Ivan Rudolph when in Salisbury, Rhodesia

A young Christian I had taught years beforehand, Roy Jacobs, came to do a teaching practical at Marlborough High School. On being asked, I readily and happily agreed to have him as a guest in our home. Roy was good company and always ready to talk about spiritual things.

However, Brenda and I had a problem that we did not mention to my headmaster. The problem was Brenda and I were on a tight budget and could not provide food of the standard one likes to for guests. Worse, we were paid monthly so that it was “a long time between drinks”, as the saying goes. Furthermore, because of some unanticipated expenses that month, we actually would run out of cash some days before the next pay. This was the era before credit cards and we operated our finances using cash only. What to do?

If it had been only our family, we could have concocted meals from the pantry as Brenda had done previously when food became short, perhaps of potatoes or bread with a little greens and tinned meat or similar. Having a young man as our guest, we did not want to go into survival mode.

I took a pen and paper and listed the things we would need to make Roy’s stay comfortable – like eggs, milk, fresh meat, fresh salad and vegetables etc. I added up how much we would need to come out up to my next salary. I put the situation and the need for urgent divine provision to Jesus. We only spoke to Him about the problem situation and did not mention it to anyone else.

The first thing I did habitually on return from school, as I passed our mailbox beside the entrance gate, was to check for mail. One significant day when our money had totally run out there was a letter from a friend, Dr Kevin Martin, and it enclosed a gift of money exactly the amount I had calculated would be needed to see us through Roy’s visit!

In the letter, Kevin explained he always prayed where to place gifts of money and our name had impressed itself on him. “Surely not the Rudolphs, Lord,” Kevin had protested. “They couldn’t need the money,” and he had not sent it despite the promptings. However, that very morning during his time of prayer, he had felt so agitated about the need to send us the money that he had not been able to settle down to work! Consequently, he had arranged for his secretary to deliver the letter to our mailbox right away. He apologised if his earlier disobedience to the Lord’s promptings had caused us any inconvenience.

Roy stayed in our home for some weeks. We shared good fellowship – and good meals!

Ivan’s testimony shows that:

1. God knows our needs and sometimes uses unexpected methods to supply them.
2. God expects all His children to obey His direct promptings.

God often prompts someone, or a number of Christians, to provide exactly what we need. It is kind of like his signature that He has heard us or at least knows what it is we need.

3. God often provides help at the last moment, perhaps to force us to proceed by faith rather than by having everything sewn up in advance. For example, the day I received the gift in the mailbox was actually the precise day that we had run out of money totally.

Ken Herschell when a missionary in the Congo, Africa

 Ken was a relatively young pilot taking passengers in a small Cessna plane across country to the town of Kamina. Can God help during threatening weather conditions?

After climbing to cruise altitude, I saw this long line of cloud across the horizon to the north in direct line of our track. We had a problem, it was to cross the Lubudi Mountains enroute and they were right under this cloud. There was no way under so we climbed to 10,500 feet to go over the top.

After flying above cloud for one and a half hours I thought we should find out where we were. Soon enough, there was a small crack in the cloud-base and I recognised Luena, the Coal Mining town, which was a little to the right of track. So, I made an adjustment to our heading and decided to continue for another 15 minutes as we were still 25 minutes out of Kamina. Then I would descend into Kamina even through cloud if necessary. I had done some instrument training and thunderstorm orientation so I was not concerned.

But after another ten minutes the clouds suddenly rose to 40,000 feet in two thunderstorms directly in front of us! I said ‘this is interesting’ because a Cessna 206 has a ceiling of only 13,000 feet!’

After assessing the situation, I decided to start the letdown with a heading right between the two thunderheads.

Slowing the plane to 90knots with wings level, 500 feet per minute decent rate, we entered the clouds. It started to become very dark inside and I told the passengers to tighten their seat belts. Joe Robinson was very nervous at this stage, especially at he looked at the fuel gauge which said, “empty”. I said, “Joe, we have two tanks on this plane and we are now on the other tank.” I pointed to the left-hand tank which still had plenty of fuel.

We were in descent attitude when suddenly the rate of descent meter said we were going up at 1,000 feet a minute — instead of descending at 500!

These equatorial thunderstorms have huge chimneys of air rising up in draughts, and then nearby will be a descending chimney. I wondered where this thunderstorm was going to spit us out, at what height?

These updraughts are generally only limited in width, and so I soon found we were on descent again. I set a minimum descent altitude which was 1,000 feet above the highest terrain and waited. 

How pleased I was when the cloud-base began to break up at 1000 feet and I descended on down to 800 feet above. The surrounding jungle was dark and menacing. There was a huge thunderstorm on each side of us and we hadn’t even entered the rain! God is good and will always lead us right when we put our trust in Him.

Kamina Ville airstrip was soon in front of us. The two storms were merging into a monster behind us as we taxied into the hangar and shut the engine down. Heavy rain and wind was soon battering Kamina. Praise God we were safe on the ground!

What We Learn About God From Ken’s Testimony:

1. God is aware of challenges that lie ahead.
2. God can give us insight how to deal with threatening situations.
3. God’s timing to extricate us from a developing threat is perfect.

Gill from Malawi, but now in Australia

In my youth, I was like Paul in the Bible persecuting believers. 

I lived in my birth country Malawi up until emigrating to Australia in 1992. Malawi is a lovely small nation in the eastern half of Africa.

In Malawi, I was condemning of Missionaries, especially the ones that came from the USA to Malawi. There was such a big cultural gap between them and the Malawians they had come to minister to –

they nearly always seemed to stay in the best hotels, drive expensive big cars, live in the best houses, have the most domestic servants, send their kids to the top schools. They seemed to have little understanding of the Malawian culture, its language, and its endemic poverty. My criticisms included:  what a waste of donations! Why not rather give all that to the poor, the hungry, the sick? I was against missionaries, but then I wasn’t as yet a believer.

(Ivan comments: many in Malawi felt like Shirley did about the first world/developing nations dichotomy between missionaries and the locals, and this was a real problem that we also saw. But Brenda and I were believers and saw behind the scenes – the incredible workload and burdens the missionaries carried, the problems and dangers they often faced, the health challenges of the tropics, their separation from families “back home”, the isolation of their children from the helpful facilities and education they would have otherwise enjoyed where they had come from etc etc. Our missionary friends were all sincere and, in our opinion, great people.)

Roll on a few years and in 20O5, after being converted in Australia, I returned to Malawi where I met a local Malawian missionary. Being a local, he did not have the first world/developing world identity and cultural problems that overseas missionaries had. He later became an ordained Pastor through the funds from the sale of one of my paintings. 

By the end of that same year I was supporting 6 pastors (who were local missionaries) and their families.

As the Malawi Churches are too poor to support their pastors financially, I went on mission myself to Malawi in 2017, making sure I paid my own airfare. And every donation that I raised before leaving was for the Malawian pastors and their ministry. 

I called this developing support ministry Eagle Wings.

This was the very thing I had been against – ministries from overseas! However, God transformed me to start one! It was my huge turn around.

Eagle Wings continues.

How? Well, the other area I was always jealous of was other artists. Especially those who won prizes. Or sold their work in shows. 

After my conversion, I cried out to the Lord asking him what I was holding onto. 

The answer was my paintings. 

I am now happy and pleased to say that every dollar of my sold paintings (with no deductions of art materials etc) goes to Eagle Wings ministry. The Lord’s work. 

After all, when you think about it, everything belongs to God in any case. 

I’m blessed beyond measure by this ministry. Especially by my sisters and brothers in Malawi, whenever I can be there with them. 

Even when I am not there, thanks to WhatsApp, we pray together.

We now share many amazing wonderful stories of how not only does God provide, but He inspires people from both sides of the world to bless Eagle Wings ministry. 

And guess what, I’ve sold more paintings than ever before now that I am an artist for God! 

https://www.facebook.com/wingsofmalawi?mibextid=LQQJ4d

What Gill’s testimony reveals about God.

1. God can turn even the strongest critics of His work around to becoming participants in what He is doing.
2. God can bridge gaps between very different cultures.
3. God can use talents surrendered to him, such as artistic skills, for building His kingdom.

Marie Sweetnam when in Kleinmond, South Africa

I am not a very good Missionary person in that I don’t go around spreading the Gospel in words, but try each day to live by my Christian standards. I learnt and experienced them during my entire childhood and adulthood, up to the time both my parents had passed away.

The only time I can remember about doing something really positive for the Lord was the following experience:

There were about 8 homeless persons sitting around the local Supermarket each day. It was winter and very cold nights and they used to sleep on the stoep (veranda) of said supermarket in rags and not enough blankets. I sent out a request by our local newspaper for blankets and got 11 of them, which I handed out to the neediest of them.

I had a very old vintage car engine which I lugged all over the country, but decided to sell it to the local man fixing up old cars – for four blankets from the supermarket to add to my blankets for the needy.

Every evening at about 6 pm, when the traffic at the supermarket had died down, I used to take a big pot of hot soup and served it to them, with 2 slices of bread for each.  They even brought empty food cans for the soup and there was always enough for a second helping. Some days there were as many as 14 of them. But they could never start on their meal before I had said Grace and thanked the Lord for their health and safety and for the food.

One day a lady and her husband, from another Church as mine, came to our home and thanked me for this. I asked how they knew about it?  They said that three black men had come to join their Church and when asked who inspired them to go to Church again, they replied that it was the Mama who served them soup every evening.

Sadly, the last one of these homeless folks died some years ago.

(Ivan says: Unless serving the poor includes some indication of the Christian faith and the love of Christ, it provides only short-term physical relief. However, if it leads to spiritual life as Marie’s largesse did, then it has eternal value.)

Marie’s testimony shows that:

1. God loves the poor and needy and supports our genuine efforts to help them ((Luke 12:33-34, Proverbs 22:9)
2. God honours those who make sacrifices, even selling possessions as Marie did the vintage car engine, to facilitate ministry to the less fortunate.

Topic 26 next week will be Who Is God That He Can Protect Us?