While lunching at a restaurant in the Philippines with our son Paul, the mayor of Olongapo City (Subic Bay), and the mayor’s bodyguards, I noticed that my son Paul had chosen to sit with his back to a wall so he could keep his eye on who came through the door. Many civic leaders were being assassinated in the Philippines in the1980s.
Out in a far-flung barangay (village) in Luzon one dark night, a man suddenly appeared from behind me out of some bushes, and I had a strong feeling that I should get the team out of there quickly. My son later mentioned that months before he’d had the same feeling in the same place. It can be a bit disconcerting to see a man step out in front of you on a dark night in a strange place, and more so when you see an automatic pistol shoved down the back of his shorts. Goons with guns were common at the time.
In a different barangay on another night, I asked a man: “Are there NPA (New People’s Army) here tonight?” “Sure, pastor, they here,” he told me. I asked him: “What would they do if I spoke out against communism,” “Oh, they kill you,” he replied, matter-of-factly. Well, OK, I wasn’t sent there by the Lord to do that anyway.
On yet another dark night — where, I can’t remember — I was preaching in the light of a small lamp, when an explosion took place nearby. Then another, a bit closer. Then yet another, very close. Sounded to me like a shotgun. There was nowhere to hide or escape to (although a team member later told me that he was about to throw himself out of a window). The Lord enabled me to stay calm. I thought, well, if this is it, I’m ready… But in the event, the explosions were caused by huge firecrackers — louder than any I’d heard, before or since.
So many stories from those days in the late 80s and early 90s, during my twenty ministry visits to the Philippines. On one day, Lorraine and I escaped injury or death three times. Then the Lord sent us to the UK, and I thought, “This will be different.” Well, it was, but also dramatic at times because of the miracles of healing the Lord did.
Our first of many meetings on the Channel Island of Jersey, off the coast of France, was unforgettable! The Spirit of God dropped into the meeting so powerfully, it was as though heaven had decided to pay us a visit!
I don’t live on memories — there are plenty more experiences to come. But every now and then Lorraine and I reminiscence about the ways the Lord kept us safe from — and at times through — “many dangers, toils and snares” (as the old hymn Amazing Grace puts it). Without doubt, God’s amazing grace has kept us safe thus far, and as the hymn so promisingly puts it, “Grace will see us home”.
Nor do I spend time speculating on, What ifs? I know that God will do in coming days what He did for us in past days. Times change but God doesn’t. “I am the LORD, I change not.” Nor does Jesus, who is “the same yesterday, and today and forever.” The safest place is the will of God, which is “good, and acceptable, and perfect”. Not three levels but three descriptions of God’s single, perfect will.
If you are not yet in it, then turn to Jesus and ask him to become the Lord of your life. In the final analysis, to be “saved” means “to be made safe” — and we all want that. Meanwhile, keep calm and carry on.