It was in the middle of the summer of 1984; I was a sixteen-year-old boy trying to impress all of my friends. My grandfather owned the Chevrolet and Buick dealership in town. My dad was one of the managers and set me up with my first car, a red 1965 Ford Mustang. That sounds cool, as even then it was considered a classic, but my dad knew what he was doing. The car looked great from a distance, but the closer you got to the vehicle, the more nicks and dings you could see. The floorboard had rusted in places to the point where you could see the road underneath. If the car got over 55 miles per hour it would begin shaking. My friends were only partly impressed.
One nice summer day, my friend Wrenn Holland and I decided to play golf. As we drove to the course, we were riding down a hill headed towards Highway 123, a five-lane road with lots of traffic. I had been having some trouble with my brakes. I mentioned it to Wrenn, and then sped up a little so I would have to brake harder so I could show him. Nothing happened and we were speeding towards the busy highway. “Pump the brakes,” he yelled. “I am!” Still nothing. “Pull the emergency brake!” “I did.” Still nothing. We flew threw the stop sign as I did my best Dukes of Hazzard impression, turning the car to the right with the tires squealing and cars honking all around us. I coasted up the hill, gaining control of the car. Fortunately, the road to the golf course was up a hill. As we entered the course, we had to cross one of the fairways. I mean, we literally crossed a fairway in my bright red Mustang, because there was a truck in the road. We slowly rolled up the hill into the parking lot. I had to put the car into park to finally stop. When we looked under the car, we saw the brake line completely severed and dragging underneath the car.
I have had to hit the brakes on much of my travel due to the Coronavirus crisis. Last year I traveled to twenty-five different states. I hardly ever noticed when I crossed a state line, but in today’s climate of fear, it is necessary to pay attention. With COVID-19 cases surpassing 4.5 million, many states and cities are now enforcing mandatory quarantines. For example, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued an order at the end of July which required out-of-state visitors from most of the U.S. to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Violating the governor’s order is a daily $500 fine. Washington D.C. has similar restrictions that affect 27 states including residents of South Carolina. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has issued an emergency health order that requires out-of-state travelers from designated high-COVID states to provide their contact information upon arrival. If you fail to provide it, you will receive a summons with a $2,000 fine.
I have mentioned several times that I had plans to visit Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Alaska. The conference where I was scheduled to speak in Alaska has been postponed until next July. Just last week, I had to cancel my trip to Mexico. Most of South America is closed to travelers from the USA. Tim Chapman, in Peru, says that it looks like the restrictions are going to continue through the rest of the year so I will most likely be canceling my trips to Peru and Chile.
I would like to hit the brakes on all the political unrest and on the Cancel Culture movement. We are certainly living in a time of wars and rumors of wars, global economic crises, challenging foreign relations, and racial tension. How should Christians respond? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:58 … be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Instead of allowing these dark times to depress us, we must let our light shine. We need to pray, we need to unite, we need to get busy sharing the gospel.
One thing is for certain, we are not hitting the brakes on our mission mandate to take the gospel to the unreached, to establish local churches, and to train nationals to do the same. Thank you for your faithful support which allows EMU International and our missionaries to continue down the road of obedience to Christ’s great commission.
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