The Pan American Lectures

When I first talked with Jim Frazier about moving to Minden, he told me that he worked with Dan Coker and Howard Norton in planning the annual Pan American Lectureship Program.   Jim works with the Frazier Foundation, which supports Christian mission projects and Christian education.  I told him that I had known Dan and Howard forever.  His response was, “Norman, you’re not helping yourself.”  I later learned that despite their close friendship, they love to insult one another.

When Ann and I deplaned in Shreveport in anticipation of our interview in Minden, Jim met us at the airport.  We did not know him prior to that.   When Ann and I interviewed with the elders and deacons I was asked if I knew Dan and Howard.  Jim’s answer was, “Norman knows all the wrong people.”

Despite that they hired me and the next year Ann and I attended the Pan American Lectureship in Montevideo, Uruguay.   While I was there, Howard, Dan, and Jim met with me.  They explained that Reuel Lemmons had started the PAL program as a way of encouraging people to support Latin American missions.  At the time Dan was living in Montevideo, and they felt they needed another person in North America to help with the planning.  They asked me to consider serving in that capacity, and I did so for the next five years.

Ann and I had wonderful opportunities to rub shoulders with some of the greatest people in the world – foreign missionaries.  They are our heroes.   There are wonderful stories of sacrifice and loyalty that inspire us to this day, and we are grateful that we had the opportunity to work on that project.

During our association with PAL, the programs were conducted in Uruguay, Ecuador, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, and Chile.   We also had to opportunity to spend some time in Brazil and Argentina.  I made a trip to Honduras and Belize.   In Honduras I had the privilege of speaking to the student body at Baxter Institute, a school that trains native church workers.   I could write several pages about these experiences, but for now I’ll just say that we had an opportunity to learn how the Lord’s work goes on in other parts of the world.  

In the process we had to adapt to situations as we saw them.  I’ll share one short anecdote.  We were visiting with a native Honduran worker on a Wednesday.  He spoke no English, but on the way to the church service, I picked up enough of the conversation to know that he expected me to preach.   I thought I could get out of it.  I said, “I can’t speak the language, and you don’t have an interpreter.”  He understood enough to say, “Oh, yes.  We’ve got an interpreter.”  

At that point I didn’t know what to talk about, so I decided that I would use some of the material I had presented at Baxter.  I met a young man who was eager to translate for me.   It sure seemed to me that I got a lot of blank stares.  Jim, who understands Spanish fairly well, told me that the young man did a pretty poor job of translating what I had said.  After the service, I talked with the young man.  He said, “I watch American movies, and I understand them fairly well.”  I wondered if I spoke my words the way he thought John Wayne might have said them in Spanish. Did it come out something like, “You need to repent, pilgrim?”