Thanks for allowing me to share about my time with Dr. Wesley Duewel. After this post, I will have one more entry to share with you.Dr. Duewel has definitely had a missional life. That hasn't stopped even at the age of 92.
Following the Duewel's 25 years of missionary service in India, Dr. Duewel served as President of OMS International from 1969 - 1982. Since then he has spent time writing numerous books and speaking in 44 countries. Recognized as an authority on missions, he has served on various mission boards. Currently OMS graciously provides him with an office where he serves as President Emeritus and special assistant to the president for evangelism and intercession.
He is currently working on his autobiography. As a writer, I was interested in knowing how he was going about that. He showed me seven three-ring notebooks filled with stories and facts, each one pertaining to a period of his life... so much material that he has to find ways to condense it for his book.
When I visited him in November, he had plans to fly to Wisconsin in just a few weeks to speak at a church who had studied one of his books as a part of their small group ministry. Knowing that his wife passed away just over a year ago, I asked him if he had a traveling companion as I pictured him getting around in airports with cane in hand going about in his shuffling manner. No, there wasn't a travel assistant. He seemed very confident in himself to ask for wheel chair assistance and go it on his own. He did inform me that he is unable to preach standing for the duration of a sermon, so he asks for a stool to be available when his legs no longer hold him up. He is a most humble man, with a gentle spirit.
With all that life has brought him, I asked him, What were some of the keys or perspectives you learned during transitional points in your life?
"God guided us through them all." A simple statement, but one of faith and reliance on a God in whom he places his trust. A trust that has lasted a lifetime of 92 fruitful years.
As one who just recently went through a transitional time in life (not the first one, nor the last), I want to keep my eyes on God, placing my full trust in He who is the author and finisher of my faith. Someday when I am in the concluding years of life, thinking through life transitions, I want to be able to say, God guided us through them all.
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