CALLED A s E c·o ND Tl ME
•
MARGARET MANTON
EDTT()D CALLED THE FIRST TIME TWENTY-ONE years after God first called me to the Far East I arrived in Singapore. The first call came during my first year at University. It came through the passage in Isaiah 42 beginning "I the Lord have called thee" (v.6 onwards). At the time I thought this was a call to China. but missionaries began to come out of China at about that time (1950). I decided I must have made a mistake. Some years of Modern Languages teach ing in my home-town. Leicester. followed by student years at London Bible College. convinced me that teaching was to be my work. When an invitation came to join the staff of LBC the future seemed plain-my work was to be Bible teaching in my own country. Five years on LBC staff and three further years as Vice-Principal of Ridgelands Bible College provided invaluable experi ence and training. Eighteen years passed since my conversion and that first "call" to
China, long dismissed as such in my own mind. This testimony sets out to show how God's guidance to the Far East came chiefly through Scripture. though of course circum stances played their part too. A Scripture which has run through these years like a thread is Elisabeth's words to Mary in Luke 1: "Blessed is she that believed. for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord".
THE SECOND TIME The second call came in 1968 during my - second year on the staff of Ridgelands. "The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time," I read. Was the Lord speaking to me again about overseas service? I prayed that He would not let me make any mistake. I asked if I could put His Word to the test and find out His will through 2
Scripture. It did not seem presumptuous to pray this. as the first and second call had come through Scripture. His answer to that prayer was not only guidance for me but a witness to the power of the Scriptures. Set on discovering and doing the will of God. I laid myself open to whatever He might want to say to me. The word "call" kept appearing in Scripture and in hymns. and for the first time I really noticed the word "go" in Jesus· words to the disciples. "Go ...teach". Circumstances contributed. The book Missionary Opportunity Today came into my hands seemingly casually, and the sec tion on South-east Asia particularly im pressed me. An LBC student soon to go out to Indonesia with OMF came to tea with me at Ridgelands. She knew nothing of my thoughts. but almost her first question was. "Have you ever thought of Bible teaching in the Far East?" The most striking circumstance was the timing of it all. My father had died some months previously, and it looked as if the Lord had been keeping me in England 3
during the six years of his illness and was renewing the call now that I was more free to go. A commentary read about this time had a striking phrase. It noted that Abram was called a second time after the death of his father Terah. and suggested that Abram was waiting God's time "until family ties were honourably dissolved". 1 This last realization was a comfort as by now the devil was suggesting to me that if I were called to the Far East I should have been there years ago. "Fancy thinking of going at your age," he insinuated. "Surely you've been out of God's will in staying in England." I asked the Lord to give me Scriptures to refute these suggestions. He did. and two particularly stand out. In the Psalms I read. "He led them forth by the right way", a reminder that we are not left to our own devices. In Proverbs I read. 'The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day". This reassured me that the intervening years had been spent in valuable prepara1 Derek Kidner. Genesis (Tyndale Press). 4
tion. not in wandering from the will of God. Almost certain now that the Lord was telling me to apply to OMF I made an appointment with one of the Directors of the Fellowship. Our informal talk was very helpful, especially as the Lord had further confirmed His call to me on the morning of the same day by a verse in Ezekiel: "I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth". How could He have made a clearer reference to His call of eighteen years before? Because a friend of mine poured cold water on all this guidance. the Lord drew my attention to the fact that Samuel had been called four times. He had now called me four times. Soon after this. toward the end of 1968, I began to correspond with OMF. but more than a year went by before I applied for membership. The OMF suggested that I should leave Ridgelands in 1969. and I prayed a lot about this, but the right time had not yet come. In the end. 1970 proved to be the perfect time.
s
MY MOTHER
DECISION
In June of 1969 my mother came to spend a week with me at Ridgelands. So far. I had said nothing to her of my thoughts. She was in quite good health. but I couldn't escape the thought. "Would it be right to leave her alone at seventy-seven?" Back in my room after seeing her off at St. Pancras. I clearly heard a voice say. 'Tm going to take your mother soon". Isobel Kuhn in In the Arena 1 speaks of a "private word" from the Lord. This was my "private word" from the Lord. and from then on I knew that my mother would be in heaven before I went to the Far East. During the summer vacation of that year Mother was not too well. My brother and sister-in-law. who knew of my interest in OMF. discussed the whole situation with me. and I promised them that I would not go abroad while Mother was alive. I did not tell them what the Lord had said to me about her.
In December 1969 a definite decision had to be made. Ridgelands Bible College was to combine in 1971 with Mount Hermon and All Nations to form All Nations Christian College. I had been offered a place on the staff and needed to give a reply. One Sunday evening I sat down to pray and think the whole thing to a co!'lclusion, asking the Lord to speak to me so clearly that I would know His will and not go back on it. As I thought about my home responsi bilities. I recalled lines of a hymn by John Newton: .. 'Tis mine to obey. 'Tis His to provide"
1 Isobel Kuhn, In the Arena (OMF). p. 186. 6
I ďż˝
and I knew that the Lord would provide a heavenly home for Mother before I went to the Far East. So I wrote a three-fold conclusion in my diary: to decline the post in the new college, to leave Ridgelands at the end of the academic year. and to apply to OMF. Some weeks later I was accepted by OMF. who 7
asked if I could be ready to go out in September to teach at Singapore Bible College. Two promises stand out at this time: "I will make all my mountains a way", and "You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace". How relevant they turned out to be!
MOUNTAINS On the way to the OMF Easter Conference at Swanwick I went to Leicester to spend a night with Mother: I never got to Swanwick. By the next evening a specialist had con firmed my fears for her. and shortly after wards the hospital gave her tvvo days to live. In the autumn she came home and was better than she had been for months. I deferred my September flight to Singapore. Those were bewildering months. Here are some of the questions which went through 8
my mind. Had God really spoken to me about the Far East. either twenty years ago or more recently? Were His promises trust worthy? Was guidance wishful thinking? Had the Lord got me out of Ridgelands on the pretence of going with OMF? Should I have stayed and gone on to the new college as invited? Yes. bewildering months. but months I wouldn't have missed for anything. because the very calling on God "out of the depths" carried its own spiritual blessing. Two Scriptures · recurred often: "His under standing is infinite", and "What I do thou knowest not now. but thou shalt know hereafter". My diary has these words:" 'Has God said?' Yes. and I believe Him". Perhaps above all I had a new sense of awe that the Scriptures meant so much to the Evil One that he would attack them as he had over these months. I believe it was because I had testified to the power of the Scriptures in guidance that these Satanic attacks occurred. They had not ended yet. 9
"I WILL MAKE ALL MY MOUNTAINS A WAY" At the beginning of December the doctor said that Mother would not live over Christmas. Fifteen weeks of nursing her followed. and in the early months of the new year I would wake up night after night in the small hours with my mind bombarded by insinuations against the love. power. wisdom and character of God. One night I took a definite stand against Satan. and resisted him in the name of Jesus. The next morning the iron flew over the ironing board to the sound of:
home for twenty years and never go abroad. so long as God is glorified?" In the middle of March the Lord took Mother "Home". On June 15. with our home sold and my responsibilities fulfilled. I arrived in Singapore.
"Jesus! the name high over all. In hell. or earth. or sky; Angels and men before it fall. And devils fear and fly." The nightly attacks ceased. and I came to the point of being able to say. "What does it matter that my trunks are in Singapore and I still here with no immediate prospect of going? What does it matter if I nurse at 10
11