2. Quotes from Leonard Ravenhill's Personal Letters
Quotes from Leonard Ravenhill's Personal Letters, number 2
In many of his letters, Leonard Ravenhill only wrote the day and the month, not the year, so it is difficult to ascertain their chronological order. I will therefore concentrate on the content, rather than the chronology.
In these first presentations of the letters we received from Ravenhill, I want to firmly establish the personal side. Len felt it important, not only to impart truth, but to form relationships with people. I marvel at the number of people that he counted as friends. He had time for people and, I think, when a ministry gets so big that it doesn’t have time for people… then it is too big! The Kingdom of God is about people and God - and the relationships between them.
After our family had come to live in the US for a few years, we had established a home fellowship. One summer, we planned a trip to Mexico, to show our field of labor to some of those who attended our meetings. This took place in 1984. It was quite a caravan of vehicles, 6 or 7 if I remember right, that traveled down I-35 from Minnesota through Texas to the Mexican border. We drove on far south to the State of Oaxaca. One of the vehicles was a late-model, 4-wheel drive, which we were donating to the work.
I had proposed ahead of time a meeting with Leonard, as we would pass through Lindale, Texas, and he graciously accepted:
July 10: We will be delighted to meet your caravan. What about sleeping? We can put up four of you. There is a local motel about 10 miles away and a place there to eat. Let me know if you want reservations booking. I will get “Last Days” (Keith Green’s nearby ministry) or David Wilkerson (a neighbor of the Ravenhill’s) to let me have a room to talk together. Phone me the day before you arrive. Travel well…
We did not take advantage of his offer to sleep four of us, but Margaret and I did go over to their home, where Martha immediately served us tea and cookies… good Irish lady that she was… and Len and I talked. He mentioned that he had lost his manuscript on a book that he had hoped to write… it was never written. I mentioned the opposition we experienced in Mexico from the Catholic Church. Len commented: “The Catholic Church in the minority is a lamb; on an equal basis it is a fox; and in the majority is a wolf!”
Len and Martha had lunch with our whole group in a restaurant nearby and then we drove over to David Wilkerson’s warehouse, where there was a chapel room. We drove past Wilkerson’s unpretentious house, as Len pointed out, and had Wilkerson been home, he would have taken us to meet him. Leonard sat in a chair before us and said, “Instead of a message, why don’t you just ask some questions.” A couple months later, he wrote this letter:
Sept 18: Thanks for your letter today and for the Good News of His mercy in preserving you in your trip to and in Mexico.
For about a month, I have been trying to get a book for you. NOW it is being sent to me and I will send it on immediately to you (Sorry, I don’t remember what book it was). It has blest me more than any other book in the last 10 years. It would be good to read to your group a couple chapters a week after you have read it yourselves to see if is okay. I will send you a super book list next week (10 amazing books that we promptly obtained).
It was a real joy to share a few thoughts with your group. I know many were drinking it in. I just love ministering to small groups. It is so rewarding to see your spiritual children ‘leave home’ and go to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
The enclosed tract is probably the undisclosed Manifesto of Mondale and Ferraro (Democratic presidential candidates in 1984). No burglar drops in to tell us what time he will rob the house – or to show us his tools for breaking and entering – neither do politicians reveal their secret weapons…
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Recommended Books
Post a Comment