God is Amazing

Our Convention starts tomorrow. I believe we are ready. Leasa stays ahead of the curve with Programs and Board packets and such.

Yesterday, I was in Wildwood. We had a meeting with the folks from Ukraine. I'm not sure we accomplished enough to make the trip worth while. I was routed through Chicago. My plane was suppose to leave the airport at 7:30 PM. Everything was ready, the plane, the crew, the control tower, everything. Everything except the pilot. He didn't show up until 9:30 PM. I got to bed at 12:30 AM.

We got a million dollar donation yesterday. I thank God for the miracle. When I was first a leader at Woodland Park, I use to watch Bill Dull, Ron Crary, Larry Flemming and all those guys, and marvel at the donations they use to bring in. They were building empires. I thought, I'll never be able to fundraise like that. Well, I was never able to fundraise at all. The Lord surrounds me with people who are able to do it. Steven Grabiner, who read the message I got by text on my phone wondered why I was not more excited. First of all, I didn't raise it. Secondly, I knew it was coming, and thirdly, it isn't going in my pocket. I praise God constantly, but I'm not making a big show of it. Steve said that I'll be known for being the best fundraiser in our work. Ya, right! Anyway, it's a huge donation. I'm humbled and grateful and amused that the Lord would choose to do that to me. I so wanted to be a fund raiser years ago. Today, I really couldn't care less. All I know, is that God takes care of my needs and my institutional needs as well. Now that making a show no longer matters a hoot, now the Lord is doing all kinds of amazing things for me . . . for us. I still marvel that John is a Conference President.

Champy called me Thursday night. We talked for half an hour. We had a good time. His church wants me to do a week of revival meetings in November for them. I thought I would try to draw my wife home with that possibility. She hasn't seen hers or my family in eons. It would be a blessing to take a week for the meetings and a week to visit some folks, don't you think?

Maybe not.

It's Sunday evening. The Family Camp is over and I believe everyone is more than pleased. I know I am. The speakers were very good--Tom and Alane Waters were good and the other family, Paul and Carolyn Rayne with two children, were better. They addressed many issues pertaining to families and romance. I don't know if I learned anything, but I do know they left me missing my wife a lot more.

The church was full, especially on Sabbath and the weather was perfect. I think it was 95 degrees F. today.

I'm enjoying Michelle and Yuli with the children more every day. The kids take to me well. It isn't like I don't work at it, but the truth is, working at it comes naturally to me. I love kids, and I think they know it. Uncle Rob drove all the way from California to see Michelle. He always makes a favorable impression on everyone he meets. Gabriella and Adam Dean stayed at my house as well. They got on especially well with Yuli. All of it put together made for a great weekend.

Today, Tom Waters went for a walk to pray. That was in the dark, before dawn. At one point, he felt like he wasn't alone. When he looked down, he saw a bear cub walking by his side. Tom stopped and the cub stopped, then began to retreat. Tom thought it might fun to pet the little fella, but he couldn't get close to it. Eventually, Tom figured he shouldn't push his "luck", or might we say "Providence" too far. I haven't seen a bear at EVI since last fall. Tom has seen the twin cubs twice in four days. Maybe I should walk in the very early mornings. Then again, maybe not.

Next week promises to be busy. On Tuesday, I need to fly to Chattanooga to meet with some folks from Ukraine at Wildwood. After meeting with them on Wednesday, I return home to get ready for the EVI Convention and Board Meeting. After the board I drive to DayStar for their boards and drive home the next day. The next Lifestyle Session will be well under way when I get back. So, it's back to the old grind.

If my wife was here, I'd turn my back on all that work and take her on a week's vacation and just rest. No point resting alone.

Visitors

Yuli, Michelle, Samuel, and Elizabeth arrived Thursday evening for England. It's been a blast ever since. I'm exposing myself, however, as a poor cook. Too bad, but this is what you get if you come to visit me when I am alone. I make good bread, and I buy a lot of fruit. With that I hope all will find some semblance of satisfaction.

Elizabeth had her first birthday, yesterday, Sabbath. She also walked about six feet without falling. Yuli brought a cake that a friend baked all the way from England and shared it with the church at potluck. 'Lizabeth was quite happy to have "Happy Birthday" sung to her. Blowing the candle out was a total mystery to her. Her brother was very eager to help, except that no one would let him. Half a dozen adults (you'd think would know better) kept saying, way above a whisper, blow, blow, blow, but she couldn't compute.

Coincidentally, I preached on 1 Samuel chapter one. You remember, the story of Hannah and little Samuel. Hannah brought Samuel to the temple just after she weaned him, probably three years old, and there he was to "abide forever." 1 Samuel 1:22. At one point I asked Yuli to stand Samuel up on a church pew. The question to the congregation was: Now, do you think this three-year old boy is ready to leave home? Do you think his mother is ready to let him stay at Eden Valley with Uncle Frank? The tsi bougon (french for little Twirp) is just that, a little twirp. It must have been heart wrenching for Hannah to fulfill her vow to God. And that was the point of the whole sermon. Abiding in Christ is not a matter of doing like going to church on Sabbath, praying every morning and reading our Bibles, it is a matter of being. It's a decision that changes our whole lives. We can't be in and out of abiding. We must abide--live--in Christ forevermore. For some, it's a heart wrenching separation from a cherished lifestyle, but is what we vowed to do at our baptism. That is what we should endeavor to live up to.

Today, we took a trip to the Rocky Mountains--12,000 feet. We had a picnic up there and all was well until about half an hour from home. Elizabeth had had enough and let us know without let up and Mr. Samuel, star of yesterday's sermon, decided to get carsick and throw up all over himself. Oh well, everything can't be roses.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Conference President, Imagine.

Something exciting has just happened. My brother John, the cute one in the family, Pastor in New Brunswick, was elected to the post of Conference President of the Maritimes Provinces. I spent an hour on the phone with Auntie Janice, yesterday. They are blown away. It isn't anything they expected and, I must say, it sounds like they are a bit intimidated. Surely, I would be if I was in their shoes. I'm proud of my little brother (though he is bigger than I.) God makes no mistakes. He can put a man with only a grade 10 education if He chooses to. Now I'm eager to visit them. I've never stayed in a Conference President's house before.

Michelle will be here on the 16th of Sept. I'm excited about the time I'm to have with them.

I expressed last time that we had a difficult group in our lifestyle center this time. Well, last night I had to take a man away from his bedroom and put him in our former Assisted Living facility. This morning, I put him on a flight home. He was revealing himself to some of our lady lifestyle guests, besides other gross behavior. I hated to have to send him home, but for the sake of the other guests, I had to do something. He was making progress health wise, and might have been one who would have recovered nicely. Too bad. A few minutes ago, his pastor called me, quite angry. he tried to tell me I didn't give the guy a fair hearing. Truth is, I spoke to several other lifestyle guests, and the verified his gross behavior. That was enough for me.

You probably all have read about the fires in Boulder, CO. Yesterday, a fire started just 10 or 15 miles from Eden Valley. It is 10% contained as of this morning. If it comes our way, we could be in trouble. They lost approximately 170 houses in Boulder and the Loveland fire has burned two, so far.

I have a friend in Christchurch, New Zealand, who is living with the after shocks of the 7.1 earthquake they had last week. She says the cracks in her house are getting bigger and bigger with each tremor. If you ask me, I know, you didn't ask, but if you did, I am ready to believe that we've entered into the end game. Brace yourselves, Jesus is making His presence known.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Knowledge Power

It's Thursday. Not too much happening, though there is always a degree of stress to contend with.

The Lifestyle guests seem to be doing alright. It's a bit worrisome when you suspect one or two of them of sneaking off to smoke marijuana. The question is: How do you handle that? Do you call in the Mounties, confront them sternly or tactfully, or wait on the Lord in the matter. We are watching closely to ascertain whether the other guests are negatively impacted. No sign that they know anything at this point. They all come to the devotional hour to hear the gospel. Therefore, I'm slow to do anything that will jeopardize the possibility of anyone missing out on finding salvation. So far, I've/we've chosen to stay cool and wait to see how the Lord moves upon us.

We are coming close to another Annual Board Meeting, Oct. 3,10. There are no big issues this year. At least, I hope there aren't any. Our finances are down a little. We'd actually be in great shape if the farm hadn't suffered a major setback again this year. As a result, we wrestle with how to relate to next year's farming. Should we keep on going, or should we close down? Should we scale down? I feel it would be wise to decide before the board meeting.

The Lifestyle Center is still full. It's been more than a year and one half now. The health food store stays in the black, and our overseas missions are pretty well thriving. I praise God.

I put a missionary lady, Carmen Rosario, whose been with us for a week on an airplane last night. She use to do the promotional work in Uchee Pine's Lifestyle Center. I have the impression that they will miss her dearly. I've been trying to recruit her for quite some time. Instead, she committed herself to Bolivia. However, the situation isn't real solid over there and I dare to hope she will come this way in the not to distant future.

Michelle and Yuli will arrive on Sept 16. (Michelle is my niece. She is married to a Bulgarian lawyer and they live in London, England.) All of us who travel from Africa through London stop for an overnight rest at their house. Very handy, indeed, and very hospitable of them, also. They plan to spend three weeks with me. Yuli is wanting to make himself useful. We'll see. What can I do to end up needing a lawyer?

Yesterday, I preached on The Power of Knowledge.

"Knowledge is power for good or for evil." FE 111. That means you aren't too dangerous if you don't know anything. Well, maybe! On the positive side, you might be a real blessing if you educated yourself to be one, a blessing that is. I work on the assumption that most people, even the "unchurched" would prefer to do good rather than evil. The problem for most is, where do they find the fodder to fill their minds with good things. The world is corrupt and corrupts everything it influences. TV, radio, internet and the media at large spews out evil with only enough good to be dangerous. Few are perceptive enough to tell good and evil apart.

How simplified is life when the Bible becomes the standard. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise [the] wisdom and instruction [it offers.] Pro 1:7. "In [Christ] is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. 2:3. Where then should we go for an education?

Am I saying we shouldn't go to school, college, university? No, but I am saying the school of Christ is superior to any other institution you or your kids can attend. I am also saying that any school, even Yale and Harvard, are a waste of time and money, if the Bible is neglected. And I am convinced that most people are unbelievers in this matter. They don't realize that "the work of education and the work of redemption are one." Ed 30. Life, if all there is is what the world offers, isn't worth the living.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

This Week as I See It

It's a new week. Yesterday, we started a new lifestyle session with 13 people. First impressions left me thinking we are in for a rough time.

We've gotten through the first day and we are still intact. I keep praying for wisdom to maintain a balanced control of the situation. In essence, they are all lovable people. My fear is that they'll step on each other's toes.

Michelle and Yuli will be at EVI for as much as three weeks starting from the 14th or 15th of September. That will be a blast. I hope I can do well by them. My busy-ness isn't always conducive to hospitality. I'd better stock up on some grub, as well.

This week, I have David and Candi Katsma for breakfast and a lady from Bolivia. The Katsma's are just moving into EVI and Carmen Rosario is part of a team starting a new lifestyle center in South America. With that, I have two lifestyle guests in my house. I am surrounded with people all the time. No time to get lonely.

I'll be starting a series of meetings on True Education on Wednesday, this week.

Markus Yaudas asked me to do a week of prayer in Brazil, next month. (I said yes.)

The Larimer County accepted our first draft of the Master Plan to rebuild EVI.

Bill Bosko is looking and feeling great. He is recovering from heart failure miraculously fast.

That's it for now.

More of the Same

I find that the longer I go between blogs, the harder it is to blog. (Ask Julie. Julie, how can we know what is happening with you if you don't tell us?)

We've gotten some real good news at EVI. Our farm manager, Bill Bosko, was threatened with needing a heart transplant. Unbelievable, but true. He kept assuring me, perhaps himself as well, that he would not accept a heart transplant under any circumstance. For a while there, I thought he might have to eat his words. Praise God, he doesn't. I've not often prayed for anything as much as I prayed for this. I don't mean to imply that because I prayed Bill needs no surgery. I'm sure my prayers were just one of many, many. The doctor says Bill will recover fully within one year. Praise God. We should all have the hope of recovering spiritually is so short a time.

We went up the mountain last evening. When I say we, I mean maybe twenty Eden Valley-ites and friends and enjoyed a corn roast. I really appreciate the opportunities to do something pleasant with my Eden Valley family. Great people.

Unfortunately, the Eden Valley family hasn't always been this united. We spent the last couple of years learning to deal with each other's characters. Some people are gone, which I love very much, but they couldn't be happy with us no matter what. More and more, we are focusing on the possibility to do more for the Lord. What a blessing that is.

Leasa is gone for the weekend. She called me from the airport this morning. She told me she'd been reading my blogs up to a year ago. I thought, "Oh oh, I wonder what nonsense I've been caught saying." As you know, discretion isn't my strongest quality. In the end, it appears I wasn't caught with my pants down, this time. In July last year, I postulated that if I found a Business Manager, there would be a huge transfer of power, and I would not be needed as much at EVI. Leasa wanted to know if my predictions had come to pass. They haven't. I've never been so blessed as since this dear lady put her shoulder behind the EVI plow.

-The bears are coming down from the mountains. Our few apples are nearly ready for them. -There is one elk which thinks the corn was planted specifically for him.

-Eden Valley is pretty well full up as far as staff is concerned. We do need a female therapist.

-The corn seems to be selling well. This morning the farm crew left with a load of corn for farmer's market. They sold out the first hours. We had to send another load to them.

Till next time.