Because of their strong belief in how God speaks to us and God’s guidance through prophetic words, mom and dad knew for a number of years that one day they would be doing ministry beyond the “Iron Curtain” of the Soviet Union. My dad, spending a significant part of his life smuggling drugs, traveling the world, thought “Why not join Brother Andrew and help them smuggle bibles into nations closed to the gospel?” He went on one such a trip in March, 1980.
There weren’t any bibles to be smuggled, but he was given an assignment of delivering an important message to a key underground church leader.
The vehicle he was given for the assignment had a secret compartment beyond the glove box, that could only be opened by a combinations of special actions.
Such as pressing one of the heater control buttons and pushing one of the vent ducts a certain way at the same time.
This would cause an electric powered sliding wall to open in the back of the glove box.
He was told that if he had any suspicion being followed that he should abandon the mission to be careful not to blow the leader’s cover.
He had to drive from one town to another to deliver the message, and at some point on the road trip he started noticing a car seemed to be following him.
As he approached the town where his destination was, he stopped at a small grocery store, to try to verify whether they were actually following him or not.
He strolled into the store, and sure enough the guy in the car following him pulled into the same store and walked into the store. He could tell the guy wasn’t planning on buying anything, but just strolling around looking at things.
Dad waited till he got deeper into the store, and when he was out of sight, dad ran for it out of the store, jumped in the car and started pulling out.
As he drove away from the store, he saw the likely KGB agent run out of the store and jump in his car.
That was when dad knew that the chase was on.
Dad got back onto the highway and figured he better abandon the trip, and just get back to the base as fast as he could, and hopefully lose the agent somehow.
There was only one very inconvenient problem, that would never happen in a real Hollywood chase.
He urgently needed a rest room.
(Rest areas are one of the greatest joys you experience in our great country when you come home from former Soviet countries.)
It was so bad, that he knew there was just no way he would make it.
As he made his way around a bend in the highway, surrounded by thick forest, he hoped they wouldn’t spot him pulling off, so he pulled off on the left side, and got the car faced in the opposite direction.
As he stood by his car relieving himself, all of a sudden the KGB car zoomed past, at a crazy high speed, and he could see their heads turn as he jumped back into his car, and zoomed off in the opposite direction, lost them, and successfully delivered the message.
It was during this trip, he attended an underground church meeting where believers from many different denominations and streams were gathered together as one, because of the persecution.
During the meeting he encountered an elderly woman who had a prophetic word she wanted to share with him.
The translator, however, was part of a denomination that did not believe in prophecy, and frankly thought that this woman was crazy, and didn’t think dad should listen to her.
Eventually, however, dad convinced him to translate what she was trying to say to him.
She shared some things with him that other than God and my dad no soul on this planet knew about.
And then she went on and said that the word from the Lord was that he was indeed called to this part of the world, but not yet. That he was to return home, and wait for further instruction.
As many of you know, my dad went to be with Jesus on January 3, 2020.
Following are a few thoughts and stories I shared during the service before the funeral.
Real heroes never consider themselves heroes
When we look at how God used my father, it’s easy to consider him a hero.
We could look at the courage, and faith it took to sell everything and move from Park City, UT to the former Soviet Union, knowing that we basically only had enough money to get over there, and beyond that, would trust in God to somehow provide.
Or to later leave a successful, prolific ministry in Ukraine to go and start from scratch in Afghanistan.
(Even though the former Soviet Union and then Afghanistan were never on his bucket list)
Obedience was a not a small thing for dad.
If the Lord spoke, He obeyed.
The paralysis of the analysis.
Once I heard a phrase in the world of investing and it sounds like this.
“The paralysis of the analysis.”
Many smart people really get into the weeds about the best ways to invest money.
However, in the end they are struck with this syndrome of paralysis of the analysis.
They never invest.
They debate about it.
Argue a lot online about that’s best.
But they themselves never actually do it.
This same syndrome is common among people who value hearing God’s voice.
We talk a lot about it.
We teach about it.
We learn about it.
We read about it, and go to conferences.
But when God speaks, we don’t move.
If we take a close look at how dad invested his time, and efforts in life, it was nothing sophisticated, and complex.
It was simple.
When God spoke, he acted.
Some of the most important prophetic guidance he ever received, and followed, came from prophets nobody knows about, like that woman in Prague, who I’ll probably never meet, and we don’t even know her name.
To this day that surprises me, and challenges me how he would put weight on prophetic words from people who are practically his spiritual grandchildren.
The truth is, dad never considered himself qualified for the job.
He never considered himself super gifted.
But that was his strength in many ways.
Everyone who got around him felt empowered, and that he genuinely believed in the Holy Spirit working inside them, and he created an atmosphere where all of us could believe that even in our weakness, we can do something great for God.
One thing we can learn from dad is this:
Don’t ever let what you perceive to be your gifting limit what God’s anointing can do thru you.
After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).” 1 Corinthians 4:15 AMPC
He was a father to many.
And to many, he was the only father they ever had.
As a dad, he was not perfect.
But growing up, I heard enough about his childhood to know without a doubt that I got to experience a father-son relationship, and blessings, that he never had the privilege of enjoying as a child.
I like to call my dad, and those like him, Frontiersmen dads.
They are the pioneers.
The people who break out of the devil’s grip, and change their family tree forever.
For a while, it seemed like every year for my birthday we would go camping up in the Uinta mountains.
Just me and dad.
At the time I enjoyed it, but as a kid, you basically take everything for granted, so looking back, it’s just all the more special, to know that he did that with me.
We would have kids night once a week, when he would spend time with all us kids.
If he was doing something with the kids, he would often have to tell people calling him “I’m sorry.
I’m in a very important meeting right now, so I’ll have to talk to you later.”
Dad was authentic, and real.
That is perhaps one of the things I’m very grateful for when I hear about the typical things in ministry that traumatize pastors kids, and missionary kids.
It’s that mom and dad were never superficial.
That’s something I believe we inherited from the beloved John Wimber.
That it was never about hype.
It had to be real. They were real, and they easily invited people into our lives, into our family, into our house.
I remember as a child, hearing my parents talking about Jesus, and thinking “Man, all they like to talk about is God.”
And that fascinated me.
One time, living in Park City, I came to the church with my dad.
It was the middle of the week, so I can’t remember why we were there, but as we walked into the sanctuary, we encountered a strong aroma that filled the whole place.
It was difficult to describe the smell, but it was similar to the the smell of a very refined vintage wine mixed with some kind of spice.
I remember him talking about how multiple times he had encountered that sort of thing, when he showed up at the church, and he would like to pray in the sanctuary, and he felt the Lord’s presence there, before he even started praying.
Those things leave a mark. One of the other small stories that to some degree illustrate my mom and dad’s impact on me was the following.
I was probably 14 years old, we were visiting back in the States, and I was hanging out with a new friend, and as we started talking about college, and what we wanted to do in our lives, when he asked me what I wanted to do, I blurted out:
“Well of course I want to be a missionary. I don’t see any other meaning in this life, if you’re not out there saving souls as a missionary.”
Looking back, it’s kind of comical, how categorical I felt about it at the time.
He was very fascinated with my answer.
“Wow. That’s very interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone say that to me.”
In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says
God has put eternity into man’s heart…”
One thing I remember growing up, is that Mom and dad talked about eternity a lot.
They also talked about souls a lot.
The first time I ever preached, it was in a home group, and it was all about saving souls.
I took the whole week to prepare, because I was so terrified of preaching.
And I couldn’t finish the message without crying.
(I wonder where I got that from…)
When we lose sight of eternity, we get stupid.
When God speaks, act.
And may we all be better stewards of the words God has given us.
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