Let the world know of Jesus, Savior, Lord,
and King.
Let the whole creation whisper praise His name.
Know of Jesus, Savior, Lord, and King.
Now our scriptures are to be read by
the Reverend Alfred Yeo, who is a Methodist
minister, and the secretary of the Singapore Keswick
Convention.
And after the reading of the scriptures, we
shall be led in prayer by Mr. Raymond
Castro, who is the secretary of, I was
going to say the Pune and India village
mission, it shows how old I am.
It's the International Christian Fellowship.
The scripture reading is taken from St. Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 9, starting from verse 35.
Matthew 9, 35, And Jesus was going about
all the cities and the villages, teaching in
their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and
every kind of sickness.
And seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for
them, because they were distressed and downcast like
sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, the harvest
is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Therefore, we seek the Lord of the harvest
to send out workers into his harvest.
We're going to pray together for the world,
and so that we might be united in
our intercession, as I voice a prayer for
the world, will you think into it and
pray into it?
People you know, ministries you know, and then
we shall make it a united prayer for
the world and the world of mission.
Now let us gather together in prayer before
the throne.
Let us pray.
Father, it's a big world, and we really
can't compass it in our prayer just now
to you, but we come in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ with the assurance
that you know the world because it is
yours, and we just want to be open
in our hearts and in our prayer to
what you know already.
Since the world was in view, dear Lord,
when you sent your Son to be the
Saviour, we want to intercede together on its
behalf.
And first of all, Father, we want to
give you thanks and praise that you are
building your church in the world, and we
want to pray together for its leaders, its
pastors, its evangelists, its youth workers, and its
members.
We ask, Lord, that the witness of your
worldwide church will be graciously blessed and used.
Where there may be division, Lord, bring healing.
Where there may be nominal profession, please give
quickening into newness of life.
And where there is, as Lord we know,
there is so much evangelical life and witness,
please anoint it with saving power.
And as we think of your church, Lord,
we want to remember especially your church in
Russia and Eastern Europe, in China, and in
other places where it's under pressure.
We are humbled as we think of its
witness.
Please give strength and courage and faith, Lord,
to its members, and may their example stir
us in the freedom that we enjoy.
And bless those who help them and encourage
them.
Then, Lord, we bless you for the thousands
of men and women who've moved out into
other countries and other cultures at your call.
And we want to bear up before you,
Lord, the missionaries of the cross from many
lands to many other lands.
We pray, Lord, for young recruits as they
adjust and learn.
We pray for mature workers that they may
be encouraged in the fight and may see
glorious victories in the gospel.
We pray for those who sow the seed
faithfully that they may do it in perseverance
and with expectancy.
We pray, Lord, for mission leaders that they
may be given wisdom and discernment in constantly
changing situations.
We think, Father, of doctors and nurses and
teachers, agriculturalists and relief workers, Bible teachers and
theological educators, all in these vital ministries, Lord,
that play their part, and we want to
ask your blessing upon them.
And we do want to pray especially for
those who evangelize and plant churches in areas
where the gospel is new to those who
hear it.
Lord, may your church be planted wisely so
that it may grow in dependence on your
spirit and become in its turn a witnessing
church.
We pray, Father, too, for those who reach
out with literature, by radio and in correspondence
courses.
We thank you, Lord, for these ministries, and
we pray your blessing on those who prepare
the material for them, those who distribute it
and broadcast it.
We pray for the work of Bible societies
around the world.
Lord, will you reach the multitudes by these
means, and will you follow Bible and books
and broadcasts with your mighty convicting and saving
spirit, Lord?
And, Lord, we pray for these multitudes, millions
yet have never heard.
We praise you for those who are hearing.
We praise you for those who have heard
and believed, but we long, Lord, that all
may hear.
And Father, opportunities abound, and you're still opening
doors, and there is a harvest, Lord.
Please send out labourers, and please help each
of us here to know his part.
Yes, Lord, it is a big world, but
you are its Lord, and the day will
come when the kingdoms of this world will
become the kingdoms of our God and of
his Christ.
Hasten the day, Lord.
Hasten it with the preaching of the gospel.
Send forth thy light and thy salvation.
Lord, hear our cry for all this, and
for this great world to which you send
us in mission.
Bless those we know in that mission.
Use them, Lord.
Call others to join them.
Help us to know what you would have
us to do, and to this end, bless
us now, we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Some forty years ago, Mr. Kenneth Adams founded
the Christian Liturgy Crusade and has travelled widely
since then and has been greatly used.
It's a great joy and privilege to have
Mr. Kenneth Adams come as our first speaker
this morning.
As World War came to an end, we
began to move into a new era of
missionary thrust and outreach around the world.
The number of missionaries increased considerably.
The funds began to flow more generously.
And the reaping was seen in greater extent
because not only were we seeing people coming
to Christ, but now we were moving into
the era of the national church responding to
the challenge of worldwide evangelization and taking up
the Great Commission.
And so today we are living in an
exciting age as we see what God is
doing through his people of every nationality who
are responding to the word of God to
get this gospel to the ends of the
earth.
Those of us from the West are by
no means alone today in this great ministry
of missionary outreach.
I think of our own ministry in Japan,
for instance, where we have about fifty workers
and some forty-five of those workers are
Japanese.
Each of our ten bookstores there are manned
by Japanese brothers who share the vision of
literature for their country.
And from Japan we have seen missionaries go
to other parts of the world.
I think of Mrs. Saito who served in
Japan for four years up in Hokkaido and
now is a missionary in Brazil to help
meet the need of Christian literature for the
one million or more Japanese people who live
in the greater Sao Paulo area.
And so we rejoice to see what God
has been doing over these last thirty-five
years since World War came to an end.
But one of the interesting things is this,
that perhaps it is the age of mass
communication.
Literature is now a new thing because of
the new educational thrust around the world.
As new nations, some hundred of them, have
come into being in this last thirty-five
years, one of the first responsibilities of the
leadership of these nations has been to deal
with the problem of illiteracy.
And so we are seeing across our world
today something close to one hundred million new
readers coming into the world every year.
And so this presents to us a new
and tremendous challenge to get God's word in
print to the readers of the world.
But reading alone and education alone is not
satisfactory because unless we put into the hands
of these new readers from the simple primers
away up to the study books and the
devotional books, we have not done our task.
Literature has, of course, a two-fold thrust.
There is the literature that you give to
the people to tell them about Jesus, to
tell them that God is love, to tell
them that there is a Savior who is
ready to meet their need.
And so we have the joy through literature
of seeing people finding Jesus Christ as their
own personal Savior.
But then literature also is the tool that
the Holy Spirit is using to build a
new convert in the faith and help them
to grow in grace and mature in the
things of their newfound Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is a great joy for us
in our ministry of literature to see many
people growing and maturing as they are reading,
studying God's word, and as they are growing
and maturing through the books that come into
their hands.
And so we live in this age of
literature evangelism, mass communication because of radio and
TV and the great cassette ministry that is
going across our world today, and all the
other facets of missionary trust.
And yet every one of them, if they
are to do their task successfully, must use
Christian literature.
And so it's a great joy to be
sharing in getting this literature to the ends
of the earth.
How grateful we are for the Bible Society
and the Scripture Give Mission and others who
are producing and publishing the literature.
But thankfully we have the privilege of being
part of the distribution program in this great
age of opportunity.
And not only overseas, but also here in
the homelands.
Because you see what is happening today is
the mission field is actually coming to us.
I understand that here in the British Isles
there are something like a million and a
half Muslims in this country.
Here is an opportunity for all of us
to be literature evangelists.
And CLC has made possible literature in scores
of languages so that if you have a
Chinese family living up the road, get hold
of some Chinese literature and put it into
their hands.
If you have some people from the Arab
world living across the street, get hold of
Arab literature and put it into their hands.
And so the opportunity is with us today
here in the homelands and also across the
seas to be missionaries using the tool of
literature to help in the evangelization and the
growth of the new convert in the faith.
Yes indeed, we are seeing a great demand
for literature today.
I think of Venezuela and some of these
other countries where the demand is just beyond
what we can cope with and of course
China lays heavily upon our hearts.
The Lord make all of us real literature
missionaries.
Since 1966 it has been impossible for us
to have anybody from Burma to this Keswick
Convention It is a very great joy indeed
to all of us that Mr. Tansy MacDonald
has been able to come from Rangoon to
this convention and is now to tell us
something of the work of God in Burma.
Mr. MacDonald.
I'm very grateful for this privilege of joining
you at Keswick and sharing with you.
Burma is a country of about 260,000
square miles with a population of about 32
million at the last census which was about
six years ago.
The Christian population is about one and a
half million, about three and a half percent
of the total.
The country is predominantly Buddhist who are about
75 percent of the people.
The Christians come mainly from the tribal groups
around the country.
The church is not making much progress amongst
the Buddhists so this is where we need
your prayers.
But the encouraging thing is that gospel teams
go out into the tribal areas working with
the local Christians there and taking the message
to all around them.
Travel is very difficult and in most cases
we travel on foot covering 200, 300 miles
on each trip.
Another encouraging thing is that the animists have
taken the initiative to spread the gospel.
They have invited us to their areas to
come and preach.
And in four or five instances they have
said, please come to my village, please come
to my area and preach your God to
us.
This is where God gives the growth.
There are many evangelists doing a wonderful job
in my country but please let me tell
you about one.
She is a lady, a chin lady, about
27 years of age.
From the age of three she never ever
walked again and she never ever will walk
again.
She's flat on her back, she can't sit
and all she can use is the forefinger
and thumb of her right hand.
She's never been to school, she's never had
formal training and yet she's one of our
greatest evangelists in that area.
She has to be carried about and she
preaches and teaches.
She's learned to read and write her own
language and she's learned to read and write
Burmese.
Animists from different villages come to her, carry
her to a village and ask her to
preach.
And just before I left for England she
was in a village where there were 40
houses, households and seven had joined, had come
to the Lord within a matter of four
weeks.
So please pray for her that God will
continue to bless her.
She receives no salaries and no perks.
All she has ever asked for was some
aspirins to ease the pain in her back.
But all is not plain sailing in my
country.
In some places travel is difficult and even
dangerous due to insurrections.
Some of our people have been killed in
cross fires.
We still need more dedicated workers.
There are many vast numbers who are unreached.
We lack the means, we lack the money
and we lack the men.
However, this visit to Keswick has taught me
to have faith, to obey and to trust
him and then go out and get on
with the job.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tansy.
Number 235 in your hymn books and we're
going to need Tim Buckley again.
235, Lord for the years your love has
kept and guided, urged and inspired us, cheered
us on our way.
He leads the way, he
leads the way, he leads the way, he
leads the way.
He leads the way, he leads the way,
he leads the way, he leads the way.
He leads the way, he leads the way,
he leads the way.
He leads the way, he leads the way,
he leads the way, he leads the way.
As you know from Tokyo this year Mr.
and Mrs. John Masuda have come to Keswick.
It's a great pleasure for us now to
be able to listen to the Reverend John
Masuda and I introduce him to you as
the Secretary of the Japanese Keswick.
I just say all one in Christ Jesus
in Japanese.
May I greet you in the name of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I have been asked by the members of
the Central Committee of the Japan Keswick Convention
and the Chairman to express our heartfelt appreciation
to the Chairman and the members of the
Keswick Council of your country and also dear
friends of Keswick Convention here for praying for
us in the land of Japan for the
cause of the Lord especially through the ministry
of the Japan Keswick Convention.
We are grateful for the speakers you have
sent to us in the land of Japan.
Your speakers have provided us the spirit of
Keswick and the messages of the Keswick Convention
and may I tell you that Japan Keswick
Convention I think is the best thing that
has happened to the spiritual life of the
Japanese churches and Japanese Christians.
So thank you very much.
And next year we are celebrating the 20th
anniversary of the Japan Keswick Convention.
Now in the land of Japan we come
of age at the age of 20 years
old.
So we feel that we are finally coming
of age so to speak in the land
of Japan as far as the Keswick Ministry
is concerned.
So thanks to you again and we hope
that you will continue to pray for us
in the Keswick Ministry there.
We do have today and they are doing
very well we feel.
Then in the central place nearby the city
of Tokyo we have again about 800 to
1000 people gathering for the convention.
Then in the city of Tokyo about 700
to 800 people are gathering and then to
the north in the northern island of Hokkaido
we have about 400 people gathering to hear
the Keswick messages.
So continue to pray for us.
Now as for the land of Japan as
I stand here this morning I am somewhat
embarrassed by the fact that Japanese products are
invading into your country.
And I am not to speak about those
products.
May I tell you that several years ago
we Japanese strived to gain three Cs.
I don't know if you can imagine what
these three Cs are.
They are namely car, then cooler which is
air conditioner, and then colour television.
Having obtained most of these three items on
the part of most of the Japanese people
today they are looking for something better to
satisfy their longing, their search for something.
We are strangely conscious of the fact that
we Japanese are, I hope I do not
sound too presumptuous when I say this, one
of the most educated and rich pagans on
earth.
Some missionaries said once this, the Japanese language
must be created by Satan.
Because it's so difficult.
However I am tempted to say that Japanese
people's hearts are gripped by the power of
Satan.
And that Satan has been using the power
of education and materialism in such a way
to be rather a success.
As you know our country is just like
your country of England.
We are of the island country.
And in our island country of Japan live
some 120 million people.
And the Christian population constitutes about 1%.
This has been so for many decades.
Some time ago I received a newsletter, an
English newsletter.
In it, it said something like this.
Japan, the country of small churches and slow
progress of the gospel.
I tell you my heart was really sad
when I read that.
And then I cried unto the Lord.
Lord, how long should our country remain as
such in the grips of the Satanic materialism?
When I say Satanic materialism, it implies something
like this.
Most of the Japanese companies today are manned
by very dedicated people.
And that's one of the reasons why you
have the Japanese products invading.
Now one of the executives said something like
this.
The company is immortal or eternal.
But we are mortal.
Let us dedicate ourselves and work for the
company.
It is my prayer that this dedication may
become the dedication on the part of the
Christians.
So that we may carry his gospel to
our people.
Thank you very much.
Now we're keeping John and Maciej Masuda here
for next week too.
So that the holiday convention can also meet
them.
Now something quite different from a country that's
in the news today from Bolivia.
Mrs. Nikki Thurstfield is coming to represent Bolivia
but the whole of Latin America.
Or at least her presence here does that
for us.
But we've asked her especially to speak about
Bolivia.
Mrs. Nikki Thurstfield of the EUSA.
The vast continent of South America has Roman
Catholicism as the recognized official religion.
But within the church however there is a
struggle between the traditional wing of the Roman
Catholic church.
With its images, its many grottos and superstitions.
And also the more modern wing that is
embracing theology of liberation.
The involvement of the Catholic church in social
issues.
Hoping to bring about radical social change.
Something of this struggle could be seen in
the recent visit of the Pope to Brazil.
When it was felt that he was trying
to reconcile the one wing of the Roman
Catholic church with the other.
In Peru last year at the Congress on
Evangelism.
A similar tension over involvement in social issues
was very much to the fore.
In a continent where there's much poverty and
social injustice.
The church cannot stand by unmoved.
How far to be involved in a cause
where Marxists too are very vociferous.
Although with different goals.
Needs to be thought through very carefully and
very prayerfully.
If a word was needed to sum up
the response to missionary work in South America.
The word to choose is openness.
Openness to preach the gospel.
And openness of the people to listen and
to accept the gospel.
Because of this the church is growing fast.
In recent years in Chile the rate of
church growth was equal if not more than
the population growth of the country.
In South America we're seeing young churches, young
Christians.
And while evangelism is very strong in the
cities, in the rural areas and in the
jungle areas.
There is a tremendous need to back up
the evangelism with teaching of the Bible.
Teaching of the Bible at all educational levels.
And to all the different strata's of society.
The continent is open to the gospel.
It is also open to the cults and
the false sects.
There is an urgent need for literature for
the church.
The literacy rate is increasing steadily.
And so is the hunger for books and
other forms of literature.
From the Quechua Indian in his mud brick
house high up on the Andes mountains.
To the executive in his office in one
of the teeming cities of South America.
From the student to the laborer in a
factory or a mine.
Tracts, scriptures, commentaries, devotional aids are all needed
to feed the Christians.
And to counteract to the growth of liberalism.
Although not a predominant force, nevertheless creeping in
insidiously into some of the churches in South
America.
The youth too cannot be ignored when 60
% of the population is under 21 years
of age.
Such groups as UCCS and youth camps are
vital to reach and to teach these young
people.
The leaders not only in the country of
South America tomorrow, but leaders in the church
of tomorrow too.
These young Christians need to become mature and
responsible in the things of the Lord.
A campaign by Argentinian evangelist Luis Palau in
Bolivia has led to an openness among the
higher class people and the professional people in
that country.
But God has not only prepared hearts amongst
the upper classes, but also amongst those who
form the lower class in that country.
These people, the Quechua and Aymara Indians, form
80% of the country's population.
They live at altitudes of 8,000 to
13,000 feet in the thin cold air
and exist the life of subsistence farming.
Some move into towns and cities for work
and education.
Many more respond to the opportunity offered them
by the Bolivian government of a better way
of life.
In three of the tropical lowland areas of
Bolivia, the jungle is being pushed back and
the land cleared of the largest trees.
What is still left is still overgrown and
jungly and is given to these migrants from
the mountains to clear and then to plant
crops such as sugar cane, maize or bush
rice.
Life is still very hard for them, but
for those who adapt and remain, it is
certainly an improvement on their former way of
life.
The Quechua, who leave their mountain homes, leave
behind all that they have known.
They also leave behind their local animistic spirits
and gods.
And when they arrive in the lowlands, there
is a spiritual void in their lives that
needs to be filled.
There is an openness to the things of
God.
This void doesn't last forever.
It is soon filled, we have found, with
materialism.
And that will eventually take the place in
that void and the people become hard to
the things of God.
As their new way of life enables them
to acquire luxuries and status symbols such as
a push bike or a radio, a sewing
machine or eventually a lorry of their own,
these people have no time for God.
They are caught up acquiring more and more
and paying for what they have.
These people need to be reached with the
Gospel when they first move down.
A representative of the government body responsible for
allocating the families to the colonies in Bolivia
has said that missionaries are free to go
in and evangelize.
The National Institute for Colonization does not want
missionaries to go in and do medical work
or to do educational work or even do
agricultural work in these areas.
The Institute itself can do this.
Missionaries were told, you go in and preach
the Gospel, we will do the rest.
New groups and churches are forming as Christians
move down and witness in these colonies.
Many colonies have no Christians.
Missionaries are needed to visit and evangelize.
They are needed to help establish churches and
to help and teach the believers.
Praise the Lord for the opportunities in South
America today.
Pray for the church that as it grows
it will mature and strengthen.
Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that
his harvest in the continent of South America
won't be wasted because of the lack of
workers.
Some of you already know Dr. Nambuthiripad because
he's been here before.
Many times he's been to England.
He is the principal of Ludhiana, that great
medical college in the north of India, widely
known in India and indeed in many other
places.
A doctor, it's a great pleasure and a
privilege to have Dr. Nambuthiripad with us this
morning.
Thank you very much for the kind welcome
and the Christian hospitality that you have extended
to me.
I have enjoyed this fellowship very much.
When we think of India we think of
640 million people, a huge mass of people
overpowering and staggering and it staggers us.
Many people get cultural shock when they see
this huge mass of people in a country
as big as India and as diverse as
India.
And this can itself be a great disappointment
and discouragement to missionary work.
And I think this is what's happening in
this decade.
The best way of looking at this is
to look at individuals.
We cannot solve the problem of India.
We can only solve the problem of individuals.
And these individuals in turn will change India.
I'm an outstanding example of this individual change.
I came to this country 24 years ago
mainly to become a neurosurgeon, to train in
brain surgery.
I was a Hindu Brahmin and I did
not know Christ, nor did I have any
desire to know Christ at that time.
But because a few Christians in the city
of Bristol, England, cared for me, loved me,
looked after me, showed concern, introduced me to
Christ, took me to a Bible study group,
encouraged me to read the word of God,
I was converted to Christ in the city
of Bristol 21 years ago.
I gave my life to Christ and I
decided to follow Christ.
And I said to Christ, wherever you send
me, I will go.
And God sent me to Christian Medical College,
Ludhiana.
And God has helped me to convert people.
My wife was converted.
My whole family forsook me when I became
a Christian.
But God was very faithful.
My wife was converted.
My daughter was converted.
My two sons were converted.
One of my brothers was converted.
We saw Hindus converted.
God helped me to establish an assembly in
Ludhiana.
God helped us to send missionaries from CMC
Ludhiana to other parts of the country.
The best way of looking after the needs
of India for Christ is to look after
individuals.
And I gather you have lots and lots
of Indians here in this country.
God has sent them here.
And if you will look after them as
that nurse looked after me in Bristol.
And the ward boy, and the ward aide,
and the fire stoker, simple people.
Not the intelligentsia.
God doesn't use the intelligentsia often to convert
people.
And I bless God that it is common
people who converted me to Christ.
Not the very intelligent, not big missionaries.
So will you please look after those people
who are here.
And you can be a missionary to India,
even in this country.
Then we think of individuals going out to
Ludhiana and other parts of India.
North India is the leading part of India.
All leadership decisions are taken by North Indians.
70% of the people of Delhi are
North Punjabis.
The state where I come from.
And they make the decisions.
90% of Indians are Hindus.
And only 2.7% are Christians.
All the decisions are taken by Punjabis and
North Indians.
And we are in North India.
And the Christian population of North India is
less than 1%.
Dr. Edith Brown got a vision to go
to Ludhiana, 86 years ago.
She went from this country.
She established a small institution.
People laughed at her, scoffed at her.
She had only 50 pounds sterling to start
a work.
And lots of faith.
86 years later, we have an institution of
700 beds.
We are one of the primary teaching institutions
in North India.
We train doctors, we train nurses, we train
technicians.
And we send missionaries out into the mission
hospitals.
How can these mission hospitals have doctors if
we don't train them?
Government medical colleges don't train them to be
missionaries.
And we have had the privilege of seeing
missionaries going out from Ludhiana because of the
vision of this woman.
An amazing vision in 1894 to train Christian
women in India.
When you did not have many women's medical
colleges even in this country.
This woman wanted to train Christian women to
go to villages.
An amazing vision which is still relevant for
us today.
And this is our aim, that we may
send Indian Christian doctors to mission institutions to
spread the gospel.
Do you know that 20% of hospital
beds in India are mission hospital beds?
18 to 20% of all hospital beds
in India are supported by this 2.7
% of the population.
We wipe the dirty bottoms of the people
in India.
We may not get the credit but we
do that.
And we consider it a great privilege.
We train them to do this dirty work.
And we enjoy doing this and Christ is
glorified thereby.
He washed the disciples' feet, didn't he?
Wasn't that the humblest of service?
And we believe this is the glorifying thing
about the work of Christ.
CMC Ludhiana needs missionaries.
People tell me we don't need new missionaries.
There is no moratorium on missionaries.
We are an international society.
We need each other.
I was converted here.
I am as much British as you are.
This is my home, spiritual home, that is.
India is yours as much as it is
mine.
The world belongs to God.
And you have an obligation to send missionaries
to India just as Dame Edith Brown was
sent several years ago.
We need missionaries.
We need, of course, professionals who have high
expertise, high training because ours is a medical
college.
The Punjab University will not recognize us if
we are not highly qualified.
We need a principal college of nursing.
We need a professor in pathology.
We need a professor in radiology.
We don't have Christian doctors in those parts.
There are not many North Indian Christians who
are trained that way.
We need them.
And medical missions still will remain the cutting
edge of the mission work in India.
When people don't go to churches, when there
are not churches in North India, where will
they hear of Jesus Christ except in the
wards of our hospital?
18,000 patients are admitted every year into
CMC Ludhiana.
220,000 people come into our clinics every
year.
And they have the literature.
They hear the word that is spoken on
the loudspeaker system.
They come across the chaplain.
They come across us.
They hear of Jesus from hospitals, not from
churches.
Hospitals will remain a key cutting edge for
the mission work in India.
Will you pray?
And will you send missionaries?
Will you come yourself?
Or if you can't come, will you pray
for Ludhiana and India?
Please remember, India is still uncommitted.
She is neither communist nor capitalist.
She is the only big landmass in Asia
which is uncommitted when people around us are
either totalitarian or communist.
And it can be a great instrument for
change.
Please don't underestimate India.
She has sent many missionaries before.
Buddhists.
Buddhism started in India.
Hinduism.
Sikhism.
Jainism.
It can be a great power for Christ
in India.
Will you pray for India, please?
Thank you.
All of us have enjoyed having George Verwer
with us in this year's convention.
Some of us have also enjoyed getting to
know his wife, Drina.
We're so grateful for the contribution that they've
both made.
And it's a joy for us now to
be able to listen to George in the
last part of this meeting.
Mr. George Verwer of Operation Mobilization.
I certainly have been very aware of many
people praying for me during the convention.
I really believe that Keswick is a miracle.
I've always felt that since coming under the
influence of the Keswick ministry some 20 years
ago.
I think there are some people who presume
about Keswick.
And sometimes I hear in my circles negative
things.
But I think often we don't realize what
it is for any movement to go on
for 105 years or even 25 years faithful
to the word of God in the days
in which we live.
Ever heard of the student volunteer movement?
The great explosion it made and how soon
it was dead.
And I could name denominations and other movements
that were dead within 50 years.
God has kept his hand upon this great
emphasis, movement, whatever you want to call it,
for 105 years.
That's a miracle.
And I'd like to just, before I speak,
have a word of prayer, of thanksgiving and
praise to God.
And then ask him to speak from his
word.
Let us pray.
Father, we know that you are a God
of the impossible.
You are a God of the miraculous.
And we thank you for your hand upon
this convention and upon the people who have
ministered here over more than 100 years.
We do not come in presumption, but we
come by faith because your word is true.
And we have preached and declared your word
and therefore can look to you for the
results, visible or invisible.
We thank you for the power and the
reality of your Holy Spirit that is never
firstly manifest in talk, but in walk.
And we cry out to you, O living
God, that when we go from this place,
it would be in the walk and in
the energy and the power of your Holy
Spirit.
Speak, O Lord, at this time.
Hide the speaker behind the cross, that we
would see Jesus and that we would be
willing to obey him.
Whatever the cost, wherever it leads, and whatever
our age, for you are no respecter of
persons.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I think people would think that I had
backslidden if I didn't mention a couple of
Christian books.
And I know many of you are friends
of Operation Mobilization and visited our ships.
I've met so many friends this week.
They've all been very, very encouraging.
The greatest blessing for me this week has
been the prayer meeting at 7 o'clock.
And each morning as I've been there, and
I couldn't figure out how I was going
to fit this into my schedule because I'm
a very schedule or schedule type of person.
And the first thing in the morning, I
always have my prayer time and my jogging.
And I thought, how am I going to
fit this 7 o'clock prayer meeting in?
But it worked very well.
I lived quite far from the prayer meeting.
So I jogged to the prayer meeting and
prayed as I jogged.
And somehow it all worked together, though I
usually arrived late.
I hope that didn't disturb the chairman, a
man of incredible punctuality.
I don't think it did.
But what a blessed time that was.
And I was so encouraged that almost every
morning someone prayed for one of our ships.
Even if they had the ship in the
wrong continent, in the wrong area of the
world, it was encouraging.
There are, in fact, now three ships.
One of them is actually very small.
It's just a boat in Bangladesh.
In fact, there's two boats.
But thank you for your prayers.
And what a challenge that meeting has been.
One of my scriptures has already been read.
And the other one that I'd like you
to turn to to redeem the time why
I'm mentioning these two books I want you
to get.
Both by missionaries.
Both missionaries who have made an enormous impact.
I feel very, very much that I'm a
poor missionary.
I spent a few years in India, a
few in Spain and Mexico, a few in
Belgium, Italy and France, and on the ships.
The rest of the time in my homeland
of England, my adopted country.
God led me out of the United States
21 years ago.
And I've never been back except to preach
a couple of times.
And I, when I think of these two
men, Charles Marsh and Ralph Shallis, he's so
adapted to France, he writes his books in
French.
We have to translate them back into English.
So there's four of his books in French.
Only one in English.
When I think of these two men, this
man spent 45 years in the Muslim world.
One out of every seven people in the
world is a Muslim.
Less than 2% of the missionaries in
the world work among Muslims.
So that is a man who knows God,
I can assure you.
And Ralph Shallis.
Both of their books, from now on, a
book on spiritual growth and into action, are
two of the best follow-up books I
can think of for this Keswick Convention.
And the Keswick Bookstall and other bookstalls have
been prepared, I believe, to have good quantities
of those two books available.
Now in Mark's Gospel, reading from the American
Standard Version, Chapter 1.
Keeping in mind what has already been read
from Matthew's Gospel.
Forgive me if I go a little too
fast.
I have a lot that I would like
to share and I tend to go too
fast.
But you can listen to the message on
the tape.
And you'll find that if you just turn
the speed down to half, you'll be able
to concentrate better on the message.
Mark's Gospel, Jesus preaches in Galilee.
And I want us to just especially look
at verse 16.
And as he was going along by the
Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew,
the brother of Simon, casting a net in
the sea, for they were fishermen.
And Jesus said to them, follow me, and
I will make you become fishers of men.
And they immediately left the nets and followed
him.
And going on a little farther, he saw
James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his
brother, who were also in the boat, mending
the nets.
And immediately he called them, and they left
their father Zebedee in the boat with the
hired servants and went away to follow him.
And then over in chapter 2, a totally
different type of person, Matthew.
And the encounter of Matthew with our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Verse 14.
And as he passed by, he saw Levi,
the son of Alphaeus, sitting in the tax
office, and he said to him, follow me.
And he rose and followed him.
Those of you who know Keswick, know that
at the end of this meeting, a very
simple, but significant invitation will be given.
Which you can be even praying about during
the meeting.
For those to stand, whose sense that God
is calling them, my preference is the word
leading.
Whose sense that God is leading them to
serve him as a missionary.
And I think that invitation is a wonderful
thing.
I'm always, or generally a coward, when it
comes to invitations.
So that if I don't get that far,
canon niche will.
The Lord, however, over the years at times
has given me the grace to give such
invitations.
And for those that may be critical of
invitations, a few people are.
I have seen people in almost every nation
in the world, as a result of being
given a simple opportunity to put some action
onto the words.
It says in Hebrews, the word preached was
of no value, because it was not mixed
with faith.
And I always feel that as we come
toward the end of a great convention like
this.
That God is calling us, God is leading
us, to mix the word preached with faith.
This of course is not just for those,
whose sense that God is leading them, or
calling them to overseas or missionary service.
There is a sense that it's for all
of us.
And so though it may be only a
few who stand, it is my prayer that
it will be all of us.
Who by God's grace and power will mix
with faith the messages we have heard this
week.
Now I'm not a person who can handle
many messages.
When I was in Chicago sitting under Alan
Redpath, twenty some years ago, to hear him
once would finish me.
I got over excited, my metabolism went up,
my blood pressure went up.
And Alan Redpath alone is not world's calmest
speaker.
You'll be here next Wednesday, I hope, to
hear him.
It's worth coming back just for that.
I'll get it on tape myself, I've been
listening to Keswick tapes for as long back
as I can remember.
While I've had Donald English on Philippians here
in the tent.
I've had Donald English in my room, even
when I was taking a bath, on Colossians.
What a blessing these tape recordings are.
We've sent them out to OMers from almost
the beginning of our work.
The whole ministry of Keswick through tape and
books has been one of several major influences
on our whole movement that has enabled us
to train and help disciple 22,000 men
and women in a hundred nations across the
world.
See, people don't understand what the Spirit of
God is doing here in these days.
And what the Spirit of God does through
books and through tapes and through people who
somehow come to grips with God in this
tent and then go from here to obey
and to do His will.
But it'll never happen unless we mix what
we have heard with faith.
Unless we're willing to take that step of
faith.
I have never found faith easy.
And do not consider myself a great man
of faith.
And if I chose my subject, I would
never speak about world missions.
That's not my main thing.
I was going to a big church in
a particular country, I won't tell you which
country, and they all heard, you know, George
Burroughs coming, international manipulator or coordinator of Operation
Mobilization.
Some didn't show up.
After preaching almost 14 years in a row
in Cambridge and seeing recruits come out of
there every year, the rumor went around that
I was the evangelical Pied Piper at Cambridge.
Can you imagine a skinny little non-intellectual
like me going to Cambridge and leading these
people astray?
It was the joke of the week.
No, I couldn't have got those Cambridge students
to go out to the mission field and
they're out in almost every country we're working
in, hand to hand with their friends from
Oxford.
Only the Holy Spirit, only the Holy Spirit
can do that.
And then the rumor went around that people
were launching out with Operation Mobilization by great
numbers into the communist world and the Muslim
world and they weren't coming back.
This wasn't true.
Almost all of them came back.
Are we willing, really, as we go from
this convention to do business with God, to
mix the Word with faith?
Again and again, I've been driven back to
these words in Mark's Gospel.
Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees
these ordinary men, working men, and if we
think that God is only looking for young
people to send to the mission field, then
we are ignorant of the New Testament.
You may have heard a lot of missionary
challenges, but you haven't read your New Testament.
God is no respecter of persons.
When I first arrived in France, the first
missionary I met was converted at 45 from
drunkenness, was sent as an American from California
to France, and when I met this man
I thought, a missionary?
He was just learning the language at 50,
and now I could take you back to
France and show you living churches that that
dear man has planted.
A humble, ordinary man who learned the language
at 50 years of age, and God's used
him not just in evangelism, but in church
planting.
And some of the most dynamic people I
have met on the mission field have been
sent out in their middle years or in
their years of retirement by Captain Paget, who
was the captain of our ship after years
in the merchant navy around the coast of
India where he was accused of being Holy
Paget, this spirit-filled bachelor who God so
mightily used to keep our ship going for
many, many years.
I was with him in his dying days
in that nursing home in Hove.
Who will take the place of men like
Captain Paget?
Who will take the place of hundreds who
are going to be with the Lord every
year from our missionary forces?
And some societies have reported to me they
are barely keeping up with the death rate.
Some of you may be from Brethren Assemblies,
one of the most powerful missionary forces in
its day.
Before Darby was ever a theologian, he was
a dynamic missionary living on the barest essentials,
spreading the Word of God across Ireland and
across France.
And today we can go to Spain, we
can go to Italy, we can go to
France, and there are still living assemblies because
of that great force.
And yet today the Brethren Assemblies are barely
keeping up with the death rate.
There's not time to go into the statistics
of other groups and other denominations.
And I personally believe that when it comes
to world missions, we are in an emergency.
I believe this is true in any case
of the world situation.
My favorite writer, A.W. Tozer, said this,
The fall of man has created a perpetual
crisis.
It will last until sin has been put
down and Christ reigns over a redeemed and
restored world.
Until that time, the earth remains a disaster
area and its inhabitants live in a state
of extraordinary emergency.
To me it has always been difficult to
understand those evangelical Christians who insist upon living
in the crisis as if no crisis existed.
They say they serve the Lord, but they
divide their days so as to leave plenty
of time to play and loaf and enjoy
the pleasures of the world as well.
They are at ease while the world burns.
One great man of God said, speaking to
a great host of young people, The great
sin today among youth is an adultery or
immorality or laziness or this or that.
It's the sin of wasting time.
No to go from this convention with the
burden to redeem the time for God.
In many ways I'm very scared about giving
the kind of invitation that we'll give in
a few minutes because there is such a
tendency to think that missions is mainly the
people who somehow volunteer in how necessary that
is and then go forward.
Now please understand what I'm going to try
to feebly say because I think it's so
important I would have come to Keswick just
for the next few sentences.
I have come to love this country and
make it my home.
I have read the history.
I've listened to the recordings of Winston Churchill.
British history runs through me and brings me
to tears.
The men who have died and given their
lives that we might even be here.
And the danger in Britain today is we've
forgotten our history.
We've forgotten our heritage.
And it takes sometimes a dumb skinny, skinny
immigrant to remind us that this country was
bought with blood and our churches were bought
with blood and we are only here because
of blood.
Dare we play now?
Dare we become a group of religious parasites
now shuttling in and out of our conventions
singing our hymns but never really getting down
to business in the warfare of the soul?
Oh beloved, may we go from this tent
soldiers of Jesus Christ and may we realize
that the challenge young people to go to
the mission field and then not stand behind
them is a sin against God.
I have known many, many, many British young
people who wanted to be missionaries but received
no encouragement from their church.
Sometimes because the church was not interested in
missions at all but more often because the
church had a stereotype view of what a
missionary was and that he must have so
many years of education and so many years
at the local cemetery or seminary and then
perhaps he could maybe become a missionary.
I am not against seminaries and have preached
in many of them and have more invitations
to go back to them than I know
what to do with.
I just spoke for six days in Switzerland
to the strongest evangelical seminary in the country
to all the students and the head of
the seminary has invited me to go there
and teach practical theology and I don't believe
in bringing a division between theology and reality
theology and action.
That's why I love Keswick.
That's why I love these some of them
very quiet down to earth straightforward hard hitting
types that I've been living together with a
frightening experience I can tell you.
I'm glad I had my wife with me
I'm a very insecure person I've just been
clinging on to her.
Lead the way darling lead the way forward
surrounded by cannons.
You see we live in different days and
mission leaders we've got to understand this.
I was reading a recent book about missions
it is so theological it is so academic
the average young person in Britain will not
read that book past a few chapters.
Yes, the Cambridge and Oxford men will read
it the Durham University folk will read it
but God doesn't just call people out of
university and our seminaries as great as some
of them are are finding it extremely difficult
the facts show us to produce missionaries.
God is looking for a wider range of
people.
Many of our people have come as ordinary
working people mechanics, secretaries ready to serve tables
nobodies they've come just for a summer petrified
at the normal missionary challenge frightened by all
the standards and the application forms they saw
this little movement Operation Mobilization and it said
well just come for a summer learn what
it's about we're not a mission society we're
just a group of fellow strugglers and they've
come and they saw in that one month
and there's 400 more coming from Britain the
biggest number from any nation again this summer
in case you think Britain is being left
out of missions they come and God uses
them and you know many of them have
remained with us for several years of training
and then have gone out as missionaries now
with almost every mission society in the world
many others go back to Bible college after
that initial training and discipling and I dare
to say we have fed more people into
continental Bible schools than any group Europe perhaps
has ever known but we've got to give
young people a chance we've got to put
our buckets of cold water in the closet
for a little while we've got to be
stripped of our stereotyped ideas of what a
missionary is so that even if a weak
shivering young person in our church feels that
he should spend a year serving Christ we
might encourage him and we might support him
and I dare to say that the greatest
problem today in Britain is not young people
going forward that's part of it but it's
the church needing a renewed vision of missions
needing a total commitment to missions not a
token commitment every church with a prayer meeting
like we've had here every morning this week
in an age when there is very little
action in church prayer meetings because many churches
no longer have prayer meetings and that frightens
me with all that in mind we come
back to this text where Jesus walks and
sees these ordinary men and he says follow
me and I'm sure that some of you
young people have been sensing that all during
the convention that somehow the Lord was trying
to get through to you and some not
so young as well and the question is
now what will you do?
I remember Billy Graham speaking at Urbana in
1967 I only heard the tape it's part
of our orientation and training when he spoke
on Ezekiel 2230 where it speaks about God
looking to and fro looking for a man
to stand in the gap and make up
the hedge we've heard about the missionary needs
there's no time to elaborate I was looking
through this little book Operation World before I
came up to speak and I just ticked
off 15 nations where the sum total of
the witness is less than I would find
in Bromley, Kent where I now live 15
nations with less churches less Christians and far
far far far less witness than one English
town this is supposedly the decade of evangelism
and I'm not against that as far as
I knew since Pentecost every decade was a
decade of evangelism but I'm glad now here
in England we're acknowledging this as a decade
of evangelism but I would beseech you brethren
let's make it a decade of world evangelism
because that's what I read in Acts 1
.8 ye are my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea
Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth
and England and Britain has 50 times as
much witness and we still need more than
the nations I have just come from even
in the past six months yes we read
from our scripture in Matthew the harvest is
plenteous and the laborers are few and we've
now come to that crucial point in this
convention when some of us yea in a
real way all of us must determine by
faith to do something about it so many
young people say to me but I haven't
had a special call many of the best
workers I've met on the mission fields of
40 nations have never had a special call
in this desperate day and age some of
us don't need a special call we need
a special kick and I'd be happy to
see you at the end of the meeting
because we have God's word I've never had
a special call I was saved in the
night I was saved in Madison Square Garden
from a non-Christian home through a praying
lady who had prayed for me for three
years and prayed that people in her high
school would go all over the world sharing
Jesus Christ and that literally happened the very
night I was converted to Christ I just
knew I must be his ambassador I must
share his word yes God does give some
a special call we're all different emotionally we
can see that on the Keswick platform but
God in other cases just leads people some
for short term some for longer term as
far as discipleship that's always long term that's
always for life but some may go out
as a doctor for a few years such
men are needed or a ship engineer for
a few years and then come back as
one of our engineers and become the head
of the missionary committee in his local church
ooh we need some fire there God bless
you as you go from Keswick and may
you take those steps of faith that this
movement is known for for men even like
Samuel Zwimmer that mighty pioneer to the Muslim
world once stood in this tent or this
place and called us to go let's hear
the voice of the Lord let's respond in
prayer in support in action in commitment and
in those steps of faith that will lead
young and old actually to begin to go
and so often the problem in England today
is passivity and instead of real fire we've
got false fire which is spreading across the
land in extremist groups and taking 50%
of the young people from our churches oh
how I yearn young person that when you
do commit your life somehow you will not
be deceived as Satan pulls a counter attack
and then attempts to get you into extremism
or emotionalism or into some other little kinky
thing down the road where they feel they
are the only true church it's a lie
of the devil and it's growing too much
in Britain today may we know that true
fire that balanced fire that consistent fire that
burns and burns and burns and leads us
into working together with the whole body of
Christ in love in compassion and in all
that has been challenged or brought to us
through these messages