NOT BRAVE—NOT FEARLESS By Erwin Bourne—August 26, 2002 Our three sons and one daughter live in Interior Alaska near the community of North Pole. Our other daughter wishes that she did. Their exploits, work- related or for adventure, are beyond the norm. I cannot live in that northern frontier any more. God who knows my love of adventure has ordered our lives to the Amazon frontier. Our oldest son, Douglas, still sends me the ALASKA magazine. Jean was reading to me an article—ALONE—from this magazine written by Nick Jans. He was telling of his Arctic adventures and close encounters. And here’s the statement that caught my attention as though describing my own makeup. “I don’t consider myself particularly brave and certainly not fearless.” The bravest are also cautious. The Apostle Paul advises us to obey God “with deep reverence and fear” (Phil. 2:12 NLT). I have just been looking at an awe-inspiring photo of my youngest son, Gale. He is half kneeling on a scenic mountaintop beside a gorgeous grizzly. The beast’s head is six times that of my son’s. Though Gale is perfectly relaxed in this photo, I am sure he maintained a deep reverence and healthy fear of this monarch of the mountain. He and his son now have another late fall raft trip into the Brooks range. This early A.M. Jean (not adventurous by nature) and I (needing to exercise more reverence and fear) spent a good hour studying missionary strategy and finances. You, too, are praying, and it’s your money we are disbursing to develop the AMA missions. It is not by accident that we are here. As Nick Jans would say, “I just connected one day and one year to the next, and kept going out into the land.” There’s much land ahead to be possessed. I will close this chapter with a rather incongruous story told me by my general superintendent. He told of a big game hunter who contracted with a guide for a grizzly hunt. The date arrived and they were soon on a mountain in a wild country. The guide swung his arm out over the dense river country below and said, “The grizzlies are down there. Go and get ‘em.” In so many words, “I’ve guided you to grizzly habitat. But I’m not going any farther. It’s all up to you.” As a young man then in my twenties, I still vividly remember my reaction to the story: “that coward!” A professional guide who won’t protect his client. He favored his life far above his livelihood! When Jean and I asked to go to the Amazon, our “professional” told us, “I wouldn’t consider sending a young couple into that wilderness.” We weren’t asking to be sent. We were only asking permission to go. Today, we are on the Amazon on our own. By Erwin Bourne <Outreach_amazon@yahoo.com> |