A life of Ministry...

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.

In Others' Words...

When God has people who prevail in prayer, and people who know how to recognize the voice of the Spirit and obey without question, there is no limit to what God can do.

(In keeping with my reflections from my time with Dr. Duewel, I thought it appropriate to quote from
Let God Guide You Daily by Wesley Duewel, Zondervan, 1988, pp. 117-119.)

More thoughts from Wesley Duewel

Persevering prayer... another good reminder from my time with Dr. Duewel. We give up too soon, lacking the patience to see God through in any given situation.

Tears came to my eyes when Dr. Duewel spoke of his mother who he described as a "prayer warrior." If anything, one of my callings as a mother is to pray. While sharing the story of his mother he began rummaging through a file folder that had papers upon papers (in no particular order) of hundreds of poems he has written over the years. When he found what he was looking for he began to read a poem he had written on the day of his mother's funeral. He was in India at the time, unable to return to the states for her funeral.

THE PRAYERS OF SAINTS LIVE ON

The prayers of saints live on and on;
They still live when the saints are gone.
They live and work throughout the earth
And o'er and o'er they prove their worth.
The years and centuries pass by
But prayers of saints shall never die.

Each prayer prayed in God's holy will
Our God is oath-bound to fulfill.
The Holy Spirit guides such prayer
And in its praying has His share.
When He makes our requests His own
We know God's answer will be shown.

Whene'er man in the Spirit pleads
Then Jesus Christ, too, intercedes.
The prayers Christ prays can never fail;
His intercession will prevail.
His holy prayer will never end
Till God's full answer He can send.

The prayers of saints live on and on
Until God's perfect answers dawn.
The Son and Spirit join their prayer
And in the intercession share.
The saints may join their Lord on high,
But prayers of saints can never die.

(Written on the occasion of my mother's homegoing;
Allahabad, India - March 2, 1962)

Persevere - persistence, tirelessness, staying power, purposefulness, patience, endurance - "Till God's full answer He can send." (italics mine) This line caught my attention. Often I don't know what God's full answer is and so I get impatient because God is not answering according to my ways or in my time (which is when it's easy to give up), thus missing out on God's full and perfect answer. His thoughts are not always our thoughts and his ways not always our ways. I must be patient to let God work out things in his time and in his ways.