When I finished ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ I thought –
‘This is a life well-lived. There are lessons here for us all.’ The book is not
thin. It is a portly 589 pages; however it is a smooth, easy read. Before you
know you are at the end of one chapter and wondering if you have time to read
the next.
There are reasons for this. The story line is clear: this is
the life of the author, from child-hood to retirement. There are endless
by-ways he could have gone down, but he keeps us on the main path: his life,
and especially his life as a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Moreover the story fascinates, taking the reader both to a primitive tribe in the
Amazon basin, and to the senior offices of one of the world’s largest mission
organisations with cameo portraits of some of its pioneers such as Cameron
Townsend, Kenneth Pike, and George Cowan.
Another reason is the prose. It is steady, clear and
dignified; the words precise, but also pleasing and apt. There is no gushing or
gratuitous emotionalism. There is of course emotion, but the author lets the
story do its own work as when he tells of his courtship with his child-hood
sweet heart, Margaret, now his wife of sixty-four years. Romance was
flourishing - until they attended a Keswick convention. She stood for the
missionary call; he didn’t. And so separation was inevitable. She never thought
of another man; he never thought of another woman. But they were apart; God’s
will must come first. However his understanding of how God calls someone
changed, and he began attending night classes at London Bible College. This is where
Margaret was a residential student. There was a break in his New Testament Greek
class and he went to make his hot drink; and, yes, Margaret appeared. Maybe
it’s not quite Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on the top of the Empire State Building,
but it is still quite a scene even in the humbler setting of a Bible College
dining room. There is plenty of feeling, but it is all in the story, not in
horrible loud exclamation marks.
It would be understandable to see this autobiography as
important for shedding light on the growth of the Wycliffe Bible Translators,
for this is the organisation the author served till he retired when he was
nearly 80. Wherever you turn, there is Wycliffe, or its cousin, the Summer
Institute of Linguistics.
However that would be a mistake. The book is not about an organisation, it is
about a man’s life and, as said, there are important lessons to learn from the
life of Dr David Bendor-Samuel.
One would be that the important decisions in his life are
marked by careful thinking. This is what happened when there was that change in
his understanding about what a calling meant. David had thought there had to be
a clear divine invitation for the missionary, which he had not received. However
he saw that Paul’s movements in Acts were controlled by a ‘logical thought
process’. So he concluded the Christian should look for a principle in the
Bible, and carefully apply this to their own situation. Again and again the
author brought this understanding to bear when he faced important decisions.
And he faced several. As anyone in Christian work knows, emotional decision
making can leave a lot of damage in its wake. This emphasis on calm logical
thinking is an important lesson for us all.
Another lesson, closely connected to the above, is the way
David handled sudden changes and set-backs. He took them on the chin, they
hurt, but he again applied logical thinking which led him to submit to his
circumstances. You could call it submissive thinking.
After four years in the Amazon basin the family returned to
home in 1963 to England just for a break (missionaries call it a furlough); but
while there, out of the blue, he was asked to become the Acting Head of
Wycliffe in the UK. After two years the family returned to Brazil and were
making excellent progress with the translation of the Scriptures into the
Guajajara language. And then again, just after one year, the call came to lead
the work in the UK.
‘This was a complete surprise to us, and initially it
brought us a good deal of dismay’.
The dismay was because everything was in place for the
translation of the Scriptures into Guajajara. But they had to hand it over. Then
settling back into the UK, after three years another surprise request: to
become the international coordinator for literacy which would mean moving with
all his family to Dallas.
As well as these unexpected changes, there were outright
disappointments. In the jungle their house was burnt down. David was at a
conference at the time: ‘A telegram arrived with the message ‘house in
Pindare destroyed by fire’. When he was head of the Wycliffe UK a boiler
was left on and burnt down the kitchen and the dining room at the mission’s
main centre. Also when he was responsible for the work in the UK, the
government decided to build a motorway through the Wycliffe property.
After moving to the USA there are no reports of fires, but
the set-backs seem harsher. In the 1990’s each national Wycliffe organisation
was given autonomy, and David was appointed the Vice President for Wycliffe
organisations. This involved a lot of travel, diplomacy, and administration. It
was a job he did well, so much so that the CEO gave most of his attention to
SIL affairs (the translation work), leaving the Wycliffe side of things to
David. Indeed at one point he decided to formally delegate this responsibility
to David. Then, without warning, the CEO changed his mind, and appointed
another man to take this role on. When David asked what he was meant to do, the
CEO replied that he did not know. David allows himself one short paragraph to
express his disappointment over this:
‘For the past six years, I had worked very hard indeed,
virtually single handed, to re-organise the Wycliffe side of things, and I knew
that I had done a good job…..It just didn’t seem right or sensible.’
Just over ten years later came another set-back, probably
the most bitter. David’s last senior role with Wycliffe was as the
International Coordinator for Pastoral Care. His major contribution here – as
mentioned – was to introduce reconciliation training. It was called ‘Dealing
With Conflict Biblically’ (DCB). The course had been warmly received and David
was developing the material so his successor could ensure the DCB course
continued. In 2008 the news came that there would be no successor.
‘This came as a stunning blow. It had been decided that
nobody was going to be appointed as my successor in leading the DCB programme
since this was to be closed down as an International Function at Dallas.’
In all of these sudden changes and set backs there is a
common theme: submissive thinking. This does not mean there is not a raw reaction.
The set backs are ‘blows’, there is ‘dismay’, there is ‘spiritual struggle’,
but soon there is a bounce back.
With those requests to dramatically change his plans David’s
attitude had almost a soldier’s feel to it. His view was that he was being
asked to do this by someone senior in the organisation that God had led him to
join. Hence without strong reasons, he should obey.
With the fires, and the motorway plan, David looked to and
believed Romans 8:28, that it would work out for good. This was submitting to
God’s providence, and so in each case it turned out to be.
And so too for those harsher disappointments towards the end
of his career. Regarding the abrupt decision of the CEO not to confirm the role
supervising the Wycliffe organisations, David writes this:
‘Gradually, the Lord helped me to accept the situation.
The CEO had the responsibility to make these decisions and had no doubt tried
to decide wisely...Eventually I was able to trust that God was truly in control
of his world.’
The same goes for the closure of the DCB programme at an
international level:
‘After a time of spiritual struggle, I was able to accept
it as the Lord’s will for me at that time.’
This is not blind submission, it is thoughtful. As with his
initial decision to join Wycliffe, he brings the principles of the Bible to
bear on his particular situation, and so submits, choosing to trust the good
intentions of his seniors, and ultimately the goodness of God in directing the
affairs of the world.
Careful thinking, submissive thinking, and a third would be
forward thinking. This was David’s determination, in whatever role he was in,
to push things ahead. One of David’s first attempts to do this earned him a
firm reprimand. In 1960 David and Margaret were assigned as translators to the
Guajajara tribe in the Amazon basin. One of the more laborious tasks of
translating was to copy out for analysis sentences with words that appeared
regularly, but with no clear purpose. To avoid all the copying David suggested
using a new ‘edge punched card’ method[i].
Looking back he believed such innovations ‘culminated in the development of
personal computers.’ When he told Dr Gudschinsky, his
linguistic supervisor, that he would be using these cards:
‘Her response was immediate and sharp. It consisted initially
of just the three words ‘You will not!’.
She then ordered David to use the copying method. While he
lost that particular battle, there was eventually some poetic justice. For when
over twenty years later David was Wycliffe’s Vice President for Academic
Affairs he saw beyond the horizon and ensured the entire organisation
benefitted from all that computer programming could bring to Bible translation.
He set up the ‘Language Data Processing’ department. As anyone who has had any
contact with Bible translation will know the Wycliffe computer programmes are
renowned in this field.
There are many other examples of David looking to make
things better: for the Guajajara tribe he made gospel recordings and composed
hymns; in the UK he set up what today would be called a development department
for Wycliffe UK when he was the acting head; later he set up a personnel
department and also led the campaign to wean British members away from
depending on the US emergency funds and bring in their own support; when David
and the family moved to Dallas he set about expanding the role of literacy for
the whole Wycliffe organisation; he also spear headed a push for the
organisation to find out more about how many languages in need of Bible
translation there were; and much more. As seen one of his last innovations was
bringing a course on conflict resolution for all Wycliffe’s members.
Two other examples of thinking and acting beyond tradition certainly
deserve a mention. One is that during his national service he proved to the
British army that it is perfectly possible to induct new recruits to the
rigours of military life using a constant stream of foul and abusive language.
David himself had to endure this from a brutal and blasphemous training
corporal. However when he was assigned the same job:
‘I concentrated on showing that it was possible to
produce a series of well-trained squads without the use of foul language or any
other kind of unreasonable pressure.’
The other wonderful innovation that must be mentioned is
that all over the world, to the delight of hundreds of missionary audiences in
need of light entertainment, this distinguished scholar and senior leader would
take to the stage for a reading of - ‘Winnie The Pooh’. David would imitate the
voices of the actors he had heard as a young boy.
This is a significant book with important lessons for us all.
There is the wisdom of carefully applying the principle of the Bible to one’s
own particular situation; the prudence of thinking through the good reasons for
submitting either to ones’ seniors or providence; and finally the courage being
ready to look beyond the horizon to make things better.
Things have certainly got better for the Guajajara tribe. In
the book there is a delightful description of the dedication of the New
Testament in their own language. It was a day full of joy and rejoicing. This
is not in the memoirs, but it would seem from a little googling that when David
and Margaret first arrived among this tribe there were hardly any Guajajara
Christians. Now, according to the Joshua Project, 60% of the tribe, that is
about 14,000 people, are Christians. There is little doubt that the translation
of the New Testament into their own tongue is a major reason for this dramatic
growth.
No doubt the Guajajara tribe are thankful that David and
Margaret came to them; and I am sure many Christians will be grateful that they
can now read about this and much more in ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness.’
[i] If you are interested in
what this method entails it is detailed on pages 252 – 253 on the book.
