Len VanWingerden Memorial Pages
Why did a missionary heli pilot die? Letter from Janie. (For those who followed this ordeal, please continue to pray for Janie as she decides on her future. Many cease praying after the "excitement" is over. Pray, and send her a note: jajavw@hotmail.com.)
Len was a jungle heli pilot, semi-conscious for several months before death from a brain tumor. His wife, Janie, is left with the three precious small children. (See pictures of family and ministry with our pictures at link above.) Pray for someone to take Len's place in helping reach inaccessible jungle tribes!
Len took his last flight!
Praise the Lord for a wonderful memorial service for Len VanWingerden here in Irian Jaya June 25. Janie was there and shared a lot. Continue to pray for here and the kids, and that this situation will continue to be very glorifying to the Lord and impact many lives, including many nationals here - motivating them to greater efforts in evangelizing all of the jungles of Irian Jaya. This was Len's passion. Pray that others will be interested in taking his place on the mission field!
Some thoughts from Roger:
Is Len needed to help reach former cannibals in the jungles of Irian Jaya? Yes! Is he needed to care for his wife and three small children? Yes! But apparently God is going to meet those needs in some other way. Maybe YOU can now have a greater part in helping to reach these needy tribal people. Contact us for some suggestions. And we can all pray for Janie and the kids in this difficult time. (Also, see the articles on prayer: "Does God really mean 'any thing'?" and "Fanaticism or Lack of Faith - Which is Worse?")
Be sure to see the pictures of his family, and their ministry in Irian Jaya with the helicopter! Connect from our family page - link at bottom of this page.
Background for those who haven't received earlier reports:
1) In late November, 1999, Len experienced dizziness and fell from his chair at his office in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. He had already been experiencing severe headaches and vomiting.
2) Tests were done in Irian Jaya, then in Jakarta. An MRI indicated a brain tumor, and on Dec. 6, the family flew to the States.
3) The next week he had a seizure, rapid brain swelling, and an emergency surgery was done on Dec. 12.
4) Len remained in a coma after the surgery, but began to make some facial movements and tried to open his eyes in the following days. There continued to be some small gradual improvements, but he was still in the coma.
5) January 7 Len was moved to a Christian care center. Additional movement gave some hope for coming out of the coma.
6) Jan. 23 Len squeezed Janie's hand, and moved his toes when tickled.
7) Early February he drank koolaid out of a cup. He began to look around more as he was "awake" but still considered to be in a coma. Other signs of progress were noted from time to time.
8) Early March there were times of higher blood pressure and heart rate. Indications were that there was again swelling of the brain. A CT scan was scheduled.
9) Results of the CT scan in mid-March were that the tumor was again growing. The doctor expected Len to have one to three months to live. He lived two and a half months.Please continue to pray earnestly for this family - that His grace will be upon them, that His perfect will may be done, and that He will use them in your life, my life, and the lives of many others!
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Why did God let Len die when so many people all over the world were praying for him? See following article - we all need to learn more about prayer.
Prayer: Does God really mean "any thing"?
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask ANY THING according to his will, he heareth us:
Mat. 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Mat. 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:Sometimes we have questions concerning prayer. Does God really mean what He says when He says He will give us "any thing" that we ask in prayer? Or sometimes when we don't receive what we pray for, we ask ourselves why that has happened. Did we not have enough faith, or not enough perseverance, or what?
We sometimes think that if we only had enough faith, if we could just believe without doubting when we prayed, we would receive all that we asked, and it would be wonderful! A couple of questions: Is this really true? And would it be wonderful? Perhaps it would be beneficial for us to think a little more deeply about prayer. What does God expect of us, and want us to do? What does His Word really tell us about prayer, and what does it mean? We need to both know, and follow, the truth about prayer (as about everything else in life), if we want to serve the Lord faithfully and effectively and be pleasing to Him (and find satisfaction and fulfillment for ourselves as well).
First of all, would it be wonderful if we could receive all that we asked? I expect if you asked most any four year old, or most any teenager, if they thought it would be nice if their parents would simply give them whatever they asked for, they would without much hesitation answer: "Yes, that would be wonderful!" However, I believe the parents would have a slightly different perspective. The same thing is true of us as Christians. Do we really think it would be best if we received exactly what we asked for in prayer at all times? Would it be wise, or even good, for God to give us exactly what we prayed for each time? The answer is obvious! God knows so much more than we do. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows the events of the future, what men and devils are going to do. He knows what is best for us, and what will truly make us happy. He knows how to make us into the men and women He wants us to be. He knows how He can best use us in His overall plan for the world. So, He can only be wise and kind to us if He takes all He knows into account, and tempers His answers accordingly.
Well then, you say, what is true about prayer and faith? Why has He given us these seemingly fantastic promises? Is He just teasing us, or leading us on? Or is He deceiving us, or lying to us (forbid the thought)! The promises with respect to prayer truly are fantastic, perhaps even more so than you or I now appreciate. But in this area, as in every other area of the Christian life, we must give attention to the whole of the truth, and not base our understanding on any one particular statement without taking into account the context and the implied or understood conditions, and other Scripture.
You may have opened a new account in a bank sometime in the past, and been told, "You can withdraw any amount you wish from your account anytime!" Now was that statement true? Did you ever try to take money from that account at three o'clock in the morning?! Did you ever try to take five million dollars out of that account?! There are certain reasonable assumptions made in most everything we say. We do not normally go to the trouble to expound on every possible detail and ramification of the things we say each time we say them.
Now I am not here going to list all the qualifying factors, assumptions, and ramifications of these "fantastic" prayer promises that God has given us, but I will attempt to point out a few of them, and we can all continue to learn more as we go on in our walk with the Lord, studying His Word and seeking truth and wisdom from Him. First of all, we notice that there ARE qualifications given in most of these statements. "According to His will," "believing," "in my name," "that the Father may be glorified," "if ye abide in me," and "if my words abide in you" are some that are given in these verses.
It is not my purpose either in this brief article to explain in depth each of these qualifications. Most of them are fairly obvious, but can profitably be studied in further depth. I would like to add a few comments on one key qualification, however, which I believe is often misunderstood. That is the qualification of "believing," or "having faith."
It seems that some people think that this is something that can be manufactured from within themselves, or that they can work up by some act of their will, in order to fulfill this qualification and thus receive the desired answer. However, true "faith" or "belief" is conviction based on known facts or observations. If you see a plank placed across a deep crevice that you need to cross, you either have faith that it is strong enough to hold you, or you do not. If the danger from the plank breaking was not serious, you would probably not go to a lot of trouble to examine it, but would attempt to cross it if it looked reasonably strong. On the other hand, if you would most likely be killed if it broke while you were crossing it, you would want to be more sure. If you examined it carefully, perhaps tested it by putting some other weight on it, or saw another person of similar weight cross it without any problem, you would then come to have faith in it and would cross. But if you had serious reservations about whether it was safe, could you come to have faith in it simply by willing yourself to believe that? No. Now you COULD will yourself to attempt it despite your reservations. But that is another issue - of courage (or foolishness!). You cannot will yourself to have faith. It is possible to give more consideration to the matter, perhaps think of some other factors, and finally come to a different conclusion that you had at first, but that is not the same as "willing" yourself to believe.
I believe that when God's Word tells us that we will receive what we pray for if we believe or have faith, it is talking about this true "belief" or "faith", the genuine conviction, in accordance with truth, that what we have asked for is in the will of God, is for His glory, etc. This "faith" MUST be based on truth, ultimately on God's Word. It cannot be based simply on our desires, our opinions, or our subjective ideas. And, as mentioned above, it is not something that we can produce ourselves by our own will.
When we become a child of God, a true son of God, by faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, our will IS involved. We choose to receive Him, trust Him; we commit ourselves to Him. Both the faith and the will aspect must be there. We must have the conviction that it is true that we are sinners, and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for us and rose again. Having heard this message, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and we come to this conviction, or faith, make our commitment, and become one of God's children. So, in salvation, faith and will are both involved, closely related, but separate entities.
But in our praying, we are to make our requests to God, seeking His will, not our own. And in some cases we do have this true faith, the accurate understanding that this is God's will, and in those cases, the answer will be received as requested. But we can never force God to respond to us as we desire by our "faith". He does condescend in some cases to answer our insistent prayers despite the fact that it is not best (as seen in the case of Hezekiah pleading for additional years to live), but normally He responds with a "No" or "Wait" if He knows what we are asking is not for the best. In addition, I believe Buswell has some Biblical insight when he says in his book, Problems in the Prayer Life, that the explanation to "unanswered" prayer is sometimes found in the fact that "God satisfies the real need represented in every Christian prayer." It may be accurate to say that every prayer offered will be granted, or superseded by some better blessing. Also, the Holy Spirit often corrects mistakes and requests the proper petition in our behalf (Rom. 8:26).
So, does God really mean "anything"? Yes, He hears, and answers, when we pray for anything in His will, anything that will truly be for the best and for His glory. We will receive whatever we ask as we ask and believe or have genuine assurance from His Word or from His Spirit that this is His will and He is going to answer this prayer. We should ask all things in Christ's name, on His behalf and as His representative here on earth. We should seek to live close to the Lord, abiding in Him, so we are sensitive to His Spirit and knowledgeable in regard to what He does desire for the good of us and others and for His glory. As we grow in Him, we will become more and more knowledgeable in what we can and should ask for in prayer in various situations. We will then in some cases have this genuine conviction, or faith, and will see him answer in accordance with our request.
However, for most every believer, there are still MANY times when we do not have this genuine conviction that God will answer some prayer that we request of Him. These are the times when it is legitimate, and even more than that, necessary, to pray: "Not my will but yours be done." This is not a cop-out, not an addition required because of weak faith, and not an escape clause for us in case He doesn't answer our prayer. It is often the suitable and proper thing for a Christian to pray.
So, again, does God really mean "any thing" when He says that? Yes, He means what He says! And as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him, and fulfil the conditions that are set forth in God's Word, we will find that more and more we will be able to ask "any thing" in His name, and see Him answer that prayer as we anticipated!
Fanaticism or Lack of Faith - which is worse?
There are professing Christians who claim to experience many physical miracles and extraordinary experiences. There are other Christians who are apparently believers, committed to the Lord and His Word, who have little or no such experiences. Some of the former often attribute the lack in the latter to a deficiency of faith or some related reason. Some of the latter attribute the claims of the former to fanaticism, psychological factors, or even demonic activity.
Which is the worse, fanaticism or lack of faith? Some of the former group would say that lack of faith greatly hinders God's working, and detracts from the glory that He should receive. Some of the latter would say that extraordinary claims and experiences, when shown to be untrue, whether deliberate fabrications or well-intentioned inaccuracies, bring great disrepute on the Lord and His people.
The truth is that both extremes can and do cause much harm to the cause of Christ. Satan is no respector of persons, and undoubtedly is working continually among believers of both types, those tending to emphasize the more dramatic and spectacular and those who tend to downplay the spectacular. Naturally he is happy if he can cause disrepute to the name of the Lord by encouraging false claims and unbiblical practices, pushing legitimate situations which would bring glory to God just a little too far - or much too far. And he is just as happy if he can cause others to fear being too radical or too fanatical, to the point that they do not exercise their faith as God intended, do not accept the supernatural works that God is doing, and do not accept and claim the promises of Scripture as God intended them to be accepted.
It would be wise for most of us to be less critical of those at the opposite extreme of our present tendencies, and to give more thought and care to making sure our beliefs and practices do indeed conform to Scripture as closely as possible. We must take adequate time to study the Scriptures on our own, as well as appropriating the corrective the Lord has provided in the body of Christ by regular meeting with other mature believers. We must read some of the writings of other men of God from time to time, even - or especially - at times the writings of godly men outside of our particular circles. We must be truly aware that any of us can be deceived or led astray to some degree by the inhuman deviousness of Satan's wiles. Our only possibility of safety is in maintaining true humility and genuine trust in the grace of God, in growing in grace and knowledge as we are instructed in 2 Peter 3:18.
May the Lord give us great wisdom, discernment, and understanding as we seek to worship and serve Him faithfully in these exciting but difficult days.
(roger.doriot@crossworld.org . Please pass on to any who may benefit.)
http://www.ccel.org/m/murray/prayer/prayer/TOC.htm. Go here and read this by Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer. (Read some other of Murray's books and others on this site. Really great!)
As we look back, we see that it was not God's purpose to heal Len. He had, and has, other things He wants to accomplish through taking Len to heaven now. Janie, and so many others, wanted so badly to have Len live. But I think Janie, and many others, wanted God's perfect will even more - and God granted that request! Let each of us make the same commitment that Len did, to give his life for the most important thing in all the world - getting the Gospel to those who so desperately need it. Together, in remembrance of Len, we can do even more now if we will choose to do so. Let's do it!
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For a note to Janie, click Janie.
