September 20, 2016
Dear Readers,
God has been so good to put amazing people in my life. I may not be wealthy in dollars but I am a billionaire when it comes to friends.
Several weeks ago, I reconnected with Ruth, a friend from the past, and have been stirred by her messages. I asked Ruth's permission to share her messages and she agreed. This is the first message I received.
"Today is the 15th anniversary of 911. Most of us will remember where we were that day when we heard the news or watched the awful events on TV. Neil and I were at a border crossing in western Montana coming back from a ministry conference in Calgary. The border guard was in such a state of shock, he didn't even ask for our passports. I walked him through his spiel, and he took our passports back into his shed in a daze. When he came back out he said, 'You haven't had your radio on?' Then he told us what just happened. When we pulled up, he had just seen on TV the plane hit the first tower. When he went back into the shed he watched the second plane hit. Moments after we were cleared to return to the US and we were back on the Montana side we heard on the news that we now had tuned in, that all border crossings were closed, and all planes were grounded. It was eerie driving home with no planes in the air that day.
In 2002, we had a ministry friend from Germany, John MacFarlane, speak to our church planters and missionary trainees in our missions organization. We taped his 4 messages, and I just figured out how to get them loaded to YouTube. In the first message he tells his life story. I think it is his second message that he tells of a prophecy God gave him about 9-11. The first time he gave the prophecy was in the 1990's. The second time was in the US on September 9, 2001. John didn't know how the prophecy would come about until after 9-11 when we were all aware of the events that awful day.
John was mentored by Corrie ten Boom in Holland. Corrie wrote THE HIDING PLACE, and several other books. THE HIDING PLACE is her most famous, and was made into a movie by the Billy Graham Association about the time she and her family spent in prison in Nazi Germany. Corrie was released from prison at the age of 55 and spent the rest of her life traveling the world speaking to groups and churches about forgiving our enemies. She held teachings in Holland and John met her in those meetings where they became very good friends.
Through those meetings John met Brother Andrew who wrote the book GOD'S SMUGGLER about his work of bringing Bibles into the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block country under Communism. John MacFarlane is mentioned in that book as Brother John, the eager young Bible courier who had a woman in the church sew pockets to hide New Testaments in Russian into his shirt, vest coat, and even in his long underwear. John worked with Brother Andrew for 10 years. One of our Glenwood High School grads, David Gandrud also was a Bible courier with Brother Andrew smuggling Bibles into Russia for 10 years.
John met us through a mutual friend in ministry who was a missionary to the Czech Republic. Our friend encouraged Neil and other pastors to help teach in the Nehemiah Team ministry schools in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries after Communism fell. Neil began leading schools for John in 1996 and led a school bringing in teachers for the schools and helping teach in them until Neil began organizing our own ministry schools. John set up all the arrangements and we taught in the schools in Central and Eastern Siberia, the Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia, and Mongolia. Neil still travels to Siberia to visit churches his students began after going through the 4 to 6 weeks of minimal training.
If you would like to get a glimpse into what the Thielkes were up to, John's story is a richer, fuller version. When he traveled, Communism was in effect. The Secret Service Police were not as evident when we were there, but they were in our meetings and knew what we were doing and where we were. We were still assigned 'tails' by the authorities. We heard about some of those after being there, but we had no troubles in our travels. Challenges by the score, but no troubles.
For those who might be interested, John's messages are now on www.youtube.com. If you search for the following, they are listed in order.
John MacFarlane 1.1
John MacFarlane 2.1
John MacFarlane 2.2
John MacFarlane 2.3
Only watch if you are interested. Each message is about an hour long. We watch them with friends in our home groups, and we have used them when mentoring students one on one. The stories are exciting, but more than that, they help people understand how God still speaks to us today."
Evangelism has not been one of my gifts although I think my blog is a way of reaching readers across the globe. My gift has been sharing my story and encouraging others with the voice of compassion. As members of my own church head out to a country where sharing God's word cannot be done openly, I am remembering my position on prayer teams covering every moment of dangerous missions and am happy to be praying for this new mission.
Miss Dottie
PS "This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see." ~Corrie ten Boom, THE HIDING PLACE
I have learned that there are no coincidences in life. Enjoy every moment of every single day! AND...
Always remember that you are loved and prayed for ... YA YOU!
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