Gordon Homer RIP

Gordon Homer died last week, over ninety years old. His wife Joan had died a couple of weeks before. They had married when they were twenty. I guess the Lord took them home together, because their work on this earth was complete.

Gordon and Joan became Christians during a Billy Graham crusade. He made to visits to New Zealand in the early 1960s, which had a huge impact on the church here. Many of the leaders of the next generation came to faith during these crusades.

Gordon applied to the Presbyterian Church of NZ to train as a minister, but they turned him down, because they did not think he could manage the academic study. But they forgot to tell God, because he gave Gordon and Joan a ministry anyway. They travelled all over Otago and Soutland sharing the gospel and teaching about life in the Spirit. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people received the first touch of the Holy Spirit in their lives through the ministry of Gordon and Joan.

When I was a student studying theology in Dunedin, a fairly dry spiritual experience, it was the Prayer and Praise meetings in their home that kept us going spiritually. You did not always know what would happen at these meetings, but you could be sure that the Holy Spirit would turn up. Gordon always encouraged us to be dissatisfied with what we had, and seek more of God in our lives. He was always game to try something new, if he believed that the Spirit was leading.

Gordon and Joan were great intercessors. If they were praying for you, the struggles of life went better.

Gordon often talked about multiplication. He was definite that addition was not enough. Their ministry is not complete. It will not be finished until each person touched by Gordon and Joan, has multiplied what they received in the lives of the people that they meet.