Much Accomplished

It's been an amazing three weeks. (The three weeks ends next Wednesday, June 29.) The Maranatha builders are accomplishing an great amount a work for us. They are all the while very pleasant and loving. I wish you could all see the facelift that's happened to EVI.

In the meantime, they sometime run me off my feet. Not so bad actually, I was braced to run and it turns out I have been able to accomplish all I needed to accomplish for them and for myself as well. While they are here, we managed to finish preparing our next Faith Ventures Magazine. I even managed, yesterday, to write the first draught of my next editorial. Now I must start pushing others to do as well.

I preach every morning to our lifestyle guests, and every evening to the Maranatha crew. The Maranatha people had asked that I speak for about twenty minutes every night. They didn't want to go longer because they'd be really tired. Last night I spoke for one hour and they showed no sign of wanting me to stop. The Lord is really blessing.

We have a young man here as a lifestyle guest who is only 17 years old. He has terminal cancer, fourth stage. His chances are non-existent except for what the Lord might choose to do. He's been with us for three months now. (We don't usually keep anyone that long, but our hearts are going out to him.) We've decided to keep him as long as it takes. (It might take forever.) Yet, there is good news. Our doctors sent the last C.A.T. scan to the boy's surgeon in Pennsylvania. We were under the impression that one of his tumors had grown from four centimeters to seven centimeters, but it turns out, according to the surgeon, that the tumors barely budged from their previous sizes. To me it is like the little cloud Eligah saw when looking for rain. He knew what God was up to, and so do I.

Another of our lifestyle guests drew me aside to ask about baptism. She lives in Minnesota so I can't follow her too closely, but who knows, maybe I can do something by phone or skype. Wouldn't that be innovative?

Jason lost his passport on route to help his mom, or while helping her. In any case, he is in Dar Es Salaam trying the Canadian embassy for help. We'll see what happens next. He only has a month to get a passport to come to the ASI convention in Sacramento, CA.

While working on my house, the Maranatha people disturbed my pet snake. Actually, it turns out there was two snakes. I've seen one of the snakes once or twice per year for the passed two years. It seems one of the snakes got hurt while they were breaking the cement of my old sidewalk. The snakes were underneath. There was probably one hundred eggs there also. This week, I've seen the other snake twice at the place where they had their nest. She (I assume it to be a she) is looking for her eggs, I think. Otherwise, she is just coming to say hello. I nearly jumped on top of her yesterday. I came out the door and jumped the two feet to the group, and the poor mrs. snake was there. She jumped one foot to one side and I to the other.

Pastor Jim Brackett preached twice for us this week also. I always enjoy listening to him. He forgot his glasses at both meetings and had to run back to get them, Then when he left EVI, he set his computer down and drove off without it. I had to call him and both of us had to drive twenty miles to make the rendez-vous. Hmm! Do you think he's get old? Yea, about as old as me.

Till next week.

Hail, Hail the Damage is All Done.

I was just looking at Angie's gardening blog. Wonderful! it isn't so wonderful at EVI, however. We had a half-hour hail storm the other night. The storm devastated our exposed farm crops, but not only that, we have sixty plus Maranatha workers here and everyone suffered damage on their cars and RV's. My car is all dented, and so is my wife's car--everybody's. The good thing in this bad thing is that no one, not one soul complained. Everyone just picked up and went to work the next day. Some of these dudes drive Lincolns and fancy sports cars and beautiful big Macho Trucks. No complaints. Impressive really.

The work is progressing very quickly. These folks are mostly older, but there seems to be none lagging behind.

I'm am preaching to my lifestyle guests in the morning, and to the Maranatha people in the evening. The rest of the time, I'm running to keep the leaders from getting frustrated. Not everyone has patience for their forte. Leasa says he must be constipated. She aims to fix him a drink to solve the problem.

Today we had a meeting with the man who drew us an architectural plan of our new Lifestyle Center. (Greek to me.) Well, I can tell which room is which and I can see the layout, but when they begin talking of structural stuff, I'm lost. Frankly, (cause that's my name) I hate being in the dark. Maybe I don't hate being in the dark, maybe I hate that I am not interested when I am suppose to be. When I was a little boy, a road grader couldn't drive by that the neighborhood boys wouldn't run out to watch it grade the road. I couldn't figure what was suppose to be interesting about that. (I still don't know.)

Is there something wrong with me? (Actually, I couldn't care less.) I'm interested in enough things without being interested in everything. What about you?

Till next time, The Preacher to his Tribe.

Positive Activity

I've been home for a week. The place, EVI, is buzzing with activity. Maranatha workers are beginning to arrive already. (They start work next week.) Pastor Dan Gabbert, from Black Hills, is here to give us a seminar on Christian Counseling. His material is more than great. I wish I could imbibe it fully. It is so practical and spiritually sound.

We traveled to DayStar Academy on Sunday for a board meeting. DayStar is doing great. The farm, and the greenhouses are beautiful. (I looked at ours today also. Wow, I was impressed with them too.) They (DayStar) did lose their fruit to late frost. Too bad. They have wonderful fruit there usually. Nevertheless, they are projecting a very optimistic farming season. As for their student enrollment, they have more interest and applications than ever before. Mostly, that is Alexa Hernandez's doing. She and her husband are amazing promoters. Besides, she uses the web to great advantage. Chris Anderson, the new President, is very creative and energetic. When I go to visit, I am more and more impressed with his abilities. I believe he will succeed wildly, if he stays close to the Lord. DayStar is negotiating with Dr. Michael Duerksen. The man seems to be very accomplished in the realm of Rescue and Relief. He is very spiritual and well connected. He wants to involve DayStar as a base for training young people in Disaster Relief and Rescue. The board is looking into the possibilities.

At home, we are gearing up for Maranatha. If my wife had not been here ahead of us, I think we'd be lost in an organizational mess. She did a great job. I believe she's left us with everything in place, but the actual labor. The shingles are off nearly all of the eleven roofs we are to replace. I feels like we are ahead of the curve. Did I mention that the County approved our Master Plan? It's all a go. Praise God. It feels like we were just given a wonderful miracle. It was unbelievably easy. In times past, it was like pulling teeth. Could it be the financial meltdown is playing in our favor? The Counties dare not hamper any construction for fear of making the economy worse. Even that, I think, was organized by God to favor EVI. What an arrogant thought! Forgive me, but I think God does things like that for me all the time. Not because of me, but because He is just so powerful and loving, and I believe He'll do that for me, and, He keeps me believing.

Doesn't God do stuff like that for you? Believe and doubt not . . . for you, anything.

Oh, just a word on jet lag. I suffered the worse jet lag ever in Ukraine. Back home, I've suffered none at all, zip! Usually, coming from Eastern Europe I will wake up at midnight, then one, than two, then three etc, and then I come apart around four in the afternoon. Not this time. (Forgive me for saying so, my dear health reformers) but I took Tylenol PM four nights in a row and I slept four full nights in a row. It does wonders against jet lag. No drowsiness either. Worth it??? You bet.

That's it for now. Pray without ceasing because "only that which is done with much prayer will in the end prove to be efficient for good." DA 362 Love.