After 45 years of friendship so many memories stream through my mind and it is hard to pick out the most precious and important. Of course 1 did not know Geofrrey in Nepal when he was the proud owner of a baby elephant before he was 7, but I wonder sometimes whether the elephant still remembers its childhood owner! And I did not know Geoffrey at Charterhouse but often heard of the early grounding he got there in the first steps of change and the discipline of daily quiet times, which stayed with him for the rest of his life.
My own first touch was in the winter of 1946/47 when we had both come out of the Army and took part in a houseparty in Tirley for students mainly from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. lt is interesting looking back at the way the decisions made then set the course for many of our lives - and incidentally influenced the future of nations.
For Geoffrey it was first to go to Germany to fill the ideo-logical vacuum caused by the end of Hitler's Third Reich. International communism was rushing in to fill the void, but it was the battle put up by Geoffrey and others there at that time which turned the tide and laid the foundations for Germany's postwar economic miracle which we now take for granted.
Reading the biography of Geoffrey's father, 1 can see where he got his gift for languages (though I know he also worked very hard at them!) and also where he got his pioneering, thrusting spirit. His father administered law and order and justice on the frontiers of the Empire. Geoffrey took on the harder task of spreading the frontiers of God's Empire in the world.
In the 1950s when Frank Buchman was invited to India and Pakistan to present evidence of MRA, Geoffrey selflessly accompanied and translated for Max Bladeck and Paul Kurowski, the two veteran German ex-Communist miners' leaders from the Ruhr and their wives part of the 200 strong team from 25 countries in Frank's party. Day after day they spoke to hundreds of trade unionists, captains of industry and University students right across the sub-continent showing that human nature can be changed and a new world built.
At the end of the 7 month tour when Frank asked for volunteers to stay on to follow up the tour, Geoffrey was one who stayed. lt was hard going in those early days, little money, no centres, staying in homes as invited. Often it was pretty unspectacular, not always much to show. But it laid the foundation of a work that God has carried forward ever since a monument to the commitment of people like Geoffrey who laid down their lives for people.
I recall Geoffrey returning to India in 1975, this time with Fiona and Jacqueline, and I think in Pune they had their first family home ever - very precious for them all. Pune had a special place in their hearts and they had a special place in the hearts of Pune people.
Then two years ago they became owners of their own home in Britain, though it took all their savings and mortgaging all their income. Any who have visited their home know the welcome they gave visitors. There were always people coming and going. The family also got a great welcome from the Croydon Bridgebuilders - that dedi-cated group of people who had undertaken to bridge the divide between classes, races, colours and creeds in that busy part of Greater London's conurbation. The Speaker of the House of Commons, who is also the MP for Croydon, says they give him hope and encouragement. Geoffrey's last appearance at a public occasion was on United Nations Day when the film 'Rajmohan Gandhi - Encounters with Truth' was shown in Croydon.
Margot and I feit it an enormous privilege to visit Geoffrey, Fiona and Jacqueline at the time when they had been facing the possi-bility that Geoffrey might not recover from his illness. We shall not forget that evening and feel proud to count Geoffrey as a friend.
One last picture from many years ago. Some of us had been lent a bungalow in the Himalayas and we were having a break there. lt was a gorgeous spot and from the bungalow we looked across a deep valley to range upon range of Himalayan snows. Right opposite the bungalow on the other side of the valley was a peak, perhaps 1000 feet higher than we were. Geoffrey had his eye - and his heart on climbing the peak. So very early one morning he and a few others set off down into the valley 3 or 4 thousand feet and then began the climb of 4 or 5 thousand feet to the top of the peak. As the day drew on one by one other members of the party straggled back, not having reached the peak. They had last seen Geoffrey still heading for the top. Late that night we consulted with servants, who knew the arca well, about sending out a search party in case Geoffrey had had some mishap. As we prepared the hurricane lantern and other items for the search, a tau l exhausted figure emerged from the dark-ness. lt was Geoffrey triumphant from reaching the top!
That typified Geoffrey for me. He would catch a vision and a goal and go for it all out, never giving in while he had breath. For me, more than most, Geoffrey lived out the lines of that famous hymn, "0 Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end". He did exactly that. And still he is serving his Master - 1 like to think in a new beginning. For Geoffrey the future is certain.
O God, may grace to us be given to follow in his train.
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