Why New Zealand Explorer Sir Edmund Hillary Respected Herbert W. Armstrong
In early January 1984, aboard a demonstrator Gulfstream iii, Herbert Armstrong lifted off from Southern California on a trip to New Zealand. Gulfstream allowed him to test the jet while it completed work on the custom aircraft he had ordered. Those private jets became a prime tool in transporting the ambassador for world peace to many and varied destinations safely, securely and in timely fashion in fulfillment of his commission of Matthew 24:14, “preaching the gospel as a witness to all nations.”
Following a stopover in Honolulu, Hawaii, and an en-route refueling on the South Pacific island of Pago Pago, the G-iii’s landing gear touched the tarmac in New Zealand’s capital, Auckland, on January 4. Mr. Armstrong was warmly welcomed by the Church officials from these southern islands of the Land of the Long White Cloud, along with Tonga and Fiji. Upon arrival at the Sheraton Hotel, he delightedly noticed a piano in his suite, organized by the New Zealand regional office to enable him to relax and tickle the ivories during his short stay.
Perhaps while playing that piano he thought of the upcoming meeting that he was to have on the morrow with one of New Zealand’s most famous sons, Sir Edmund Hillary. Had he done so, he no doubt would have recalled the breaking news that spread quickly around the world of a heroic moment that occurred on the morning of May 29, 1953. That morning, high up on the great Himalayan range, after the majority of their expedition had been forced to turn back due to fatigue and high-altitude sickness, explorer Edmund Hillary, accompanied by Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, mounted Everest’s summit and stood 29,028 feet above sea level. Everest had finally been conquered!
The achievement was announced to Britain, its Commonwealth and empire, and to the world on the very eve of Queen Elizabeth ii’s coronation, June 2, 1953. As one of her first royal acts, on June 6, 1953, the Queen honored Hillary as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his heroic achievement.
From 1955 to 1958, Sir Edmund turned his attention to the exploration of Antarctica. During the 1960s, mindful of the needs of the loyal Sherpas who so bravely supported him in the campaign to conquer Everest, he returned to Nepal, focusing on the support and development of more than a dozen schools, medical clinics and hospitals for the local people. Throughout the 1970s, the renowned mountaineer authored various books about his explorations and conquests. Despite the death of his wife in an air crash in Nepal in 1975, he continued to devote attention and affections toward the kingdom of Nepal, aiding and supporting both environmental and humanitarian ventures.
On Jan. 5, 1984, no doubt with this history in mind, Mr. Armstrong greeted, shook hands with and sat down with Sir Edmund Hillary. The two enjoyed a warm rapport and eventful meeting lasting more than an hour. This pair’s mutual affinity serving Nepal was a key talking point. “Sir Edmund more recently has been involved in establishing schools for the people of Nepal,” wrote the Worldwide News Jan. 16, 1984. “This gave the two men common ground, since Mr. Armstrong met with the king of Nepal three times ….” Just 10 months later, Mr. Armstrong met again with King Birendra in Kathmandu to solidify Ambassador International Cultural Foundation plans to sponsor mobile schools aiding education of the rural population.
The following year, 1985, Sir Edmund Hillary and another Armstrong, first man on the moon astronaut Neil Armstrong, flew together across the Arctic Ocean, landing at the North Pole. The joint achievement made Sir Edmund the first person to have stood at both poles in addition to atop Mt. Everest. In 1987 he was recognized as a member of the Order of New Zealand. On April 22, 1995, the Queen again honored him as Knight of the Order of the Garter in recognition of his many contributions and accomplishments.
This New Zealand national hero died on Jan. 11, 2008, 24 years after his visit with the ambassador for world peace. Perhaps as the years passed, the knight of the realm, first man to stand atop Mount Everest, fondly thought of Mr. Armstrong and their respective endeavors in support of the people of Nepal applying the King of kings’ exhortation that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
On a more up-to-date note, our readers may not know that the first international trip by Gerald Flurry, continuing Herbert Armstrong’s legacy as the Trumpet’s editor in chief, was to New Zealand. That visit took place in early 1991 and was immediately followed within days by Mr. Flurry’s first visit to the first Philadelphia Church of God congregation in Australia. There Mr. Flurry led a memorable Sabbath service, held in my parents’ home in Brisbane, where Australia’s first pcg congregation was raised up.
Some months later, Mr. Flurry returned to New Zealand, this time bringing his son, the newly ordained Stephen Flurry, for his first visit to Australasia. The occasion was the annual pcg convention, the Feast of Tabernacles, 1991.
I recall that visit and the meetings with pcg officials involved in publishing the Trumpet in Australasia, Mr. Flurry speaking to its subscribers and his supporters from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji at that combined convention in the southern city of Christchurch. The following year, I lived for some months in that beautiful city, enjoying its people’s hospitality and serving in this publication’s regional office. Today, much of its former beauty lies in shambles, devastated by last year’s massive earthquake. In the meantime, a number of those Kiwis who were part of that audience in 1991 remain, to this day, among the strongest of supporters of Gerald Flurry and the work of education in the public interest that he oversees.
Though the achievements of ambassador for world peace Herbert Armstrong, akin to those of explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, are fading from memory as time passes since their deaths, Mr. Armstrong’s compassion, care, concern and commitment to humanitarianism lives on today through the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, of which Mr. Flurry is both founder and chairman. Since that first international visit in 1991 to Christchurch, Mr. Flurry has led in the establishment of international activities including publications in numerous languages, annual international conventions and summer educational camps that benefit the youth of many countries, including New Zealand and Australia.
Today, Sir Edmund Hillary’s image graces the New Zealand five dollar bill. Sadly, however, his legacy and humanitarianism is far from citizens’ minds, and Herbert Armstrong’s 1984 visit long forgotten by most. New Zealand’s populace is preoccupied by a plethora of continued rumblings following last year’s historic and devastating earthquakes. Kiwis of the garden islands between the Tasman Sea and South Pacific Ocean are, unknowingly, feeling the beginnings of the catastrophe—akin to their Anglo-Saxon brethren elsewhere—of reaping the biblical whirlwind as a result of turning from God’s law and the way of life it exemplifies. They are ignorant of the provable reality that their national blessings actually stem from the obedience of the ancient patriarch Abraham to the Eternal God.
As Jesus Christ Himself declared, “And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7-9). Sir Edmund Hillary respected Mr. Armstrong as a result of his demonstrated love of the GIVE way of life. He was not a man who just talked about world peace. Rather, he was a true man of God, one who met the world’s elite leaders and heroes of the time, working daily to bring about a better world and understanding between peoples of all nations. That is why there was such a special rapport between the great Kiwi hero, conqueror of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary and that much respected ambassador for world peace, without portfolio, Herbert W. Armstrong.
