Obstacles of Om Work in Pakistan — George Verwer

It's easier to get up here in the East than it is in the West, various built-in alarm systems to the culture, like these men who get shouting from the minarets early in the morning. This morning we got up even earlier as Wakely's dog was having a convulsion right outside the door where I was sleeping.

And I went up to see if I could help him. And then I couldn't go back to sleep, but I had enough sleep. And then I went into the other little room where I probably woke Wakely up with my coughing. My wife is not well.

She has been fairly well on this trip, but somehow got a little ill the last couple days. And I was crying out to the Lord for a message to share with you. To me, every hour in life is important. Some of you, I may never get the chance to speak to you again.

OM is a movement of people just coming and going, you know, like ants in an earthquake. And so you never get to see people sometimes again until maybe an ex-OMer's reunion 20 years later. It's a little late then.

But the Lord was very gracious. He not only gave me a message to share with you, he gave me two messages. You know, like yesterday, we had, you know, the four points. Then on the fourth point, we had seven points.

But I want to limit it to this one 60-minute tape, because also Mike has a lot of things he wants us to do this morning. Off to visit bishops or lepers or whatever else is on his mind for today. But I'd like to, first of all, just share with you something fairly practical, similar to what I shared with a group of Indian brothers.

Seven Obstacles to Christian Work in Pakistan

God gave me a message, seven major obstacles of the work in India, very much geared toward the Indian national situation, as our work in India is very much a movement of nationals, with some internationals, of course, involved as well.

This morning I got the seven obstacles to the work in Pakistan. This is built up over my last four trips. Four years in a row I've come here. I went out jogging around six o 'clock to this fantastic park.

If you haven't discovered the park behind the zoo yet, you probably have as much initiative as a water-skiing donkey. But I went to that park, and there must have been at least 2 ,000 Pakistanis doing their exercises, all over the park, everywhere.

Some weightlifters, joggers, jumpers, yoga specialists, hardly anyone was in the mosque. And I got the burden to come and live in Lahore. But I'm not sure that was from the Lord or from the park. But what a beautiful place.

No wonder they have to crowd people into other parts of the city, so they can keep the park, such a huge park, completely free. I was thinking, it is a terrific privilege to be here in Pakistan. I guess we're more aware of this now that the day is over for long-term missionary service in India, except for very few people.

And yet here the Lord has kept the door open. It is a terrific privilege, really. I count it a privilege even to be here for a few days. I'm scheming and conniving constantly how I can get more time in Pakistan without getting out of the will of God.

It's difficult. If I look over this trip in terms of its results, by far, the three most fruitful days were Singapore and Malaysia. There's nothing even come near that. In terms of the gifts God has given me and seeing a lot happen, that will have a lot of long-term results.

On the other hand, I was very motivated down in Butwal, just meeting with our Indian brothers all day long, just man-to-man, face-to-face. It's not that one is important and the other is not important.

It's just that there's so much, so many opportunities. And of course, some places the church is just so much larger, so much more responsive, and so right, in a sense, to what the burden and the message God has put upon our hearts.

I think some of you know that even as I leave here in a few days, wherever I go, I'm challenging people about Pakistan. It was an encouragement to talk with one of the Eastward Bound brothers yesterday who was partly here because after the Easter leadership conference, in which I offered free tapes about Pakistan, he wrote for one of those tapes.

And that was used with God to challenge him, I'm sure, together with other things, to come to this part of the world. Now, everybody who's a learner and a true OMer at heart at this point either has his notebook out or is about to take it out.

Those who are still not to that stage of initiative, vision, discernment, you can just recommit your life at this point and get your notebook. But it is good to be able to write things down. OM, please, we're not trying to be funny, OM is a serious thing.

We're trying to prepare you for life back there, which is much tougher than life here. And I've seen even OM leaders now, men that are with us ten years, go back there, and I tell you, in one year, they were in not such good condition.

Billy Graham said, life at its best is filled with sadness. And in OM, we are a training program, not just for missions, but for marriage. I had a letter from another one of those great couples who met on OM years ago, young Englishmen and a young woman from another nationality, and they just hit the divorce court.

That's not a very pleasant experience. I don't know how many of you have been through divorce. They say it is one of the most difficult, emotional, draining experiences in your life. Everybody ought to go see Kramer versus Kramer.

But somehow they met on a summer campaign, and it was all whoop-dee-doo. Life is one big bowl of blessings, romantic feelings, and I tell you, their marriage was one saga, until they finally had the courage, and I think in their case, it did take courage to divorce.

Don't get the wrong idea. So the reason I like people to write a few things down is because if I didn't believe in what I said, I wouldn't say it, and because I believe the truth of God and the message of God from any of his servants is worth remembering.

Now, I'm an inconsistent person, and I have to admit sometimes when I'm listening to a message, especially when I'm jogging, I have difficulty writing it down, but often when I get back, I write it down.

I'm also at a little different stage of spiritual life than some of you, I'm not saying I'm any better, but I have so many messages, so much notes, so many notebooks, that I think I have to at times confess that I'm a truth glutton.

I'm reading less and studying less now because I'm up to here, I'm saturated, and I have to give it out, or I don't know how I can take anything else in, and there's not that many opportunities to give out, especially when a lot of my meetings are with new people and I don't want to just give them my 100th message when I haven't given them my first basic message yet, the sufficiency of Christ, the Lordship of Christ, total commitment, world missions.

But with people like yourself, who I've had the joy of speaking to before, and I count that a great privilege, and I have the joy of somehow getting to you also through some of my cassettes, they say I made a way to a man's heart through his stomach.

The way to my heart is through cassettes. You write to me and say you've listened to one of my cassettes. I'm irresistible when you say that, I don't know, especially if it's a video cassette or a Super 8, because that program's been a bit of a disaster.

When somebody out in the middle of Rajasthan in the back of a truck is listening to 25 Points for Survival, and they write me asking a question, that can really make my day, and you'll probably get a fairly good answer.

I need to apologize, by the way, if I haven't answered any of your letters. A number of reasons some letters don't get answered. Number one, I never get them. Number two, I can't read the signature, so it gets into a file to deal with later.

That's always drastic. Number three, I dictate the tape and lose it. Number four, the letter gets typed out by a new secretary, not Vera, who doesn't make many mistakes, and it gets posted off to the wrong nation.

I mean, there's a number of other reasons. Lack of discipline sometimes on my part. But I hope you'll feel free to ask any questions based on this little message. Which message should I give first? I think the seven obstacles I see to the work here in Pakistan.

I don't think I need to give you some of my basic verses, like be not ignorant of Satan's devices or Ephesians chapter six. Most of you, I hope, by now have Ephesians six at least partially memorized.

So I'll just dig right into the obstacles. I think we know Satan is going to counterattack what you're doing. The obstacles to the work in India, I think, are greater than the obstacles here. Maybe that's just because I've been involved in the work there longer.

For instance, one of the great obstacles to the work in India is terrific gossip against OM in India by embittered OM graduates. You know, you don't have thousands of Indians go through your training program and not have some of them bitter.

And Indians who can seem very placid and very controlled and far more hospitable and loving than those of us from the frozen west, I tell you, when they get upset and they get bitter, you better get out of the way because they'll have you in court.

And fortunately, OM has never had a major court case in India. The main court case we had was my breaking of the customs regulations, which is probably the reason I can't get the visa. They wanted a big bribe because I broke a technicality of the law by selling my possessions, which I shouldn't have done.

It was a mistake. That led actually to my eventually not being able to return to India. And there is some pretty vicious gossip against Ray Eicher, against Alfie, against OM. It's very sad and it hinders the work.

There are some churches that are quite strongly opposed to OM, but we don't have that problem here. You may have in a few years' time. You may have a little, but in Pakistan up to now, I think you have terrific credibility.

In fact, with top church leaders, you've arrived more credibility in a couple of years than India has in almost a couple of decades. But there are other obstacles. Obstacle number one, just jot these things down, think about it, pray about it, try to keep it in balance, is the state of the church in Pakistan.

The State of the Church in Pakistan

Now, there are many positive things we can say about the church. I think it's very important to have that weighty positive mentality. He came to Kathmandu and gave us all a message last year on being positive.

He gave the same message in Europe, and OM needs this kind of optimism, this kind of positive attitude toward God's people and toward the church. And in a sense, the church in Pakistan isn't so different than many, many churches in our own countries.

So don't major in putting down the church in Pakistan. I'd love to give a message, the obstacles the church is facing in just surviving in this country as a minority group, as a socio-political entity, surrounded by people who do not understand, with a couple hundred years of interesting history.

And I hope all of you read at least some history of the church in Pakistan. To me, incredibly important. Compare it with the church in Nepal, which is very young, they have almost no history. There is some, I saw a book that I really wanted to read, the history of the church in Pakistan.

But in fact, generally speaking, when it comes to evangelizing our special friends that we are primarily here to reach, the church situation presents quite an obstacle. Many times they are completely cut off from these people as far as real communication.

Though it is amazing how they do exist together, some of the busties, some of the different areas we visited. And I think personally, there is a foundation, a foundation for communication that we can build upon, more than in some other countries.

But many of God's people here, as in most parts of the world, are lukewarm. This is not something I am telling you for myself. This is what my Pakistani friends, and I now have many of them, have told me.

So don't let anybody say, George Verwer is saying most Pakistani believers are lukewarm. No. Pakistanis have told George Verwer that most Pakistanis are lukewarm. That's what they've said to me. I've been four years trying to see if it's true, whether it is true.

And I think it is. We know what Revelation chapter 3 says about lukewarmness. There are beautiful exceptions. We have the privilege of working with many of the exceptions. People who are on fire. And let us understand that the great problem sometimes within OM is lukewarmness.

It's easy to start out the September conference with a great burst of enthusiasm and zeal. But after a few of the devil's arrows get stuck into your back, and some of them don't come out. I didn't have arrows yesterday, but as I was fellowshipping here under the trees, I had other things landing on me.

And I just recommend that if you fellowship any longer in this compound, try to stay away from the trees. There are birds in the trees who are usually having target practice. Praise the Lord, elephants don't fly.

But after you get a few arrows in your back, and you discover some of the problems, it's easy for lukewarmness to set in. So that's one of the major obstacles, and that's why I think it's so sane in Pakistan that we are committed to work with the Church.

We're committed to see reality, revival, and training in the Church. These people do speak Urdu. When God touches them and their lives are changed, they will influence the special neighbors around them.

Language as an Obstacle to Evangelism

And some of them, I believe, will come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, because we're short on time, the language obstacles. Now some of you are going to get a little upset by this, but I have to be courageous.

But I really believe that a lot of OM people really dilly-dally at language. All excuses, all excuses, but I really feel we go about language study often in a very slipshod way. And if you were in a secular corporation, in which they give you one year at times to get that language if you want the promotion, I tell you, you'd get it.

I was in Mexico one month, and I was preaching in a Spanish language. I listened to cassettes night and day. I refused to speak English except when I absolutely had to. I had about 10 different ways that I got brainwashed with the language.

When I got to Spain, I was working on advanced Spanish, and I was learning Russian. I was playing the Russian tapes in the night, playing them. And that was before the Walkman. The Walkman, you put the little thing in your ear, and you can be pumping those words into your head when you're jogging, when you're sleeping, when you're bathing.

And if we're going to make an in-depth impact, long-term people especially, if you're not even thinking of staying here more than a year, I agree, language is not a priority. But anybody who's serious, you've got to go at language with a much more intensive way, not just with your little teacher when he comes around for a few hours, but every possible opportunity.

Turn off the English. Nobody's taught language in OM like Mike Evans. You either speak French by Christmas, or you're just going to be out of it. You're going to be like a goon. Nobody wants to be a goon.

And if we're going to reach 80 million people, most of whom speak Urdu, and also have the language so when you get back to England, you can go to Bradford where we have 40 ,000 speaking, Urdu speaking people, you've got to get that language.

Don't make excuses, oh, I'll get too many other things in the program. I've never hardly seen anybody of the people I've traveled with in Pakistan redeem the time in the vehicles. And I saw it again this time.

They just sit. I say, don't you read this? I get sick when I read. Maybe you ought to get sick. But to just sit for hours and hours in a vehicle, not using the time. You can take a cassette recorder, you put a 25 rupee thing in your ear, you can listen to Urdu.

Or you can speak. I've seen Pakistanis sitting with foreigners in the back of the vehicles, not even converse once in three hours, as if the Pakistani had leprosy. This Pakistani speaks Urdu. You can talk to him, he won't bite you.

And I believe if we really want to reach this nation for Christ, we're going to have more of this initiative. We're going to have more get up and go, more oomph. Now, admittedly, I have a thing about this because I feel that so often people in the secular world are more serious about what they're doing than people in Christian work.

The same thing goes over to driving. Now, my brother Steve has told me that people are not taking the driving seriously. Now, are you telling the truth or not? You're getting me in trouble? Not taking it seriously enough.

How many more deaths do we have to have in O .M.? How many more deaths do we have to have before we realize that driving is one of the most serious things you can do? And in a country like this, why, I tell you.

If Steve is willing to give you a little extra training as someone who's been out here for years. By the way, the best drivers have the most fatal accidents sometimes. So we're all at the mercy of God.

And my teaching is do the best you can, keep learning, and then leave it with Jesus. Leave it with Jesus. You will not find me coming down heavy on you after you have an accident. No way do I believe in that.

I believe in prevention, and then after that, God's mercy, God's providence. You know, Keith Green, he overloaded that plane that killed 12 people. That was a clear-cut mistake. Clear, simple mistake.

He had been warned by Ravenhill. He had been warned by me about the way he carried on, especially a number of areas. He confessed that he was an extremist, but in a moment of impetuousness. Keith Green was a very impetuous guy.

He overloaded the plane. So much so, the insurance will not even cover that accident. And Melody's asked me to share this with OMers. Please pray because they're being sued for millions. Millions! Can you imagine if we try to operate the doulos and logos without discipline?

Can you imagine if some of our engineers worked in the engine room to put in that new generator the way some of you go about driving, language study, keeping your flat clean, single men? What if I went over there today for a little inspection on the single men's accommodation?

I think it's all a joke. I had a wife come to me recently, and she was just crying on the inside, and she really wanted to divorce her husband. Why? He stank. He stunk. I don't even know whether stank, stink, or stunted.

He never learned to take a bath and put a little deodorant on. We still have this problem. You know, I was with someone in OM the other day, and I almost had a seizure just from the odor. You know, is this asking people too much to bathe?

I fortunately have a wife who hassles me. I even have a secretary who hassles me. I am not speaking as one who has arrived. I'm not a good driver. I'm not super disciplined. I'm not Mr. Cleanliness. It's an ongoing battle.

But at least, as Dulos, when she sails from Southampton, I know what direction I'm going in. It's going to take Isaacson a long time to get to Karachi when he sails from Southampton, maybe two years. But at least he knows what direction he's going in.

OM is not going to change your life in one year. Life is habits. Some of you have deep, deep, deep habits. After you're married, it'll take your wife several years to change those habits. Dubai. So I see language as a great obstacle, especially for follow-up, for in-depth work.

I might say some of you have done tremendous in getting the language, and it means a lot to the people. It really does. Language is a very important thing. One of the reasons I'm hesitant at times to extend my time in ministry here is because I don't know that language.

I think this is linked with a lot of other things. I think it's linked with the whole thing of culture, getting to understand the culture, fitting into the culture. Pakistan is a pluralistic society. There, of course, are very Western people here.

Praise the Lord for the opportunities among them. There is scope here for those that don't even know Urdu because a Christian witness is never just one thing. It's many, many things. There's the literature, which is so powerful.

And even when people know that you're trying to learn their language. My own experiments in the streets, just telling them that I was trying to learn the language and using different phrases brought quite amazing response and certainly very high book sales.

Vision, Initiative, and Discipline in Missionary Work

Number three, the third obstacle I see is linked with vision, initiative, and discipline. I once gave a terrible message on Lagos. Never preached it again. Remember, one brother wrote me a really heavy letter about it.

And it was seven reasons why most OMers will never amount to anything in life. Can you imagine that? Oh, I was in a rare mood. It was what you call a reverse message. It was just a little bit of cynicism just to try to stir people up.

And I feel that a message like what I'm sharing with you this morning in Pakistan is good because I don't think most of us understand how difficult it is, just for a Pakistani young person, just to make it through.

Education, a job, marriage, the pressure is enormous. It's enormous. Society generally is much more difficult here than in many of our own countries. And many of our own countries are tough as well. There's a number of ex-OMers totally unemployed, one for two years.

England is not a game. And again and again people write to me after their time on OM and they say, it's like a broken record, it's much tougher now. It's much tougher now. Getting a job, getting a place to live, paying a mortgage if you're following that road.

And I think that it is good as old Martyn Lloyd-Jones exhorted us to do, to just exert ourselves a little more. There's plenty of messages on pace, keeping God's pace, spiritual balance, mercy, forgiveness, healing for damaged emotions.

That pendulum has almost gone too far within OM. I think we need a little more old-fashioned discipline. The problem is OM has become basically socialistic. People are coming to OM expecting a lot on the plate.

And when they don't get it, I tell you, we get a lot of complaints. You know, when I arrived to Mexico, it was either do or die. It was either see breakthroughs. I had nobody with me. There was no organization.

It was do or die. And believe me, the opposition was waiting. Short-term work was unheard of. George Berber was unheard of. Who are these foreigners? And of course, you know, the intensity of prayer, the intensity of commitment.

The many, many nights in which I didn't sleep. Not that I recommend it anymore, I don't. But now in a movement that's 25 years later, vehicles are there. The headquarters are here. Things are organized.

Sure, there are plenty of things that still go wrong. We're not against things being organized. We don't have the answer. But it's just sort of part and parcel of the way it is now. People expect a lot.

Of course, often we can't produce it. And so then people get bitter. I tell you, I met some very bitter people in Singapore. Just be honest with you Singaporeans. Really bitter against OM. And it's a lack of maturity on their part.

It's a lack of understanding what life is about. OM, of course, the 700 Singaporean Malaysian graduates going into Singapore and Malaysia with no understanding of Chinese culture, already embedded in endless cultures.

Of course we have failed some of those people. They have come with their complexities, just as the Americans bring their complexities, the Englishmen bring their complexities. And I thank the Lord that at the XOMers reunion in Singapore, he just broke my heart and I apologized and I asked people to bring healing, to allow healing to their bitterness.

It's only a small percentage. But you know the Bible teaches if 99 are going well and one is going off, that's the one that concerns us. And if there's any XOMer anywhere who's hurt, who's bitter, who's upset, and these days it often isn't with OM in general, it's often one particular leader.

Of course leaders have failed people. Leaders are overcommitted. And it's a great burden to me, a great concern that people now come in OM expecting a package tour. I think it's a little less perhaps in this part of the world.

Certainly on the ships they often expect a package. The ships have such a reputation. Study program. And of course when they don't get it, they're bitter. I got to Lagos. Every fifth person I talked to was fairly upset.

One was leaving the day I got. Another was quitting and leaving a few days later. He flew in from Australia. He didn't know what OM was from a moonwalk. And when he got there and found out that he had to go into a study program, they're very strict now on Lagos for the study program.

Everybody in the study program. And when he found out that he had to go into a study program, he just went down and then Sin got in different ways. Back he'll go to Australia. I'm not picking on any one country by the way.

Every country has these problems, but it's good sometimes to be specific. And I just feel that part of this syndrome that creeps in is linked with lack of personal vision. Personal passion. I want to tell you, if you've got a passion for souls, with or without OM, you're going to go places for God.

And if you don't have a passion for souls, and you're not baptized or filled with the Holy Ghost, which we all go around the world teaching, OM or no OM, ultimately you're not. We can't create spirituality.

We can't rub you together with Mike Wakely and create spiritual reality. Or with Shasti or their dog. Spirituality comes from above. It comes from the book. And it comes as you repent at the foot of the cross.

Praise God for some that left OM. They just left OM. Maybe Tom Hawksley's way is the way to go. Get yourself one of the local women. That seems to be a big thing in Pakistan right now. You know, leave the loving fellowship of this great OM Pakistan movement.

By the way, OM Pakistan is one of the highest reputations within OM. That can make it dangerous a couple of years from now. Because people come expecting so much they get disappointed. And it does seem sometimes no matter what way you move, you can't win.

No matter what way you move, you can't win. But praise God for those that have left OM and they were just thrown. Like pitching a little baby in a pool. They're teaching swimming that way. I forget which country.

Little babies in a few months. Pitch them in. And of course, if they go down, I think they fish them out with a net. But, you know, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is on that. But I believe vision, initiative.

You know, I know I'm hyper. I know I need to calm down. But do we really believe these people are lost? These people right outside the doorway? Or is this sort of a game like a Monopoly game? I've seen people more seriously play Monopoly than I've seen OMers going for souls.

They sit down and start that Monopoly game. They have a lot of similar games. They go right through meals until the game's over. Have you ever been in a gambling casino? People go at gambling more serious than we're going for souls.

I've seen people in the casinos in Las Vegas sitting there, you know, women all ages, you know, bloodshot eyes, a little meal neck, popping coins, pulling the, you know, commitment. Well, it's an addiction.

Maybe we need to be addicted to people. Vision, initiative, sanctified imagination. Have these become cliches in OM? Spend a whole month getting taught. We should come out of there like laser beams from an American satellite nuclear project.

Follow-up is linked with this. Perhaps one of the obstacles, this is linked with this point, is how do we follow up? This is the greatest burden on the heart of our Indian brothers. How do we follow up?

And so we get a lot of people saying, well, OM, we must plant churches, as if that's the only way to follow up. But, you know, until you get some on-fire Christians, or at least some solid Christians, you're going to have difficulty.

You might plant a group of people, but it may not necessarily become a church. How's your letter writing? Do you meet people in these villages? Do you write to these people? Now, I haven't had many days, but for my little time in evangelism, I'm corresponding with people, unsaved people in Pakistan.

I would have thought that OM is basically impossible, because we're on the move. And if one minute you're giving the idea to a person, you love them, you appreciate them, you'd like to know them, the next minute they never hear from you.

It doesn't add up. It doesn't add up. And I think that in our work, we've got to increase our discipline in letter writing. Of course, we can also link people up with local believers. There are Pakistani Christians who would like to follow up in areas where something is really happening.

We can pray, but we can't break God's arm. And I'm a great believer in God's providence. And up to now, there's not a major breakthrough among our special friends here in Pakistan. And I don't think anybody should go on a three-day fast necessarily to bring it.

But I believe that we can see some of these people that profess Christ followed up on and discipled. Basically, I think most of you are doing a fairly good job in this area from what I've observed. But I think that some steps of faith could be taken.

I talked to a brother. I better not even mention what nationality. I get too close to home. And he just, at least he was honest. He just admitted. He's been in our training for over a year. He just doesn't have any discipline.

That scares me. I tell you, that really scares me. How he could be in this work for a year and not have any discipline. Now my prayer is that he's just humble. Now he doesn't hardly write any letters.

And a lot of the other basic things, it does seem that he's falling on his face in that area. Praise the Lord. I just want to be positive. He's at least honest. But I wouldn't want to marry him. Of course, I won't marry him because I'm already married.

And he's a man. Please, please, don't take lack of discipline lightly. It could destroy you. Life is cruel. Life is cruel. We arrived in Kathmandu all rejoicing over the birth of Wayne and Sheila's baby.

Two days later, she's got the baby in her arms, dead. Now, is that cruel or not cruel? I know all the theological answers. I know God ultimately is a God of love. Humanly speaking, humanly speaking, there's a cruelty element in that.

You say, all right, not cruel for Sheila and Wayne because the baby goes to heaven. All right, what about the baby born down the road here to two Muslim parents? How do you explain that? Maybe you've got nice little theological answers.

I don't have them all. I had them when I got out, but I've lost them for 25 years of being kicked in the teeth. And life does kick you in the teeth. It really does. Ingemar Emker, Christmas, day after Christmas, only married a couple of years, one of the best, most committed, compassionate Swedes we've ever known in O .M. Bang, he's gone.

How? Why? He evangelized the world. It takes 20 years to see an Ingemar Emker. You have to take him when he's in the prime of life. What about Irma? If the rest of us overcome it, that's relatively easy.

She just wrote me, it's getting harder. And we know God overrules. We know our faith is being tested. We distribute. Don't waste your sorrows. We preach. 1 Peter 1, In this ye greatly rejoice, so now for a season, if need be ye are in heaviness.

Through manifold trials, there is a place for heaviness. And my heart is heavy when I've seen the trials of God's people, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honoring glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Thank God for His Word. James says the same thing. Let me read it. So many times, this has warmed my heart. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. You know, I think it's a trial to have to move your house here, really.

Don't develop a position where if the trial is not being martyred for the faith, you don't count it as a trial. Little things can be a trial. And having to move house, having a van break down in the middle of nowhere when you're trying to get to a meeting, these are trials.

They're small trials. But you know, if you don't pass the test with the small trials, what are you going to do when the big one comes? You know, an interesting, an Indian brother who's going through a very deep trial right now reminded me that in 1968 in Kathmandu during the leadership training, I shared a message called the big test.

That God allows many, many, many small trials, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds to prepare you for the big test. For some, it's divorce. For some, it's murder of a loved one. For some, it's rape. For Rosalind Helen, Rosalind, what's your name?

Helen Rosavir, it was rape. Imagine, for others, it's something else. Probably most of you this year will not have your big test. These are just little preparation programs. The heartaches, the troubles, the things that go wrong, the disappointments.

It's to prepare you for the big test. I've had medium-sized tests in my life. I haven't had my big one yet. I haven't had my big one yet. Getting ready for it. I don't know what it will be. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing this, that the testing of your fate worketh patience.