A Wonderful Life
Christmas has been gone for a month and many of you have re-watched, “It’s A Wonderful Life” for the umpteenth time. There is a line where the angel tells George Bailey, “Each man’s life touches so many other lives.” My friend, Dale Downs, missionary to Brazil moved into heaven on New Years Eve. He died of Covid-19. In the fall of 1998, I was serving as President of the Board for Camp Hickory (the Foursquare camp in the old Great Lakes District). I’d sensed the call of God to missions and back then you jumped through a lot of hoops to get a ‘missionary appointment’, as all missionaries were fully funded. I’d cleared all the obstacles and was notified by FMI (Foursquare Missions International) that they wanted to appoint me as a missionary to Cambodia. The only problem was they had no money to deploy me.
I’d been pastoring in Woodstock, IL for twelve years and I knew it was time to go. I was attending a camp board meeting at Camp Hickory and for some reason Dale showed up. It was lunch time and I was “brown bagging’ on a bench by the flag pole. Dale greeted me and sat down. He asked, “Well, what’s going on in your world?" I answered, “Dale, you’ve been a missionary and I’ve been called by God. FMI has accepted me. I know it is time to go but they have no money to deploy me”. He responded, “How much do they need?" I said, “Well, they want us for three years and you know it’s not cheap with transportation, my daughter’s education, house rental and all.” Dale asked, “What’s that amount to?" I said, “About $70,000 per year.” Dale exclaimed, “That’s $210,000!" I replied, “ Yeah, not pocket change." Dale shot back, “I’ll wire it in the morning!" I’m sure my mouth fell open and I responded incredulously, “Dale, we both pastor churches and I can guess you make about as much as I do. Where are you going to get that kind of money”? He shot back, “We just sold our TV station for $x,xxx,xxx,xxx dollars and I’ll send a tithe from that!" And he did!
Everything we have accomplished in Cambodia may focus back to that moment. Thanks Dale! There is a lot of fruit in your basket!
