Stewardship is not just about finances. It’s about time, too.

For many years, my wife Gail and I have committed a month out of each year to public evangelism. We decided that if we can speak for profit, we can speak for the Lord. Every time we have arranged to hold a meeting, we have found that interferences and challenges abound before we go, but He blesses and protects our law practice (www.estatecontest.com) while we are away.

Our most severe test occurred this past year. In October 2004, we put our law practice on hold under the able supervision of our paralegal, Amy, while we accompanied a group to Hyderabad, India, to participate in a 50-village evangelistic series. Our team from Hayward, Calif., was one of five involved in a church building/evangelism program. Fifty churches were constructed by Maranatha India, and as a result of the evangelistic meetings, many were baptized.

Normally we would not have considered going away again—it takes many months to structure our practice for an absence, and months to restore it upon our return. Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries, under the leadership of Vern Erickson, vice president for evangelism, planned to carry out 20 simultaneous evangelistic programs in Kenya in January 2005. I was exceedingly reluctant to commit to the request to go to Migori, Kenya, near Lake Victoria. It would mean we would be away from clients and cases for six weeks. Also, one of our contingent estate cases was set to go to trial on the fourth day after we were scheduled to return.

Many times I wanted to call Vern and explain why we could not go. We hadn’t yet recovered from the recent meetings in India. To go now, so soon, would be irresponsible, even presumptuous. How could we ask the Lord to cover our law practice if we were not paying attention to business after so recent an absence?

But I could never bring myself to make that telephone call. Again and again the conviction welled up within me that the Lord wanted Gail and me to go. There were people in Migori that the Lord loved and to whom we could minister. If we didn’t go, maybe there would be no meeting.

We went. The conditions were difficult, but the local church members were solidly supportive. In fact, the Seventh-day Adventist church is the most visible Protestant church in that area of Kenya. Over the entrance to the soccer stadium where our stage was constructed was a banner: “Gateway to Heaven – Enter In.” Attendance averaged 3,000 people, and there were many baptisms.

On Friday, four days after our return, I went to court for the long-scheduled trial. The judge looked down and said, “Gentlemen, I don’t know why you are here. I apologize to you, but the clerk made a mistake and calendared you for the wrong courtroom. You must go back to the master trial judge and get a new trial date.”

We did as the judge instructed and were given a date many months in the future. In addition, that case was a contingent case in which our client had financial interest. Its principal asset, an acreage near the Salinas golf course in Monterey County, Calif., is now appraised at more than 10 times its value on the date of death, a phenomenon known as “California surreal estate.”

In another case, the opposing attorney had been threatening to file sundry motions to compel discovery and to seek sanctions—in other words, to stop progress on the trial. My prayer had been, “Lord, hold this case for us.”

When we returned from Africa, we checked the mail and the court records. There were no motions filed—nothing had happened since the week before we left for Kenya. We waited. Then the 45-day time period for filing motions expired. The once-aggressive attorney with the bad attitude had become docile, even courteous. In addition, a young Adventist attorney who once worked for our firm became available to associate with us on this special case.

We have been blessed.

Several times since our return we have been asked, “Where will you go next time?” or “Will you go another time?” I don’t have an answer. But I do have a question: “How can we afford not to go again?” To learn more about Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries, go to www.asiministries.org. The annual national convention is scheduled for Aug. 3-6, 2005, in Sacramento, Calif.