Till Next Time

I'm off, again. I leave for Ukraine in one hour. I'll be doing two series at a camp meeting in Novi Obi Hodi. Also speaking will be Wilbur Atwood and I know Marcus Yaudus will be there.

I'm stressed because I asked Leonard Smith to drive me to the airport and I quoted him two hours too late. Now, I have to wake him up and give him the bad news. Wonderful. You'd think I set him up for a bad start to his day. I've gotten tons of stuff done in the past few days. It seems when I am pressed I put out like mad. It also seems that people wait till I have to go to come with their last minute requests. In any case, I think all is done that needs doing.

I come back on May 10. On May 11, I start preaching in a L.I.G.H.T. program at EVI. At the same time we have a Lifestyle session going on, and I have much to do in that as well. It's good to feel needed, I guess. Sometimes, going to Africa looks like a wonderful rest, although my dear wife isn't into letting people rest much. I think the responsibilities will be different, hence, lighter. (Maybe.)

Till next time. This is the Preacher to his tribe.

Running Flat Out

Well now, where were we? Oh yea, I was on my way home from Africa.

I arrived home sometime after midnight on a Thursday. The next morning I had to be at a Mid-America ASI chapter meeting. So it was for the next three days. I didn't have time to suffer with jet lag because I was too busy to take naps and too wound up to feel it. On Sabbath, more than 130 people from the ASI group came for supper at Eden Valley. We hosted them, toured them, gave them some EVI history lessons and future vision plans. Three McNeilus families were in the crowd and expressed real interest. Garwin McNeilus advises us to bulldoze our Retirement Center and build a new building for our Lifestyle Center. I assume that is what we will do.

Through it all, we've had a full lifestyle session going on. Last weekend, I drove to Wildwood, GA for a board meeting. It was one of the roughest board meetings I've ever attended. Half and hour after I got back to EVI, I was asked to do two hyperbaric chamber treatments. The next day I preached three sermons and we had a graduation for our lifestyle guests. All is well, just busy that's all. I feel guilty because I haven't called my girls since coming back from Africa. I must do so by Monday because I leave for Ukraine on Tuesday. The day after I return from Ukraine, May 11, we begin a L.I.G.H.T. program at EVI and I get to teach three classes. If things get any busier I'll not have time for anything personal. Oh well, such is life.

I bought my wife a CD player today. I hope to send it with Deniece when she goes to Africa on May 5. Happy birthday, wife, and God's blessing to everyone within earshot.

Africa Captured (On film)

Has it been long enough? Well, I'm sorry, but it will probably be as long this next time. I leave for Ukraine in five days. You may not believe it when I say this but, I'm tired of traveling. Never mind, I still face a lot of traveling this year.

Mid March, Janet and I left for Zambia. We had the privilege of escorting two lovely ladies, Cona and Vienna, who work for ASI, to Livingston, Zambia. There they filmed all the One-day churches put up by Garwin McNeilus. That accomplished, I preached at Riverside Farms and gave the devotional at the board meeting. The board meeting went very smoothly. So much so that it was downright boring. What happened to all the battles I anticipated.

Never mind the battles. Riverside is looking like paradise. Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia, was there at the same time. He and his wife had been guests in RFI's Lifestyle Center and the ASI gals requested an interview with him. He graciously complied.

We, Steve Grabiner and his wife, the two ASI ladies, and Janet and I went on to Tanzania to film Janet's project. That was the biggest challenge of all. The tropical rains had well nigh destroyed one hundred kilometers of roads. The first night, we had to turn back and sleep in Njombe. I've never experienced roads like that in my life. Some of the tracks looked to be four feet deep. Happily, we made it into Mago early next morning. (You wouldn't call it a miracle, but I sensed we had special help to get through.) The ASI women were visibly worried. We were to stay a couple of days, but the girls feared we would never get out before the dry season. Janet decided we had better do all the filming in one day and try to make our way over the mountains to allay the girls' worry.

Shortly after arriving in Lupalilo, we noticed a mini-bus driving toward the mountains. I asked someone if the bus tackled that mountain every day. "Yes," they said. I couldn't believe it. But if that bus could do it, I figured we could too. Five or six hours later, after finishing our work, we too were traveling out of town. When we got to the bad (very bad) part in the road, there was the mini-bus. They had been digging in the mud for hours. As we got there, they made a stab at driving out and got thru'. We followed in their tracks. It was as if God sent them ahead to prepare the way for us. Praise God. "In every difficulty, we are to see a call to prayer." And, "In every difficulty, He has His way prepared to bring relief." DA 667, 330.

Janet's place looked great. Her workers had slashed the grass and her new buildings were all spiffy. She was especially proud of her carpentry and sewing students. Apparently, they made quite a show for the cameras. I missed it as I had to guard the stuff--practicing for my future roll when I quasi retire next year. (I'm not retiring next year. It will only look that way to people as I disappear into oblivion.)

On to Kibidula. Again, I got to preach Friday vespers, and do the devotional at the board meeting. The board meeting this time was a bit more fueled. Unfortunately, there are divisions among the staff at Kibidula. Nevertheless, the Lord worked His will into the situation and the board ended without incinerating anyone. The ASI women did their filming there as well, and praise God, our mission was accomplished. Finally, we could rest, and rest we did.

Early next day, Jason and family, and Janet and I travelled to Matema Beach on Lake Malawi for six blissful days of laying in the sun. What a blessing that was. Sunshine, sand, happy children, warm water, sunburns and good food. Better still, what a blessing to get reacquainted with my little girls. You wait until they grow up. They will be a force to be reckoned with. Strong as they are beautiful and smarter than they are strong. Just wait.

On my lonely way home, I visited with Michelle and Yuli, my niece, in London. That was a blessing. I also read five hundred pages of the Great Controversy. Reading so much zeroed my mind on the real issues in Christianity. Perhaps it can be summarized with two thoughts. One, Sola Scriptura. Christianity, in all its variances, will be judged by this one principle. Do we live by every word that proceed from the mouth of God, or do we live by the Bible and tradition, the Bible and ecclesiastical pronouncements, the Bible and fashion, theological opinions and Babylonian confusion?

Second, the just shall live by faith -- faith in God, faith in the Bible, faith in the promises and a repudiation of man's supposed wisdom. When we get these two principles straight through the merits found in Christ's atoning sacrifice, we will be home free.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.