3. Round and Round and
Round
ROUND AND ROUND, in Miss Mears' case, refers to round and round the world. For Miss Mears is a traveler. She's been traveling ever since she was born. And true to her style, she accomplishes at least three missions in one: a time of relaxation and refreshment from her arduous schedule at home, a time of new insight and inspiration, and a mission of ministering to missionaries and her many students wherever they are to be found, on her path or off.
Her home reflects the countries she has visited. A large French painting of "The Path Through the Apple Blossoms" hangs on one wall, and two Royal Copenhagen figures of the fisherwoman and the dairymaid grace the gold French table. The large Bisque vases bring back memories of her beloved France and she points out the amber carving of the head of Nefertiti that she brought back from Egypt. The alabaster miniature of the Taj Mahal is on display in the black ebony, gold-inlaid treasure cabinet from China. The black ebony elephant on the table is from Ceylon and the large elephant tusks carved with dainty chains of elephants marching along their length are from her visit to the Belgian Congo. The nello-ware, sterling silver and black enamel, is from Thailand. For entertaining, there are the six-yard embroidered cloths from Italy.
At the risk of sounding like a travel folder, let me give a brief sketch of her world travels to date. The first trip to Europe was in 1927, with her sister Margaret. In 1931 she went to Panama by boat with her secretary and companion, Ethel May. In 1935 they went around the world together. In 1938 they took a Caribbean cruise to the Islands,
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to Jamaica and up the river by boat into the jungles. In 1940 they went to South America. Miss Mears gets a special light in her eye when she mentions Paris or Rio de Janeiro; she loves these two cities best of all.
In 1942 Henrietta and Margaret Mears went to Mexico and took a boat from Vera Cruz to Cuba, and circled the United States on their way home. In 1946 the two of them took a year for travel and started in South America, according to plan, and then, unexpectedly, continued on around the world. It was during this trip through Europe that Henrietta Mears received the greatest vision and the most significant insight into the needs of the world.
In 1949 she went around the world with Louise James, and then in 1952, just after Margaret's death, and after her own illness, she went around the world with Esther Ellinghusen. This was "a time of rest" so she "rested" by tromping gaily through a schedule that would have incapacitated anyone who did not need rest. According to the reports of this trip, I don't think I would want to travel with Miss Mears on a world trip when she was fully rested.
In 1954 she went to Europe and to London for Billy Graham's London Crusade. In 1956 she toured Africa and Europe with Ethel May Baldwin again.
Miss Mears has used travel for her advanced education and training, rather than to continue with more formal education at universities; she has gained a perspective of the world and its needs on her travels. It has been a "Christian" education for it has given her a greater understanding of all nations. She can present a more vivid challenge to all the young people who will be going "into the uttermost parts of the world" in Christian service. Travel has given her a greater scope of world philosophies, a background of the peoples and races everywhere. It has provided her with a knowledge of the Bible history, languages, and the universal "heart" need. She has viewed first hand the religious conditions of the world. On most of her trips her secretary accompanied her and Miss Mears dictated frequently. What she saw was vividly relayed to all those at home by open letters, and upon her return, by her inimitable verbal descriptions.
Travel provided rest and relief from the pressures of the daily routine at home, and new inspiration for her work on her return. During her journeys she has always visited the missionaries in the field, the Christian settlements and members of her Sunday school now in active missionary work. She has always felt that her ministry should be to the
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missionaries when she visited the field, rather than to go out and talk to the natives through an interpreter. While she has done that on many occasions, she has always felt that the missionaries, the ones who minister to so many constantly, need also to be ministered to, to be encouraged, revived. She warms their hearts with her love and enthusiasm, tells them of home and studies Scripture with them. These men and women need inspiration renewed, for they burn themselves out in labor and give of themselves constantly, and it seems there are so few to minister to them.
Miss Mears has visited the Voice of the Andes, the Christian radio station in South America, the Wycliffe Bible Translators in Mexico City, and many others mentioned on the following pages. This chapter can certainly be no comprehensive account of these journeys. Still we cannot leave out all mention of them, or you would not have a true picture of Miss Henrietta Mears. So pack a bag and we'll hit some highlights, skipping from one trip to another, one country to another. Let's not be chronological! Let's just go along for the ride.
It is one thing to get a letter from a former student of Miss Mears who is familiar only with her inspiration from the platform, and quite another to receive a letter from a person who has been on a world tour with her. As someone has said, "You really get to know people when you travel with them."
This is the kind of letter I received from Louise James: "As you may know, I had the grand experience of a world tour with Miss Mears (1949) which gave me the opportunity to study her characteristics at close range. It was always a thrill and a revelation to me to observe her utter dependence on the Lord in all areas of her life. Great and small decisions concerning anything and everything were committed to Him and we 'went merrily on our way rejoicing,' confident of Divine planning and protection. This is no small matter considering there were five other people involved!
"I remember several verses of Scripture Miss Mears would quote. After having made a choice of ships, planes or trains, countries to visit and when to visit them (the time element was most important in view of the border skirmishes), she would usually remind us "Commit thy way unto the Lord . . . and he shall bring it to pass!" or "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord!" or "Lean not unto thine own understanding!" I was simply amazed at the smoothness with which the whole trip was taken and I am certain her great dependence on the Lord's wisdom was responsible. As you may well
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imagine, visiting some twenty or more countries, we naturally mixed into many classes of people. From the Indian bus boy, Shaw Sing, to the society of Sir Herbert Allen, poet and member of British Parliament, I was always enchanted with her ability to introduce, and to hold the Lord up in one way or another to each of them on his own level of understanding . . .
"I feel sure that I have not said anything that you didn't know about Miss Mears, except that there is a village sheik in Luxor, Egypt, who has had a crush on her for twenty years. He was our guide there and has been her guide on previous trips. We had a good time teasing her about this." I just knew that sooner or later we would find some interesting intrigue!
Now through this book there will be much talk of the inspiration and activity that Teacher leaves in her wake. Yet I wonder if we can possibly realize the true picture. This is what she left in her wake on Wake Island: the travel journal reads, "September 15, 1952. Landed at Wake Island at 4:30 A.M. in the dark. Had breakfast in the hut where Truman and General MacArthur met for their conference in October, 1950. Left the island at 6:30, just twenty-four hours before the terrible typhoon that destroyed ninety percent of the buildings"; just another example of the typhoons she leaves in her wake.
Suppose we dip at random into the travel journal of Esther Ellinghusen, Teacher's co-worker and fellow traveler:
"Sept. 16, 1952. Dr. Fred Jarvis met us at the hotel and drove us around Tokyo all day in the Youth for Christ station wagon. Saw more of this city in that one day and learned more of the religious, social and political situations than a tourist could learn in months . . .
"Luncheon at Forbidden City with Mr. and Mrs. Morcken, Mr. and Mrs. Ineson, and Mrs. Vogel, whose husband is doing such outstanding work with the prisoners in the prison war camps in Korea. Dr. Jarvis broke down in tears as he asked the blessing, having just returned from Korea where he saw such suffering and starvation. He is a war correspondent so he can travel back and forth to Korea. His primary objective is missionary work . . .
"Drove through the red light district . . . Dr. Jarvis invited the people to come to the car to get tracts that would tell them about the true God. Great crowds almost swamped the car as Miss Mears and I handed out tracts as fast as we could. Having exhausted the supply, we reached back in the car for more and were madly passing
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them out when Dr. Jarvis discovered that we were giving out announcements for a meeting that had been held the week before!
"Sept. 18. Asked our 'jinrikisha' boy to take us some place for Japanese tea and he took us to a place where they sold teacups! Guess our pantomime of drinking tea did not quite connect! 'The Hollywood Christian Group (a group of Hollywood film actors) wouldn't be the least bit proud of our acting, would they?' said Miss Mears, bursting into peals of laughter when she saw the display of teacups. 'Teacups, teacups everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Well, come on, let's buy a teacup. Don't want to disappoint our boy. He looks so proud of his accomplishment.'
"Formosa. Mrs. Lil Dickson took us to visit the home for some fifteen babies who have been taken from their leper mothers at birth. Such darling babies. This is one of the many projects of dear Mrs. Dickson. She is doing a great work among the poor, sadly neglected lepers . . . The rooms, crowded with patients, are dark and barren, and the only decoration is a few old Christmas cards. Mrs. Dickson says she can use a million used Christmas cards each year. She said to leave on the printing as they imprint each card in Chinese or Formosan before they are given to the lepers, orphans, and new Christians. Address to Mrs. Lillian Dickson, 94 Chung San Peh Lu, Taipei, Formosa. Do not send parcel with a parcel card. Send as 'printed matter, no commercial value . . . used cards.' Must tell others at home.
"We visited one of the Christian lepers. When we came into his room he was reading the Bible to a group he had gathered around him. They are in 'the room next to heaven.' His bed, like all the others, was merely boards with a straw mat stretched over them. Miss Mears and I could not bear the thought of these suffering people lying on bare boards, so we gave the money for forty new 'tatami' mats (thick, soft matting), one for each bed in this ward where the worst cases are . . .
"A group of us with two of Mrs. Dickson's young men, named Everlasting Life and Resurrection, graduates of the Presbyterian seminary and preachers to the native tribes, went for a drive through the beautiful mountain district. We climbed and climbed and climbed up the narrow mountain path to Urai, a village of aborigines. After a visit inside one of their houses, and in some of the churches, Everlasting Life seated all the children who had gathered on the hillside and started them singing choruses. They were almost entirely naked. I wish you could have heard them sing and could have seen the joy on their little faces.
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Before long the whole village had gathered at the church. The older women bore a tattoo across the lower part of their faces as a sign of marriage. Now practically the whole village is Christian. When we left, we wound our way back down the mountain side and the natives, gathered at the edge of the upper ridge, sang in their own language, 'God be with you 'til we meet again' and we white people from the turn of the path far below sang back to them the words in English. Tears flowed freely down Teacher's cheeks as she sang — tears of joy, tears of compassion."
In Bangkok the two travelers went to a Chinese feast to celebrate the seventy-fourth birthday of one of the wealthiest men in Bangkok, a doctor whose daughter had been the interpreter that morning for Miss Mears at the Chinese seminary where she is a teacher. There were only four white people present. The setting was in the apartment house that the doctor owned, a very modern building with the most up-to-date drugstore in the city on the first floor. The other four floors were occupied by his four wives and twenty-seven children and their families. They were all at the feast, as well as a representative from the King, and the mayor of the city. The meal began with drinks being served on the penthouse roof which was covered with beautiful flowers and had a magnificent view of the city. Miss Mears joined in on the drinks when she saw what was being served. The "drinks" were orange juice, imported, a very great treat, served in bottles.
The tables at which the two hundred guests were seated were literally groaning with food, which was served in thirteen courses, preceded and interspersed with the orange drink. All the cooking for the meal was done in the courtyard and the servants ran up the five flights of stairs with all thirteen courses to deliver them piping hot. They were served watermelon seeds, shark fins, abalone steaks, mushrooms, chicken, and other delicacies. Some of the food was delicious, and some of it . . . well, it all depends upon your custom!
All the eating was done with chopsticks. Miss Mears sat at the number two table beside the number one son, who was also a doctor. He immediately began instructing Miss Mears in the use of chopsticks. He spoke beautiful English and they had a wonderful time. Miss Mears had great difficulty with the chopsticks and so, finally, a fork was brought to her. Then, cheerfully sampling all thirteen courses with the greatest of ease, she turned to the missionary couple who had brought them and said, "Sometimes I find it smart not to be too smart." She laughed as she dipped her fork into the chicken and almonds.
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In Bangkok the travel plans were completely disrupted and the two travelers had to delay their schedule. They couldn't help but be impatient with the delay, and they wondered why it had happened. When they first landed in Bangkok, they were met by Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Chaffee and their two sons, Paul and John, aged eight and four. Mr. Chaffee had been a classmate of many of the seminary students who attended Hollywood Presbyterian, so there was much to talk over. Now, with the delay in the travelers' plans, the Chaffees opened their home to them in great hospitality. Due to floods, there were no trains running and no planes were able to land. To take advantage of what was to them the opportune delay of Miss Mears, the Chaffees invited all the missionaries to come to their home to hear Miss Mears speak.
First the Chaffees took Miss Mears for dinner at the beautiful Oriental Hotel overlooking the river, and then back to the Chaffee home in time for the reception. All of the missionaries turned out en masse and, in spite of the pouring rain, did their guests honor by dressing formally, ladies in evening clothes and gentlemen in white suits. The distinguished guests arrived barefooted and carrying their shoes in their hands, trousers rolled up, ladies lifting dresses to their knees, as they waded across the compound with the rain coming down in torrents. In the gaiety of their arrival, their depression and discouragement were momentarily hidden. But Miss Mears could sense it in their wistful looks; in the pleading pleasure with which they greeted her, she saw the heavy, heavy, hearts. Then she began to talk to them as one who understood all things; discouragement, loneliness, frustration, depression. She brought them the thrilling news of what was going on at home and then she began to point to the promises of God, of knowing the will of God. It was the message she had received at Forest Home for just this hour. Gradually she saw the weariness give way to renewed strength, discouragement to inspiration as they searched the Scriptures together. She knew now why the delay in Bangkok. "I guess the Lord knew we should spend extra time in Bangkok for the sake of the missionaries there."
The missionaries said afterwards that they had never had such a challenge and so much help in one evening. Then with light hearts they departed barefoot through the six inches of water that stood at the front steps and lay like a lake through the whole compound.
While Miss Mears was staying in the Chaffee home, the two little children hung on her and followed her everywhere. Mrs. Chaffee said, "They don't do that to other visitors. You see, the other visitors don't
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pay any attention to them. I'm so grateful to you, Miss Mears." But the delight was mutual, and to the two children Miss Mears was a constant wonder.
One evening the Chaffees had to go to a musicale but their guests begged off because they were so tired. So they were left with the children in their charge. The house was a native Siamese home with an open hallway separating the rooms. Soon they heard great giggling and laughter from the children's room.
"I know they're taking a shower but what's so funny? Children, what is it?" Miss Mears called across the hall.
The giggles continued, "We're all covered with soap and we look so funny and there is no more water in the shower and there is no way to get it off!" And another burst of giggles.
Always one for action no matter what, Miss Mears wondered what to do. Obviously the pump system had failed again. "Well, you come over here!" she called. "We've got water in our stone jar!" Each night the kitchen boys made trip after trip, filling the large stone jar in the guests' room with warm water. Then it had to be ladled out with a dipper but it was effective after a fashion — a very slow fashion. Across the open hallway, the soapy, giggling, naked children dashed. Unperturbed, Miss Mears had them stand in the large stone basin and then ladled dipper after dipper of warm water over the soapy bodies. She handed Esther a towel.
"Here, Esther, you dry after I dip!"
Soon the little boys were dry and tucked into bed. Then, just as she was getting settled once more, the dog came in from the rain, soaking wet. Thinking of beloved Danny back home, another towel was produced and Teacher dried the dog. Once more she settled down when a loud, whumping noise developed. "I know what that is," Miss Mears said, dashing from her bed. "Cliff said that was the signal to switch the electric motor over."
The noise subsided. Once more to bed. Then out of the quiet came a deep frightening noise.
"It can't be the electric motor. I switched that over. But what is it? It sounds like the compound is filled with a wild herd of bulls!" said Miss Mears.
Esther sat up in bed. "Do you know what wild bulls sound like?" she asked in respectful meekness.
"No," replied Miss Mears, undaunted. "But if I did I know that's how they would sound."
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There was no rest until the Chaffees came home. "Everything all right?" asked Cliff through the door.
"Yes, just fine!" called Teacher cheerfully. "We bathed the boys, dried the dog, switched the electric motor, but what is that dreadful noise in the compound?"
"What noise?" asked Cliff.
"Well, it sounds like wild bulls to me!" said Teacher.
"Oh, that noise! Those are bullfrogs!"
"Bullfrogs!" Miss Mears laughed gaily. "Well I had it partly right, except for the frogs! Good night!"
Back into bed. "Esther, I think the musicale would have been more restful after all! The travel folders surely miss the point. They didn't promise any of this! Good night, Esther. The Lord bless you! Bullfrogs! Did you ever?" And they went to sleep.
Don't think that Miss Mears takes everything in her stride. It was in India. Ethel May and Teacher were rushing back to the hotel to rest a bit before lunch, when some snake charmers insisted that they would entertain them. So, fascinated, Miss Mears watched as the snakes rose out of their containers, heads held high, swinging back and forth to the tune of the weird reed pipes. There was no rest for Teacher before lunch that noon or for several nights after! In the afternoon they passed an elephant loaded with a group of people who cheerfully dismounted so that Miss Mears could have a ride on the back of an elephant — but she refused to get aboard! She who had ridden muleback into the remote conference grounds refused to ride on the nice broad "safe" elephant. "Nonsense!" said she. "My riding the elephant will serve no purpose whatever for anyone's welfare. You just take the elephant right along!" It was the look in this particular elephant's eyes, for she had taken many jaunts on elephants.
Returning from Agra, where they had visited the Taj Mahal, accompanied by two young evangelists from Canada, they were almost overwhelmed with the intense heat. Everyone was perspiring profusely. Miss Mears was riding in front of Esther and the two evangelists.
Suddenly Esther spoke. "Well, Miss Mears, I see that you'll be wearing your coat when we go into the Imperial Hotel in New Delhi."
What do you mean? Are you out of your mind? Nothing in this world would make me put on a coat. This heat is dreadful."
"All the same you'll be wearing a coat."
"Well, I won't!"
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"What do you think?" said Esther turning to the evangelist sitting beside her. "Will Miss Mears be wearing her coat into the hotel?"
"Well, it certainly is hot; but yes, I agree that she will be wearing her coat!"
What are you talking about!" demanded Miss Mears, turning to face the other three who were dissolved in laughter.
"Your dress has ripped out in the back!" gasped Esther. "the heat and all the walking we did — now there's nothing holding the pieces together across your shoulders!"
Miss Mears wore her coat into the hotel. "Well, I always believe in getting the last bit of good out of everything I wear!" she said cheerfully. The dress was abandoned in New Delhi.
Travel in the Holy Land has given a concrete reality and vividness to physical landmarks of the Christian faith. Miss Mears' great knowledge of the Scriptures brings every detail to life:
"We walked miles in the Old City, remembering that Jesus and His disciples, Paul and others, had walked in those very places. We climbed the hill to the Mount of Olives and recalled that it was here that Christ left this earth after He gave His wonderful promise, 'Lo I am with you always,' and His great commission: 'Go into all the world and preach the Gospel!' 'Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well . . . There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. . .' We drank of the clear, cool water and the well was very deep.
"We were invited by one of the priests to visit an upper room to see the overhead decorations for the Feast of the Tabernacle," writes a traveling companion. "When you travel with Miss Mears you get into such places, unvisited by regular tourists."
They decided to drive to Ein Karen, but they could not make their taxi driver understand. The driver went from place to place to find someone who spoke English. Finally, on the fourth stop out in the residential districts, they found Mr. A. Samuels, a wonderful Jewish guide who had been active in that work for twenty-six years and had been studying the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, to discover its history. They sensed that the Lord had been speaking to him through the Word. He sensed their great interest in the things of the Bible and asked them if they would like to see the celebration of the Feast of the Tabernacle in the synagogue.
It was sundown on Friday evening and the Holy Day had just begun when Mr. Samuels took them into his two-room home which is in
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one of the oldest courts in Jerusalem. Everything was immaculately clean, and on shelves in both rooms, on the table and in the sideboard, were Bibles which showed evidence of having been well read. After cake and sweets, they went to the synagogue in the next street.
The synagogue was crowded with men and boys all wearing caps; the boys in the choir were chanting psalms. The women and girls stood at the open windows and were so kind as to give the visitors a good place where they could observe the ritual and hear the cantor. It was a rare privilege, and they assured Mr. Samuels of their gratitude.
Mr. Samuels worked with Mr. Lloyd Douglas in his research for writing The Robe, and was asked to come to Hollywood as a technical adviser on the filming of the picture based on this book; he refused, saying that he could not leave his beloved Israel. He told Miss Mears that it was impossible to weave a robe in one piece and that he had questioned every weaver in Palestine. He believed that Christ's "robe" was really a prayer shawl which all devout Jews wear and which no doubt our Lord wore.
As they reached Cana of Galilee, they saw a crowd gathered. Mr. Samuels exclaimed, "A wedding!" The whole village was in a joyous procession up the little, narrow, cobbled street.
They jumped from the car and ran up the hill where they were most graciously accepted by the villagers, who pushed them into the procession. Miss Mears joined right in with the women and the girls who followed the groom, clapping and singing.
"I don't understand a word of it," said Teacher. "But they're happy and I'm happy, too! Think of having a wedding waiting for us at Cana! The place where Christ performed His first miracle two thousand years ago! A wedding in Cana!"
Teacher felt the Lord had made special arrangements all along for them — a great religious celebration in Japan, a birthday feast for a rich doctor in Bangkok, one of the greatest heathen celebrations in India at the Ganges River, and in the Holy Land the Feast of the Tabernacles — and now a wedding in Cana!
Miss Mears invited Mr. Samuels to have dinner with them one evening at the beautiful hotel called "Waves of Galilee." After dinner they sat out on the terrace with the gentle waves of Galilee lapping on the shores at their very feet. As Esther described it, "The stars studded the deep, satin-blue skies. One was so bright it cast its reflection on the water in a path almost like the reflection of the moon."
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Then, as Miss Ellinghusen looked out over the water and prayed silently, Miss Mears presented the claims of Christ to Mr. Samuels, who was moved to tears. He looked out over the Sea of Galilee. "Yes, I would like to let Christ into my heart," he replied in response to Miss Mears' question. "But do you know why it is hard? I would be a second Stephen, stoned to death."
Later, after Miss Mears returned to Hollywood, Mr. Samuels wrote to her. "I have done what you asked me to do," he wrote. He had accepted Christ as Messiah. He died the next year.
And then the two ladies reached Athens! It took four men and a map to help Miss Mears explain to the taxi driver that they wanted to go to Mars Hill, which is known in Athens as the Areopagus. Then, finally at their destination, they climbed the steps that the Apostle Paul had possibly climbed. There, in view of the Acropolis, the Little Temple of Athena Nike, to the west the Agora, and the Temple of Jupiter, and the Coliseum, with the modern city of Athens spread out in a mighty panorama, they found the smoothest place they could find on the rocky, unshaded hill and sat down to read aloud the seventeenth chapter of Acts.
"Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious . . . God who made the world and all things in it, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands . . ." But here Teacher's reading was interrupted by the continued intrusion of a young Greek guide. Miss Mears tried to make him understand that they did not want a guide and pointed out gently but firmly that they wanted to read the Scriptures. This did not daunt him. He sat down beside them. Miss Mears continued reading aloud, more or less ignoring him. He listened with quiet attention.
"Do you understand what we are reading?" Miss Mears finally asked graciously. He nodded his head. She continued, "Do you believe in Jesus?"
A sad expression crossed his face. "That was what I wanted to hear," he answered timidly.
Now, realizing that their would-be guide was in need of a Guide himself, Miss Mears presented the claims of Christ. Having such a personal application made in this place of historical significance, the twenty-three-year-old Greek student accepted Christ as Saviour there on Mars Hill, where Paul had preached his famous sermon and
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where Dionysius and a woman named Damaris and others with them believed in Christ and followed Paul.
In a similar manner, the young Greek guide began to follow Miss Mears. He carried her bag and her coat and helped her down the steep stairs after they had a session of prayer. He accompanied them back to the city and stayed with them until noon. They stopped at T.W.A. for mail and when they left, Miss Mears bought a Greek Bible for the young guide. They had a fine talk with the English manager of the Bible Society, who introduced the new Greek convert to the Christian Greek helper in his employ. So, working on the principle that the nurture of the new Christian is every bit as vital as the conversion experience, and leaving her new convert with a Christian companion, Miss Mears went "merrily on her way, rejoicing."
The next day, while doing some shopping, the young Greek convert met her in the shop and greeted her with great joy.
"How are you?" asked Miss Mears in her joyful fashion.
Much to her surprise he sighed and said, "I did not sleep last night."
In sudden concern she said, "Oh, what's wrong?"
A great smile broke across his face. "Nothing. I stayed awake reading the Book! I did not guide you, but you guided me to the Truth!"
Another journal entry said: "How we did appreciate the fact that Mr. Mays, from the Garden Tomb, spent the day with us and helped us to relive some of the Bible stories in their actual locations. It was a thrill to travel along with our Bible in our hands and stop to read as we saw the actual places. We passed Mizpah and repeated to ourselves Jacob's words to Laban as they parted, 'May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.' "
Miss Mears has pointed out that the only difference in people is in their ability to appreciate. In Christians, that difference is marked by the extent to which they can appreciate what Christ has done for them. To illustrate her point, she tells what occurred during her tour of the art gallery in Dresden, Germany. Time was rationed, and they quickly tried to "absorb" as many of the masterpieces as possible. They came to where the "greatest picture of the world" was hung in solitude, surrounded with blue velvet curtains. It was the Sistine Madonna. As they entered the room, Miss Mears noticed a little old man sitting on the bench in silent, intense appreciation of the painting, not even noticing anyone who came into the room. Two hours later Miss Mears returned to see the picture once more, and she noticed the old man was still sitting there; still absorbed, he had not
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moved in his consuming appreciation. He knew what real appreciation meant. And so Miss Mears brings home an illustration from her travels to point up her Christian challenge: "Just so should Christians have the greatest depth possible in their appreciation for what Christ has done."
The "direct approach" is attested to by one of "her" boys, a second generation son. It was under Miss Mears' influence that the father, Noel Lyons, of the European Bible Institute, accepted Christ; and his son, Mel Lyons, now a missionary in the Belgian Congo, received his spiritual tutoring from "Teacher." He remembers calling her "Teacher," possibly being the first one to give her this name in 1937, at the beginning of Forest Home. He writes: "Her ability to go directly to the heart of the problem or to the problem of the heart, whichever proved to be the case, was and still is the captivating element of her ministry. I saw this trait again manifested in the early part of 1956 when Miss Mears visited us in the Belgian Congo, Africa. In her brief ministry, both to the Congolese pastors and teachers attending the Bible School and later to the gathering of missionaries on Ruanguba Station, Teacher thrust the sword in deep as she met squarely the problems confronting both groups. And this without previous coaching or prompting. Her heart and life belong to the Lord, and He shows Himself through her ministry. The African was not slow in evaluating this great personality; he called her, after hearing but one message, 'mademoiselle of much boldness!' . . . I've been in graduate and undergraduate study in Chicago, overseas with the Marines, and later served in the Belgian Congo as missionary, which is my present occupation; in each of these situations I've been often in contact with Teacher's influence. Each contact causes the memory to flash back to moments spent in prayer with Teacher kneeling beside her desk in First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, or time spent under her dynamic, dramatic teaching."
So "round and round and round" goes our "mademoiselle of much boldness," leaving a wake of spiritual typhoons whenever she departs.
