Evidence of God

Permit me to introduce Ms. Leasa Hodges, our new Business Manager. The young man standing beside her is her son, Nicolas. I really appreciate watching Leasa operate in her new capacity. She means business . . . sweetly. As far as I can tell, she has all the talents that I lack. Eden Valley should be a totally different place in a year from now. I praise God all day long . . . for now anyway.

I can say that I am experiencing less stress. Is it because I am praying more, or because Leasa is shouldering part of the load? Has Leasa come because I am praying more? Is she the solution to my transition? (I dare not say it to loudly.) In any case, I don't intend to let up praying. The more I pray, the more security I experience.

Not much is happening:

We've had a big snowfall this week and it's been winter cold. This morning it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit (Minus 6.6 degrees Celcius). This Sunday, we start a new Lifestyle session. Apparently, we have a full house. At least one person will be housed in my home. I'm so thankful for that. Winter is usually our slow time. Who knows what will happen after November. We trust.

Yesterday, I called Olga Martinemko, my little Russian translator and friend. She is dying of cancer at 35 years of age. Last month, I raised money and sent Dr. Oden from Ooltewah to Ukraine to minister to Olga. I believe Dr. Oden ministered to her wonderfully. Some people were worried about Olga's faith and spirituality. There is certainly nothing to worry about now, as far as I can tell. Yesterday's conversation was filled with praises to God, sweet submission to His will, and talk of meeting in heaven. She was so filled with life that it was hard to picture her as dying.

Here you have a beautiful, young woman, built like a starlet, who worked hard establishing mission schools for Christ in Russia, Ukraine and some of the Stans. Now, the rug is pulled out from under her. Her work, her life, her beauty, her youth, her body--everything is apparently destroyed. If she lets the Devil have a say, he'll postulate that God is rejecting her service for Him, as well. But praise God, she's defeating the Devil. There is no evidence of bitterness, despair, anger, or discouragement. She sees glory and expresses sweet surrender and love. Tell me, if there be skeptics among us, that there is no grace, no God, no hope.

I am so positively influenced, I could shout it from the mountain tops.

There are so many complaining, bitter people around. You'd think there is no God.

-Some 200 years ago, Madame Guyon, spent ten years in a dungeon.

-She was far below the surface of the ground.

-The only light she saw was of a candle at meal times.

-Now, think with me for a moment, what would you have said to God if you had been in a dark dungeon for ten years?

-What would your attitude be towards His providencial watchcare?

Here is what she wrote:

"A little bird I am, Shut from the fields of air;

Yet in my cage I sit and sing, To Him who placed me there;

Well pleased a prisoner to be,

Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

Nought have I else to do, I sing the whole day long;

And He whom most I love to please, Doth listen to my song;

He caught and bound my wandering wing

But still He bends to hear me sing.

My cage confines me round; Abroad I cannot fly;

But though my wing is closely bound,

My heart's at liberty.

My prison walls cannot control,

The flight, the freedom of the soul.

Ah! It is good to soar

These bolts and bars above.

To Him whose purpose I adore,

Whose Providence I love;

And in Thy mighty will to find,

The joy, the freedom of the mind."

The Preacher to his tribe.

Wrestled to the Ground

In trying to wrestle negativity down, in myself and in my staff, I’ve gained a valuable insight.

Suppose that where I stand represents the present in the context of time. To my left is an overview of my past. To my right is my future as far as I can penetrate it. When I turn left to examine my past, I am flooded with a feeling of gratitude. I can see how generous God has been with me--the family I grew up in, the wife I was given, the children and grandchildren, the honors He bestowed, the friends, the travel, the responsibilities, salvation. Everything seems calibrated to make me happy. I feel like, if God added nothing more to my life I’d have enough to praise Him forever.

But when I turn to view the future on my right, all I see is uncertainty, darkness; all I feel is fear. Why is that? If God’s leading all these years has been so gentle, so generous, how can I turn around and assume my future will be different? Why do I construe what I face today into a threat to my future? Will I, in eternity, be able to point to a time when God made a mistake in my case? I think not!

God, who “is the orderer of all our experiences,” only “orders that which His providence sees best.” “[He] never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led if they could see the end from the beginning.” (IHP 265; MH 217; DA 224:5)

For all who love God, that means that had we been in heaven before we were born, and had we been granted the privilege of choosing the experiences we would have in this world as fallen beings, we would have picked the very experiences God is choosing for us today. We would find no way to improve upon God’s providences.

Friends, knowing this should put a smile on our faces, praises on our lips, and a song in our hearts. Then, negativity under any circumstance becomes understandably unreasonable.

So there! Murnuring, complaining, criticizing, whining, and all other forms of negativity are once and for all wrestled to the ground.

Glenwood Springs, Baptism

I'm home from doing a series of meetings in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I had a restful, peaceful week. The new friends I made are genuine. The adventure was worth it and I feel like the Lord blessed our effort. Unfortunately, some of the pictures I took didn't pan out. My camera is too cheap. (Excuse me: I am too cheap to buy a good camera.) I took pictures of each baptismal candidate, but the church was too dark so they didn't turn out. I got them as a group, however. Eight people were baptized and five came into the church by profession of faith. Just for the record: I had nothing to do with these people coming into the church. The Pastor had worked with them beforehand.

I really had a great time. Everyone treated me like a member of their family (better even). On Sabbath a number of us went for an afternoon hike. Afterward, we went to a Benedictine Monastery for vespers. That was interesting. I wish I could have taken pictures, but monasteries are dark by nature. The architecture was what you'd see in a movie. Reality, I guess, wherever a monastery exists. The vespers was ceremonial, the priests wore long white robes with hoodies. They are well choreographed in march and chant. They all sing good. The style of music is dirge-like, lamentations magnified. There was a lot of sit/stand/kneel, and finally they shut the lights off for several meditative moments for effect. Once the effect took effect they marched out, sprinkling everyone with water (holy or otherwise, I could not verify.)

The best was yet to follow: We went to the White House (restaurant) for pizza. I had a Mean Green Pizza. That means it was vegetarian--soy cheese and lots of spinach with green olives.

Life is exciting for me. I get to travel everywhere and I get to see different ways of doing the same thing. I have become less condemnatory at heart. I don't see differences in terms of right and wrong as much as I use to. Don't get me wrong, I don't subscribe to situation ethics or cultural relativism, but I see humanity as one whole lost race. I see that I am one with all the others, and I am not superior. My heart's yearning is that I might share what I know and that I might receive what they have to teach. My fear is that everyone is so set in their opinion (including myself) that we couldn't hear God's voice even if He shouted at us. I believe in the way God has led me. I don't intend to compromise God's Biblical principles, but God hasn't led everyone through SDA self-supporting institutions. I take people where they are and I am consciously dependent on the Holy Spirit to guide me to say and do what is right at any given moment. Not everyone is ready to hear just anything, much less everything. We need to be helping each other to the kingdom.

The Preacher to his tribe

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Para-glidder

This is Glenwood Springs.

(I find it difficult to play with this program. I had hoped to put these pictures under the dialogue, but it won't cooperate.)

Do you see where the para-glidder is now?

Do you see the white line on the mountain across the valley? That is a gondola. It goes up to some caves. I might show you the caves next time.

Behind me is Glenwood Springs

I'm suppose to be doing an evangelistic series. As it turns out, there are a few community people coming to the meetings, but they don't come regularly and the bulk of the people coming are the church members. I have no trouble with that, but I pity the young pastor. I'm sure he was expecting a better response from the community.

Instead of doing evangelistic meetings I am doing revival meetings. I don't know what the pastor thinks, but the meetings are strong and the response is very good. I believe I am doing the right thing. Regardless of the meetings, the pastor will be baptizing eight people on Sabbath, and another five are coming in on profession of faith. It's a good showing for a young

pastor in so affluent a society.

I'm having a good time, but I wish I could get home. I've got too much to do, and I'm not use to relaxing lately.

The family I live with are very athletic and everyday we climb a mountain or something like that. More pictures will follow in the next blog.

This is Keving Wasli, my gracious host. I will post pictures of his whlole family next time if I don't forget.

Stress.s.s.s.

I have no pictures to post, but Antionette sent me this one this week. Shiloh is our youngest. She burnt her hands terribly one month ago, and now she's got a bad cold. Life is a bummer sometimes. The most we can do sometimes is to sleep through it, wherever we are.

That is what I felt like doing all last month. Stress has been my constant companion, lately. It isn't always that way before board meetings, but this year it's been extra heavy. Last year, I got beat up soundly at the board. I didn't anticipate another beating this year, but I knew that I would be expected to lend my influence to all the decisions that needed to be made. In the end, I knew I would necessarily be the main cause of pain to someone. That is indeed how it turned out. I hate hurting people, but I did what I conscientiously thought was best for EVI.

The big news is that Leasa Hodges is now on staff at EVI. Leasa is one of the wealthy McNeilus family. I believe the news will reverberate through the ranks like a little tsunami. I think it is a good thing, but some of my staff wonder if she will be one of those tough business women. Her position is Administrative Director. That is a misleading title. It is suppose to mean business manager. It sounds more like president. In the end, it might work to my advantage. If things go well, I can leave and she can be the Administrating Director according to the dictionary definition.

One of the biggest burdens I gained over the weekend was at DayStar Academy. We had a board meeting there, also. They don't have enough staff and some of the staff work like they are unionized. The weight of the work falls on the few at the top. They are crying for help. I need to do something. Lord help me.

I start an evangelistic series in three days, in Glenwood Springs, CO. This will be a great rest or a pile more stress. I'll let you know. Unready or not, here I go. In a great degree, I do know how good the good news is and I am grateful for an opportunity to tell someone. Pray God gives me utterance and the Holy Spirit's powerful influence.

Till next time, The Preacher to his Tribe

The Rescue

Two or three of us were standing by a 600,000 gallon reservoir that we were finishing at EVI. With us was ten-year old Jonathan. Jonathan was telling us that he was very good at swimming. As a matter of fact, he is a certified life-guard, he said. Jokingly, I asked a little girl, Alicia, if I could throw her in so Jonathan could rescue her. She quietly made a little distance between us. A little while later, I was at the other end of the field by the water plant. The kids came with me. Jonathan because we are buddies, and Alicia because she wishes Jonathan was her buddy.

Near the water plant we had a hole about four feet deep, a small grave like looking hole full of water. The reason it was full of water is that I broke a water line while digging with a trencher. I was working around the hole and the kids were playing in the water. At one point, Jonathan got between Alicia and me. Alicia thought the hole was just a shallow puddle. When she saw a grasshopper jump into the water she reached over to rescue it putting her foot in the water. Oops! She disappeared altogether. She surfaced, eyes big as saucers.

"Jonathan," I yelled, "grab her."

He was within arms length from her, but he seemed stunned. She went under again. I yelled again. The third time she came up he finally got his wits together and dragged her out of the water.

It was a fine rescue, a little belated, but no harm done. Jonathan couldn't wait to get home to tell his parents of his heroics. Alicia, however, couldn't be convinced to go home. She just stood shivering in the wind saying she wanted to dry up first. It looked to me like that was going to take some time. So I pretended to need to go to the other end of the field. She wasn't going to stay alone so she followed and I led her to her dad where she promptly began crying saying she was scared.

Alicia

If anyone doesn't know yet, Uncle John is a grandpa for the third time. The little girl is called Elizabeth, Michelle's new daughter.

Last weekend, Lee, our Lifestyle Director, and I met with a group of retirees in Paonia, Colorado, three hundred miles, one way. They requested that we come talk to them and had promised to pay our gas. I guess they forgot. Oh well, it's the Lord's work and I probably need to give more offerings.

The temperature just dropped from summer to winter. Dianne Hathaway just came over the mountains yesterday and said the mountains are covered with snow. It's freezing this week. Not to worry, it is suppose to warm up for the convention weekend.

Till next week. The Preacher

Encouraged

Two years ago, we started a project that we are just now completing. Every year, the canal where we get our water is closed down for two weeks just before convention and it usually coincides with a lifestyle session. We need a lot of water for our lifestyle sessions and we had no way of storing any, so, we chose to dig a 600,000 gallon reservoir. It worked well for the first two years, and this year we decided to finish the project. I appreciate Bill Bosko's leadership in the venture.

The reservoir is full. We are using it. A little more landscaping and a fence and we should be done for good.

We have 10 lifestyle guests this month. Seven of the ten are black ladies, mostly from Barbados originally, now living in New York and Chicago. They are a bunch of live wires. This morning, I took one of them to a Sunday church. She grew up Adventist, but something happened in the course of living to turn her heart away from us. The church we attended was very conservative, spiritual and friendly. I think they are Non-denominational. I've never seen church done this way before. To begin, everyone takes a turn at praying, then everyone just pops up, one after another and gives a two to five minute sermonette/testimony. Then they have communion. Everyone breaks a piece of white bread and eats it, and they then all drink grape juice from the same cup.

I am just sanguine enough to jump right on the moment. I prayed when it came time to pray and, though unprepared, I preached when it was time to preach. The difference with my preaching was that I looked people in the eye. They didn't. I think they had notes in their Bibles and they were concentrated there, or they were focused on their shoes for some reason. They also all took on one tone of voice and used one cadence in speaking. I was the only one to make a small appeal in my sermon. Everyone else exhorted themselves rather than the congregation. In other words, they read scripture, expounded on it, and then concluded by saying how they desired to bring their lives into harmony with the principle they that had brought this morning's conviction.

In the end, that was the best other church I have ever attended in the Loveland area. I have brought several lifestyle guests to various churches and every time it was "Rock & Roll" a la Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal style, etc.

I wondered how it would be for SDA's to have to prepare a five minute sermonette every week for church? The people at this Non-denom. church were all good at it. That tells me we could all become good at speaking in public if we were put in that position.

Yesterday, I preached in Copper Mountain. The Emmerson family came with me. We had a very pleasant day. Chuck and Wanda Scarborough make sure to attend that church when I am scheduled to preach. (They use to be Julie's principle in academy, in Fountainview.)

Things are quiet at EVI. We got our hay in, for which I praise the Lord. It's been a battle because this year is wetter than usual, but I've been praying more and the Lord has honored my prayers. We have our reservoir finished for now, and I believe that this week we will have the 10,000 raspberry shoots in, as well.

I get feedback on my blogs from the most unexpected places. There is an unintended agreement that I am too hard on myself in so far as my leadership is concerned. I appreciate everyone's concerns. Perhaps I shouldn't be so free to air my feelings about myself in public. I am the most unprivate person I know. I can't understand being private or having secrets. Also, I cannot be pretentious about anything in myself. I don't often call a spade a spade when referring to others, but the spade in me is open for all to see.

It's two weeks to EVI's annual Convention and board meeting. I am praying like mad that God's will will prevail. Rumors fly in every direction. If all the rumors were true, there would be no one left at EVI by the time the board was over. The truth is, I love EVI, but I can't bring the discordant notes into harmony. Being the conductor of a choir that can't get it together is discouraging, to say the least. I'm ready to let another lucky conductor have a go at it.

Besides that, I am full of courage. I've managed to pray two and one half hours daily (except for a few interruptions, like church board etc.), and I am here to say, it makes a huge difference in my personal, courage, outlook and conscience. May you all be driven to it . . . soon.

That's it for today, the Preacher