This testimony took place at this year’s Lausanne Congress in South Africa.
Daniel, a Romanian pastor’s kid, tells about his life growing up in the Church and about what brought him to discover Christ anew.
William Borden had a heart for Jesus and for making Him known.
A graduate of Yale and Princeton Seminary, Borden set sail to minister to Muslims in Cairo, Egypt. But, a month after his arrival, he contracted spinal meningitis and died. He was only 25. While at Yale, Borden had been instrumental in one of the largest college christian movements to date. What started out as an early morning prayer meeting with himself and another classmate his freshman year, soon spread into small groups and prayer meetings of over 1000 participants his senior year (at a college of 1300 students).
Borden was not only a catalyst on campus, but outside it as well. One of his friends wrote that he “might often be found in the lower parts of the city at night, on the street, in a cheap lodging house or some restaurant to which he had taken a poor hungry fellow to feed him, seeking to lead men to Christ.”
A heir to the Borden Dairy estate, Borden was a millionaire. But he didn’t act like one. When asked by a friend why he didn’t own a car, Borden replied simply, “I cannot afford it.”
Many expressed regret that he was “throwing himself away” as a missionary, when they thought he could do so much more with his life. Apparently, Borden had come to terms with the perishables of wealth, and wanted to invest in something imperishable. By his late teens, his eyes were already wide open to the person of Jesus Christ.
In her biography on Borden, Mary Taylor writes, “Borden not only gave (away) his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and natural that it (seemed) a privilege rather than a sacrifice.”
Six, poignant words were found in the back of Bordens bible. They were:
No reserve.
No retreat.
No regret.