Dear Phyllis,
In Luke 16 Jesus told the most difficult parable in the Bible. He told about the unjust steward who wasted his masters goods. When he realized he was going to get fired he went out and changed the bills of his masters creditors cheating his master out of a lot of money. Then Jesus held up this crook as a wise man and told us to make friends of wicked money that when we come to our end that might receive us into heaven. Don't ask me what this means. I have no idea. But there are times in our lives when what the Christian thing to do is illegal.
Brother Andrew was probably the founder of the ministry of Bible smuggling. After I had engaged in this ministry for several years I was back in Japan meeting with a large group of Japanese pastors who were touring the New Life Ministries printing facilities. Roald Lidal ask me to speak to them and I shocked the pastors by telling that I was a professional smuggler. The pastors were stunned and one man asked Roald, “Is that what you are doing, smuggling?” Roald nervously replied, “That is Bill's expression, not mine”. For many years supplying Bibles to persecuted Christians in communist countries had been my main ministry. I have been arrested four times, I have been in jail, and black-listed in Vietnam. My name was listed on the immigration computers in Vietnam as a terrorist. Some may quibble, “Is it right to do illegal things to serve the Lord?” There are several answers. It is not us, but the government that is illegal. In the central post office in Vientiane, Laos there was a large poster showing how Laos had signed the UN human rights agreement guaranteeing religious freedom. I wasn't illegal, the government was. Once when I was arrested in Vietnam I charged the police, “These Bibles that I am carrying are perfectly legal.” They couldn't answer me. Corrie ten Boon was arrested in Holland for hiding Jews. I don't know, but there are times when the right thing is to violate the law.
In January 1982 an Air Florida passenger plane was taking off out of Washington International Airport in a bad snow storm, and, due to wing icing, crashed in the Potomac River. A TV photographer was there and recorded one of the most dramatic scenes I ever saw on TV. A lady was in the frozen Potomac not more than 15 feet from the shore. A helicopter was right above her dangling a horse collar ring for her to hang on to to pull her to shore. She was almost gone and her hand kept slipping off the ring. At last her hand slipped off and she sank beneath the water. One hundred men stood there watching. Something in me screamed, “Jump!”. How in the world any man could stand there watching that and not dive in defied me. At the last second one man dove in, grabbed the woman and the ring, and within seconds was out.
In 1998 I heard of the desperate need of Bibles in Vietnam. I thought, “If no one else will go I will”, and bought a ticket. A friend asked me, “Why are you going to Vietnam?”. I replied, “That isn't the question. The question is, 'Why don't you go?”'.” “Well, I have a wife, family, and a job. I can't.” “Fine. You stay here and I will go.” Some one asked me, “Do you have a call to go?” “No, I don't have a call but I can't stay here.” Did those men watching that lady drown in the Potomac have a call to jump in? Obviously not. They didn't want to get their clothes wet. How in the world can we do less?
After I had been working in SEA for several years I was sitting in a restaurant in Vientiane, Laos. The wife of a good friend of mine, who was the number one missionary in Laos, was sitting at a table with two visitors from the states. After a while one of the men came over to speak with me and shake my hand. He said, “I understand you are Brother Andrew and the bravest man in Laos.” I replied, “I'm sorry, sir. You are badly misinformed. It is true that I have done a couple of unusual things, but I certainly am not a brave man. I simply have the privilege of being one of the most expendable turkeys Jesus has in His inventory. That enables me to do some thing that might be difficult for others”.
In any inventory there are two different category of items – things that are expendable and things that are not. Screws are expendable, drills are not. Bullets are expendable, guns are not. Rackets are expendable, airplanes are not. In the Lords work our greatest need is for expendable workers. The Chinese Church has taken upon themselves to take out the 10-40 window. That is basically the Islamic world. Working in Islamic countries is the most dangerous place there is. You can't fight a war without taking casualties, and that type of ministry is impossible without shedding blood. Our great need today is for those who count not their lives dear to themselves and go forward not expecting to return safely. In the days of our Lord Jesus to take up a cross had a singular meaning. It was the same as climbing a scaffold to a hang-mans noose. Someone carrying a cross did not have much plans for the future. Someone else made his future for him. It is a wonderful blessing to have empty hands. To have empty hands means you have nothing to lose. That makes it easy.
But what I said to the man in the restaurant in Vientiane about not being a brave man was true. An expendable man with a defective alarm system is not a brave man. A brave man is the man who has everything to lose and is scared to death – but he just keeps moving forward.
John Cathcard is the bravest man I ever met. He went places and did things that no other man would dream of doing. I marveled at what he accomplished, but I was shocked when he told me how he did it. Before John went to Russia in 1991, he met a elderly Russian couple who were teaching in Tenri University. John asked them if they would teach him and his wife Russian. For one year John and Gloria met with this couple every week and became close friends. But at last when the Russian couple realized John and Gloria were dead serious about going to Russia, the Russian coupled panicked. They pleaded, “Please don't go! Please don't go! They will kill you. They will kidnap your children and you will never see them again.” Gloria admitted this desperate warning alarmed her. For the first time in her life she seriously thought about buying a pistol to protect her children.
One night their son Johnny had a serious asthma attack. John took him to the doctor's house in the middle of the night but waited until morning before ringing the bell. When the doctor saw the seriousness of Johnny's condition, he was furious and gave John the dressing down of his life. He sternly warned him, “Don't you ever pull a stunt like this again. That boy might have died. I don't care what time it is day or night, you get him here immediately.” John researched the air condition in Vladivostok and saw it was one of the worse in the world for asthma The devil told John every day, “You are carrying that lad to his death”. Terrified, John and Gloria kept moving on.
John later told me the situation in Vladivostok was so dangerous his legs would hardly hold him. He said the only thing that kept him from going out of his mind was the 3rd Psalm and Psalm 18:1-6. He memorized them and quoted them to himself every day. With enormous courage he opened his apartment door and ventured out. Now there is a brave man. Gloria later testified that what the Russian couple had told them was true. She said at times she had to step across dead bodies in the street but she only saw it with her eyes. It never came to her (Ps. 91:8). Johnny was healed of asthma as soon as they reached Vladivostok.
The brave man isn't the turkey who is half brain-dead and has nothing to lose, but the man who has everything to lose and is scared silly, but just keeps moving on. It is a wonderful blessing to have empty hands - even if it necessary to give everything you own to Jesus to keep it for you. The main thing is to shoulder our cross and follow Jesus. Oh that is wonderful.
Thank You, Jesus,
bill
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