“Who are the persons of influence in your life?” asks the Rev G. Needham in the column called “Perceptions of faith.” (Northern Advocate, Saturday, January 23, 2016)

She says also: “You will become (and have become) the average of the five people you spent the most time with, at various life-stages.”

Gladly I will tell you about some persons of influence in my life, all with the Lord now.

AT BIBLE SCHOOL I SPENT TIME WITH ERNEST KLASSEN:

He was a teacher and the business manager at the Bible school in Germany I attended for three years.

While visiting us in Kaikohe many many years later, where we worked as missionaries (United Maori Mission – UMM), I took him sightseeing with a stopover for a cup of coffee at the Waitangi resort. I was looking forward to drink my coffee, but uncle Ernie, as we called him, was telling the waitress what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and is doing in his life using his special cards.

A subject at the Bible school was called PERSONAL EVANGELISM. Uncle Ernie did not teach the subject, but he practiced it.

Heather H. Ewald, his daughter wrote a book about her father called: MEIN VATER ERNIE KLASSEN (German).

And I have here before me two slender volumes, one written by uncle Ernie and one compiled by him. In one of them you find at the beginning the verse Proverbs 11:25, where it says: “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

“MEIN VATER ERNIE KLASSEN”

WHEN I PREPARED TO GO TO THE MISSION FIELD I SPENT TIME WITH DAVID BATCHELOR:

David Batchelor was the Home Director of a Missionary Society near Frankfurt in Germany.

He visited the Bible school I attended so far as I remember as a visiting speaker, and that was enough for me to apply to the Missionary Society he represented. He and his wife were the instruments the Lord used to guide me as a missionary to Thailand, where I worked for 13 year in two provinces near the Burmese border.

David Batchelor was from Scotland, but his German was so to speak flawless.

I can only praise the Lord for couples like that.

WHILE ON THE MISSION FIELD I SPENT TIME WITH WILF OVERGAARD:

Wilf Overgaard was field leader in Thailand, when I arrived there as a young missionary.

He was like a father to me. That’s actually all I need to say. That is the summary and it says everything.

The Thai field did not have any problems under his leadership. Even the General Director of the Mission commented on that when he came to visit the field as a guest speaker at one of our yearly field conferences.

Wilf Overgaard was a very wise leader. Do you know what he said once? He said: “If we put enough pressure on each other, we all go home eventually.” I have never forgotten that.

There are more people of course. There is of course my mother, although I have not mentioned her in particular.

BUT MOST OF ALL SINCE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO MY HEART I SPENT TIME WITH HIM. (God is not a power like electricity. He is not an unseen force. He is not an influence. God is a person.)

Please note also that the three persons of influence in my life mentioned and my mother also spent time with the Lord Jesus Christ.