One of the most fascinating aspects of manning stands for the European Christian Mission at conventions is that you never know who you are going to meet.
In May this year I went to GO 2011, a Christian mission weekend at the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade at Bulstrode in Hertfordshire, where I sold a copy of God’s Secret Listener to a young man, Malcolm Gray, who said he was going to give it to his dad as a present.
I thought no more about the conversation until I received this email from Malcolm’s father, Frank Gray.
He wrote: “Last evening Malcolm and his wife and daughter arrived here from Bristol and he gave me the book, suspecting that I might be interested. When he told me it was about an Albanian listener who came to Christ through listening to Trans World Radio broadcasts in his language it sparked my interest.
“I reminded him of how I used to be involved in recording radio programmes for the European Christian Mission back in 1971. Maybe there was a connection. I then told Malcolm about Mr Andoni whom I used to pick up and take to the studio in the basement of the YMCA in Parkside Road, Reading, overlooking Prospect Park.
“I also recalled how he had come to faith through translating the scripts and broadcasting them back to his people. After the recording session I would drop him off at Reading station where he would take the train back to London (Kingston-on Thames?).
“We lived in Caversham at the time and knew many people who worked at the BBC Monitoring station at Caversham Park, pictured below, where Mr Andoni also worked.
“I learned that he had a lot of sympathy for the broadcasts even though not yet a believer. Politically and philosophically Albania was in the same communist orbit as China and he was very agitated whenever he heard the rhetoric that the Russians were pouring into his country. His job was to monitor that.
“It was few years later that I heard from Ninian Lowis (son of the Rev Ninian Lowis who headed up Back to the Bible for many years) that Mr Andoni had sadly died while on the operating table undergoing surgery for cataract removal.
“We then delved into your book to see if there were any mentions of Mr Andoni and anything that confirmed my story. We found it on pages 94-95. I was surprised to read that the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade, who were then headquartered in Upper Norwood, were also involved in radio production.
“The period when I was involved was around June – August 1971 before returning to Laos where I had been a VSO volunteer 1969-1970. I went back to Laos to run a recording studio for Christian & Missionary Alliance.
“Among many other activities we made radio programmes for sending to FEBC in Manila for broadcasting back to Laos. After the communist takeover in 1975 I went to study at Wheaton College, where I met other prominent Albanian leaders whose names I have forgotten, (they were involved in the Bible School)) and have spent my working life ever since then with Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC).
“Anyhow, all this to say that it is amazing how God puts all these things together. It is good to now read of the bigger picture. Strangely Malcolm and I were in Monte Carlo in March and found the doorway leading to RMC, a place that I had heard a lot about, especially from Bill Mial, one of the "ancients" of TWR, who had spent many years there.”
He concluded: “I shall now look forward to reading your book!”
If you would like to read about Mr Aldoni’s journey to faith in God’s Secret Listener email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com
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