Proverbs 16:9
The Voice
(VOICE)
9 People do their best making plans for their lives,
but the Eternal guides each step.
After five very interesting years
at Ikizu in Tanzania, we returned to Iowa City so I could work on a Ph.D. The
General Conference secretariat instructed me in writing that they were letting
me study but there would be no place for me in the Afro-Mideast Division when I
was through. The letter directed me to find another job when I graduated.
After three full years of study,
the end was in sight, and I started looking for a position in the Adventist
educational system. Two places sought me, the first to teach math at Middle
East College in the Afro-Mideast Division and the second also to teach math but
at Helderberg College in South Africa.
The call to MEC came first, and we
started preparing ourselves for the eventuality of going there. We talked to
several returned missionaries from Beirut, Lebanon, where the college is
located, and they painted a mixed picture. Lebanon was in the midst of a deadly
civil war. Each of these missionaries would talk with me about the plusses and
minuses. Then, invariably, he would reach into his pocket and pull out a spent
bullet.
“This came through two walls and
embedded itself in a third wall in our daughter’s bedroom. God was looking
after us and no one was hurt,” was a typical story.
You can imagine that this might be
a bit disconcerting to a novice unused to living in a war situation. However I
don’t remember being afraid. I figured that the Eternal was in charge. If He
wanted us at MEC, then He would look after our safety.
At this time a group of Egyptian
students were studying at the University of Iowa, and they advertised a
semester long class in Arabic as a goodwill gesture. I signed up and attended
regularly. Since Swahili has derived a lot of its vocabulary, including its
numbers and abstract nouns, from Arabic, I made excellent strides. My teachers
were very pleased with my progress.
But the Eternal had other plans
for us. As the fourth year of study went by and I approached graduation, He
made it abundantly clear that His place for me was at Helderberg, a continent
away from Arabic and MEC.
Thank You, Lord, for guiding each step of our lives. I ask that You continue
doing so in the future.
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