# 12 The Heritage of Faithfulness

Tonight there was a Community Dinner at Wycliffe College after the Eucharist Service in Founder’s Chapel and after dinner I had a long chat with a young woman who worked in the OMF office for several years.

Somehow we got talking about the OMF Prayer Meeting at the Mission Home on Avenue Road that I attended when my son was a baby. Long ago!

It brought back so many memories of “the China Hands” – men and women, many of them in or nearing their eighth decade… the Taylor sisters – three MKs who had been born and raised in China, dear old Mrs. Hannah – very old, very frail and very faithful, sweet Mr. Rowe – so very English, Connie Windsor – no nonsense with her! And a couple with a sort of double barreled name that had served in a M. country….

They were God’s mighty men (in the plural sense of the word – more than half were women.)

This phrase from Steve Green’s song “Find Us Faithful” describes what they gave me so perfectly:  The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives.

That heritage is so rich! And how it has enriched my life!

I wish I had with me tonight the beautiful letter David Michell wrote us when dear Mr. Rowe died. I want to end like that!

David Michell…   he, too, is part of that rich heritage of faithfulness. He was the Canadian Director during our first two terms of service and his example and his support were invaluable. But his book “A Boy’s War” gave us much more. Through his account of life as a very young boy in a Japanese prison camp thousands of miles from his parents he showed us that even when life is grim “God is still on the throne and HE WILL REMEMBER HIS OWN.” (The hymn the children sang as they marched out of the security of their school to the prison camp.)

The book is available at Amazon but if you buy from OMF Books (see http://www.omf.org/ to find the OMF Book service in your country) there is also a CD of David Michell reading his own book. Our younger children listened to this audio (they had the tape cassette version!) every night for months at a time.

What a heritage! What a rich heritage!

FIND US FAITHFUL   - Steve Green

Verse 1
We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us
Line the way
Cheering on the faithful
Encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament
To God's sustaining grace

Chorus
Oh may all who come behind us
Find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion
Light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live
Inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us
Find us faithful

Verse 2
Surrounded by so great
A cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race
Not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness
Passed on through godly lives

Verse 3
After all our hopes and dreams
Have come and gone
And our children sift thru all
We've left behind
May the clues that they discover
And the mem'ries they uncover
Become the light that leads them
To the road we each must find

---1987 Jonathan Mark Music