THE LIFE OF RICHARD WILLIAM MUELLER, JR.
(Continued)

Dad’s Autobiography – Chapter 13 – In Book, Page 27

Money, From Northern Rhodesia To Wisconsin – And Back Again —– The First Time — 1962, Chinyanja Course, Addis Abba, Cairo, Athens, Back To Northern Rhodesia – Our Second Tour – 1962-1965, Mission Exploration in Nyasaland – 1964, Tracts

I must tell you about another one of our experiences we had with money. Although those who heard me speak gave generously to the envisioned Bible Institute, only on special occasions did they give money to us personally – especially not on our extended lecture tour to the West Coast. This became evident in the extreme when we wanted to view the Grand Canyon. The entrance fee was $1.00, which we could not find in either my wallet or Irene’s purse. We had to pull over at the gate and go through our children’s belongings. Finally we found a dollar, entered the park, and saw another one of God’s creations.

The first reason for our extended furlough was our four and half year stay in Northern Rhodesia. Another reason for our rather lengthy furlough was a study of African languages at Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan. I took a course in Swahili – not necessarily to learn Swahili, but rather to learn how to teach a Bantu language. Swahili is a Bantu language just as Chinyanja is. The makeup of Swahili and Chinyanja are the same. Each has noun classes – and each has a very similar verb system. Each verb has a root — with prefixes and suffixes attached to the root to produce tenses and time aspects.

After we were back on the mission field, I wrote a course of instruction for Chinyanja – a course of instruction which was intended to be used by missionary families both in Zambia and Malawi. I don’t know that it was. Missionary Steve Lawrenz was not aware of it when we were asked to come to Central Africa to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa in Zambia and the 40th Anniversary of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa in Malawi. That visit took place in 2003.

FROM NORTHERN RHODESIA TO WISCONSIN — AND BACK AGAIN — THE FIRST TIME — 1962

There are family things which we did on these journeys. Irene has written about many of them in her Memoirs. Here, however, are some of the things we did which were associated with our Gospel ministry.

We flew into Addis Abba, Ethiopia, to visit one of the missionaries we had met in Nigeria. Paul Voltz had become the head of the radio station, Voice of the Gospel. It was a radio station which beamed the message of Christ Jesus into Communist countries. What a sight it was to see curtain antennas over three hundred feet in the air – and know that God’s Word was being sent out from them to millions of people.

While in Addis Abba, we visited a Coptic church. This is the church which originated with the Queen of Sheba who had come to King Solomon to hear first-hand of his wisdom. It was the church to which that Ethiopian eunuch belonged – the eunuch to whom Philip was sent by the Holy Spirit. What a privilege it was to be given the opportunity of seeing just such a eunuch transcribing the Word of God – word for word, with pen and ink – into the language of Ethiopia. The Book Of Acts became alive in our minds.

A side note — we flew into Addis Abba in a rather small propeller plane. It cruised at a rather low altitude from Nairobi to Addis Abba. As we approached the airport in Addis Abba, we flew at the same altitude above sea level – and the ground came up to meet us. It was a weird sensation.

Our journey back to the States had been planned so that we might be able to see the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula. We had hoped to see Mount Sinai and the place where the children of Israel crossed the Rea Sea on dry land which our Lord had provided for them. That was not to be. The Ethiopian Airline plane which was to have taken us over that route had been blown up by terrorists. We were forced to fly with another airline straight to Cairo, Egypt. Haile Selassie needed the one other Ethiopian airline plane.

We arrived in Cairo very, very early in the morning. We were taken by taxi to the Tulip Hotel. Our agent in Lusaka had made arrangements for us to stay there. To get to our room, the elevator operator had to be awakened. He came out from behind that cage in which the elevator was housed – a man dressed in a long, dark coat – and half asleep. It was a dismal sight all around. Up we went. When the door opened, we were all shocked. The room – off of which were the bedrooms – was light and bright – beautiful!

In Cairo, we were privileged to visit many places – the old city, a marketplace – and the pyramids. It was a pleasure to be able to walk where Jacob, Joseph, and Moses walked. It was a tremendous privilege to see what those men – and all the people of the Children of Israel in Egypt had seen – those mighty stone monuments. The sphinx – unlike what we had imagined – it is smaller than we thought and not nearly as prominent as the pyramids above it. However, it is awesome. Yes, our visit to Cairo was a blessing, too.

From Cairo, Egypt, we flew over the Mediterranean — in almost less time than it takes to tell — to Athens, Greece. Compared to the distance from Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia, to Cairo, Egypt – about four thousand miles – it is but a hop, skip and a jump from Cairo, Egypt, to Athens, Greece.

Athens is a city we would recommend to anyone. We found it to be a clean city – and whenever we visited it, which by the grace of God was a couple of times, we found the people to be very friendly – especially on the back streets. Some think that it was because of our large family. They adored it.

I am not much for museums, but the one in Athens is fantastic. In it are statues which cause a person to stand in wonder. A multi-ton statue of Zeus balances on one foot. Amazing! The sculpture of a boy with a goose. One cannot stand before his likeness for more than a minute – without smiling. Again, amazing!

However, our greatest joy was to walk where the Apostle Paul had walked – and to see the things that he had seen. We saw the reason why he said that the Athenians were very religious people. We saw the images of many gods. Sad to say, we saw nothing that reminded us of the one and only true God.

We climbed to the Acropolis – and came down past Mars Hill – the Areopagus, the little hill on the top of which the Apostle Paul spoke to the Greek philosophers. Paul’s words, in Greek, as recorded in the Book of Acts, are inscribed on a plaque on the side of that hill. I asked a man who lived in Athens if he knew what they said. He looked at them – and confessed that he did not. He, a Greek, could not read the Greek of the Bible. It filled me with sadness. Here was God’s Word – but unable to be read.

BACK TO NORTHERN RHODESIA — OUR SECOND TOUR — 1962-1965

After we returned to Lusaka, most of my time was spent in writing a course of instruction for those who wished to learn Chinyanja – and teaching it to the missionaries around Lusaka and their wives. Every weekday morning was spent in the dining room of our home – teaching and learning Chinyanja. In the afternoon, I would prepare the next lesson – and in the evening have that lesson printed on paper. Again, it was Irene who did the typing and who helped me put everything together for the next day. Weekends were spent in supervising lay-workers and congregations around and about Lusaka.

MISSION EXPLORATION IN NYASALAND — 1964

After a while, Ray Cox and I began to make exploratory trips to Nyasaland. We would visit the contacts we had made through the mailing program. We would also try to make more contacts wherever we went.

One of the ways we did this was by “Throwing The Gospel Out Of The Window”. We would prepare a wide variety of tracts outlining the doctrines of the Bible as taught by the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. Those tracts contained questions of religious interest – and answers based upon Bible passages. Those Scripture passages were the main focus of attention. Those tracts were written in Chinyanja. At times, we also threw English tracts our of our windows. Yes, English was taught in village schools, too.

As we drove along the roads of Nyasaland, we would throw tracts out of the windows of our vehicle – one every hundred feet or so. These were picked up quickly – and read. We know that they were picked up quickly because of a test we made. Also, we wanted to make sure that we were not ‘litter-bugs’.

After throwing these tracts out of our vehicle’s windows for a mile or two, we stopped and waited a few minutes. When we made our way back along the way we had come, we did not see one tract. All of them had been picked up – and read. We know that, too – because more and more letters came to us in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia, from those areas that we had passed, asking us to come to Nyasaland and teach the Bible as had been proclaimed in those tracts. It should be said that all of those letters were answered.