His kids have grown up all over the world. He and his wife have served the Lord faithfully from Papua New Guinea to Northern Ireland to the United States. He and his wife have devoted their life’s energy and effort to seeing people’s lives changed vitally by the life-giving Truth of God’s Word.
And this morning he found himself on an operating table in Ann Arbor Michigan having seventy percent of his liver removed.
Why do things like that happen to people like him?
James would tell you; that’s not the right question to ask. He would say, just like he did to a student body that listened to this beloved NTBI teacher with bated breath, that this was one more of a continual stream of opportunities for God to be glorified in a greater way through his life. NTBI President, Rex Schaffner said this in a recent update:
“God used James tremendously yesterday in chapel to tell of God’s working in their lives these past few weeks as they have anticipated tomorrow. What an incredible testimony of God’s grace and strength in the midst of a great uncertainty on this earth. James’ certainty of God’s goodness and care, His love and grace spilled over our entire gathering; you could hear a pin drop.”
In the midst of all the classroom learning and the solid Bible education that these students are soaking up, God is teaching even bigger lessons through the lives of the missionaries who live along side them. This morning, instead of the regularly scheduled chapel hour, the students along with staff, met in their individual classrooms and spent the hour praying for James and his wife Lisa along with their grown children and their own families and in the gaps between our prayers, we could hear, faintly drifting up from the classroom one floor below us, the sweet sweet sounds of those students, singing the song, ‘It Is Well With My Soul.’