LOT memories

I was on the phone today with John Brady, and afterwards I was reminiscing about some good times our old NAME team had together. We were given a difficult task, but God brought the right team together to change the culture and focus on people groups in our part of the world.

I have so many stories about working with this team, but here I will only share a few.

Mike and Madelyn Edens lived in the Middle East for 25+ years, and Mike had traveled extensively in that part of the world. However, he became persona non grata in a couple of those countries. I learned the hard way that it was best not to go through immigration with him. Yes, I was detained along with him just because I declared that I was traveling with him. I thought that would be a good thing since he was so experienced, and I was a novice in that part of the world. Wrong! It was a liability.

Mike Barnett declared to our team during our first retreat in Kandern, Germany that he would not be traveling. He was adamant that he “did not do travel.” While we were walking back to our lodging from the Italian ice cream shop in the small village of Kandern, we saw that people had placed unwanted things on the curb for pick up by the recycling people the next day. Someone had decided to give away a piece of luggage, so one of our team members picked it up and stopped and made a presentation to “the man who does not travel.” From that point on Mike B was referred to as the man who does not travel. Interestingly, during his service on our team, he traveled as much as his teammates.

John Brady and I were traveling together in Chad. Our family had lived in West Africa, and Chad is so similar in many respects to where we lived in Burkina Faso. I was enjoying introducing John to some foods and culture in Chad. We stayed in a guest house that had fans—a much appreciated luxury where the nightly temp may be 100 degrees in the house at bedtime. During the night, John woke me up, and said, “Your computer is making a beeping noise.” I told him that it wasn’t my computer, but it was fruit bats. I went back to sleep, but in less than an hour I was awakened by John asking me if I would do something about my computer. “John, that is not my computer. They are fruit bats.” Before another hour, John woke me up and said I can’t sleep because of your computer noise. Now, anyone who knows Brady knows that he could sleep through a hurricane. He is the only person I have ever traveled with who goes to sleep on the plane BEFORE the plane takes off! Finally, I sat up on my bed and gave him a short lecture on the nocturnal sounds of fruit bats.

Elias and Linda Moussa had lived for years in Cyprus. Getting them to move to London where our team would be based was a challenge, but they are team players, and they made the move with less than expected anxiety. Elias was trying to fit into the British culture, so he was wearing a tie to the office each day. One day while leaning over the paper shredder, his tie was caught in the shedder. Fortunately, he was able to quickly shut it down. Elias is such a good sport, and he wore the six-inch tie for the rest of the day.

Gerry Volkhart was a real trooper to put up with five male extroverts who all talked excessively and usually very loudly. In more meetings than I can count she was the wise one with her infrequent, but potent counsel.

This team was given the task of blending personnel from four different “areas” of the world who came from different work cultures and had different strategies for reaching their part of the world. It was a difficult time of changing directions in mission and strategies, and there was resistance from some long term workers, but the Lord provided the grace, patience and wisdom. This team put their hands to the plow and set the pace for other regions of the world in moving towards a people group focus with a vision of church planting movements in our part of the world and beyond.

This was the most intense team that I have ever worked with. As long as he was alive, Mike B liked to call our team “LOT”—Larry’s old team. Mike would be happy to know that some of our old team still likes to get together at least once a year.