I am grateful for Your faithfulness!
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Lamentation 3:22-24
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
“Therefore, know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Deuteronomy 7:9
This weekend I was doing the closing shift in a fair booth at the Southern Iowa Fair. We had the usual steady stream of young folks taking the challenge of answering civics questions. Down the way, the Gideons had their booth. One of the men serving down there stopped by to chat. I told him of the part the Gideons had in my Christian life. It later occurred to me that I had not related that testimony here and that it would be good to do so.
My childhood development along the line of faith in God had been mostly laying out in the yard at night with my dad, staring up into the starry expanse. Because of that, I did not question the existence of the Creator. When I was about fifteen, I attended my first “revival” meeting. I was not a church goer. My mother, brother, and I were there because of an invitation from one of her friends. I was somehow moved by the message of the visiting evangelist and went forward at the invitation to give my life to Jesus. Sometime in the next month the pastor baptized me.
I can’t say that I received any significant follow-up or discipling at that time. My teenage life went on pretty much as before.
In 1972, after graduating from high school, the government was still running the draft for Vietnam service. I clearly misunderstood how the lottery worked. (It would have been the 1974 lottery that applied to me, and my number was above the ones that were eventually called.) Nevertheless, to avoid the perceived potential of a muddy foxhole, I joined the NAVY and reported for bootcamp in San Diego in November of 1972. And that is where Gideons International comes in.
The Gideons were presenting all new inductees with a compact New Testament that included Psalms and Proverbs. I had not previously been in the habit of bible reading, but I found that I had the five minutes before lights-out each night in the barracks to myself. I used it to start reading that Bible.
Bootcamp was really the first time I had ever been away from home for any length of time, and the program was designed to be challenging in ways that I had never been tested. As I stood in formation daily, beneath the hills of Point Loma, I remember being struck by one of the Psalms.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, Which made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2
As I already mentioned, I had spent many young hours pondering the endless expanse above. I recognized Him who had made heaven and earth. And as I had come to the end of my own resources, I knew I needed His help! Day after day, I drew much comfort from that passage, standing at attention in formation.
God had placed a man in my bootcamp company (last name, Lambert. Sorry I can’t recall his first name.) who had more spiritual experience than I had. He noticed me reading that Bible which led to some fruitful conversations on the faithfulness of God.
So, if I had not missed any days. Nine weeks of five-minute readings only amount to a little over five hours. I know I used some of those intervals to write home. Nonetheless, God is faithful and He honored that small investment. The course of my life has changed and has not been the same since.
So, thank You Jesus! And thank you Gideons International! And thank you to all who have supported them.
Missionary Sojourn 