14 December 2014
Dear Phyllis,
I have found spiritual life to be like the sun moving north and south and the ocean moving up and down. I have found it to be a very undulating experience of fluctuations going up and down. Yesterday Scott Noble invited me to come give a Bible lesson to a group of young folks in his English class. Scott is one of those brothers with whom I had a close relationship, and then things drifted the other way. At the peak of our close relationship, I would easily rate that as the most productive period of my life in the last 20 or 30 years.
I first met Scott at my friends, Dave and Joyce Moore's, Abba House. I had only met him two or three times – and that on the most casual situation – when he stunned me by asking me to speak at his wedding. I have no idea why he did that. Scott was into his 30s and had never been married. He met a girl on a bus in Bangkok, and started a correspondence that developed into her conversion and engagement. The wedding was scheduled for December, and his parents came from America for it, along with some friends from Japan, and many distant places. Scott's first wedding was one of those unusual events where everyone was there except the groom. He panicked, and didn't show up. It is to the considerable credit of one girl's mad mother, and a confused fiancee that they forgave him, and rescheduled another try at it in March. The wedding was in Supanburi, which is an honest 500 km from Chiang Mai.
I rode down there with another missionary, and met a group of pastors who had come from Chiang Mai. One of whom was Kichikun. As we were waiting for everyone to get in the church, I was talking with these Thai pastors; and the Spirit of God was so powerful between us I seriously wondered whether or not I was going to be able to speak. Man howdy, I mean to tell you, we had one more GOOD wedding. I preached in English with a Thai interpreter. But Scott wanted me to preach it again in Japanese so he could send a CD to his friends in Japan who couldn't make it the second time. So while everyone else was cutting the cake, I was in a small room with a video preaching it again in Nihongo (Japanese). That started an amazing relationship.
Scott would come to my house, almost daily, asking me to sit on a stool, and tell stories and preach messages in Japanese to send CDs to his friends in Japan. That was more Japanese preaching that I had done in years. Scott was an English professor in Maejo University here in Town. He would frequently have me come to his English classes to share Christ. That was nothing but just pure evangelism.
Then he started an English Bible study in his home on Friday night. That was one of the most blessed times of my life. About 10 or more students would come. We would start at 6:00 with pizza or sushi. Then we would get started with the Bible study by7:00 and go until 9:00, when they had to be back at the university. Those times were indescribable. The Holy Spirit was so much in control, at times, I felt like I was listening to someone else preach. Oh my goodness, the Word had power. Those meetings were very much like what I was talking about last week where no body wanted to go home. One night Scott thought, “That is odd. Why is Bill stopping now? He just got started.” Then he looked at his watch and saw it was 9:00 o'clock. One night, one girl almost got a whiplash when she looked at her watch and saw what time it was. Scott said the amazing thing was that the meetings didn't even quit in the truck. As he was taking the young folks home, they still were going high speed talking about the Bible. Needless to say many were saved. Those were some of the finest meetings I have ever had in my life.
At the same time Scott was also teaching English in the ladies prison here in Chiang Mai. It was there he met Gena Crain. I told you that story several months ago. Gena was an extremely high profile event where she had shot and killed her husband. It was huge news here in Chiang Mai, and even in the Bangkok Post newspaper. I heard it was on the international wire services and CNN. Scott would see Gena in prison every week, and she would argue about the Gospel. Then one day she told her the testimony of the North Vietnamese general who died of cancer an unsaved man, went out into eternity, met Jesus, and came back healed a born-again Christian. That one rocked her. I had just got back from Saigon where I had stayed with General Thadam for five days. She asked, “Could you have that man who knows the general come here to speak with me?” The next week I went with Scott to the prison, and that started another major major moment of my life. Gena was one of the finest converts I have ever dealt with in my life. I spent two years going to the prison every Wednesday with Scott disciplining Gena.
It was at that time that Scott used to ask me to go next door to invite his neighbor from New York to come to the Friday night Bible study. I really didn't like that man very much, and he thought we were crazy. I said that is one fellow that will never get saved. That was Paul. You know the story of Paul. Scott sold his house to Paul, and Scott's wife, Kae, was talking to Marisa one day about Buddhism. Marisa got saved on the spot, and that drove Paul into the Kingdom. Paul is very close to the number one Christian man that I know today. All that fruit; the kids from the Bible study, Gena, Paul, and a host of others, are fruit in Scott's basket. I happened to be there standing on his shoulder at the time, but the fruit goes in his basket.
But nothing stays the same. The end of the school came and the kids went home. The Bible study was never got started again. Scott got dismissed from his job at Maejo. The tremendous opportunities dried up. All the good things we had going for us went south. Things started to cool down between Scott and myself. The devil got between us and the original chemistry was gone. We are still friends but the tide is out.
That is the way it goes. But even in low tide Jesus is working. Let's stay with it and give it our best shot for Jesus today.
bill
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