Episode 1. A Retrospective on Life
We each have a life to look back on. Some great things – and some not so great. Here we are heading towards the end of the year – as you look back on your life, what do you see? Join Berni Dymet …
We’ve been talking about Christmas these last few weeks and so I thought we might take a change of tact this week as we head into this last week for the year. That kind of funny time between Christmas and New Year and look at life, as we do around this time, look back on the year that’s been and think forward to the year that’s to be. I love listening to other peoples stories and so I’m joined this week on the program by a man called Dave Hanson.
Dave’s an American with a really ordinary upbringing but these days, he’s the vice president of International Ministries for Back to the Bible, he leads an extraordinary life. Today we’re going to look back on his life briefly and as we do that, perhaps you and I can look back on our lives too and think about the things that have been, a time to pause and reflect on our stories, kind of through Dave’s story.
Berni: Now Dave, just tell us just briefly, where you were born? What was your childhood all about?
Dave: Sure, well I was born in Minnesota, one of the Northern states known for 10,000 lakes but moved to the State of Nebraska when I was very young. My father was a pastor and so I grew up as a P.K. (Preachers Kid) and spent most of my life in Nebraska, I graduated from high school in Nebraska and then went to Grace University in Omaha and then also went to radio engineering institute in Omaha so that kind of gave me the education that I needed.
Berni: So you had a fairly, I guess, standard conservative upbringing, is that a…?
Dave: Definitely, when you grow up in the Bible belt in Nebraska, pretty much the mid-west central part of the U.S., conservative Christian life.
Berni: And these days you spend a lot of your time tripping around the world to all sorts of weird places I believe.
Dave: I do as…
Berni: Including Australia.
Dave: that’s right! As the vice president of International Division for Back to the Bible, I have that privilege of travelling the world and of course I’ve been to this wonderful country of Australia a number of occasions and been to places like the Solomon Islands, been to places like Indonesia and India and Sri Lanka and it goes on and on and it’s been a wonderful time.
Berni: So how does this kid who has this pretty routine, straight out of central casting, Bible belt upbringing, um end up doing this sort of stuff ’cause I imagine, you know coming from where you came from, what you see now, what you do now, probably blows your mind a little bit?
Dave: Oh absolutely! I wouldn’t ever guessed you know, more than 30 years ago when I started this career of journey, that I would be doing this. I wouldn’t ever guess that I was going to travel the world; I wouldn’t have ever guessed that I was going to work with some wonderful Bible teachers around the world. My passion was in the area of electronics and I wanted to use the talents and the interests that I had to advance the gospel through media…
Berni: Uh, hum.
Dave: And that actually got Judy and myself to Italy and that was in, believe it or not, in 1974 and we actually spent 11 years there before I moved back to the United States.
Berni: You don’t look a day over, what 70?
Dave: Ah, yeah right. Thanks Berni.
Berni: That’s my gift, I’m pastorally gifted So you look back on, how old are you now?
Dave: I’m 57.
Berni: You look back on this kind of amazing journey, we’re going explore your journey more during this week on the program but you look back on this journey, what are the things that really stand out for you? What are the things that you, you learned or the insights, the wisdoms that you come with your, your advanced years?
Dave: Laughs, yeah thanks Berni, appreciate that. (Both laughing) Well there is a reality that um, through life there are many things that God has actually preparing you for, that you don’t know, you’re going to be prepared for down the road.
Berni: Uh hum.
Dave: I went to Italy in ’74 as I said and had a background in electronics but had also done a lot of construction and little did I know that the company I worked for was going to build a massive studio office complex in the 1980’s but all those years of construction, which for me was nothing more than money..
Berni: Uh hum.
Dave: Basically it gave me a background to do that and life is that way. God is constantly preparing us for what He has next for us.
Berni: Mm, He doesn’t seem to waste a whole bunch does He?
Dave: No, He doesn’t. He has it all planned out.
Berni: Yeah.
Dave: If we’re willing to follow.
Berni: Yeah, so what did that following look like? I mean, you kind of look, you’ve got a chance now to look back a little bit, what does, what did all that look like?
Dave: Well, 11 years in Italy and they were wonderful years. Our boys were born there, they attended Italian schools, we learned Italian. We learned to love the Italian people. I didn’t know much about Italy before I got there. I’d never really been out of the United States but it really impacted our lives because within that first year we understood that the number one objective was to entrust to the national Italians everything that God had given to us. And it reminds me of 2 Timothy:2.2 where it talks about entrusting to reliable people the ability to teach the word of God and that was crucial and so those years really impacted what I was going to do next. And after 11 years, the office was nationalised or turned over to a national leader and I was asked to come back to the United States and oversee the international part for Back to the Bible and that’s where my world went from Italy to the entire world. And today, Back to the Bible’s working in 25 languages around the world, as you well know and ah, I have that privilege of working with 13-14 wonderful men.
Berni: Yeah. How did God prepare you for that? I mean I still struggle over this leap from you grow up in Nebraska and your football team, the Cornhusk Kids..
Dave: The Cornhusk Kids, yeah, yeah. They might even win this year.
Berni: And now you’re doing this, you look back on that, what did you learn? What’s God really taught you through all that?
Dave: Well, one I think is the reality ‘it’s not about me’, it’s about God and a necessity for me to remain humble, a necessity for me to realise that there are no borders, for God there are no nations, there’s none in Australia and there’s not in America, there are people that God loves and I have to set all that aside in order to make sure that the Kingdom is being reached. It’s also the reality that I had no idea that there were 1.8 billion people who still had never heard of Jesus Christ. 1.8 billion, you know Christmas has just been completed and yet there’s 1.8 billion who have no idea of what Christmas is or even about, they don’t know what that ‘Jesus in a manger’ was about and it’s important that we take that message to them.
Berni: 1.8 billion people, so you’vegot a busy life then.
Dave: I have a busy life.
Berni: You know you don’t have time to retire.
Dave: No, I don’t have time to retire but it will come one of these days.
Berni: Yeah, it’s your comment about God preparing and I look back on my walk and I can see how God prepared me for things I had no idea. Like before I became a Christian, I was travelling around the world, speaking at conferences, doing all this stuff and then when I encountered this person of Jesus Christ, I look back and it was such a humbling thing when I realise that all of that time God was getting me ready for something and I think we are often going through things, I don’t know if you’ve had this experience but we’re often going through things and they’re hard and they’re painful and they’re scary and we don’t know why it’s going on but Gods in that place..
Dave: That’s right.
Berni: And Gods doing something that we can’t see down the track.
Dave: Yeah, as I said, I would never have guessed that I would be doing what I am doing today. In fact I remember going to Italy saying that ‘I am never going to get into the position where I don’t do what I’m trained for’ and I actually didn’t expect to be in administration, I didn’t expect to be doing what I am doing today; overseeing the international side, globally for Back to the Bible. I had an engineering background and I knew how to run the knobs, the tape recorders and how to fix them and install transmitters and how to climb antenna’s and I would never had guessed that I was going to give that up in order to be on the other side of the media ministry.
Berni: I just wonder when each one of us looks back as we’ve just briefly over the last few minutes, done on your ‘long life’. It’s my gift, it’s a way of flattery…
Dave: Thanks, thanks.
Berni: But as each one of us looks back I think we can each point to things where God has done things sometimes through difficult circumstances to prepare us for what we’re doing now and other things around the corner, over the next hill which we just have no idea about.
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