Letters by a Modern Mystic: Excerpts from Letters Written at Dansalan Lake Lanao Philippine Islands to His Father

Frank C. Laubach (Sept. 2 1884-June 11 1970) was a Christian evangelical missionary and mystic known as The Apostle to the Illiterates. In 1929 after fourteen years of successful teaching writing and administration in Cagayan and Manilla he pursued his long-standing ambition of settling among the fierce Moros a Muslim tribe on Mindanao. There in the province of Lanao he underwent a remarkable series of experiences of God and simultaneously developed a technique for reducing the Moro language to writing with symbols closely correlated to their spoken words. This technique not only made it possible to teach them to read in only a few hours but also permitted them to teach others immediately. In 1928 two years before his transforming experiences Laubach found himself profoundly dissatisfied. He then realized in 1930 that after fifteen years as a Christian minister he was still not living his days in minute-by-minute effort to follow the will of God. He determined at that time to seek to begin lining up his actions with the will of God every few minutes. His confidants at the time told him he was seeking the impossible. Undeterred he began to try living all his waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice asking without ceasing What Father do you desire said? What Father do you desire done this minute? He believed that this was exactly what Jesus did every day. Letters by a Modern Mystic first published in 1937 is a compilation of excerpts from letters that Laubach wrote to his father. The tremendous results of this experiment in living in moment-by-moment communion with God are found in the narrative of these letters. Dr. Laubach is probably best known for his work to address adult illiteracy in the world. He conceived a simple method of instruction that permitted even the most disadvantaged people in the world not only to learn to read but also to be able to teach others. Each One Teach One became the slogan for this instructional program which is credited with equipping over one hundred million people with the ability to read. On September 2 1984 the United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Laubachs birth.