In the mid-1980’s, one of our current senior fellows, was a young Methodist minister from South Africa—who had spent some jail time with Desmond Tutu for protesting against apartheid. As he was convalescing, Trevor Hudson was now confined for a much more mundane reason: he had mumps.
While recuperating he came across an audio series of talks Dallas had given the year before in South Africa. He had not heard of Dallas Willard, but something in those teachings struck a deep responsive chord. As he listened to Dallas describe the Kingdom of God and the connections between discipleship, daily life and mission, his longing to know, love and follow Jesus burst into a stronger flame.
Trevor wrote Dallas a letter and asked if they could correspond to which Dallas agreed. A year later Trevor invited him to make a 25-hour flight from Los Angeles to Johannesburg. He said that, sadly, he would not be able to pay for the flight or offer Dallas a guaranteed honorarium, or put him up in a hotel. But he could provide a place for Dallas to sleep (the sofa in a small sewing room in his home) and ensured, Dallas,that he should be able to round up a few of his pastor friends to listen.
Naturally, Dallas agreed. … Listen to Dallas’ first talk, or the whole series he gave in South Africa.