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Stories of Faith for Inspiration and Proof that God can be Trusted Completely

The following events have pretty much been spread throughout my life . . .

In my life I’ve had two GREAT fears–one was math and the other was learning to speak a foreign language.  As for language, I even had a problem with learning my own language, English!  In middle school I would have to get up in front of the class and on the blackboard “diagram” all the parts of a sentence.  I would have rather faced off a pack of wild, rabid, snarling and snapping wolves than to diagram a sentence in front of the class!  I felt like all those comma splices and dangling whatevers were gonna kill me!

To make matters worse, my English teacher in middle school was also the Spanish teacher.  The first year in English class when she would get upset with me, she would yell at me in Spanish and make me stay after school in her Spanish classroom.  The next year when I had to take Spanish and she would get upset with me, she would yell at me in English and make me stay after school in her English classroom.  As a result, I developed this fear/hate relationship with language–including my own.

So it was with fear and trembling that I stood up from my knees after praying while at the Bible college I was attending in Canada, with the thought that the Lord wanted me to go to my state college back in the States and study Chinese!!  I knew little to nothing about China.  I wasn’t even sure where it was located.  That was because I was not a good student in elementary school where I should have learned this in geography class.

The next day I was in the lobby of the administration building and remembered the large map of the world they had framed on the wall.  Walking over to it, I thought I would see exactly where China was located.  I stood in front of the map looking at the line boundary marking out the location of the country.  In an instant, the whole country suddenly turned into Chinese faces; I was seeing the Chinese from the waist up all crowded within the borders of China.  They were crying, wringing their hands, and they looked confused, not knowing what to believe; they looked hopeless and full of despair.  The image was so sudden and so intense I stepped back and then looked to see if anyone else saw what I was seeing.  Nobody was staring at the map, and the emotion was too intense for me, so I had to walk away and then began wondering if I was going nuts seeing stuff!

That happened near the end of the spring semester; shortly after that, we left Canada to return to my home state.  Not long after, I stopped by to see my mom to tell her I would be taking Mandarin Chinese that fall quarter at the nearby state college.  She started crying!  She told me that the day I was born while still in the hospital, she felt the Lord impress upon her that I would be a missionary to China and that my middle name David was not from my father’s middle name of David.  Instead, my middle name was from David Olsen, a missionary that had been martyred in China in the 1940s.  I was speechless, and she sat there crying happy tears.

In the fall quarter, my first day of Chinese class was okay, and I was given the Chinese name Ni Wei Li.  I also discovered, unlike all other languages, Chinese doesn’t have an alphabet!  You basically have to learn one Chinese character for each word.  Thankfully, I survived the first day.  The next few days things were warming up as we started learning Chinese sounds and words.  My fear/hate language thing was on the rise inside me.  I was only there because I felt the Lord wanted me there.  The next week terror was settling in because this was when we were to start answering her questions in Chinese in front of everyone!  There were thirty students in my  class, and I sat near the front on the far side–far from where she started the questioning.  She methodically worked her way from student to student, row by row.  She came to my row, and I broke out into a sweat.

Working her way down my row, she reached the person behind me–I was next.  Fear, fright, and flight all kicked in at once, and I jumped up out of my seat and ran to the back door.  “Ni Wei Li, where are you going?” called my professor.  I looked at her, stuck my finger to a tooth and told her I had a dentist appointment!  I lied.  Walking down the hall away from the classroom, I said, “Lord that was terrible; I’m never going back!!!”  And for two weeks I was in turmoil not wanting to go back but struggling with the feeling that that Lord wanted me there.  I went back on a Friday.  The professor had already figured out what had happened.  During that class, the professor comes over and stands beside me with her hand on my shoulder.  “Class, class, I want your attention!”  All the students stopped writing and looked up at the two of us.   (to be continued . . . )

Copyright © 2010 by William D. (Nick) Nichols   [Part 1 of 2]

The following is a true story in my life and is dedicated to a bright young friend who also has a fear of math . . .

On entering state college, I had two GREAT fears–the fear of math and the fear of learning a foreign language, but my fear of math by far surpassed the other.  In high school, I did terrible in all my math classes.  Solving problems in front of the class on the blackboard was a constant source of embarrassment and humiliation. I had not been raised to think in terms of excelling academically; my father was a hard-working gray iron foundry man, and my mother was a secretary.

After accepting Jesus into my heart, I was convinced the Lord wanted me to go to college.  I attended two colleges before my final and third college.  At the first college I met my wonderful wife; a profound gift from God!  At the second college I met an exceptional brother in the Lord who became a lifelong friend.  But at my third college, I had to face my fears as I entered the sciences.

My major required that I take a quarter of advanced algebra/trigonometry and two quarters of calculus.  That was a terrifying thought to me, but after coming to know Jesus, my confidence was in the Him and not in myself.  Since I had not had math for so long, I was required to take two remedial (refresher) courses in algebra and trigonometry.  As I prayerfully and fearfully approached that first course, I was surprised to discover the algebraic equations I had to solve had become like little puzzles, little games to solve. And to my shock, I started having fun with math!

In both remedial courses, I received an “A,” but as so often happens in a life of faith, I hit a roadblock.  The next math course that counted towards my major was advanced algebra and trigonometry. The problem was that in my last remedial math course, we never got to the part on trigonometry, and 80 percent of this class was focused on advanced trigonometry, and I had also never taken it in high school!  After an incredible struggle of trying to catch up, I ended up with a “D” for the course, but I needed a “C” to go on to calculus for my major.  I prayed, “Lord, what do I do now?? I can’t go on any further with my major!”  The Lord seemed to quietly say to my heart, “Trust me.”

Later I went to the administration building to sign up for my classes for the next quarter.  I didn’t know what to do about my “D” and taking calculus.  The registrar signed me up for my other classes and then pulled out a copy of the students’ grades from the advanced algebra/trigonometry class.  Placing the paper on the table, she ran her finger down through the names, stopping at mine.  I felt sick and embarrassed. She turns to me and says, “Looks like a “C” to me” and entered my name for calculus!

This was back in the days before good copiers, and what she had was a copy of a copy of a copy, each worse than the last. I looked down at the copy and was astonished to see next to my name a crease from one of the copies right through my letter grade.  The “D” really did look like a “C”!  And before I could do anything, she handed me my approved class schedule and started helping the next person!  Well, that quarter I got a “C” in calculus.  In my second quarter of calculus, I got a “B.”  And who knows, had I taken a third quarter, I might have gotten an “A.”  (Chuckle.)

So where did the math lead me after college?  I ended up as an environmental chemist at our main environmental state laboratory for fourteen years.  Lots of math and statistics there.  Later, a friend of my wife asked me if I would teach a Business Math course at a local community college.  I did, and loved it!  After that, I studied and passed all five Amateur Radio licensing exams that involved a lot of electronic circuit and radio transmission calculations for both analog and digital.  And at my last job in our state division of air pollution control, I used a database of jet engine efficiencies from Paris, France, combined with the same mathematical model used by NASA in the space program to calculate our state’s first ever emission inventory for all the aircraft in our state.

Looking back on my life, I see that God has this way of taking our fears and weaknesses and AMAZING us . . . but only if we trust Him . . . and only if we let Him.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.” –Proverbs 3:5-6  (NLT)

Copyright (c) 2010 by William D. (Nick) Nichols

The following is a true story . . .

Walking to the end of the boat dock, I looked down at the dock post–sat down, and wept.  Surrounded by people fishing and playing by the water my self-consciousness was completely displaced by gratitude and thanksgiving.  I sat there weeping tears of joy.

Earlier I had been walking around the docks trying to find our dock.  The docks were owned by the State Park system.   They were old and a little rickety but they would do the job.  The surrounding woods and water were beautiful!  I was excited because this was the first time we had ever rented a dock for our sailing ministry.  The park system had assigned us dock 127.

As I walked the perimeter of the docks looking for ours, I began to marvel at our financial restoration.  The fact that we were able to rent a dock for a sailboat was a wonder to me.  But there I was, looking for our dock to use for the summer of 2004.  I had my 2004 stickers, one for my sailboat and one for the post at the end of the boat dock.  I counted the dock posts as I walked, 118, 119, 120, dock 127 must be around the bend.  My thoughts kept falling back to the year 1992 when my failed business sent my family into a financial tailspin.

121,122,123 . . . In 1992 my business went under and I was forced against my will into bankruptcy.  I lost the house we had built, our good car, and we were left with just the basic necessities of life including our old clunker-car.  Life for us and our four children had become very difficult.  But the Lord was faithful despite my business error, and provided us with food, clothing, and a place to live while I tried to find a job.

Incredibly, at that time I received a job offer from my former boss who had employed me six years earlier.  I had to start at an entry-level salary, which was about half of what I was making when I left the job.  But the Lord used that job to stabilize our lives.  Twelve years later, I have a good job, a nice home, with three of our four kids in college.  And now even this sailboat and a boat dock, non-essential items, but a blessing to our family.  It had been a long arduous journey, but God was faithful and had restored us completely.  And we learned through it all, that HE can be trusted completely.

124, 125,126 . . . I continued walking noting the last sticker date each dock had been rented–2003, 2002, 2003.  Finally I came to dock 127.  God sometimes has interesting ways of reminding us of what he has done in our lives.  And that truly all that we have is from His hand.  The reminder of our complete financial restoration and the blessing of the sailboat and boat dock came that day with a huge smile from heaven.   The sticker on the post showed the last time dock 127 had been rented was in 1992.

“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten . . .”
–Joel 2:25    (NKJV)

Copyright © 2010 by William D. (Nick) Nichols