Nick Bewes in Queensland Australia, formerly in Zimbabwe Africa.

Nick Bewes’ conversion is described in Topic 5. We meet him again as a happy and successful airline pilot who, in addition, knew he had been called by God to be a Pastor. Here in his words is what happened next:

Somehow, God works in the darkest valleys of life to change us, to make us more like Him. He’s more interested in our character than in our comfort! Only when we’ve walked through the valleys (life’s winters), can we appreciate the goodness and wisdom of God. One Wednesday, in an evening church service, I shared on an urgency to seek a closer union with Christ and with others, such that would survive the worst of trials, even excruciating tribulation. I recognised the need to be well prepared for whatever lay ahead.

That Friday, only two days later, I dropped passengers off at a lakeside resort and returned ‘empty’. Having the fast aircraft to myself, I made the most of it, buzzing the resort, then climbing out. On the way back, I weaved through scattered clouds, making like a fighter pilot! I was having a ball! In this happy moment, I thanked God for the gift of my flying career and then surrendered it to Him. I told God I considered it all rubbish, compared with the excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I vowed I would gladly forsake all to pursue a closer relationship with Him and with others.

 Little did I know! God takes us at our word. Be careful what you promise God!

I landed the aircraft and went home.

 Next morning, I awoke with a splitting headache and, 24 hours later, collapsed in the bathroom. My wife found me trying to climb into an overflowing bath that would have drowned me. She took me to hospital where it transpired I had suffered a massive brain haemorrhage, from an aneurysm never detected in regular airline medicals.

Exactly ten years after I had started flight training, my career was now history. My present was chaos. My future was bleak. I was a 31-year-old nobody with nowhere to turn.

 The severe damage to the emotional part of my brain, combined with loss of career and health, all too easily taken for granted, brought psychological breakdown and a crisis of faith. I angrily questioned God’s love, even His existence. It became a true “dark night of the soul”, leading almost to suicide. Even if God was real, I decided, He had cast me off and I was headed for hell. I might just as well accelerate the process! However, I couldn’t even find the courage or energy to go through with suicide.

 No words can express the torture I endured, but God quietly walked me through it. My mind was at war with itself. I was obsessed with believing again = but tormented by doubts.

 God used a skilful Christian psychologist to relieve the furnace in my mind. It took a decade! My recovery was painfully slow and culminated in a traumatic divorce, with total estrangement from my children, whom I’ve not seen for years.

God broke my heart, in order to enlarge it. He took away my pilot wings but gave me new spiritual wings. While flying jetliners, I’d cared nothing for other crew members. I already knew God had called me to be a Pastor, yet I cruised my own world regardless of others. I knew nothing of anger, depression, despair, suicide or divorce. I’m a radically different person now, one who deeply cares about people and longs to express God’s love to all. I now know why I am on this planet and the profound peace I have transcends any crisis. There is nothing that can shake me anymore, not even the end of the world!!

 I haven’t arrived yet, not by any means. In summary: we cannot change the past, only learn from it. Our failures/achievements mean nothing until given to God. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose. (Jim Elliot)

 My life is 100% changed, but I have blessed assurance. I know nothing at all can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38-39).

Nick’s testimony illustrates that:

1. God takes us at our word.
2. God can support us through personal disaster and depression.
3. God can change our focus from ourselves to instead caring about others. 
4. The journey from self-love to the love of others can be very rough, but is essential if divine love is to characterise our lives and ministry’
5. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep (his own life), to gain that which he cannot lose (his salvation).(Jim Elliot)

 

The Rudolphs’ dying baby in Malawi

Baby Jason’s diagnosis once the test results were in was shattering. Jason had cerebral meningitis particularly badly. We were told in essence “the lumber puncture result was very milky indicating intense infection. I am very sorry, but it is most unlikely that Jason will survive. If he does, he will likely suffer severe brain damage.”

I was shocked. As soon as I had returned home and could find a few minutes to myself, I knelt beside my bed and prayed passionately. I paused, at which point I heard a clear voice that said: “He will live and there will be no brain damage.” Just that. I lifted my head from the bed rather startled but brimming over with joy. Jason would live! And he would have no brain damage despite the awful diagnosis!

Just then there was a knock on the door. It was Frances Sequeira, our lovely Indian Christian friend from Lujeri Tea Estates. She had heard the news that Jason was critically ill, was very upset, and had come to see how she could help.

“Thank you for your concern,” I said, “but God just seconds ago told me that Jason will live and not have any brain damage despite the medical diagnosis!”

Frances looked a little nonplussed, but understood, and was very pleased.

From that moment, because of God’s supportive words, I no longer had personal concerns for Jason, but still found he had a difficult journey to travel medically speaking. The suffering mite had tubes attached to various parts of his body for fluids. Ultimately, this tiny scrap had to sustain 58 injections.

There was nothing we could do except pray. Brenda wrote out a statement that she posted above Jason’s bed: “My Strength Is Made Perfect In Weakness,” which were the words of Jesus taken from 2Corinthians 12:9.

Meanwhile, I was generously offered time off school, but said I would continue teaching because I was certain Jason would be fine in time and students needed to be taught.

Since being in Australia, I have been told by Gilbert Nayna that seeing me so calm when my baby was expected to die had been a factor in his own conversion, for which I am very thankful in part because Gilbert and his brother John, with John’s wife Anna, are particularly effective Christians in Australia and abroad.

However, I have to say commendations given to me during this searching time make me feel a fraud, as when a lady said to me, “You have great faith.”

“No, I haven’t,” I responded at once, with a wry smile. “If I had great faith, God would not have needed to support me and tell me the end from the beginning. It is because my faith is weak that He told me Jason would live and have no brain damage. I have a miniature faith, but a great God.”

Against medical expectations, Jason began to make remarkable progress.

Then, out of the blue, Jason’s high fever returned. It appeared to be a relapse of the meningitis! Brenda desperately needed some answers, but there were no doctors to talk to that night.

Unexpectedly around midnight, in walked Dr Malcolm Molyneux, a fellow Christian with whom I played squash, who had been called in to the hospital to check on one of his patients and had felt afterwards that he should come and see how baby Jason was getting on. Malcolm was also perplexed, but just having him there was supportive and acted as a calming influence on Brenda.

Then, after almost 30 hours of constant prayer, Brenda saw a miracle take place before her eyes. Within a very short time the fever left and Jason looked better than he had at any time since coming into the hospital. He was indeed now totally healed!

Then came the glorious day that Brenda and Jason came home! We got our beautiful boy back again, totally whole and bonny!

As one doctor said later, discussing Jason’s healing, “Prayer and medicine are a good combination.”

And if any readers don’t know, Jason was totally healed. He has not suffered brain damage and has qualified at university as an Electronics Engineer and subsequently achieved a Masters in Business. Jason has run a successful business, and now does contract work from home. He is married with three children and has also played a variety of sports at a reasonable level, and continues to keep fit and active. In every way, God kept His seemingly impossible promise: “He will live, and there will be no brain damage.”

 The Rudolphs’ testimony shows that:

1. God’s supportive promises, like prophecies, come to pass precisely as given even under the most unlikely of circumstances.
2. God’s healings do not need to be instantaneous. Many lessons can be learnt throughout a progressive healing.
3. God supports and uses several avenues for our healing that can be mixed. These include prayer, medicine, natural healing, and the miraculous; depending on the circumstances, who we are and where we are at.
4. God can inspire His people in particular to help in supportive, practical roles during a crisis, for example helping to care for children while a mother is away. Their prayers are also vitally important.
5. God’s creation was declared by Him to be “good”. God’s miracles are not about God stepping in to overturn the natural order of life. Instead, they are God stepping in to make things the way they should always have been. Sometimes that is with a dramatic miracle, but mostly it’s through small glimpses (e.g. humans behaving the way we should!). Jason’s healing is a great example of both

Ian Feeney, Toowoomba, Australia, when ministering in the Solomon Islands in a village of coral only around 3m above sea level.

The church building was made of saplings and had sheets of corrugated iron on the roof held on with vines. The walls were only halfway up the height of the building and again were made of corrugated iron held on with vines. As soon as the evening meeting commenced a violent storm hit. Wind blew the rain right through the semi-open walls of the church and my concern deepened as the roof commenced a Mexican wave.

I had 19 teenagers with me and I was concerned for everyone’s safety.

We could not hear one another speak for the noise. I grabbed the young pastor and shouted that if Jesus could still the sea of Galilee we needed Him to do something urgently here. We prayed earnestly for Jesus to stop the rain and the wind because of the physical danger to everyone.

Immediately we said “Amen” the rain stopped as if a tap had been turned off, and the wind ceased. There was a deathly silence. No one spoke because the presence of God was so real.

For 20 minutes no one spoke, being aware of the presence of God with us. There was no noise outside the church building.

After 20 minutes one of the young men began playing a beautiful song ”Jesus name belong You am sweet, Name belong You am sweet toomas”. We sang that song for about 45 minutes with tears streaming down our faces.

There was no need for a sermon that night because people were drawn closer to Jesus than they had ever been before in their lives.

I covet such experiences of God. One of the young women in our group was so touched by that experience of God that she spent the next six years of her life in mission work in India and Fiji. Some of the young men on that trip changed overnight from self-seeking self-promoting young heroes to humble followers of Jesus, wanting to serve God until their last breath.

          Ian’s testimony shows that:

1. God’s beauty and presence can become almost tangible when He exercises His power.
2. God’s love passes all understanding and is in control.
3. God’s love is incredibly attractive and inspires us to serve Him more passionately.
4. God can control any powerful storm despite howling wind and pounding rain. Similarly, He can also control any personal storms in our lives. 

Ivan’s Comment:

James Thomson in South Africa prayed a similar prayer over the microphone when showing a Christian movie at his Christian drive-in. The noise of hail, wind and rain was terrific. At the “amen”, immediately, the huge storm stopped and silence reigned.

Chris McCleary when in Zimbabwe; now in Brisbane, Australia.

I was called up to do National Service in 1980 during a politically volatile period of transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. After independence an amnesty had been declared where former freedom fighters (FFF) from opposing military factions ZIPRA (Joshua Nkomo’s army) and ZANLA (Robert Mugabe’s army) could surrender arms at various Assembly Points around the country without adverse repercussions. These former FFF were to be amalgamated into one army together with former Rhodesian army forces.

For some time after this amnesty, groups of FFF’s would bury caches of weapons at known points in the bush before withdrawing to the safety and security of the Assembly Points. Later on, they would retrieve the weapons at will to perform various armed atrocities.

I was a 2nd Lieutenant platoon commander in 2 RAR (42 Inf Bn) based at an airstrip in the Lowveld region of Zimbabwe when we were notified of an armed hold-up of a bus nearby our camp. We mobilised and went to the scene to find a rural bus surrounded by armed dissidents. What to do? This was a threatening and volatile situation.

We deployed from our vehicles and walked in file towards the bus, one file walked either side of the bus between the armed dissidents and the bus.

I signalled to my MAG gunner to position behind some rocks next to the road, at which point the dissidents shouted and bomb-shelled in all directions, running wildly into the surrounding bush. They were fully armed and sheltered while we were totally exposed.

We were informed by the bus driver that 2 occupants of the bus had been abducted and were inside the deep tray of a nearby tipper truck.

We retrieved this man and his wife from the truck. We presumed this couple had been selected for execution. We put them back on the bus, made sure everyone in the bus were ok and then told the driver to continue on their journey.

I addressed the leader of the group of dissidents, who we had apprehended, and found out that they were from Assembly Point Alfa Foxtrot which was not far from where we were. I told him that we were no longer at war and that he needed to go back to the Assembly Point, relinquish his weapons and turn themselves in. The leader called his men in and they got back on the truck and departed in a different direction to where the bus went. 

I have looked back many times and replayed the incident over and over in my mind, realising that I could have done things differently; why didn’t I arrest them? Why didn’t I disarm them? Of course, any such actions could readily have begun a firefight and we were the ones most exposed, along with the terrified passengers of the bus.

One thing I do remember at the time is the incredible peace and calm which I experienced throughout the incident. It was not my own. The Lord’s presence was in me, with us, and He directed me. It could have been so much worse if even one shot had been fired – triggering an all out battle where people (including civilians) would have been killed.

I often wonder who the couple were who were rescued from the tipper truck. God knows. All I know is that this will always be a testimony to me of how powerful prayer is. My friends and family were praying for me back home; consequently, God’s peace prevailed.

God’s grace enabled me, as well as many others, to continue to live an abundant and blessed life which my Heavenly Father planned and intended for us.

Chris’ testimony shows that:

 1.God in times of danger honours the prayers of distant family and friends.

2. God can manage threatening situations peacefully.

3. God can help his people to experience peace and clear thinking during the most dangerous of situations.

4. God can take us beyond immediate dangers and into an abundant, blessed life.

Rev David Craig NSW, Australia.

A good portion of my teenage years I did not believe in God. I did when I was younger, but slipped off the straight and narrow path somewhere. But this did not stop me from praying in times of desperation. These were selfish prayers, for me, but I witnessed prayer being answered. 

One Easter weekend a group of four of us planned a four-day hike in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales which included hiking over Mount Solitary. On the third night, on the side of Mount Solitary, a strong storm came up.  It blew our small individual hike tents away and was breaking large trees off at their trunks and large branches were falling all around. We needed shelter for our safety.

Thankfully, we found refuge for the night below a large sandstone overhang.

The next morning the storm had ceased, and we needed to make our way back to the Three Sisters Lookout at Katoomba.

One of our party was obese and because we needed to walk at a faster pace to reach safety, he became exhausted. It looked to be a desperate situation. He was holding us back. His backpack was overweight and full of unnecessary items for a bush walk such as this. I put his backpack on top of mine to free him up.

The others shared assisting him over some of the rough terrain. Despite this, after a while he became exhausted because it was all uphill, steep uphill, and he had not the stamina to continue.

I gave his backpack to share with the others and put my backpack on him. I then hoisted him onto my shoulders and piggy-backed him and my backpack.

To this day I don’t know how Almighty God gave me the strength to carry him the many kilometres to our destination.

David’s testimony illustrates that:

1. God can give us safety during threatening storms.
2. God hears prayer in desperate situations.
3. God can give insight how to go forward in desperate situations.
4. God can provide extraordinary strength to overcome physical challenges. 

Now, years later and a retired Christian minister, David has found silent prayer to be almost constant and automatic.

Doug Murray in Harare, Zimbabwe.

One thing happened to me as a teenager in Marlborough, Harare, that I am sure was miraculous. I had arranged to play tennis at a local sports club one afternoon. (It is now ‘First Capital Bank Sports Club’ – the courts are gone) Storm clouds were building, as I cycled to the club. I made it to the tennis pavilion and remember praying that in despite the threat of rain, we would get our game in. 

While I waited for my friend to arrive, it began to rain heavily. “All-weather courts?” I thought to myself wryly in the downpour.

The shower did not last long. Perhaps 10-15 minutes. It drenched the half a dozen to 8 courts — 2 rows of 3 or 4, I think there were from memory. 

As I passed the courts to get to the carpark, I stopped in amazement. Puddles were everywhere, excepting on one of the courts! I went onto that court for a closer inspection. Sure enough, there was one court in the middle that was bone-dry! Only this court was dry. All the other courts and surrounding areas were drenched, as one would expect after a downpour.

My friend, also a Christian, arrived and we had a good game, thanking our heavenly Father for the answer to prayer and blessing us with the dry court on which we could enjoy our tennis.

This is the only miracle, defined as a divine suspension of natural laws, I am conscious of in which I was on the receiving end personally.

Doug’s testimony illustrates that:

1. God is the God of big, momentous events. He nevertheless also meets us in small things and details in an intensely personal way.
2. God can, if He chooses to, tinker with natural laws and circumstances. This is the exception not the rule, however, because God make the natural laws for a purpose and expects us to live most of our lives within them.
3. God hears the prayers of youngsters as well as adults.
4. God cares about the apparently minor circumstances in our lives.

Maria Onions in Australia.

After being in ministry in Australia for some years, my parents in South Africa offered to bring us back there for a holiday at Christmas time. Our family of six was very excited and we all looked forward to it, praying for the holiday with great anticipation.

The last week before leaving Australia finally arrived, but then disaster! The airport baggage handlers went on strike with no solution in sight! We prayed as a family that the Lord would favour us and enable us to be with our South African family and friends once more.

Unfortunately, a backlog of passengers at the airport, all with pre-purchased tickets, were in line hoping to hear their names called out for the same flight as ourselves. My husband Vic said he was not going to join the queue, but that if God wanted us on the plane He would do it. I was tired and angry when I joined the line, where I listened to lots of heartbreaking stories of people missing weddings, funerals, visiting sick friends or relatives, not being home for Christmas, and so on.

As the lucky ones’ names were called out, I suddenly felt the urge to start congratulating them and say how happy I felt for them. A surprising thing happened. The angry atmosphere somehow changed for the better.

Finally, I heard, “the last people on the plane are the Onions family”. There was a round of applause and comments like “I’m glad that nice lady and family got on”. Little did they know but that I had been equally angry to begin with.

To cap it all, we discovered we had been given a special blessing, that we had been upgraded for free to first class! We all thoroughly enjoyed the luxury and good meals on the long flight. And despite our arrival after midnight, my parents had not given up hope that we would be on the flight and we all enjoyed a very happy reunion – a great start to what became a wonderful holiday.

Maria’s Testimony shows that:

1. God can answer unlikely prayers and even provide us with more than we ask for, or even imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
2. God’s can change an unpleasant crowd atmosphere and even our own angry hearts if we choose to be positive instead of negative.
3. God expects us to rise above our natural emotions and instead to be loving despite how we may feel.
4. God values family reunions and can open unlikely doors to facilitate them.