Dear Reader,
You may be wondering – how did Bob Finley come to write the soon-to-be-published story of Prem Pradhan of Nepal? Part of the answer lies in the period Bob spent in Europe in 1948 and 1949.
He went by passenger ship to Europe for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship European Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Youth for Christ’s International World Congress in Beatenberg. Below he writes to his supporters back home of his time with his cabin mates.
… A total of 70 German students attended the InterVarsity Conference including half a dozen Germans from the Russian Zone. Others from that zone had planned to come and were not permitted: the authorities heard of their intentions and sent them to labor camps as punishment. Those who did come will probably get the same treatment when they return – if not worse.
There were 13 fellows in my cabin – mostly Germans. It thrilled me to be able to pray with them, and hear how God had brought them to Himself midst the horrors of war. It seems that near the end of the war, and in the terrible period of suffering, disillusionment, and despondency immediately following there were literally thousands of German youth who turned to Christ as their only Saviour. One of the fellows expressed it this way: “Der Fuhrer ist dead. Jesus Christus ist alive. Der Fuhrer tried to take our lives: Jesus Christus gave His life for us. Now I will give my life for Him. Jesus Christus ist mine Fuhrer.” And then he quoted Romans 6:11 and Galatians 2:20.
He told me this during a climb of one of the nearby mountains. At the top of the mountain we met an old man. I tried to talk with him but he spoke only German; so my German brother in Christ took up the conversation, took a German New Testament out of his pocket and led the mountaineer to Christ. Then we knelt together there on the mountainside and prayed. It breaks my heart to think of it, that young German student leading the old German man to Christ, the same young man who only a few short years earlier was proclaiming Hitler as his god and Saviour. What a change it would make in the world if all the young fellows in Germany would become what this young fellow has become since his conversion to Jesus Christ!
Another fellow in my cabin had been a leader of the Hitler Youth Movement while an officer in the German army. Then came his conversion to Christ, after which he refused to lead the youth because they drilled on Sunday and were unable to attend church. The army immediately transferred him to a pillbox on the Western Front where he was ordered to fight to the death. But when the invading Americans came along he walked out and happily surrendered. He talked to his captors about their relationship with Christ. When he came to the conference he had no clothing except that which he wore: one shabby two piece suit that had been often patched and never cleaned. Back home he wore the same outfit to work, to church, and to university classes. When I discovered his plight I gave him a used three piece suit that I had worn for a couple of years. To him it was like a bridegroom’s best. He broke down and wept like a child as I placed it into his hands. Nor was he the only one who wept. I was able to give at least one article of clothing to every fellow in my cabin, and more than half of them broke into tears. Whereas Hitler tried to give them hearts of stone, the love of Christ now has melted those stony hearts and replaced them with tenderness.
Another fellow was an orphan whose mother and father and brother and sisters were all killed at once by direct hit of [an] American bomb. He had no earthly possessions except one coat, one shirt, a pair of trousers and a pair of shoes. He is trying to get an education at a German university by working day and night for scraps of food. I gave him a shirt, and my brother Christy Wilson gave him a pair of trousers, and he fell on our necks in tears of gratitude…
… One of those who found Christ as Saviour at the conference was a brilliant young Swiss student who studied in New York for 5 years during the war. While he was there, no one ever offered to tell him of the love of God in Christ. Rather, his trip to New York had led him to become an atheist. Did someone say America was a Christian Nation?
Five years later, in 1953, Bob would start International Students, Inc. in Washington, D.C., to tell students of the love of God in Christ while they were studying abroad in the U.S.
Two months after the conference, God would unexpectedly send him to India in October of 1948. It would be in India a few years later where he would look across the border to the Himalayas of Nepal and kneel, asking God to establish a witness for Christ (Matthew 24:14) there in his lifetime.
Next week, we’ll touch on how what Bob saw in Europe and what he was reading in the Bible were shaping his thoughts about missions.
To those who have reached out, Thank you for your encouragement,
Sincerely,
https://robertvfinley.com/
Charlottesville, Virginia.
