The God of the Bible is utterly dependable, as evidenced by personal experiences on the mission field. The sermon recounts instances of God providing for financial needs, such as anonymous gifts for travel and unexpected back pay, and also meeting needs during severe illness, like the miraculous recovery of The passage's wife from blackwater fever and subsequent medical treatments. These experiences, alongside the faithfulness of believers who gave sacrificially, demonstrate that trusting God for provision and healing is a practical reality, even in challenging circumstances. The message concludes by encouraging listeners to lean on God's dependability in all aspects of life.
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shall be together in Hebrews chapter eleven the epistle of the Hebrews chapter eleven and we'll read from verse eight Hebrews eleven verse eight by faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went by faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him with the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child. When she was past age, because she judged him faithful who her promise. A little while ago I'm reading this passage in Philip's translation, I noticed a very beautiful alteration of that last clause. And the way it goes in Philip's translation is this. She judged him utterly dependable who her promise. Utterly dependable. Now, those words just jumped out of the text, and I thought I would like to use that as a background of what I want to speak about tonight.
The God who is utterly dependable, the one who has promised. Now, I have no intention at all of giving an exposition of Scripture, but I thought it might be profitable and interesting and maybe encouraging to speak a little bit tonight about personal experiences on the mission field. And I want to illustrate the passage that we have read together tonight by some things that have taken place in her own life. We left home, forty-seven years ago, to go out first of all to Portugal and later to Africa. There's one thing I had in mind that I would like to prove to myself, and that is whether God would take care of me or not.
When I was young, I was a hero worshiper. I had heard missionaries from the foreign field, from China, from India, and from Africa, and I thought they were the greatest people in the world. I've always felt that the missionaries' task or the missionaries' vocation is the highest in the world, and I certainly haven't altered my opinion. I believe that the men and women that go out to the far reaches of the earth to do pioneer work I believe that the greatest men and women in our generation or in any generation, I believe it's the highest vocation for any man or woman. There's nothing would give me more joy than if one of her children would come to us and say, Dan, I would love to give my life to the work in some part of the mission field.
Some people feel a little bit upset when their children come and ask them, their permission to go out to the mission field. But to me, it's the highest vocation in life. And when I was young, when I heard these men and these women, those that had given their life for the spread of the gospel in the mission field, it gave me a secret ambition that I'd like to give my life to this kind of work too. Now, I lived in a very obscure place. In a little assembly, nobody knew anything at all about me. and when I felt that I would like to go out to the mission field, I wondered just how it would work. I was always very fond of reading books, and there were two books made a tremendous impression upon my mind, and those impressions remained at the present day.
One was the life of Hudson Taylor, and particularly the first volume. You remember that Mrs. Howard Taylor wrote two volumes on the life of Hudson Taylor. And the first one is the growth of a soul. And the second one is the growth of a work of God. That first volume made a tremendous impression upon my mind. And I believe it has lasted throughout life. The growth of a soul. And then another book that made a very great impression was the life of George Mueller that was written by Dr. A.T. Pearson. Now George Mueller, I believe, was a vessel that was raised up by God to prove to the church that the God of Elijah still lives.
For more than fifty years, Mr. George Mueller, over in Bristol, took care of thousands of orphans, and he made up his mind that he wouldn't ask anybody for a penny. He believed in simple faith and trust in God for necessary supplies. Very often, a day would come when there was nothing for the breakfast. And sometimes they actually sat down at the table and there was nothing to put before those children. But after grace was saved, the food was there. And God never, never let him go. And one thing that George Mueller proved to the Church of God that simple faith in God works at the present day.
Now I thought I'd like to put this to a practical test in my own life. And I left home forty-seven years ago. I mentioned this the other night. And the brethren, who very kindly gave me a letter of commendation, they were anxious to give me all the material that was necessary for going up into the interior of Africa. I said, brethren, please don't. What I want to do is just to go out simply in faith in God and see what would happen. And in October, nineteen twenty-three, with a letter of commendation in my pocket and a little handbag in my hand, and absolutely nothing else. The clothes I was standing up in, I left home to go to Central Africa, trusting in God for all material things.
Now, forty-seven years has passed since that night, and all I can say is that we have proved, up to the hip, that God is as good as His Word, that He is the God who is utterly dependable. Now, it would be so easy tonight for to spend all my time in giving specific instances of how this has worked. All I can do is just refer to a few simple incidents that has happened during my life to show how God has taken care of us. After I arrived in Angola, I was living in a place called Hollando, Mr. Fred Lean, to whom I had gone out. He was one of the early pioneers, fine, fine type of a man.
I lived with him for eighteen months. And while I was there, he came to me one day and he said, there's a station over there in BA, and the missionaries have had to go home on furlough. He said, would you like to go over and carry on the schoolwork and take care of that work until reinforcements come out? Now, I was twenty-one years of age at the time, and I went over there alone. And I spent a little while at Walnando until the Murins, who came from British Guyana, until they came back again. One day while I was there, I was living in a little room with a thatched roof, a dirt floor, on the bed I was sleeping on, the mattress was made of a bag of Caligo, a Caligo bag filled with corn husks.
And the bed just made of ox thongs all laced together. And I had a row of pegs in the wall. And all the clothes that I had in the world, except what I was standing up in, was hanging on those pegs on the wall. And one night when I was out at the prayer meeting, a man came to the door. An African, he was in desperate need and he had an ex in his hand and he broke in the door. And when he went in, he lifted all the clothes that were on the pegs on the wall and he put them on the bed. And then I had a little desk in the corner where I had my money and papers and correspondence and other writing material.
And he lifted that and he put it on the bed too. And then he lifted up the two sheets. and he pulled it the whole thing into a bundle, and he lifted the caligo bag, the mattress off the bed. He slid it open and spilled the corn husk out on the floor, and he put everything inside that caligo bag, and away he went. And when I came back from the prayer meeting that night, I found myself in the middle of Africa with the clothes I was standing up in. The clothes that I'd actively left home in. was gone. And all I had was a khaki shirt, a pair of khaki pants and underwear and socks and shoes. And I was left that way in the middle of Africa. Now, in those days, you couldn't go round the corner and buy clothing.
And I wanted what I would do. I must confess I felt rather discouraged. But you know, just a short time afterwards, One day there was a knock came at the door. And when I opened the door, there was an African standing there with a big bundle on his head. I said, where have you come from? I said, I've come from Silver Porto. That was real head at that time. And this bundle that he had on his head was sewn up in canvas. Well, I said, bring it in. He said, I was down at Railhead, and the postmaster down there said, there was this bundle for Walando, and I said, I saw your name on it, and he said, I brought it along. I took my knife and slid it open, and when I opened it, there were two pair of blankets in the bundle, and a couple of pair of sheets, a couple of pillowcases, and all the material that I needed for the bed, and actually a complete set of clothing in the person.
And when I turned the thing over and looked at the date stamp that was on it, I found it was sent off three months before the robbery happened. And actually, Just almost immediately after it did happen, I had everything duplicated and brand new. You know, that came out from a sister's meeting in the city where I was commended, from which I was commended. And seven years later, I went back on our first furlough, and I asked the brethren if they would allow me to have a meeting with the sisters. I think they wondered what I wanted with the lady. But I wanted to tell them what had happened. And they gathered together. They said that would be quite easy to arrange. And they arranged a sister's meeting in the assembly.
And I went in and I told them the story of what had happened. And you know, they were so thrilled that it had come at such an opportune time. Now, don't misunderstand me here. I have no sympathy at all with missionaries who tell soft stories. or tear jerking stories as sometimes is described. No sympathy with that kind of thing at all. But you know, as I look back over my life and I realize the way God has taken care of us all through the years, I think this little word that we find in Hebrews chapter eleven is absolutely true. The God who is utterly dependable.
Good many years later, there was a whole year we didn't get any mail at all. Now, for the sake of our time, I'm not going to describe why. The Portuguese had held up our mail in Lisbon. It wasn't that mail wasn't being sent. But for a whole year, we didn't have any mail at all. And during those years, God, during that year, we never missed a single mail. We never went into debt for a penny to anybody. and in the most remarkable way, a providential way, a supernatural way, the Lord took care of every need. During these forty-seven years, let me say this, we have never been in debt for one penny to anybody.
The principle that we have acted on is this. If we wanted anything, if we had the money to pay for it, we bought it. And if we didn't have the money, we forgot it. We never went into debt for one penny to any human being. And yet at the same time, God met all her need in a most remarkable way. I just want to tell one other incident in connection with these financial needs. Before my wife went to Africa, she spent a year in a hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Anyone who comes from that area may remember a doctor that worked in Providence.
His name was Dr. Menzies. a very fine man and a Christian man. And before my wife went to Africa, he invited her to come to the hospital there and have a year's training before she went out there. Now, this was nineteen twenty-three, and he told her that whatever the other nurses were getting in the hospital, she would get the same. But Dr. Menzies was a most unmetodical man. a very generous man, but very on business-like. And the whole year that she was in Providence at that time working in the hospital, and sometimes it was night and day. But in any case, the whole year she got no pay at all. The doctor forgot to give her any pay.
If she wanted to go up to Hartford, to visit her friend. That's where her father and mother live. Their home was in Hartford. Dr. Menzies, he would give her her car fare. But as far as pay was concerned, that was completely forgotten. And after the year was up, and she had her commendation, she came out to Africa without being paid a penny for that year's work. Now, more than thirty years passed. And in that period, in nineteen forty-one, one day we had a letter from Mrs. Menzies. Mrs. Menzies said, I've been going through the doctor's books. And she said, I discovered to my surprise that during that year you got no pay for the work that you did.
And the doctor promised that you would get the same deal the nurses got in the hospital. Now he said, she said, I want you to tell me whether that is so or not. Dr. Bensis at this time had passed on to be with the Lord. My wife wrote a line back. She said, it's perfectly true. She said, I worked for a year there and didn't get any pay. And after a little while, there came a check from Providence, Rhode Island with a whole year's pay. And it came at the time in nineteen forty-one when we weren't getting any mail at all. So you can imagine our surprise. and our joy that the Lord just synchronized that for to take care of our needs at that time.
Now there are many other incidents that one could tell. We could talk all night about these things, but all I want to say is this, that as far as financial needs are concerned, the Lord has met every need in the most abundant way. Now this has happened quite recently. I think the other night we were describing going down to South America on two occasions. I was invited to go down there. And while I had the complete cooperation and fellowship of my brethren in going down to South America, I was absolutely on my own. And I made up my mind in going down there, I would go in exactly the same way as I did when I went out to Africa the first time.
That is absolutely trusting the Lord for all personal expenses. The remarkable thing is this. that just before I left to go down to South America I had three anonymous gifts. I don't think I'll ever know where they came from. But just before leaving I had three anonymous gifts that completely covered my fare. That is leaving New York and going right around South America visiting all the capitals and going up into the country and back again into New York. Again let me say I don't know where they came from. There were anonymous gifts And yet everything was covered, every penny was covered for that very expensive trip down to South America.
And it's only the judgment seat of price will bring it out where that money came from to pay for those trips. There's one other thing I would like to say about those trips to South America. When I went down there, one object I had was to look and see and learn where the need was. I wanted to find out who was doing the work, where it was being done, and what the needs were in each part of the country. And the only object I had was to try to funnel funds into places where the need existed. Now I went on there to give and not to get.
I had no motive at all in my mind of receiving anything. for going down there. We wanted to help the Christians and to try to further the work of God. But what was my surprise in every one of those countries where we went? First of all in Brazil and then down to Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and there was another country, Colombia. Each one of these countries, when I went there, every assembly where I went, away up in the interior when I was leaving, they gave me a handsome gift to pay my expenses to go from one place to the other.
Now, that was a surprise to me. I didn't want their money. I didn't need it. I had the money to pay my fare. And as far as I was concerned, I suppose these Brazilian believers, and in Argentina and these other places, they thought I was a rich American. And as you know, I'm not an American at all. But in any case, that was the impression, I suppose, that I would give to them. I didn't look as if I needed anything. But the thing that rejoiced my heart, These believers and the assemblies in every one of these countries when I was leaving, they gave me a handsome gift to help along with the expenses of going from one place to another.
Now, in case you got any ideas, every country when I was leaving, I made up my mind I wouldn't take a penny out of any one of those countries. And I kept my eyes open and my ears open. And wherever I saw a need, before I left the country, I emptied my pockets. Every penny that I had received, I emptied my pockets, and I left it in the country where I had received it. But what gave me indescribable joy was the New Testament principle of simple faith and trust in God. And not only that, but these simple believers. many of them very poor, were willing to put their hand in their pocket and have fellowship with the work of God with a man who was a foreigner, and not only a foreigner, but I suppose a person that they regarded as having more than themselves.
That was a tremendous, a tremendous help and a blessing to me to see the attitude of these believers in these different countries. Now, I could tell stories, too, about our African believers, men who have never had a shoe in their foot, men who oftentimes go hungry, and men who oftentimes are in real need on the fellowship of our dear African brethren. Over the years, it has just rejoiced our hearts. New Testament principles, when it's applied in a practical way, oh, it gives one a tremendous lot of joy and rejoicing. So first of all, in connection with financial need, I want to speak about the God who is utterly dependable.
And I think that any man today, stepping out in simple faith and trust in God, the point is, if God is called him, that is the principal thing. If God calls a man, he will take care of him. And another thing I think that's very necessary, that a man who is called and goes forth should have the confidence of their brethren. I think that that's very important. A man who goes forth should have the confidence of his brethren in going out into the work of the Lord. But of these two qualifications, they are fulfilled. First of all, the call of God. And secondly, the confidence of your brethren. You may be tested.
And every man is. We have had our testing times, too. But certainly at the end of forty-seven years, I can say that God is utterly dependable. I can say nothing but good about God and also about His beloved people. Our needs have been supplied through the sacrificial giving of God's dear people and we're just so happy and so encouraged tonight to give this little testimony to the goodness of God over the years. Now I want to look at another aspect of the work and that is sickness. First of all, financial needs and God has taken care of that. And before I say anything at all about sickness, let me say that we believe in divine healing.
We don't believe in professional faith healing, but we do believe there's such a thing as divine healing. And there's certainly a very big difference between the two. Now, if I had a broken leg, or I had pneumonia, or have any of these other diseases, I would always go to the best professional health that I could find. I would call in a good doctor, and I would hand myself over to his care. I believe that this should be the attitude of every believer today, the some who talk about faith healing. And at the same time, the means that God has provided today for healing, they would refuse to accept it.
But as far as we are concerned, We believe thoroughly in divine healing, that God is able to heal if it is His will. But at the same time, we believe in accepting the advice and not only that, but accepting the help of professional, skilled men that are trained for this work. Now, having said that, we have had some remarkable experiences in our life and testimony for the Lord over in Africa and elsewhere. This is something that one could very easily write a book about. And again, as far as I'm concerned, I have nothing but the highest commendation of the medical fraternity and those that have been kind and good to us throughout the years.
One of the first experiences we had was when my wife had blackwater fever. I'm not going to describe that in detail. And again, I want you to understand we don't believe in sad stories. But the two of us, we were in our early twenties, and we were laboring in a place in Chitutu in the Sangho country, and her nearest neighbor was three hundred miles away. And one night, in the middle of the night, my wife woke me up and she said, I have black water. She had had malaria almost constantly for about eighteen months. And by the way, black water fever is always the result. of a long series of malaria infection.
She woke me up in the middle of the night and she says, I have black water. And I knew immediately I was in trouble. Black water is a very fatal disease. Generally, about ninety percent of all cases lose their lives. And the year that she had black water, there were four missionaries in Angola had it. The other three died. And she was the only one that survived. We were alone. And I knew that the very first thing I should do was get help. I got a storm lantern and filled it with kerosene and called an African and wrote a letter out to our nearest neighbor that was Ed Bodley, out in BA. And I told the African to get out there as quickly as he possibly could and try to get help.
The African told me afterwards. He said, Janet, I thought he said that your wife was going to die. And he showed you the way their minds were. He could easily have got out there maybe in about six days, walking. But instead of that, he took about ten days to get out there. He said, I thought it wasn't while hurrying because I thought she was going to die anyway. You know, their minds work in very peculiar ways. But I gave him the storm lantern anyway, and away he went. And in the intervening time, I didn't go to bed at all. I sat by her bed, and day and night, I must have dosed, but I didn't go to bed. And for nine days, I sat by her bedside and tried to help in any way that I could.
On the ninth day, she had a relapse of black water, and went unconscious. And I thought, well, this is it. But the Lord answered prayer, and she came back again. And on the thirteenth day she had a second relapse, this time with hiccup, and I thought, well, this is it. But again, God graciously heard her cry, and she came back again. She revived. Now, I'm not going to tell the whole story, but Mr. Bodley and another brother called Edwin Roberts, that took a long journey through treckless forest with a little car, that an African standing on the running board with an X.
When they came to a tree that they couldn't get by, they knocked the tree down. And then went on. They came to another place, maybe where there was an anthill blocking the path, and they chopped it away. And through the primeval forest they brought that little car. When they came to a river, they had to get a couple of dugouts, lift the little car bodily off the ground. It was one of those first compacts. a little car called a Overland Whippet. Some of her older folk may remember that little car. But the lift of the little car anyway off its wheels and carried it down the bike and put the two side wheels in one dugout and the other two side wheels in another dugout. And in that way they were able to cross the river.
And I'm not going to describe the whole journey. But one day I was sitting by my wife's bedside and I was just about as discouraged and low down as anybody could be. I thought, well, now nobody's going to come. But as I sat there by her bedside, I thought what I heard was a motor horn or an automobile horn. And I thought maybe I was dreaming. But in any case, I heard it again. and I went out and here there were two white men standing on the doorstep. One was Ed Bodley, and the other was Edwin Roberts, and the rain was dripping out of their clothes. It was the wet season, and the rain was coming down in Torrance. And I'll never forget the look of those two men standing on the doorstep that day.
Oh, I said, brethren, come in. And they come in, and they sat down, and they told us all the experience that they had had bringing along that little car through the forest. You know, half an hour before, my heart was just about as low down as it could possibly be. But inside of half an hour, Ed Roberts, he's quite a wag. And the funny way that he told this story and the experience that they had coming along, we just sat there and held her side, laughing at all the experiences that they had. Well, now, just to cut a long story short, Mr. Bodley had to get back again. He took the little car back with him. And brother Roberts, he stayed on.
And one day he said to me, you'll have to get out of here. He said, unless you get out of here, he said, your wife will never recover. Well, I said, brother, I know that. But to transport a blackwater patient in the middle of the wet season, that's asking for trouble. Anyone with blackwater, you can't raise your head. If you raise your head higher than your shoulders, the black water comes on again. And probably it'll end fatally. And I said, why, even with an ambulance to transport a black water patient, that's something. But to take them six days' journey through the bush in this kind of weather, the rain was pounding down every day. Heavy tropical rain, something like what we had last night.
You know, what you got here in Florida is just a little example of what you get on the tropics over there. And this is the wet season. And I said, to get out there, I said, I don't know how we can manage. Well, brother, he said, we can pray. And the two of us got down upon our knees, and we asked God, if it was his will that we get out the VA, out to Brother Bodley Station, a six-day's journey, we asked God if we would please stop the rain for about a week until we got there. We got up off our knees and Brother Robert said, well, he said, there's no use of praying, he said, without taking some action. We sent up for the old chief. in a little village at the back and told him what we were thinking of.
Well, he said, I'll have ten good men tomorrow morning at dawn. And he said, if you have a hammock to transport your wife, he said, I'll have ten men there tomorrow morning to carry your loaves and to carry the hammock. And sure enough, the next morning they were there. We had a little baby at the time, our eldest son, nine months old. And we got a little hammock, and we put him in a basket and put him in the hammock and strapped him in. And then we got my wife, wrapped her up in the blankets in which she was lying on the bed, and lifted her and put her in the hammock. And then the men stepped into the bedroom, and they took one end of the, the two ends of the pamphlet, and they walked outside.
I tidied things up a little bit and turned the key in the door, and we started off on a six-day's journey through the bush. You know, the first day we did a good forced march of about thirty miles, and there wasn't a drop of rain fell. And when we made our camp that night, We put the hammock between two forks of a tree while we built a little tent, opened out a cot bed and lifted her off the hammock and put her in the cot bed and carried her into the tent. And that night around the fire we had a little prayer meeting. And we thanked the Lord for hearing her cry for at least one day. The next day we ran into her first problem.
There was a river there called the Luando. And the only way of getting across that river was a dugout canoe. with the upper surface about three inches above the surface of the water. The river was infested with crocodiles, on hippos, on the canoe was so small that it would only accommodate the hammock, on the patient, on the paddler. Nobody else could get into it. But in any case, the paddler, he said, Ganna, he said, you put your wife in the canoe, and he said, I guarantee I get her across the other side. There was a terrific current on the river. After those heavy rains, the river was in spate. But in any case, when we were standing there in the bank of the river, I went up and I spoke to my wife lying in the hammock.
Now I said, it's rather a precarious business. And I said, I hate to see you going alone. across the river onto these conditions. I said, what do you think you should do? I said, if you feel nervous, I said, we'll turn right around and go back again where we came from. We'll go back home. Oh, she said, I'll close my eyes. She said, you put me in the hammock and he said, let's get on with the job. So we filled the canoe half full of grass and we put her in the hammock and the paddler stepped in. And I stood on the bank with a loaded rifle, waiting to see whether any crocodiles showed their heads or not. The handler did a magnificent job. He took the canoe, about thirty yards up the bank and then he turned the head of the canoe out into the stream and he hit the bank on the proper landing place on the other side and he didn't ship a cup full of water he safely negotiated the river and there was some men on the other side lifted the hammock and carried it up the bank and again put the hammock on the forks of two trees while we paddled the men and loaves and got them safely across to the other side on that day Not a drop of rain fell.
Now, I'm not going to describe the other four days, but it was just like that every night, going along a little prayer meeting every night around the campfire, and God had heard her prayer for another day. In six days we arrived at Bodley's place at Chittau. And Mr. Bodley had a very nice bed prepared and a very nice guest room that they had there with white sheets and everything arranged so beautifully in the guest room. And I remember carrying her in. getting her into bed there in Bodley's guest room at Chittau. And then I went out to the men, the ten men that had carried her loads, and they were standing along the veranda.
I went out to pay them off. And while Mr. Roberts and I were standing there, paying off the men, we could see the great big black clouds gathering on the horizon. And as soon as we had paid off the men, the rain came down again. But for six solid days we had no rain at all. Now we were just ordinary individuals and I looked at Robert and he looked at me and we just couldn't speak. But God had heard the cry of a couple of very ordinary individuals and he had stopped the rain in the middle of the wet season in the middle of Africa until we got that hammock out again to Chittau. And God graciously graciously spared her life.
You know, today, I asked my wife not to come to the meeting tonight. I felt I didn't want to embarrass her. If I told that story when she was there, I think she would have felt most embarrassed. So I said, you just please stay at home. But all I want to say about it is this. These are things one after the other where we have proved that there's a God that's utterly dependent on us. You know, when we did come home the last time, She was very ill as a result of this experience. And in three years, she was in an operating room thirty-four times with a general anesthetic each time. Now you can imagine the kind of a bill that anybody would have for that kind of thing.
She was nine months in hospital in Belfast when we arrived. She was discharged from the hospital there that couldn't do anything for her. And just before we left, I was over at the Westminster meetings in London. And I'll never forget an experience we had there. Mr. Piercy Ruach was the chairman of the meeting. I had been asked to come over, and I was sitting at the bank of the platform, and there were four thousand people in that large auditorium in Central Hall, Westminster. And Mr. Ruach got up, and he said, at this moment, He said, Mrs. Wilson is in an operating room over in Belfast, Ireland. He said, I want you to bow your head and pray that God would spare our life.
You can imagine my feelings. I hadn't told them anything about it at all. They had heard about it in a roundabout way. But if that company of God's people bowed their head and prayed, I felt that God was going to answer that prayer. And I'm awfully thankful that he did. You know, we do believe in divine healing. God can lay his hand even when men are absolutely at their wit's hand and don't know what to do. We believe that God can hear prayer and he can answer prayer and he can raise up his children in circumstances that may be humanly impossible. We come over to this country and just a word or two about the medical fraternity over here.
We were introduced to a doctor in Philadelphia. His name is Dr. Ellis. He's one of the top urologists here in the United States. And when we went to see him, he said, I have decided, he said, to undertake your wife's case. But he said, on one condition. Well, now I said, what is that? He said, it will be a matter of two years. And he said, I have decided to take her case on one condition. I said, what is it? He said, the condition is that money will never be mentioned. He said, don't you mention money to me? And he said, I will never mention money to you. And twice a week for two years, She was in the medical center there in Philadelphia, and to this day we have never received a bill.
Now that man is at the top of his profession in Philadelphia. Dr. Ellis, if you want to know who he is, is one of the top urologists here in the United States, and that was the treatment we received from him. Later we were advised to go out to Vancouver and have two major operations. And while we were out there, there was a doctor word. A man, again a top urologist in the country, and he performed two major operations, and I was advised that the first operation I would receive a bill for one thousand dollars. On the second operation, I was told that the second one would be seven hundred and fifty.
Now the man who told me that was the assistant surgeon. He at the present time is in Nigeria. Dr. Ken Dick, one of our missionaries today in Nigeria, he was the assistant surgeon. And he told me that you can expect a bill for one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars for the surgery alone. After it was all over, I went to see Dr. Ward. I sat in his office and I made my little speech and I said, Dr. I am awfully grateful and thankful for the skill and the kindness that we have received from you. I said, now, would you please give me my bill? He looked at me for a moment with a smile on his face, and he said, my dear fellow, he said, if your wife is able to live a more or less normal life, after all her years of service in Africa, he said, I'll be well repaid.
It doesn't cost you anything. He might as well have handed me a bill for one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. That isn't the end of the story. Five months in a hospital, Do I need to tell anybody here just what that costs? She had a very good room in St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. She was there for five months. And when it was all over, again, I was going to the hospital to pick her up and to collect my bill. And when I was walking along the street, there was a car stopped on the other side of the road. And the man wagged me over. I went over to the car, and there was a friend sitting in the car. He said, where are you going? I said, I'm going up to the hospital.
He said, are you going to collect your wife? I said, I am. He said, step in. And he drove me up to the hospital and came up with me to the floor where she was. She was there standing with her bag in her hand. And after we had arranged different things, I went over to the desk. And I said, please give me my account. And this man, a brother in Christ, a dear brother, he came over with me, and when they pushed the bill out through the grid in the hospital, he pushed me out of the way. And he pulled his checkbook out of his pocket. And he paid the accountant full. Now he said, you're coming home with me. And we went downstairs and he took us to a beautiful home there in Vancouver.
the kindness that we receive from God's dear people over there in Vancouver, I just simply can't describe. The God who is utterly dependable. Why, these are things that not only bind us closer to the Lord, but bind us closer to one another. And again, as far as I'm concerned, I can't say anything good enough. about the medical fraternity in this country. They have been kind and good to us. I've heard the other side of it. I know a little bit about some of the bills that some people receive. But as far as we are concerned, trying to serve the Lord in all honesty and sincerity, we have received nothing but kindness from not only the Christians, but people that are not professing Christians at all.
We're awfully grateful and thankful to God for all that He has done. My time is gone. I thought of telling a few stories about the work, but I think that's enough. But all I want to say anyway, in closing, is that this word, in this lovely chapter of faith in God, we can testify that it's absolutely true, the God who is utterly dependable. May the Lord help each one of us here tonight in every circumstance of life. to lean hard upon him and realize his kindness and his dependability in anything that he has promised or his namesake. I shall we pray.
Our God and Father, we bow again on thy presence in the name of the Lord Jesus. We do thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for thy servants in the bygone day that trusted thee. We think of Abraham and Sarah. And our Father, we thank thee for the account that thou hast left in thy word. How encouraging it is. And how it strengthens our faith. And our Father, we do pray that we in our day and generation may have similar faith. O Lord, we do pray that thou will take away all doubt from our minds. And we pray that thou will help us to lean hard upon thee and to seek to do thy will the little time that thou dost leave us here.
We commend to thee, part of the ponds. Our Father, we do thank thee for this time of fellowship together. We commend to thee thy servants that are responsible for the work here. And our Father, in all the difficulties and problems with which they're confronted, We do pray that I will give them encouragement from thyself. We pray that the work may be built up and blessed, that it may have the smile of thine approval upon it, and our Father may be blessing here in this place. We commend it to thee. Now, our Father, once again, we pray that thou wilt remember the rest of this week. And as our dear brother speaks about the work that's being done in connection with the Amiens Bible courses, We do pray that this may be an encouragement to our faith too.
Now we commend us to thee, thanking thee for this time together, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.