Derek Prince - How Derek Ended Up Living In The US and Marrying Ruth
This is an excerpt from: How I Became Involved in Israel
I have to continue because this is a long narrative. Later God showed Lydia and me very clearly that we were to move to Britain, which we did with great reluctance. But I believe God had His reasons. I'm going to skip a whole lot now because when I was outside of Israel I still maintained contact but I wasn't so immediately involved. I believe God had a purpose in exposing me to what was going on in the Gentile world. And so for a while I ministered in Britain, then I ministered in Kenya, then I ministered in Canada and then I immigrated to the United States by accident, if you can understand that.
Well, while we were in Kenya, Lydia and I adopted our ninth daughter. We didn't plan it, I was principal of a teacher training college and we were very busy with educational work. But one evening a European lady and an African couple turned up about 6 00 o'clock in the evening and the European lady was carrying a little black baby in a very dirty towel. They asked if they could come in and we said yes. Then the European lady said, "This little girl was born in a hut. Her mother died, she was found unconscious on the floor. They took her to the hospital, she's getting better but the hospital said we're not a children's home, we can't keep children forever. We have been going around for three days, the whole of this area, looking for any family, African, Asian or European, that would take her". Then they said, "We heard that you take children". We said, "Oh yes, that was long ago, but not today". They said, "We're so tired, can we sit down"?
We said sure, sit down. They sat about half an hour, got up to go and as this white lady carried this little black baby past me, the baby put out it's hand like that, as if to say, what are you going to do about me? I looked at my wife and I said, "Maybe we'll change our minds". She said, "Give me a week to find a cot and some baby clothes, and you can bring her back". So that's how we got our ninth daughter. Lydia had always said, "I'd always like to have one little black girl".
So, later we had traveled through Canada because I was associated with a Canadian mission at that time. I had an invitation to visit the States, a pastor in Minneapolis whom I'd met in World War II. We got to the border and presented ourselves and they said, "What are you coming for"? I said, "A visit". They said, "How long"? I said, "Six months". They said, "Six months is too long for a visit". I dealt with a lot of immigration officials because I had to get all our family into Britain. I knew you don't argue so I said, "Maybe you can help us". I think we must have looked the most helpless trio with this little black girl. The immigration official said, "Come in and we'll see what we can do". They led us into Minneapolis and they arranged the whole process of immigration, which I had never intended.
I say to people I'm probably the only person who immigrated into the United States by accident! But, it was one of the most decisive events in my career because I've lived now from 1963 to 1993, that's 30 years unplanned but planned by God. Now, in 1975 my first wife died and 1977 I was invited to join a tour to Israel, led by Cardinal Soonans, who was the Catholic Charismatic cardinal from Belgium. He was going to celebrate his 50th year in the priesthood in Jerusalem. A group of people including Bob Mumford and Charles Simpson and others were invited to go along. I never really thought that I'd find myself in an Armenian church in the old city in Jerusalem, laying hands on a Catholic cardinal to celebrate his 50th anniversary.
I mean, some of the situations that you get into you don't expect. Well, when the rest of the group went home I said I believe it's time for me to go back to Israel because I always knew I was to go back. I stayed a week beyond the rest of the party and there was a ministry there that had been circulating my literature and even translating it into both Hebrew and Arabic. I thought I owe it to them to go and say thank you. I had received a letter from them in the course of business about something and written in handwriting at the bottom was "I want to thank you for your ministry, it has meant a great deal to me. Ruth Baker".
I thought, I'll thank the lady and I said, "Is there a lady named Ruth Baker that works here"? They said, "Oh yes, but she's sick, she's injured her back, she's at home". Now I have had for years a ministry for praying for people with back problems so I thought I really couldn't be so callous as to do nothing about it. I said, "Do you think she'd like me to pray for her"? They said, "Oh yes"! They phoned and arranged it all. I was being driven around by a young man. We set out to find the house, got lost, wandered around Jerusalem for about 30 minutes. Eventually I said to him, "Listen, David, it's no good. We just can't find it, God doesn't want us here".
We stopped the car right opposite the house! So I went in and there was this lady lying on a couch and I could see from her face that she was in pain. I was a little hesitant, I said, "I have a rather unusual way of praying for people who have back problems, I check their legs and if they're unequal the short leg grows out and then you know you've been touched by God and you just take whatever you want". Has anybody ever seen me do that? I'm sure somebody must have. Okay. It still works. I didn't plan it, I mean I would never have thought of such a thing. If I have time I'll tell you how it worked with an Israeli.
So I said to this lady, "Do you mind if I check your legs"? She said okay. I checked them, they were absolutely even. Now, that's very unusual. Very few people have absolutely even legs. I said, "That's most unusual. The only people that have even legs are people who've been prayed for. Did anybody pray for you"? She said, "Yes, you did". And without knowing it, about six years earlier she'd been at a meeting and I prayed for her. Well, when the legs are equal I have to find somewhere else to start. I said, "The Bible says lay hands on the sick, and they will be healed". I laid my hand on her, gave her a prophecy and thought that's a job well done, and took off.
Now, my last night in Israel I could not sleep. I didn't even feel sleepy. I just lay there and sometime after midnight I had a vision. I knew the vision was about returning to Israel. It was a vision of what they call Mount Zion, which isn't Mount Zion, a very steep hill on the west side of Jerusalem. There was this zigzag path going up the hill, steep, and I knew what God was showing me was the way back to Israel will not be easy, it will be uphill and it won't be straightforward, it will be zigzag. The thing that impressed me most, right where the path started there was a lady in this vision in a rather unusual dress and a rather unusual position.
As I looked at her I thought that's the lady I prayed for the other day. Well, what really made things difficult was I felt the Lord was saying, "I want you to marry that lady". I said, "Lord, I don't know her, I don't love her. How can you ask me"? But the Lord didn't answer. So I said to myself this is where Pentecostal preachers get into trouble. I'll be very discreet so I did nothing but pray for a month. And at the end of that time I still had this impression. By that time I was back in the States so I wrote the lady a nice tactful letter and said if you should ever be visiting the States, there is a fellowship in Kansas City which is very interested in Israel. I know they would make you welcome.
Well, I got the letter back saying I'm coming next week! So, I got her phone number and I can't go into the details but we ended up arriving at Kansas City airport within five minutes of one another. Ruth had her youngest daughter with her. So, we spent a few days together and we talked about Israel and the Bible and so on, but nothing very deep. Then I had to go to South Africa for ministry. I said, "Are you going to be back in Israel"? She said, "Yes, I'm going to be back for Yom Kippur," the Day of Atonement. Well I had a plan to return from Africa through Jerusalem and be there for Yom Kippur. I said, "Maybe we'll meet".
Then the last place I preached in South Africa was Pretoria. It was a rather wealthy church and they gave me quite a generous offering. I've always had an ambition to buy a South African diamond. So I said to the pastor, "Can you help me"? He said, "Yes, the best jeweler in town is a member of my church". So Monday he took me to his shop and showed me all the diamonds and the benefits and the blessings of one of them. I chose one that I liked and I had a little money over so I bought what they call a Tiger's Eye, you know what that is? A double Tiger's Eye. Then I sent a telegram to this lady saying, "Meet me in the King David Hotel for breakfast at 9:00 am" on a certain date.
I thought this is going to settle it one way or the other. I was staying in the King David Hotel, at 9 00 o'clock I was down there in the lobby, at ten to nine, sitting in a chair facing the revolving doors, saying to myself will she or won't she? And, promptly at 9 00 o'clock in she walked. So we had breakfast and if you know Israeli breakfasts, they're pretty ample. We sat and talked and I wanted to know everything about her so I pumped her about her life story. Then we went out and sat beside the swimming pool and I went on asking questions. Then I said, "Maybe we should have lunch together". So we did. I was still asking questions. After a while she said, "I'm sorry but I'm too tired to answer any more questions".
I thought I was very, very tactless. I said, "I think I need to tell you why I wanted to have breakfast with you". So I said, "I was praying and I saw you in a vision and I felt the Lord wanted me to marry you". She said, "Yes". She had her own struggles but we won't go into that. So then I slipped my hand into my pocked, pulled out a little packet wrapped in paper and said, "It so happens I have a diamond," which she is now wearing. So if you want to know about that story, it's in God Is A Matchmaker. There's a lot more besides that story but it's not just for people who aren't married, there's a lot of other chapters in the book.
But lately I've met three couples, two in Britain and one in the States, they said, "Each of us got the book separately, we didn't know the other, and here we are married". So, it works. Now I have to go on because we're running out of time. So we got married on the 17th of October... you know, you've always got to check with your wife if you've got the right date: 1978. A lot of things happened before we got married but anyhow. Then I knew we were to move to Jerusalem and in 1980 we started to build a house. That was a long story and I can't go into it. But once is enough to build a house in Jerusalem! You have no idea what's involved. And it's not getting any easier, I don't think.
From 1981 through 1989 our Jerusalem home was really a base for worldwide ministry. We hadn't planned it that way. We made three journeys around the world in succession. One of three months, one of five months and one of seven months, ministering in many different countries. I think it is partly a fulfillment of the word in Isaiah 2:3 "The Lord shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem".
I think God wants to restore Jerusalem as a center for the truth of His Word. God chose certain of us, myself and Brother Lance Lambert who is a close friend of ours, and it is happening that way. The word of the Lord is going forth from Jerusalem. Then in 1990 91 we took a so-called sabbatical to seek God because we felt we'd arrived at a crisis. Somehow our ministry was going to change. Meanwhile our ministry had grown worldwide so that now we touch almost every nation on earth with teaching material, in cassettes, video cassettes, books and through the radio broadcast. My books have been translated, part of them, at any rate, into 50 different languages.
We have 16 of my books now in Chinese and there'll be just about that number in Russian. I just want to conclude by saying this, that while we were on sabbatical God dealt with us, I would say, ruthlessly. I don't have time to tell you but it was one of the toughest periods in our lives, for both of us. Myself, I became critically ill and without antibiotics I probably wouldn't be alive. But, praise God, I bounced back, I'm flourishing, for which I give God and the doctors the thanks.
Years ago I wouldn't have thanked doctors but I've humbled myself and acknowledge I need doctors. That's one of the things God dealt with. God dealt with us both primarily about pride and He showed us a remedy for pride which is confess your sins one to another. It's difficult to remain proud when you've confessed to each other the various sins. God brought back to my mind sins I had committed 40 years ago, and He said, "I'll forgive any sin that's confessed, but if it's not confessed it's not forgiven".
That's a very searching thought that I don't want to go into. But at the end of this sabbatical God finally, we gave six months, we thought that will be plenty to find out what our future is. At the end of six months we didn't know a thing. We took an extra month and a half and at that period God showed us from now on our primary ministry is intercession and our home in Jerusalem is to be the base. I am to go and minister but only where the Lord specifically sends me. I'm here this evening because I believe the Lord specifically sent me. So there we are... That's a little... I want to say the future of Israel is in the hands of the Lord. Things are not going to get easier. Later on in this series I'm going to deal with the prophetic picture of Israel and their future.