Reaching the Reticent

1 Corinthians 12:5

The Voice (VOICE)

There are many different ways to serve, but they’re all directed by the same Lord.

Tourists go to northern Namibia to see the great Etosha National Park with its abundance of African wild animals and to Kaokoland, the wildest part of northern Namibia, to see the Himba people who to this day cover their bodies with a mixture of rancid butter and red mud and traditionally wear only red mud colored skirts around their loins.

Pam and Gideon Petersen were sent as missionaries to the Himba people in Kaokoland in the early 1990s. Going back to Dr Robert Moffat and Dr David Livingstone, for almost 200 years missionaries have worked in this part of Africa. To this day the Himba have resisted Christianity. The Petersens went into the heart of this wild country, built themselves a palm leaf hut, learned the Himba language, and worked with the people. After a few years the church withdrew their support, regarding the effort as fruitless. They conveniently forgot how Moffat had worked for over a quarter of a century before reaping his first convert to Christianity in neighboring Botswana.

The Petersens, however, did not give up. Instead they joined the self-supporting Adventist Frontier Missions organization. They visited many churches and people across the world to raise enough money so they could continue their work. They trained local people to carry on their work. After a dozen or more years, the Holy Spirit suggested a novel approach. The Himba, like many peoples in Africa, have only an oral tradition to remember their history. This history is passed on to future generations by minstrels who chant the stories of ancient heroes sung to time honored tunes.

Stories of the great Bible heroes and containing the timeless good news of Christianity are being told in Otjihimba poetry that can be sung using the ancient tunes. These are recorded on solid-state MP-3 players and distributed amongst the Himba. Already God is bringing about wonderful hope and changes in the lives of this people through these simple stories.

Finally the church that once lost interest in the conversion of the Himba is now taking renewed interest in this work.  Many are encouraged by the recent baptism of a Himba chief.

Please continue, O Lord , to bring light and hope to the Himba people who for so long have been held enslaved by the evil spirits of Animism.

Does Anyone Really Listen to You? Do you to them?

Proverbs 4:25

The Voice (VOICE)

²⁵ Keep your head up, your eyes straight ahead,
    and your focus fixed on what is in front of you.

Grandpa never learned to drive. He told me on more than one occasion, “No man can do more than one thing at a time. If I were to drive, I would have to put my hand out the window to signal a turn, while turn the steering wheel and shifting the gears with my other hand, push down the clutch with one foot, and either pushing the brake pedal or the gas pedal with the other foot, all at the same time. No, no man can do more than one thing at a time, so I haven’t learned to drive.”

He was a very successful businessman, and after he retired at about age 55, he founded a school amidst the ignorant hillbillies living in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in eastern Oklahoma. My Grandma, whom I never met, was the one who drove the car. She was principal of the boarding school. From donations Grandpa solicited they provided for all of the needs of the students at Ozark Mountain School (OMS), including room, food, clothing, books and medical treatments.

He lived with us from the time I was six until his death six years later. Whenever I went into his room, he would turn to me and give me 100% of his attention. Never did I get the impression that he was thinking about other things while I was there. He corresponded with many people including family and former contributors to OMS. But when I was there, the letters were put aside and not so much as looked at until I left.

He studied his Bible diligently, not only the Sabbath School lesson, but also the various topics that interested him. When I developed a consuming interest in astronomy, he warned me that there is no benefit in studying the stars. One day I brought home an old book entitled Astronomy and the Bible by Lucas A. Reed (published in 1919 by the Pacific Press. Reed was president of the Pacific Union College from 1906 to 1908.) Grandpa came into my room and saw me reading the book. He asked to borrow it, read it from cover to cover, and developed an interest in astronomy that surpassed mine. After that I had to compete with him at the local college library for astronomy books.

Lord, in this time of my life, when I’m so easily distracted that I often forget what I came looking for, help me to keep my focus fixed on what is important. 

Ebola

Luke 12:15

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁵ Then He used that opportunity to speak to the crowd.

Jesus: You’d better be on your guard against any type of greed, for a person’s life is not about having a lot of possessions.

This morning Dr Kent Brantly gave a very moving speech crediting God, a new drug, and Emory Hospital for his recovery from Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). He had been serving in Liberia under Samaritan’s Purse when he contracted the deadly disease.

This reminded me of a conversation I had with Gail Schatzschneider earlier this week. All hospitals in Monrovia, the capitol of Liberia in West Africa, closed down a month or more ago due to the EVD epidemic—that is all of them except the Adventist Cooper Hospital. Gillian Seton, a surgeon there, insisted that this hospital remain open for non-EVD patients. She pointed out that people would still need emergency care unrelated to EVD. Unfortunately no hospitals in Liberia are equipped to handle this terrible disease.

Last month at our Fellowship of Adventist Missionaries to Africa (FAMA), Gail told me about the stand Dr Seton had made. She mentioned that a new doctor and extra money were urgently needed to enable the hospital to keep operating. I passed the news on to the people sitting at table with me, but they showed no apparent interest in what I said, and the conversation moved on to other matters.

Gail’s news this week is that shortly after our FAMA meeting, one of the people sitting at table that day sent a check of $10,000 for the Cooper Hospital project. This was the seed that launched a rapidly growing fund. A doctor has volunteered to join Cooper. Many lives will be saved. It is gratifying to be a small cog in a large endeavor to help Africa. If you wish to follow and possibly support the progress of Cooper Hospital and other Adventist Health International institutions around the world, you can check their webpage at http://www.ahiglobal.org/

A temporary mission doctor from Chad, Dr. James Appel, tells of his harrowing experience getting to (Entry 1) and at Cooper Hospital (Entry 2) on the AHI webpage: http://www.ahiglobal.org/main/news/?title=ahi-doctor-heads-to-liberia-to-aid-ebola-crisis--entry-1/  Look for his second installment http://www.ahiglobal.org/main/news/?title=ahi-doctor-heads-to-liberia-to-aid-ebola-crisis--entry-2/

Lord, thank You for organizations that enable us support Your suffering people in places as far away as Africa rather than simply acquire more possessions.

Deferred from Punishment by Supreme Request

James 3:17

The Voice (VOICE)

 Heavenly wisdom centers on purity, peace, gentleness, deference, mercy, and other good fruits untainted by hypocrisy.

The University of Iowa had well over 30,000 students when I was studying and teaching there many years ago. I was a graduate student in mathematics and earned my way as a teaching assistant. Most of the time this meant that I taught calculus. In those days there was no diagnostic test that could assess whether a potential student had enough mathematics background to be able to succeed in calculus. Then, as now, the student’s performance in high school math classes was not enough for the simple reason that the topics covered in any high school class often varied widely.

Upon first arriving at the university, I was told that because of this inability to predict a student’s readiness for the class, they allowed any student who wished to take the class to register for it. Consequently, there would be more students registered for the class than the classroom could hold. I was to go to the first meeting of the class with a stack of withdrawal cards in hand. I would give a good, no-nonsense first lecture. If a student came to me after the class and said, “I didn’t understand your lecture.” I was to hand the student a drop card and suggest strongly that s/he drop the class and register for a prerequisite class. As a matter of fact, I usually had over 60 students in a room that could only seat around 30, so I handed out many drop cards on the first day.

Diane (I’ve forgotten her real name) came to one of these classes and didn’t drop on the first day. She struggled valiantly, but her background was weak and her native ability may have been lower than average, too. She was performing on the very low C- or D level throughout the semester.

Towards the end of the semester I received a letter from the dean of the university. It informed me that Diane’s father was an abusive man and that he had threatened to kill her if she didn’t pass her math class. Furthermore, he had reason to believe that the father would carry out his threat. The dean requested that if at all possible I should give her nothing lower than a C. I deferred to the dean’s request.

Lord in heaven, thank You for deferring, in Your wisdom and mercy, to Christ’s request that You graciously change our death sentence as sinners in spite of our inadequate performance.

Mortality

Romans 14:8

The Voice (VOICE)

 For if we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. So in both life and death, we belong to the Lord.

The recent tragic passing of Robin Williams reminds me of my own mortality. He was almost 10 years younger than I, which makes it even more tragic. My mother and father have both left the field of battle against the evil one. Sylvia’s father passed away many years ago. Her mother, Grace, is still fighting the battle, and we have the privilege of having her in our home often. She will turn 98 yet this month, and the years are eroding her strength.

In 2001 Grace joined us for a six week road tour from California east to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. We walked along the rugged shore of the North Atlantic as the angry waves dashed themselves against the rocks. We relived stories of the war that sent Dad to France while we stood along the shores of Bedford Basin where the great convoys were secretly assembled to go to the relief of the allied forces. We basked in the rugged beauty of the World Heritage Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland and counted icebergs off the fog enshrouded Labrador Coast. We shared the romance of Anne of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. In the Bay of Fundy our tiny, two-car ferry skirted the Sow, largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere, carefully coming close enough to use the twirling waters to speed it on its way, but not so close as to get sucked into it. Grace loved it all. An ardent Protestant, she hesitated entering some of the great stone cathedrals, fearing she was treading in Satan’s lair.

At the impressive Montmorency Falls outside Quebec City, she rejoiced in her own strength as she climbed the some four-hundred steps so she could walk across the bridge over the top of the falls. Today walking comes harder, and she feels more comfortable with something to help her keep her balance. Through it all she still rejoices that she always belongs to the Lord.

We love You, Lord, for Your love for us whether we are in the prime of our strength or in our declining years.

Manna and Our Own Needs

Exodus 16:4

The Voice (VOICE)

Look! I will cause bread to rain down from heaven for you, and the people will go out and gather a helping of it each day. I will test them to see if they are willing to live by My instructions.

We were very young, fresh out of graduate school, and married for just a year and a half when we went to Africa. Everything was new to us. The school put us in a neat little whitewashed mud-brick home on the mission compound. An inch wide crack ran from ceiling to floor in the front wall of one of the bedrooms. All the windows sported burglar bars.

Sylvia brightened up our bedroom with a bright crimson curtain. We could lie in the sagging bed and listen to the termites chewing on the roof rafters over our heads each night. We had to keep careful tabs on our fridge that kept cold by burning kerosene because of its habit of gradually building a higher and higher flame until soot formed on the ceiling.

More than once our black lab and Rhodesian ridgeback mix dog would bark her snake bark at the back screen door. We would look carefully out the screen and see a venomous cobra or other snake coiled up on the top step just daring an incautious step out of the house.

At the beginning of our second year in the house we got an accusing letter from headquarters. It demanded to know why we hadn’t alerted payroll that they weren’t taking house rent out of our subsistence level paycheck as specified in the mission policy book.

Surprised, I requested a copy of the policy book. I was told rather curtly that there was a policy book but missionaries were not allowed to see it because they might request benefits that were listed in it that they didn’t know about. The treasurer went on to tell us that the previous year’s rent would be deducted from our salary over the next six months:  we would receive a total of 200 shillings a month (less than $30) for living expenses until such a time as we had paid the back rent.

 For the next six months we lived on beans and rice, and bananas that we could buy by the stalk. We could also buy a few eggs or tomatoes from villagers trying to get a little cash. When my parents came for visit a few months later, they urged us to see a doctor because we were so gaunt.  Even on such a restricted diet, however, we never went hungry.

Thank You, Lord, that You provide for us even when necessities get pretty scarce.

Apology

2 Timothy 2:16

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁶ Stay away from ungodly babbling because it will only lead deeper into a godless lifestyle.

The blog I posted associated with this verse has been an offence to someone. It is my intention to not offend anyone. I apologize for doing so.

Heavenly Father, forgive me for offending a very dear child of Yours

Ask the Lord Even for the Simple Things

1 John 5:15

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

The concept in this verse is so simple that it cannot really be true!

We left my cousin’s home in north-eastern North Dakota and drove to the south-eastern portion of the state. As it got toward evening we pulled into a motel in Belfield, ND, and asked what they had available for us to overnight in.

“Sorry,” we were told, “we’re full.”

We found a little, dark motel tucked away back off the road. Sylvia didn’t like the looks of it. That was the only motel we skipped.

We offered a short prayer while sitting in the car, “Dear Lord, please lead us to a safe hotel that we can afford tonight.” We had started praying this as we travelled each day when we were touring South Africa on our own a few years ago. Safety was a major factor because crime is an ever present fact of life there. God had always provided.

We drove on west along I-94. We stopped at every motel for over 150 miles. The story was still the same: “Sorry, we’re full!” “We wish we could help you, but we’re all booked up.”

It was almost like we had some incurable disease and no one wanted us to stay there.

“What’s happening that there is no room?” I asked one proprietor.

“You know they’ve discovered oil in North Dakota?”

“Well, we did see a lot of heavy equipment as we came south on U.S. 85.” I admitted. “In fact we had to wait for 45 minutes at one point while they moved some of the equipment.”

“All of our clients are people who have come north to work in the oil fields.”

Well after midnight we pulled into a complex of motels outside Miles City, “I’ve heard that in the center of town there’s a quaint old hotel that has some rooms,” one motel clerk told us.

We stood in line at the Historic Olive Hotel desk. It was well after midnight by now. When our turn came I asked if they had a non-smoking room for two.

“Yes.”

“Great! We’ll take it!” I said simply. Sylvia looked at me very strangely. I hadn’t even asked the price! It turned out to be a wonderful and affordable place. There was a park along a river across the street and a delightful little breakfast spot on the next corner.

Thank You, Lord, that we can ask You to find a room for us and be absolutely confident You hear our prayer and answer it. In fact, this is always true no matter what or how simple our need is.

How do You Calculate Tithe?

2 Corinthians 9:7

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

When we got married 49 years ago, Sylvia and I decided we would “pay” an honest tithe. We have lived up to our decision. We give a full ten percent of our increase and rejoice that we are able to do exactly that. We do this and have always done this because of the decision in our hearts to do so. Beyond that we give significantly more to various ministries of God, and we love doing it.

Our church has as a doctrine that every believer must pay tithe. In fact they stress that we must pay twenty percent of our gross income. For the first decade and more we did that, and I must confess that we felt it necessary to do so. Then as our understanding of God’s grace grew and blossomed into a grace filled experience of love with our Creator, we started to re-evaluate all of our relationships with God and with the church. As we read Scripture on the topic, we realized that our salvation did not depend on “paying” tithe.

We interpreted increase to be our take home salary. The part of our salary that was withheld for taxes was not part of our increase. The part that went for Social Security we knew we would be paying tithe on when we actually received Social Security; and we are indeed tithing that now. Recently we have been splitting our tithe between the church, where its use is somewhat mysterious, and direct support of missionaries in Africa.

There were nine years of our life where we didn’t really give tithe. When we served in Africa ourselves, the church deducted our tithe along with our taxes from our paychecks. When I queried why, they responded forthrightly that they don’t trust workers to pay tithe. We felt insulted and indeed missed the joy of willingly doing God's will because we wanted to do it.

Thank You, Lord, for fulfilling the promise in the next verse: “And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.”

Go To The Ant Thou Sluggard

Proverbs 6:6

The Voice (VOICE)

⁶ Take a lesson from the ant, you who love leisure and ease.
    Observe how it works, and dare to be just as wise.

It had been a hot, sticky day in the desert in Southern California. Cleo, my dog, and I were walking up a dry dusty track at sunset. On the barren edge of the track was an ant nest. It was surrounded by a thick layer of the husks of seeds, showing that the ants had been very busy laying by stores for lean days. At this hour most ant holes show no activity except for a few guards standing duty in the hole.

What attracted my attention was a four inch wide line of ants stretching diagonally across the track. It was easy to see that this ant nest was on one end of this line. Curious, I walked along the line to see what was at the other end of the line. I wondered if there was a carcass or a rich supply of seeds that they might have discovered. It ended probably three yards (meters) off of the track at what looked like one entrance to a ground squirrel den.

The ants were scurrying into and out of the den. The obvious reason for all this activity was that there must be dead squirrel that they were cleaning out its remains. But I don’t believe that to be the case for several very good reasons. Firstly there was no odor of death, for even if I couldn’t smell it, Cleo would have, and she would have been vigorously digging down into it. The far more compelling reason was what the ants were doing.

In any line of ants there are always about as many ants going in one direction as there are going the other. This was true in this line, too. However, about one ant in ten was carrying an ant egg. Every single egg-bearing ant was going away from the ant nest toward the den. The den was situated in a site that had lots of potential food material, where-as the nest they were leaving was situated in a very barren, well-used track where people and dogs frequently walked.

Although it was quickly getting dark, the ants were all busy changing their home to a much better environment. And in their thousands, they were working with all their combined might and diligence to make this transition as expediently as possible.

Epilogue: 4 days later the ants have cleaned up the entire area surrounding the new den, and have moved on.

Lord, I tend to be inclined toward laziness; may the example of these ants inspire me to greater diligence toward our common goal.