In 1981 I was scheduled to go a Geography Conference in Wellington but began to question the wisdom of it if as I suspected I would not be teaching Geography for much longer. But as Head of Dept I was expected to go. A week prior to the time I would leave I got sick and became progressively worse with each passing day. Until a day before departure I wondered whether this sickness was from the LORD to prevent me from going to the conference. I rang Weston Finlay (an elder in our church) and asked them to pray for guidance me at the men’s praying and for healing if I was supposed to go to Wellington. That night at 8.15pm I was healed in an instant of time as I lay on the sofa. Later Weston rang to ask how I was. I found the group had just been praying for me. Weston added that he felt the LORD had a ‘Word’ for me to the effect that I was to go to Wellington and there “the LORD would show me the next step really clearly and help me to see all things in perspective”. My response was to laugh ‘the laugh of unbelief’ and tell Weston not to be too spiritual, I was only going to a Geography Conference. Weston’s response was to repeat the prophetic word!
In Wellington, it was like the LORD was leading me by the hand. I arrived at the venue for the Geography Conference late Saturday afternoon and checked in. Sunday morning I prepared to head off to church. On the way I came across a women who had a flat tyre; she was obviously heading to church too. So I stopped to fix the tyre for her. We were both late for church, so she invited me to have a cup of coffee and talk during which she invited me to church with her in the evening. She told me that David Metcalfe was her Pastor. Well that’s a coincidence, he was my old pastor. I went to church with her and met David again and told him how I came to be there after meeting the woman on Sunday morning and how God had been leading us into mission work with Wycliffe. David Metcalfe was amazed and told me how timely it all was. He was involved a Missions Conference due to start in Wellington on the Tuesday. He suggested I went to the Missions Conference. So I went to the Geography Conference on the Monday but on Tuesday morning I set off for the Missions Conference. As I walked in the door the main speaker was saying, “Have you felt a call of God on your life? “
I thought, “That’s me he’s speaking to.” The speaker added, “Be sure that you are fully prepared before you go”. After he finished speaking I met with David Metcalfe again and he introduced me to the Pacific Area Director for Wycliffe and the NZ Director for WBT. I then talked with them for an hour or more after which it was clear that to follow the possibility of joining WBT would mean Bible College Training. They also spelt out very carefully all that would be involved in joining WBT after going to Bible College. After talking with these men I went around the information booths representing all the Bible Colleges in NZ gathering information. As I was going out of the door a brochure caught my eye called “Before you move out you must prepare to move out”. It was the prospectus for Bible College Of NZ. (That was indeed where Tania and I ended up doing a course which was tailor-made to cover 3 years of Hebrew & Greek as well as Old & New Testament exegesis in 2 years).
Walking back to the Geography Conference I remembered again Weston’s words to me. That the LORD “would show me the next step really clearly and help me to see all things in perspective”. Indeed they had been fulfilled completely. Rather than “Weston’s words” they had proved to be the LORD’s words to him. It al happened so easily and so simply in a way that I could not deny that God had been guiding me step by step and showing me what it was that I had to do.