Now, in many ways I'd love to just
give you, you know, a red-hot, hopefully,
message from the word or exhortation, but I
really believe it is important, as we go
together as a fellowship, that people have an
opportunity to ask questions.
I know that if in the early days
of the Lagos, we hadn't had those question
-and-answer sessions, you know, I just don't
know what would have happened, because people were
really bottling things up.
And they weren't developing, some of them weren't
developing an ability to express themselves.
And sometimes I feel in OM, there's a
lot of misunderstanding, simply because people won't bring
things out into the open.
We have an enormous communications problem here in
these two Bromley teams.
We can never get anybody together.
And if we move into a state of
emergency on these two teams, and some people
think that that might be happening, we're going
to make some very big changes, and there
will be far, far stiffer requirements for people
to be attending meetings.
Because otherwise, you know, how can we get
the communications?
But one of the ways we're overcoming that
is, hopefully, through cassette tapes.
Another way, of course, is we have personal
fellowship with one another, and hopefully some of
that is positive.
I'm sure it is.
But I don't think most of us realize
just how difficult it is sometimes to go
forward in a spiritual work when there's not
enough communication.
So I'm opening the door for you to
ask anything you want.
I leave again next Wednesday.
Tour of Germany and Denmark.
I am not the only person that can
answer questions.
Of course, you can ask questions of other
leaders.
But sometimes on the international side, especially having
just come out of three days of intensive
discussions with the leaders representing the whole world,
I can answer some questions.
Europe, the whole work in Europe, is at
one of its biggest crossroads that I've known
it to be in many, many, many years.
And we can't always announce everything that's happening
because we don't even know.
But believe me, big things are happening around
Operation Mobilization.
And in some ways, we need to increase
our prayers for one another.
But there are things, lots of things, that
can be known if people just ask.
If they don't ask, of course, they won't
find out.
Now, who's got the courage for the first
question?
Andrew.
This is something about thinking of long-term
people and something about changing their lifestyle.
Now, maybe I'll pick that up because I've
been thinking about it myself.
But feel free to say it.
Long-term people, lifestyle, I'm not exactly sure.
I think I may know what you're driving
at.
Does anyone can clarify what I may have
said on Tuesday about that?
The hatred for the needs of the world.
Yeah.
There's been a lot of discussion on this
subject, actually, for about a decade.
And we've been trying.
It is already policy.
This is good for you to know.
It is already policy, NOM, that provision be
made for longer-term single people just as
provision is made for married couples and children.
And believe me, if you knew the way
single people were living, I'm speaking generally after
the first year or two.
Ten years ago, in comparison to today, you
would understand the progress that's been made.
If you only know today, you may not
feel we're making a lot of progress.
But quite a few single people in NOM
have had their own small flats or accommodation
where they could, you know, live their own
lifestyle.
Naturally, when people first come into OM, there
is pressure to conform.
We know that.
If you go in the army, there's going
to be pressure to conform.
I don't think there'll ever be an answer
between us wanting people to be creative, wanting
people to have freedom, wanting people to think
their own thoughts, to develop their own lifestyle,
and trying to weld a group of people
as a fighting force for God.
If you can find a simple answer to
that, maybe you can write to me.
We're trying to do both.
We have different situations in OM.
We have the truck team moving out in
India.
If all the Indian brothers suddenly get a
burden about creativity, having their own flat, whatever,
to develop their singleness, we're going to have
an interesting kind of truck team.
Fifteen brothers, you know, loaded in the back
of one of these old lorries, down the
road to reach another hundred thousand people with
the word of God.
I mean, they are more clearly sort of
the, what OM is sometimes thought of, right?
But if we're going to have those kind
of teams in India, and that work has
been in jeopardy at times, I can assure
you, then we've got to have other people
who are in sort of a permanent situation.
You know, the Steve Harts, who came in
as an older single man, way back in
the early 60s, and set up his little
bed in his office.
He's only moved out of his office in
the past few years.
We asked him to move out 15 years
ago or something like that.
No, no, I remember visiting the headquarters in
Switzerland in 64, I think it was, maybe
before that, I think it was actually 63,
absolutely packed into this house.
I was looking for the boys' dorm, and
it was up in the attic.
And there Steve Hart was, just in the
corner, tucked around a beam, you know.
I think he had his office and his
bed in the same place.
His office must have been downstairs.
See, Steve now has his own flat or
his own little place where he's living.
So, you know, this has definitely changed, and
I think it's linked with our acknowledgement of
all the potential God has given people to
be creative, and that we are free, we
are an army, but for every illustration in
the New Testament about being an army, there
are ten other comparisons.
These are comparisons that are not taken literally,
otherwise I was going to give you all
machine guns and hand grenades.
Some of you, I know, have an inkling
in that direction, I hope not many, but
we feel and have felt for a long
time that single people need greater respect.
I need to give that message on esteeming
singles.
We got the esteeming women's message.
On the other hand, you know, whether we're
single or married, we need to be careful
we don't just get into our own selfish
ego trip, doing our own thing, pushing our
own way, and it's difficult.
So we're working on this, the personnel committee
has been discussing this.
I think a majority of leaders in OM
now lean toward also some type of, at
least certainly a lot of freedom in regard
to pensions.
The present philosophy about pensions, they are allowed
within OM, but it is up to you,
and the money has got to be above
this minimum support, which we sometimes call full
support, that most people are living on.
Now once you're past your second year in
OM, your support is supposed to be, according
to the new policy, three years old, what
it's actually costing you to live.
You're supposed to be calculating that, including everything,
very difficult, and that is, of course, what
your support is.
So if you're paying into some pension program,
some people are, that has to be, you
know, considered as part of the money you're
paying in.
Those of you from Canada have received one
of the most interesting letters in OM's history
from David Lundy just a couple of days
ago.
Nadine and I were on the phone yesterday
trying to decide whether this has gone across
the barrier or not.
But he does say in his letter, David
Lundy, that this is a voluntary thing.
And ultimately, through all the discussion about pension,
another more complex problem is health insurance.
In this country that is not such a
problem, though all of you British longer term
people have received this huge manuscript from Tony
Kirker.
Is that circulated yet?
Maybe only I've seen it.
But it's coming because they've had a lot
of negotiation with income tax people, with the
health people, as to exactly what, you know,
are the legal regulations.
And I think you need to understand, OM
has been forced into certain paths by the
laws of particular countries.
We cannot go against the law in Germany,
Sweden, France, I guess all the countries.
There are strong laws, even in the United
States now, everybody, I've just got another pack
that thick from Steve Hart, about all the
things that Americans are required to do, income
tax, social security.
For the first time in OM's history, the
people in the New Jersey office are paying
social security, and so they're in that scheme.
It's by law, and they also have some
kind of special form of health insurance.
We're subject to boards of directors, they think
differently.
I don't think they've all read Anthony Norris
Groves yet, but they think a little differently
on some of these issues.
So it is complex, and we're discovering that
the health insurance in New Jersey is coming
less than the medical bills.
So this is an interesting little factor.
I mean, who could ever predict 20 years
ago, much less 100 years ago, that we
would have the kind of thing we have
today in terms of medical things?
Where a person can go into hospital, a
middle earner can go into hospital, and he
will come out bankrupt.
He'll come out bankrupt.
In fact, I have one lady writing me
about every other month, who's got $150,000
worth in debts, debts for medical, and she's
about to have a nervous breakdown.
Now, I know there are ways also in
the States now for the poor to get
some help, and I don't pretend to be
an authority on that.
So we're wrestling with these things.
Germany has a health insurance scheme, and now
there's talk that the Germans have launched a
health insurance scheme that can cover people of
other nationalities.
And the Americans are investigating it very quickly,
as the Americans have the most expensive wild
health situation.
And often pensions and everything connected with that
is linked with all that happens to people
when they're older.
You're getting people that are retiring at 65
years of age and are living to 95.
That's 30 years of your life.
How many of you are not yet 30?
A lot of you.
30 years of your life in retirement.
So that's a complex thing, if people are
not giving any thought to that.
So it is good to read, it is
good to study, and I believe different people
are going to be led in different ways
and somehow within OM we'll have to make
a provision for that.
Well, on and on we can go.
Once we get down that road, it's a
long road, but maybe we'll end there and
open for a different question.
Yes?
What about STL?
Were there any decisions made like that?
Yes.
I was aware after my report on Tuesday
night that I didn't say anything about STL,
but as I mentioned I only covered about
half the subjects.
I think the main thing, and this may
not mean much to some, but I think
the main thing is that there is a
strong, at least at this stage, vote of
confidence from the area leaders that we want
to continue with the ministry of STL as
a vital part of Operation Mobilization.
There's also a strong agreement that STL must
continue forward within the basic policies of Operation
Mobilization and that we're not going to break
all kinds of policies.
For instance, paying salaries.
This is a thing that's been in a
big discussion because some people have said, well,
look, if we pay top salaries we can
get the professionals in here that are going
to really revolutionize this.
Number one, we're not convinced that that will
actually work.
An awful lot of secular companies paying very
big salaries are in a tremendous state of
affairs right now if you follow secular companies.
Plus, we just, you know, we cannot do
that and not do that in other parts
of OM.
I mean, if anywhere we want to do
that is out in India.
I mean, if we can get people in
there that could be such an enormous help
at salaries of one-fifth of what we
pay here and just move, seemingly move the
work forward.
Of course, as we've got into this a
little bit in the past, we've discovered the
unbelievable complexity.
And so we believe that people must come
into STL just like the rest of OM
with a call of God.
And OM has ample proof that we can
see a high number of professional, committed, dedicated,
whatever word you want to use, people come
into this.
Just as CLC and WEC and OMF and
China Inland Mission, that's the same, other groups
all need professional people to carry on their
ministry.
We're making a mistake if we think that
STL needs professionals, the rest of OM, well,
any old amateur who comes along.
I mean, the ships, I mean, you know,
CAO.
We need highly trained professional people in every
aspect of OM.
Because we're dealing with people's lives.
You're dealing with sales, that's very important.
You may be dealing with competition, very important.
In other places, we're dealing with people's lives.
I consider that fairly important.
We need professional drivers for those Indian teams.
We haven't been able to find them, we've
had a few.
So we've had to start an intensive driver's
training program and train men to be drivers.
That hasn't been always the best, but it
has accomplished an awful lot in 20 years.
We need professional people to come into OM,
including STL, but at the same time, we
need to train people up.
We want to go both.
Don't get into the either or.
We're willing to bring people in from the
outside.
The man, one of the men we're praying
about to become your managing director is coming
in from outside of OM.
We're open to that, but at the same
time, we need to train people up within
the work.
There are people that may come here from
the ships, that may come here who've been
on OM before and now want to get
back into OM.
So I sense there's a real commitment from
the area level to press forward.
We went through pages of material from Alistair
and got a few pages from Mike Wheat.
We realized that we haven't got the quick,
easy answers.
We didn't have the quick, easy answers for
Duloss either when she came back limping back
into Europe three years ago.
It is going to take time to find
the right people.
We need to increase our recruiting efforts.
We very strongly brought out at the area
level meeting the danger that there's some pool,
giant pool of recruits just swimming around waiting
to be reeled in.
And yet there are not that many people
committed to recruiting, especially longer term people.
Recruiting longer term people demands a lot more
effort than recruiting short term people.
One of the key places to recruit long
term people is among the short term people.
But we don't even have enough people in
a sense doing that.
Because OM seems to be committed to so
many things.
This is another thing I think it's good
to comment on.
Some people say, well why don't we just
since we're committed to so many things and
we don't seem to have enough money, which
isn't the case exactly right now.
Maybe I could say a word about that.
But we don't seem to have enough people.
Let's just chop something out, right?
I mean that's simple.
And we talked about the pie.
But you know, OM is an army of
visionaries and committed people to their visions and
to their countries.
There are no leaders at this point who
are about to sit down and let us
get rid of their piece of pie.
That's why sometimes STL comes under the gun.
Because some people think, I think it's only
a few, that if there's anything we could
perhaps slice off and let it sail out
into the land of Nod is STL.
But we don't feel that that's God's direction.
There's a fair number of people that believe
it would not make it.
Because the amount of lifeblood, personnel, motivation that
comes.
For example, if STL just went out into
the commercial world and was separate from OM,
maybe we could find some trust, some guys
that are really naive, that would take this
thing on.
They would probably have to do it with
all British personnel.
Then if we sailed STL out into some
other thing as we did to Middle East
media when it was just being born.
It's different when something is 25 years old
than when it's just being born.
But the thing that really hit us as
we discussed some of these things, if we
let it go or found some other way
to operate it outside of OM, OM immediately
would have to start a fairly large-scale
publication department.
In fact, we wouldn't let Dave Brown's department
go.
We'd try to rescue that.
Because we need that publication department for all
that OM is doing.
Then we also need...
Verwer's book room would suddenly grow about tenfold
because we are committed to the distribution of
literature on a grassroots.
So even if we were not a major
wholesale operation, we would have to start our
own distribution program.
There's just so many things that as we
prayed and talked through these things, it's been
talked at different levels.
There are quite a few of us and
many of you.
Let me just tell you right now, if
there weren't a half a dozen to a
dozen people in STL committed to what you're
doing, it'd be finished.
I can just tell you that right now.
Because Maiden and I, with all that we've
got, we haven't got this thing going on.
So don't think STL is going on because
there's some board of directors.
That's not the way OM works.
OM is a grassroots operation.
The board, to some degree, does what we
ask them to do.
And the other degree, they tell us what
we're supposed to do.
You know, it's negotiation.
But there's no way the board is going
to carry STL very easily.
And same as the area leaders, that's a
representative body.
So it's because we know, and I've been
on the phone with some of you and
I've been talking to different ones, it's because
we know there is a committed nucleus.
Of course, Mike Wheat's letter calls STL the
flagship of OM's worldwide literature program.
We'd hardly want to shoot down the flagship.
We'd get a little worried about the other
two.
So it's because we find there is some
commitment.
And I think it's also a mistake to
think it's only long-term people who are
committed.
A man might join the Marines for only
three years, but he could be absolutely committed
during those three years and he could do
an awful lot for God.
And I'm a little hesitant if we give
the idea, a long-term guy, he really
believes in this, he's ready to give his
life to it.
I hope so, praise the Lord, we need
such people.
The Lord knows that's been the biggest thrust
of my life, not short-term.
But at the same time, short-term people,
I thank God, in ICT and every team
I've ever worked on, short-term people who
are willing to give themselves wholeheartedly the task
at hand even though they don't believe they're
going to stay.
Don't feel you're a second-class citizen around
here because you're not going to stay.
God honors generosity.
And if we're generous with our people here
and some go off to the Arab world
and some go to India and some go
maybe join other organizations, ultimately God will honor
that.
We may have to battle, we may feel
the pinch, but ultimately I believe God has
honored that and that is what also has
won us a lot of respect with other
missions and other groups.
Okay, another question.
What's the difference between a Christian business and
a Christian ministry?
Which is the steel?
And if it's both, how do you put
the two together?
I think one of the most important things
we need to understand is that we're dealing
with words.
You can go now to university for four
years and get a course in semantics.
I'm sure you all know what that means.
The meaning of words.
And different words that get flying around the
OM cuckoo house mean different things.
So to answer that question, we'd have to
define what is a business and what is
a ministry.
It's difficult.
The whole subject of Christian business, some people
believe is a misnomer.
Other people believe that should be a major
goal.
For example, in the United States, we have
a group called...
What is that?
Master...
The group goes around cleaning everybody's offices.
Service Master.
Now these men, a lot of them came
out of Wheaton College.
A lot of Christians had this strong emphasis,
bring Christ into the marketplace.
And so they launched that business many, many
years ago, very small I believe at the
time, to really honor Christ in the marketplace.
It was secular from the word go.
I don't think they would claim that was
a ministry.
Service Master, cleaning people's floors and windows.
They might because you can give whatever definition
you want to your word.
Is the wife washing the dishes in the
kitchen a ministry?
I mean, depends on your definition.
In some ways I would like to think
of it as a ministry.
My wife certainly has a high degree of
expertise in that area.
The children have never seemed to pick up
this vision, nor the father.
But Service Master has been a tremendous testimony
to what an organization, right in the middle
of all the corporations of America, has become
one of the biggest in the nation with
a Christian testimony.
Now this is a good thing.
Praise the Lord for it.
We're not in that camp.
OM is a missionary movement.
It's not just a ministry.
It's a missionary movement and a missionary ministry.
But at the same time we're committed to
excellency.
We're committed to doing things right.
We're committed to, of course, basic business principles.
This is, I think, perhaps where we get
into trouble or maybe we get out of
trouble is that we are committed to operate
basic business principles.
Twenty years ago STL was sort of out
front to some degree.
Fifteen years ago might be better in emphasizing
the need for proper business principles.
It was almost a pacesetter within OM.
Then the ships came along.
They also became a pacesetter because, I tell
you, if there was anything written off as
impossible, it was the ships.
I said, no way will a pack of
amateurs like OM ever launch ships.
But somehow for fifteen years that has gone.
Now, however, in most of our offices, with
David Lundy in Canada, with David Hicks in
New Jersey, there is even a stronger emphasis
that things have to be done in a
business-like way, computerization, all that has to
take place to provide the support for 1600
people.
So, in a sense, all of OM is
a business.
People in the secular world, they see OM.
We are about 24 major registered corporations across
the world with all the legal paraphernalia that
that involves, all the law, legal cases we
could get into if we don't do things
right, boards of trustees, and there is just
a need, a tremendous need for an amalgamation
of biblical, spiritual principles maintaining our roots at
the same time using proper business procedures, pursuing
excellence, and all that kind of thing.
But, you know, one of the things that
can hinder that is we get in a
logjam of rhetoric with different definitions, and so
we're turning on each other with different definitions,
reacting to each other's statements instead of reflecting,
thinking it through, trying to understand where this
person is coming from, what's his background.
And I believe that somehow, by the grace
of God, we are going to make this
through.
There are different theories about how we're going
to do this, and we are in a
time of transition.
In a time of transition, there will be
everlasting discussion.
But in the midst of the discussion, if
you can do your job, whatever your job
is at hand, even though there may be
some complexities, if you can do that job
at hand to the best of your ability,
even with the present staff we have here
in STL, we can get the job done.
Not 100%.
And we're fighting to get that staff.
Most people don't know what we're doing behind
the scenes to find the staff you need.
But believe me, other organizations with even a
smaller amount of staff have been able to
get the job done, at least temporarily.
So let's try to be optimistic.
Not keep thinking about all the people who
are leaving.
Let's praise God for those who are staying.
Let's believe God is going to supply the
people.
Some of the problems are going through in
STL.
We have gone through every other year for
23 years.
You just haven't been here.
And of course, we had Jerry in the
cockpit who was absorbing and knowing about a
lot of the problems that now are more
widely known.
And Jerry would get on to me and
say, you know, we are lacking 15 people
when it comes to September.
And September after September, God gave us those
people.
Now we need a few more, and we
need a few more specialists.
Especially, I understand, with the computer.
Now that's getting out on the OM grape
line.
It takes weeks to get on the OM
circuit, you know, to the priority, because OM
is looking for chief engineers, looking for captains.
Everybody is looking for people.
And slowly over the weeks, the STL needs
are getting higher and higher and higher on
the OM, you know, worldwide hotline.
And I believe God is going to bring
these people in.
But I would be a liar if I
didn't tell you that in OM we are
battling a lot of things at the same
time.
The most encouraging thing is the basic oneness
and unity there is in the overall worldwide
leadership of OM.
There's terrific differences of opinion on September.
I mean, the Arab world, if I could
talk to you for an hour about the
controversies going on in connection with the Arab
world, which I've been involved in the last
days, and some of the controversies in connection
with other parts of the work.
But through this, let's not panic.
This is God's work.
In the middle of the morning yesterday, I
went and played nine holes of golf.
I've been thinking about it for weeks and
weeks and weeks.
Finally, my courage thermometer got up and I
phoned Bob.
We've been trying to play golf.
He's almost a professional, not really.
He hates me to say that.
You know, when he hits the ball and
it goes into the other golf course down
the other side of the road.
But this is the first time we got
out to play together in England.
That sun, did you notice that sunny period?
Yesterday morning for a number of hours, people
are out there photographing.
That's when we got to the golf course.
You know, as I walked across hole number
one, thinking about all the things I had
to do back in my office, there was
a great burst of faith in my heart.
And I just thought in my mind, Operation
Mobilization is God's work.
And for me to just relax and worship
him, and enjoy myself is an act of
faith.
Especially, as you know, characters like me were
all written off as workaholics.
And I came back again with the assurance
that there is some hope for me of
not being a workaholic.
Even though for the first three holes I
was reading that Arab world manuscript.
We had to wait for these guys in
front of us who were really bad news.
The interesting thing is that Bob had just
been reading that morning in Dr. Bacchus' book,
Telling Yourself the Truth, which are slowly making
their way up the charts.
They're hard to get copies, but they're climbing.
You can see Healing for Damaged Emotions beginning
to get nervous at the top of the
charts.
Bacchus is climbing.
But he had just read that chapter on
the misbelief of indispensability.
Is that what it is?
This concept that we get into thinking we're
indispensable.
I haven't read that.
If I read that chapter, it was a
long time ago.
So God ministered to us in that situation.
And I think we all need that to
a degree.
This is God's work.
Let's not panic.
Even if a customer comes on the phone
and you've just shipped him a lawnmower instead
of books.
Now that's wrong.
And in OM, and in any other business,
we need to be ready to apologize.
We need to put that right.
And that's why without committed people, of course,
the whole thing is impossible.
But I believe that at the same time
it will not add to the situation if
you panic.
You know, one of our board members, well,
I need to be careful how I say
it.
It wasn't a board member, but it was
a very, very close friend.
OM recently had an interesting phone conversation with
one of our offices.
And I think the truth is that both
people on both ends of the phone sort
of panicked from what I picked up.
And, of course, the thing just ended up
in a big row on the phone and
whatever, whatever else.
I think it's sorted out now by one
of the peacemaker types.
But it just, it doesn't accomplish anything.
You know, when someone calls your house and
you didn't want to pick up the phone
and it was the wrong number, I had
a lady call again last night twice the
same time.
What will it accomplish if you call her
a son of a...
or start screaming at her on the phone?
What will that accomplish?
Now, I know you feel it would release
a lot of tension in you.
This is what the world teaches.
But I don't think we want to go
that way.
Well, our time is finished.
Some of you maybe you don't find this
kind of thing helpful.
But, you know, at OM we are committed
to the amalgamation of spiritual, biblical principles and
dynamic common sense.
And, you know, one of the greatest needs
we have even here in Bromley in our
operation is common sense.
You know, sometimes you get the idea that
people, you know, are running on a...
What was that expression you used, Bob?
Incomplete deck.
Not playing with a full deck.
How many know what that means?
It's not playing with a full deck.
See, that shows the communication problem.
And we want to, all of us who
have English as a first language, even though
we don't speak it properly, we want to
humble ourselves before all of you who don't
speak English as a first language for our
slang, for the expressions we come out with
that must leave people confused.
Anyway, a man who's not operating on a
full deck is compared with a deck of
cards.
How many of you have played cards?
Well, it isn't totally evangelical.
You can't play cards without...
How many cards in a deck?
Fifty-two.
Fifty-two, it's a long time.
Fifty-two cards.
What about Canasta, is that the same?
It's the only thing I played.
So you'd have difficulty playing cards unless you
had 52.
And this expression, not operating on a full
deck, means, you know, he's not quite with
it, he's not thinking, he's not, you know,
it has different meanings depending on the context
of the statement.
But really, common sense is such a basic
thing.
You know, in the care of vehicles, I
am so sympathetic for our garage.
I will tell you, if you have any
criticism against the garage, I'd love to talk
to you because they have an impossible task,
I will tell you, keeping this number of
people mobile, including me and my big old
coach.
And the vehicles that are given to us,
God's people with their generosity, you know, the
vehicles finally wimped out and wiped out and
they give it to Operation Mobilization.
We thought we were finally given a really
nice car by a brother who joined OM,
joining the ship.
This was going to be the best car
Verwar's ever had.
And that's when I found out eventually it
was, how many years old?
Six years old or something.
But by the time it got back from
the ship, Quinta had their little go at
it, then it got down here, and then
Sam gets it.
And if you want to ask Sam about
this week's headaches, you can ask him about
the Datsun.
But let's pray for the garage and let's
believe that there too, God will give them
the people they need.
Sam, what does your personnel need?
I know you've got four men in there.
One of them just got off and got
married.
No doubt he's coming back someday.
There's a lot of cars on run, you
know, basically, a lot of robberies, some robberies,
but we just don't have time to do
that.
And Dave Brown, give us, I know our
time's almost over, give us an update.
This huge for sale sign suddenly puts up
over our garage there.
You've seen that sign?
Should have been on this building.
There's a plan to redevelop into an office
block.
The garage next door, and the car showroom,
that whole section, I think there's a plan
in motion for that sort of thing.
What is our lease situation on our garage
here?
Did we eventually sign that thing again for
some more years?
So we have it until when?
But it's a few years, no?
I mention that because one of the big
expenses that we've had in terms of property
around here is that garage there.
And you'll hear all kinds of talk about
that.
But I think when we've wrestled through with
that, I think somebody's even doing a paper
on it.
Jerry Davey's doing a paper on the whole
vehicle thing.
But I think personally, at least for now,
God has given us a miraculous premises to
handle this wide, large number of vehicles that
we handle here.
And anything we do in connection with the
garage, I don't think it's going to be
happening that quick.
We've got too many other changes we're wrestling
with right now to suddenly throw our lifeline.
Because some way, our mobility is part of
our lifeline.
I don't think with all the other changes,
suddenly that's going to be just closed.
Because the expense of that has to be
balanced into all the other areas where we're
getting free premises or we're getting inexpensive cars
or inexpensive transport.
Let's pray.
Time's gone.
Lord, we thank you that we can be
open and honest with one another.
We thank you for the commitment of these
leaders and the work around the world to
STL, even people who are not here.
People who are willing to come if there
were an extreme emergency.
Lord, give us wisdom as to what level
of emergency we may be operating in.
Help us to keep the lines of communication
open.
And Lord, we see the more and more
difficulty.
People from certain nationalities, even going out to
these countries.
We may have another dozen people from the
Arab world looking for something vital they can
do for God, for you, oh God, even
within the next couple of months.
Who would find STL a place where they
can work and have direct input into world
missions.
And we just believe that those people that
are needed to carry this work its next
decade are just there around the corner.
We believe you're testing us with the various
ideas and various opinions and various thoughts that
are bound to take place.
And we just believe, God, that you are
going to supply those people just as you
supplied them for the engine room and the
bridge and the two ships and for our
many different offices.
We think of the people you've given to
Quinta in the last ten months.
The people you brought into New Jersey, most
of them longer term.
And we believe, Lord, you are going to
bring the people here.
We think of the crisis of Canada just
a year ago.
Burt's resigned.
No, nobody, really.
That we can think of for that task.
Going through lists of names.
Praying, crying out.
And then, you surprise us and brought our
brother David Lundy into that ministry.
Just the man for Canada at this time
and at this hour.
And Lord, we know that in STL we're
not looking for one great superman who's going
to come in here.
Because we can see it's going to be
a team of leaders moving together.
And that this man, the managing director, or
whatever we call him, will be the key
man who will help lead the team.
So Lord, we are trusting You.
We know and we're aware of the problems,
the mistakes.
Help us, Father, to do the job at
hand with all of our hearts.
We pray for the garage, all the pressure
that comes on them.
And the complexity of keeping this fleet.
Show us, Lord, other vehicles, some cases better
vehicles, that we can purchase.
Bring in the money for those purchases.
Help us to find the balance as we
are locked together in a worldwide missionary movement
not operating as an isolated company in the
middle of London.
That we may move together of one heart
and one mind.
In Jesus' name, Amen.