Recession & Recovery

Psalm 16: 6-7 

(New International Version, ©2010)

6 …Surely I have a delightful inheritance. 

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; 

   

   My parents went to Africa in the middle of the great depression. Dad taught at a small Christian college there, and Mom stayed home to look after us. Salaries were never enough, but they were frugal and educated us two boys in Christian schools. This often meant going without a much needed pair of shoes to keep us in school.

    

   Due to the political issues in Africa, I was shunted off to boarding school at the age of 12. I learned to fend for myself. After I fell in with bad company, only the grace of God kept me sober and out of jail. Because of a pharisaical, legalistic emphasis at the school, I was persuaded that I had out-sinned God’s grace and was destined for eternal punishment. A young soldier took an interest in me and my soul; and refused to give up until I came to know the real grace of a loving God.

    

   After 12 years as missionaries in Africa, my wife and I returned to the States essentially penniless but happy and content in the Lord. Decades later we own our home and have been living out of debt for many years.

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   During the recent recession, my brother and both of my brothers-in-law, along with many others in the family, lost their jobs. I kept mine. Our children are all employed. Friends ask me why I didn’t retire earlier. I reply that as long as I enjoyed my job and I had the health, I’d continue working.

    

   Am I uncertain about the future? Yes! Indeed. But I am certain of one thing: we serve a marvelous God. He has blest us through 50 years of married life, through poverty but never want, through rough times but with a strong faith that the grace of God is still abundantly more than enough to meet our deepest needs. Retired now, we live comfortably with the assurance that this is but a prelude to the delightful inheritance awaiting us.

    

   Praise to You, Lord God Almighty, for the sure inheritance you have prepared for us!

  

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[i] http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/abc_wn_harris_jobs_120504_mn.jpg

   

Preparing for a Crown

1 Corinthians 9:25 

(New International Version, ©2010)

²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

In 2011 an opportunity opened to present a paper at a mathematics education conference in South Africa. I wanted to go to South Africa again. Friends I would like to see live there. Places I would like to visit, some for the first time and some just to enjoy seeing again, beckoned. Having been born there and grown up there, I feel it’s almost like going home.

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However, everything about the trip was expensive. It was possible that I could get some financial support from the university for going if I presented a paper at this conference. Furthermore, the trip would probably become partially tax deductible if I presented a paper there. So I decided to present a paper. I wrote up a proposal and e-mailed it in. The response was enthusiastically positive.

After that I spent a great deal of time researching my topic. I spent time in the university library using current periodicals. I spent hours looking on the Internet. I went over what I had been doing in my own classroom and worked to get things organized into a presentable form. Finally, I started writing the paper I planned to present. This took more time than even I had reckoned it would. Naturally, I didn’t want to stand in front of the group and sound under-prepared. 

What did all this time and effort gain me? Fifteen or twenty minutes of presentation; polite applause; an entry on my curriculum vitae; some financial support; pleasant memories, and that’s all.

Lord, help me to be as diligent spending meaningful time preparing for the time I will get to present myself before your throne!

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[1] http://www.epicprivatejourneys.com/assets/images/africa/southern-africa/south-africa/africa-south-africa-hero1.jpg

A Reluctant Colporteur

Deuteronomy 6:9

Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

⁹ and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.

When I graduated from high school, Dad expected me to earn my way through college. The first two summers I worked as a student colporteur. This was probably the hardest work I ever did. My first summer, I worked in Mufulira in Zambia with my best childhood friend, John Raitt. He was an old hand at this and spent a day training me and then was around for the rest of the summer to encourage me, answer my questions, and provide support. He owned a motorbike, so we could get out and see and do things on weekends, etc. The second summer I worked alone in Ndola, Zambia.

Christianity was at its very lowest ebb in my life those two summers. So, unlike John, I had no real spiritual experience to buoy me up. Christ was only real to me as an unforgiving, accusing judge who was waiting to burn me up and rid the world of my bad influence. It was another whole year before I met Christ as a wonderful, loving, caring Savior.

The conference had both full-time colporteurs and student colporteurs. The full-timers had a number of perks that students did not. We were not allowed to sell the most popular, money-maker volumes, in case we undercut the full-timers. Student colporteurs had a contract that stipulated a combination of a certain total number of hours canvassing and a certain monetary value of books sold. If we met both criteria, then our college expenses were met by our earnings. If we only partially fulfilled the criteria, then the amount paid to the college was prorated accordingly.

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We were required to work methodically from door to door, not missing a single home in our assigned region in the city. Once in a while I would come to a home with a mezuzah attached to the door-frame of a house. It contained a parchment with several verses from the Jewish Bible and was attached there as prescribed by this text from Deuteronomy. At such a house I was usually met with a very cold reception, most probably because of my preconceived, fatalistic attitude, and I never made a sale there.

Since that time I have come to know a number of Jews personally; I have stayed in their homes and eaten at their tables. We have shared our life and faith experiences with each other and respected the challenges we each face.

Maybe we don’t have portions of God’s instructions physically attached to our door posts or gates, but we would do well to think about them as we come and go.

Our God, thank You for loving and caring for us and encouraging us to remember You even in the simple things like walking into or out of our doors.

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[i] https://caroleconnolly.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/doormezuzah-500pix.jpg

Airport Fog Expedites Journey

Isaiah 41:10

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁰     So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you;
        don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
    I will strengthen you, help you.
        I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.

The landing lights of the Nairobi International Airport stretched straight off into the distance as our East African Airways flight banked into the final approach. I had gotten on the flight in Musoma, Tanzania, on the eastern shores of the mighty Lake Victoria. We had landed in Mwanza, Tanzania, on the south shore and then Entebbe, Uganda, on the west, and now we had flown to Nairobi where this flight ended, and the well over a hundred people on board were very anxious to disembark.

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I entertained several fears. It was December, and I was en route to Lusaka, Zambia, and a Christmas road trip with my parents to Rhodesia and South Africa. Due to their apartheid policies, these two countries were black listed in Tanzania. I wasn’t sure how much trouble we would have getting back into Tanzania where we were serving as missionaries. Sylvia and our four month old Esther had flown to Malawi earlier with the mission pilot. I had remained at Ikizu Secondary School in Tanzania to finish up the academic year.

More immediate misgivings were how I would get a room tonight in Nairobi and then get back to the airport early in the morning to catch the next flight from there to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and then on to Blantyre in Malawi and finally to Lusaka.

Suddenly the jet engines roared to full throttle and the plane started to climb. We were in a cloud for a little while and then the sky went black as we leveled off above the clouds.

After a quarter of an hour, I said to the man sitting next to me, “We’re flying round in circles.”

“How do you know?” he asked skeptically.

“I’ve seen Venus come by the window several times.”

“I know nothing about the stars.” He said flatly.

We flew for an hour more before the voice of the pilot cracked into life from the plane’s speakers, “We were lined up to land when the fog settled onto the runway. We’ll fly around for another half-hour and then, if the fog doesn’t lift, we’ll have to fly to Dar es Salaam before we run out of fuel.” Mild cursing came from many up and down the aisle.

Twenty-five minutes later my seat mate asked me, “Are we still flying around in circles?”

“Yes,” I responded. We were all very tired and lapsed into silence again. About a quarter of an hour later I added, “We’ve been flying in a south-east direction for about five minutes now.”

He cussed quietly. About ten minutes later the pilot announced that we were headed to Dar es Salaam. We would land in about an hour and a quarter. The airline would put us up in a hotel for the night, and they would try and arrange transport back to Nairobi in the morning. He apologized for any inconveniences this might cause us. Loud and fluent cussing went up and down the aisles.

As far as I know, I was the only one on that plane who was rejoicing. I would get a good night’s rest at the airline’s expense, and they had just solved my problem of how to get onto the Blantyre bound plane in the morning.

Lord God, thank You for using an inconvenient natural event to aid me in my quandary. Thank You for always being ready to help in large matters and in small.

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[i] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwUQ8ZJ5CyGczQUOo0cQM3Hw_ARaBUxdTmfOorT48FIsUuowYQra1U5UQi5xRW1mIGoRm_3LfLQXJmSFq942yMU51p0W-3EAasMaEQSrO44s5WVJsYLIkrtwBqhSaS5JPsNzfzL6AGNnAh/s1600/IMG_4828.JPG