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