Big Weekend

Just came off of another big weekend. Leasa Hodges, the Waggoners, the Emersons and I went to Goodland, Kansas to do a health weekend. We had a great time. At least, I did. All I had to do was preach the sermon on Sabbath, and run the errands for the team. I did make a couple of recipes. It took me three to four hours to make a candy dish. Then, I brought some of the candy home, but I had to eat the wax paper it was wrapped in, it was so sticky. So yummy, by the way, that I ate the paper and all.

Dr. Emerson gave exceptionally good lectures on health. Brent Waggoner is very good as well, and humorous. The ladies did a cooking school on Sunday. The food was great, as was all else. Wish I had pictures for you.

Four of us stayed at the Pastor's house. The couple were very hospitable. Our rooms were in the basement of the house, and there was no windows in the rooms. It was pitch dark, day and night. That is so ideal for sleeping. Not so great for air, but sleep, hmmm, mm!

Talked to my Lover this morning. It's so terribly dusty over there that she is coming down with bronchitis. Jason is there with his family. He put one roof on in two days. Tomorrow, he expects to put two more roofs on. That will make his mother happy.

The Baumans leave for Africa on the first of September with twelve trunks and four bikes. The house they will occupy isn't ready yet, in Africa, but it shouldn't be too long. I hope they are tough. It will be fun to follow the progress.

Dad

Melancholy

I got word that Jason arrived in Dar early today. I guess we may safely assume he reached home as well. It was an exceptional gift that God gave me, if you think about it. The circumstances had to be just right for my son and I to spend three weeks together. An amazing blessing to me. We put more than 10,000 km on my old van. We crossed the USA diagonally, from Florida to Washington State. We climbed mountains, went swimming, attended ASI, loaded a container for my wife's project and visited with Angie and Julie with eight grandchildren and then, as quickly as the blessing came, the blessing left. We said goodbye at the airport and we walked away. I must admit, however, that a huge melancholy settled on my soul. Urgh! It was hard to walk away. But never mind, I bounced back up and work now occupies my every minute.

This weekend, a team of Eden Valley-ites will drive to Goodland, Kansas to do a health emphasis weekend. I will do the 11 o'clock sermon on Sabbath. Leonard and I were suppose to bus down to Mexico next week, but we've cancelled the trip. It's too hairy down there now.

I have to make my way to Wildwood at the end of Sept. to meet with folks from Ukraine. We, Markus, Steven, and myself, are trying to solve some ethical issues with our dear brethren.

Tonight is graduation at our lifestyle center. I've got half an hour to prepare a short talk. Got to go.

In Heat and Loving it.

The fun continues. As you know, we all went tubing two days ago. Unfortunately, Venessa lost her retainer. (The thing that holds her teeth together.) Yesterday, we went on a search and retrieve mission. We found nothing. We all prayed before we went, and yet, I couldn't muster up the faith to believe we could find a little retainer in one kilometer of river. I searched the beach where we ate while the others swam the cold waters of the river.

When it was all over, the swimmers were frozen. Seeing I was dry and hot, and that I had given Jason my shirt because of the hyperthermia, the kids came to put the ice-cube hands on my hot body. Caleb said he came to me to warm up because "Pepere was in heat." Very perceptive.

Because it was Caleb's birthday, we all ate at Taco Bell. Where else could you feed thirteen people for less than $40. Today, we are just laying around. I preach tomorrow, and on Sunday, Jason and I hit the trail for the last trip of the vacation. Again, we need to travel 1300 miles in one day. On Monday, Jason flies to his lover. Wish I was., I'm in heat, remember.

Big Tubing

Every day is a big adventure for the Ford, McPherson, and Fournier clan. Today, we went to the Icicle River, well named, and threw in our tubes, canoes and air mattresses. It was great for the kids. We saw a bear and lots of salmon. When I saw the bear (the biggest seen in these parts, according to Nessa.) I yelled, "Hey, there's a bear." The bear ran away and I got a blast for scaring the critter. Can't blame a guy for getting excited when he sees a bear, can you? For the others, well, they saw me. It's better than only seeing the man who saw the man who saw the bear.

Yesterday, was Steve's birthday. Today, is Angie and Steve's wedding anniversary. Congratulations for nineteen years of near constant bliss. I offered to babysit if they wanted to go on a date tonight. Angie says that Steve's idea of a date is to climb a mountain. She had enough of that yesterday. At least we are having lasagna for suppers.

Big Climb

We climbed to Stuart Lake, yesterday. Thirteen of us. The youngest are twins of six years. They marched with the rest of us from twelve thirty to four o'clock to get to the lake. (We did stop for lunch at a foaming creek for one hour.) Then they practically ran all the way off the mountain, taking two hours. Amazing.

At the creek, the kids jumped into the ice water. Jason caught it all on his new camera. It was a great time. Buster really didn't want to go in, but he peed his pants and his mom dunked him in the ice water to clean him up and as a form of punishment. It was a tragic comedy. Through his tears and agony he kept claiming to be happy. "I'm happy, I'm happy he would cry trying to paste a smile on his agonized face." Zero tolerance is the motto. I believe it works. He had a similar experience at the lake. He got miserable up there and his mom, tough as gum rubber, took him for another swim. Again, he pleaded through tears that he was happy, but to no avail. His pronouncements didn't cut it. He was made happy by having to stay in the cold drink until he could get control of himself. Victory again. Most admitted they couldn't be that tough. That is the part of discipline that eludes most parents--tough love. These kids will praise God forever that He saw fit to put them into this family. I believe they will be saved.

It was a great day. We were all as tired as could be by evening, but our tough Yukon boys, Ziggy and Jake, decided to climb the mountain behind Angie's house to show their toughness. Caleb needed to be sent after them when the sun went down. It was a rescue mission that only a super hero could handle. With cell phone in hand, he found them by the big tree and reported his success with a terse "roger" at the close of the call.

Good Time, Busy Time

Finally. Boy, it's been a long time. Sorry about that. It's been a busy time.

I picked up Jason at the Denver airport on August 2. We left the airport at 8:00 P.M. and headed for Orlando, two thousand miles. Jason hadn't slept for twenty for hours coming from England, and in spite of that, we drove and talked non-stop for another twenty four hours. We managed the two thousand miles in a day and a half.

The ASI Convention was very good, very spiritual. The music was exceptional. The highlight, as for as I am concerned, was my opportunity to bring two estranged brothers together to effect a reconciliation.

We lelt Orlando on a Sunday morning. We drove for 800 miles that day and for 1300 miles the next day. During the long day, we stopped at the factory that makes Zenair airplanes. Jason got some of his questions answered and asked the people there to take us up in a four-seater airplane. That was cool, even tho' it was 100 degrees F.

All the next week we worked non-stop at Eden Valley--Executive Committee meetings, personnel problems, loading a container for Africa, preaching twice etc.

Then, on Sunday morning, we took off at 3:00 A.M. for Wenatchee, WA. We travelled the 1270 miles in one day. Now, we are at Angie's having a blast. Julie and her boys are here, Angie's girls are all grown up. Vanessa and Brianna are lifeguards at the local pool. The boys and I climbed the mountain in athletic style--we practically ran all the way up and down. I was soaked. Our boys are boys. Our girls are beautiful, and I mean knockouts. Angie's adopted twins have been very affectionate and pleasant. All is good.

The messages at ASI were all good. Interestingly, the sermon I enjoyed the least left me with the only lasting impression. It had to do with the Beatitudes. The Preacher read something from the S.O.P which said that Jesus preached the Beatitudes in an effort to give the human race access to God. Just that idea inspired me to no end. I long to have greater access to God. Don't you? That means everything, John 17:3. But consider this: Jesus gives eight points, which if we follow, constitutes the key to the heart of God.

The eight keys are in a natural order. Number one: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Happy are they who feel their spiritual poverty. This is the first condition of salvation. Then, blessed are they who mourn that condition, for, number three, it will leave you meek, i.e. teachable. Once we recognize our terrible condition and become self-distrustful, then we begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness. With righteousness comes purity, mercy, and peacemaking, as opposed to trouble making. In reaching that high standard, then surely persecution will come and with persecution an intimate walk with God. I love it.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Lonely

Lonely. Can you imagine? I don’t have a day like this in ten years of days. Well, it hits me like this occasionally. The planets have to line up special, though. I am usually so busy I look for the moment when I can go pee. But occasionally, eveything stops and whapp, I ain’t got nothin to do. I tell you, I’m glad it don’t happen too often, I’d go stir crazy. Jason is scheduled to arrive tomorrow at 6:25 P.M. at the Denver airport. We’ll take off from there and drive to Orlando. It’s 1900 miles. Why, that’s nearly 3,000 kilometers. It would take two good days to drive that far and that without fiddlin, and all we have is one day and two nights. I think that is why I’ve got nothing to do. I’ve been getting ready little by little, and I’m worried about having enough strength between us to drive the distance nonstop. Jason’s body clock will be off quilter and I’m not as young as I was yesteryears. As a matter of fact, I drove to Oak Haven and back last weekend (1200 miles) and it took me all week to recover.

I know, we’d recover better if we flew. Actually, I tried to buy tickets with air-miles. I have two tickets, just what we need and I tried to cash them in, but United won’t do it when they can seat paying customers. I tried to go to Alaska to visit Julie and they wouldn’t accept my air-miles then, either. I bet if I decided to go to nowhere, i.e. where no one else wants to go, they’ll be glad to honor them, but who needs to go there? Well, anyway, I didn’t want to buy two tickets out of pocket. Jason lives on a shoestring, always, and I figure we can make the trip cheaper using my car. Except that I can’t use my car. Things happen. Bill was fixing my car when he got sick. Oh well. What aggravates the situation is that Jason made a mistake on the tickets he bought from Africa. He’s arriving at least one day later than he should be arriving. (Two days would have been better.)

So here I sit, anticipating tomorrow, and I ain’t got nothin to do. I’m ready. So I think, ok, I’ll prepare a sermon. I’ll get the jump on my next assignement. I really ought to do that, but nah, why should I prepare a sermon when I don’t have to.

I preached yesterday. Amazing. (It isn’t amazing that I preached yesterday. I preach every Sabbath and every Wednesday, and when the lifestyle guests are here, I preach every day.) What’s amazing is, the sermon I preached. I’m having a string of lousy sermons turn good, by grace. Really. I’ve been so busy, I am down to devoting two or three hours to a sermon, and by the time I’ve cranked it out, I could throw up. There isn’t anything more I can do but pray. But pray I do. Praise God for that. No matter how busy I am, I take time to pray. I’ve got no choice. It’s embarrassing to have a reputation as a good speaker, and then turn around and serve the people slop. Anyway, all I can say is, I prayed and begged the Lord for help and He turns around and fed the five thousand (50) a good meal. For yesterday’s sermon, I worked all of one and one half hours. That’s all I could do. I was sick over it, but when I got up to preach, God’s Spirit, to sooth my sickened heart, turned the water into wine.

One man walked out weeping. He told me that message was just for him. Half a dozen people told me the same. Strangers were asking for the recording of it and I stood there with my mouth open. God always treats me as if I am special. It blows me away.

There is a danger here, of course. Perhaps you’ve figured it out already. I mustn’t go around thinking I can wing it and the Lord will rescue me every time. It isn’t that hard for the Lord to turn the water into mud if His man gets a little too cocky.

Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, lonely. I was reading this morning in Counsels to Teachers that idelness is the devil’s workshop. I suppose it is, except the devil must be asleep, cause he hasn’t bothered to tempt me with anything exciting today. I did get the notion that I should go to town.

“To do what?” I asked myself. That was the end of the temptation.

So here I sit. On my bed, rambling. Wish you were here, maybe we could hoe corn together, or something.