That's how it was when this true story began on a summer day in 1972, a scant few months after I had been born again and filled with the Holy Ghost. In other words, I was still just a baby in the spirit with much learning and growing yet needed before reaching spiritual maturity.

On that summer day I was driving aimlessly around in a neighborhood about a mile from my house. I felt the moving of the Holy Spirit upon me and I kept noticing street signs with names such as Seminary Ridge, Shiloh Place, Wilderness Drive, and Missionary Ridge. I felt that the Lord was going to reveal to me that there was something He wanted to do with me. But He didn't. So I started driving toward my home. On the way, about half a mile from my house, I was approaching a familiar log cabin type of house. A missionary I had recently met lived there. His name wasn't Timothy, but that's what I'll call him in this otherwise true story.

One Sunday morning Timothy had visited a men's Bible study group that I was attending at the Greenwood Pentecostal Holiness Church. Pastor Leland Garner invited him to introduce himself; which he did. He also held us in rapt attention while he unfolded to us a series of events concerning his missionary work in one of the African countries. He had courageously embarked upon a special assistance effort that resulted in a tragic happenstance in his missionary life, and in his personal life.

There had been a drought. He saw babies, old folk, and others dying of starvation. It was the death of children that especially rent his heart. Timothy had a strong agricultural background and wanted to bring them help in meeting their food production needs. He returned to the United States and conducted a fund raising campaign. He raised thousands of dollars from many generous contributors. He spent it all on a shipload of mules, which he sent to Africa to be used for agricultural works. The thing that broke Timothy's heart was that when the mules arrived the country's import quota system forbid him to unload them there.

Though he tried not to regard it as such, he was overwhelmed with the feeling that our Lord had rejected him and his efforts. Deeply depressed, he had withdrawn from missionary work.

So, you see, I knew all about this as I drove into his driveway on that summer day when I had been driving aimlessly around. Timothy came out to meet me. He showed me some remodeling work he was doing on his house, and the entire meeting lasted only about fifteen minutes. Just before backing out of the driveway I said to him, "You will be getting another call to the mission field soon." I drove away chastising myself for my irresponsible idiocy in saying such a thing to a man who was already deeply wounded over a previous missionary failure. However, as I have already mentioned, I was a very naive little child of God at that time. Dumm as dirt, as they say.

Two or three weeks had passed, and the Timothy incident by then had been packaged up in my mind and filed away among those one-time embarrassments that don't have to be remembered anymore. I was on my way home from somewhere, and I became aware that the Holy Spirit was moving strongly upon me again. I didn't intend to, but an unction came over me, and I turned into Timothy's driveway again. I was still getting out of the car when Timothy came out of his house with a big smile and a look of excitement. He was almost shouting as he spoke:

This brought about a big change in my outlook. I realized then that it hadn't been just me telling him that he would be getting another call into the mission field. It was the Holy Spirit giving him the message through me to comfort him and to prepare him for that which He was soon to bring to pass in Timothy's ministry as a missionary.

During the conversation in the visit that followed, a moment came in which a great authority such as I had never known came over me. I found myself instructing Timothy on what our Lord Jesus expected of him in the new mission. Strong emphasis was placed on his intense efforts for the salvation of souls. He was not to become entangled over comforts and longevity of temporal flesh and other worldly matters. Timothy was also informed that there was to be a complete healing of the deep spiritual wound within. This authority of the Holy Spirit, which was so new to me then, was later to be frequently expressed through me in future events. I mentioned to Timothy that it may have seemed that I was taking it upon myself to say those things to him. But Timothy answered, "No, John. I know the Holy Ghost, too."

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. ....... (1Timothy 1:18)

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. ....... (2Timothy 2:3-4)

This holy event happened in the summer of 1972. I have never seen Timothy since then. I have passed by his log cabin type house many times on the same road where I still live. It changed in many ways through the years, but my thoughts and feelings have remained the same whenever I would see it --- warm feelings and thoughts of well-wishing for Timothy wherever he may be. They are also thoughts and feelings of love and gratitude toward my Lord Jesus for having permitted me to have a part in what He accomplished there.