January 13, 2003
IN MEMORY:
Just nobody: A tribute to Bill Koehn
___By Randal Pearce
___He wasn't a scholar or a preacher. He wasn't a doctor, vet or farmer. He wasn't charismatic. Rooms didn't fall silent when he entered. He was a poor Kansas businessman. A grocery store manager. He was nobody. God can't use people like him.
___He hated speaking in public. He hated being in the limelight. He hated being noticed. He's the man who would be seated at the edge of the room at a party. The man you wouldn't remember. He was nobody. God can't use people like him.
___So, God picked this nobody up and put him in the backside of nowhere, Yemen: A poor country in the Middle East. Muslim. No oil. No riches. No palaces or rich kings. No huge mosques. Even in the Middle East, Yemen is nowhere.
___No churches. Not large. Not small. None. No preaching on street corners. No handing out tracts. No prayer meetings in the middle of the village square. No witnessing. No evangelizing. No ministry. Even for Christ, Yemen is nowhere.
___So, God picked this nobody up and put him in a remote nowhere village in this nowhere country. Not the capital. Winding mountain roads. Dirt. Poverty. No officials. No restaurants. No theaters. Even for this nowhere country, Jibla is nowhere.
This nobody, in the middle of nowhere, became Christ to everybody who saw him.
___God picked this nobody up and put him right in the middle of nowhere. And left him there.
___And this nobody, in the middle of nowhere, became Christ to everybody who saw him.
___Stopped at a military checkpoint, a soldier would peer in Bill's car window and announce, "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet." Without batting an eye, Bill would reply, "And Jesus is his Son!" They would wave him through without incident. He was nobody.
___The plumbing fails at the hospital at 3 a.m. He calmly gets up and goes to fix it. He was nobody.
___The hospital needs money to continue operating, or it'll close this year. He writes letters. He travels to London. Or the U.S. Or wherever is necessary. Funds come in. The hospital stays open. Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. He was nobody.
___There are no nurses. There are no doctors. The hospital will close. So he contacts mission organizations in England. The Philippines. India. Doctors come. Nurses come. The hospital stays open. Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. He was nobody.
___The government will shut the hospital without the correct form. Bill goes and sits in the government offices. And sits. All day. Day after day. Without a bribe, he doesn't get seen. So he sits. And waits. The forms are filled out. Approved. The hospital stays open. Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. He was nobody.
___Thousands come and are healed. Thousands come for safe baby deliveries. Burn victims. Gunshot wounds. Illnesses. Injuries. Flowing through the only hospital in the region. Cared for in the name of Christ in a country where Christ doesn't exist. He was nobody.
___At the end of the day, this nobody goes home and transforms a block of wood into a car. Or a train. Or an ape. Or a plane. Trinkets. Not shiny. No lights. No whistles. Just carved toys made by a carpenter. Given to children who had no toys.
___An orphanage down the road had no food. Till this nobody brought truckloads of vegetables and fruit.
___The children had no good clothes. Till this nobody bought every child an outfit to celebrate the birth of Christ.
___The roof was collapsing till this nobody fixed it.
___The water was dirty. Only one faucet. Till this nobody repaired the plumbing and added faucets.
___He didn't preach. He didn't evangelize. He lived. He shown like a bonfire in the darkest night.
___Times change.
___Mission strategies change.
___No longer is living enough. Evangelization is key. Baptisms equal success. Resources must be used elsewhere. Decisions are made.
___The Christian hospital in the middle of nowhere will be closed. It will be donated to a Muslim charity to continue helping the sick.
___Twenty-seven years of ministry by this nobody comes to an end. And like always, Bill patiently works through it, without complaint.
___The charity doesn't come. The backside of nowhere is still unimportant.
___Training can't be done. What lack of resources couldn't do, strategy did. Until the Muslim charity can take over, the hospital must close.
___And so this nobody served God in the middle of nowhere.
___And when nowhere was closing, God chose to keep this nobody there.
___Sometime in the future, a man will take his son to the top of a hill. He'll show him a simple marker. And he'll tell his son that this man, buried for all these years, brought Jesus to the backside of nowhere. And they will kneel in prayer, thanking Jesus for this saint.
___Randal Pearce of Mansfield is the son-in-law of Bill Koehn, one of three Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries martyred at Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen Dec. 30
___
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