I remember...Dr. William Ward Ayer

by Betty Khng

Our family first met Dr. and Mrs. William Ward Ayer in the summer of 1985, at their lovely home in St. Petersburg, Florida. John was a ministerial student in Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, pursuing his Bachelor of Arts (Bible).

We became acquainted with the Ayers through “The Marching Truth” newsletter whose editor was Dr. Ayer himself. The first “significant” letter we wrote to them was sometime in February 1984, seeking their advice concerning a good, fundamental Bible college to go to for training. 

Prior to that, we had been praying about “Bob Jones University”, having heard a lot about the school from Dr. John C. Mincy, a good friend of ours. We wanted to be sure of the Lord’s will about BJU as we had heard so much about the high standards and requirements of the school and feared that we might not be good enough for it. In our letter to Dr. Ayer, we mentioned nothing about BJU though, so, we were quite surprised to receive a prompt reply from Mrs. Ayer herself listing a few Christian colleges they would recommend with Bob Jones University topping her list! This, we decided to take it as the Lord’s confirmation for us. We wrote back to thank Dr. and Mrs. Ayer for their kind letter and after that there was no more personal correspondence between us except for the regular arrival of “The Marching Truth” newsletter.

In the fall of 1984, John, Nathaniel (who was 2-year old then) and I arrived at the lovely campus of BJU. Another pleasant surprise awaited us in our University’s mail box. How strange? We thought. From whom could it be?

A letter from …..Florida? But, we didn’t know anyone there? We hardly know anyone in America, except for Dr. John C. Mincy. A letter for us……already? It was from Dr. and Mrs. William Ward Ayer. To keep the story brief, the Ayers wrote to tell us of their burden to send us a regular support each month during John’s studies at BJU. Our initial reaction was one of “shock” or to put it more mildly, “speechless amazement”. Here is a couple who do not know us, personally, except that we possessed an “unpronounceable name” to an American tongue and that we were from “Singapore” which was often mistaken for a little town in China! To think that they could believe us, “just like that” was a wonder. There and then, we decided that we needed to make a trip to Florida the following summer to see these kind folks and thank them personally for their generous gifts. It would also be a chance for them to retreat their offer, should they find that we were not the “right” kind of recipients. So in August 1985, we drove down to St. Petersburg in our little Datsun FII. The 600-plus miles trip took us more than 14 hours. When we arrived at the doorsteps of the Ayers, we were exhausted, hungry and “sticky”. How well we remember the Ayers standing on their brightly-lit front porch waiting for us as our car pulled into their driveway. Although we needed a shower badly, I remember Mrs. Ayer gathering us into her arms, giving us big hugs as she warmly welcomed us into their lovely, cozy home…… and into their hearts.

On the second or third day of our stay there, we were touring the Ayer’s residence and library, when Dr. Ayer showed John some hand-written documents.

• “These are my sermon outlines. Do you think you can read them? You are welcome to have them if you think you can use them.” Being Asian, it is not our custom to accept anything so readily or graciously. I suppose that our awkward, non-committal response must have taken as refusal. Anyway, the offer was not repeated; we did not ask Dr. Ayer’s notes, in case we were misunderstood to be “covetous”. Have we wasted “the chance of a lifetime?” We would never know. That was the summer of 1984. In November, about ten days after his 93rd birthday, Dr. William Ward Ayer quietly left his earthly abode in exchange for an immortal body to be with his Lord in the Celestial City. Mrs. Ayer took over the ministry of the Ayerow Christian Projects which continued to support us financially throughout our stay in Greenville, South Carolina. Even later when we returned home to begin our ministry in Singapore the supply kept coming.

• Words fail us whenever we try to express our gratitude and appreciation to the Ayers who in no time was “adopted” by Nathaniel as “American Gong Gong and Phor Phor”. When Joshua came along, he accepted Mom Ayer very naturally as his American grandma. The Ayers’ love for missionaries, preachers and ministerial students extends beyond language, race, creed and national boundaries.  Their generous investments on the training of labourers for the field will return to them in many-folds when the Lord of the Harvest rewards His faithful servants for their work.

• “God’s Man in Manhattan”, written by Mel Larson, is a biography of Dr. William Ward Ayer. Dr. Ayer gave us a copy of this book as a Christmas gift in 1984. Dr. Ayer had been a preacher of the Word of God for more than 60 years. In these few pages, we could only glean quotations and excerpts from his “Calvary Pulpit” sermons which “hit the mark”. Then we may begin to understand the making of a great man of God and what makes him unforgettable.
  

(Christ Our Foundation, Church Anniversary Magazine 1)