It is a thrill to see how God is using a Gordon-Conwell graduate named Herbert Beerens. He graduated in 1975 and went to South Africa and became a professor of New Testament in the Baptist seminary there.

At one of their annual denominational meetings, the Baptists were so thrilled with the evangelization already done in South Africa that they were going to close the mission. Well, Herbert Beerens had one of Ralph Winter's pie charts which showed how many unreached peoples still had not heard the Gospel. So he showed this chart at that meeting.

Herbert told me that when the pastors saw the tremendous job that still remained, tears began to flow down their cheeks. Rather than closing the mission, they decided to open a new mission to reach unreached peoples!

They asked Herbert to take on a new position and teach twelve missions courses at their seminary. They also requested his help in finding another professor of New Testament to do his former job.

Herbert and his wife Madelain, who is a medical doctor, later went to live among one of these unreached peoples groups, and planted a church there among the Yao Muslim people of Malawi.

A Jew Finds His Messiah

Jerry Feldman played the piano for a dance band. He would practice ten hours every day.

While on the circuit, Jerry and his band played at a hotel in Florida where a charismatic conference happened to be in progress. During the conference, a twelve-year-old boy sat down at the piano where Jerry had been practicing ten hours a day and played the piano better than Jerry! Jerry was simply amazed.

'Where does this kid get his talent?" he asked. One lady pointed to heaven.

The Apostle Paul, being a Jew, knew that it took a miracle to win Jews. He wrote in I Corinthians 1:22 that Jews require a miraculous sign while Greeks seek after wisdom.

For Jerry, it was a miracle that this twelve-year-old boy, with very little practice, could play the piano better than he could.

And so Jerry Feldman, an Orthodox Jew from New York City, began to ask questions about Jesus Christ. When he saw what Christ could do, he received Him as his Savior, and came to Gordon-Conwell.

Jerry played the piano even more beautifully now that he had received Jesus as his Savior! He graduated from Gordon-Conwell with a Master of Divinity degree and now serves as the pastor of a Messianic synagogue.

The Apostle Paul, who was a rabbi when he received Christ as his Messiah, says in Romans 11:5, "At this present time there is a remnant according to the election by grace." It's thrilling that down through the centuries, there has been a remnant of Jewish believers who have come to know Christ as their Messiah. Many of them, like Paul, have been great scholars and talented leaders.

Two Nurses in Calcutta

We had two students at Gordon-Conwell who were registered nurses: Lynn Bolte and Harriett Whitesides. They told me in the fall of 1978 that they believed God was calling them to go and work with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. This was before Mother Teresa had received the Nobel Prize. I suggested that they make it mainly a prayer ministry.

'You won't have much opportunity to use your nursing," I said. Instead, I advised them to write down the names of everyone they met and to pray for those people as much as possible. And they did.

As they were working with Mother Teresa at the Home for the Sick and Dying, a wealthy Hindu lady came to see the work. She spoke English beautifully. They wrote down her name and prayed for her.

A few days later, Lynn and Harriett were walking across Calcutta—a city of eleven million people—to visit some children in an orphanage. The weather was so hot that they became unbearably thirsty. They stopped a woman on the street and asked her where they could get some tea to drink. Drinking water there can be dangerous.

"Wait right here," the lady said. She went into the house right by the road. Then she beckoned them inside. Lynn and Harriett entered this beautiful home and were shown into a lovely living room, where the lady had them sit down. Who should walk into the room at that moment but the same wealthy Hindu lady who had come to Mother Teresa's a few days earlier. She was the very lady they had been praying for!

"I'm so glad you came to visit me," the lady said. "I've been hoping that someone from Mother Teresa's work would come." Then she served them tea, and they shared the Gospel with her. Out of the millions of people in Calcutta, the Lord had led them straight to her home!

Now, that is a miracle. But it happened in answer to prayer.

When the Indian nuns at Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity found out that Lynn and Harriett were students in seminary, they said, "We want to learn more about the Bible. Could you come back and teach us the Scriptures?"

When they returned to Gordon-Conwell that Fall and told of their experiences, 26 students promised to go to Calcutta the next summer. This started the Overseas Missions Practicum, which has continued over the years and now is headed by Dr. Gary Bekker.



Dr. and Mrs. J. Christy Wilson served in Afghanistan from 1951 to 1973. These stories are taken from Wilson's book, More to Be Desired than Gold, which is available from the campus bookstore at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts 07982-0684. Dr. Wilson retired from the faculty of Gordon-Conwell in 1993 when he and his wife moved to California.


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