A Captivating Story of God's Saving Grace: From Cheyenne Warrior to Christian Missionary

David Pendleton

"Men, you know me. You remember me when I led you out to war. I went first, and what I told you was true. Now I have been away to the East, and I have learned about another captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is my leader. He goes first, and all he tells me is true. I come back to my people to tell you to go with me now in this new road, a war that makes all for peace and where we never have only victory..."     From a sermon delivered by David Pendleton (formerly known as the Cheyenne Warrior "Okuhhatuh")  to fifty Cheyenne Indians who had gathered to hear him speak on Sunday, June 19, 1881, at the Cheyenne schoolhouse in Caddo Springs (now Concho), Oklahoma. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every time I drive south on Highway 81 from my home in Enid, Oklahoma on my way to Oklahoma City, I pass by a big casino in what is now Concho, Oklahoma. Thousands of people in my state know about the casino called Lucky Star, but very few people inside or outside of Oklahoma know about the extraordinary events that occurred three miles south of Lucky Star on the banks of North Canadian River on April 6, 1875, or the subsequent story of personal redemption (see above quote) that was told six years later on June 19, 1881, in the schoolhouse immediately west of Lucky Star. The story of David Pendleton will require a little background, but if you patiently and carefully digest the history, you will understand the significance these events have on U.S. history. The story of Okuhhatuh's conversion to Christ has some startling connections to U.S. federal labor laws, the Star-Spangled Banner, and the National Football League.

President Garfield Shot

I live in Garfield County, Oklahoma, a county named after U.S. President James Garfield. On July 2, 1881, President Garfield, accompanied by Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's son), made his way to a  train station in Washington, D.C. in order to catch a train to Massachusetts where the President would be giving a speech. As President Garfield and Mr. Lincoln walked through the Sixth Street Station in Washington, assassin Charles J. Guiteau shot the President in the back. Guiteau, who had campaigned for Garfield's election, had applied for federal office and was angered that the President had denied him a job. Armed with a .44 caliber pistol, Guiteau mortally wounded Garfield. The President would eventually die from his wounds on September 19, 1881. Most people know of Garfield's assassination, but few know of the historic aftermath.

George Pendleton

Ohio Senator George Pendleton was a friend of President Garfield. They both hailed from Ohio and had been close friends for decades. Senator Pendleton, upset by the assassination of the President by a disgruntled federal office seeker, authored legislation that eventually became known as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. If you have ever taken a test for a federal job or held a position within the federal government, you are familiar with Pendleton's Act. It provided a selection of government employees based upon competitive exams rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation, reversing the federal patronage system which had been in place prior to the act. Pendleton's law also made it illegal to fire or demote government employees for political reasons. To enforce the merit system, the act also created the United States Civil Service Commission. Pendleton, called by those who knew him "Gentleman George" for his gentle demeanor and Christian principles, is best known for three things: (a). The Pendelton Act, (b). His long and happy marriage to Alice Key, daughter Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and (c). Pendleton, Oregon, a city named in his honor.

Senator George Pendleton and his wife Alice Key Pendleton, however, should be known for something even more significant. This Christian couple led a Cheyenne warrior named Okuhhatuh to faith in Christ while visiting him in prison in Florida. Okuhhatuh had lived the first thirty years of his life roaming the western plains of Oklahoma as a Cheyenne warrior. How Okuhhatuh wound up in the prison in Florida is a story of God's providence and mercy in the life of an Indan man God chose to redeem.

A Cheyenne Warrior in Need of a Change of Heart

"You Are Here" is Darlington Indian Agency

Less than sixty miles south of where I live in Garfield County is the historic Darlington Indian Agency. Located on the north bank of the North Canadian River, precisely where the old Chisolm Trail (Fort Sill Military Road) crosses that river, Darlington was established in the spring of 1870 and served as the government base for the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indian Reservation. The United States 6th and 10th Cavalry also used Darlington as one of their Indian Territory posts in the 1870s. Darlington is two miles north and two miles west of what is now the city of El Reno, Oklahoma. What happened at the Darlington Indian Agency on April 6, 1875, directly resulted in the establishment three months later of U.S. Fort Reno (est. July 1875), a fort built directly south of Darlington, just across the North Canadian River. Fort Reno was created to assist the government in putting down "The Cheyenne Rising."  The origin of the phrase "God willing and the Creek don't rise" has nothing to do with flooding, but rather, with the knowledge that if "God wills" and the Creek Indians don't rise up and fight, then future plans are certain. In 1875 it wasn't the Creek rising, but rather the Cheyenne, the Comanche, the Kiowa, and other Plainsmen Indians as they revolted against government efforts to force them to live on Indian reservations within Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The plains were filled with uncertainty that comes with war.
 

Indian Drawing of Red River War battle

On April 6, 1875, several Cheyenne warriors found themselves prisoners at Darlington, courtesy of the United States cavalry. These Cheyenne warriors had been captured and arrested by United States troops for their armed resistance over being forcibly settled on a  Cheyenne reservation. The Cheyenne reservation is located at present-day Concho, Oklahoma, just north of Darlington Indian Agency. The Cheyenne warriors had been joined in the fight with whites by other Plainsmen Indian tribes (Comanche, Kiowa, Caddo, etc...) who were also being forced by the U.S. government to live on their respective tribal reservations within Indian Territory. This 1874-1875 Indian war, called the Red River War, began with the Indian attack on white buffalo hunters at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle on June 27, 1874, continued with dozens of major battles and minor skirmishes between Indians and whites which included the brutal slaying of white merchant Pat Hennessey on July 3, 1974, near the town that bears his name (Hennessey, Oklahoma),  and would only end when Quanah Parker's Comanche warriors turned themselves into U.S. troops at Fort Sill (Oklahoma) on June 2, 1875, just under a year after the Red River War began.

U.S. Army Gatling Gun

The Cheyenne warriors who stood shackled before Sixth Cavalry Commander Lt. Colonel Thomas H. Neil that Tuesday afternoon, April 6, 1875, were waiting to be loaded on wagons for their transfer to the federal penitentiary at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Black Horse, one of the last prisoners to be shackled, overpowered the blacksmith attempting to rivet iron leglets on him.  The Cheyenne warrior broke free from his captors and ran in an attempt to escape. At first, the soldiers tried to chase down and capture Black Horse without shooting him.  But as the pursuit lengthened and the cavalrymen realized that Black Horse would soon be able to cross the North Canadian and enter a Cheyenne war camp, they fired their guns at Black Horse. Other Cheyenne Indians, encamped around Darlington but not in custody, responded to the gunfire by attacking Blackhorse's pursuers.  Cavalrymen from the 6th and 10th U.S. Cavalry were wounded in this Indian attack and infantry reinforcements were called as the battle grew intense. This April 6, 1875, Red River War battle took place just north of what is now the city of El Reno, Oklahoma all along the North Canadian River, and is considered the last major battle of the Red River War. It also marks the first time a Gatling Gun was used by the U.S.military against Indians in the Southwest. Black Horse and several other Cheyenne Indians were killed during the battle.

A Cheyenne Warrior on the Open Range

Listening to the gunfire around him while under arrest and shackled with iron leglets in the jail at Darlington was a Cheyenne Indian warrior named Okuhhatuh.  He was thirty years old and stood over six feet tall. His eyes had the cold, hard stare of a hardened Cheyenne warrior. His name loosely translates into English as "Sun Dancer" or "Making Medicine." The Cheyenne word for 'medicine' referred to supernatural powers both during and after combat.  Okuhhatuh possessed great fighting skills and had demonstrated such during the major battles of the Red River War. He had distinguished himself as an accomplished and powerful warrior, leading his fellow Cheyenne into battle. His activities had led to his eventual capture and arrest by the United States cavalry troops who had been assigned to put down the Indian's insurrection. Okuhhatuh's anger stirred as he struggled against the bonds that kept him imprisoned and unable to enter the battle going on around him. Little did Okuhhatuh know that just a few years later he would return to Darlington with a changed heart and a new name.

The Cheyenne Warriors Become the "Florida Boys"

The Cheyenne Warriors at Fort Marion

After the U.S. soldiers quelled the April 6, 1875, Cheyenne uprising in the sandhills around Darlington with the use of their Gatling Gun, the soldiers turned their attention to safely transferring Okuhhatuh and 71 other imprisoned Indian warriors, 33 of whom were Cheyenne, to Fort Marion in Florida. Now properly shackled, the Indians were loaded onto transport wagons and taken to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Boarding trains at Fort Leavenworth while guarded by U.S. soldiers, Okuhhatuh and his fellow prisoners then took their first-ever train ride through St. Louis, Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Macon, finally disembarking at Jacksonville, Florida. From Jacksonville the Indian prisoners were taken by steamboat to Tocoi, Florida and then by railway 20 miles to Fort Marion, arriving at the Fort in late April of 1875.

Fort Marion was constructed in the late 1600's and is the oldest stone fort in the United States. Located in the St. Augustine, Florida (est. 1565), Marion was constructed by the Spanish to protect Spain's sea lanes in the New World.  Originally called Castillo de San Marcos,  the Castillo was renamed Fort Marion after Florida became United States Territory. It served as a United States Army Post in 1875 as well as a Federal Penitentiary.

Capt. Pratt (top left) with the Indians in Florida

Captain Richard Henry Pratt became the Commander of Fort Marion when Okuhattuh and his fellow warriors arrived in 1875.  He had traveled with the Indians from Indian Territory (Oklahoma), having been stationed there with the U.S. Army, but rather than returning after delivering the captives, the government made him the commander of Fort Marion. Captain Pratt was a political progressive as well as a devout Christian. He believed, contrary to his commanders, that Indians should be redeemed and educated, not exterminated. Pratt's commander, Civil War hero General Philip Sherman told Pratt that his prisoners were “unmitigated murders of men, women, and children without a single particle of provocation.” Pratt, however, had great deal of respect and deep compassion for his Indian prisoners. He treated them as fellow human beings and spent the next three years doing everything within his power to educate, teach and "convert to Christ," the Indians under his charge. He would later say, "In Indian civilization I am a Baptist, because I believe in immersing the Indians in our civilization and when we get them under holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked." His efforts included teaching the prisoners English in order to read the Bible, treating them daily with dignity and respect, helping them start a local small business outside the prison, allowing them to attend church services in St. Augustine on Sundays, and the freedom to interact with citizens who wished to build friendships with the Indian warriors. It was not long after Pratt arrived in St. Augustine that word began to spread these Plains Indians were not "savages" but real human beings. His grand experiment proved a success, with not one Indian, including Okuhhatuh, ever attempting to escape. Many of the Indians converted to faith in Christ. Pratt's methods would be deemed politically incorrect and totally unacceptable by today's standards. His motto was "Kill the Indian, save the man."

The Pendletons Visit Okuhhatuh

In the summer of 1875, George Pendleton was President of the Kentucky Central Railroad.  He would become a United States Senator in 1879, but in the summer of 75, this wealthy Christian businessman from Ohio traveled with his wife, Alice Key Pendleton,  and his daughter Jeanie to St. Augustine, Florida for vacation. Touring Fort Marion (a tourist attraction even then), the Pendleton's became acquainted with the efforts of Captain Pratt to lead his Indian captives to Christ. The Pendleton's were introduced to the tall, Cheyenne warrior named Okuhhatuh, and a bond was instantly formed between the Pendleton's and Okuhhatuh. The Indian could understand English more than he could speak it, so the Pendleton's spent several days of their vacation visiting the Cheyenne warrior, explaining to him the hope they had in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In return, Okuhhatuh gave the Pendleton's daughter, Jeanie, some books of his Indian drawings he had done in prison. Sometime during the Pendletons visits with Okuhhatuh, the Cheyenne warrior gave his heart to Christ.

All Christian conversions are ultimately attributed to the grace of God, but it is telling that when Okuhhatuh made known his faith in Christ in a letter to his older brother "Little Medicine," he had changed his name to David (from the David in the Bible) Pendleton (in honor of the Pendletons who led him to Christ). He writes to his brother in broken English in 1878 before his release from prison:

David Pendleton's Letter to His Brother

"Christian name give me. I am very well. Dear Jesus. God gives me good head, good heart, good speak. good everything. Every day my heart so glad. A long time my name "Okuhhatuh". Now my Xn name David Pendleton. Every day I am very well. My heart so glad. Oh I hope just the same you all will be very soon."

A fast and lasting friendship was formed between Okuhhatuh and the Pendletons.  The Pendletons would make regular trips to Florida to assist and train the Indian whom they had led to faith in Christ, and who had taken their surname as his own. David eventually gave the Pendleton girls archery lessons, teaching them how to shoot an arrow from a bow with accuracy. Some might say that it was cruel the way Okuhhatuh came to faith in Christ, but reading the letters of David Pendleton Oakerhater (the anglicized spelling of his name), one gets the impression that the greatest day in his life was the day he received Christ as his Lord.

David writes in April 1879: "I sorry my Indians not know God not know Jesus not know Sunday not know everything."

The passion David Pendleton showed for reading and learning the Christian faith, sharing with others the love of Christ, and desiring his fellow Indians to come to know Christ themselves surprised everyone who had once known David as the warrior Okuhhatuh.

Davod Pendleton and the Carlisle Indian School

Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Upon being released from prison in Florida, David was sponsored by the Pendletons on a trip to New York where he received some further English education. David, however, was eager to return to Indian Territory. Captain Pratt, based upon his successful assimilation of the Cheyenne Indian warriors into white civilization while at Fort Marion, had been granted permission by the U.S. government to begin an Indian school called The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Captain Pratt desired David to go back to his home in Indian Territory, share Christ with his friends and family, and then return to Carlisle with a number of Cheyenne and Arapahoe children to attend Carlisle Indian School in time for its opening in the fall of 1879. Carlisle would operate with the same principles under which David lived while at Fort Marion prison. The school's motto would be "To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay."

David agreed to the request and in September 1879 David Pendleton Oakerhater returned to Darlington for the first time since his removal in iron chains in April 1875, four and a half years earlier. He had an emotional reunion with friends and family, and he shared with them "the new way" of faith in Christ.  David only stayed a month in Darlington among his Cheyenne people, after which he brought with him twenty-nine Cheyenne and Arapahoe children to the newly opened Carlisle Indian School. In the fall of 1879, Carlisle Indian School formed its first football team.

The Carlisle Indians (Jim Thorpe top right)

Today, the Carlisle Indian School is known world-wide for Jim Thorpe and the 1911 football team called the Carlisle Indians. Jim Thorpe was its star athlete. He would later become a double Olympic gold medalist, as well as a professional baseball and football player, and is widely considered the world's greatest athlete. The coach of that team was "Pop" Warner (Glenn Scobey Warner), who started coaching at Carlisle Indian School when he was 28 years old. Pop Warner coached at Carlisle for two different periods, 1899–1903 and 1907-1914. Thorpe competed under him from 1907-1911. The Carlisle Indians' winning percentage of .647 still stands as the best of any college football team in history.  In her 2007 book about the Carlisle Indians, author Sally Jenkins characterized them as The Team that Invented Football, due to Pop Warner's innovations which were later adopted by the fledgling National Football League.

A Missionary to His Cheyenne People

After spending another two years back East, David Pendleton eventually returned to his home in Darlington as a missionary to his own people, ordained by the church to minister on the frontier to the Cheyenne Indians. He arrived back at Darlington on Tuesday, June 14, 1881, and the following Sunday preached to his people the gospel of Jesus Christ. An eyewitness records the events of that historic week:

"As irony would have it, at the time of Oakerhater's arrival in the Indian Territory the Cheyenne were in the midst of their Sun Dance celebration. Oakerhater was well aware of the Sun-Dance and its meaning. He understood the significance of the event and its importance to his people. He fully understood what the Missionaries were up against introducing the white man's “new road” at this particular moment in time."

David Pendleton (on steps) at Cheyenne school

As mentioned earlier in the quote at the top of this post, the first Christian worship service David Pendleton held among his people was on Sunday, June 19, 1881, in a building that had been erected by the government as a school-house for the Cheyenne children. The Cheyenne had requested that their children be allowed to attend school separate from the Arapaho, so the government had erected a separate facility about three miles away from the Darlington Agency near Caddo Springs (present-day Concho, Oklahoma). David Pendleton would use a room in the school-house for the service. A fellow missionary with David Pendleton describes how they went about inviting Cheyennes to come to the Christian worship service:

“The young men were the very ones whom David had led in war seven years ago, and were dressed in the gay attire appropriate for the Sun Dance. Right below us a few hundred yards away, the medicine dance was going on, hundreds thronging every side of the great lodge, a striking contrast to our quiet Christian talk. David seated his people in a circle and led me to the center of it to open the talk. I told David to say first to them that we would look to God for His blessing. They all bowed their heads reverently in the prayer as though trained to it for years. David acted as interpreter, I began by telling them why I had come to them, who had sent me, and what we wished to do for them. Then one of the Chiefs, Sand Hill, stepped forward and thanked me, expressing the desire to be taught the good way; another Chief, Mad Wolf, followed in the same strain. David then addressed them briefly, and our first council closed. I invited them to service at the school-house on a Sunday morning and they promised to come.”

It was at that first Christian worship service among the Cheyenne on Sunday, June 19, 1881, that David Pendleton spoke the words used at the beginning of this post:

"Men, you know me. You remember me when I led you out to war. I went first, and what I told you was true. Now I have been away to the East, and I have learned about another captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is my leader. He goes first, and all he tells me is true. I come back to my people to tell you to go with me now in this new road, a war that makes all for peace and where we never have only victory..."

The Grace of God Far Exceeds the Sin of Man

David Pendleton Oakerhater

David Pendleton Oakerhater, the former Cheyenne warrior known as Okuhhatuh, served among his Cheyenne people in Oklahoma as a Christian missionary for over fifty years. He performed the first Christian funeral among the Cheyenne in 1882, burying the son of Black Horse, the very Cheyenne warrior who had been shot and killed by U.S. troops at Darlington as he attempted to escape custody on April 6, 1875.  David Pendleton had come full circle.

Senator George Pendleton would later say that his belief in fair labor was strengthened by his observations of David Pendleton's abilities in spite of the white prejudices against the Indians. Captain Pratt founded Carlisle Indian School because he saw the effects of proper education on the poor Indian minorities, transforming men like David Pendleton Oakerhater. The daughter of the author of the Star-Spangled Banner, Alice Key Pendleton, had a father who believed America was "the home of the free," and her bond of friendship with the Cheyenne prisoner was due to her belief that freedom should exist for all Americans, not just white Americans.

David Pendleton Oakerhater died on August 31, 1931, of natural causes and is buried in Whirlwind Cemetery just west of Watonga, Oklahoma. Many Cheyenne graves in my part of the country are marked with crosses because of the influence and ministry of David Pendleton. I can't help think about David every time I drive by the Lucky Star casino which marks the area of David's early life and ministry.

David Pendleton wasn't lucky. He was graced. Graced to know people who lived by principles. Graced to know a God who can forgive sinners of every sin. Graced to be a man who changed from the inside out.

The Triumph of John and Betty Stam and the Lessons for 21st Century Christians

John Stam is our missions pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Enid, Oklahoma. He and his family have been a part of our church for years. After serving as our education pastor and then our school headmaster over the past decade, John became our full-time missions pastor this past April 1, 2010. He bears the name of his great uncle, John Stam (pictured left), a 1932 graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a Christian martyr. The elder John, along with his wife, Betty Stam, were martyred in December 1934 while serving the Chinese people in the river valley west of Shanghai. The story of John and Betty Stam is best told by Geraldine Taylor--daughter-in-law to Hudson Taylor, the man who founded the China Inland Mission--in her classic work The Triumph of John and Betty Stam.

John and Betty met each other at Moody Bible Institute and since Betty was a year older than John, she sailed for China as a missionary in 1931, he a year later in 1931. After a year long courtship in China,  evangelist and missionary Reuben A. Torrey performed the marriage ceremony for the Stam's on October 25, 1933, in Tsinan, China. John was twenty-six; Betty was twenty-seven. The region where the Stam's served was particularly dangerous because of the civil war between the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party. Eleven months after their wedding, on September 11, 1934, Betty Stam gave birth to a baby girl the Stam's named Helen Priscilla.

Three months later the Stams were beheaded by the Communists on a hill outside Miaosheo while their baby Helen lay hidden in a blanket. To honor the account of how the Stam's died, I will quote verbatim from Geraldine Taylor's The Triumph of John and Betty Stam.

Painfully bound with ropes, their hands behind them, stripped of their outer garments, and John barefooted (he had given Betty his socks to wear), they passed down the street where he was known to many, while the Reds shouted their ridicule and called the people to come and see the execution.

Like their Master, they were led up a little hill outside the town. There, in a clump of pine trees, the Communists harangued the unwilling onlookers, too terror-stricken to utter protest—But no, one broke the ranks! The doctor of the place and a Christian, he expressed the feelings of many when he fell on his knees and pleaded for the life of his friends. Angrily repulsed by the Reds, he still persisted, until he was dragged away as a prisoner, to suffer death when it appeared that he too was a follower of Christ.

John had turned to the leader of the band, asking mercy for this man. When he was sharply ordered to kneel—and the look of joy on his face, afterwards, told of the unseen Presence with them as his spirit was released—Betty was seen to quiver, but only for a moment. Bound as she was, she fell on her knees beside him. A quick command, the flash of a sword which mercifully she did not see—and they were reunited.

Many Christians are unfamiliar with the story John and Betty Stam, but their lives have much to teach us about serving Christ in a dangerous world, focusing on the eternal rather than the temporal, and never settling for worldly riches or fame. I can't help but think about how soft we American Christians have become after reading the account of the Stam's death. We expect security and personal comforts, but we have never been given any guarantees of material or temporal blessings for tomorrow. The killing fields of this world may make us one of their victims. There is, however, nothing to fear. Whether death comes from the sword, or a gun, or a bomb, or nuclear war, the moment of our death ushers us into an eternity of rich blessing and unspeakable love. The Apostle Paul called death "far better" (literally: very much better) than life in Philippians 1:23.

At lunch yesterday John told me that his aunt, Helen, the daughter of John and Betty Stam, is still living. She resides in Philadelphia and turns 76 this Saturday. Helen never married, though she changed her last name because she disliked the notoriety of being "the miracle baby" who escaped certain death at the hands of the Reds. John and I are trying to arrange a visit with her on her birthday.Let me encourage you to purchase a copy of The Triumph of John and Betty Stam. In my experience God uses the extraordinary testimonies of people like the Stams to bring encouragement to his church. I'll close with an anecdote that is heartwarming.

When our pastor of missions was in college he was caught in a snow storm heading back to Wheaton. He called his father and was told to get a hotel and to wait until the storm cleared before continuing his journey to teh college. When John informed his dad he had no money, it was suggested that John call the local Baptist pastor.

John looked in the phone book and found the church phone number and called. The pastor answered the phone and John told him that he was a college student heading back to Wheaton, and he was stuck in the snow storm and wondered if the pastor would open the church and let John sleep on the back row of the church. There was silence on the end of the phone. John thought the pastor was trying to think of a polite way to say no, but then the pastor said: "What did you say your name was?"

"John Stam."

There was again silence. Then, after a few moments the pastor said, "I want you to come over and stay at our house."  John received directions to the parsonage and arrived a few minutes later. The pastor opened the door and escorted him into the dining room where the pastor's family was seated around the dinner table. The pastor's kids eyes were wide as saucers. John was invited to take a seat and the pastor's wife began serving him dinner. Then the pastor told John the following.

"John, it is my custom after dinner each evening to read to my children. For the past few dinners I have been reading to them from The Triumph of John and Betty Stam. Tonight, we came to the account of John and Betty's martyrdom and we all were mesmerized by the gripping account of how this couple gave their lives for the cause of Christ. One of my sons asked me the question, 'Dad, how can anyone call the beheadings of the Stams a triumph?" No sooner had he asked me that question when the phone rang and John Stam asked if he could sleep at our church. Are you related to the John Stam we've been reading about?"

John explained to the family that he bore the name of his great uncle and that the legacy of John and Betty Stam had greatly affected his own life and that of Valerie Elliott, his friend and fellow classmate at Wheaton. Valerie was the daughter of martyred missionary Jim Elliot, and Betty Stam (maiden name Betty Scott) had flown to visit with Valerie's mom's family (the Howards) when Elizabeth Howard (later Elliot) was just 12 years old. Elizabeth Elliot wrote in her personal memiors the impact that the 21 year old Betty Scott had on her and the decision she later made to marry a man called to missions and join him in the work in South America. John spent the rest of the evening explaining how God takes what the world calls tragedy and turns it into triumph. It was a marvelous visit for all involved.

John told me that his encounter with that family on that cold winter night led to the children attending Wheaton College themselves to prepare for the mission field.

I guess you could say the triumph of John and Betty Stam continues.

A Different Take on Dr. Kevin Ezell's Leadership in His Church's Small CP Giving

When Al Mohler's office issued a press release in early January 2008 that the President of Southern Seminary would allow his name to be entered into nomination for President of the Southern Baptist Convention, I wrote a blog detailing the reasons why I believed Dr. Mohler would not be elected President.

The third reason for my rationale involved Al's home church, Highview Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky, Highview's low percentage giving to the Cooperative Program and their nearly non-existent giving to the traditional SBC missions offerings, including the Lottie Moon Offering for international missions and the Annie Armstrong offering for continental missions. I wrote in January 2008 the following:

"Mohler is a member of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, where he serves as a "teaching pastor" and a Sunday school teacher. The church contributes 3.3 percent of its $5 million in undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program and nothing to the SBC's two mission offerings according to Baptist Press. The mission's giving of one's home church is more important than it might seem at first glance, and in the coming months and years I am quite positive that this issue will only grow in importance in the minds of those whom will chose who leads the SBC."

Although Al Mohler later pulled his name from nomination for President of the SBC, Highview Baptist Church and her pastor, Dr. Kevin Ezell, spent a few weeks "clarifying" their missions giving. In one press release Highview's pastoral leadership explained that the church gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions, just  not through the traditional CP mechanism. Explaining their low CP giving, Dr. Ezell stated:

"As for our Cooperative Program giving, Highview has chosen to give the majority of our cooperative funds directly to the SBC instead of funneling the funds through the Kentucky Baptist Convention. The reason is simple: The KBC retains 64% of those funds, and we want to ensure that more of our dollars went directly to evangelism, missions and other programs that Highview supports."

Last week, September 1, 2010, the Search Committee for the President of the North American Mission Board announced they would be presenting Dr. Kevin Ezell for approval as the new President of NAMB. One of the advantages of the Internet is to look back over the past several years and make observations based upon the written record and not simply one's faulty memory. I'd like to give a couple of observations on Dr. Ezell's nomination that might be a different take than most.
 
(1). The Southern Baptist Convention has just come through a mega-shift in terms of leadership. Dr. Ezell has publicly stated that he led his church to bypass his state convention in the church's missions giving, and then the Presidential Search Committee of NAMB, the mission organization tasked with working directly with the respective SBC state conventions, is nominating Dr. Ezell as NAMB's President. I believe Dr. Ezell is a phenominal leader and a wonderful man. I have no argument against him as a person. My observation is a philosophical one. When Dr. Ezell is elected, the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program as we have known it for decades will be over. We are increasingly moving toward the 1800's model of SBC giving called "societal." Churches will give to those "societies' or "agencies" that best reflect their own ideology or philosophy and/or benefits them the most. Cooperation between state and national agencies in the Southern Baptist Convention, cooperation between churches and their respective state conventions and national missions' agencies, and between mission minded SBC churches will be over. SBC churches, SBC state conventions, and SBC national agencies will be emphasizing their own work and requesting respective cooperation from others, depending less and less on the "Cooperative Program."
 
(2). When Dr. Ezell is elected, a new crop of leadership, including the new President of the Southern Baptist Convention (Wright), the new President of the North American Mission Board (Ezell), and the impending new President of the International Board (the top prospect is a stunner), will now be asking for people and churches in the Southern Baptist Convention to give more to the Cooperative Program and the national missions offerings, but at the same time, attempting to cut cooperative links traditionally tied to the offerings. As I mentioned in the previous post, I find it very interesting that those who formerly refused to give to the CP change their tune when elected to leadership. What's changed? The answer of course is, "The leaders have changed." So, I must ask the question: Do we give to the CP because we like the leaders or do we give to the CP because we like way we are doing missions? I think if Southern Baptists stepped back and took a hard look at the missions work of the SBC over the past few years, we would come to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong with our agencies when we spend millions of dollars to "change" the way we do missions every time new leaders are elected. The gospel is not a political philosophy that changes like the platforms of Democrats and Republicans. However,  the SBC is looking more and more like a wasteful government agency than a gospel organization.
 
(3). I like Bryant Wright, Frank Page and Kevin Ezell. They are really fine men. The concern I have with the SBC as it relates to my church is the fact that our church gets way more excited about the mission work we do directly in India, Africa, Guatamela, New York and our own state than we do trying to figure out why our national agencies spend tens of millions of dollars constantly changing methodologies, organizational structures, and the way they do missions at the whims of new leadership. Frankly, I wish we listened more to the missionaries on the field (state, national and international) than we do to the ever changing leaders in Nashville, Richmond and Atlanta. Until we have a mechanism that allows our appointed missionaries to have more of a say in what our Convention accomplishes in the field, there is a hesitancy to give more to national offerings just because "new leaders" have emerged.
 
A Principle: Any move toward "societal" giving in the Southern Baptist Convention creates an atmosphere where larger churches become more and more convinced that the best "society" for accountable, effective missions giving is the local church, not a national board.
 
I'm not saying the above principle is right or wrong, it is simply a fact. That's the danger of political and ideological infighting in a Convention built on cooperation. The cooperation fractures to the point the local church believes the best investment in mission dollars is the work being done by its own members.

Mission Arlington: Where the Lost Are Being Saved and Nobody Even Thinks About the Preacher's Gender

Our youth spent their Spring Break at Mission Arlington, volunteering in the multiple ministries offered by this extraordinary evangelical outreach in downtown Arlington, Texas. On August 1, 1986, Tillie Bergin, affectionately known as Miss Tillie, began Mission Arlington in a supply closet at FBC Arlington, Texas. Last year Mission Arlington delivered 22,000 Thanksgiving meals, provided 27,000 Christmas gifts to over thousands of needy families, gave free dental care to thousands of families that couldn't afford it, and supplied food, medicine, and emergency expenses to tens of thousands of people in the Arlington metroplex through the course of the year. Miss Tillie and her husband Bob were Foreign Mission Board missionaries in Korea in the 1960's and 70's. They came back to Arlington in the late 70's due to a severe illness in their youngest son. Bob became principal of Arlington High and Miss Tillie began work as Personnel Director for the Arlington I.S.D. Still burdened with a heart to see the lost come to know Christ, Miss Tillie took a step of faith and began doing for Arlington what she and her family had been doing in Korea. The result is Mission Arlington--a 2.8 million dollar ministry that never raises funds, never seeks volunteers, and never charges for services. As Miss Tillie would say, "You don't have to advertise a fire."

Last year hundreds of volunteers from 47 different states, and numerous countries from overseas, descended on Arlington, Texas to assist in reaching the tens of thousands of lost people that live in apartment complexes in the city. Miss Tillie and her staff of missionaries go into tough, gang-infested apartment complexes and begin Bible studies that eventually turn into churches. Right now 242 churches have begun through the efforts and ministry of Mission Arlington. Dr. Jim Bergin, Tillie's son, now coordinates the thousands of people that come to minister the poor and needy through the course of the year, including our church. My sixteen-year-old son, Logan, will be serving as a volunteer missionary this summer at Mission Arlington.

72 year old Miss Tillie told Logan and me a story yesterday about her first church start in an apartment complex in 1986. Tillie met a young lady named Virginia who was working as a bartender. Virginia was also addicted to drugs. She lived in an apartment complex run by gangs, and she had borne several children out of wedlock. Miss Tillie ministered the love of Christ to Virginia, and she came to know Jesus as her Savior. Miss Tillie discipled her and when the time came to launch a Bible study in the gang-infested apartment complex it was Virginia who was called to begin it. That first Sunday seventeen people showed up to study God's Word. Virginia taught them. Soon, people were coming to know Christ. Virginia would baptize them in the apartment swimming pool. During one Sunday worship service, a very sick infant child died in the arms of her mother while they were praying. When Miss Tillie arrived with the ambulance and police, the distraught parents wanted nobody to perform the service but Virginia. Miss Tillie had to show Virginia how to conduct a funeral. She did it, and she has conducted funerals since. When the Lord's Supper is served during worship, it is Virginia who serves it. Virginia has never been "ordained." Virginia has never been to seminary. Virginia is not part of the "clergy." She is a follower of Jesus Christ. She is gifted. She is called. She is ministering. People are being saved.

Next year, the church begun by Virginia will celebrate 25 years of existence. From that humble beginning of one church in 1986, Mission Arlington has begun an additional 241 churches. Thousands of people over these past twenty five years have come to Christ and been baptized through Mission Arlington's church planting efforts. Apartment complex owners are begging Mission Arlington to come to their apartment complexes. Studies have shown where Mission Arlington is present in an apartment complex, crime goes down, occupancy goes up, and the living conditions improve. One would expect that when the grace of God appears.

As the Southern Baptists of Georgia argue over kicking out a church that called a Senior Pastor's wife as co-pastor, we all would do well to look at Mission Arlington as an example of what God will do when His people get more concerned about the lost than gender. Instead of arguing who is qualified, Mission Arlington simply releases the gifted to minister as God calls. I was astonished at the incredible--some might say "miraculous"-ministry being done at Mission Arlington. As I was leaving, I asked one of the missionaries to whom I was speaking "Why Arlington?"  Clark Bergin, Miss Tillie's 21 year old grandson and student at Dallas Baptist University responded: "Why Bethlehem?"

Good point. One of these days the Southern Baptist Convention will no longer be concerned about the gender of the person ministering Christ; we will only be concerned about the ministry being done in the name of the one born in Bethlehem.

In His Grace,

Wade

Logan, Welcome Home!

Rachelle and I are in Dallas, Texas picking up our fifteen year old son, Logan, upon his return from Peru. He has spent six weeks this summer sharing Christ in street evangelism with a team from Awe Star Ministries out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Logan, candidly photographed (left) by one of the team members as he prayed over a village in Peru, has a heart for missions and evangelism. Logan's team leaders for this Peruvian mission trip were Brent and Deanna Higgens. This delightful couple lost their own fifteen year old son, B.J., to the bubonic plague in the summer of 2005 while he was ministering to the Peruvian people as well. I have previously written of the Higgens family and how their #1 bestselling book, I Would Die for You , an account of their teenage son's life and death on the mission field, greatly moved me. It was through reading B.J.'s story that our son, Logan, felt called to spend the summer of 2009 in Peru with Awe Star.

You can read the reports of this summer's Awe Star Mission trip to Peru here. Nearly 4,000 Peruvians professed their faith in Christ through the gospel ministry of Awe Star this summer. Awe Star Ministries was designed to help 14,15,16, and 17 year old kids go through a rite of passage into adulthood - through missions. Over the past fifteen years Awe Star Ministries has placed thousands of young people in 39 countries of the world to share the gospel, plant churches and make the transition to adulthood. I highly recommend Awe Star ministries to anyone and everyone interested in gospel missions done well. Walker Moore, President of Awe Star, and all the staff of Awe Star have been a blessing to the Burlesons.

Welcome home, Logan!

Dad