Welcome to the Journal of Dr. Gerald Whitely
Curious Shopping Arrangement
I am so privileged to be in the ministry! God has blessed me and allowed me to take over 600 Americans overseas to distribute Bibles in Romania, Moldova, and the Ukraine. And I have brought all of them back. Although some of them I should not have brought back. Ha, ha! One summer we had an interesting combination of workers. And four of them had a curious relationship. Let me explain: Brother Dan Arsenault and Brent Jones were pastors from Alabama and Florida and blessed many folk in Romania with their preaching. But they were frustrated. They were constantly thinking about all of their friends and relatives back in America to buy souvenirs for. And then there was Lois Walthuis and her friend Lynn Schmidt from Ionia, Michigan. Sweet, sweet little old ladies – I know, I know – I am going to get into trouble for saying that. When Lois and Lynn heard of Dan and Bret’s dilemma, they jumped right in. They were delighted to help. The men made a list of who to buy for, set a budget, and gave the ladies their money. The ladies grabbed the money and promptly went shopping. The men relaxed and did nothing, and the ladies were in heaven! What a deal for both parties!
Bibles in Chernovski, Ukraine
In 1992 we took a group of about twenty Americans to distribute about 50,000 New Testaments. After World War II, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt redrew the boundaries in Europe, and about 16 million ethnic Romanians found themselves in the Ukraine. So we drove to Chernovski, Ukraine with about 10,000 Romanian New Testaments and 10,000 Russian New Testaments. What a joy to hand out copies of God’s Word where it had been banned for over 40 years! The hardest problem that we faced was to make people understand that the Scriptures were really free. No one had ever given them anything, let alone a copy of the Bible! My wife gave a little old lady a New Testament, but the lady was bewildered. The translator assured her that it was indeed free and that it was a gift for her from America. The lady told Kathy (through the translator) that she had heard of the Bible and had hoped that she would someday be able to read it for herself. She took the New Testament hugging it to her heart and kissed Kathy’s hand. The little lady’s eyesight was so poor that she had to hold the book within inches to read it. As we distributed the New Testaments in the park that day, we would see the little old lady sitting on a park bench, still reading her New Testament holding it right up to her face. Are we like that little old lady? Do we respect and love God’s precious Word?
Gunshots in Barquisimeto
We were in Venezuela visiting Brother Carlos Arce and his church in the late 80’s. We had a group of six seniors from Calvary Christian school and were at his church in Barquisimeto. Just after the morning service, we were standing around outside waiting for Brother Carlos to finish up. The gate to the church courtyard was locked as the men inside were counting the offering money. Kathy heard a popping noise up the street and people began running away from the boulevard. The neighbor lady knew what was going on and pulled the Americans inside her gate, slamming it shut behind. Evidently two rival gangs were tussling over their turf. Brother Carlos came outside of the church and boldly confronted the leaders. “This is God’s house!” he declared. “Don’t be shooting around God’s house!” The young men looked stunned and began to apologize as they backed up. With a few more apologies, they got into their cars and drove away – in opposite directions.
Speeding in Hungary
In 1994 there were twenty Americans who went with me to distribute New Testaments in Romania. We had flown into Munich, Germany and had rented three vans. After a week of ministry in Romania, we were coming back to Munich for the flight home. We were traveling through Hungary on two-lane roads. I was in the front van, Dan Arsenault was in the second van and Pastor Clif Roth was driving the third. I was always nervous shepherding the group and kept looking back to check on the other two vans. Suddenly, I noticed that a motorcycle policeman had pulled over Brother Dan. Pastor Roth pulled in behind Dan as I turned around to join them. When I got back, the Hungarian policeman, who spoke no English, was trying to get Brother Dan to understand that he was speeding and had to pay a fine. The fine was 1,000 Hungarian forints. When I told Dan that was a little over two dollars, he almost laughed! He said, “There are a lot of days when I’m late and I would gladly pay two dollars to speed and be on time!” We chuckled and as I was paying Dan’s fine, he told the police, “Hey those other two vans were going just as fast as I was! You need to give them a ticket too!” Fortunately the policeman didn’t speak English.
Translation
In 1993 I took a group of Americans to Romania to distribute New Testaments that we had purchased and shipped in by truck. The Scriptures arrived in Iaşi just the day that we did and we were able to help unload them. Pastor Dino Pope and several of his church members helped us with the unloading. The truck was driven by two Czech drivers who spoke neither English nor Romanian. They did speak German, so Brother Dino found a member of his church who spoke German. So when I wanted to ask one of the truck drivers a question, I spoke to Pastor Dino, who translated it into Romanian and said it to his church member, who translated into German for the Czech driver. The Czech driver then answered the question in German, which the Romanian church member translated into Romanian for Pastor Dino, who translated the Romanian into English for me! Wow! It took a while to get anything said! What confusion was done at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11!
Matchbox Cars
The first time that I traveled to Romania was August, 1990. They were just out of communist control by eight months and were slow to change. Money was scarce and food lines were still long. Our group stayed with Brother Florin Doboş in the small town of Haţeg in central Transylvania. To me, they all spoke like Dracula! But the Doboş family treated us like royalty, meeting our every need. The next summer we returned and I brought toys and candy for Brother Florin’s two children. Cipri, his son, was about twelve and Corina, Florin’s daughter, was about eight. I had a pack of matchbox cars that I brought for Cipri. They were painted with a special coating that changed colors when immersed in hot water. Cipri thought they were neat. When I returned the next year, Florin told me that Cipri was a “business man”. Cipri had sold his matchbox cars in the market for two dollars each. Cipri had made more money from selling those cars than his father made in a month as an electrical engineer!
Bank in Chernovski
I had a group of six Americans with me, and we were handing out New Testaments in the Ukraine in 1992. We had invitations printed out and included inside each of the Scriptures that we distributed. I was looking forward to a good turn-out at the church in Chernovski. That afternoon, I went to a bank to exchange dollars for Ukrainian koupons. The going rate was about 300 to one. After standing in a long line, I handed the teller my dollars and she gave me my koupons and a receipt. I moved aside and counted my money as she waited on the next customer. Puzzled, I counted my money again – she had given me too much money. I stuck my head back if front of her window and told her that she had given me too much money. Of course, she understood nothing that I had said in English. As I showed her the receipt and began to fan out the bills, she protested that she had given me the right amount – at least that is what I thought she said. I insisted that she count the money, which she begrudgingly did. After re-counting, she saw her mistake and realized that I was trying to give her money back – probably the first time that had ever occurred with her. She shrugged, took the money back, and moved on to the next customer. I was disappointed. I had done a good deed, but she was not impressed. But the people in line behind me were. They had seen the event unfold, and they knew that the American had returned money that wasn’t his. Then a man in line took out a piece of paper to show to me. He had one of our invitations. At that moment, he knew that I was for real. And I am sure that he came to the service that evening to hear what I had to say.
Heather’s Bangs
I have always enjoyed my trips to Romania, but I especially enjoyed taking teens over there. They would ask, “Where can I plug in my blow-dryer?” I would reply, “There might be electricity three houses over there.” But they were troopers and did very well. We were in Racoviţa near Fagaraş in the center of Romania in 1993. Three of our teenage girls were staying at a beautiful home – but they didn’t have indoor plumbing. And between the house and the outhouse were several hogs in the back yard. When the girls could wait no longer, they would ask the man of the house about the toilet and he would shoo away the pigs so the girls could use the facilities. What stories they had to tell when they got back home! We were in Salzburg at a modern hotel on the way back to the airport in Munich. Heather Tippitt was going to curl her bangs. She used an adapter for her curling iron, but forgot to use the converter. She curled her bangs around her curling iron, which was now on 220 volts! When she released the curling iron, I heard her squeal from the next room. By the time I got into the girls’ room to see what was going on, all three were laughing. Heather’s fried bangs were melted to her curling iron, which was lying on the table.
Mistakes Removed
Heard on the radio today: When I was in college, I typed on an old typewriter. When I made mistakes, I used a bottle of white-out to cover my mistakes, but the mistakes were still there. In graduate school, I used my IBM Selectric lift-off tape to remove my mistakes, but the impressions of the mistakes were still there. When I completed my doctorate, I used a computer and could delete my mistakes. The mistakes were deleted and actually totally removed from my hard drive – they were completely gone! On the Day of Atonement, the Old Testament Jews had their sins covered for one more year. We may ask forgiveness for our sins, but the scars will still remain. But only God can totally remove our sins and cast them into the depths of the sea, to be remembered no more!
Czech Village
It was 1992 and I had a group of about 20 Americans with me in the little village of Moldova Noua in the southwest corner of Romania. Brother Adolphe Copriva was the pastor of several churches – he was sort of like the old circuit-riding preachers of days gone by. He was of Czech descent from a village way up in the mountains nearby. We scheduled in a visit to his village. On the way up we drove over roads that were some of the worst that I have ever seen. They were paved with rocks the size of softballs. Our five-speed car never got out of first gear for almost an hour. When we finally arrived, the congregation was all assembled. They had been waiting all afternoon, just for us to come and to preach to them. They were simple and poor, but their clothes were clean and pressed for church. We had a wonderful time that day!
Orphanage in Rusu
My first trip to Romania was in August of 1990. We spent one week near Braila working in a little village on their church building. We distributed five hundred Romanian New Testaments as well. The second week was spent in Haţeg with Florin Doboş and his dear family. Cipri, Florin’s ten year old son, and Corina, Florin’s eight year old daughter, served as out translators. Brother Florin stayed up into the night pouring over his Romanian/English dictionary in order to communicate. They treated us like kings and met our every need. We had brought several items from our church to give to local children. Brother Florin took us to an orphanage in the tiny village of Rusu, about ten miles away. We handed out Little Debbie snack cakes, but the children had never seen plastic wrappers before and didn’t know how to get at their treats! Pastor Clif Roth began blowing up balloons, but the children kicked them around as soccer balls until they burst causing more crying. But God was good. The ladies at our church had made 53 bean bag toys for the children. There were 52 children in the orphanage! What a thrill to see each child going to their afternoon nap hugging their own new bean bag animal!
Hole in the Flag
Most churches that I visit in America have flags at the front of the auditorium. The Christian flag is on the right and the American flag is on the left (its own right). But not so in Romania. For years under communism the government of Romania was the oppressor. Flags are just not found in church. When I first went to Romania I saw the blue, yellow, and red flag flying at each government building, but with a large hole cut in the middle of it! The communist symbol, which had been in the center of the flag, had been cut out: a reminder of Romania’s new freedom and disgust of the communist government. Just like the Romanian flag had a hole in it, so do Romanians have a hole in their hearts. They need the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I pray that God would fill that void with His love.