LIVES LESS ORDINARY:
A story of fearless faith in an extraordinary God
By Roy Summers
Fishermanspress.com 200 pages. £7.50
ISBN 978 1 641 365 598
Do you want to be inspired, challenged, encouraged, moved, and strengthened? Then this book is a must-read. These are some of the emotions I felt as I read this biographical account of the lives of Marlin and Barbara Summers, two pioneer missionaries who had a faith-based calling.
The book is written by their son Roy Summers, who is pastor of Manor Park Church in Worcester. He helpfully divides their lives into five parts, tracing their early years in Part One through the Great Depression in America where Marlin Summers was born and the UK where Barbara Summers was from. Parts Two and Three are an account of their years in the Indian sub-continent. Firstly in India, where they met as missionaries and served in the mountainous regions of North India. The door to India closed and they moved to Pakistan where they served for 12 years. Here they were initially based at Balakot in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, and then in the busy city of Karachi.
They were pioneer evangelists at heart, working tirelessly and desiring to see a church established in India before they left, but there was little visible fruit. The same was true of their adventures in Pakistan, which were even tougher. If we judge things in terms of converts, in modern terms this was not a successful period of their lives. However, despite the setbacks and dangers, the Lord was teaching them to love the people they were called to serve, learn the culture, develop their gifts and learn to trust God who was preparing them for a greater work.
Ministry in the UK
When the door to the Indian subcontinent closed, they were called to serve in the UK Midlands. The fourth section of the book details the planting of the Asian Christian Fellowship in Wolverhampton. The author helpfully highlights their strategy in reaching Hindus and Sikhs, and how the church grew and flourished. There are many wonderful testimonies of souls won to the Lord and lives transformed, as well as the difficulties the Summers faced. The author also gives very helpful insights into cultural issues and the difficulties converts faced.
The book is an honest and balanced account of the author’s parents (who had six children) and he speaks of some of the problems he and his siblings faced as missionary kids, as well as some of his parents’ human flaws. But these are minor compared to the overwhelming lasting impression they left on all their children, who are all in the Lord today and serving Christ in their churches. The last section tells of how Marlin, having lost his wife and being housebound, spent the latter years of his life in a ministry of prayer.
As a convert of the Summers’ ministry myself, I personally witnessed how these two pioneers lived a simple and disciplined lifestyle. They were driven with a passion to see the lost saved, and had a total disregard for the things of this world.
Marlin and Barbara Summers were a rare breed who were totally devoted to the Lord. As well as visiting dozens of homes each week, preaching, leading small groups and one-to-one studies, running a bookshop, holding monthly missionary rallies, arranging annual coach trips to the WEC headquarters, running a distribution centre for literature work, engaging in the general work of WEC and field meetings, corresponding with their prayer partners, being involved with local churches, overseeing a growing and demanding church, discipling believers, they had to bring up a family of six children! This is a story of two lives less ordinary – two extraordinary lives who had an extraordinary faith in God.
I would highly recommend this book, not only to those interested in missionary work, but to pastors and church members because it will challenge our comfortable lifestyles and strengthen our faith. Although our calling may be different, we serve the same God, who is able to take weak and ordinary people and do extraordinary things through them.
