CHAPTER 19
I am almost finished telling you about the family of Gene and how they could have changed the lives of millions of people. So, now, I must complete the story. The only ones left are Barbara Ann and Anna Marie.
You already know what happen to them when they were not saved and now it’s time to see how they both would have reached a multitude for Christ.
Barbara Ann followed Peggy Sue to Bible College and just like Peggy Sue, Barbara Ann wanted whatever the Lord planned for her. She knew that she was going to find her husband at Bible College and she also knew that he was going to have the same desire for saving souls as she had. She had gone out with many of the boys at school, but there just was not that chemistry that she thought had to be there when you fall in love.
One girl friend after another would date one of the boys and all of a sudden, they would let everyone know they were planning on getting married. Barbara Ann was wondering if there was something wrong with her because she was not finding Mr. Right after all the dates that she was having. Even her sister, Anna Marie, had made that statement about having all the dates, but no Mr. Right.
Could there be something wrong in the way that she was looking for a husband or was it that she wanted a husband so badly that she was not willing to wait on the Lord? Barbara Ann decided the best thing to do was to let the Lord guide and she would stop trying to force the issue.
The next day, she let things happen as they would. The first thing she did was to stop being so aggressive with the boys and let them start chasing her. She found out that her dating life went down-hill pretty fast. Instead of having three or four dates a week, she was lucky to get one date for the week. With the aggressive maneuvering over, the boys did not feel intimidated and did not feel that they had to take her out in order to be friends with her.
The second thing that happened was that she decided that she wanted the boys to ask her out because they wanted to be with her, instead of her wanting to be with certain boys. Her thinking was that if they asked her out, they really wanted to be with her and they also liked her. Many times in the past, her date wanted to be with her because she was so beautiful. You might say some guys like to impress people with a good looking girl friend. The third thing she had to realize was that beauty was more than a person’s outward looks. One must look beyond the face and look at the person down deep.
By making these three changes, Barbara Ann knew that she would find the man that the Lord had chosen for her very soon. Well, very soon did not arrive. The first year and the second year at Bible College were over and still, she had not found the man that she would spend the rest of her life with. She was also wondering if her future husband would even be in Bible College. Maybe she would meet him someplace else, or it may even be that she would meet him in another state or country.
During her first and second year at school, she would go with nine other kids from the college to different towns close to the college and walk along the streets and hand out tracks about Christ. They would have one of the boys preach on the corner. Many times, people would stop and listen, but there never seemed to be anyone getting saved.
At the start of the third year of Bible College, Barbara Ann and Anna Marie (this was her first year) went with the usual group to hand out tracks. After passing out tracks, they went around a corner and they saw a large crowd standing in the middle of the block. When they reached the group, they found a young man preaching about the End Times. At the end of his message, he told the crowd that one day each and every person standing there would die and go to one of two places, either Heaven or Hell. “If you go to Hell, you go there because you refused to accept Christ as your Savior. But, if you accept now, you will have eternal life and you know that, if you die, you will be going to heaven.” He then asked if anyone wanted to accept before it was too late. Out of the twenty one people in the crowd, five came forward and accepted.
Barbara Ann and the group she was with could not believe that five people came forward and accepted. For the last two years, they gave away tracks and one of the boys preached about Christ. But no one ever came forward and accepted.
They always thought that it was the Devil that was keeping people from coming forward. They never thought for one moment that the message was very terrible. They also never realized that forcing people to take a track, got them nowhere.
After the young man had finished with the last person that came forward, Barbara Ann and the others asked him a number of questions. The first question was a very obvious one. They wanted to know what his name was. He stated that his name was Clint Blume. The second question was also an obvious question. They wanted to know how long he had been preaching on the streets. He said he had been street preaching for the last five years. He stated that he started the first year he was at BIOLA and, each and every year, he and others would walk the streets of Los Angeles and tell others about Christ. He told them that the streets of LA were full of people wanting to know which direction to go.
Anna Marie wanted to know how many people he had led to the Lord and if he ever knew if the people he led to the Lord ever started going to church. Clint did not know how many people he had led to the Lord, but he knew it was a large number. He let the other kids know that he was not interested in numbers; he was only interested in the one soul that wanted Christ. He also did not know if they started going to church.
You see the main mistake that most people make is to try and get multitudes saved instead of focusing on just one person. “I had prayed to the Lord to let me reach one person for Christ and maybe others would see and want the same thing that he has. So when I go out on the streets and preach, I only want one person to accept. It just so happens that, if one person makes others think about their soul, then another person will come forward and ask me to show them in the Bible how to get saved. Some days, I have had twenty or thirty people come forward and ask how to get saved.
After listening to the things that Clint was saying, Barbara Ann decided she wanted that type of ministry for herself. She asked Clint for his telephone number and she also asked if he would mind if she went with him the next time he decided to preach on the streets. Clint could not say no. This was the first time anyone wanted to go with him street preaching and try to get souls saved since he had left Los Angeles.
The first time Barbara Ann called, Clint let her know that he was going out to the streets on Thursday and Friday nights, and he would be preaching all day Saturday. If she really wanted to go, he would meet her at the corner of Cherry and Spring at six on Thursday. Barbara Ann said she would be there right on time and, to the amazement of Clint, she was there. He explained how he was going to start and then how he would present the Gospel. All he wanted her to do was to hand out his special tracks, only if someone wanted one. She was not to force anyone to take one.
He said, “Never, never just walk up to a person and hand them a track. All they will do is throw it away. They already think that you are a fanatic for giving out tracks, so we must change their thinking about us. We want them to ask for a track. You know, curiosity killed the cat. The people must be curious about the information that is in the track. If they are curious, they will not throw the track on the ground or in a trash can. They will read it completely through and then they will ask questions.”
After Clint explained about the tracks, it was time to walk the streets. The first person they met was a man about twenty nine years old. On the front and back of Clint’s T-shirt were the words, “Ask me what I think.” The man stopped Clint and asked the question, “What do you think?” Clint always had a different answer for each person that would ask that question. Clint looked down to see a wedding band on the man’s finger. “I think that if I were you, I would stop at the flower shop before I went home and I would buy my wife some flowers. I would also write on the card how much you love her. You should prove your love for her and tell her that you would like
to take her to church on Sunday morning.”
“Why would I tell her about going to church on Sunday morning?”
“The way I see it, you may not care a thing about your soul and where you will go once you pass from this life, but you care so much for your wife, you want to know for certain that she will be in Heaven when her time comes. That is why you will take her to church on Sunday, and that is what you will tell her when she asks you why you want to go to church.”
The man looked at Clint and stated that he had never considered where he or his wife would spend eternity. He just assumed that they would be going to Heaven, because they were good people. That was the statement that opened the door for Clint to show him what the Bible taught and what happens if a person rejects Christ. Within five minutes, the man had accepted and he promised that he would buy the flowers and go to church on Sunday.
The goal for Clint was reaching one person for Christ and that goal had been fulfilled with the first person Clint met on the streets. The second, third, and fourth went the same way. They would ask about his shirt and Clint would give them an answer that would open the discussion. After thirty minutes, Clint had led six people to the Lord. Barbara Ann could not believe what she was seeing. For two long years, she did not see one person saved and now, in less than thirty minutes, six people had been saved. Barbara Ann was curious about the time that Clint would start preaching on the streets. So she just simply asked, “Clint, what time do you usually start preaching to the crowds?”
He stated, “It’s best to start about seven. At seven, we still have about an hour or an hour and a half left of sunlight. I will preach for twenty minutes and then I will see if there is anyone that would like to accept. If no one comes forward, I will preach another ten or fifteen minutes. If no one comes forward after the second time, we will move on to the next corner. It may be that we will not see one person accept. That’s the way it is sometimes. Now, let’s cross the street and find what looks like a good corner.”
The last person that accepted before Clint started to preach on the streets was a little lady about seventy years old. Clint and Barbara Ann were standing at the corner waiting for the light to change when this little old lady walked up and stood right next to Clint at the light.
Once the light changed, they both took a step and the little lady stumbled and almost fell. If Clint had not grabbed her by the arm, she may have fallen and broken a bone or maybe something worse. Clint walked her across the street and on the other side, she thanked Clint for helping her. At that time, she noticed his shirt, so she asked the question.
“What do you think?”
Clint was hoping she would ask him that question, because he already had an answer for her. As they were walking across the street, he could smell the smoke of cigarettes on her clothes.
The answer Clint gave the little lady really did surprise her. He said, “If you do not quit smoking, you will die before your time.”
She looked at Clint and, with a tear coming down her cheek, she said that the doctors had given her less than six months to live. That was the opening he needed. In less than three minutes, he led her to the Lord. That night, during his street preaching, there were four more souls added to the heavenly roles.
For the next three months, each and every time Clint went out to the streets, Barbara Ann was there with him. She did not realize that the Lord had placed Clint right in her path. She wanted someone that was as on fire for the Lord as she was and that person was Clint. His one desire was for souls, and the one desire for Barbara Ann was for souls, also.
Each time they would meet, the love for both grew deeper and deeper. Clint never said anything to Barbara Ann about the love he felt for her because he thought for sure the feeling was not mutual. Barbara Ann thought the same thing. She thought that his first and only love was for Christ. She was correct for half of that. His first love was Christ, but Christ was not his only love. Somehow, he had to show her that he cared about her and that he was very much in love with her and that he wanted her to be his wife.
One day, when they were sitting and talking, Clint came up with an idea that would show Barbara Ann how much he loved her. He started out by saying that Christ showed how much He loved the world by dying on the cross for the sins of every person; past, present and future. “There is no way anyone can show that much love for a person. But, if it was possible that a person could show that much love for another person, how could they do it?”
Barbara Ann said she didn’t know the answer. Clint told her he thought that one way a person could show that much love for another person was for them to become man and wife. “If a man loves a woman that much, then he is ready to give her anything and everything that he has, which would include his life. If he gave his all for the woman he loves, do you think that woman would be willing to become his wife?”
“I think that all depends on if the woman he asks truly loves him.”
“Barbara Ann, I would be willing to give my life for you.” With that statement, he stood and watched her reaction and waited to see what kind of answer he might get back. “I don’t want anything to hurt our relationship as it is now, but I can’t hold back my feelings any longer. Will you be my wife?
“Oh, Clint, I thought you would never ask!!!!”
Clint and Barbara Ann were married the following June and within two years, they had their first child. They named him John. They had three more children and all the children accepted Christ by the time they were eight years old. John followed his father in street preaching and became one of the greatest street preachers the world had ever seen. During his ministry, he led over five thousand people to the Lord.
But, that was not all. The other children of Clint and Barbara Ann would be just as bold as John, when it came to delivering the Gospel. They would open their mouths and out flowed the messages of Christ to a dying world. The depths of Hell lost many a soul when they heard the Gospel being preached by the children of Clint and Barbara Ann.
Anna Marie was also looking for a husband. She was on fire for the Lord and she wanted the man that she was going to marry to be just like her when it came to lost souls. If I have not said it before, I will now. All of the girls in the Pittman family were very beautiful. They could have any man they wanted. However, with their good looks, they only wanted the most handsome man in the world, they just wanted a man that was totally in love with them and the Lord.
During Anna Marie’s last year in Bible College, she met a boy that had one goal in life. His goal was to preach the Gospel to one of the most notorious countries in the world, that being New Guinea. Willie had read all about New Guinea and how the head hunters had killed many people that had tried to reach them with civilization. The past history of New Guinea was not glamorous. It consisted mostly of stories of head hunters and the way they would kill their enemies and shrink their heads. But, Willie knew that they must also hear about Christ and what He had done for them on the cross. He was determined to preach like Jim Elliott and if it meant he would lose his life, then so be it.
He knew that if he did go to that country, it just wasn’t his life he could lose, but his head. He also knew that if he was martyred for Christ, he would receive the Crown of Life at the Bema Seat. What was one life compared to the lives of millions? One person does matter. One person can change everything. It may be that Christ would allow him to be the one that would reach the whole country with the Gospel.
Anna Marie and Willie could be seen everywhere together, once they started dating. They had their classes scheduled so they could be together even during the day. One thing that all the students knew was that Anna Marie and Willie would be man and wife before they would graduate.
Both Anna Marie and Willie decided to major in Bible so they could know the Bible inside and out. If they knew the Bible inside and out, they reasoned that everything else would go more smoothly. Things did go ve
ry smoothly for them at school. They both studied very hard and they also decided that their prayer life had to take first place in everything they did. When each would awake in the morning, they would read their Bibles and then they would pray. Many times, Willie would pray with his room-mate for thirty minutes and then go to class. Or, sometimes, he would meet Anna Marie and they would pray together.
When the school year was over, they both had made the Dean’s Honor Roll and they had decided to get married in June of the following year. They wanted to have as much time as possible together, before they finished school. Next, they would be off to mission school for training in the language of people of New Guinea.
After what seemed like an eternity, mission school was over, and the next big test was getting support from churches. Visiting churches for support lasted for eighteen months, but they did get what was needed. The next thing was to make arrangements for their trip to New Guinea and then came leaving for the mission field. Everything wetn so smoothly that Willie was thinking that the mission field in New Guinea would be a piece of cake. Anna Marie had to bring him back to reality when she reminded him of the story of Jim Elliott.
Willie started to think about Jim Elliott and the things that he had read. He decided he was going to do some of the exact things that he had read about. Just maybe the Lord would let the people come to a saving knowledge of Christ without getting Anna Marie or himself killed.
Once they arrived in New Guinea, they found a place to live and then came the most important part of their ministry. They had to make contact with the Nimo Tribe. They had asked around and one of the other missionaries would fly Willie to a location where there were reports of a Nimo village. Willie had gathered all kinds of things to give to the people of the tribe and he was hoping and praying that he would receive some gifts in return.
The Nimo tribal people were located in the foothills of the Central Mountain Range. These people were headhunters and cannibals. If the plane were to crash or if it were to go down, they would never be heard from again. Headhunting, cannibalism and nose piercing were all part of their cultural and part of their religion. Their religion was called Animism. They believe they must appease the spirits of their ancestors. The enemies of the Nimo tribe could expect sorcery, poison and magic from the elders of the tribe.
With everything ready, Willie and the pilot were ready to take off. It would take about two hours to get where they thought they would find the village. After flying for about two hours, they came to a large clearing in the jungle and down below them was a very large village. They circled the village for a couple of minutes before they lowered the rope with a bucket of gifts. The circle the plane was flying made the bucket go around in a small circle close to the ground. The elders were the first ones to the bucket. They reached inside and took the gifts and replaced them with gifts of their own.
After thirty minutes of flying around in circles, it was time to fly home. Willie looked at all of the things the Nimo people gave him and he was wondering what they were. One thing that he did not have to ask anyone about was a small head of a grown man that had been shrunk. The missionary pilot explained that it was a great honor for him to receive a shrunken head.
Day after day and week after week, Willie would fly to the village and give gifts. But, one day the decision had to be made about making contact with the Nimo tribe. It was decided that they would land on a dry flat plain, one mile from the village and then walk to the village and see if they would be welcomed.
The day before he and the other three missionaries would fly to the Nimo village, they would have time with their families. Willie knew he did not want to say good-bye to Anna Marie. That would be like saying that he was going to be killed. He also did not want it to look like he did not have faith in the Lord to protect him and the other men. During the whole day, he and Anna Marie did the normal things they would do around the house. That night, he fell asleep holding Anna Marie next to him.
The next day would either be a disaster or a triumph. Once they were in the plane, there was not much chatter, but a lot of praying. They all knew they were depending on the Lord for protection. However, Jim Elliott was also depending on the Lord for protection. It could be they would be killed and the entire country of New Guinea would be saved by a large influx of missionaries.
The plane ride was almost over. They could see the village below and, within minutes, they would be landing and taking that long walk to the village. The plane came in low and then the wheels hit the ground and it came to a peaceful stop. Out of the plane and off toward the west it was for the four missionaries. Before they reached the village, a large group of headhunters met them. One look and they all thought they had made a mistake. Most of the men had bones through their noses and their hair was rolled up with a bone through it, also. They all had spears and bone knifes. Once they reached the four missionaries, they encircled them and escorted them to the village.
At the village, the chief made small talk with two of the missionaries that had been learning their language. They told the chief they wanted to send two of their missionaries to the village to live with them until the rains came. The chief was excited about having visitors and welcomed them with open arms.
Willie and Anna Marie had been learning their language and were able to speak it pretty well. However, one word said wrong could cost them their lives. Everything was finalized and within two weeks, Willie and Anna Marie would be flown in and left for four months.
Time seemed to fly by for both Willie and Anna Marie. They were ready to go and once they were at the village, the people were very friendly and wanted to help in any and in all ways. The first thing was to have a hut built, so they would be out of the elements at night and whatever Mother Nature might throw at them. The second thing was to set times when they could talk with the elders about Christ.
Things were going along really well until there arose a problem in the village. It seems as if one of the other tribes in the area was missing one of their young men and they accused the men of the Nimo tribe of killing and eating him. The confrontation occurred the next day.
The next day arrived with a lot of tension in the village. Everyone knew there could be a lot of killing and Willie knew that their lives were in extreme danger. The chief promised that they would all be killed in order to protect his guests.
When the other tribe arrived, Willie was the one that took matters into his own hands. He had purchased four pigs from one of the elders and offered it to the other tribe. He spoke in their language and said that these men are not responsible for the loss of the young man. “But they do grieve for him and whatever may have happened to him. They want to show their grief by giving the four pigs as a memorial.”
The other tribe had never had anything like that happen before. They considered it an honor and the hard feelings were squelched by Willie. After that, Willie and Anna Marie were welcomed in both villages. Soon, other villages started to hear about this missionary couple who were telling about the God of the sky and how they could have life forever.
Willie and Anna Marie were the first missionaries that were considered as family to all the tribes in New Guinea. Because of them, the entire country was opened to the Gospel. Willie became the Jim Elliott of New Guinea.
Now you can see how things would have occurred, if the Pittman children would have accepted. But, as you know, they did not accept and the story of Willie and Anna Marie did not happen either. Willie was able to go to New Guinea and preach to some of the tribes, but he was not able to reach the entire country with the Gospel.