Loyal Friends

[i]

Job 6:14 

Good News Translation (GNT)

¹⁴ In trouble like this I need loyal friends—whether I've forsaken God or not.

In 1954 Dad was sent to Solusi, a ten-grade school in Zimbabwe, to make it into a four-year college. Naturally the Trans African Division of Seventh-day Adventists didn’t have all the money it was going to require. Raising funds was part of his assignment. Besides, Solusi had only a minimal amount of water available in its dams on seasonal streams. It was certainly not enough to support a college with many more students. Consequently, Dad built a new dam and enlarged an already existing one. He brought the government geologists on campus to search for good spots to drill for water. They marked out three sites, and he drilled at all of them. He even got a local water diviner to explore for water. This man pointed out another spot, and Dad drilled a well there, paying for it out of his own pocket. Interestingly, he got more water from that well than from all three geologist-located wells combined—but it still was not enough for a burgeoning college. Finally, the government built a very large dam on a larger, near-by river, and they brought water from there.

Many other major problems, such as housing and collapsing latrines, took much of his time to overcome. In 1956 Dad returned to the U.S. on a working furlough. He visited several retired church leaders and persuaded them to donate their libraries to Solusi. He visited John Fetzer, a radio-TV mogul, whom most people know as the owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1961-1983. He and John had been good friends and business partners before Dad went to Africa in the mid-1930s. When they parted, Dad became a devoted missionary, and John spent his skill and time becoming financially successful. John became very interested in Dad’s project to lift the educational level of Africans to that of world leaders. He and his wife, Ria, visited Solusi to see what Dad was doing and thereafter contributed toward the efforts to make it a working college.

Solusi University has grown and prospered over the years. During the terrible financial crisis Zimbabwe went through, it was the only university to remain open in the country. The number of students at that time was over 5,000. Currently 2,892 are enrolled there.[ii]

We are grateful, Lord, that You provide us with friends who can help us in times of need.

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[i] https://www.facebook.com/Solusi-University-441288199368674/

[ii] http://www.solusi.ac.zw/

When It Seems Everything Goes Wrong!

Psalm 23:4

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁴ Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me.

It was four o’clock in the morning. I tossed and turned. My mind started toiling through a long list of recent setbacks.

Our faithful, gas-guzzling pickup had just done a seven thousand mile trip. Now suddenly on the last fill-up, its mileage had dropped to a third of what it had been on the trip. We had double checked the calculations. Google told us this happened to other owners, and they had a terrible time finding out the cause. One had even replaced the engine, to no avail.

Our water main had broken and we had been without water for twenty-four hours. Our neighbors let us take showers in their home, bless their caring hearts. I had spent the whole day repairing it, and now the sprinkler system wouldn’t work. The temperatures were in the hundreds, and the trees and plants were starting to seriously wilt from lack of water.

The Internet and phone company had spent four days doing a “simple” upgrade, and still neither the phone nor the Internet worked. Since our home is up a little valley, even our cell phones don’t work unless the Internet works or we go outside and stand in the middle of the street to make a call. So we were thrust back into the nineteenth century reliance solely on the post office for our communications.

Katie, our beloved one-year-old, still-chewing-everything puppy just chewed up Sylvia’s C-PAP breathing apparatus. The insurance company tells us we can’t get a replacement for at least another month. When I walked Katie in the hills in front of our home, a young coyote was walking shoulder against shoulder with her trying to coax her back to the pack and the kill. Katie wasn’t sure whether she should go with her new “friend” or come back to me.

While we were on our trip mentioned above, our son Fred phoned us to tell us he was engaged to Uni, a lovely girl he has been dating on and off for a number of years. Then he phoned us to tell us they are getting married later this month. They plan to meet in Oregon and see the August eclipse and invited Sylvia and me to go with them. I am eager to see the eclipse and even more eager to be with Fred on the trip. But I’m also still recovering from my battle with West Nile Virus. I seemed to lose some ground on our 7,000 mile trip in which we took everything very easy, so I fear a rush trip of 2,000 miles may set me back even more.

A smiling doggy face and furniture-beating tail greets me as I roll out of bed at six o’clock. I happen to read our familiar and much beloved Shepherd Psalm. I reread verse 4, and peace covers over my many concerns. My Lord is still with me.

Thank You, Lord, that I can rely on You to solve my problems as You have so frequently in the past!