THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The skeptic has not rejected our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is rejecting an imitation, weak facsimile which we create when we have decided to live in comfort zone instead of walking by faith.
I’ve missed a couple of days; Cheryl and I left Tulsa Thursday at 7: 30 morning for New York. The first couple of days were 8-10 hours on the road but yesterday, 15 hours. We hit the record snowstorm that began in West Virginia and lasted all the way to Long Island. In Pennsylvania we were stuck for two hours on the interstate without moving at all, because of heavy snow, multiple car accidents and trees that had brought down power lines and had fallen across the highway. We learned this morning that this was a record storm for this time of year. Two million people in this area are without power, and four states are in a state of emergency. Central Park is closed because of all the downed power lines…. That's the down side; the upside, it was beautiful. Autumn leaves were still on the trees; they looked as if they had been brush painted with the snow, in some places more than 19 inches. We took a wrong turn last night and got our first look at downtown NYC. Pretty exciting. We made contact with the Paz family when we arrived; they're the reason we are here. You may recall Luis Paz is the man in Honduras is who is allowing us to use his warehouse for our sewing production project; he built the church, and has helped us in numerous other ways. They wanted so badly for us to be here for Erika's wedding. She too is a good friend and has helped us with praise and worship in our church there in the village. The wedding is at 2 PM today.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The skeptic has not rejected our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is rejecting an imitation, weak facsimile which we create when we have decided to live in comfort zone instead of walking by faith. Back in July I used the ATM at the airport in San Pedro. When the machine failed to dispense the cash I immediately went on line and discovered that our account had been debited. I filed a dispute which was investigated in the US and also at our bank in Honduras; and the conclusion was that they could not find where an error had occurred. When I got back to Tulsa I decided to try one last time and met with the branch manager. I went back today and she told me that nothing had changed in the investigation but she had been told if she was willing to take the money out of her branch budget she can make the refund. She made the decision today to put the money back in the Gathering Hearts account…. Cheryl and I leave for New York in the morning.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I have told the story how that November 15 was payday for our employees and that a check came in at the last minute that gave us just enough. There was a little more to the story. Next day Nicholas and I were in San Pedro doing our banking. When we were ready to come home we were almost out of gas. Neither of us said anything, but we were both wondering, "How are you going to get home?" As we were driving through our old neighborhood Nicolas got a call from Nelson. He had just collected 5500 lempiras from his students for tuition and wanted to know what to do with it. You can probably guess; we borrowed 5000 from payroll and bought some gas. ------- This "Answer" is taken from 25 pages of answers that I began recording several years ago. They are reminders that strengthen our faith, and are sometimes a blessing to others. That's why I have said, every Believer who is striving to know more of God will experience these same kinds of things from time to time. We should all take the time to write them down and be prepared to share; as such accounts are an encouragement to others. I felt a little presumptuous writing that we hoped to have the sewing factory in production by the first of 2012. There’s so much to be done in setting things up and we know nothing about how to do it. Then Mauricio, the general manager of a large sewing factory in Puerto Cortes who wants help us said he hopes to have us in production before the end of the year. As usual we can see that God’s plans are much more ambitious than ours… As I have been going back and forth between Tulsa and Honduras some have wondered if it's difficult to adjust to living in two homes at the same time. Not really, except I continually find myself looking for stuff in the wrong drawer. Otherwise it’s as if I’m living in one house with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, two each of living rooms, kitchens, offices, etc…. Since we had to be back home by one o'clock yesterday, we went to morning service at The Assembly in Broken Arrow; and I went to Beacon Hill Baptist last night… We were to have a meeting today with the company that's going to help us with marketing our sewing and woodworking products, but due to an emergency it had to be postponed.THOUGHT FOR TODAY: there’s something special about going through a hard time and coming out the other side with the victory and knowing it had to be God. It’s a good idea to write it down, date it, and then be alert for any further insight that might come from it. Such times of testing and victory may be the litmus test to see if we really are looking to Him in times of trouble.
Wednesday I forgot to mention my trip to Tulsa. I’m here. I left yesterday and got to Miami at 2:30 am, and then to Tulsa at 9:30 this morning. We’re planning to go to Luis’s daughter’s wedding. We’re planning to drive so we’d have to leave Wednesday. Pray it works out; the Pazes are really excited. I reported last Wed. that the builder showed up unannounced with allot of information that we need. I failed to make the point that we spent time on Monday praying for the dorms, after Cheryl urged me to do it. I had put it on the back burner.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: This week I was memorizing a passage in Psalm 55, including verse 22, “Casting your burden upon the Lord…” Later in the day some one sent me a message urging me to read 1Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” These are not helpful hints; the one in Peter is a command. We had our employee luncheon today and as usual it was a blessing. I explained about the container that's coming; groups planning to come in early 2012; update on the manufacturing project; and our schedule for the next few weeks. We also reiterated for the benefit of all that the reason we're here is to spread the Gospel… I have exchanged a lot of information with the engineering students at OSU the last few days. They have some great ideas for expanding their project and will be coming here January 3…. The builder interested in the dormitory project showed up today unannounced, with 14 pages of details about building materials, permits, applicable building codes, revised drawings; etc. After the meeting I felt a lot better about him.... I had asked Elias Mateo, the welder that helped us on the mission center to contact us. He came this morning and we agreed he’ll make the steel door on the west end of the manufacturing building. He may also be interested in some of our other metalworking projects…. One of the most encouraging things today was a meeting with Mauricio, the general manager at Land Apparel. They are going to donate 8 industrial sewing machines, tables, and fabric. He wants set a date when he can bring a team from the factory and begin setting things up. They will then schedule a second visit with the intent of putting us into production. Wow!!….Bad flooding here; Honduras is in a state of national emergency.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I have come to believe that it doesn't take a miracle to "die to self" one day; and come back to life the next. The computer/English students are using the Literacy and Evangelism materials that Kathy Pyle brought down, and they are being challenged. Nelson told his Saturday class to be prepared next week to stay until three o'clock instead of noon as usual. He said they're not learning the material fast enough. That’s encouraging. Also very interesting, some of his students have gotten behind in their tuition so they're going to start selling raffle tickets for appliances again.... It's been good for me to be eating downstairs with the employees. It improves my Spanish, and there’s usually some sort of lively theological discussion going on. I plan to continue doing it…. This morning I saw something I’ve never seen before. I saw Carlitos laughing. It’s the first time since I met him a number of years ago… I started individual employee meetings today. I’ll give details later…There are heavy rains and lots of flooding.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Cheryl suggested we pray for the dorm project today. Honestly, I had put that one on the back burner. Why? Lack of available time and money. Is that consistent? If I really believe what I say, what would you expect my position to be regarding that project? Ask a child. I was planning for payday. We needed 37,476 lempira; we had in the bank $1417 or 26,767. Then I remembered there were 4000 we had left from car repairs …. Now we were short $354. I called Donna to see if perhaps anything else had come in. A check for $300 had arrived the day before; and next morning another check for $50. We were short $5.16; we could handle that much…. While we were in San Pedro yesterday Nicholas and I climbed Coca-Cola Mountain. I had forgotten how long and how steep; he pretty much had to drag me the last quarter-mile or so. I’ll do better. We had a good talk and he told me of his plans to begin pastoral training. For the first year, he will be taking classes once a week. He did emphasize that won’t change his work schedule. He also mentioned there are some children who show up for class and haven't eaten. He has discussed this with Andres who will sell us milk at half-price. I told him to go ahead and start at least providing milk…. Beto has dengue; the doctor has given him four days off work. Please pray for Alfredo; Nick says he has problems at home.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: We would all probably say that God is in charge of our daily schedule. That's easier said than done. Nick asked me if I plan to attend church in San Pedro tomorrow. My plan is to stay home and just go to church here; but then I remembered, it's not my choice to make. I have a plan, and God has a plan. My focus should be trying to determine His. With me, this has been a completely different way of thinking. Our nature, our habit, is to make our own decisions. Someone asked if Flor was OK after the robbery. I said if you knew Flor you’d probably be wondering if the robbers are OK. I think she’s fine; Alfredo didn’t seem alarmed. Yesterday was a holiday so things were pretty quiet around here. Nelson has a commitment today so he decided to have class. We had no electricity all morning, so he had his computer/English classes out on the porch. He currently has 50 students with am/pm and Saturday. Beto is sick again today; not sure of the problem but dengue season is here. Last night I slept with a coating of OFF…on. I'm starting Monday to have a meeting with each of our employees to talk about their job. During much of my 10 year stint at Saint Francis I was in charge of “workforce development". One responsibility was assessing employee strengths and interests and matching them up with departmental goals and objectives. It improved employee satisfaction and company productivity. (Cheryl has been after me to do this for a long time; it's a good idea.)
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: I said before that I think many Christians will come to the end of their life on earth and discover they never really lived. What I’m trying to say is, I think they will realize that they never did let go with the other hand and learn to walk by faith. Vehicle update: we found the Ford clutch part, $212; to install it, $10.59. The Chevy Van, don't know yet…. Today we met the family in need of a roof who has 23-year-old severely disabled son. They live up on the mountain. I’ve heard people live up there, but had never been. The trek up made the Coke sign in San Pedro seem like a walk in the park. It rained last night and water had washed away part of their dirt floor and their cots and clothes were wet. They will need 22 roof panels; we’ll set about getting them….. I had a good conversation with the school directors this morning. They offered an additional five, total of 10, full scholarships if we can provide a desk and chair for each new student…. Oscar was by this am for more dressing for his throat. His church has a week of fasting and prayer week of 10/16. Let me know if you want to put something on his list; God loves the poor, their prayers are pretty strong… We had a talk this morning about the need for our employees to model responsibility for the kids… Flor was robbed at gunpoint on the bus yesterday… Storm tonight; just set off the alarm… We went to shore today for an hour of exercise. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Edward Young wrote, “Less base the fear of death than fear of life." I think the saddest day of all for any Christian will be the day he comes to the end of his life on earth and discovers he never really lived. Yesterday Carlitos helped me begin to organize the shop. I had to supervise him pretty closely and at one point he wanted to know if he was bothering me. This little guy in his 10 years has had just about every disadvantage you can imagine and yet he has more virtue than many people twice his age who have enjoyed all the benefits. Please keep him in your prayers. Joel is teaching Beto how to use the computer so he can get Bible lessons off the Internet and teach our people... I went to church in San Pedro this morning, then after a quick lunch walked through the streets of Seis inviting people to the three o'clock service here. Had a good visit with the Otiia, Mary Ruth, and the older gentleman who received injections in his knees from Dr. Green. Seems to be doing well. While we were over there someone served me a cold drink. Not sure what it was; I hope it was made with purified water. We should know for sure in a couple of hours. BTW, attendance Was about 25.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Sometimes I feel uncomfortable sharing my thoughts, like maybe I seem spiritually prideful. As I've said, most of these are notes to myself because so often I forget. For example, at least as far back as the 1980s I knew the need to get up before daylight for a time of prayer and yet I'm still struggling. Another example, I found a note I had written in 1983 when somebody asked me about my future plans. I responded, "I'm just waiting on God"; to which God replied, “No, I'm waiting on you.” I was obviously moved, and yet another 15 years passed before I stopped waiting and answered His call. I share these because I've discovered were all pretty much alike. |