As a teenager, I often sang along at church when the song leader announced, “The Regions Beyond, p. 76.”1
To the regions beyond I must go, I must go,
Where the story has never been told;
To the millions that never have heard of His love,
I must tell the sweet story of old.
To the hardest of places He calls me to go,
Not thinking of comfort or ease,
The world may pronounce me a dreamer, a fool,
Enough if the Master I please.
Chorus, With spirit…
To the regions beyond, I must go, I must go.
Till the world, all the world, His salvation shall know.
This old hymn perfectly describes the contents of the book by Wayne Crooke, telling of his adventures in “the hardest of places.” He went because he carried a message to be delivered to people in remote mountains in Afghanistan, lonely islands of Indonesia, and unfamiliar cities of Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan…and finally to refugee camps near Burma.
In his prologue, Wayne says this about his book:
Desperate prayer, love for souls, these are the things that led us to throw caution to the winds, and take steps of faith into the unknown. That is what this book is about…We’ve lived in jungles and foreign cities in seven countries and travelled a dozen more. Over these 40 years, I was sometimes called a man on fire, sometimes a fool. Facing death and failure often, our family stepped out into seemingly thin air to find that God’s promises are a solid rock beneath. When we were crushed and discouraged, He picked us up, dusted us off and pushed us back into the ring. Come along with me now into an incredible adventure.2
Wayne’s family consisted of his wife, Carolyn, two daughters, an adopted niece, and an adopted son. He died about two short years after his book was published. He gave the last energies of his life to sharing the gospel with Burma and arranged for the proceeds of his book to help that endeavor.
Interspersed in the exciting stories, ranging from surviving a whirlpool to dealing with tribal leaders in remote Afghanistan to holding mass crusades, Wayne shares lessons in living a victorious Christian life and eight pages of “Spiritual Development Notes.” These lessons are not often seen on TV screens.
- Prevailing prayer – modeled in missionaries groaning for India.
- The command of scripture “despise not prophesying” (I Thess. 5:20) He reminded himself of a personal prophecy he once received that reiterated what God had already spoken to him; by it, he was able to “war a good warfare” when doubts could have overwhelmed him. (I Tim 1:18) (pp. 37, 44, 72)
- The art of “knocking” when prayer alone fails, i.e., putting out “feelers” to determine God’s will in specific directions, also known as casting one’s bread upon the waters. (Matthew 7:7; Ecclesiastes 11:1)
Here’s a classic example of a difficult lesson learned after Wayne and Carolyn’s infant daughter died and they were numbed by grief; soothing words from a missionary friend, Carlton Kenney, helped:
He opened his Bible and brought to me the healing words of a friend. Taking me to the first chapter of Job, he showed that there are times when the things happening are bigger than just us. There are heavenly battles taking place between God and Satan; and God’s very right to rule is being called into question. We are just the battleground. He patiently showed me that it is actually a great honor when God trusts a man with His glory. To stand alone when there is no blessing, only troubles, and still serve God unwaveringly…it is then that God is justified. It is then that He raises up a man and makes him become a rebuke to Satan’s lies and challenges…. “God is still looking for a man today,” Carlton gently shared, “that He can trust with His Glory and use to be a rebuke to Satan.” (p. 101)
Wayne went on in ministry, started a thriving church in Thailand, and helped with an adoption ministry that placed over thirty-eight Thai children in Christian homes. One of the children was the son they adopted when Carolyn was fifty-two, little four-year-old Shaun Philip Crooke.
After many wonderful years of ministry in Indonesia and Thailand and the United States, the final chapter of Wayne’s life led him to the Burmese border in Thailand. He had been living a comfortable life of semi-retirement in Japan near his thirteen grandkids when he was informed by Japanese doctors that he needed an urgent triple coronary bypass operation. That’s when BURMA came into his story. I’ll let him tell it:
Japan does things somewhat differently from the US. After the operation, they keep the patient heavily sedated for 3 days in CCU (Coronary Care Unit). But I surprised them. After the six-hour operation concluded, the doctor and Paul [Japanese speaking son-in-law] escorted the gurney from the OR. I don’t recall this happening at all, but three days later Paul told me that on the way out of the operating room I woke up, looked up at the doc, and said, “Doctor, I cannot die, I have to go to Burma!” and I promptly passed back out. The doctor’s eyes narrowed seriously as he studied me, thinking this might just be a nitrogen bubble in the brain. But Paul assured him, “It’s OK, doctor, this is a promise. He made a promise to God, a long, long time ago.”
Three days later I woke up in the CCU, and Paul told me what had happened. I was certainly glad to be among the living, but, why ever had I said such a strange thing? Where did that come from? For years I hadn’t thought about it, but it must have been down deep in there somewhere.
Later I would tell the brothers in Burma, “When they cut open my heart, you came out. Burma was in there. You were in my heart.”
Wayne then tells about the circumstances around the promise he made. About twenty years earlier he helped to organize a month of teaching seminars for Burmese pastors for about eighty churches. They made a profound impression on him:
I had never had the honor, the deep honor, of knowing such dedicated, surrendered and sacrificing people. One man had walked a month to get to the meetings, others for one or two weeks, down slippery mountain slopes, through jungles, through war zones.
They sat eight hours a day listening intently as we taught, sitting on hard, narrow wooden benches. They were hungry for God. They loved one another and trusted one another with their very lives. And they loved God more than their own lives. I was so touched, so moved, through this experience, that I had promised God, “God, if you ever open this country up, I will spend the rest of my days serving these dear people, preaching in this land.” (p. 205)
As Wayne recuperated in the hospital, God spoke to him to “prepare to enter Burma.” (p. 208) So, in his late sixties while recovering from heart surgery, he began that onerous task of itinerating to raise a missionary budget to go to Burmese refugee camps on the Thai border. The Thai government refuses to issue work permits to them, and they cannot return home.
Then in the spring of 2008, a great cyclone struck Burma, killing 200,000 people and putting the country in front-page headlines. Hearts and purse strings opened to him, and he was able to relocate his family to Thailand. In fact, he was able to send some relief funds there.
The book closes with Wayne holding a Saber in his hand; it is a hand held device, a “digital player with hand-wind power. It has a speaker than can play loud enough for an audience of up to 300 at a time to hear clearly and with good quality. There are basic Bible lessons in hundreds of Burma’s dialects already prepared to be downloaded into these machines and played over and over.” (p. 215) Instead of seeing “THE END” on the last page of the book, we find “THE BEGINNING.” (p. 215)
He heard of a ministry team of athletes who were helping to rescue refugees, so he began training to work with them. One day he returned home after jogging, sat down in his arm chair, and suddenly died of a heart attack. Perhaps he had not wound down slowly enough after his jog. His book carries this notation on the back cover: “Proceeds from the book will help Burma relief.” Thus his legacy has continued after his departure from this life. The book can be found on Amazon. His son Shaun, recently graduated from Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA. His daughter, Cheryl, and her husband, Paul, lead a church in Japan. His widow, Carolyn, resides in Hampton, VA, where she is active back in their home church, New Covenant Church.
BURMA
The day after I finished reading the great biography of Adoniram Judson (To the Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson), American missionary to Burma, a new couple visited our church near Raleigh, NC. They were from Burma. They are refugees and confirmed that the things in the video below are actually happening. They are in our church family now and dearly loved.
A simple Google search with “Kirk Cameron Burma” turns up the sad, tragic story of the persecution of Christians in Burma (Myanmar) by their own government. Here is a sample video.
https://vimeo.com/16548078
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1. “The Regions Beyond” by A. B. Simpson. The Broadman Hymnal, ed. by B. B. McKinney. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1940, p. 76.
2. Wayne Crooke, God Speaks, Adventures Follow. Hampton, VA: Wayne Crooke, 2009.