Typically it was Peter who asked the question. "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" And Jesus said unto them, "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first." (Matthew 19:27-30)
Many people expressed their thoughts as we left for Africa with two very young daughters, asking, "How can you take those two little girls to Africa?" Those two were later joined by two more daughters who were born in Africa. Some of them still live there and two of those married there and raised another generation of children who are completely at home there. Several of those are now citizens while one has taken Italian citizenship. There are already great grandchildren born of them. Our going to Africa has touched many nations already. With their partners, they are truly, "International" in nature. There are English speaking european South Africans, Afrikaans speaking european South Africans of Dutch ancestry, Scottish, Danish, and Americans among them.
I was born on a ten acre fragment of my great grand father's farm in southern Illinois. Grandfather split his inheritance among his children and my father lost his during the depression when I was ten years old. God had started to prepare me for Africa. I could never have been a farmer. Looking back I see so many ways He was molding me for His use. I was extremely shy as a teenager; but two years in the Navy changed some of that and also paid for my college degrees. Two years in Namibia would have sent a less determined couple running for home.
But it was in Kimberley that we found what would become our particular life emphases. God had us where he wanted us and doing what he wanted us to do. From then on, that was our goal. Our family had grown up along with that of our, neighbors, who also had children of a similar age. Our home became the neighborhood play center. There were four little boys next door, a girl across the street, another two doors down the street, and a little farther away even more. That is not counting the families of fellow mission workers. The Stanley's had four boys and a girl. the Rees' had two boys and two girls, and for a while the Randall family lived there and they had several. Al and Anettte Hamilton arrived with their children. God had replaced my one living brother, and one who died in infancy, with co-workers who were closer than I had ever really been with him. He lived in North Carolina and I in Illinois.
After a number of years we moved to suburbs of Johannesburg, first to Randburg then to Alberton, where we stayed until our retirement at the tender age of seventy two. One daughter and her Scottish husband had made their home in a suburb of Dallas, Texas so we joined them there. Our printing and publishing, having evolved from Bible Correspondence lessons to Christian Publishing and printing in the meantime. We then handed that all over to a new arrival and we, are now in our retirement, offer an expansion of that ministry on the web. Our Blog Sites continue to expand and grow. There are presently at the last count, about fifty languages available. We praise the Lord for this new medium He has opened up for his message of redemption to use. And, we continue to add new studies weekly.
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