Saturday, 30 April 2022

A WEEK IN THE USA (2)

 Dear Friends,                                        Easter Sunday 2022

So my first full week in Texas, from Sunday to Sunday, is over. The first Sunday dear Mack Tomlinson drove me a few miles to their Providence Chapel. He once spent three weeks living in The Manse Aberystwyth and preaching in Alfred Place. It was the happiest holiday they have ever had, so he and Linda claims often,  and he showed me photos of Aber with Ieuan and Ivory, John and Janet and they asked about Christine. I had hiraeth. He took me to the united Sunday School that started at 9.30. There were about 100 present. I was introduced by Mack and then it was just me preaching for 45 minutes. The church is now meeting in what is called the ‘Ballroom’ at one of the local universities, but nothing like the Blackpool Tower ballroom. It is just an ideal airy room for the 200-strong growing congregation who gather at the 10.30 meeting. I believe that I was greatly helped in all the three messages I preached; I don’t think I have had a better day’s ministry, and as this was the beginning of my two weeks in Texas I was full of gratitude and peace at the end of the Lord’s Day. But there will be other sermons and after they are over I will want to apologize to the congregation for wearying them. The 10.30 service was characterised by things old and new. The old were the 4 hymns, the praying and reading by Mack and the elders. There was also a message to the children given by one of the elders. The kids poured down to the front and sat on the floor, the girls in their dresses and the boys in their colourful shirts and jeans. Almost 50 children listened intently to a 10-minute talk. The new (at least for me) was the ten minutes given over to sharing and testifying when 8 people spontaneously got up, men and women, one by one, and spoke of the help they had had from God in the past weeks. Then there was also a time of open prayer and six people, both men and women again, prayed. So, an hour had gone by before I climbed up the flight of stairs onto the platform and began my second sermon. I preached for 45 minutes and there was no restlessness in the congregation. We finished at 12.20 and soon there was the customary happy buzz of friendships.

At lunch we were joined by the late Dr Will Thomson’s daughter Susan and her husband Lee Tyner and an hour sped by. They are a great couple and we reminisced and especially the familiar story was rehearsed of my discovery of Atari and playing it night and day in the Thompson’s den. Thus I became their favourite visiting preacher . . . and I thought my popularity was all because of my sermons! I began sending out my weekly musings that recorded my last few days in Mississippi. The climax of this Sunday was going to the church’s fortnightly men’s meeting in a home where a number of bachelor young men live. There were 25 men sitting in a circle around the walls of a large room. An elder prayed and then I spoke on the absolute greatness of Christ. During the second hour they asked various questions about relationships and the message I had given. We came back to Mack’s home and he made popcorn and sandwiches and I completed sending off my letters. Around 10 p.m. an old friend arrived. Mack’s heating and air-conditioning system has reached the end of its usefulness and this brother had driven here to install a new system. He was up early this Monday morning beginning the work before he had a break when we had a breakfast of scrambled egg on toast. I had a pile of Emails from Barbara and Fflur and friends in the UK and the USA, all so welcome when one is far away. But I love being here and hearing all the news of Christian life and strife in this mighty nation.

In the afternoon Mack took me to Barnes & Noble’s bookstore where I bought a compiled book of essays and paragraphs written by C.S.Lewis that I had never seen. It had been given the title The Reading Life. It is so easy to read; its first three chapters are entitled  ‘Why We Read, How to know if You Are a True Reader, and Why Children’s Stories are Not Just for Children’ and there are many more such brief chapters. There is a chapter entitled ‘The Case for Reading Old Books.’ The print is large and the small hardback is not heavy to hold. I paid for it with $100 bill because I needed some change.

An elder’s wife has the reputation of being a great cook and she has cooked a chicken for us and Mack promised me that it was going to be the best chicken I has ever eaten. I told him I liked gravy! It indeed was delicious, the best chicken I have tasted for a long time, that is, not dry, but tender and juicy (Don’t I spend too much time in these musings writing about food? Sorry. I am married to a great cook. No slur on Barbara). Jarrod and Joann Courtney came for supper and they stayed until after 9 and we happily talked away.

Then Tuesday we travelled 90 miles to Graham, four of us, Mack, Lee, Jeff and me. sometimes passing groups of Long Horn Texas Cattle, and, my, they are long, five feet from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other. We often past clusters of the Texas national flower, the bluebonnets. In Graham we entered the most extraordinary and beautiful modern house at the side of a lake, a pool and a hot tube outside. The ceiling of a vast kitchen was as high as Alfred Place ceiling with flowing wood everywhere, vast doors and huge windows overlooking the lake. The house is a second home of a Christian oil man. Three women served our meal and then the twenty or so men sat around and I spoke on Christian Encouragement. The men were almost all under 35, young fathers, having been less than 15 years in the ministry, some much shorter, but part of the new wave of men who have discovered the doctrines of grace. We were four on our table, and I was able to ask them what parts of the Bible, what books, were they preaching on at the present time. They made helpful comments after I had spoken and they gave us some books.

The most joyful discovery of the day was my brand new autobiography, In The Shadow of the Rock. They were selling it for half price $15. It is full of photographs and almost 300 pages in length. It looks beautiful and I searched through it from first to last page and was impressed. I don’t suppose it will be in the UK until May. They have almost sold out all the sets of the four children’s books, while the new evangelistic paperback, Everyone’s Welcome, is selling well and the 900 people coming to the Conference which starts tomorrow night will probably buy the lot. This was a most interesting day. We arrived home at the end of the afternoon and Mack cooked steak on the outside grill for supper which we ate with baked potatoes, salad and sweet, smaller, darker, brown, baked beans more delicious than our HP baked beans. There I go harping on about food again . . .

Wednesday was an unforgettable day, and as you hang in with me you will discover why. We began by a visit to a Cowboy-themed restaurant in the old centre-city square of Denton, Cartwright’s Restaurant Café, where I had hash browns, a strip of bacon, egg and tomatoes swallowed down with a large glass of ice cold orange juice. Then we called in at a charity shop for five minutes where I got a garment, and then drove on through blocked highways (a crash?) to the Dallas branch of the Reformed Theological Seminary to hear Sinclair Ferguson who is teaching there all this week. We finally arrived at 1.10, but the afternoon class had not yet started. The dozen or so students were drifting in. settling in and chatting with Sinclair entering and joining them. Then he spotted me. “Geoffrey Thomas!” he cried and came over and hugged me and then, rapidly changing his mind, he announced that for the next two hours I was going to teach this class! What an honour! He said lavish things about me, and then asked me a question or two and I was away, speaking for the rest of the afternoon. It was a delight, not difficult being steered by him about my ministry, and then about preaching and the situation today, and then he handed it over to the class and they asked me good complicated as well as straightforward questions. I got a round of applause at the end. It was an exhilarating experience, though I would have enjoyed listening to Sinclair. We drove back in 30 minutes to Denton.

The early arrivals at the Fellowship Conference were turning up and we met three of them for sandwiches and soup at five before making our way out of Dallas and into Denton. I was preaching at the opening conference prayer meeting at 7 and about eighty gathered for that. I spoke on Philippians; “In everything by prayer and supplication make your requests known to God. And then the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind,” and there was a gratifying reference to the talk in many of the prayers that followed for an hour at the end of my speaking. But this was the first time I had spoken in the USA on this visit when I felt that the preaching was ordinary – my frequent experience. I want to hit a home run every time I come up to bat but the Lord knows how to temper my understanding of the impact of my messages. He steers the people away from talking to me in praise of what they have heard. He removes the inner testimony of assurance that something had been blessed by Him, but God did bless the meeting. Then we wandered around the lovely conference centre and went to the main 1000 seater auditorium and there were all my books, especially my new evangelistic book Everyone’s Welcome. I saw it for the first time. Attractive. 100 pages and I read the first chapter and it was enjoyable. That was the icing on the cake at the beginning of the conference. What a book table, 40 yards long! Magnificent books. I used to have many of them but I gave them away to Newcastle’s Westminster Seminary. But if I could read the books that I now have then that would be more than enough. I know what books I will be reading next, the two new one that I have written. Once when John Murray was staying at our house I told him how much I had enjoyed in the Calvin Theological Journal his essay on Definitive Sanctification, “Has it been published?” he asked in astonishment. I went upstairs and got it for him. That was it for the next hour as he read his essay carefully from beginning to end. I did not disturb him.

At 8 a.m. my phone rang for the first time. Wow! I didn’t know it was working. It was the optician in London booking me for an appointment. Then I spotted that there was an unanswered call from Barbara and I pushed a button and I actually spoke to her in Germany, 7 hours ahead of me. She told me of her journey yesterday and of a good reception from Hermann and Ann her sister, and that her niece was arriving to show her how to download her Emails. That was great,

In the day I went to a Louisiana restaurant with Mack and Timothy Conway and most of his family. I had Louisiana gumbo, that is a fish soup with rice. Three of his children were there, the trio who are converted. The one who has thrown aside the faith was not with us. One is getting married a week Saturday 7 bridesmaids and 6 ushers. Another has been married three months and I sat with him and we discussed the call into the ministry. Then we went across to the Conference centre and picked up Kenneth Kiambati and his new wife Elizabeth. He is finishing in a month at Joel Beeke’s seminary and he hopes to return to his native Kenya and teach in the Nairobi seminary set up by Keith Underhill. I spent an hour with them. They are staying with Mack in Mack’s house and attending all the meetings of the conference. He has been to this conference twice. He is a gem and so is she. I have never met her before. While he first heard me preach years ago in Kenya. I think she will easily survive being the only white woman in the congregation

All six of us speakers at the Conference met for a meal at 5 along with the wives of some and then we prayed together. I moved into my room and then we went to hear the first speaker who spoke on the nature of saving faith and urged the congregation to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Afterwards I signed the first three copies of my autobiography for three working men in their twenties, one of whom had been attending the ministry of Derek Thomas for 14 years. The other two I have known for a few years. It was a lovely evening but I struggled to send my Emails out with the weakest connection. I later found the situation of the strongest connection in this hotel, and then I can send out my Emails from that spot. The conference organisers kindly gave me a box of flavoured teas and I could heat some water in the microwave oven and enjoyed cherry flavoured tea alone with one golden wrapped chocolate ball.

On Good Friday I heard one of the most animated preachers I have ever heard. He was even a little over the top on a couple of occasions. It is not something I often meet.  He preached on the Lord’s relationship with his people from the Song of Solomon and challenged us all. Then after lunch which is at 12 I returned to the auditorium whose walls are lined with tables full of books. It was 1 p.m. I was the third of four men to speak to 200 or people about books. My vocation was to show and tell my own books. I found about 9, not spotting the biography of Ernest Reisinger or my book on the Revival in Samaria until late that night. I think all the children’s books were sold immediately and quite a few copies of my autobiography. Most of the two evangelistic books, You Could Have It All and Everyone’s Welcome were also sold (and there were many of them). They had ordered many copies of my autobiography but they did not sell so well except to old friends. There were plenty left over. I spent the rest of the afternoon going over my notes for tonight’s big meeting. Every seat was taken, around 1000 people. They largest number ever. They listened well, though I ‘went on a bit.’ Afterwards I had about six different people coming on to me. We sat at the front and there was an hour of counselling. What a privilege! There was one bit of advice I wanted to give to a man who asked for a ‘last word of counsel;’ I was silent for a whole minute as I struggled to think of the words I wanted to tell him, but they would not come to me. Yet, the moment he had gone and a few other people came to talk then I remembered what I was struggling to tell him. I looked out for him afterwards but could not find him. So now I am back in my suite, three rooms to myself (or even four if you separate the toilet and shower from the sinks and mirror). I am really being spoiled. But the food is pretty basic. But there are plenty of ripe bananas and apples, but no machines selling chocolate! But I found them later. I talked with an old friend, a dentist. His wife bought every book of mine that I had shown, and his daughter bought her own copy of In The Shadow of the Rock. She is a terrific photographer and will take our photo on the football pitch tomorrow. She is also the photographer at the wedding of Tim Conway’s daughter next Saturday in San Antonio. I can read the Times each day, and I have Borodin’s 2nd String Quartet playing over and over again on my Ipad. I told everyone I talked to that Barbara had been tuning in to our Conference and heard me preaching last night in Germany!

This morning’s preacher is a missionary in Lebanon and he was special. The father of 8 or 9 children meeting attempts to kidnap one of his little girls to send her to Syria, and also to kill him. He was running out of petrol one day last year and he wouldn’t stop in one garage because the owner was an Islamic extremist. but he went up the hill from the garage but the car stopped. So he reversed down the hill and stopped next to a petrol pump on the forecourt. This man came out, recognised him, and knocked on the window. He let down the window and the man spoke to him, telling him “You know who I am?” that he had been paid to shoot him last year. However, some years ago members of his family were ill and this missionary had raised some money and had bought a number of drugs and given them to the family and they restored the woman to good health again. “How could I kill someone who had been so kind to my family?” he asked. Men see our good works and God is glorified through such a response. By the way I have been asked to go to Jordan next year to speak to some Arabic Christian pastors at a couple of small conferences. Some of the men from here are talking of coming to John MacArthur’s church the first week of October where I am preaching at the Puritan Conference.

This Saturday afternoon from 1 until 2.30 six of us speakers sat on the stage and we each had a microphone and about 20 questions were addressed to us one at a time each to one person. I think I had four and there was one when I floundered. I was distracted by an old woman in a wheel chair in the front row who had a telephone call She took ages to find her phone. It rang on and on, and, then, finding it, instead of switching it off she engaged in conversation with the caller, while I was trying to answer a difficult message on the meaning of a verse of Scripture. It was sad. That was my weakest answer, but two answers were spot on and they laughed loud and long at something I said, and that was very reassuring. It was a good afternoon for me.

Then a group of young men gathered around me on the platform and asked me questions and we talked for an hour. They are all from San Antonio and I will be preaching for them twice next week. What an educated blessed crowd they are. It is a remarkable church and I hope I have real liberty when I am there as the final days of this happy time in Texas draw to a close.

My friend Lee preached at 7, my spot last night, at this Saturday night meeting to 800-900 people. We sing some old-fashioned Southern Baptist hymns, but I chose “The power of the cross” for the last hymn last night and loved singing it. But they love to sing the great English hymns of Watts and Wesley, etc. Lee preached on Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and it was a fine, helpful, moving message. When it was over I signed a dozen copies of my autobiography. I am being given 12, and so they will be for most of the grandchildren, the three daughters and Rhiain and Keith. They will arrive some time in a month or so.

Blessings on you,     Geoff

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