SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST
MISSION OF MALAWI
PO BOX 60150 BT. 6 BLANTYRE MALAWI AFRICA
TEL. 265-999-741-007 or 265-888-751140 (mobile)
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: panagioite04@gmail.com / or panagioite04@gmail.com
Website: sgbm-malawi-africa.com
Date: 31/08/2012
Dear Pastor, Church, and all Supporters;
"In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?"—II Cor. 11:27–29.
This short report will no be my usual missions report as though it were; in fact I would like to dedicate what I have to say to the ‘Elder Gordon Wiegold’. Most who will receive this report and or read it in some way or another will no doubt have already heard that Bro. Gordie has gone on to be with our LORD [I speak in plural form of all who have been truly saved from their sins and confessed Christ as their LORD and Saviour].
I first met Bro. Gordie in Australia when I whilst I was in transit from Africa to PNG. It would be later in 2002, when I would meet him again in Roseville, CA where Bro. Rick Perdue was pastor at that time of LMBC- Roseville, CA.
From day one, when we met the LORD bonded our spirits and we became ‘mates’ as the term is used on the other side of the big pond. Allow me to differentiate between what most folks know of as a ‘friend’ and how the term ‘mate’ is applied in life.
Between Gordie and I we never counted pennies, we never tallied up the favours, it was not about who called whom, or how many times. No appointments were ever needed, and there was never a time of inconvenience. If I was travelling and needed to call in to his residence, I simply showed up no matter if it was 0300 hrs in the morning hours. We didn’t count mileage. If we had a difference we spoke our heats, hugged, and simply got on with things with no baggage, no issues, and no harboured feelings.
Bro. Gordie was saved late in life with his wife Karen and loved the LORD with a passion that I see in few Christians, or even few preachers. Bro. Gordie was just [REAL]; he was genuine in all that he did. If he felt you offended him, he would come to you without delay, if he was told he offended you, he was crushed and would not let the sun rest that day before he would make an attempt to fix it.
He had a passion to learn [Truth] and embraced it quickly when the one whom was teaching this [Truth] practiced it themselves.
Because of his warm heart, bubbly personality, and just being real, many were drawn to him; this became an asset to him, and also worked against him. In his short ministry here in the US, he was attacked from without as well as from within. Lies were told, rumours were spread, and gossip was shared in various forms and ways, but he never withdrew from his post as a preacher / missionary, but mostly just a sinner saved by GOD’S wonderful and loving Grace!
As God has given each of us our own gift, so too Bro. Gordie had his, which was the gift of reading people beyond the costume, which many wear.
Bro. Gordie had a vision for the lost, those who are dead in sins, and sinking in the miry pit. Three different times he visited me on the mission field in Africa. Each time with its own purpose and value, though he was a diabetic he never used his own handicap for an excuse to ‘not go’ he never tried to dodge away from what I asked of him to do in the work, or called upon him to perform.
Risking his own life, he willingly volunteered to take my place (as I was sick with Malaria) and ride a motorbike into Mozambique to preach the Gospel. In this effort he battled with Satan and walked away with battle scares for the LORD. He never complained about the heat, or the hard beat up roads, never said a word about the long tiresome hours, which were demanded of us in preaching to the Natives of Africa.
There have been many men that have come and gone, some have sold the Truth for a bowl of porridge, others have defended our name as (Baptist) and that is about all they have is a (name). Because Bro. Gordie may not have been as articulate in Landmark Baptist textbook terminology as some thought he should have been, this often provided some with opportunity to attack and condemn Bro. Gordie.
The LORD commanded HIS church to carry out the Great Commission until HE comes again for her; the first church in Jerusalem had a problem with this didn’t they? Acts 1 – will declare the instructions Christ gave to the church. They didn’t follow these commands and GOD sent a persecution upon the church to scatter them. Listen – we can do the LORD’S work the easy way or the hard way – the LORD doesn’t call the lost to do HIS work.
Bro. Gordie was always ready to go, and when the call came he was already packing. In my experience with Bro Gordie he put GOD first in his life, his focus was on doing that which is right and biblical. He and I never had a civil, nor did we argue about how the LORD’S work was to be carried out. On the mission field he submitted himself to me in the work and showed others that this was biblical and proper in a work. There can only be one leader [I believe] in the generation of grace, which we live under.
The people of Africa fell in love with Bro. Gordon and had extended a call for him to come work with me in the mission work there – I believe he was prepared to come, and would have come had there not been other circumstances, which I believe obstructed that desire.
Bro. Gordie answered a call to another mission field in Canada, and again he touched lives. Many obstacles he found difficult to overcome, and in the end the LORD simply moved him on.
Bro. Gordie again picked up and moved his family again across this country to a small town in Georgia [Glenville]. There he joined himself to a wonderful church and began to reach out to others as he was so fond of doing. Again the LORD opened up a door this time, back in his home country of Australia. Seemed as though GOD was doing and preparing things, and people for a great work to be done.
In the end, no one knows, no one can have all the answers, there isn’t any why’s with GOD, there are no [if’s, buts, and, maybe’s, perhaps, could have, should have, etc…] GOD is Sovereign, GOD is still on HIS thrown, HE is still Jehovah GOD, and HE still uses men to accomplish HIS purpose.
Lastly, bear with me as I deliberate a little on some of my own thoughts. I feel that we Landmark Missionary, Sovereign Grace Baptists have become so mean-spirited, our love waxes cold toward the brethren, we have doctrine, we have a name, and we have a pedigree, but we have forgotten how to be kind, and forgiving, and love, and have compassion one with another.
I ask each of you, can you know how much ‘hurt, and pain’ has been inflicted upon many over the years, how many divisions, how many church splits, how many church members chased off and never to return, how many of GOD’S men have been [black-balled] and tagged as ‘second-hand’ preachers, by churches, by other pastors?
What I say, I say to all – 2 Co 5:10 For we must [all appear] before the judgment seat of Christ; that [every one] may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
This report has been published in loving memory of one of GOD’S dear children, a fellow preacher, a co-labourer in HIS vineyard, and a ‘mate’.