God Has Arrived

By Esther Lutzer

Esther Lutzer spent years serving in the missions field in Gabon. She writes, "I thank God for His patience with me as He led me to Gabon and then home again. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, emphasis added)."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329393202

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God Has Arrived

GOD HAS ARRIVED

By Esther Lutzer

Globalvault.ca

2015

FOREWARD

What I remember about Auntie Esto as the MK’s called her, was her faithful supervision of the Mouyanama station in Central Gabon,--deep in the bush and isolated from the colleagues but affording her the opportunity to build trusting relationships with the Gabonese.  As visiting university students, we experienced her hospitality and saw her warm relationship with nationals.  As well we saw her amazing ability to change flat, car tires faster than a pit crew.

I remember her advice on relating to Gabonese peers, and the encouragement in the de-brief session with Alliance Youth Corps to trust God to add his strength to our steps of faith.

I was impressed with her ability with the local language and when I asked about how do you share with people when you don’t speak their language?  She counselled to trust God to reveal himself through the way you treat people, adding --when you do have a chance to say something, share something from God’s word.

Just such an opportunity to share from God’s word came up during a Gabonese/Western collaboration on reaching out to a rural village.  After singing songs in the main Gabonese languages and French (we had memorized), an invitation was given to respond to the message.  So many came forward that the local church didn’t have enough people to individually counsel the people.  So I took my French Bible into the crowd and said bonjour to a young man about my age.

We went off to a private corner and began a halting dialogue.  I just asked him to read certain parts of the Bible after a while because I didn’t have the French to keep the conversation going.  I had no clue as to where he was at spiritually, so just had him read parts of the Bible that led him through some steps to having peace with God.  To my surprise, he started crying after a few passages were read.  I mumbled the words I had heard Pastors use:  prions ensemble (let’s pray together).  I take it he was pouring out his heart in some kind of prayer.  After a while the crowd began to dissipate and my new friend was still praying and crying.  The Pastor of this local church came over and prayed with us.  He told me later through a translator that the young man invited Christ into his life.  I guess the only ability God needs sometime is our availability.

I was just doing what Esther suggested… seems you can’t go wrong there.

Rev. Jack Campbell

Mission Field Strategist, Samaritan’s Purse

INTRODUCTION

Over thirty years have passed since I wrote a brief review of my life leading up to my departure for Gabon. Recently I began to process the content of journals written since then that have lain unread since they were written. In addition I am reading letters that I wrote over many years to my brother and sister-in-law, Erwin and Rebecca. As I read page after page, memories have been revived and I cannot help but marvel how God uses ordinary people to carry His glorious light.

It has been difficult to choose what to record. As I read what I wrote so long ago, the words of the Apostle Paul repeatedly come to me, What things are gain to me, I consider loss for the sake of Christ…. I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (excerpts from Philippians 3).

Before I left for France in 1966, Pastor Ernest Bailey said that God’s main purpose in sending me to Africa was not to give the good news of Jesus Christ to the people, but rather it was so that the image of Jesus might be formed in me! At the time I could not know the full implications of what he said but the truth of this statement became clear to me first in France and later in Gabon. Difficult circumstances often resulted in behavior that was not at all Christ-like. It is wonderful to know that the Master Potter does not discard the misshapen jar of clay but He remakes it. The Prophet Jeremiah was given an object lesson and he wrote, But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him  (Jeremiah18:4).

I thank God for His patience with me as He led me to Gabon and then home again. "For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, emphasis added).

In 1996, I returned to Canada for home assignment. To honor my parent’s request to care for them until God called them home, I resigned from the mission in 1998. As the years passed the clay would sometimes question the Master Potter, and the answer would come from God’s Word, "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?  (Romans 9:21). Again and again I would yield to God’s leading in my life.

It is my desire that as this brief story unfolds that the earthen vessel will fade into the background and only "God’s all surpassing power" be seen.

Esther Lutzer

Regina, Saskatchewan   

October 2014

PRAIRIE ROOTS

From my mountaintop home in Mouyanama, Gabon, Equatorial Africa, I see a magnificent valley banked on each side with luscious green tropical forest. A heavy rain has just washed the vegetation and now bright sunshine floods the valley where wisps of white clouds are suspended. Birds chirp in nearby trees. An iridescent hummingbird sucks nectar from a hibiscus flower outside my window. As I look at the beauty that I so enjoy, I ask myself, How did I ever get from the Canadian prairies to the jungle of Gabon?  To answer that question, the calendar needs to be rolled back to February 1938.

On a cold, snowy day on a farm, near Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, with a family friend (Lydia Ulbrick) in attendance, I was born to Wanda and Gustav Lutzer. I was their fourth child, following Albert, Ruth and Harold. With the birth of Erwin der kleiner (the little one), the family was completed.

We five children grew up on various farms and attended one-room country schools. Our parents, immigrants from Europe, worked hard in caring for their children. My parents recalled that I was a crying baby and after many sleepless nights and with much concern, they bundled me up and, with the horse and sleigh, made their way to the home of a farm implement dealer, who had a car. Mr. Van de Bon agreed to drive the family to Regina, over one hundred kilometers away. Mom carried her screaming year-old baby into their home and her heavy heart was pierced when Mrs. Van de Bon took me and said, You poor little devil! Even though I caused my parents concern, Mom loved her baby and thought she was an angel. My parents both accompanied me to the hospital, then returned home, leaving me with total strangers and were unable to visit during my six-week hospitalization. Mother remembered that I cried more than ever when I returned home as I had become attached to the nurses. Albert tells me that he was given the job of rocking my carriage as I slept. In his young mind he thought about mechanizing the rocker! I eventually outgrew my problem but retained my ability to cry easily which was a trial to my brothers, but effective in getting what I wanted.

I remember the morning and evening Bible readings and prayer times at home, conducted in the German language. Everyone prayed and sang the German hymns. I knew Unser Vater im Himmel before I knew Our Father who art in heaven. In the summer our square-cornered Whippet car took us 35 km over dirt roads to the town of Lang for church services which were initially conducted in German. Our parents’ devotion to God was real and evident in their everyday life.

The major clouds of my childhood were the periods of time when our dad had bouts of illness. Traumatic experiences during World War I were no doubt the cause of his worry, stress and depression which resulted in his inability to function at times. Occasionally I would ride for miles on the bike crying and praying since I thought he was dying. When Dad was better I still continued the bike rides, but then I would preach and sing. I recall my first audiences when I was about five years of age. In the evening after the chickens had roosted, I would pass my toes through