Spider Man

Mr. Jaws, the Purloined Cockroach, and Missionary Bill

(written during our second term in Chad, around 2003)

Bill & Sonya Shaw

 

Upon entering my 12th year of living here on the continent of Africa, I learned there is never an end to new and unusual experiences. My most recent adventure took place in the toilet (you read it right- in the toilet. "On" the toilet would not be physically or politically correct in this situation. "Over" the toilet, maybe, but never "on.")
You see, lo these many years ago the Swedish missionaries built this bush mission station, which is well, kind of like a bush mission station. Look it up in the Dictionary of Missionary Terms, Random House Publishers,third edition. There under "Bush Mission Station" you will find the citation "see Swedish AG mission station in Andoum, Chad." Not a bad place, but it still carries with it some of that old bush mission station charm.

One of those old time favorites they have retained are non-flush toilets. Oh, you could pretend to flush by grabbing an imaginary handle and making the appropriate flushing noises at the end of Act 1, but the fact is the toilets at Andoum are nothing more than a slab of concrete with a slit in the middle maybe 3 inches wide and 8 inches long over which you gymnastically posture your posterior in order to reenact the bombing of Guernica.

 

The first thing to learn about living in Africa is to live in such a way that the necessities of life are not a hassle. To me visiting "the place where the king sits alone" (as the French so coyly call it) is an unavoidable necessity- you gotta do what ya gotta do. So it is a no brainer to make the place of convenience as convenient as possible. But you know them Swedes- always trying to find a more efficient way to get more done in a day. I guess they figure stretching exercises and improving your muscle tone and balance are activities to be combined with the more basic of human procedures. What else can you do there besides read the paper? Our Scandinavian cousins did consider the potentially embarrassing ramifications of imitating an Olympic gymnast doing floor exercises while laying your burden down so they made a nice private stall of bricks and mortar so however you looked it remained between you, yourself, and whatever crawled out that slit in the floor.

So, there I was, in the cool of the evening, starring down past the slit into a pit (which is where you get the term "pit" toilet) using my flashlight to count all the cockroaches on the pit walls. While wondering when one of them will get the smart idea to come up out of the pit about the same time I am gymnastically crouched and terribly vulnerable to external intervention, I saw this flash of brown something scurry past my foot. Then, almost immediately after, I saw a second scurrying flash go past my foot. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of doing my business and was unable to stop to investigate- the classic "point of no return" kind of stance.

Well, I figured it was two harmless cockroaches having a late night triste.  I thought I was bad about losing my romantic touch!  Imagine being a high school aged cockroach, and asking your favorite cockroach cheerleader to a rendezvous at her favorite romantic spot- the human toilet... I don't think so.

 

Back to my drama- as I finished my business in the semi-darkness, I heard this crunching and slurping noise.  Cue the scary screeching horror movie music, as upon investigation I found him- Mr. Jaws. On the wall, no more than 18 inches from my face, was this huge brown hairy spider, with the requisite long legs and icky gross body.  (BTW, my girls made me add the "icky gross" part.)  Most shocking of all was his head/jaws/fangs array- easily double the width of his body and it was like he took steroids and worked out at the "Mandible Gym for Herkin' Big Spiders" three times a week.  HUGE!

 

Under his jaws was captured my little brown scurry number one, your typical card-carrying African cockroach. I soon deduced it was these two who were running across the floor, just inches from my foot, the chased and the chaser, only a few moments into my visit.  Thank you, Lord, the cockroached zigged up the wall and not zagged up my leg...

 

With now rapt attention I watched Mr. Jaws make a late night milk shake of the cockroach- I mean he was literally sucking the life juices out of this poor cockroach, and I was watching him do it!  Honestly, I did not know who to feel the most sorry for-

innocent Mr. Cool "meet me at midnight" Cockroach who was at one moment waiting for his cockroach sweetheart to show up but who was by now only half the man he used to be,

or

Mr. "Tough Guy Buff to the Bone" Jaws the spider who had to reduce himself to sucking cockroach body fluids to make a living (and you thought the unemployment level was bad in America!)

or

the dumbstruck missionary who was trying to figure out what to do.  Let the spider live to kill again, thus less cockroaches, or kill the spider and let the cockroaches live, but it may be the missionary who is at the mercy of Mr. Jaws one day... what to do in these moral dilemmas.

I won't tell you what I did- but you really need to be careful next time you need relief in Andoum, Chad- you never know who will come calling.  And let this be a lesson for you.  Listen to your mother when she tells you to always wear clean underwear because you never know when you are going to be in an accident...

REVIVALIST in CHINA

Jonathan Goforth written by David Smithers

"You must go forward on your knees" was the advise Hudson Taylor gave to a young Canadian missionary named Jonathan Goforth. 

Mr. Goforth faithfully and fervently followed this advice throughout all has missionary endeavors in China. Yet, after thirteen years of faithful praying and preaching, and what most would consider a very successful ministry, Goforth became restless and dissatisfied. 

It was at this time that an unknown party from England began sending pamphlets on the Welsh revival of 1904.  Goforth was deeply stirred as he read t ese accounts. "A new thought, a new conception seemed to come to him of God the Holy Spirit..." He then gave himself to much more prayer and Bible study. Goforth now found himself being driven by a fresh vision, a vision for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  

Soon he began to meet daily with other missionaries to pray for revival. These men vowed to God and to one another that they would pray until revival came to China. 

In 1908 Jonathan Goforth's prayers and dreams began to be realized. Goforth began going to different missionary stations and simply led his fellow missionaries in prayer. Then suddenly earnest prayer gave way to the open confession of sin.  

It was when the Christians came clean, confessed and forsook their secret sin that the Holy Spirit rushed in like a mighty wind.  Truly it was this open and honest confession of sin that was the most striking feature of the revival.  

 
Everywhere Mr. Goforth went revival would spread, and almost always in the same way. First prayer was encourage among the Christians, which then spontaneously led to heart- breaking confessions of sin. And then like a flood, the lost were brought into the kingdom by the thousands.  

"Men were searched as with fire".  One after another broken-hearted believers emptied themselves through the uncovering of all secret sin. Mr. Goforth clearly identified unconfessed sin among Christians as a major hindrance to God-sent revival.  Walter Phillips describes for us one of Mr. Goforth's revival meetings: "At once, on entering the church one was conscious of something unusual. The place was crowded to the door and tense, reverent attention sat on every face. 

The people knelt for prayer, silent at first but soon one here and another there, began to pray aloud.  The voices grew and gathered volume and blended into a great wave of united supplication that swelled until it was almost a roar. 

Now I understood why the floor was so wet, the very air was electric and strange thrills coursed up and down one’s body." When Mr. Goforth preached, "The cross burned like a living fire in the heart of every address." It was the person of Jesus Christ who was exalted throughout the entire revival as a King and Savior who must be reckoned with. In the midst of this great revival Jonathan Goforth clearly saw that all of his previous sweating and striving had reaped only frustration. 

He came to the firm conviction that revival is only born through humility, faith, prayer and the power of the Holy Ghost. Goforth writes, "If revival is being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that 'It is not by might, but by My Spirit.'"

Pray!

Have you ever received a call for prayer or just felt the urge to pray for someone but said, 'I'll pray for them later'?  Once you read the following story that was sent to me, I am sure it will encourage you to pray right away.  I'm not sure if it is really true or not, but it is a great reminder at any rate....

As Amy Carmichael says "if you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at once, wherever you are.  Perhaps he may be in great peril at that moment."

Here's the story..  “While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days, and required camping overnight at the halfway point.

On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine, and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.

Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord.

I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later I repeated my journey upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, 'Some friends and I followed you in to the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs.  But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.

At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No, sir, I was not the only person to see the guards, my friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet & interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date and the man who interrupted told him this story:

'On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here, and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong; I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?'

The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary was less concerned with whom they were as how many men he saw. *There were 26. *

This is an incredible example of how the Spirit of the Lord moves in behalf of those who love Him. If you ever feel such prodding to pray, go along with it, you don't know what it can mean to that person.  Nothing is ever hurt by prayer except the gates of hell.