Glorious Future

The girl in blue with pink arms is Olga.

I've been at EVI for seven years. For seven years, I've been swamped with work. I don't remember a time when I didn't have more to do than time to do it in. All of a sudden, I am caught up. For the last two or three weeks I've got too little to do. It's terrible. I am forcing myself not to feel guilty and it isn't easy. By the same token, I believe that God is the orderer of all my experiences. So, relax self, God is giving you a break.

The break, I believe, is due to Leasa Hodges coming to be the Business Manager at EVI. She's taken so much work off my desk that I am wonderfully/terribly relieved.

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I may have mentioned my little Russian translator. Olga is 35 years old and dying of cancer. I've only seen Olga three or four times and the last time must have been four years ago. The young woman had a very positive impact on me. She is a strong leader, teacher, missionary. Now, however, she has cancer.

To help her with the cancer I raised money and paid to send a female doctor, Dr. Oden, to her. Dr. Oden gave her all the treatments that we would give Olga at EVI. I cannot tell if it was of any benefit to her, but when I spoke to her on the phone, her spirits were high. It appears Dr. Oden was a great help spiritually to her. Olga spoke only of perfect submission to God and seemed focus on the time when we would meet in the kingdom. The cancer has metastasized into her bones and the bones are breaking. She knows she is dying and seems at rest.

I've been praying for Olga two and three times per day. As a matter of fact, I am spending two to two and one half hours in prayer daily. I pray for many people and issues two to three times per day. Anyway, I believe God has filled my mouth with arguments on behalf of Olga. Here is how the argument goes: "Lord, if this young woman was given life, I believe she would win souls for the kingdom. If she would win souls for the kingdom, would it not be irresponsible to deny her life. God, you can do anything. It is easy for you. Please give her life without losing her soul." I finish this prayer with true gratitude, for I believe that I am heard. And I believe that I am praying according to God's will, as well.

What do you think God will do? Amazingly, I am in perfect peace. I know that God is too powerful to fail, too wise to make a mistake and too loving to disregard my appeal.

Does God answer your prayers? Do you have faith? Do you even pray?

You know, this thing of religion and of spiritual connection is not for a few chosen ones. God is there. He loves you. He hears your prayers. He answers . . . every time!

You can't know how many times I hear people say, "God doesn't seem to answer my prayers." It isn't so, you know. The reality is, we pray so little. We let go of the arm of the Lord too soon.

One year and one half ago, May 2008, I began to write a journal. It was meant to be a journal of my spiritual experience over the following four months. Eden Valley was facing a terrible financial crisis. I had made huge mistakes. The whole infrastructure was threatened with collapse. It was my fault. All I could do was pray and hope in God's mercy. So day be day, diary-like, I recorded my feelings and prayers. Now, it isn't like I was blind to God's miracles, but something special happened to me last week.

During my devotional time, I opened my Journal and read the first entry. I was overwhelmed with amazement. The entry brought me back to May 2008--the feelings, the crisis, the despair, the hopelessness--but I am in December 2009. I was able to see what God had done with a clarity that could not have been possible except for that journal entry.

Many of you may question if God really interacts with you. He does, more than we recognize because we don't record life as we should. We are always facing the problems of today. We end up focusing on the dark side of life when, if our eyes were open, we'd see a glorious reality.

Do you think you'll get to heaven and you'll be able to point back to any time in the past where God made a mistake in your case? Impossible! Then, do you realize that between here and then life can only be glorious. So says the Preacher to his tribe.