Welcome to Things Unseen.

All this week on the podcast I've been reflecting with you and some of the people who helped

me in the early days of my Christian life.

And my hope has been that it will stimulate you to think about the special people the Lord

has given to you as well to help you.

And all the people I'm thinking about belong to my early days, and they're all hidden people.

It's quite possible that nobody who ever listens to this podcast will ever have known them, apart from me.

Yes, like you, I appreciate well-known preachers who minister to us.

But it's the hidden people who usually mean the most to us, isn't it?

They're the Lord's special gifts to us.

So I went off to university when I was 17.

I belonged to a Bible-reading society that had a great influence among young Christians in Great Britain and in the old British Commonwealth countries.

It's called the Scripture Union.

Those were the days of badges,

a sign you belong to something bigger than yourself.

And the Scripture Union badge was a lamp on a green background,

reminding us that God's Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

And I wore it on my lapel.

In my very first week on campus, I was going up the stairs in the residence I lived in

when an older student passed me on the way down.

I later discovered his name was Dennis.

As he passed me by, he paused, pointed to the badge on my lapel and said,

...