Though One Go with Me
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About this ebook
Barry Blackstone
Barry Blackstone is the pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Ellsworth, Maine, a thirty-two-year ministry. A writer since 1988, this was actually the author’s first attempt at a book project, now resurrected thirty-five years later. Having entered his fiftieth year in the pastorate, he thought it was important to get this first book into print. This will be Blackstone’s nineteenth book through Resource Publications.
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Though One Go with Me - Barry Blackstone
Though One Go with Me
Barry Blackstone
2008.Resource_logo.jpgTHOUGH ONE GO WITH ME
Copyright © 2010 Barry Blackstone. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Resource Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-643-8
EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-7274-2
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Prelude
Chapter 1: God’s Ordered Steps
Chapter 2: American Professor Returns
Chapter 3: Teaching Indians to Fish
Chapter 4: Spice Necklaces at 504 Colony
Chapter 5: Inroads into a Heathen Land
Chapter 6: A Christmas to Remember
Chapter 7: A Sunday Safari to the Summit
Chapster 8: Sermon at Thopramkudy
Chapter 9: To Kangazha on Bald Tires
Chapter 10: The Bible Still Stands
Chapter 11: Half a Million Rupees for Venmony
Chapter 12: Messages in Malayalam
Chapter 13: Auto Ride around Edyappara
Chapter 14: An Orphan Is Adopted
Chapter 15: School Bus Ride around Kangazha
Chapter 16: Of Friendships and Fellowship
Chapter 17: They Call Me Old-Fashion
Chapter 18: Wal-Mart Comes to Kottayam
Chapter 19: Agape Missions of India
Chapter 20: An Indian Princess Gets Ready for Graduation
Chapter 21: A Three-fold Cord
Chapter 22: Seven for Soneeta
Chapter 23: Playing with Elephants
Chapter 24: Jasmine and Roses
Postlude
I dedicate this series of family adventures to the Simon family of Kerala, India, and to their wonderful Christ-like kindness, and Christian hospitality.
Prelude
Though One Go with Me
Isaiah 6:8—Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I (Marnie), Here I am; send me.
A desire to revisit India began the moment I returned to Maine in February 2006. (I had sent 40-days teaching and preaching throughout Kerala State and at Kerala Baptist Bible College.) Even in my wildest imagination, I never thought that ‘desire’ would come to pass within a year, and never did I dream that my daughter Marnie would accompany me on a second adventure to the sub-continent of Asia!
Many, many years ago I wrote a book, Though Son Go with Me
, about my early fishing adventures with my only son Scott. The writing project chronicled Scott’s and my angling exploits throughout his boyhood. When I sat down to record my first mission’s trip to India, I adapted Scott’s title to Though None Go With Me.
The solo trip half-way around the world and back was without a doubt the greatest spiritual ministry mission of my life. Now I am again before my computer screen ready to highlight my return trip to Kerala, and the focus of this journey is very clear to me:
Though One Go With Me
To say my daughter Marnie and I have had a wonderful father\daughter relationship her entire life would be an understatement. I wish I could express in poetic prose just how unique our fellowship has been. I know of the theory behind such affection, but our bond has been extra special. It began early because of a birth defect, carried through her infancy, and progressed throughout her childhood and now into adulthood. We have always been able to talk, and our common love for the Lord Jesus Christ and His work only cemented an already cherished connection. Since the age of eight, Marnie’s expressed desire has been for overseas missions, and by the time she was 17 she was serving the Lord in Nigeria, West Africa. During her college years she spent a summer in Togo, West Africa, (The adventure that provoked me to write Rendezvous in Paris) and following her graduation from Lancaster Bible College, she joined Crossworld Missions and spent a year in Slovakia in Eastern Europe. It wasn’t surprising to me when she said:
Let’s go to India together!
Marnie had some funds left over from her internship in Bratislava, and I only needed an excuse to return to a land I had fallen in love with.
The opportunity can unexpectedly when the graduation speaker for Kerala Baptist Bible College, scheduled for March 2, 2007, had to back out because of personal reasons. The president of the college (Shibu Simon) contacted me and asked if I was interested. I jumped at the chance, and asked if I could bring someone along. The answer was ‘yes’, and Marnie and I immediately began to make plans for an India adventure together. Solomon was right when he wrote:
Ecclesiastes 4:9—Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.
I had experienced ‘delay’ before on an overseas mission’s trip. My cousin Bob and I were delayed two days before we headed for Australia in the summer of 1972 to do missionary work among the aboriginal people of the Gibson Desert of Western Australia. In the winter of 2007, my daughter and I experienced a four-day delay before heading to India to labor among the Independent Gospel Baptist Churches of Kerala, India. Each delay in my life has left me with the question:
What did I miss?
Because of a huge east coast snow storm two days before we were suppose to depart and the confusion that followed, our Delta flight out of Portland, Maine to New York had been cancelled. Despite clear weather on the day of our departure, the ‘JetBlue’ meltdown at JFK airport had messed up everybody’s schedule from Maine to New York City. So our Friday takeoff had to be moved ahead to Tuesday; four days to ponder one of life’s most frustrating circumstances: divine delay!
Both Marnie and I took the ‘delay’ in stride as we traveled back to our home on the coast of Maine to await our new departure date. We had learned long before that all ‘starts and stops’ of God’s people are apart of God’s perfect will. It might be frustrating, but our faith still taught us that God is in control of all such delays:
Numbers 9:19—When the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle . . . then the children of Israel . . . journeyed not.
As the Good Lord guided the children of Israel though their wilderness journey, He delayed them at times. These divine ‘pauses’ were for rest, reflection, and recreation. So why were we delayed? What divine purpose could God have had for us?
One of the most famous ‘delays’ of the Bible is the time that Jesus ‘stayed two days longer’ (John 11:6) before going to visit His sick friend Lazarus. The only reason given for the procrastination was that the power of God could more vigorously be demonstrated (certainly a resurrection shows greater power than a healing). Was that the reason for Marnie’s and my delay to India? What was it that the Lord had to show us? That He was in charge of our itinerary, not the Simon brothers; that He would make the final plans for this trip, not Marnie nor me? We love promptness and things done pronto; whether answers to prayer or travel plans. What I have learned is that God does have appropriate schedules and His delays are always within the boundaries of His greater purpose for our lives.
From the very first moment of our India trip together, Marnie and I were reminded of who was in control of this endeavor. We would experience no other ‘delays’ on the trip, for God had made things perfectly clear in the first four-days!
Though One Go With Me
is a collection of spiritual blessings and lessons Marnie and I received on our 2007 trip to Kerala together. It is my prayer and hope these remembrances will help you in your journey with Christ though all delays and departures and days.
Barry Blackstone
March 15, 2007
1
God’s Ordered Steps
Psalms 37:23—The steps of a good man (woman) are ordered by the Lord; and He delighteth in his (her) way.
Despite the feeling of disappointment over our four-day delay, Marnie and I were not discouraged over our ‘false’ start. This attitude had developed over the years during numerous situations that the Good Lord had put us through. No matter how many times the Lord allows delay, one only needs too look around for a hidden blessing, or two.
We serve the God of ‘all blessings’ (Ephesians 1:3). For me it was simply the blessing of sharing this India experience with my daughter. I had put her on planes for Nigeria, Togo, Slovakia, and many other destinations alone. Now I was going with her, or maybe,