Acts of the Green Apples

The following Thursday the nun who became chasmatic in the Bonanza Steak House to the tune of "Nobody's Darling But Mine," attended the prayer group. She shared a great revelation with us. It seems that from the time she had spoken in tongues she had been unable to teach religion as she did previously. She confided, "Now I have to be certain they meet Christ in a personal way; everything else must come second."

Naturally the nun shared her Pentecost with some other sisters and the priest answered questions. More of them came to the meeting. We talked and talked and talked. One pretty Irish sister with black curly hair looked up at the ceiling, clenched her fist and burst out, "God, I've got to have it!" But the two of the them had to leave to catch the bus. We invited them out to dinner Tuesday and promised God would give them the gift.

They arrived at the Chinese-Italian restaurant before we did. The Catholic proprietor looked abashed at the two nuns. They told him they were waiting for two other people. "Gentlemen?" he demanded savagely. They said no, a couple. He visibly relaxed, sat them at a table and asked, "Something soft to drink?" When we arrived, "Dominique," by the Singing Nun was playing and the sisters looked relieved to see us. While we had dinner, "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Dominique" were alternated several times!

After dinner we returned to the apartment and both sisters asked more questions. We were carefully explaining, when suddenly it all clicked with Sister Jane, a tiny American nun with a French Canadian order, who exclaimed, "I understand. I've got it now!" We prayed, and they bothe received easily and beautifully. Jane said she couldn't understand God, as she had told Him two months ago her spiritual life wasn't what it should be and she wanted Him to do something definite for her. "Why didn't He?" she plaintively inquired. "He just did," Richard replied.

"I didn't think of that."

Jane was wonderful. From the moment it had all fallen together in her mind, she was gung ho, full speed ahead. What was particularly pleasing about her was that despite a deep sensitivity to God and an enthusiasm about His supernatural answers to prayer, she never lost the strong practicality and logical approach to problems which characterized her. This is what impressed me about Theresa of Avila, and I believe it is exactly what Christ is trying to teach us. When the disciples came in from a cold night of fishing, Jesus didn't preach a sermon but took care of their human needs: a warm fire with frying fish was awaiting them. And yet on cannot imagine Jesus feeding the hungry without telling them of things eternal.

Another practical Christian was our amah. By the time the Catholics had begun to swell the Saturday night dinner group to fifty and above, we were glad to have someone to wash the dishes. We had prayed for an amah who was a Christian or who would become one; however, when Mui Nun applied we took her without any questioning of her beliefs. Her English was fractured, but we normally communicated to some degree. An exception was the day I asked her to tell Richard, when he arrived home, to meet me in Jimmy's Kitchen, which is a restaurant in the Central District. Mui Nun told him, "Missy say go Chickie Liver."

"Missy want me to buy chicken liver?"

"Yeh, go Chickie Liver." But it wasn't always that bad.

One day I said, "Do you go to church?"

"Yeh, go churchie every Christmas."

That didn't sound too promising. But then she added, "And go every Sunday."

By much prying we eventually discovered she was a Baptist but she confided, "Husband not saved yet."

She was great and we loved her -- always smiling except when tragedy came, when she would weep copiously and was not satisfied until every one in the house was weeping with her. Forget that myth about the inscrutability of the Chinese.

One time I decided Mui Nun should have an opportunity to receive what the prophet Joel promised. I asked Rick to talk to her in another room and tell her about Pentecost and sent two Chinese students in to interpret. Richard had planned to be a minister from the time he was seventeen years old, and I suspect he must have begun talking like one then. I wonder how they took it at Dartmouth. So to plump little curly-haired (compliments of the beauty shop) smiling, almond-eyed Mui Nun, who can barely read or write, he carefully, systematically, and at some length, explained the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. After I don't know how long Mui Nun stopped him in mid-sentence. They thought it had all been to no avail. She said, "I pray now," and started speaking in tongues while the "explainers" stared in amazement! I suspect Mui Nun's way is more biblical than ours.

Mui Nun's number one son had always been sickly, with rheumatic fever and a bad heart. He was an intelligent young man and did well in the Catholic school he attended but had missed a lot of time because of illness. Tragedy fell when it developed Peter had tuberculosis. But it seemed to be more serious than that. Two nurses who were members of the group strongly suspected Hodgkin's Disease. With much effort we managed to get him to the hospital and check the records. It was Hodgkin's Disease. The prognosis was an early death.

Mui Nun quit. She said that she was going to stay with Peter. She had obviously decided to be with him until he died. We visited Peter and found him terribly depressed. People were coming to the house and talking about his funeral arrangements in front of him. Rick and I talked to him; Margaretha talked to him; Dora Lee, a Chinese Anglican who was head girl at St Stephen's Girls' College, talked to him. All of us endeavored to show Peter what his attitudes must be: complete commitment to God, expectancy that God was going to heal him, and trust that whatever He did would be perfect. His fear of death must be relinquished, because to a Christian death is a conquered foe.

The prayer group prayed unceasingly for Peter and with true Christian charity took up a collection and paid Mui Nun full wages all of the time she was without work.

We had found it necessary to hire another amah because we couldn't handle the crowds of people that passed through our portals without some sort of assistance in cleaning and dishwashing. The agency sent -- believe it or not -- Ah So! About three weeks after Ah So had come to work for us she said, "Missy, one day I very sick. No get out of bed long time. I in bed crying, and man in white dress with light all over come in window. He put hand on me and I no sick. Later I see man in store and buy. You likee?" And she showed me a small statue of Christ. I said excitedly, "You saw Jesus!" She said sadly, "I no know. I want to know more but I no know where to go." I thought to myself, "You've come to the right place, Baby!"

Naturally Ah So joined the family of God, and one of our friends acquired a Chinese Bible for her. One day while Margaretha and I were talking on the telephone, Ah So came in crying and, holding her open Bible, knelt beside me on the floor. I felt awfully silly and asked what was going on. It seems Ah So had a terrible headache. I placed my hand on her head and prayed for her and the pain left. While she was kneeling there I thought, "There is no time like the present." I was still holding the telephone with Margaretha on the other end so I asked Margaretha to tell her in Chinese how to receive the Holy Spirit. Margaretha exclaimed, "Over the telephone?"

"Why not?"

So kneeling on the floor, talking on the telephone, Ah So entered into a new dimension. When she finally left us she bought me a present and said it was for me because, "You pray on my head and I get better."

Mui Nun telephoned and discreetly brough the conversation around to when she could come back to work. I had told her if I found an amah I could not let her go but that I would Mui Nun a place with one of my friends. She didn't want a place with one of my friends. She began to contact the neighbors' amahs and talk to them. They told Ah So I was going to fire her and take Mui Nun back. Ah So was beside herself. I reassured her to no avail. Clare Harding telephoned and said Mui Nun had telephoned her amah and asked her to tell her missy to tell Mui Nun's missy she was ready to return. I began to be reminded of the importunate woman and the judge in the Bible!

Ah So was now a Christian but she was not really capable of handling fifty people for dinner. She fell apart when anything unusual occurred, while Mui Nun thrived on unpredictability. We all secretly missed Mui Nun but were determined to stick it out. Things grew rapidly more disorganized.

People were still visiting, taking gifts and praying for Peter Lee. Margaretha told me he had gotten out of bed and had brought a friend all of the way to Rennie's Mill to have her tell the friend about the Lord Jesus. I commented, "If his commitment is getting that strong, he's just liable to be healed!"

A few days later the doorbell rang. It was Peter Lee and he looked fine. He had come to inquire when his mother could return to work. I couldn't fight city hall any longer. I told him to tell her to come back Monday. I found Ah So a job with a more predictable family and paid her an extra two weeks' salary. Mui Nun was again in command.

Peter had gained ten pounds. We took him to the hospital for a checkup. The Hodgkin's Disease had completely disappeared, and his heart was fine. He had been in the final stages of the disease. It had been expected that he would be dead within a few months, and now he was cured. I am writing this two years later. Peter is in perfect health, and he is planning to go into the ministry when his education is completed.

Mui Nun's husband began to come to the house in his spare hours and help Mui Nun cook dinner. There appeared to be a new and rather charming relationship between them. Sometimes I could hear them in her room giggling -- that had never happened before. Mui Nun had been amazed, amused and delighted by my relationship with Richard. During the day he would call me at least once. At first she found this incomprehensible. When he persuaded me to join him on the other side of the harbor for lunch she thought it incredible. By the time she had been with us a year she would listen to our telephone calls and then imitate me by kissing the air and saying in falsetto, "By, by, Dolling!" But now something appeared to be happening in her own marriage. She used to wish her husband, who bad been a cook on a ship, would stay at sea. What was this new attitude?

I asked Margaretha to speak to Mr Lee, who spoke no English, about Jesus Christ. He had been much impressed by Peter's recovery. Mr Lee listened through several sessions and then said, "My wife has worked for many people but none of them were like these people. What makes them different from other people?" Margaretha said, "I think you know."

"I think so." Mr Lee became a Christian.

Some weeks later we asked Margaretha to tell Mr Lee about the baptism in the Spirit. Mr Lee said he wanted to be very sure that when he died he went where "these people" and his family were going, and he would like everything that was available. Mr Lee now possessed a new language, and even though Mui Nun and he had two different languages their communication grew increasingly better!

The more that was happening, the happier Mui Nun was. These days she was really in her heyday. She adored everyone and was particularly fond of the Catholic priests and nuns who came and went. She also liked the Jaggers, but years later, instead of calling them Mr and Mrs Jagger, she was still calling them "Hugh's mommie" and "Hugh's daddy." She had met Hugh first, so in her mind, I suppose, it will remain that way forever. One day when they came to dinner and she was waiting on table, Mr Jagger complimented her on the Chinese green beans. She informed him in rapid pidgin English, that they were "too dear" and told him exactly what they had cost. Doug expressed such interest that she proceeded to inform him of the price of everything on the dinner table, while we held our sides in helpless laughter. Formal entertaining was out with Mui Nun in attendance.

When we first met the Jaggers they had not been very pleased about Hugh's religious activities. However, they couldn't be too difficult, as Hugh was such an outstanding fellow. He was not only head boy at his school, but he won an award for being the person in Hong Kong who had made the most outstanding contribution to the school that same year. He was tops in athletics and in his classes; and when he took his "A" levels, which correspond to college entrance examinations, he took three subjects and received three "distinctions." As far as the Jaggers were concerned, thin, blonde, shaggy-headed Hugh's only problem was this religious kick. Hugh had become a Christian through Keith Philcox and Crusaders. After two years of Hugh's "preaching" and Bible quoting, the crowning blow was when Verna Jagger discovered Hugh had spoken in tongues. She exclaimed that she had known a religious fanatic and even he had not gone that far. Doug Jagger was less vocal, but his feelings corresponded to his wife's.

Just before Hugh left for university in England his parents humored him by inviting Rick and me to lunch. We were on our good behavior and didn't mention religion. We didn't seem too formidable so they came to a meeting. Meanwhile, pretty, teenaged Claire Jagger, Hugh's sister, had become a Christian and a charismatic one. The three Jaggers continued to attend meetings even though Hugh had left for England. They stated that Hugh had become softer and less dogmatic since he had spoken in tongues. In fact, he had even been bringing them morning tea before he left for school.

One Thursday Verna Jagger telephoned to say she was coming early and without Doug to the meeting. I guessed what was coming. She had made her peace with Christ and was ready for the Spirit. She said that some weeks before a prophecy had come in the meeting in which she knew God was speaking to her, and she was converted through hearing it.

Some time after, on a Saturday night, most of the people had left and the rest were drinking coffee and squash (British bottled lemonade) when Claire Jagger said, "I have a prophecy." Everyone sat down and she spoke to the effect that God was calling someone who wasn't listening and wanted to give him the gift of the Spirit. It was a frightfully embarrassing moment, because there was no one in the room that the prophecy fit except Doug. He had vocalized his belief in Christ shortly before, after having asked questions for weeks, but he had not yet been empowered by the Spirit.

I quickly herded the younger members into another room and suggested they play their guitars and sing, which they did at the slightest provocation. I poured Doug a cold drink and felt miserable. I was afraid he would think what Claire had said had come from Claire, rather than from God, out of her desire to see him have an upper room experience. I carefully broached the subject of Claire's prophecy. "That was meant for me," Doug stated.

"How do you feel about it? Would you like to receive the gift now?" (Everyone had proded him for weeks). "I think I would." So the Jaggers with the fanatical son and far-out daughter had themselves climbed to the other side of the fence.

The Naval commander's wife and daughter had come from the States and spent six weeks with us. I was surprised at the wife's story. After the birth of their daughter she had been in post-childbirth depression and had gone to an Oral Roberts meeting and become a Christian. I know Oral personally, like him, have been to his house for dinner and have had him to mine, but somehow I couldn't understand this Ivy League type meeting Christ at an Oral Roberts meeting. But she had. Some days later she found herself praying quietly in another language, but she didn't understand the ramifications of it. After six weeks in Hong Kong she understood everything.

Their six-year-old daughter was really an intelligent child. Gail talked to her about Jesus and she understood regeneration better than most Christians. Her grandparents had explained it all clearly, and she grasped it very well. However, she informed Gail, she was not a Christian and did not, at that time, wish to become one! I admired her honesty.

One day the little girl had been unusually contentious. That night when she said prayers with her mother, she began to cry and said, "I don't want to be the way I am. I don't like me." It was the beginning of a new life. On Saturday night Suzanne prayed with her at the group affair and she was baptized with the Spirit. This was such a shock to a Plymouth Brethren medical doctor, who was certain he knew everything there was to know about God, that he telephoned us the next day, came to dinner, and was given a new language of love and praise. Then the Naval commander's ship came to Hong Kong and the chaplain received the gift of the Spirit. There appeared to be no end to our involvement with that commander.

A letter came from the commander's sister. She and her husband (we'll call him Bill) were traveling around the world. They arrived in Hong Kong and we invited them to dinner. Bill, who was half Jewish and an atheist, laughed when we talked about God. But there was something in his wife's eyes. I suggested we go in the bedroom and talk. She made a commitment of faith and was baptized in the Spirit.

They took us to dinner. The conversation gravitated to religion. We discussed at length. We took them to dinner. Back to religion. We suggested Bill investigate to discover if there is a Jesus Christ who is the son of God and alive -- that he pray twice a day for one week to that effect. Thursday night they came to the prayer meeting. Pouring a cup of coffee, swinging, personable Bill said to Rick, "I'm saying this prayer, but I don't know what to expect. What am I supposed to be looking for?" Just then Jim Davidson, a Salvation Army captain, exuberantly charged in the door exclaiming, "The gatekeeper's wife we prayed for, who was dying of cancer, went to the hospital and the cancer is completely gone! The nurses wept and the Catholic doctor had tears in his eyes. He said he had seen a miracle. The woman and her husband have both become Christians" Bill turned to Rick, "This thing is bigger than I thought. We'll have to talk some more."

Sunday we took them to the club to swim. Richard was called away to make peace between a Chinese girl and a Dutch journalist who were having marital problems. As we lounged by the pool Bill queried, "Why are you against pre-marital sex?" When I am endeavoring to bring someone to the place where he can see Jesus Christ I dislike being side-tracked. My thinking is that when people become Christians, if they continue in the faith, their doctrine and morals will eventually assume the scriptural pattern. I know this is true because I have met people all over the world whose ethics, morals and doctrine do conform to this pattern. In most cases this was the result of radical change after becoming Christian, and this in spite of the lack of exposure to any teaching whatsoever in many instances. So I sidestepped the question and said something like, "I've never said anything like that."

"But I know you are. Why?"

"I'm a Christian. If I am going to be a Christian I must take it seriously. Therefore, my guide has to be the Bible, since that is what is given for me to go by."

"Jean, that's ridiculous. It was written for people hundreds of years ago and doesn't fit today. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with pre-marital sex."

A loud crash. Bill lay on the concrete. Without so much as a warning tear, the canvas on his deck chair had suddenly been "rent asunder" and small-framed Bill, who had not even moved in the chair, was dumped on his derriere. "How could that happen?" he said incredulously, as he rubbed the sore place.

"Maybe Someone is trying to tell you something."

His eyes looked up to the heavens as he soberly mused, "Maybe so."

That night Bill expressed belief in Jesus Christ and spoke in tongues. We were still being entangled with that Naval commander, his family, and friends.

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