Personal stories from Ian’s life that are included in Gems and available to read and search as stand-alone stories here.
It Confounds Bank Managers and Tax Departments
We have been doing this now since the beginning of 1982. That’s 38 years. For thirty eight years we have not received a wage but in all that time we have been provided for. The very thought of it confounds and confuses bank managers and tax departments and other financial officials. It is something they cannot get their head around. One bank manager, when we wanted a loan to buy a house in Auckland when as Director of WBT I was to move the HQ to Auckland, held his head in his hands and said, “The bank can’t loan you money on that basis Mr & Mrs Vail. There is no guarantee. You would have to write to all of your supporters and get them to sign a deed with the bank guaranteeing their gifts to you.” God takes care of all of that. We have seen when one supporter needs to stop because their situation has changed and they can no longer support us, another one comes along to support us. There was a time when Matamata Baptist could no longer support us as they had done. But God had others set aside for that moment. And between the cracks we learn to trust God in the process, learning as Paul said to be content whether in plenty or whether in lack. That is what God said to us through Larry Allen, the itinerant prophet who came to Matamata on the 20th of December 1980. That’s right, you read it correctly. Almost a full year before we were called as such, God was preparing the way. Just as He prepared Garry and Glenys Danswan to be our house managers months before we even knew we would need house managers. And that was after God told me twice through two different people on the same day that I was not to sell my house to fund what we were going to do, but He would take care of it. I was told these things by strangers at the very moment I was thinking in my head the only way we were going to cover the costs of all that was before us was to sell our house. It was all so uncanny but God was saying. I will take care of you.
How does He take care of Barnabas and Saul and Ian and Tania and all the people in between? Through those who identify with them and support them in the process. This new body of believers at Antioch had taken up a collection to send money to those in need in Jerusalem. The child is taking care of the parent. It is all so amazing. And do you know what else is amazing? We have experienced the fact that so often the ones who give are those ones who can't afford it. They are the ones who have a little, but give that sacrificially. I told you about Clarice in Gem 1565, the little lady in the aged care home in Matamata and her bias toward Te Poi. But this little lady was also the one who on hearing that Ian and Tania were going to go out to the place of our calling came up to me and said she wanted to support us. I told her we didn't expect her to support us, she didn't really have the means. Her response still rings in my ears. “Ian Vail don’t you rob me of the blessing of supporting you in this work. If I choose to support you then you need to be willing to receive it.” I have learned much since those days Clarice.
D L Moody's Radical Response to a Student who Desired God
I remember the story told of D L Moody after speaking at a student conference and of a young man who followed out of the auditorium as Moody walked toward the beach. The student expressed a desire for God and to know Him and hear His voice. He kept on and one and Moody didn't say much. Then finally Moody stopped by the water edge and said, “So young man you hunger to know God do you?”
“Yes Mr Moody, I do.”
“Follow me then son” and with that Moody started walking out in the water, deeper and deeper. When they were chest height Moody suddenly grabbed the young man and held him under the water until he started to fight Moody’s hold to get back to the surface. Holding him a few seconds longer, he then let the young man up to breathe again. Upon which the youth gasped and said, “Mr Moody, what did you do that for?”
“Son, when you long for God like you longed for air then you will find Him.” And then D L Moody walked off and left him.
A Link In The Chain
I once picked up a hitch hiker on the road in NZ who was shocked when he discovered "I was a Christian too”. He has been been traveling south from Whangarei to the point where I picked him up. Every one of the drivers who picked him up had been a Christian. He told me how he had been moved from the point of No Consciousness of God to where he was ready to Decide to Act after talking with me. Don’t misunderstand, that didn't all happen when I picked him up. Each of the drivers who had picked him up before me had been instrumental in moving him along the continuum to the point of decision making. I just simply used me knowledge of the Engel Scale and my own personal testimony to move him to the Decision to Act. For that man he had moved along the scale quickly over a several hours as he encountered each driver who picked him up. It doesn't usually work like that. Normally it takes some time to work out our response to God over a much longer time. I just simply used what had occurred before I picked him up to move him to the point of making a decision. The other drivers had done the groundwork for that to happen.
Like Living in the Days of Acts
Today is a strange day as I feel like I am in the middle of events exactly like Luke describes in this passage where there is turmoil in the city as a result of this process. There are major protests in the city today over remarks the Christian governor of the city has made related to truth and error. Elections are coming up and many are incensed that a Christian governor may be re-elected. There have been warnings put out related to all of those reactions which Luke describes in the passage above. For those of you who read this Gem today please pray for the peace of Jakarta. There are suggestions there may be as many as 50,000 people protesting within a kilometre of where we live. Pray for the demonstrations to be peaceful. Pray for protection over the governor and his family. Pray for the reactions across religious lines. It feels like I am living in the midst of Acts 13:42-52. We have been warned to stay off the streets today. The Gospel of Christ will always divide because it pierces to the very heart of man:
Don't Rely on Your Own Experience to Interpret the Bible
Now we have this curious statement - "So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium.” The first time I read this passage in Acts after I became a Christian I imagined the significance of it was a parallel to the nearest thing I knew from my experience. Having played tennis on clay courts I know the clay sticks to the bottom of your shoe. So every now and then throughout a match you have to knock one shoe against another or use your tennis racquet to knock the sticky clay off the soul of your shoe. Otherwise you will be carrying around a heap of clay on the bottom of your shoe which will make your feet heavier and make it harder to run. In doing so I was using my own understanding to interpret the Bible. Don’t ever use your own understanding to interpret the Bible. That will lead you to a wrong conclusion. You need to learn to interpret the Bible through the cultural perspective from which it was written and from the time perspective in which it was written.
Zaphenath - Paneah
Then one day some years ago I was reading a book in my library doing some study on something else and I came across something that thrilled me. I read that the script I have pictured below for you is the Egyptian Demotic Script for Zaphenath – Paneah. I don't know how it is broken up. It is pronounced …Zaphenath - Paneah. I don’t know whether it reads from right to left or left to right. But the writer went on to say that the root has the meaning "Redeemer of the Age“ or "Redeemer of the world". I got excited and came bounding out of my study shouting “Eureka, eureka”. Well almost. Tania asked my why I was so excited and I told her the significance. Her response? "So?"
Who Do You Most Admire in the World?
Allow me to add a little Ian Story of personal experience. Leroy Eims, the speaker at my first Christian Conference (Navigators 1974) once asked me along with the audience, who do you most admire in the world? I thought of Rod Laver, winner of the four grand slam series tennis titles twice all in two different calendar years. He said to me if that person asked you to meet at 5.00 am or 6.00 am would you be there? Would I what! Of course I would. If he said he wanted to meet you everyday at that time would you be there? Again, of course I would. I would be there, "ready" hours before. Then he said, "Well the Creator of the Universe wants to meet with you every morning, will you be there? Of course I would and I have been ever since that day. Oh not with Rod Laver, but with the Creator of the Universe. That thought changed my life.
I Knew I Was Without Excuse
August 19th 1973 was the day I became a Christ follower and had my sins forgiven. The day I began the process of believing (and keeping on believe) in the Christ. What was interesting was I was a self-confessed atheist. I went to church for the first time and heard a presentation concerning evolution and creation. For the first time I heard facts that disturbed my evolutionary world view. But what was interesting (and the part I want to share here) is that when I heard the truth I knew it was the truth deep within. I knew too that it was uncomfortable. I knew this information was correct but also that being true it left me foundationless and WITHOUT EXCUSE. Knowing this was true I knew also I was guilty. If this was true I didn’t have a defence before the judge.
When Hugh Hefner's Excuse Deserted Him
Back in the 1970s, (ya I know that was before the hills got dusty) Hugh Heffner was being interviewed about his Playboy empire. During the interview as Heffner was explaining his philosophy the interviewer adopted a new angle based on what Heffner had been saying. The interviewer asked the question “when is your daughter going to become a bunny Hugh?” Heffner had been talking about the freedom of the sexual revolution etc. Hugh Heffner went through a number of adjustments and didn’t answer for a long time. Finally he confessed “That is the one area of my philosophy I haven’t been able to work out. I don’t want my daughter to be a bunny.” Written on the tablet of Hugh Heffner’s heart is the law of God. He is without excuse just like everyone else on earth. Hugh Hefner who allows and encourages men to do to other men's daughters what he is not willing to be done to his own.
Don Richardson and the Peace Child
Wow, now that is amazing. Every man and woman, boy and girl on this earth has God’s truth written on their heart. That is why Paul can say all are without excuse. I included the verse from Ecclesiastes because that is the verse that Don Richardson used when he came up with the concept of Eternity in Their Hearts for his book of the same name. It is like God has ensured that there are deposits of His truth in every culture in the world. Don Richardson worked among the Sawi and came across a number of redemptive analogies which matched Biblical truth. The Sawi had a concept of the Peace Child being needed when true peace was to be maintained between warring factions. A child from the other tribe would be given to the opposing tribe to live as a member of that tribe. Thus ensuring that peace was maintained. The tribe from which the child taken was not likely to attack the other tribe as one of their own was living there. Richardson used this concept to help the Sawi people to understand what God did for human kind in Christ.
Klaus Peter Kugler and the Fayu
The same thing happened with the Fayu where Klaus Peter Kugler and his family worked among a group of who praised the traitor Judas and thought the one who lied and cheated was a hero. Again it was a matter of finding the redemptive analogies. Those things that were in the culture already and matching Biblical truth. God has indeed placed eternity in the hearts of mankind. Every human on earth has something inside them that witnesses to their spirit about God’s truth but many block it out, choosing not to pay attention.
How did Klaus Peter managed to break through in a culture where deceit and stealing and all things wrong were praised? By simply living in a Christlike way and eventually he was given an opportunity to demonstrate an opposed world view. One day he saw the chief's son steal his crocodile meat he had left hanging in his porch area. The chief's son turned and looked at him as he made off with Klaus Peter's meat. Lord, hope do i get through to these people? The Lord seems to tell him to give the chief's son the other side of crocodile meat he had. So he took it as a present to the chief and his son and and told him that his God had told him to give the son this meat too because he must really need it. The one act of kindness turned the tribe to new way of life.
God Had Been Giving Me Opportunity Over and Over Again
I have been on a prayer retreat during which we were asked to look back over our lives and spot the patterns of how God talks to us and what He uses to get our attention. One thing I noticed was how many times I had come into contact with the gospel during my life before I met Christ in August 1973. There was one girl friend who was a Christian and who had tried to influence me for the sake of the gospel. But like other times I spurned her input. When it finally happened for me in August 1973 it was like the truth was there buried all the time even though I had no input or teaching on these truths of God at all. I then noticed that I had avoided or rejected any hint of the possibility that the answer to life’s questions might be found in Christ. I wanted none of that. But it didn’t change the truth. Truth was still the truth. The choice was mine as to what I do with it. Just as the response to the Truth is your responsiblity too Dear Reader.
Ian, what are you doing?
Allow me to illustrate what I am talking about and how rhetorical questions can be used to make a point. Rhetorical questions do not require an answer; they are merely used to emphasize the point being made. When I was little one day I emptied the cornflake packet on the floor in the kitchen and proceeded to stomp on them in my gumboots. I must have liked the crunch they made. [I can’t think of any other reason why I would have done that.] My mother came in and caught me in the act and used three rhetorical questions in her escalating anger.
- Ian, what are you doing?
- Ian Vail, what do you think you’re doing?
- Ian Warren Vail, what on earth do you think you are doing? (she always used my full name when she was mad with me)
None of these questions need answering and in fact I couldn’t have answered some of them if I tried.
The first one my mother knew the answer to very well. I guess I could have said “I am stomping on the cornflakes in my gumboots.” But she could see that for herself. She didn’t need me to tell her.
Maybe the second one was a psychological question it seemed. What do you think you’re doing? Well mum, I thought I was stomping on the cornflakes but tell me is there something more to this that I don’t know?
Perhaps the third one was an existential question. What are you on this earth for Ian? Well mum I think I am on this earth to stomp on cornflakes.
Austin Hemmings - New Zealander of the Year
I know a man who died for a stranger, gave his life for someone the world would say didn’t deserve it. His name is Austin Hemmings. [No I didn’t say his name was Austin Hemmings; I said his name is Austin Hemmings.) Yes I know he has left this world but I have HOPE, the assurance that I will meet him again. His name is still Austin Hemmings but when I meet him again he will have a new name (Rev 2:17).] Just type Austin’s name into a web search engine and you can read his story. What is amazing about his story is that his actions captured a nation’s attention – New Zealand. After all the news frenzy died down he was named New Zealander of the year posthumously because of the action he took and the principles he lived by. Let the significance of it all wash over you. Think about it. Austin is more alive than any of us. He has now started living the Life of the Age to Come.