During the last month I’ve been kept fairly busy. Thanks for your prayers for the following:
This month’s series of Serendipitous Encounters started when I made an appointment with Ken Taylor, Director of Moody Press, during my Junior year at Moody Bible Institute. I was simply trying to find information about missionary work in Churchill, Manitoba. He gave me some addresses, which led to my connecting with a missionary who later invited me to spend the summer working with him.
About five years later I, with great hesitation and doubt, again contacted Ken to see if Moody Press might be willing to consider a manuscript I had written based on 1st John 2:6, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” He asked if I had the manuscript with me. I answered, “Yes, but it’s not very presentable. I would be happy to retype it.” He said, “No, I’m sure the one evaluating it can read it as is. If we are interested, you’ll likely have to do some work on it and retype it anyway.” Well, to my surprise, a few weeks later he called and said they would like to work with me on it. After signing a contract, working with them on editing it, my first book was accepted and published! Walking as He Walked.”
Shortly after that, I came up with another idea for a second book. For this one I asked the president of Moody Bible Institute to write a “Forward” for it, thinking if he did, there is a better chance Moody Press would be willing to print it. Amazingly, both he and they did! And “Hindrances and Helps to Christian Living,” was published. Later, a second edition of it was published, retitled, “Living It!”
Fast forward a few years, the church I was pastoring was in a building program. To help fund the project, besides asking for contributions, we offered people to buy bonds. One day, the contractor came to my office and said, “We need to raise $45,000 or the project will have to be delayed.” I had decided not to appeal to people outside of our congregation to buy bonds. But when I prayed for God to provide, I felt prompted to call Ken Taylor, who by this time had published The Living Bible which was selling in the millions. I knew he had set up a foundation with the royalties he received, to support mission projects. I resisted the prompting to call him. But the prompting continued. Finally, I called him, letting him know that I was reticent to ask him to help by buying a bond, and would fully understand if he didn’t. He graciously told me that the foundation was set up for foreign missions, but he would pray and talk it over with his wife.
The next day he called me and said that when he shared my request with his wife she said, “We got word this morning about how much money we had available and prayed for God to show us where to use it, so it seems God has answered our prayer!” I will never forget how he put it when he called me back, “How much did the Lord tell you to ask me for?” I didn’t know how to answer him, so I said, “God didn’t tell me, but we do need $45,000 to keep the project going.” Again, I was surprised with his response, “Come to my office this morning and I will give you a check for the needed amount.” We paid him back for the bond over the next few years, so the money still went to support foreign missions.
One final note: Ken Taylor established Tyndale House Publishers. They published two of my later books: A Daily Guide to Knowing God and A Practical Guide to Profitable Bible Reading.