“Lord, Thrust Me Out,” PLEADED Eddie Cairns
God revealed many things to Eddie Cairns after he had become a mature believer. But his life did not start that way. His alcoholic dad crushed his dream to play rugby, forcing him to work during practice times. His dad then spent the extra income on drink. Eddie, too, began to drink.
After several close calls while both drunk and sober, he felt something had to change. He was stung when a policeman found him drunk and said in disgust, “Like father, like son.” Cairns wanted to date a young woman and figured he’d be able to do so if he invited her to church, but her mom said no. He went to church alone that night and heard a speaker testify how Christ had changed his life. Cairns went home, knelt beside his bed and prayed, “Lord I don’t know much about you and I don’t know where you are but I want you to become part of my life. Amen.”
A transformation swept over his life. He told his friends about the change but instead of rejoicing, most distanced themselves from him. Cairns’s father said, “If you are going to carry on like this you can get your blankets and go,” but did not follow through on his threat.
Cairns joined the Plymouth Brethren and courted Betty, his future wife. Her godly father taught him the Bible.
Called up for army training, he determined to kneel beside his bed and pray each evening no matter what the reaction of his bunk mates. The room went quiet but he got none of the jeers he expected.
After marrying he tithed and gave generously to Christian work. This meant he often had to pick wild berries to survive, but his family never went hungry. He worked whatever extra jobs he could find, including butchering and helping a local mortician. Eventually he took over a cattle farm. Along the way Betty and he had four beautiful girls and a son.
His farming prospered. For seventeen years Cairns labored as a Sunday school leader, meeting considerable success, but was unsatisfied. He prayed, “Lord, thrust me out” to do mission work. About that same time his atheistic younger brother, Arthur, died while touring New Zealand. A terrible wreck in front of the Cairnses’ house took the lives of several youngsters returning from a party. The shock spurred Cairns to witness even more fervently and to teach Bible once a week in the local school. He printed Scriptures in the newspaper with his home address. People stopped in. All who did were given instruction in faith and a new Bible.
After hearing Richard Wurmbrand speak of the terrible persecution in communist countries and after encountering the ministry of Youth with a Mission, Cairns realized he wanted to get Bibles to closed countries. In 1975 he formed Mission Outreach. The Lord began teaching him lessons in faith and extra giving. To keep a mission promise, he even had to sell his house and cows.
The Holy Spirit filled some Plymouth Brethren and they spoke in tongues. Cairns noticed their joy and felt he was missing something. But the Plymouth Brethren booted out the tongues-speakers, saying spiritual gifts had ceased with the apostles. Cairns felt Acts 2:38 affirmed that God’s spiritual gifts are for all time. In answer to prayer, he and Betty spoke in tongues.
Then the Lord commanded him to go to Israel. They knew this really was of God when all their farm needs and the care of their children fell into place. The couple were able to obey the Lord’s prompting in 1976.
They visited Hungary to deliver forbidden Bibles. The Christians there knew in advance someone was coming, although the Cairnses had told no one. “We always know when people are coming because God sends us food in advance,” the Hungarians explained. The Hungarians listed their needs which included a reliable car. Knowing the mission did not have the funds to meet these needs, Cairns boldly said, “Within one week of my return to New Zealand, I will send funds for all these requests.” Back home, God vindicated Cairns’s promise. Mission Outreach raised the necessary funds for the car within a week.
Divine interventions opened a way into North Korea. God provided a VISA at the last moment and gave Cairns words when he did not know how to answer interrogators. He was involved with Project Pearl, an effort to get a million Bibles to Chinese Christians. God showed him where to locate a tug needed to pull the barge of Bibles. Leaving China, he prayed to be in time to call his wife on their wedding anniversary, and God worked it out so that he could—at 10:15 pm New Zealand time.
One day he felt the call to visit Tibet. He and Betty prayed about it. Shortly afterward, he got a call saying some packages had arrived. What packages? It turned out that a Bible society had found some Tibetan Bibles in Germany in answer to a query he had made eighteen months earlier. Though forbidden to board a plane into Tibet, he simply led his group aboard. An official in Tibet assisted them in spite of their not having a permit to be there.
Again and again the Lord directed Cairns, often by visions and by Scripture verses that took new meaning in special circumstances. And the Lord blessed his obedience. Once he gave up his seat on a flight to a woman allergic to cats. He then witnessed boldly to his new seatmates (one of whom had the offending cat) and won both of them to the Lord. Eddie Cairns died on this day, 2 December 2021.
Other Events on this Day
- Charlotte Maria Tucker Found it Better to Be with Christ
- A CRAVING FOR GOD DROVE RUYSBROEK TO SOLITARY CONTEMPLATION