The Matt and Noelle Letters
by
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CHAPTER 8
A ROBBERY IN LOS ANGELES
We are going to skip ahead now to my Navy years. I graduated from Kansas State University and attended Fuller Seminary for a year and a half, then I dropped out (for reasons that I explained in my book Short Courses on Small Subjects, in the letter to my wife—chapter 22, page 100).
When I left Fuller Seminary in 1970, I didn’t have any more military deferments left. I was number 16 in the lottery, established by the government during the Vietnam War, so the lady at the head of the draft board in our county said that I was number one on her list! But she added that I still had time to enlist in the Navy if I didn’t want to carry a gun through the jungles, so that is what I did. Besides, I wanted to “join the Navy and see the world,” and hopefully meet some missionaries in Japan or Korea.
After Boot Camp, and other schools that trained me in my specialty of sonar and electronics in San Diego, I went aboard my first ship in Long Beach in January of 1972. We had to go to Port Hueneme (where your mother was born) to have a special missile system installed on our ship, which became very important later. And I met a friend on the ship who was a lot like my second roommate in college, not a believer, but listening to what I had to say about the Bible.
One weekend, our ship was moored at a dock back in San Diego. I was leaving to visit some old friends in Pasadena, from my days at Fuller Seminary, when my new friend said that he had family in that area also. He asked me to pick up some important papers at their house and bring them back to the ship. He was a little worried, and said that he hoped I wouldn’t forget to pick them up, or lose them some way. I assured him they would be safe in my glove compartment. (Little did I know, he had reason to worry!)
After my visit with my friends, it was almost midnight, and I told them that I just had to leave, even though I didn’t want to, in order to make it back to my ship before it got underway at 6:00 a.m. (I had already picked up my friend’s important papers.)
As I started down the freeway, it was so late that I got really tired. I decided at the next exit to stop for a cup of coffee. I didn’t realize that this particular exit ramp led to the suburb of Watts, a troubled area of Los Angeles that had been the scene of some riots in recent news reports.
There were no riots tonight, but I got a little nervous when I saw that I was the only white person in the restaurant at that hour. But I drank my coffee and walked back toward my car. Suddenly two tall teenage black guys appeared from the darkness and asked if I had any money. When I reached for my wallet, they each pulled out a gun and ordered me to get in my car! I was sitting in the middle, while one slid under the steering wheel and the other opened up my glove compartment on the passenger’s side. They both kept their pistols pointed right at my head!
I don’t know where it came from, but I suddenly had this perfect peace in my heart. I watched as the teenager on my right went through the glove compartment, looking at the important papers my friend didn’t want to lose. As I prayed silently, he picked them up, then just put them back and closed the compartment door. Then he asked for my watch, taking that, and touched my special Navy ring, silver with the big blue stone; that ring meant a lot to me, and I prayed, “Please, Lord, not that!” He moved his hand away and left it alone.
Then—almost as if God was speaking through me—I found the courage to say, “I have something to tell you. God loves you!” The teenager to my right answered, “I’ve heard all of that in church. Be quiet!” I couldn’t believe it; these young men had once attended a church themselves. Immediately the love of God filled my heart, and I repeated, “I mean it! God loves you and will forgive you for doing this!”
It was then that I made the slightest move, and the one on the passenger’s side grabbed my collar, shoved the gun against my head, and shouted, “One more word, and that’s it!” I just closed my eyes, still totally at peace, and kept praying. All of a sudden, the two boys jumped out of the car and ran away into the darkness, terrified!
Before long, a police car came by and wanted a report. One officer said, “Tell us everything that happened, word for word.” So I repeated our whole conversation. He smiled and said, “OK, that’s good enough.” God gave me the opportunity to witness to more than one person that night, praise the Lord! (Also, I felt a persistent burden to pray for those teenagers for several weeks after that.)
I still arrived back at my ship before it left port the next morning. And my friend got to hear all about how the Lord had protected his vital papers. It was then that he began to trust in God himself, which would be especially important when we left for Vietnam. (I also realized that this “test under fire” helped prepare me for the war zone like nothing else could have, and I was actually thankful that it happened in the days ahead.)
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About the Book
I could imagine that most senior citizens approaching seventy years of age might look back on their life and wish that they had accomplished more. The author of this book would be no exception. But praise the Lord, he has very few regrets. He has had the great privilege to see God do things in his life he never expected that He would, and he has a wife and family that bless him every day—things that money could never have purchased, even if he did have more of it.
In the book of Acts, as Peter and John were walking through the temple courts in Jerusalem, a crippled beggar asked them for money. Peter’s answer to him was simply, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you...” (Acts 3:6, ESV). I would tell my family the same thing. What I do have, money can’t buy. And they can have it too. God can be just as real for them as He has always been for us. And when He promises them, “I am with you,” they will never lack any good thing.
If I were being totally honest, I do have one major regret in life: I wish I could have told more people about Jesus, and would have been a bolder witness. But I am praying that, by God’s grace, the books I have written will perhaps accomplish what I didn't. People that I haven’t met, in places that I never went, can still read what I have written. And like that little boy’s lunch—in Jesus’ hands, five loaves of bread and two fish, or maybe even my four books and one life, can still feed a multitude. With God, all things are possible! Hallelujah!
About the Author
It has to be said at least once that, without my wife’s help, I don’t know if these books would ever have been written. The last three could not have been written in such a short time, that’s for sure. That is because I have a wife who is so young; when I retired five years ago, she just kept on working to support my “habit,” letting me be a full-time author. I can’t thank her enough for doing that for me. (She’ll be a “saint” in heaven someday.)
But besides that, I knew nothing about computers. So I had to lean heavily on her expertise, and also the E-mail messages from the publisher she would read to me. Plus she designed most of the covers. And in this book, she even wrote two of the letters to our son and his wife (chapters 12 and 21). And all of that doesn't even include the hours of tireless proofreading and correcting of my mistakes after each book was written. Her “fingerprints” are all over my books. She is definitely “the wind beneath my wings.” I want to give her all of the long-overdue credit that she deserves.
The only other ones who deserve more credit for making me an author would be my mentor, Dr. Bob Taussig—and the Lord Himself, of course. You take Him out of my books, and you would end up with a flimsy “flyer” that would never get off the ground! Anything worth accomplishing is never done all alone—just read the credits at the end of your next favorite movie.
If any readers need to know more about me, they can just read the “About the Author” pages in my other three books. I have never liked to repeat myself when I’m writing things. (Maybe deep inside, I want to save trees! ...Or more likely, I believe I’m simply all done now, and we’ll just leave it at that.)