Day by Day

It’s Friday. Praise God. As usual, I’ve had a full week. With lifestyle guests and students, and my usual preaching to the staff on Wednesday and Sabbath, plus a talk at a cooking school, I think I preached 14 times in the past week. That, of course, is not the end of the world, but it sure cuts into work time. Throw into the mix the conference calls and everyday e-mails and phone calls, and you can see that there isn’t much time left. Nevertheless, life is good.

Our new doctor showed up last night. We are extremely grateful, but now we face a dilemma. Mrs. Clark is allergic to mold and the house set aside for the doctor has mold in it. I doubt we’ll find a house on campus without mold. What to do? All I know to do is claim a very specific promise found in DA 330 “In every (notice that word ‘every’) difficulty, He has His way prepared to bring relief.” So, if my faith serves me right, there is a solution to this problem. DA 667 says, “In every difficulty we are to see a call to prayer.” That’s the first part of the solution. Let’s see now what God will do.

What follows is what I’ve written to my wife over the past week.

I woke up to a couple of inches of snow this morning. When the sun came up it was altogether glorious bright, beautiful.

Jack Long died this week. His memorial service is tomorrow in Fort Collins. (Jack is the man who introduced us to Self-supporting work. He’s lived near us the last ten years, in Loveland. We maintained a close friendship.)

One of our ladies at EVI is not feeling well. It turns out she has colon cancer. She's had cancer before and has always beaten it. Will she beat it this time? God knows. (Name withheld for her sake.)

Our United Prayer sessions are still well attended, but along with answered prayers we are detecting an increase in trouble. We have a wonderful group of Lifestyle Guest, but some are not easy. About once per year, we have a difficult bunch. This session almost qualifies. Most of the people are darlings, but a couple of them are demanding, critical and complaining. Things have settled down for now.

I didn't have any heat in my house for four nights. The furnace wasn't working right. David will fix it. He found a leak of hot water in the basement also. The guest in my house is nice about it, but wrote me a long letter asking I raise the temperature. He isn't use to being that cold indoors. (58 degrees)

And lastly, Stephanie Thorn, the little girl I baptized years ago, just got married? She looks super happy by Facebook standards, anyhow.

It's Sunday night, I'm alone, and the house is cold. The cold doesn't bother me. I guess it is 59 degrees or so. Today, I spoke at a cooking school that our students did. (Twelve people.) Besides that I bought some trace minerals like you use. I don't know if I need any, but I've decided to give it a go. I also bought more vitamin D3 liquid. I got a haircut in town. I forgot to tell the girl about my cowlick. I'm afraid I'm in trouble. (I am. A week later, I still can’t tame that corner of my head.)

I preached yesterday with plenty of power. It was good, but ugh, I've lost confidence in my preaching and every time I have to preach I cringe. (I have to preach daily. I'm such a mess. Yet, the Lord keeps blessing . . . I guess.)

We went to Jack's funeral service yesterday. I wanted to say something, but they never gave anyone a chance. Oh well, it doesn't matter. I preach three times tomorrow. I must go get ready as best I can.

Julie is losing weight. She is almost back to normal. She promised to send me a picture by Facebook. She ran 8.6 km today. That is 8.6 km more than I can run these days.

It's Wednesday, I preached three times this morning. My voice doesn't like me preaching too many sermons in a row. I have a minor sore throat afterwards. Nothing that gives me a cold, but I guess I am wearing down, vocal cords first.

The other day, a wild turkey flew thru' one of Matt's windows and landed dead on his dining room flour. These are the new, double pane glass windows. Glass everywhere. Good thing Lori and the baby were not home. It happened when the family might have been having breakfast.

I Hit a Wall

 Life is full. The last couple of weeks were a whirlwind of activity. We prepared and enjoyed our convention weekend. James Rafferty was our guest speaker. He spoke on Revelation 12:1 in relation to righteousness by faith—it was very good.

Because we have students, I get to preach or teach a lot. Fortunately, I didn’t have to preach for the convention. Nevertheless, it seems I was up front all the time. It’s become my lot in life.

I also received a call from 3ABN. They want me to preach five one-hour sermons live on Dec. 4-7 at the 3ABN church. With that, they want two other hours live on the topic of health, featuring Eden Valley. Both programs will be broadcasted worldwide. The last sermon will be the evening of the 7^th of Dec. The trouble with that is that I leave for the Philippines the next morning from Denver at 11: 30 AM. Somehow, I need to get to Denver overnight after the last sermon. They want me to preach on the 3 Angel's Messages in relation to Righteousness by Faith. This is one assignment that will stress me out. What do I know about that? I believe I will ask Dr. Clark to come with me. If I can find a healed former lifestyle guest, I should ask him/her also.

The Eden Valley Queen is getting married soon. I met her future husband at convention. He’s a keeper. Everyone will approve, I'm sure. Who is the EVI Queen? Well, it’s a secret.

Our United Prayer Group still meets every morning at 5:30 am. The first week, the Lord answered our prayers for a doctor and filled our lifestyle center. Dr. John Clark with his wife Julie and their son, Connor will be coming on Oct. 25. Dr. Emerson is here for the October session.

Some people did not come to the convention because of the weather. There was snow all around us, from Denver to Wyoming. It was a cool weekend, but interestingly, there were a good number of people. I heard there was as many as 250. Don Johnson's twin grand daughters were baptized on convention Sabbath at EVI. They were born sixteen years ago at EVI during the convention. Sixteen years later, Don baptized them at EVI during convention.

The EVI board was the shortest board ever experienced on this property. Everything went very smooth, so smooth, as a matter of fact that, I have nothing to report.

Leasa, Leonard, Craig Harding and I drove to DayStar for their board. The board was good. DayStar is doing better and better all the time. They ended the year in the black, as we did at EVI. The Lord is blessing us.

David Katsma was lifting one of the big doors in the mechanic shop when one of the windows in the door broke. The falling glass split his head. Larry cleaned him up and sent him to the hospital for three staples.

My oldest granddaughter, Vanessa, is 20 years old.

Finally, the ASI Fall Retreat happened at EVI this last weekend. This is my last hurrah until November. (Well, it isn’t my last opportunity to preach. With the student’s classes, the lifestyle devotions and the Wednesday prayer meeting, and Sabbaths, I still have lots to do.) In November I go to Norway for a board meeting. Then I go to Czech Republic as the guest speaker for an ASI meeting.

I was the speaker at the Friday evening vespers for the Fall Retreat. In the morning of that fateful day, I took a very hot bath and drank two and one half quarts of water. I’ve found out that it takes three quarts to replace the water I lose in a hot bath. During the day, I had a little extra time so I took another hot bath. (I do my best thinking in a hot bath.) The problem came as a result of only drank one quart of water. I drank a lot of water the next day, and barely needed to go to the restroom. Obviously, I dehydrated myself big time.

Now, I’ve shared all that to say that at vespers I made a mess of the sermon I tried to preach. I slurred my words. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t deliver properly. Needless to say, I was devastated and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. There I had my ASI Executive team, and I preached like I was drunk or had a stroke, or something. I didn’t know whether to conclude that the Spirit of God had left me, or all of a sudden I had a major case of dementia. I went home dumbstruck, embarrassed and broken. I told the Lord, if I ever delivered another sermon like that I’d quit preaching.

By that experience, I found out that I care way too much what people think. (Confession.) I preached twice more during the weekend and the Lord gave me the usual umph. The ASI Executive Committee went well and I feel better.