible one is mans operation and mans rewards. But when the real medals are passed out, I believe Bob and Fay Holsten are going to be up front.

May God help us all to choose the right side.

bill