Posts by John Staiger (Page 38)

In 1987 I was on a door-knocking Campaign in Australia. One of the campaigners told me that she had travelled to many countries with evangelism teams led by Ivan Stewart. Having heard from some that Ivan had a system to be followed, I asked her about her experience. “Some people,” she said, “did find Ivan’s methods constraining. But because he was so organised, one thing you could rely on was that wherever you were in the world, you were safe.…

I know a sister in the Lord who takes prayer very seriously. On occasions, she has gently encouraged the brothers in her congregation to make sure that everyone can hear them when praying from the front. She has also checked with the preacher when a prayer request had been forgotten. Nothing she does is done in a spirit of complaint, she cares deeply that ‘speaking to God’ is taken seriously, especially congregational prayer. She used to pose the question: “Should…

A young man left his home for a far-off land to preach the Gospel. While there he inspired another young man to take up his Bible and preach the Word. Tragically, the young missionary went home and abandoned the faith. However, the young man that he inspired to preach, now entering middle age, is still preaching. Praise the Lord. Some will go and then stop. Others will go and never stop going – it is the Gospel that moves them!…

I took a night train from Palmerston North to Hamilton in 1981. The carriage was tired and colourless and had old, cracked leather seats that smelled like those cars from the 1950s. Though compact by the necessity of its design, it at least didn’t seem cramped. If my 20-year-old (pre-electronics) self had expected any form of luxury or excitement on that trip, it wasn’t forthcoming. And if I had slept at all, it would have been out of sheer boredom.…

I got it into my head that I would not pay the “exorbitant” prices that Auckland stores were asking for stair rail brackets. So, when in the USA, I went into one of the big D.I.Y. stores and bought 4 of them “for a song!” I proudly put them in my carry on luggage and started for home. It was a mistake. Every time my carry on bag came anywhere near an x-ray machine the presence of that dense mass…

As I remember it, the two-hour bus ride from Memphis to Little Rock took a little longer than that. We had two bus drivers along the way. The first was a middle-aged Baptist. He presented his beliefs kindly, but vigorously; I was obviously not the first church of Christ preacher that he had debated. The second driver said that he had heard my conversation with the first and had the look of a reluctant tag-team wrestler who had just been…

I was somewhat perplexed when my plane arrived late at the Denver Airport; I doubted that there was enough time to make my connecting flight. It was comforting to hear the stewardess assure us in cheery tones that we would be speedily directed to the departure lounge on our arrival. Well, either someone missed that memo, or I missed them. Realising that self-help was now my only help available, started that long, exhausting, the seemingly endless journey from one end…

When preparing for my 1991 journey to South Africa I visited a doctor. His advice about vaccines for life-threatening diseases was more thorough than I had expected. His long list included: Smallpox, Cholera, Dengue, Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness),…and a few others that I’d only heard about in the movies. He, of course, recommended a course of no less than 18 injections to cover the most common diseases. The look of horror on my face was obviously enough to satisfy his dry…

I asked a friend how he got over the “business start-up problems” that sometimes bankrupt new businesses. He said, “I would carefully price out a job according to equipment, products, personnel, and time needed…then I would double it! Many new businesses fail because they do not factor in the obstacles that they CANNOT see—they are always there, and they are always expensive!” Hidden costs can ruin your travels. A “buy now and worry about it later” philosophy is guaranteed to…

For the most part, I didn’t mind travelling by myself in my youth. Finding someone to talk to wasn’t hard to do, and travel was exciting and carefree in those early days. Later, during long-haul family trips (when the kids were small), we learned what hard work was. But the kids eventually became expert travellers and have since gotten me to where we were going—it was all worth it. Human beings are not designed to be alone. Moving forward is…