A Grain of Mustard Seed
Lionel Gurney's challenge to take the gospel to Islam
By Bevan Woodhead. Christian Focus. 205 pages
ISBN 1 85792 398 7
Bevan Woodhead only kept full diaries for five years in his life, but those five years coincided with the first five years of the Red Sea Mission.
I embarked on the book with interest. As a student, I still remember Lionel Gurney talking to student conferences of his call to the Muslim world bordering the Red Sea, and the Danakil people in particular, but I never heard the sequel. It was difficult to gain permission even to live there, quite apart from the possibility of sharing the gospel. They hoped to visit the ports and fishing villagers by boat with the gospel. Student response was disappointing. Who chooses an apparent brick wall when doors are open elsewhere? I remembered him again as I passed through the Red Sea myself four years later. It was a place of desolation and heat, and I marvelled at their faith.
But the Lord who called them did not fail them. They faced the spiritual battle, and slowly the team grew to five or six people and opportunities to move into villages and settle opened up. There was opposition, but also generosity and appreciation, and the medical work won a hearing for them.
In any new work, the pattern is not clear at the start and every event is recorded. With the diaries as a basis, the detail can sometimes be a bit confusing. But it is a reminder to our instant generation today, when we thrive on the spectacular, that there are many other sheep yet to be found, in areas which demand a lifetime of love, commitment, endurance and patience, because the Good Shepherd laid down his life for them all.
