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| Dr. David and Betty Woodward |
Coincidences or Father’s Hand? In early 2011, twoChinese reporters interviewed me aboutthe amazing “coincidences” that have helped me pull together the history of theAmoy Mission (I was able to show them emails and other materials to documentthem).
Scientists have long tried to explainthese uncanny coincidences. In the 1920s,Carl Jung dubbed it synchronicity. EvenEinstein spoke of how his insights came not from logic but from unexplainedinspiration. Some call it the Force (rather like Star Wars!).But Isee it as our Father’s hand. He weavesthe tapestry of our lives so deftly and gentlythat we usually go about our lives completely unaware of just how much we takefor granted. But sometimes we entangle ourselves so much that He reaches into straighten out a knot or two—such as he did right after our honeymoon, andlater did with a gift from Dr. Woodward...
The Magic ZhengWhile in Taiwan for our wedding, Suebought a Chinese zheng for my wedding present. I had wanted one for years, and was delighted—and then I left it on apublic bus in San Francisco while transferring to another airport. I wasdevastated, and halfheartedly threw up a hopeless prayer—more of a complaintthan a plea for help, blaming my Father for allowing his child to be socareless. I had zero hope of ever seeingthe zheng again because neither the instrument nor the case had any ID. It was not, I felt, an auspicious way tostart married life—losing my wedding present before I even got it home.A full month later, back in LosAngeles at grad school, I was called out of class to the office—and on thedean’s desk was my zheng—no note, no explanation! The bus company must have spent a month ofdetective work tracking down the owner of an instrument with no ID on it or init. For me, it was a special deliverystraight from heaven.
I thanked our Father for the returnedzheng—and apologized both for losing it and for blaming Him for my loss,because the incident drove home two valuable lessons. One—we, not our Father, are responsible tosteward what He entrusts to us. But two,and more encouraging to me, our Father really is there to help hischildren. And He continues to drive homethis lesson even today in ways so amazing that some have made it into theChinese newspapers! But one of mygreatest lessons came through the book “Detour from Tibet,” which Dr. Woodwardgave to us at our wedding....
Dr. Woodward, a grad of Princeton andFuller T.S. (my alma mater), set off on horseback in 1945 for Tibet, and thenserved for decades with Betty in India, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where Sue knewthe Woodwards while she was growing up (Sue’s parents were in Taiwan 30 years with TEAM,and she was born and raised there).
Marital Counseling—or Cautioning? Sue was thrilled thatDr. Woodward agreed to marry us at Taipei’s Christ Chapel, but I was nervouswhen he said he had to first counsel me. My ears were still burning from the marital counseling of Chuck Saunders, my friend from Taiwan days. (Read more about the Saunders at: www.amoymagic.com/AM_Saunders.htm)
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| Chuck Saunders |
Don’t Do It, Willy! I met Sue at Chuck and Donna’s house in Pasadena on Easter Sunday, 1981,and after watching our love blossom, Chuck took me to a Mexican lunch anddispensed these words of wisdom: “Don’tdo it, Willy!” (Only Chuck, and ArtVelasquez, ever called me Willy—precisely because they knew I hated Willy).
Chuck was concerned not for me butfor Sue. He knew me from Air Force daysin Taiwan, and my time as a special agent in the U.S. and the Middle East, andhe was worried Sue would not be able to handle the kind of life I was likely tolive in mainland China. I of coursegreatly respected Chuck and his advice. He and Donna influenced me oneverything from attending Fuller T.S. to going into business, and then leavingbusiness to go to China. But when itcame to Susan Marie, I was deaf! Happilyfor us, once they realized we were determined to marry, they embraced us like 2ndparents, and Chuck was the first to visit and encourage us in China right afterwe arrived in 1988.
Marriage Counseling—the Sequel After Chuck’s insightson marriage, I certainly did not want a second round of marital counseling fromDr. Woodward. But Dr. Woodward did notdissuade me, perhaps because the wedding was only 4 days away (and Sue’s dadhad my plane tickets and wouldn’t let me leave the island without his daughterin tow). But Dr. Woodward did advise meon how to keep the wife happy, and given that he was married to Betty for 66years, I figured he must know what he was talking about, and I listened!
The Magic BookAs we prepared for the wedding, Dr. Woodward delighted us with tall but truetales of entering Tibet on horseback, and he gave us a signed copy of his book“Detour from Tibet.” I treasured thatbook, which I read several times, and was one of the few books I took to China.So imagine my frustration when Sue loaned it to a Chinese student, who loanedit to another student, who lost it. Idid not say much about it, but inwardly I stewed at losing yet another weddingpresent. And unlike the zither, I never saw that book again, but our Fatherused it to teach us a great lesson!A year after losing my treasuredbook, we heard that some of our university’s Chinese students had volunteeredto work in Tibet so they could also share their new Life there (Chinesetentmakers). And a year after that news,we had one of those “coincidences” that even today gives me goosebumps to thinkabout.
In 1994, Sue, the boys and I drove40,000 km. for 3 months around China, up the coast, through the Gobi Desert, toTibet and back. I was exhausted by thetime we reached Lhasa,(Tibet) but the second day both body and spirit werecharged when a young Chinese said to us, “Are you Bill Brown? I’m a believer from Xiamen Univ. whovolunteered to serve in Tibet. I was movedto do that because of your book, “Detour from Tibet!”
A year lesson, Dr. Woodward wasdelighted to hear that he was still touching the hearts of Tibetans half acentury after he left the place. Andhappily for me, he gave us another signed copy of his book. I do hope to hold on to this copy, but I alsopray that I’ll never again put books, or anything else, above people.
On August 23, 2011, Dr. Woodwardended his brief 93 year sojourn on this planet. And now, for the first time, hecan view the magnificent tapestry of life—not from the knotty and tangledbackside but from the beautiful perspective of the Master Weaver, for whom eventhe smallest thread has both beauty and purpose.
Ping'an, Dr. David Woodward!
Bill Brown
Xiamen Universitywww.amoymagic.com
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