In His Timing

We are dependant upon God’s timing. It’s an easy statement to say. There, I just did. It’s also an easy statement to logically think about: If God is creator of the universe then He is creator of time and therefore everything would happen within His timing. But it’s not always an easy statement to live. This is where God has us right now. Living in the statement that it is His timing and not ours for when we are to leave for Germany and honestly, my heart is torn.

On one side, I want to be able to make plans and know that they will come to be. I want to be able to answer my son and others when they say “When are we/you leaving?” (Actually, Alex’s question is more of “When are we getting a puppy?” as he knows we are going to buy him one in Germany) I want to know if I can make 4th of July plans with my family or will we be frantically finishing our packing then. Its a little bit of life in limbo as we don’t know what is in the immediate future but we do know that the future has us in Germany.

On the other side, I am so thankful that it is God’s timing and not our own that we live in. In God’s timing, the people we are going to meet in Europe – He is preparing for our arrival. In God’s timing, God is preparing us for living a life as missionaries. In God’s timing, He is allowing us the time to enjoy being with our friends and families before making the move across the pond.

The really cool thing about God’s timing for us is that He has put in place a way for Him to reveal His timing. Its a kind of clock really but its not a sun dial or a round face with a spring; its those that are joining us in our ministry i.e. YA’LL (there’s my southern again) As people come on board with our ministry by praying for us and committing to financially support us, the hands on God’s clock move. Many people don’t understand why some missionaries have to raise supporters but it’s a very Biblical thing that God put into place. Paul is an example as the first missionary and while there were a few times that he worked to support himself, most of the time his needs were met by the churches and they were pleased to do so (2 Corinthians 8-9).

Please pray with us as we meet with people asking them if they are called to be a part of this ministry. Be with us as we watch God’s clock move bringing us closer to the move to Europe.

Somebody, please define “poor” for me

I subscribe to Mikey’s Funnies where I am sent a joke or funny story on a daily basis. Every now and then, he sends out one that is more of a thought provoker than funny. Every year on the Thursday before Easter, this is the “funny” he sends out.

THE RICH FAMILY IN CHURCH
By Eddie Ogan

I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12,and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.

By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.

We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.

We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.

That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.

We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed–I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way.

Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.”

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that “little over $100.”

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

For a followup on Eddie (who is a woman), check out this story –> http://snipurl.com/richgirl

Something to think about

A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a seminary class taught by her teacher, Dr. Smith. She says Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons. One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts.

Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone they disliked or someone who had made them angry in the past. Then he would allow them to throw darts at the person’s picture.

Sally’s friend drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased at the overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students threw their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, but was filled with disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the students to return to their seats.

As Sally sat down, thinking about how angry she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her target, Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall. Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus.

A complete hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words, “I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” (Matthew 25:40)

No other words were necessary…the tear-filled eyes of each student focused only on the picture of Christ.

Thanks to www.mikeysFunnies.com for this story.

We are leaving Colorado today but then we head for West Virginia to speak at a Missions Conference. Please pray for safe travels and for the hearts of those at the conference. We’ll tell you more about our time here in Colorado next week. Luv ya!!!

God’s Smile

On the way home from getting some ice cream, Alex (our 5 year old) was looking up at the sky when he asked, “Is the moon part of God’s body?” A very interesting question indeed. I then started to explain how God doesn’t have a body and that He is everywhere in the universe.

Then Alex said, “Well, it looks like the moon is God’s mouth and that He is smiling at us.” It is out of the mouths of children that we can learn the most about how to view God. So next time you look up at the moon, remember that God is smiling at you right now.

Sitting on the bus, just getting holy

Sorry for not writing over the past few days but I have been traveling. I got to go to a meeting of pastors and elders in our denomination. It was a great time and I got to meet several more people interested in partnering with us on our adventure. Now I am studying for my Old Testament final. I have to quote the professor of my course as I find it so enlightening but also very funny:

Holiness is not contagious. That’s a principle. It does not happen automatically. You can’t accidentally get holy. You can’t say, ‘I don’t know what happened…I was sitting on the bus next to this guy with a reverse collar –he must have been a priest or something–and when I got off the bus, I was less sinful.’ It just does not work that way…there has to be a transformation of you.

–Dr. Stuart

This is a problem we have in the Church today. People say, “Well, I went to church.” But are their lives changing. Just sitting, going through motions does not bring you closer to God. It’s taking the truth and making it a part of your life that brings you closer to God. I’m not saying this to discourage anyone from doing just that but more to say to the Church about what it is we are doing. Are we speaking the truth in ways that a person going through the motions will hear and want to transform their lives? If they are in the church going through the motions, its obvious that they are somewhere in their hearts searching for that way to get closer to God but are we meeting them to help them along their journey.

Are we the church going to just sit next to a person who is spiritually wanting, never reaching out to them but just content to have them in the church building?