The Greatest Lesson I Ever Learned - Jean Raddon

As I entered full-time ministry in 1995 I read a book compiled by Dr Bill Bright entitled, "The Greatest Lesson I Ever Learned". It was a collection of stories from Christian leaders. It inspired me to ask various Christian leaders in Australia that I knew (or, mostly, knew of) for their story. These have been sitting in my computer for 10 years waiting for publication, but I didn't collect enough to warrant publishing them. So, I am now posting them as blogs so the stories can get out there. I trust you enjoy them as much as I do.

Geoff

Jean Raddon

Jean Raddon was born in England and is now an Australian citizen. She is a trained nurse, and served in the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service during World War II, and had tours of duty in both the European and Pacific zones.

Jean then felt God's call to missionary service, and attended Redcliffe Missionary Training College in London for two years. She was privileged to join the first Christian medical team to enter Nepal, where she stayed for seventeen exciting years.

Jean was invited to Australia by Christian Women Communicating International to speak at conventions all round Australia. She was their first international speaker. Later Jean was invited to become their first full-time staff worker, and came to Australia in 1970.

In 1971 Jean introduced Bible Study Fellowship to Australia and began a work which still has a great following there.

However, being very conscious of the needs of the Australian women in the outback, C.W.C.I. felt it necessary to run their own Bible study course. Jean pioneered the work of 'Know your Bible', and there are now over two thousand classes functioning in Australia, and the courses are used by women in at least twenty other countries.

For eight years, travelling in a Toyota Coaster converted into mobile home, Jean, accompanied by a friend, journeyed thousands of kilometres around Australia. Her friend sold Christian books and Jean taught the Word in various outback situations arranged by Christian Women Communicating International. Openings came to speak in the States at the Winning Women Conferences, and in Canada at the Women Alive Conferences.
Jean's involvement with C.W.C.I. was to take her ,to many different parts of the world, sharing her faith in the Lord Jesus and teaching God's Word in depth. She has written three books and many of the Bible Study Courses used in the 'Know your Bible' series.

THE POWER OF THE WORD

I was eighteen years old. The most wonderful thing that ever happens to anybody had happened to me. I had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my very own Lord and Saviour.

I sat on a bus in London next to a man who seemed to me at that time very old. To my amazement I saw he was deeply engrossed in reading the Bible. Plucking up courage, I asked him if he really enjoyed reading the Bible. The twinkling blue eyes looked straight into mine as he said: 'Dear child, I have read this book almost every day for seventy years. It never ceases to fill me with wonder and feed my soul.'

That was the beginning of the greatest lesson of my life as I look back over fifty five years of reading perhaps not every day - the wonderful book God has given us. So, the greatest lesson I have ever learnt, the wonder of the Bible, spans those years and I continue to learn.

It was my privilege to be in the first medical team to go into Nepal. For many years the leaders of the mission I worked with had taken hold of God's promise for that little land. For sixteen years they worked on the borders, standing on that promise in Deuteronomy: 'The land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, a land the Lord thy God careth for, the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it all the day long.' I continued to learn the greatest lesson of my life! God makes His promise, but He is never in a hurry.

Then came added assurance of the power of His Word in so many different ways. An all night prayer meeting was held on the roof of a house in Nautanwa in North India. At about one there was a lovely sense of God's presence on that roof top. Then two quotes came to us very clearly encouraging us to step out in faith that God was going to open Nepal to His Word. 'I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.', 'Be strong and of a good courage, the Lord God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.'

My greatest lesson was taking root!

Nepal was closed to the outside world, and when it seemed to be opening, the whole situation seemed impossible. We were not to be allowed to proselytize, and by law people could not change their religion.

I began to learn that our God is the God of the impossible, and His Word had to be taken by faith. I was learning.

A whole book could be written on the ways I continued to learn this greatest lesson of my life.
We were six women forming a medical team. We explored the beautiful valley on Pokhra looking for a place to settle and build our hospital. One day as we walked we came onto a most beautiful piece of land, a wide green stretch from which one looked out onto the whole Annapuma range. As we stood, silenced by the amazing beauty of it all each of us had that 'gut' feeling that this was where God wanted us to build.

Praising the Lord, we went to the authorities, only to be met with a complete refusal. They want that land for so many things school, university, barracks etc. We returned to our base rather flattened. We had felt so strongly that the piece of land we had stood on was to be ours. As we settled together in our mud hut for the delightful time of fellowship and prayer we enjoyed, our hearts were heavy. We were reading through the Bible together and had reached the last chapter of Proverbs. Remember we were all women! One verse literally jumped out at us: ‘She (it was the 'she' that got us) seeth a piece of land and taketh it.’ We never moved from that room, but began to praise, God for giving us that land.

The hospital I worked with for seventeen years still stands on that piece of land.

Oh, yes, I was beginning to understand that the biggest lesson of my life was to realise the power of the Word of God. However, my seventeen years in Nepal was just the beginning of realizing the power of His Word!

I was invited to Australia in 1968 as the first international speaker Christian Women Communicating International had used. As I moved around I began to be increasingly conscious of the need the women had of Bible teaching. However, my work was in Nepal, and I returned there never dreaming of what was ahead. The C.W.C.I. invited me to join their staff in Australia. I was petrified, but again His lovely Word caused me to realize He was leading me out of Nepal: 'If you do this, and God commands you, all these people will go to their homes in peace.

So, in 1970 I came back to Australia and began afresh learning the biggest lesson of my life. This was learnt and still is being learnt - the amazing power of God to change lives through study of His Word.

For many years the leaders in C.W.C.I. had been concerned about the follow up of the hundreds of women who were being touched by God through the Convention movement. Many of these women came from churches which gave good Bible teaching, but many did not have a clue about the relevance of the Bible to their ordinary, everyday lives.

Grace Collins, founder of C.W.C.I. had heard Miss Johnson of Bible Study Fellowship speaking of her Bible studies, and Grace felt excited as she saw the answer to their prayers. I was just about coming to Australia, and Grace and I went to the USA to see what it was all about. To see six hundred women week by week, studying the Word together deepened the reality of the greatest lesson I had ever learnt.

What really impressed me as we started our work in Sydney was the way the Word works quietly in lives. One husband rang to say his home had been hell. He was either screaming at his wife or she was screaming at him. Then a neighbour had taken his wife to the Bible class. His voice broke as he said: ‘ I don’t know what happened to her, but she has become so nice.’

I saw the power of this amazing book working in so many different ways. Homes were changed, marriages put right, faith was deepened and this, of course, affected all the children.

However, change was to come. The need of the women in the outback really began to burden my heart. The structure of B.S.F., wonderful as it was, needed fifty women to start a class. In many, many parts of Australia this would be impossible, so we brought into being the Know Your Bible courses.

Again I realized this was the biggest lesson I had ever learnt. The power of the written Word to change people's lives, to bring them to a knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and to mature into what Christ wanted them to be became overwhelming. I had loved and served the Lord for many years, but to see His Word changing lives, changing attitudes and changing thinking was incredible.

There was no pressure brought to bear (except by the unconscious working of the Holy Spirit) but I began to see if only people would study the Word, think about it, discuss what they thought and share it, God was able to do mighty things.

As I continued to learn this great lesson of the power of His Word, I remember with joy story after story of changed lives. Learning this lesson was to have an even wider impact upon my life. I was coming up to that lovely age when the government pays you for doing nothing. My friend, Mary Miller, with whom I shared a home, was also coming up to that time. She was retiring from teaching and with me she wanted to do something with what we both felt were the best years of our lives. We had both experienced the joy of learning that His Word is the answer to the difficulties and problems of life. So we began to pray. How could we do it? What was God trying to show us?

The vision of a mobile home in which to travel around the outback became firmly fixed in our minds. His Word came over and over again to assure us we were walking in the right way. Coupled with this assurance there came into our lives a man who was enjoying fitting out Toyota Coaster buses as mobile homes. Although the Lord had promised to supply everything we needed, the money for the whole venture was a bit short. We decided to ask the Lord for a seal of a thousand dollars to assure us we were doing the right thing. We told no-one; not even our closest friends or our minister, and we did not pray aloud in front of wealthy friends!

Out of the blue came a letter from a friend in England. She was making her will and wanted to leave me five hundred pounds. However, she said she had a strange feeling we could use the money now, and attached to the letter was a cheque for five hundred pounds - which in those days was approximately one thousand dollars! So, with great joy, longing to share His Word with others, we bought our bus. For eight years we travelled thousands of kilometres. Mary sold thousands of dollars of books and I shared the Word with thousands of women.

Increasingly I learnt, and am still learning, that God's Word is the answer to life and to death. Yes, that is the greatest lesson I have ever learn. That God's Word if read, studied and believed will make men and women by the power of the Holy Spirit into the holy people He means them to be.