An Unlikely Candidate
An important lesson I learned from Wally Herron’s story is that if God calls you to something, don’t let people stop you from doing it!
Wally was a shy boy, and once he had completed his missionary training, he was accepted to go to Bolivia to begin his work. When he arrived, he struggled to learn the language and adapt to the uncomfortable surroundings. The author of the book said this on page 27: “Wally still had not lost his shy nature. Several senior workers had reservations as to whether he would really make the grade as a missionary. No one would have suspected at the time that thirty years later the same tall, backward farm boy’s nickname would no longer be ‘Kanga’, but ‘King of the Beni.’”
Perseverance Defies Expectations
The Beni is a remote part of Bolivia between the Andes mountains and a big river, where Wally ended up doing his mission work. Looking at him in his early years, the seasoned missionaries thought “this kid can’t hack it”. But he could. He persevered, and became the most impactful missionary in that area, out of all of them.
A few years later, Wally had this terrific idea to bring a plane out to his mission station. Travelling in the area was very slow, and fraught with danger, and so he came up with an idea to learn to fly and procure a small plane so that he could pop off to the bigger towns and get supplies and other help nice and quickly. And so he decided to take flying lessons, and after a few attempts at landing his instructor said to him “Sorry Mr. Herron. You’ll never make a pilot.” And yet, years later, Wally Herron had been flying his plane around Bolivia and saving the lives of many doing so.
Sometimes the enemy tries to stop us from doing what we’re meant to do. Sometimes he tries to get us discouraged and knock our confidence so that we change course instead of persevering.
Perseverance Despite Doubt
I wonder if you need to persevere in something today, even if others are telling you you’ll never make it. I wonder if you need to ignore the voices that are casting doubt and discouragement, and keep on working towards the goal God set before you.
Wally Herron could’ve given up and gone home, but he persevered and ended up doing amazing things in the very fields he was told he would fail at.
Maybe one day you’ll have a story to tell, of how people told you to quit, but you kept going and God did amazing things through you.
