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—From
Jim Au, IMM Founder & President Here
are words that have special meaning to me at this
time in my life and ministry: “Deal
bountifully with your servant, that I may live
and keep your word” (Psalm 119:17). Indeed,
the Lord has dealt abundantly with me, as this
was my heart’s cry while I have faced, and
in most cases overcame, many challenges since
last spring.
A Look Back
at 2003
One day in September, I took notice when Trudy
came home with something interesting she heard at
a mid-week church service. Someone had spoken a
prophetic word for those people who were
struggling with their finances, marriage or work
situation: a miracle was on its way in less than
eight days. We were struggling in all three areas,
so I clung tightly to this news as I began to
face my most challenging media project of 2003.
This was the introductory video for House of
Myrrh Ministries, a multi-faceted spiritual
growth ministry (of which I am board chairman).
This 15-minute video was to be shown to an
audience of several hundred people at a
fundraising banquet. Regarding this project, I
was having difficulties in many areas: script,
logistics, equipment problems, lack of equipment,
to name a few. To make matters more difficult,
four weeks remained until the banquet, I had made
zero progress on the video, and for a week I
would be hosting evangelists Glenn and Fatima
Cunningham of NE India in our home while Trudy
would be away on a personal vacation in Canada
with our friend Tami Karjalainen. For this, I
felt I needed not only a miracle, but a basket
full of miracles. I asked God for seven. God met
me with favor, and showered me with many more
than what I asked for.
His blessings
started coming less than a week later, with a
surprise visit from Trudy’s brother Rod
Davis, his wife Linda and their three children (they
live in a remote part of southwestern Idaho). On
a Monday when I had figured on getting serious
about the video project, our families decided to
spend the day hiking up Oneonta Gorge, a narrow
box canyon off the Columbia River. I felt a tug
from the Holy Spirit to lay my urgent plans aside,
and go with my family. I did so, and had a great
time. But I did not come adequately prepared for
the hike.
Several times,
I found myself scrambling up rocks trying to keep
my pants and nice shoes out of the cold stream.
Twice, Rod gladly offered to carry me across the
stream on his back. Each time, my pride took a
backseat, and he ended up carrying me over two
hundred feet of slippery rocks like a mountain
goat. Looking back, I now understand his generous
act was a sign of God’s gracious provision
yet to come, intended for us.
For me, the time spent with Glenn and Fatima in
our home was a little bit of heaven. They cooked
Indian food incessantly for us, we had rich
fellowship times, and I had the privilege of
taking them around Portland for speaking
engagements. (Previously, I reported that God
healed and delivered Glenn in the final stages of
pancreatic cancer, perhaps the most deadly of all
cancers; that miracle took place in April 1999;
this was his third visit to the USA.)
One day,
Glenn, Fatima, the children and I were all headed
in the mini-van to do some shopping at Wal-Mart
and visit Multnomah Falls on the far edge of town.
I accidentally missed the exit for Wal-Mart and
planned to turn around at the next off-ramp. When
we pulled off the freeway, Glenn got really
excited when he spotted an Arby’s restaurant
and offered to buy everyone milk shakes (he had
acquired a taste for their Jamoca shakes while in
Alabama). After that refreshing treat, we got
back on the freeway and headed for the falls,
since by this point we were far from town.
The highway
between that last exit and the falls is a long
and beautiful drive, but there is virtually
nothing else out there. It was about then that I
noticed we were severely out of gasoline. Even to
turn around for gas would have required many
miles. As I prayed about what to do, not wanting
to alarm anyone of our situation, the Lord
quietly put it in my mind that we should drive
all the way to the falls and He would provide for
our need, carrying us on His wings. Saying
nothing, I mulled, “Lord, on fumes?”
I struggled mightily within myself and with God,
wanting to do what was reasonable, but feeling
strongly led to take Him at His word. Somehow, we
made the long drive to the falls without running
out of gas, parked the car and had a great time
at Oregon’s most visited scenic spot. After
enjoying this natural wonder together, we
returned to the car and I admitted to everyone
what was going on. We prayed fervently for God to
provide the gas we were nowhere near being able
to obtain on our own. I turned the car around and
slowly drove the car through the parking lot,
headed back to Portland.
A very short
distance before entering the freeway, Glenn
spotted a pickup truck hauling a mobile trailer,
pulled over to one side of the parking lot. The
driver was refueling his tank from a five-gallon
gas can. Glenn stopped us abruptly and asked him
if we could buy the last bit of gas from him. Had
I hesitated a moment, the driver would have
quickly emptied the can into his own tank. As it
was, about one gallon remained in his gas can. He
gladly gave this to us and would not take a dime.
On the way back to town, we praised God with all
our might for His awesome provision in our time
of need.
The Wal-Mart Adventure
Glenn and Fatima spent nearly three hours
carefully and meticulously filling a shopping
cart with gifts they would take back to their
family and ministry team members in India. Then,
all of a sudden, the cart disappeared from sight.
We frantically searched every aisle for a long
time, and finally contacted the store for help.
Before resigning myself to another few hours to
fill a new cart, I paused to ask the Lord for
mercy. Within a minute, a clerk reported that the
missing cart had been found over in another
section of the store. Once again, the Lord showed
us His favor. Our children will never forget
those three long hours shopping with “Uncle
Glenn and Auntie Fatima.” Glenn’s treat
of a gigantic one-dollar bag of popcorn for the
drive home helped to ease their anguish.
Last-Minute
Miracles, With Lasting Impact
By the time Trudy returned from her trip, I had
only eight working days left to record more than
a dozen interviews (some by telephone), edit
together a convincing video program, render the
final program by computer, prepare it for
projection, and set up video projection and a
multi-camera shoot for the banquet.
I will not
fully describe all the miracles God provided so
that I could achieve this. Yet, all along the way,
I was given exactly what was needed to accomplish
each step, which included: making more than
thirty phone calls one evening to work out
logistics (I am NOT a phone person, and needed
His help to overcome fear); making several hour-long
drives to Salem either to attempt some interviews
or borrow equipment (special thanks to Robert
Ford, incorporator and former director of IMM);
dealing with the difficult logistics of finding
people in order to tape them (a challenge when
many of these were from out of town, but were
planning to be in Portland during this final week);
finding a quiet outdoor location for videotaping
in a small town on a busy highway; “Super
Monday,” when in one day I had more than a
half dozen video interviews scheduled within a
thirty mile radius, a trip to Salem, and several
long-distance telephone interviews to record;
pulling several consecutive all-nighters to do
post-production; dealing with a last-minute cable
shortage in the fairly large banquet hall;
staying alert for the final presentation during
the banquet. Typically, a video like this
requires two weeks to edit and perfect. I had
only three days for this one. Throughout one all-night
edit session, I was absolutely dead tired, but
felt the Lord skillfully moving my hands on the
keyboard and mouse to piece together the final
program. With the time crunch, the House of Myrrh
staff was incredulous that I would be able to
assemble the video in time for the banquet.
In the final
outcome, the video presentation received high
marks and compliments. The banquet itself was a
great success, in which enough support was raised
to qualify the ministry for a sizeable matching
grant. (In fact, the program and testimonies were
so moving, someone in attendance received Christ
as Savior before it ended!)
I simply give God all the praise for this. Being
short on time and energy, and facing so many
seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the Lord
taught me to relax, and allow myself to just be
carried on His wings to finish the project in His
way and timing. I’m confident this
production will have a lot of impact for
promoting the House of Myrrh’s ministry for
years to come. As this ministry has poured
tremendous spiritual blessings into our lives for
over a decade, it was a distinct privilege for me
to be involved in giving back to it in this way.
The next
steps of this project will plunge me into DVD
production to furnish copies of the video for
distribution, and provide additional tools on DVD
for training future workshop leaders in this
unique, powerful ministry.
The Miracles
That Followed, And Then Some
Following this production, I had opportunity to
make a promo video for Michael and Sarah Jackson,
who are missionaries with Disciple A Whole Nation
(D.A.W.N) in Northeast India. Again, with little
time to produce this short program, and many
problems with the script, the final video was
punched out in four working days, and glowing
comments got back to me about its presentation
from Sacramento, CA. (Michael was the only person
to witness our little Clarissa’s first steps
back in December 1999.)
Less than a
week later, with almost no time to prepare, I was
to lead the second annual House of Myrrh Board of
Directors retreat in Long Beach, Washington. This
is basically a two-and-a-half-day-long board
meeting, in which much business is conducted for
that ministry. I was truly amazed at how much was
accomplished then. Two days afterwards, I went to
visit Duane Fugitt, who has an anointed biblical
teaching he calls “Thank You Power.”
After meeting him, I agreed to videotape his
presentation (sometime in 2004) to help make it
widely available. I also started practicing
“Thank You Power” right away.
On November
16, an unexplained nerve pinch took hold of my
left arm and severely incapacitated me. In spite
of that, I continued to practice “Thank You
Power” while struggling for weeks all the
way through New Years Day with unbearable pain
and discomfort. With Trudy’s loving care,
prayers from family and friends, and special
attention from our chiropractor Alexe Bellingham
(our son Daniel derives his middle name from her
dad, Dr. Arthur Walker), by the first week of
2004, I regained full use of my left arm and
started working again. Praise the Lord for His
mercy!
Brief Outlook
For 2004
Production for 2004 is now under way. This
includes developing new websites for two
evangelistic ministries. One is for Glenn
Cunningham; the other is for Portland’s
famous street preacher, Ron Rohman. Nathan
Willard, whom I mentored in 1999 at Multnomah
Bible College, has given me permission to animate
his recent children’s short stories. He is
providing great impetus for IMM’s target of
reaching youth and children. Now that should be
fun!
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