Lausanne World Pulse – Brother Flack: Missionary to India Offers Insight to Younger Missionaries
By Chacko Thomas
We had learned the truth of the Church being the body of Christ. We understood that its members were to move together instead of independently. We therefore prayed that the Church would share our vision. However, the elders in the church at Honor Oak had no light about Africa for us. We waited and prayed. Eventually they said to us, “We believe you can find the will of God for yourselves, so go ahead and we will pray for you.” But for us this was not the church described in Acts 13:1-3. We did what we had never done before or since—we gave the Lord a deadline. We said, “Please say yes or no to Africa within eight days.” The Lord answered on the fifth morning. During one family prayer, the leader read Deuteronomy 3:26 when the Lord says to Moses, “Let it suffice you. Speak no more to me of this matter.” That was all we needed to understand the Lord had said no to Africa. We told the elders. They were not surprised.
After some time had passed, a senior member of the fellowship said, “I see you two boys in Calcutta.” I did not want to go to India, much less Calcutta. But for some reason the thought stuck. In my morning reading I read Jeremiah 37:17: “Is there any word from the Lord?” The answer was yes. A few days later I read Jeremiah 47:7: “How can it keep quiet, seeing the Lord has given it a charge?” We must tell others what we believed God was saying. When we did, the elders smiled and said, “When we were praying together two weeks ago the Lord said to us, ‘Golsworthy and Flack for India.’” We had not prayed and waited in vain. Within eight weeks we were on a boat bound for India. We reached Bombay on 1 April 1937.
Q. It must have been easier being a missionary during the British Raj.
A. No, it was easier after Independence. When missionaries were there after the Raj was gone, it meant they were not agents of the British government. But there was never a real problem because with Brother Bakht Singh we were working under the Indian leadership. It was a truly indigenous work; we were fully identified with the people and the land. Brother Bakht Singh was not forced into starting the work and planting churches. He was a man apprehended of the Lord and had been given understanding of the spiritual nature of the Church.
My best days were spent with my brothers and sisters in India. I was in India throughout World War ll. During that time I was conscripted by the British to serve in the army, which I did from June 1943 to July 1946. I refused to carry arms because I felt it was inconsistent to have a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. I was put into the Royal Army Medical Corp where I served in North India, Assam and Burma.
Q. How did you meet your wife?
A. I was demobbed from the army after the war and returned to London. It was then I met Meg Spracket. She and her friend were in charge of a meeting place connected with the fellowship in Honor Oak in Glasgow. I was asked to go there to fulfil the ministry of what might be called a house church. The ladies knew I was coming. It was a dirty, damp and foggy night when I rang the doorbell. Meg answered. When she opened the door and saw me she said, “Oh, not him, Lord” (meaning, “Not him, Lord, for my husband.”).
I was there for three months and began to believe that Meg was the one for whom I had prayed and waited for fourteen years. When the opportunity came to pop the question, there was no romantic environment. It was not a moonlit night; there were no palm trees. We were eating ice-cream and walking and I said, “I suppose you would not marry me?” Meg promptly said, “Yes, I will.” I said, “Don’t you want to pray about it?” She said, “I have.” We were both nearly forty years old. Two days before I popped the question the Lord had spoken to Meg in her morning reading. Meg had fought the whole idea of marriage for a long time. Her parents had divorced and this had caused her misery during her childhood. After her conversion she learned that every member of the body of Christ should have a gift, so she had asked the Lord what her gift was. The only answer she received was to be a help-meet. She fought this for some time but eventually accepted this calling. I was the first to come along.
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Chacko Thomas is coordinator of Missions Mobilisation Network (MMN). He is also a missionary with Operation Mobilisation, having served in India, and on three of OM’s ships, the Logos, Doulos and the Logos ll, in various ministry and leadership roles. |