Ivan Rudolph in Malawi

I had been invited to speak at a Christian group at Zomba University in Malawi. My car in Blantyre was out of action and I borrowed an old Holden Kingswood with a V8 engine and automatic gears. I was warned that it would not push start.

Margaret Keltie, our song leader and musician, and several keen Malawian Christians, joined together with me to minister at the meeting.

On our trip the Holden broke down some kilometres out of Zomba, and we did not know what to do nor how to contact a garage for help, nor how to warn the group in Zomba that we might not make it – it was the era before mobile phone coverage in Malawi. 

“Let’s pray,” someone suggested, and so we did. I climbed back in the car and tried again. It simply would not take.

I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw an old Malawian man in blue overalls walking behind us in the distance, joining our road from a side road that led, from memory, to a cement factory. As he drew nearer, he was whistling jauntily. When he drew alongside, I had the bonnet open and was staring helplessly at the engine.

“Is your car not working? I can fix it for you.,” the old man said politely.

“Oh boy,” I thought ungraciously, “How can this old man in this remote area help to fix this car?”

He noticed my hesitation. “I have fixed this same car previously, I know its problems. It is an Australian Holden Kingswood with a V8 engine and they don’t know how to fix it in Blantyre, so the missionary always asked me to fix it,” he continued.

“Yes please, try to fix it,” I responded, with growing excitement.

He fiddled around a little with an old screwdriver he carried in his dirty overhauls. “Electrical, not fuel,” he commented. “Try to start it again.”

It caught at once!

I was careful to keep it running while the others climbed in. We thanked him profusely. He wouldn’t take any money for the repair, but just waved us on cheerfully.

Perhaps only those who have lived in an inefficient Developing World nation would appreciate the odds against our breaking down on the road where the only African likely to be able to repair the problem happened to walk down shortly afterwards. I doubt that the students in Zomba that day remembered anything any of us said, I certainly cannot, but few will have forgotten the fresh testimony we shared with them about our breakdown and rescue.

Ivan’s testimony shows that:

1. God can organise help in advance in extraordinary ways, showing that He prepares, in love and organisational brilliance, the means to meet our needs even before we ask Him (Isaiah 65:24).
2. God can take care of the logistics of our situation when trying to serve Him, in particular when we are incapable of doing so ourselves.
3. God organises some extraordinarily helpful people to enter the lives of Christians.
4. God arranges some odd coincidences and unusual experiences in the lives of Christians. And the more we pray, the more they seem to happen to us.

 

Diane Shaw, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

I wanted a small dog for companionship and purchased for only 300 dollars a Maltese Shih Tzu x. Pookie was an exceptionally loving pet and a gentle, placid and calm companion. She was a guard dog but I also called her a God dog, and when we prayed aloud she joined in as only dogs can do, and even sang in her own way along with us.

Fast forward to June 2020, around 6 months into the covid pandemic in Australia. My knees were painful when walking Pookie. It was a blessing when a neighbour Gwen offered to walk Pookie along with her two dogs. After one outing she reported that Pookie’s urine had blood in it.

After a visit to vet, antibiotics etc, etc. Pookie continued to pass blood. Nothing seemed to help. Dr David, our vet, said he wanted to do an X-ray.

As Pookie had to have a general anaesthetic to have an X-ray, I wasn’t able to collect her until late afternoon. I was like an expectant parent: praying , praising, but most of all asking God to heal whatever was wrong with her. I reminded myself of one of my favourite Psalms, Ps 34: “I will extol the Lord at all times, His praise will always be on my lips…I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.” 

We went to pick Pookie up. I knew the news wasn’t good by the look on Dr David’s face. The X-ray had shown growths on/in her bladder that he was pretty sure was cancer. He wanted to operate a.s.a.p.

My mind did all kinds of somersaults. High on my list of worries were: 

*Would she come through an operation?

*How much was it going to cost?

*Where would I get the money? 

 I asked Dr. David, how much? He replied about $800. I had supposed it would be a lot more., but God was already working. A month earlier the Government had authorised a covid payment for pensioners of $750, to be paid mid-July, and It was now end of June. God is so good!

I booked Pookie in, for surgery, close to that date. 

When the day came for the surgery, a friend and I took Pookie and very reluctantly handed her over. 

When I went to collect her, I asked Dr David how it all went, and was it definitely cancer? Yes, it’s definitely cancer. He got as much out as he could, but a lot was still there. Her prognosis was not good. How long? I asked. He replied, “Maybe a couple of days, or maybe a couple of weeks.”

It’s hard to explain what went through my mind!! A couple of days, my Pookie! God what are you thinking/doing? This is my God dog. The one You gave me. A couple of days!!

Inside I was devastated. I’m going home to pray, to ask the Father about Pookie, which I did. 

The verse, Ps34 v4, that I had claimed many times went around and around in my head: “I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

So little time! The vet said take her home and let her have whatever she wants. Treat her kindly and love on her, make the most of every day. 

A week later, she was as bright as ever, I kept praying for her healing in Jesus’s name. 

Did God really care and heal our pets?

Two friends showed up, which was very surprising, but welcome.

One, Sue Laurents, had done a portrait painting of Pookie. She Hadn’t known about her cancer diagnosis when painting. It was such a good likeness.

My other friend had printed out a prayer for Pookie. She shared how she was woken up, went to the computer and typed, led by the Holy Spirit.

Some excerpts from that prayer that we prayed together:

“Thank You, You are the God of impossibilities, and Diane is a child of the Most High, and can come to you whenever, and lay her heart before You. You have Diane and Pookie in the palm of Your hand. Father Your children fight the good fight of faith and walk by faith and not by sight. Cancer is but a word to You, Father, and we look to You and not the circumstances. You care about every aspect of our lives, even our pets.

As I/we claimed the healing for Pookie during that Prayer time, I felt the cancer leaving her body. God was working. That was 2020.

About 12months later, she tore her ACL. I took her to Dr David. He was very surprised to see her still alive. I shared how we had prayed and God had healed her. We talked for a bit, but he wasn’t moved.

A friend of mine took her dog to see Dr David and told him they knew Pookie. 

“Ahh !! the Miracle dog”, he said.

Diane’s testimony illustrates that:

1. God can find us an ideal pet for who we are and where we are at.

2. God’s love for us includes our pets.

3. God can cure cancer even in a pet.

4. God can inspire faithful Christian friends to minister to our needs when we feel down or even desperate.

 

 

Dave Smethurst of Australia in the Ukraine War 

Ivan comments: Few people live as many lives in only one life as Dave has. Dave’s relationship with the Ukraine was enhanced when he served as a chaplain to the Olympic Games and one of the Ukrainian teams, the whole team, converted to Christianity under his ministry. He consequently visited his new friends in the Ukraine and began an orphanage there, which grew into the impressive House of Hope. When the Russians invaded the Ukraine in February 2022, Dave and his helpers managed to take many orphans to Poland and elsewhere for their protection, His ministry team in Ukraine continues serving to this day, and Dave comments. “We have been finding and caring for orphans and homeless children whom our local teams have rescued over the last 20 years in Ukraine, and we thank you for your wonderful support, and your faithful prayers that have helped the House of Hope Children stay alive and kept so many orphans safe during this senseless war in Ukraine.”

Many wonderful personal testimonies have resulted from the war in the Ukraine such that I would like to share just one of them with you. The first is In Memory of Igor Kosa 1997-2022.

“Igor, where are you going? They’re shooting there!” His reply  was always, “But there are people there to be rescued!”

The Bible is a tremendous “gallery of faith”, that talks about those who committed their lives to God, and then went into scary and dark places. That is where people are in need of His light the most.

I am sure that God will add numerous names to that Gallery of Faith. and who knows, perhaps our names will be engraved there too?

I feel I must tell you about one of these heroes. People don’t know him, you don’t find his face on magazine covers, neither was his name in news headlines, but I believe his name is known in Heaven.

Igor was born in 1997. He was a “special” kid, born with a cleft palate and a crippled hand. His mother left him immediately after his birth.

So, Igor ended up in an orphanage, and later, an orphanage boarding school. Children who were brought up with him in the same institution would refer to Igor as ‘housekeeper’. He always tried to help people. He took care of those around him, especially the younger children. The kitchen in the boarding school closed for the evening, but when the other children were hungry, somehow, Igor would always manage to get food for them.

Although he had experienced rejection and a lack of love from people, Igor didn’t become embittered. On the contrary, he seemed to be trying to give this world everything he had lacked – care, help, and support.

They said that when it was time for him to leave the boarding school, other children were worried – they realized that they would be much hungrier, and their life more difficult, without him.

Igor’s route to adulthood was as an unwanted teenager. The usual fate of such people is almost always sealed – prison – but by God’s grace, he met Christians all his life, people who loved God. Igor got into a Christian family.

He underwent an operation for his cleft palate, and although it was still quite difficult for him to speak after that, this did not prevent him from helping others. He was always caring for those who were challenged, who suffered and cried, and who were humiliated and beaten – he always stood up for them.

When the war began on February 24, Igor somehow managed to get a job as a taxi driver. He convinced his boss to allow him to take people out of dangerous areas in official vehicles. He went to Kyiv, Irpin, and Bucha.

Looking back, we know what terrible events were ahead for the people who lived in these areas. These were the places where Igor went in an old small car to take many families out to safety.

But very quickly, the boss stopped liking it. A few weeks later, he demanded that Igor return the car, and he fired him.

After that, Igor began to look for an opportunity to continue helping people. He used to say, “Please give me any car. I want to help people. I want to take them out.”

We were also involved in the evacuation of people, and so we bought a van for him, and he began to travel to Nikolaev and Kherson. He took food and medicine there and brought people back.

From the early days of the war, Russian troops surrounded Novaya Kakhovka and Kherson. As a result, there was a shortage of food, prices began to rise, and then the store shelves became empty. Therefore, delivering humanitarian aid to these settlements was extremely important for people. Igor went to those dangerous places through numerous checkpoints, picked up people there, and returned.

It looked like this: early in the morning, when the curfew ended at 6 am, we loaded Igor’s car with food and medicine, prayed for him, and blessed him for the trip. When he reached a particular place, he called to say, “I have arrived. I am safe.”

A month ago, we blessed him, as it turned out later, for the last time.

Igor was driving between two towns northeast of Odessa, Kherson and Nikolaev, when his van was hit by a tank shell. The Kherson defence force said that the driver experienced life-threatening injuries, and was taken to a hospital, but they didn’t know where. We checked with all the hospitals and medical centres in the area and even the mortuaries, but couldn’t find any trace of him. The van hasn’t been found either.

We believe now he perished in the fire, but we also believe that God has him in His hand, and “he has gone to his reward.”

We miss Igor. He was such a great asset to the House of Hope and the Kingdom of God.

Igor’s testimony illustrates the following:

1. We do not need to be come victims of an unfortunate birth, rejection, or of physical disadvantages. On the contrary, we through faith can give to people the blessings we may have lacked.
2. Problems along the road, such as losing the use of a car, can be replaced by better things, such as a large smart van.
3. Death for Christians is simply a doorway into the next life.

 

Ivan Rudolph when at Marlborough High School, Salisbury, Rhodesia.

 My Headmaster, Neil Jardine, gave me permission to begin a Christian Union group at the new Marlborough High School.

I advertised the Christian Union and was delighted when a few students came, irregularly at first.

Besides myself, there were no other overtly Christian women believers on staff who helped, and a few teachers were vocally against Christianity as they misunderstood it. Thankfully, these unbelievers left me and the group alone.

The number of students attending began to increase.

I began to pray for another Christian to come and help with the girls in particular, as it was inappropriate for me to relate with them about girl problems.

In the course of time a young married lass, Cathy Archibald, came. She attended SU meetings and played the guitar when leading choruses, which the students enjoyed.  Most importantly for the group, she related well with the girls.

              Ivan’s testimony shows that:

 1. God sees His church primarily as a body comprising people, not as a building or a denomination (ICorinthians 12:27). Consequently, He can provide members of His body to make up our lack as we try to serve Him.

2.  God’s emphasis is on ministry by people as members of His body, generally to other people. (His emphasis is not on money nor buildings.)

Topic 25 next week will be Who Is God That He Can Prompt Us What To Do? Please send in your testimonies.