Preacherstribe

Encouraged

2012-02-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

What is it that encourages you?

I've been wonderfully encouraged lately. We've seen more miracles of healing lately than ever I remember. We had a Hindu-become-SDA from Montreal come to us in November with fourth-stage stomach cancer metastasized into his lungs. I couldn't, looking at him, give him much hope that we could help him, but the Lord is not hampered by my prognoses. Two weeks after returning home they could find no cancer in his lungs and the original tumors were shrinking. I talked to the man on the telephone and he sounded full of energy.

In September, I think, we had a man come to us with stage-four lung cancer. The man couldn't walk any distance. He couldn't breadth. Before he left EVI he was walking 2-4 miles a day. I thought sure he would go home to die. A few weeks ago, I heard that he had suffered three set backs. So I contacted his daughter-in-law and asked about him expecting to hear the worse. I couldn't have been more surprised. The man is cancer free.

We did have a strange tragedy. One of our sweetest guest went home and found out she was cancer free. The problem is, she died of a heart attack. Somethings are not easy to understand.

A 34 year old Vancouver man came to visit EVI. We invited him to come to visit when we saw him at GYC. While he was at EVI he found out, from tests done in Vancouver, that he had a very aggressive form of lymphoma. The doctor said he had as little as eight months to live (or as much as five years.) So being that he was here we gave him some treatments and arranged for him to return for the February session. He is here now. Trouble is, more tests done in Vancouver show that his cancer is totally eradicated. The surgeon in Vancouver is proud of his ability to remove all the cancer. Which is ok with me, but we'd like to give the glory to God. We did anoint Rob and without knowing what in the world happened, the man is perfectly healthy. So now we are giving him a full session that he may or may not need. Praise God.

Right now, we are treating eleven guests. One is deathly ill with terminal fourth-stage pancreatic cancer. He is from Ghana originally. His faith is strong, but humanly speaking, he doesn't stand an ice cube's chance in hell. One day, his eyes were florescent yellow from jaundice. (His liver is where the cancer is.) The doctor decided to give him a coffee enema. His eyes immediately cleared up. Now he takes two enemas a day and he is showing signs of a quick recovery. (Whether there is a recovery at all, I don't know, but he is far improved.)

I'm in the middle of preparing for an ASI board in two weeks in California. There is much I do not know, but to date the Lord is helping me graciously. For the next two months I must bounce from ASI Chapter meeting to Chapter meeting, besides all else. With that, I'm suppose to have something to say. Lord help me.

Blessings to all,

Changes, never easy.

2012-02-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

The weeks go by too fast, and the work piles on too quickly. Nevertheless, I know I have a whole crowd of people waiting to here from me. Well, two or three people. Anyway, it's been a good week. We just finished our third LIGHT school. This time, we did it on our own (without Wildwood's help.) We had 10 students. Wonderful people. Some came late, others needed to leave early, but all in all, I think it was a great success.

To add to the enjoyment, a snow storm hit just the night before the graduation. So, only four students were able to attend the graduation. Never mind, we made the best of it. The food was great, the fellowship better. (I'll throw in three pics just for the fun of it.)

A new lifestyle session started last night. I believe we have 11 guests. Cancer is still the prevailing issue. My dear wife, Janet, is the interim Lifestyle Director. Already she is making very important changes. Because we are dealing predominantly with cancer, she decided to change the food menu (I hesitate to say drastic changes, but I'm sure some people think so.) The guests now start with two days of fasting on juice, then they go for five days on raw foods with half juice. Then, they will go to eating super healthy food--no oil, no sugar.

The point is, people come to EVI to find healing. We may want to serve them with our best dishes, but our best dishes isn't what they need first. They need healing and they need it urgently. So we are determined to be more aggressive than we've been in the past. Pray for us.

My Lover has dropped 15 lbs. She isn't the only one. There is actually quite a movement at EVI for juice fasting. Pounds are disappearing everywhere. Donna McNeilus visited with us last week. This week she told me she lost 10lbs. Impressive. She didn't need to lose any, but hey, she's a lady and ladies have this thing about weight. As for me, I've gained three or four pounds. I had lost 7 lbs in Africa. I'm almost back to normal. My wife is overfeeding me. Good wife.

Blessings to all,

The Preacher to his Tribe.

Lite snow, LIGHT school

2012-01-27T12:02:00.000-08:00

It's snowing. We are probably having one of the mildest winters ever. Sometimes, we can be outside in tee-shirts, but today it's snowing.

Last weekend, we had an ASI rally in Denver. The ASI chapter president, Jesse Johnson, could not attend because he's had heart surgery. It fell to me to be the master of ceremony. Do you know how nervous that makes me? It's amazing. You'd think that since I preach all the time that I could wrap myself around the little task of introducing someone without too much stress. Not so. All went well anyway. The Lord is having to help me all the time.

This week we finished another lifestyle session. We had at least 15 people. Wonderful. Actually, we didn't have any guests for January. We took risk and offered the session at a drastically reduced rate, and people just came out of the woodwork. We probably lost a bundle. No matter, we think it better to serve someone than to sit around waiting for the next session. The group was special.

I think next month's intake will be normal.

As we are serving in the Lifestyle Center, we also are doing a one-month LIGHT course. Ten students and all day classes. It's a blast. The Lord is sending us really beautiful people, even from as far as Hungary. Imagine that!

While at the GYC meetings a couple of weeks ago, I was greatly inspired by the energy and creativity of the young people. It got my juices running. ASI needs that kind of leadership. (They got me.) Isn't that a corker. Never mind, I'm not the only one on the team. I believe there are great minds among us. So I am calling a meeting of all the past presidents asking them to come up with solutions to our most pressing needs.

1. We have little trouble signing up members, but retention is another story.

2. How do we make our members feel like they belong to an affectionate family?

3. What kind of project can we invest in that will involve the greater number of members?

I've also asked the past presidents to come up with a new idea each as far as a new project is concerned. It will be fun to see what they come up with . . . if anything. Oh, I hope they do.

Blessings to all,

The Preacher to His Tribe.

Down to Earth

2012-01-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

I should have written before now, but I've been traveling (really) and I'm always having to struggle with my new computer. Yesterday, I had to call Angie to get help finding how to write a new post. Turns out my internet connection at home is too weak to accommodate what I needed. So, I am sitting in my office to do this and actually found my way through it easily.

Since last writing, Janet and I have been to GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) in Houston, TX. It was great. Three of our granddaughters, I should say great-granddaughters, were there with two friends. They camped in our room. It was a riot of giggling and late nights and bathroom delays. The five girls, dressed in red, sang for the Friday night meeting. They sang wonderfully. I couldn't have been prouder.

The preaching was also very good. The young woman from Australia took the prize in my estimation. The others were very good as well. The content of all the sermons was great. I'm a little perplexed with the idea that a preacher needs to bounce all over the stage to make a point. To my "old soul" it seems like a waste of energy and overly theatrical. Perhaps I am too old fashion, but really, didn't the young Australian lady get through to our hearts without bouncing off the walls. I admit she has adopted the questioning Amen at the end of every sentence. Hey preachers, it's an unnecessary crutch. Amen?

The big news is that Brianna was asked to be one of the preachers next summer with Youth for Jesus in Dallas, TX. She will do an evangelistic effort. Can you imagine our little Bree doing that? Vanessa is also moving into a new position of responsibility with GYC. Just yesterday they were only little girls. Am I proud or what?

At Eden Valley:
It looked like we wouldn't have any lifestyle guests for the January session. (It's always like that in January.) On an impulse we decided to offer a special price to anyone who needed to come. Because we need to pay our staff regardless, we chose to do an old fashion natural remedies session without the blood draw and the supplements and the inter-venous vitamin "c" etc. Seventeen people came. Wonderful, needy people. It is better to minister to someone than to sit around waiting for better enrollment. We will lose money for sure, but hey, maybe, just maybe someone will be touched by God's Spirit. So we pray. My Lover is the interim Lifestyle Director. She seems happy to do it and as usual, she is very good at it.

We are also into a one-month Medical Missionary course. I don't know how many students we have, (I think ten), but they are a receptive bunch. It's busy fun.

New Brunswick:
Janet and I went for nine days to New Brunswick. I was asked to speak to my brother's pastors and Bible Workers. We were more than pleasantly surprised. These conference people were very down to earth, common Canadians. I half expected that they, being university educated and all, would be very analytical to the point of being critical. But no, they were genuinely appreciative and wonderfully humble. They were blown away by Janet's African presentation. One pastor is asking about his church supporting her project. I came away from there perfectly burdened for that conference and each person that I met.

The highlight for us, of course, was the time we spent with John and Janice. We had such a good time. They were so hospitable. I'm sure we cost them an arm and a leg. Hope we can do as well when it's our turn. We also learned to play with a WII (wee). It's amazing what technology is producing today. We couldn't have laughed more (mostly at my poor performance) using these toys.

Adventist Camp in Pugwash, NB, on the Atlantic

We did learn about Chiaque. Chiaque is the name for the Acadian language. That is something similar to what we call our Northern Ontario french--jual. Jual is slang for cheval. Chiaque is the funniest language I've ever heard. Even the Acadians are embarrassed by it--to a point. We found New Brunswick to be quaint. Moncton, is mostly French. The people seem to be super friendly and it was like visiting another country altogether--somewhere exotic, but filled with down to earth French Canadians. On top of that, we ate enough to come home well rounded, but as usual, I gained nothing. I don't know if my wife gained anything, but she and Leasa started into a fast today. (Probably no connection.)

Ok, that's it. We have an ASI rally this weekend in Denver and I'm suppose to play a part. I need to get ready for that and an ASI board meeting in February. Got to go. See ya.

Back for Africa and Japan

2011-12-16T09:35:00.000-08:00

It's been five weeks. I'm sorry about not writing, but it really was beyond my control.

I spent the first week at Kibidula giving a week of prayer on the Eight Conditions For Overcoming. I preached every morning at 9 AM Then we all went to work demolishing buildings to be replaced by a Kibidula chapel. It was hard work, sometimes dangerous as walls would fall in where some people might be working. I attribute God's generous grace for no one getting hurt. At noon, the cafeteria provided us with wonderful food. I then spoke again every evening. All went well and I believe Kibidula is doing great.

Janet, Deniece, Twalisa, Emily and I went on from there to Mago. My wife's project has really advanced. She has all these beautiful buildings in their proper setting. There are students running around everywhere and lots of work for everyone. Janet gave me the job of dropping (felling) 30 to 40 trees around some of her buildings. It was tricky work. At first I lined myself up determining what I would do with each tree. God had other plans. Janet's workers, with whom I could not communicate had there own plans. It was terribly frustrating for me at first, but in the end it turned out to be a blessing. We managed to fall all the trees without touching one of the buildings. Hard work. I could hardly drag myself around after a couple of days. My wife's container finally showed up while I was there. It took half a day to unload the thing and half a day to cut the welds that held it to the truck platform. All in all, it was a great time. I find that manual labor is far more fulfilling than desk work.

The third week (four days) we spent at Lake Malawi--Matema Beach. Steven Grabiner organized an OCI Retreat for the African projects. Wonderful, and the venue couldn't have been more conducive. We swam, we prayed, we listened to talks, we bonded and we grew in grace.

Going in to Matema, my wife's pick-up blew a tire. Upon inspection, we noticed that the companion tire was in terrible shape. The wires were coming out of its great gashes. So we went to town and paid a fortune for two used, junk tires.

I left Matema on Saturday night, 9 PM, to catch a plane in Dar Es Salaam at 10:10 PM on Sunday. Twenty miles out of camp we shredded another tire. (One of the new old ones.) It was on a prayer that we made it to Mbeya, Tanzania. We manage to find some sleep at 1 AM and at 5 AM we were in town looking for the bus station. From there my wife went looking for new tires and I rode the bus for twelve and one half hours to Dar. Sweat and stink and weariness was all part of the adventure. It was so hot in Dar that I put my jacket in my suit case and boarded the plane without anything warm. Well, only an old sweaty shirt in Zurich in winter is not good. Nor was it good in Washington or Denver. No matter, I survived.

I arrived at home at 9 PM and left for Japan at 6 AM in the morning.

I enjoyed Japan a lot. The people are hospitable, kind, courteous and interested. I preached 13 sermons in the city of Meaboshi??. I believe our project called Mt. Akagi is doing very well. They certainly could use more funding and people, but they are improving their lot every day. The Lord is blessing.

I'm home. Steven Grabiner is here doing a week of prayer on the book of Revelation. Great. I wish I was not so jet-lagged. I think Steven wishes he was not so jet-lagged also. Tomorrow I preach at Copper Mountain to the Veggie Diner group.

As for news: I believe I can announce that my wife is sincerely determined to come home to stay. She must find someone to replace her, and that isn't easy, but if the Lord wants it too, I believe it will happen within the year. (We'll see.)

I was reading in Prophets and Kings about King Hezekiah. It says that the Lord left him to prove him, to show what was in his heart. The Lord did that to me once. Consequently, I made the biggest mess in my life. So did Hezekiah. Only a fool would wish to live independently of the Lord.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Super-r-r Woman

2011-11-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

I leave for Africa and Japan in three days. This will probably be my last blog for one month. Sorry, I'll be having too much fun, or there won't be internet where I am going. Actually, I won't have a computer with me, so don't count on hearing anything. Ugh! Sounds so final like I'm entering the twilight zone.

The paragraph that follows this sentence is from a 16 year old girl working with my Lover In Africa:

Mrs. Fournier and her right-hand woman, Deniece, have probably taught me more in these few short weeks than I have learned in years of ordinary life. By normal standards, I’m smart. I have nearly a 4.0 GDA, but here that doesn’t matter. It means absolutely nothing. Practical experience and hard work are all that counts. These women are incredible. They can fix almost anything, run a school, communicate through the language barrier, cook almost any meal, put up with each other, and show Christ through their everyday lives. It’s like living with a super-hero and her side-kick. They are who they are, and they are God’s. I admire that.

There you are, I'm married to a Super Heroin. I've always known, but do you know how hard that is? Like the girl says, I'm smart but around her, that doesn't count. (Kidding, sorta.)

I spent last weekend in Norway.

The institution in Norway, the Heartgood Foundation and the European Bible School lost their leader several years ago. It's been struggling ever since. It was decided by the last board that the board should all resign "en masse" and that a new group of seven should attempt to find a solution. I was elected to the new group with Steven Grabiner, Erik Somme, Knut Guvstavsen, Nila Teale, Nic Dan, and Jamiek (Somebody).

The first two days were very discouraging. It was like we couldn't get anyone to say anything that would give us hope of rescuing this institution. (Now I must tell you: On my way to Norway, I prayed every half hour on the half hour that the Lord would show us what to do. On the last day, we broke through the negativity. I wish I could tell you the whole story, but I can't.) God works in mysterious ways. In the end, we elected Knut to be President. Knut is one of the original founders of Heartgood Foundation. He is choosing to buy the farm. This will provide the school with much needed money while leaving the farm in proximity to by used. Also, we accepted a young couple's proposal to run a school starting in 2013. This young couple has two weeks to make a decision. Pray for them. (I believe they will accept the counter proposal. God led too beautifully not to.)

Tonight, I speak at Larry Romrell's house to a group of SDA's from Franktown. Tomorrow I do vespers at EVI, and on Sabbath I speak in Copper Mountain. Sunday I leave for Africa.

In the meantime, I have nothing to do but run in every direction trying to gather all I must take to Africa. I hope I don't end up with more than I am allowed to carry.

Monday I am reunited with Super-r-r Woman. Hmmm! I feel like Clark Kent kryptonited.

Heavy Snows, Heavier Responsibilities.

2011-10-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

It's winter in Colorado. The temperature went as low as 8 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. I checked Whitehorse, Yukon, and it was 34 degrees. We seem to be the cold spot in North America. The snow was beautiful, but heavy and broke a lot of branches. As many as 15,000 were without electricity last night and still today. Otherwise, beautiful.

We are having a birthday party for one of our doctors today. Dr. Cherne is 85 and going strong.

I went to Washington DC this week. Had an invitation to a North American Division meeting with the Supporting Ministries of which ASI is one. We were a group of about 20. The meetings were very interesting, but I don't know what was accomplished except perhaps to make friends and to spread goodwill toward one another. I did see Pastor Orville Parchment, and a host of other long time friends.

Better still was that I got to visit with John, Janice, David and Arwyn. That was great. The whole trip was worth it on that account. We met at David's new house, cozy and good for David. I read Calvin and Hobbes to Arwyn. Endearing. Did you know that there is no point in debriefing Calvin--he doesn't wear briefs.

We visited for several hours. It is all interesting to us that within the last year we all-John, Jason, David and I are saddled with heavier responsibilities. (You can add Janet to that, except that her responsibilities she's carried for some time now.) For some of us, John and I, the responsibilities were totally unexpected. David is now in management in the Communications branch of the Risk Management Dept. of the GC. We all praised the Lord for the honors, and are praying for wisdom to execute wisely our tasks.

All is well. God is good and the future is bright.

Love it

2011-10-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Someone reminded me that I hadn't blogged lately. Yea, I know. Not enough hours in a day.

I did run to Chattanooga this week. I hope I haven't already told you. Steven Grabiner, OCI President, Wilbur Atwood, the President of Wildwood and I had a scheduled meeting with David Gates. All I can say here is that the meeting was productive of great good . . . I hope. Time will tell.

I also met with Rusty Mckee of Little Debbie fame. I was blown away. The man was so congenial that I felt like we had know each other forever and that we were the best of friends. My purpose was to raise funds for our new Lifestyle Center. I believe, true to my nature, that I did a soft sell. He assured me that I couldn't have come at a better time. Mckee's Little Debbie had a slump in profits since 2008 and now they seem to be recovered. Besides, we are getting close to the end of the year when these folks need to donate for business purposes. We'll see. For me, the friendship is worth everything. (A people oriented person am I.)

We had a cooking school this week. Breads. It was great. The people didn't leave till 9:30 PM. The people were genuinely grateful for the experience.

Our Lifestyle guests are just the grandest people ever. Eleven women and two men. The laughing-est bunch you ever met. All suffering terribly, yet full of godly joy. I think they'll live forever.

On Sunday, I need to fly to Washington DC. The General Conference of the SDA church has invited me to attend an all day meeting on Monday. They are paying for everything. David Fournier heard I was coming and offered me to stay with him. Love it. Too bad I already had a hotel room. I'll be sure to find time for Davey regardless.

Everyone asks how I am doing with my new ASI responsibilities. Truth is, I'm loving it. I'm way too busy, but I prefer that than having too little to do. So far, I'm keeping out of trouble and I am praying double time so I don't. I have lots of help from my two VPs and my Executive Committee and all the former ASI Presidents. Love it, plain and simple.

Sometimes I get invited to eat with the Lifestyle guests. Oriental day. Super good.

Same table.

Every evening I go to the mountains to pray.

Later.

Always Rushed.

2011-10-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

Since we last talked EVI had its yearly convention. In may respects it was the best ever. We had a great speaker--Chester V. Clark III. The convention was better attended than ever. Leasa sent out invitations to many of our friends and a good number came who would not have thought of it.

The board meeting was done in two and one half hours. Try to beat that. Kevin Hogfeldt was our board chairman this year because Steven Grabiner couldn't make it. Kevin did a great job of it.

We then traveled to DayStar after the EVI board and got there around 9:30 PM. The DayStar board was very, very encouraging. The Lord is blessing them tremendously this year. I am truly pleased with what is going on there. They have 33 students, aiming for at least 35. There farm is on track to profit about $150,000 this year. They have awesome farmers.

We got back home at 9:30 PM that night.

The next day I nearly spent till noon on the phone with various ASI people. In the meantime, I am trying to write an article for ASI and I must start on our Faith Ventures also.

Tonight we have a reception for Philip and Dayna Smith. They were married a few weeks ago in CA., but being as they are staff at EVI, it is only fair that we celebrate with them also. Sorry, no pics. Maybe next week.

Visitor Convention Morning. Not the least nervous.

Aspen gold on the way to DayStar

Sunflower by the side of DayStar road

Castle Rock at DayStar

Ignacio Perez is my farmer. Great Year.

It's Time , , , To Be About Our Father's Business

2011-09-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

I just returned from my first ASI Fall Retreat. Eleven of us gathered at Denzil and Donna McNeilus' home to do business. For some of the meals, George and Shari McNeilus, Garwin and Merrilee and Pat McNeilus joined us. Also a young couple that lives nearby. It was a very relaxing weekend (On one level.)

On another level, I was a bitstressful. I was told that I needed to take charge. (That is totally against my temper-mental makeup.) But, I chose to take charge and do it. I pretty well made up my mind to be myself and to participate fully in the program.

For recreation, we visited Pat McNeilus' steel operation and Garwin's One Day Church factory. Very impressive. More impressive, maybe I should say as impressive is Merrilee's shell collection. All that aside, we actually got a lot of work accomplished.

The most exciting piece of work was the theme for the next two years: "It is Time . . . To be about Our Father's Business." I delivered all the devotional meetings and in them I explained my vision for ASI. It was well rec'd and with that we formulated the title. My task now is to write an article, and sent it to the ASI magazine and the Review and whoever else might print it. When we choose our speakers for the next convention, we will expect the speakers to align themselves with the theme, but they will have the freedom to determine what is our Father's business in this late day and speak to the issue. I think it is genius. (No, I didn't come up with the concept, but since I am in charge, maybe I should take the credit. Not!) The Lord guided us through.

I'm getting excited. Imagine. I sincerely believe God will do something special with ASI in the coming days. Why else would He choose less than the least of all saints to be President?

So prays the Preacher for his Tribe.

Marilee McNeilus is an expert collector of sea shells.

She has amazing things in her collection

We visited Garwin McNeilus' One Day Church factory

Pat McNeilus' steel processing plant.

Steel comes in rolls.

From West to East

2011-09-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today I've got to pack. I leave for Minnesota tomorrow early. The ASI Executive Committee is meeting for our annual fall retreat. Being the new president, I am expected to lead the pack into new territory, i.e. the new theme for the next two years and the wherewithal to implement the new theme. I am also expected to lead out in morning and evening devotions plus speak at the 11 o'clock service on Sabbath morning. And with that I will chair the board and act presidential. So far, no one's asked me to make lunch and sing special music. If they did, I would make rolled oats and sing "When the Moon Hits your Eyes Like a Big Pizza Pie, That's amore." So would go the rest of the meetings.

Actually, I expect the Lord to lead and to give us a blessing. (You may pray for yours truly anyway.)

Last weekend, five of us from EVI boarded a plane and flew to Las Vegas (Sin City.) Our mission was to train church members from various churches to do health work in preparation for the big evangelistic effort scheduled for next spring. The big effort was called "Babylon Rising." I say "was" because somebody--John Bradshaw--decided to rename it. The new name is so tame that I can't remember it. Anyway, we did our thing (rallying sermons, health talks, health expo, and cooking classes) and the Lord blessed abundantly.

During the same weekend, Las Vegas hosted the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contests. There was muscle every where. These self-centered gorillas are driven to show as much skin as possible. Why else take steroids, and look like a cartoon character? The problem, however, is that bodybuilding has grown to include woman, if that is what you'd call those creatures. They look like tall midgets--everything exaggerated.

Through it all, the Lord keeps supplying my poor brain with something to say for Him. I'm impressed and truly thankful. His biddings are enablings.

Love to all.

ASI is God's Problem

2011-09-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long. Lots to do and nothing happening. Well, I suppose anything can be interesting if it is written well. (Now we need to look for someone who writes well.)

Hey, did you all read Jason's blog of Sept. 3. Wow! The driving scene is like an action movie and the star of the movie saved the day. Things like that should happen to liven up things in my dotage.

Restoration Intl' just shared their third annual family camp meeting at EVI. The attendance was down a little. Labor day weekend is a factor; school started for some, is another. The economy isn't helping anyone, etc. Whatever. Everyone appeared to have a great time.

Many of our staff went up to the meadow for a corn roast last week. The corn was awesome, the fellowship, even better. We have a great family here at EVI.

I've been going up the mountain to pray quite often, lately. This ASI presidency weighs heavy on me. Not because of the extra work. It hasn't been anything to speak of yet, but I truly feel incapable of meeting my leadership responsibilities. For example: I am to lead the way. I am to come up with a vision that will inspire the ASI members into action. Well, I am the most un-visionary character you ever met. However, I am in position, therefore, God has to be my vision. Period. If God doesn't come through, then forget me.

Also, I need to speak three times in Las Vegas on the 16th of Sept through to the 18th, on health evangelism. Not exactly my forte, but praise God. I prepared one sermon today. Truth is, I'm going to pray my way through this. I'll let you know as God works.

An elk in our neighbors yard. We have elks in our field every day.

This is our own EVI Michelle. Meechee and I are great friends,

My wife in the mountains. I put her on an airplane yesterday. As I write, she is about four hours from landing in Dar Es Salaam. I'll miss her. She comes home in Dec and I intend to visit her in Nov.

This is the headstone for the young fella who died at EVI August 16. May we all die the death of the righteous.

Second Chance

2011-08-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Five couples from Eden Valley are spending a weekend in Silverthorne, Colorado-the Roeskes, the Hueys, the Katsmas, the Bates and the Fourniers. We just decided to get away. The house we are living in is a palace, actually, it is more like a wildlife museum--amazing--their are stuffed animals everywhere and the furniture is unique to Colorado. The folks who live here, Randy and Sandy Bright use the place to teach people about nature and animal biology.

We are not doing too much. We went to church at the Copper Mountain Chapel yesterday. That was good. After lunch, we rode a ski-lift up to the top of the mountain. After Sabbath, we played games and just sat around. This morning we cleaned up and watched one of those Christian movies called The Note. Made me cry for one and one half hours. I hate tear jerkers, don't you? I think my wife is watching it all over again--a gluten for punishment, or is that glutton? In any case, if you need to clean your eyes watch The Note.

The movie might have been called Second Chance. It struck me.

(You know, artists are generally know to be melancholy. Strong emotional feelings drive strong responses. A writer definitely writes better when his mood is either very high, or more likely very low.)

I'm not saying that I am an artist. As a matter of fact, I think I am anything but melancholic. But like I said, the movie struck me. It was about a note that washes up on shore written by a passenger on an ill fated jetliner. The note is to "T". A lady who writes a column for a magazine finds the note and tries to find "T". It appears that everyone who sees the note is inspired to a second chance.

A few years ago (as I've said before) I was sunk. It just came clear to me. God gave me a second chance. He should have cast me aside. It is only of grace that He keeps bestowing honors upon me. Go figure.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

The Bright Side

2011-08-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

German countryside.

Meetings in Germany

Local town in Germany

Tree outside my room in fall colors already. Cold and rainy.

ASI inauguration. On the left outgoing pres. on the right incoming .

I've finally found a moment so that I can write this blog. Sorry guys for making you wait so long. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity.

My son came to Eden Valley while I was still at the Oak Haven Convention. When I came home we had a great week together. Mostly we ate tomato sandwiches as much as we could. EVI tomatoes are the best. My Lover came home a week later sicker than I've ever seen her. We drove to Sacramento and the ASI meetings like that, but there she crashed. Finally, I have to get a prescription from doctor Emerson for anti-biotics, which did the trick. Praise the Lord.

In Sacramento, I met with two brothers, my three children, nine of my twelve grand children, and one niece with her family. I didn't have all the time I wanted to visit with everyone, but the little time I had was ultra special.

As you all know I was given the opportunity to preach at ASI three times on R by F in relation to the Three Angel's Messages. You cannot know how many misgivings I had going into those meetings. It seems I am never satisfied that I have the right material. But what I had was what God gave me. So, I went forward with the little I had. After every meeting I felt that God's Spirit was there to promote Himself. I'm so thankful. The last time I was asked to preach at ASI (that was in Dallas, TX) I literally gave up on the sermon I had prepared and preached more or less from the hip that Friday evening. I haven't been happy about it since. For that reason I was worried about my next performance. What can I say, sometimes the Lord humbles, sometimes we are better prepared for a blessing. Can you see how God prepared me three or four years ago to bless me this time? I can see it.

The Lord delights in confounding the wise at the hand of fools. He loves to humble the mighty using the weak. He grants the base things of this world power over the sophisticated. So He did at ASI. Of all the people He might have honored to be president of ASI, He chose me. Do you know who He chose. Two and three years ago, my usefulness had run its course. I was, in my own eyes, the biggest failure I'd ever met. It pretty well seemed like I had failed on every front. Going to Africa to help my wife was seen as the most merciful thing to do to others and myself. I could finish my course quietly and out of sight. Today, I am being blessed with a great honor as if I was somebody. At ASI I was caught completely by surprise. My heart by turn shrank and rose. Shrank into depths of despair then rose to heights of, should I say it . . . better leave it unsaid. I thank God for expressing confidence in me, but you all better pray for me. Except by a sustained miracle I am sure to fail.

The day after ASI I was suppose to chair a board meeting for OCI. I couldn't. I had to leave for Germany that morning. In Germany, I preached the same messages plus two and gave my testimony to some of the most humble and genuinely Christian people I've ever met. Tho' the weather was cold and rainy, the experience was great.

Unfortunately, I came home to our little David. He died three days later. I prayed a lot for him, but the Lord indicated that it is better this way. I accept that. The family understandably wrestles more with that concept. David is safe. I've never been more sure of anyone's salvation. He was baptized a few weeks ago and told me he didn't think to win this battle, but that it was worth it for his family's sake. Like Christ, he was willing to die to see others gain eternal life. He as a great witness, and only 17 years old.

A few weeks ago I was overjoyed to be able to announce to my wife that her container was gone. Yesterday, we found out that I made a mistake on the paperwork and I am causing her no amount of grief. That is bad and I feel terrible for the mistake I made, but there is bright spot in and through it all. If someone had made a mistake that was to cause me that much grief, I would be tempted to put them through a knot hole backwards. Tho' sincerely troubled, my dear wife has shown no temper or one sign of remonstrance toward me. It's a huge witness to me of God's grace in a person's life.

So life goes on. We'll fight and win tho' we lose a few battles. God be praised.

Tomato Season.

2011-07-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Special Kay just walked into my office with a two-pound tomato. Jason and I pretty well eat only tomatoes sandwiches. We are not even tempted with anything else. Our tomatoes are out of this world, as a matter of fact, you'd say they taste like the came from a valley called Eden.

This may be my last entry until mid August. We leave for Sacramento on Tuesday and then I go from there to Germany till the 14th.

All is well. The weather is hot, in the 90's. It hasn't rained as much as it was lately, but it threatens to every day. My wife comes in tomorrow with two of our grandchildren. Miracle or miracles, by God's grace I managed to ship Janet's container yesterday. This is one thing she will not need to deal with while here. The last time she visited, we gave her no rest. I think this time will be stress free, except of course that she is married to me. That's enough stress for anyone . . . I guess.

Jason is here from Africa. He's been helping Ignacio on the farm. They are plowing with bad equipment. Finally, we borrowed a plow from Sunrise next door. They don't have the best equipment either, so we are managing to break it every time we take it out. Jason feels that our inexperience is contributing to our little streak of bad luck here. No doubt.

Our young cancer patient isn't doing well. The prognosis says he will die within a month, perhaps two. He wants to be baptized. I will begin Bible studies with him tonight. Obviously, I don't intend to focus on doctrine and prophecy. He needs to be ready to meet his Maker. Not a bad idea for all of us. Get ready, get ready, get ready.

Listen dear ones, the end has come. If we can't read the signs, we are blind. I'm actually amazed that we are in no greater trouble or distress over it. The Lord is merciful, but it looks to me like everything will deteriorate and will not get better.

Our farm is producing an amazing amount of food. Our last farmer's market netted $1,200. The farm team is working their hearts out.

Finally, our roofers are here today. I hope they stay for a while. Yesterday, we talked to a couple of people, husband and wife, about demolishing seven of our trailers. They came down from $1,500 to $1,000. That is good, but we are a little unsure about hiring them. Pray for us.

Love to all.

All in a Week's Living

2011-07-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

I'll be leaving the day after tomorrow--Friday. I'll spend the weekend at an Oak Haven convention in Michigan. I get to speak and to sit on their board. It's always a good time.

Thought I would write before I left.

The week has been hot with evening storms. Last night, I spent a half hour with our 17 year old lifestyle guest. He is fighting sarcoma fourth stage. My heart goes out to David, but he doesn't seem to pity himself. We talked of spiritual things and he thought he might lose the battle with cancer for his relative's sake. Already, the man who brought him to us four months ago has become much more religious. This man has since married David's cousin. This cousin became very angry with God when David's mother died of cancer ten years ago. She seems to be softening considerably. David is delighted to have a part in it. It seems to be worth the whole ordeal. Impressive!

There is still a boy in the great sufferer. He bought a small remote control helicopter and proceeded to demonstrate how well he can fly it in his room.

We are all grasping at straws to find a treatment that would bring healing to him. Personally, I am looking for a direct miracle. I deeply long for David to live and I am petitioning heaven for that miracle. Please pray with me. (Last week I met a lady who had come to EVI with cancer. What I remember about her was that her husband hovered over her and wouldn't let anything the least bit stressful come her way. He gave you the impression that he would break your arm if she suffered anything untoward. Anyway, they came to donate some equipment they had bought to fight cancer. The dear lady, that I thought was going to die, has been cancer free for two years. What do you think he thinks of us now? He's as docile as a day-old puppy.)

I'm working also on the papers to send my wife's container to Africa. We are close to seeing it gone, but the closer we come to the departure date, the more obstacles the Devil throws in our path. We are shipping a tractor. Customs demand that we show the original title for the tractor. The problem is, Colorado does not issue titles for tractors. We can't produce one out of thin air. That's the kind of hurtles we face.

I am one sermon short for the ASI National Convention and the German camp meeting. The idea is that I need five sermons in all and I have four to date. Not to worry, I have hundreds of sermons. It's a matter of choosing one that fits the occasion. Stress!

My Vice-president was scheduled to leave tomorrow for Hungary. Come to find out, the airline changed her ticket without telling her. She, according to the airline, was meant to fly from NY to Budapest today, but needed to leave Denver tomorrow. How do you do that? They re-scheduled her for Monday and upgraded her to first class. Good deal. That should happen to me sometime.

Yuli and Michelle are planning to leave for DayStar and Monument Valley tomorrow morning. We've had a blast. I'll miss them. Yuli preached to the EVI staff this morning. Very good sermon. Maybe he's missed his calling. Maybe he should take a vow of poverty and become an itinerant preacher like uncle Frank. (Preaching doesn't pay much.)

Blessings to all.

Ramblings of a Tired Preacher

2011-07-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

The ASI meetings are beginning to weigh heavy on my heart. I'm trying to pray more. Now I know that whatever I say doesn't amount to anything except the Lord takes what I say to the hearts of the people. Sometimes I wish I was more confident about what I am going to share, but then again, that might leave me, well, too confident. I rarely come to the place where I think I've got a cracker-jack sermon. Sometimes, I am totally disgusted with my own efforts. It's amazing that the Lord can bless me at any time. But, He does.

Usually, when I am ask to speak in a place where I am more or less intimidated, I don't do so well. I do well when I am perfectly relaxed. (Lord, leave me in my comfort zone.) Do you guys ever feel like that?

The talk of the week is the weather at EVI. Every day starts sunny and hot. By midday the clouds begin to gather. By evening we can expect a weather watch and a damaging storm. We've never seen so much rain here. Everything is beautifully green, but the hail that accompanies every third storm or so is frightful.

In two weeks my lover will be back. I'll be home one day from a board meeting and convention at Oak Haven, and then we will have four days to prepare for the ASI Convention. (Then, I leave for Germany from Sacramento, can you believe it?) It's cause enough for divorce. Good thing she still loves me . . . I think.

My wife has been suffering from dizziness at night, in bed. She says that when she turns her head in bed, she gets nauseous. She wants me to ask the doctors about it. My guess is she suffers from vertigo. I've had that experience before. There is a little bone in the ear area that when displaced disturbs the equilibrium. She needs to roll hard on the floor till the little bone goes back into place. (Serious! Why are you laughing?)

Denis Priebe will be preaching at EVI this weekend.

Yuli and Michelle Petov, from London, are here and doing well. Yuli is working full days on the farm. No doubt, he is well appreciated by the farm crew and for sure by me.

All is well. The whole world is falling apart and I am snug in the Lord. It seems unfair, but I suppose everyone could enjoy what I enjoy. Hope you are.

So says the preacher to his tribe.

Lots to do

2011-07-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

All the Maranatha workers are gone. They did a great job. What a blessing that my Vice-president has such good contacts. We hope to do it again before too long. We want to get started on our new Lifestyle Center. If you have a million dollars or part thereof, please send it our way.

All the windows are replaced at my house and the siding and the house is newly painted. It looks grand. Now, all I have to do is clean up an inch of dust on everything. Never mind, it's worth it. When the Maranatha guys took my cement back steps out, they found two snakes and tons of eggs. (I believe I wrote about that.) Well, my big snake is back and just hanging around the house. he's huge, about six feet long and beautiful colors. It's a bull snake, good for keeping the mice population down and for killing rattlers. So, I keep him/her as a pet. He/she gets in the way sometimes--under foot.

I'm spending the holiday weekend cleaning my shack and if I can, I'll work on the yard a little too.

Julie and I spent nearly two hours on Skype yesterday. We had a long intimate conversation--very close.

We have a young cancer patient at EVI. David is only 17. As a matter of fact, his birthday was on Sabbath. He's been with us for three sessions already and we are determined to keep him until he is healthy enough to go home. It's a slow heartbreaking process. He has fourth-stage sarcoma. In essence, he should be dying soon, but our protocol is helping him to not deteriorate. I pray for him all the time. Please pray with me. I believe God would be glorified if he should be healed.

Our little Michelle Fournier Petrova should be here with her family in two days. I hope they contact me about their arrival, otherwise I don't know when to go fetch them at the airport.

This week, all of EVI will spend two days doing a work bee on the farm. Then, I promised my wife I would start working on shipping her container. Lord, there is a lot to do.

Blessings to all,

Much Accomplished

2011-06-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-06-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

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.

One Hour interview on Hope Channel

2011-05-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

It's Fri-i-iday. The OCI Retreat is almost over. It's been a wonderful gathering. Especially wonderful was the reunion with my son. Today, the former Union President, Adrian Bocaneanu, interviewed both Jason and I together on the Hope Channel of Romania. We had a good time. As he found out that Jason was a pilot and built his own aircraft, so went the interview. No matter, it was great. We nearly cooked in that studio set. They shut off the AC to minimize the sound and turned on a dozen spot lights to magnify the the beads of sweat running down our foreheads. In the end, my shirt was sopping wet.

The weather has been marvelous--hot summer days. I've been coming to these OCI Retreats for so long that I know most people. What a blessing that is, except that it is hard to walk from point "a" to point "b" without being stopped for an extended conversation or for making an appointment for "counseling".

Jason feels lucky to be my son because we have one of the best rooms in the house. Maybe he is the special guest and I am to feel lucky. Whatever! We do have great accommodation, complete with consistent hot showers and internet.

Jason was surprised at the third world feel of Romania. Herd boys, horse and wagon, old women in kerchiefs hoeing in the garden, old, old houses, narrow roads , water wells in the courtyard of every house with a dipping bucket etc.

I expected to arrive home on the 25ft of May. It appears now like it will be the 24th of May. My mistake.

Just a Thought

What is the difference between creation and evolution? Creation implies the instant appearance of something that didn't exist before and evolution is an improvement of something over an extended period of time. In the context of salvation now, are we evolutionists or creationists? When David prayed, "create in me a clean heart oh God," what was he thinking? To whom was he ascribing the process, to the Creator or to natural selection? If he believed God's promise, "I will create in you a new heart," when would faith expect to enjoy that new heart? Would it be over a gradual period of time, or immediately?

Be it onto you according to your faith. Ask now, believe now and enjoy now.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Chernovtz

2011-05-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

I am in Chernovtz, Ukraine, speaking to Amazing Facts College of Evangelism students. The adventure is great, but as usual, I'd as soon be home. On Monday, the students and I, plus several others, made our way to the wilderness where we had a picnic. Great fun! We played soccer for too many hours. Everybody is limping around like crippled old men, me especially, since I am an old man to begin with. Never mind, I can still run with the youngest of them. I can't boast to being a great footballer, however.

I've got two more days of speaking, and then I'm off to Romania for the OCI Retreat. That should prove to be more relaxing, I think. I do have one assignment there, one sermon to preach that I am not ready for. That is always troubling to me. What is more troubling is that I am not as concerned as I should be. I can't figure out what to talk about and I'm cool. That's out of character for me, but hey, I'm dependent on the Lord, and if He chooses to give me the talk later rather than sooner, who am I to complain, or fret?

My wife is in Africa with two of our grand-children. The real adventure begins. What fun it would be to be there. I guess I can't be everywhere.

I haven't rec'd any news since I left America except that Bin Laden was killed. Is that true? Or is that some kind of hoax? In the end, who cares. You can't trust anyone in politics and media these days.

I'm off to breakfast. Talk to you later.

In Ukraine

2011-04-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting in Alyosha Ostapenko’s home in Ukraine. This is usually where I land when I come to Novi. They have guests in the Lifestyle Center and until the guests vacate I live with Alyosha and Tanya. They have two beautiful children, Annia and Slavik. Beautiful, but not easy. You can see it on Tanya’s face. She is weary from having to deal with these two demanding, strong, little characters. I tease her, telling her she could have had five of them.

The trip across was pleasant. I read one third of a five-hundred page book. I highly recommend the book by Ron Duffield called the Return of the Latter Rain. If I had nothing else to do, I would spend the whole day reading it.

Last night, I attended a graduation of thirty pastors from one of the Russian Conferences. I invited myself thinking it would be formal affair. It turned out to be a supper and testimony meeting. I might have been embarrassed at having crashed their party except that I don’t embarrass that easily. Things were quiet while we were eating. Finally, one of the pastors singled me out and asked that I tell them where I come from and what I do. I told them about Eden Valley and especially about our cancer treatment program.

The interest was immediately palpable. One pastor has a seventeen year old daughter who has had cancer, and he was very solicitous on her behalf. I was afraid that my little interference was going to dominate the whole evening. Eventually, however, they turned to giving their personal testimonies. It appears to me that these Russian Conferences are ahead of our North American ones in recognizing that lay operated lifestyle centers actually have something to offer to even so-called professionals.

I left my wife to fend without me (as if she needs me), for the next three months. Shawn Boonstra will be living in our house during the next lifestyle session. I’m sorry to miss getting to know him. Janet, Christina and Caleb will get acquainted in my behalf for one week.

I’ll be preaching at least twenty-one times over the next ten days. Then I need to spend a week with Amazing Facts College of Evangelism here in the Ukraine. I’ll be preaching for them also. Then I go to Romania for an OCI Retreat. I only get to speak once there, but it may be my toughest assignment. The blessing, among others, is that Jason will be there.

The problem here, at Novi, is that there is only dial-up internet and Alyosha thinks he may be able to hook my up, but he’s made no move in that direction, so far. I hate to push him, he is very busy getting ready for the Camp Meeting. Alas, third world countries.

Till next time.

In Wildwood

2011-04-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

It's only been one week, but somehow it feels so much longer. I don't know, life is getting awfully busy round her, I mean, around here.

I am sitting in my room in Wildwood, GA. I'm here for a constituency and board meeting. Last year, things didn't go so well here. I was elected to the Nominating Committee and the decisions we made riled some people royally. This year, I've come early to try and get a better handle on the issues we face. Issues there are. Some people I am speaking to are quite vocal about things. Others seem to indicate that things are better than they were last year. This afternoon, I am having a meeting with several key players. I am praying. On the one hand, Wildwood accomplishes great things--especially in the outreach dept. But, on the other hand, there is a lot of inertia and apparent lack of decisiveness in the leaders. There is deadwood also. The cost of doing business here is extravagant and our dear leaders (so glad not to be among them) are wondering how to tackle the near future. I'm hoping this board will take the bull by the horns and give these sincere leaders some real direction. They need to act determinatively.

At EVI, we have more than a full session by three patients. We are so thankful for the Lord doing that for us. It isn't like we are way ahead of the curve compared to other struggling institutions. We also only barely have our noses above water, but I can say that I am truly encouraged. The Lord is blessing. We will succeed.

My Lover has been packing her container to go to Africa all week. I believe she hasn't got much room left. The thing will be ready to go as soon as the shipper and Customs and whoever else puts their approval on the thing come through. In three weeks she, Deniece, Caleb and Christina leave for Africa. I leave for Europe. I'll go home this Monday, and by next Tuesday I leave for a month. It's always the same story: I get asked to go. I'm excited. Then when the time arrives, I wish I hadn't said yes. There is so much to do at home. Oh well!!

I preach tonight at Wildwood. "The Gospel and the First Angel's Message."

Did you know that the First Angel's Message is not the Investigative Judgment? The Investigative Judgment is one of the reasons given for the proclamation of the message. The message of the first angel is the everlasting gospel defined as "fear God, give glory to Him and worship Him" Why? Because the hour of His judgment is come. The end of time has come. The judgment is begun, get your act together--fear God instead of anything else.

When I first began reading the Bible, I reasoned this way: The universe is in conflict. There is God, there are demons and there are wicked people. The Beast says, worship me or I'll kill you. God says, "No, worship Me, or I"ll kill you." Humanity, it seemed to me had little hope, except that I managed to figure out who was the strongest--God. It seemed the better part of wisdom to serve Him than to be against Him. Since then, I've learned to serve Him out of love and not out of fear and the love of God casts out fear.

The investigative judgment is important to understand, but not near so important as the gospel that saves and empowers. So, give Him the glory and worship HIm. He alone can save.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Hectic-boring

2011-04-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

Life, as you know, is hectic and hectic-boring. What can I say. I am at Uchee Pines at the moment. We had the Uchee Pines board meeting this morning. I left my wife last night at a Ramada Inn in Denver, at the Mid-America ASI convention. The speakers were great. As a matter of fact, it was a great party all around, but I had to leave right after Sabbath to fly to Alabama. I arrived at my motel room at 1:30 AM. (Mostly because the Motel shuttle didn't come for more than one hour to pick me up.) I was up by 5:30 AM. Wilbur Atwood from Wildwood picked me up and we had a great conversation on our way. The board was easy as well.

In the middle of my four-hour night, I rec'd two phone calls from EVI telling me of a fire on the mountain just north of us. The winds blew from 40 to 60 miles per hour, northward. In a very short time the fire took out seven houses (unconfirmed by me) in Masonville. The Lord spared EVI for the second time in relation to fire. The first time was in the year 2000. This time, the rain and snow came. So from my poor vantage point I think all is well at the moment at EVI.

Garwin McNeilus has nothing but praises for my son. And guess what? The big Mid-America booth backdrop has a picture of Jason and I front and center. Like, it makes no sense whatsoever, but we are the main attraction in Mic-America, for sure. Well, at least Jason is. I just happen to be in the picture.

My wife has EVI pretty well organized for Maranatha. We are extremely grateful for the work she's done for us at EVI. I intend to take a three-day vacation with her at Glenwood Springs, CO, on the 12-14 of this month. She must work on sending her container now. The container is not re-certified yet. We are waiting to see if they will certify it. I had given a certain overly trusted individual permission to use the container to store Brent's furniture. They dragged it with my permission promising to be careful. They were not careful enough. There is some damage, and we await the verdict. It may cost me $2,500. My fault.

Christina and Caleb, our two adventurers have their tickets. They are raring to go. We all hope they will not be too homesick,

I took Ramon Chow, David Fournier's uncle by marriage, to see EVI. He says David is in the market to buy a house, but not in the market for a wife yet.

I'm asked to do a seminar at the OCI Retreat on Leadership Concerns. I know nothing about the subject. You can all pray for me. Today, we start a new Lifestyle session. We have seventeen guests. That is one more than we can house and we praise God for the good problem.

Last week, we worked on the farm mulching our raspberries and getting our eyes full of hay dust. Everybody was walking around with what appeared to be red eye. I guess we are all okay by now. We also spent parts of two days re-shingling the Village.

At the Mid-America ASI chapter meetings, one of our speakers (I can't remember which,) after quoting Jesus who said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," reiterated an interpretation I do not agree with. Over and over again I hear preachers point to this scripture as proof positive that we ought to love ourselves.

I disagree!

The text does not say we ought to love ourselves. Jesus is simply stating a fact--we do love ourselves and in our relation with others we ought to at least love them as much as we love ourselves. Now, let's look at this in a practical setting. Supposing you want to sell your car. It looks good, cosmetically, but you know, and only you know that the engine is shot. When a prospective buyer comes to purchase the car self-love says don't discourage the person by revealing all that is wrong with it. But, if you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, what will you do? You'll tell him/her the truth of the matter.

Question: What does that do to self? Why, self in this instance is denied, which is really what Christ would have us do with self--deny it. "If any man would come after Me," Jesus commanded, "let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me." That is the only proper thing to do with self.

Self love is the sin problem. "It is the love of self that destroys our peace." MB 16 or 18. The carnal nature is always looking for a reason to justify self-love and the verse "love your neighbor as you love yourself seems to afford the best argument. Don't buy it. It is not true.

Love your neighbor; deny self, period.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Everyday with Jesus is a Good Day.

2011-03-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have a friend, 82 or 83, going on 100, who repeats wise sayings ad infinitum. His favorite is, "Everyday with Jesus is a good day." Yes sir, that's how I feel, too. The world seems to be falling apart very quickly, but I don't care. Jesus says there is a time when God's people will be so full of God's Spirit that the whole world will be enlightened with the glory of His Character. Rev. 18:1. It's hard to believe that that can happen at a time when the world seems to be disintegrating, but it will happen. "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Hab. 2:14. (See also Isa. 60: 1-5 and Rev. 18:1.)

Life goes on at Eden Valley. My wife came from Africa thinking to find some peace and rest. It wasn't to be. We dumbed a huge burden on her shoulders--the measure of our confidence in her. She reluctantly accepted challenge, but it has sometimes left her so stressed-out that she can't sleep. In the end, however, she is doing a great job. Things are coming together wonderfully. It never would have happened had she not been here to take the lead. (Amazing isn't it? As far as leadership is concerned, I've always gotten the title, but she is the one that gets things done. Powerful.) It's no wonder God chose her to build an institution in Africa. He knew the material He had to work with. I'm proud of her.

Our children are all like her--can-do people. Jason was elected Director of Kibidula Farm Inst. in Tanzania. It's a huge responsibility with all kinds of potential for heartache and headache. Nevertheless, I believe in him. He'll do fine if he leans heavy on the Lord. The first year will not be a honeymoon. If he can organize himself a staff that harmonizes with each other and with the Lord, he'll be alright. If his staff resist everything he tries to do, or, if the staff are at each other's throats, it will be very difficult to succeed.

The Lord is giving me some good sermons on R. by F. in relation to the Third Angel's Message. I am encouraged. I was suppose to speak today, but our Pastor, Paul Eagan, offered to address the staff. I have a sermon ready for Sabbath in the Estes Park Church.

OCI asked me to do a seminar on topics I know little about at the OCI Retreat in Romania. Because I hate to say no for fear of denying the Lord, I will do it. Lord help me. I have too many requests to preach around the world. This week, Mount Akagi in Japan asked if I would do some meetings in June, so did Miracle Meadows in Virginia and a doctor in Kentucky. All that is added to Ukraine twice, Romania, and Germany. I keep saying I'm going to say no, but I'm too soft. On the other hand, EVI can't sustain an absentee President for very long.

Sylvan Dale, a dude ranch over the mountain, is asking if they can pasture their 120 animals on our upper meadow. The folks who run a rock quarry close to us want to negotiate over our granite. Janet needs their help to load her container on a semi, when it is ready and Leasa wants a big flat rock from them to make a really nice sign for the entrance of our property.

I was talking to Gail Clark of Miracle Meadows this morning. She wants me to do some revival meetings for her staff. I asked about her husband. He's had cancer, Leukemia, forever. Yet, he lives on. She says Green Tea Extract is really helping him a lot. He seems to be recovering. He also does a fever therapy treatment daily.

I've been looking to trade my car in. Ugh! It's a love/hate feeling in my soul. Nothing is more fun than shopping for a newer car, but if I am perfectly honest, I know that my old car might last another year. It has 165,000 miles on it. My wife, always the practical one, says it may last a year, but it will lose its trade-in value in the process. Maybe. Maybe not. They are offering me $1,000 for it now. I found a VW Passat with only 64,000 miles on it, and wonder of wonders, it's a standard shift. (I won't have anything other than stick shift.) So, I am tempted, but oh, to empty my account for a car, yuk! Is that God's will? I'm praying.

Blessings to all,

The Preacher

Notice

2011-03-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

I reposted the one I had lost. It is below the one I posted yesterday. It is the same as yesterday's, except in other words.

I've Found a Key.

2011-03-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

Frustration. I just wrote a whole blog just to delete the thing by mistake. How many times I am reminded that the Devil really does exist. this wouldn't have happened except that today I wrote on a spiritual topic. So, because I thought to do it today, he thought to oppose it. I will not be foiled, however. I will be patient and I will try to repeat what I had previously written. Yuk! I don't feel like spending another half hour at this dumb computer, but here goes.

(Do you mind if I abbreviate a little?)

The weather is great. It will be in the 70's Fahrenheit this week. Spring is in the air.

I preached at Copper Mountain on Sabbath. Eldon and Marilene Stevenson came with us. (Friends from Australia.) We went from Copper to DayStar that same day. We arrived in Moab, Utah, just on time to take in a concert by a young Philippino lady called Mary Grace. She plays the piano with her left hand and a right stump for an arm. Absolutely amazing.

We went to DayStar to attend a MPI board meeting. Mission Projects, Inc. support my wife's project with two Bible workers. They wanted a report. She did a great job. I had the privilege of doing a report for Riverside Farms Pioneers. I enjoyed that a lot, even though I left RFI thirteen years ago. We got home at 11:30 pm Sunday night and I had to preach at 7:00 am Monday morning.

I've got two more calls to preach this year. One to Japan and one to Kentucky. Dr. Naren and Hannah James are here from Kentucky. He was a patient here four years ago. They are the ones who want me to do a revival meeting in their church before their planned evangelistic series.

My Secretary, Frances Martin, retired this week. She's been faithful for 86 years. We really appreciate her and we intend to keep her at EVI so long as she can care for herself.

My wife is shopping for tickets to Africa. Caleb 11, Christina 13, and Deniece will be going with her in May. The adventure is about to begin. I sincerely wish I was going with them, but I really can't. There is so much to do around EVI.

So there! That is the short version of the news for today. Now, what was I saying about righteousness by faith?

I think it was something about the relation of R by F to the third angel's message. A sermon by Dave Fiedler gave me a clue this week. The issue has to do with authority. The great controversy is between man-made religion and God's way to salvation. Cain invented his own religion in opposition to God's. He tried to coerce Abel to join him in rebellion, but Abel would not put Cain in the place of God. He lost his life for it. The Pharisees were bent on controlling the consciences of the masses, Jesus included, thereby placing themselves where God belonged. There is a name for that--Anti-Christ. The Popes waxed violent in their efforts to rule the people's consciences. George I Butler marshaled his pastors against Jones, Waggoner and White. "Stand by the old landmarks," was his battle cry. The implication was that Jones and Waggoner were going to destroy the church with their heresies. The pastors followed their boss like sheep to the shearing. They put Butler where only God should be.

Finally, the third angel's message points to a Beast determined to control the consciences of the whole world. The issue will be righteousness by faith in the works of men vs. righteousness by faith in the gift of God's salvation. Like Abel, many will lose their lives for the faith. Many more who expect others to think and to decide for them will follow the Beast to perdition. Solemn thought, isn't it?

Do you live by faith in God's love for you, or do you live by faith in yourself. We are already deciding how we will vote in the day of reckoning .

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Re-take

2011-03-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

After the last post, three people, everyone a child of mine, told me what to do to retrieve the lost blog. So, here it is. It's a repeat of yesterday's offering.

It feels like spring. I swear this is the shortest winter in my memory. When I was young, it seemed winter never relaxed its grip. (Of course, we were living in Northern Ontario. The other factor is my age. Everything is going by in a blur these days.) Nevertheless, I can smell spring in the air. Its suppose to be 70 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow.

On the weekend, my Lover and I, with another couple, the Stevensons from Australia, went to Copper Mountain to church and then proceeded to go to DayStar Academy in Utah. We arrived on time for a concert by Marie Grace. This young Philippino lady has only one hand and a stub of an arm on the right. She plays the piano like a concert pianist. Absolutely amazing.

The next day, Mission Projects, Inc. (MPI) had a board meeting. That is the reason we went to DayStar. These people support my wife's project in Africa by paying for two Bible Workers. My wife gave a great report and I had the privilege of doing a report for Riverside Farms Pioneers. I actually enjoyed that even though I've been away from RFI for 13 years. We got home at 11:30 PM that night.

Today I rec'd two calls to preach. One from Japan and one from Kentucky. The folks from Kentucky, Dr. Naren James and Hannah and Chantie, are staying at EVI for a couple of weeks. He was a Lifestyle guest four years ago. They've come back for more treatments and a vacation of sorts. In any case, they'd like me to do some revival meetings at their church before the evangelistic series they are planning. Mount Akagi in Japan want me for five days. I'll have to run this by my Executive Committee.

My Secretary, Frances Martin, retired this week. She is 86 years young. We will keep her at EVI as long as she is able to care for herself, which I believe will be a long time. Praise God.

My wife is buying tickets to return to Africa. Four tickets, Caleb 11, Christian 13, Deniece and Janet. The adventure is about to begin. Hope our dear kids don't get homesick.

The central theme of the Bible

"Cease ye from man whose breadth is in his mouth." Isa. 2:22. "Cursed is the man that trusts in man . . . Blessed is the man who trusts the Lord." Jer. 17:5-7.

I've finally figured out that this is the connection between righteousness by faith and the third angel's message of Rev. 14. Throughout the Bible there is a great controversy between man made religion and God's church, between righteousness by faith in man's works and righteousness by faith in God's gift. Authority is the issue. Cain wanted to be conscience for Abel, but Abel would not be controlled by a mere man. His allegiance was to God and God's ways alone. The Pharisees were bent on being authority and conscience for all, including Jesus. The Popes ruled with extreme violence the consciences of the populace of Europe during the Dark Ages. During the 1888 Minneapolis, George I Butler determined to command all his pastors to rule against Jones and Waggoner, and they followed. Instead of thinking objectively; instead of thinking for themselves, they placed Butler where God should have been.

And there will come a time when the mark of Cain (of the Beast) will be placed on the foreheads or on the hands of those who put their trust in men. "Cease ye from man whose breadth is in his nostrils." Isa 2:22

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Toothache

2011-03-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

We are home after a two-week vacation. It was a blast visiting with Angie and Steve and their five children. Not all children however. Vanessa is 17 and going to college. Brianna is 16 and well on the way to outworking all of us. Christina is 13 going on 24, for hight anyway.

The second week was hardly a vacation. I preached 10 times--sermons I had only ever preached once. It'a a lot of work to wrap my head around half familiar yet unrefined material. Not all the sermons were winners, as far as I am concerned. But everyone was gracious.

I had a toothache for the better part of one week. Actually, I think I've had a toothache for the better part of ten years, but I've learned to keep my teeth from aching by rinsing my mouth with hydrogen peroxide once of twice a day. My understanding is that hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria and bacteria is responsible for much of the pain. However, after ten years of dodging the bullet, there was no more I could do. Dr. Richard Mehrer did me the honor of pulling my tooth. It was cracked from top to bottom. The man is the best dentist in the business. No pain, no problems.

We are back in Eden Valley. Today we have four bosses from Maranatha looking our place over to ascertain the extent of the construction they face. So, excuse me, I have to go.

Week of Prayer or Weak in Prayer

2011-02-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

Janet and I are in Cashmere, WA. We drove from Colorado to Washington earlier in the week. I thank God for getting us over safely, but it wasn't easy. We hit snow and icy road conditions in Wyoming and it never let up until we left Idaho. Stressful driving. Otherwise, all is well.

I've been working on sending our Graphic Designer all the articles and photos he needs to put our winter edition of the Faith Ventures magazine together. The rest of the time has been restful. Brianna and I have been gathering the troupes for our daily exercise routine. I love it. Usually, vacations are not conducive to exercising.

Tonight starts the Week of Prayer. Originally, I had thought to do a series on God's Call for You. It's a great series, and everyone needs to know God's will for themselves, but I taught half of that series for the LIGHT school at EVI and Brianna and Dakota already heard it. Instead, I will do a series on Righteousness by Faith in relation to the Third Angel's Message. I've only ever prepared and preached these sermons once to my staff at EVI. So it isn't like it is a series, or that the sermons are tried and true winners. On the other hand, I have no way of refining these messages except to have the opportunity to share them as often as I can. So, here goes. (May God's blessing attend this week's weak effort.)

The next issue is how to get this knowledge of Righteousness by Faith into my Christian experience so that the lost notice and the saved praise God. Do the lost see Jesus in you? Is that important? Is anything else more important than that? If anything else is more important to us, then that is idolatry. Lord help us.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Joking or Sense of Humor?

2011-02-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

I did something different for a change. Leonard and I installed a laminated floor in David and Candi Katsma's dining room and living room today. It's always a blessing to be able to do something practical. You can see where you've started and when it is finished you can take some satisfaction in a job well done.

I also preached today. This sermon, on the a long standing controversy, but every time I used a Bible verse or a SOP quotation to show how the "liberals" defend their position, my "conservative" staff couldn't help but jump into the fray as if they had to show why the other people's arguments are not sound. We got through the talk unscathed, I think. On the positive side, I find it a good idea sometimes to stimulate my staff with something controversial. At least I know they are alive.

The LIGHT school is into its third week. Our girls, Brianna and Dakota seem to be enjoying their stay with us. Sweet little Brianna is full of energy. I never realized. Between every class she runs around the building five times. The others just look at her and shake their heads. Instead of walking to school, she runs to school. I do a one-hour exercise class for my staff three days per week. She is right there, pumping iron like the best of them. Then she uses my weights when things get boring. When the kids go tobogganing, she is right there. One of our boys has a two-wheel skateboard. She mastered that in no time flat, and while waiting for lunch she was skating up and down the halls and all around the dining tables with the greatest of ease. All that, while fighting a mysterious ailment of sore muscles. Brent, our expert herbalist, has her on a powerful potion. It about curls your hair to drink it, but she does.

3ABN called me this week. Besides the little business they had about something unimportant, they asked me to do some TV programs with Shelley Quinn. Oh me, I've been trying to avoid that. I wouldn't mind doing the Prodigal Son or something, but talking heads seem so difficult for some reason. Anyway, I agreed to do it. We should start filming in 2012. So don't hold your breadth. Maybe I'll have a heart attack between now and then. What a relief that would be.

One of my staff asked if I would do a sermon on jesting and joking. I think she is trying to tell me something. Nah! Can't be. Well, maybe. If I didn't have a sense of humor, I'd be dead, I think. Can someone tell me where the balance is? Joking, bad??? Sense of humor, good??? When does a sense of humor become unacceptable jesting? I'd welcome any advice.

One More Time

2011-01-31T17:09:00.001-08:00

When it gets to be more than a week since I've written, I get no peace. I have to write. Ugh! But about what? I any case, here we are.

We had wonderful weather last week--up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It was balmy. My wife and her side-kick, Deniece, did a wonderful job mapping out where we will build the new houses. They are forever planning and organizing. We couldn't do it without them. Saturday night, Earle Bearce called me. I forget what he wanted, but my wife asked to talk to his wife about joining her in Africa. If Carol and Earle were there, I think it would free Janet up considerably.

The LIGHT School is in full swing. We have eleven students for the month, including Brianna, our granddaughter, and her friend Dakota Tall. It is such a blessing for us to have them in our home. Love it. Brianna is something else. For all the pains she is apparently suffering, she runs everywhere, she exercises all the time, she amazes me. When Jason and I went to visit them in Washington, last August. Brianna was a lifeguard (as is Vanessa). Brianna, big as a peanut, can hold a double-sized brick in the deep end of the swimming pool with both hands and stays afloat for two minutes. Try it sometime. It's torture. You wouldn't know anything hurts for all the activity in that little girl.

There was an accident at EVI, last week. A couple of kids, 18 years old, drove onto the campus. The girl was driving. On the way out, she was driving too fast going around a corner and lost control. She over corrected and left the road at almost a ninety degree angle. She drove between two trees, which if she had hit one might have been fatal. She drove through a field, and jumped a creek (about ten feet embankment) and landed on the other side facing the way she had been coming. The kids showed up at my house full of mud and a little blood on her face. We called their parents and the police. Everybody was amazed that they had no greater injuries. It would not have been good had either one been killed. One or two of us pointed out to the parents that these kids had guardian angels. They were all very polite and grateful that we took the kids in and helped them.

The weather is taking a turn for the worse. Zero Fahrenheit tomorrow for a high, 20 below for the low.

Don't forget we live during the Anti-typical day of Atonement. Do you know what Jesus is doing in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary. He is purifying to Himself a people--the 144,000. Will you be among them?

A Lot of Nothing

2011-01-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

What is amazing about writing a blog is that you never feel like you have anything to say. On the other hand, I read enough of my kid's blogs to know, that if someone doesn't write pretty soon, it is unsettling. So here I am, settling your nerves, with nothing to say.

My wife and I came to a conclusion today. She will be happy, if happy is the right sentiment, to help Eden Valley until she returns to Africa. Because she feels totally unqualified to oversee the building of the Lifestyle Center, she has decided not to tackle that project. We are grateful for anything she is/will contribute. On the other hand, I will remain in America, Eden Valley to be exact. We both agree that I will like it better at EVI than in Africa. That may not be altogether true, but that is the conclusion we've arrived at. I thank God for His guidance. I believe He led in our deliberations. Thank you for praying with us. I wrote my board members and several have responded positively to the news. What would I do if they had responded negatively?

Little Joy Grabiner broke her wrist, yesterday. Steve, her dad, called last night asking for us to go visit her. We'll probably do that tomorrow night. I did talk with her this afternoon. She is quite chipper in spite of it all.

I'm looking to contact Howard Burkhart. Does anyone know how I can reach him? I have a big ole' cottonwood to cut down by a house, and it is a bit too intimidating for me . . . in my dotage.

The L.I.G.H.T. program starts this Sunday. (A one month course on medical missionary stuff.) Brianna is part of the student body. We are as excited as can be to finally have one grandchild come live with us for a month. Imagine.

Christina and Caleb are racing to see who is going to raise enough money to go to Africa with Memere in the spring. I imagine they'll both succeed. What a blast Memere is going to have. Wish I was going with them. (Uhh, I'd better not start that again.)

We got word today. Well, we got the implication that Jason is safe in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Apparently, he got there before others and organized everything. I hope that isn't overstated. In any case, we are happy to hear that perhaps he and his family made it safely through that devastated country.

We've got a couple of fellows cleaning the scrap metal off of EVI. To date, one week, we have sold $3,500 of scrap. One of the guys said that there are fourteen more loads to go. (Nearly $1,000 a load. I hope he's right.)

The fellow who had a week of prayer here last week, Dr. Fred Bischoff, asked if he could post my series on the Prodigal Son on his website. Isn't that nice? It's an honor that he should think it good enough. I thank the Lord.

We had 200 elk in our backyards yesterday. Pretty site, but I don't know what that means for our raspberry shoots. Deniece's house was surrounded last night. They were eating the hay with which she insulates her trailer. She wondered if they were aggressive. I said, open the window and say, "boo." I believe that will work.

Well, that's all that's new at lake Woe-be-gone.

Christless Preaching

2011-01-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

I believe I announced, a few weeks back, that I was asked to speak at the ASI National Convention next August. The topic is suppose to be Righteousness by Faith in relation to the Third Angel's Message. This is a bit backward, by the way. Usually, you hear of someone who has some wonderful insight into a topic and you invite him/her to come and share it. In this case, the speaker was chosen, and was told to get a wonderful insight. A bit more difficult.

In any case, I've been praying a lot, and researching a lot, and coming up with little insights--not so good that I'd want to preach them at ASI. Nevertheless. I believe the Lord will hear my prayer and give us something to chew on by August.

The original question was: If EGW said that the Third Angel's Message is righteousness by faith in verity, why then do our evangelist, when preaching on the 3rd Angel, only preach on the Mark of the Beast? The original answer went something like this: R by F is not explicit in the text, it is implied. It is there by contrast. The Beast's theology on righteousness is righteousness by works, righteousness by force, righteousness by legislation, bribery, flattery, and if none of the above work, then it is righteousness by torture.

With the Beast, you cannot possibly have R by F. Faith implies a trust in God as opposed to tradition, the church, the Pope, or in men, or in religious dogma, etc. R by F is right-doing thru' faith in God's power.

After researching for a couple of months, I was beginning to feel very sympathetic toward our poor evangelists. When I put myself in their shoes and tried to see how I would do differently, I have to admit pure frustration. Who am I to question our elite preachers, or to think I could do better? So I began to prepare a sermon to explain why preaching the 3rd Angel in relation to R by F couldn't be done. Just then, the Lord sent some light. (Dr. Fred Bischoff comes along.)

I posed to famous question to him, and here is what I heard. "The message is marred in our hands." 1888 Mat. 367:1. That is a Spirit of Prophecy quote on the 3rd Angel of Rev. 14.

Here is the whole paragraph: "The message that was given to the people in these meetings (Minneapolis 1888) presented in clear lines not alone the commandments of God--a part of the 3rd angel's message--but the faith of Jesus, which comprehends more than is generally supposed. and it will be well for the 3rd angel's message to be proclaimed in all its parts, for the people need every jot and tittle of it. If we proclaim the commandments of God and leave the other half scarcely touched, the message is marred in our hands." Ouch! That is exactly what we've been doing since 1888.

Again, talking about the 3rd angel's message, she says, "The discourses of some (since 1888) might be correctly represented as like the offering of Cain--Christless." 1888 Mat. 212:1.

Can we see what is happening here? We've been presenting the history and the prophecies of the three angels of Rev. 14, but the messages have been void of the gospel. Facts, history and prophecies are important, but they give our Christian experience the wrong flavor, if not seasoned with the righteousness of Christ.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Happy New Year

2011-01-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone.

It's 2011 in Colorado and so far the climate is mild. We weathered a storm last week. I feared it would make my trek to Copper Mountain on Sabbath a bit treacherous, but it didn't. Actually, Janet and I got to church an hour early. We had a great time.

This week, Dr. Fred Bischoff from Loma Linda is doing a week-of-prayer on our campus. The guy is a walking encyclopedia on the Spirit of Prophecy. I enjoy asking him questions. His answers are very insightful.

This month, we are having a lifestyle session, starting on the 9th, and a L.I.G.H.T. program, starting on the 23rd. It appeared for the longest time, that we would have two very light programs. (As in unattended.) We've been praying and things are filling up. Praise God.

My wife is helping with the Master Plan and is organizing what it will take to build. She is amazing. Eden Valley is upping the anti on her. At first, we offered to pay her way to Africa twice a year, if she would help us. Now the offer is up to four times a year. Do you think she'll bite? She doesn't do much, but laugh. Actually, she is laughing a lot, lately. Our attempts to keep her strike her as being funny.

I heard her tell Steve Grabiner the other day that she thinks I would be happier at Eden Valley than in Africa. It sounds to me like she thinks I ought to stay here. If truth be told, I wouldn't be unhappy in Africa. I'm happy wherever I am, but it does seem to me like I would accomplish more at Eden Valley. I had decided to go to Africa, and I couldn't un-decide. Now it appears like the consensus is growing that I should stay here. That's what happens when you make decisions before consulting the Lord with much prayer. Because I was feeling so incompetent in 2008, I decided it would be best to resign for leadership. I am not so excited about leadership to this day, but when you have a great team, the picture changes considerably. Who needs to be a great leader, if every player is led by the Lord?

We are still looking for an OCI president. As far as I am concerned, I know only one available qualified person , but it isn't unanimously agreed. All I can say is, God will choose whom He will!

At present, we have a wonderful team at EVI. Not a discordant note in the gang. This, I believe, is what God can bless.

Cliff Hanger

2010-12-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Sabbath. There is an extra blessing to Christmas this year. The Sabbath makes it more sacred. This morning I read chosen passages from the Desire of Ages at church, interspersed with a dozen special songs by special singers, all local. It was very good. The weather continues to be abnormally warm. I don't know to call it Global Warming because the rest of the country is blanketed with tons of snow, and Europe can't seem to shake the below normal temperatures. Some of our mountains received between six and eight feet of snow in the last week. Everywhere but here. Thank you, Lord.

Did I leave you with a cliff hanger in my last blog? Ah, sorry! Actually, I forgot about it until Julie and Jason reminded me. Like, well-l-l-l, what is the big proposal? . . . Oh, nothing!

I need to be careful what I say. If I reveal my feelings, I might influence things inappropriately. So, my plan is to let the Lord decide.

Anyway, the EVI Search Committee was considering a few names--very few--when the idea was floated that maybe we could ask Janet to oversee the construction of our new building thrust--Lifestyle Center, new houses, and the repair of the old houses. Leasa took Janet out for lunch. (I was to say nothing-g-g-g.) I assume my vice-president turned on the charm and put her best persuasive self forward, and helped Janet to see that we cannot possibly do it without her. (Which, In many respects is true. At least, at this time we have no one better.)

To some degree, the proposal fell a little short. How can a woman who can't build her own African houses without her son, supervise the construction of an ultra modern facility? My wife was quick to point out this discrepancy. She figures it is all an attempt to get me to stay. Yes, my staff want me to stay, but no, Janet has qualities that would be invaluable to the project.

Obviously, my Lover is not about to come running to EVI and just dump her mission in Africa. The proposal also offered to pay her way to Africa twice a year, so she could supervise it to some degree. It failed to take in the fact that we already pay her way twice a year to Africa. Ah well!

Here I think is where it's at, right now. Because my wife has a big heart and wants to help everyone that asks for it, she has agreed to help organize the buying and the accumulating of the material that Maranatha will need by May 2011. This is not the construction of the lifestyle center. This will include the building of one new house and the repair of our old buildings. I even heard her say she might be able to help more, whatever that means.

Where does that leave me? Essentially, nothing changes with me. Perhaps I should rehearse the story in your ear, the short version: After the Lord spent two years trying to make me more humble, I finally concluded that I was too incompetent to be in leadership. So, in the spring of 2009 I began to announce that I would transition out of EVI by September 2010. I was perfectly convinced that I was not for leadership. It only made sense after the disaster I created at EVI. From then on I began to tell my wife I would join her in Africa in the fall of 2009, if she would have me, of course. You never know, she might not want the same mess in Mago. From that moment on, God, by an amazing display of grace reversed course. When we humble ourselves, He lifts us up. Everything began to prosper, at least, it prospered far more than it had for a while. The biggest blessing came in the person of Leasa Hodges. (I can see her face as she reads this, humble girl.) The Lord outfitted her with energy, initiative, creativity, ideas and much more, and if there is no reason to have a party, she'll think of one.

Immediately, she asked Janet and I to consider my staying at EVI until May 2011. We agreed. Since then, it seems everyone on the team cannot see us gone. (This is of grace also.) Both my heart, and Janet's are touched with the need and the display of love, but now what???

Sometimes my Lover says she feels guilty because she doesn't think I'll be happy in Africa. I have never been unhappy. Why should I be unhappy in Africa. Sometimes she says, I don't think it's going to happen? She doesn't say that it should happen, or shouldn't happen, she just says she doesn't think it will happen. Can you see how safe that kind of talk is?

From my side, I said I was going to Africa, period. The Bible says, "Swear to your own hurt, and change not." Psalms 15. So, unless the Lord changes my direction, I'm going to Africa. I am not saying that would be the best decision. The problem is, I've already made a decision. Now my wife and I pray together. Being together has become important. Knowing God's will is even more important. You all might pray with us. Eden Valley is picking up a heavy burden, and I hate to let others struggle under the load and not help lift it. On the other hand, I can't go around telling my wife I'm going to Africa, and then change my mind. Do you see the dilemma?

Thank you for praying with us.

The Preacher.

Four Days of Bliss

2010-12-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

I'm back to work. This morning, I prepared a sermon for Wednesday morning assembly. (Every Wednesday our staff come together. We praise God for what He is doing in our lives; we lift each other up in prayer, and I preach a 30 minute sermon.) I went up the mountain to pray for half an hour. I fixed the windshield wiper on my wife's car, and the exhaust hose on her dryer. Then I had lunch by myself because Janet and Leasa are having lunch together. Eden Valley is hitting my wife up with a new proposal. I was forbid to say anything to her personally. So, I won't say anything right now, but perhaps I'll let you know when I hear the outcome.

I took two days off from work when my wife arrived. Add that to the weekend and we've had four days in which to do nothing or anything we wanted to. I was thinking as I walked up the mountain: if anyone offered me a weekend in the Caribbean, or on South Pacific island, I could not have enjoyed my time more. That we did nothing, but we did it together. We went swimming, we went shopping, we went to church, we had folks over for lunch on Sabbath, we tried to sleep, we slept a little, whatever, it was a blast.

Eight Months, no Shopping

2010-12-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

My Lover is home and it's been a blast. (As much of a blast as old people can make.) We have much to get caught up on. We are doing our best, so long as I can keep her awake. In the meantime, I took two days off, and we are doing the funnest thing--shopping. Oh well. We'll do anything so long as it's together.

Everyone at EVI is bending over backward to welcome my wife. People are making welcome signs, beautiful, by the way; they are making food and filling our fridge. They've invited us to eat with the Lifestyle guests. My wife was blown away with the quality of the food. I guess she's been looking at beans and rice or ugali for too long. The staff who have never met my famous frontier woman are going out of their way to make her acquaintance. They never imagined her to be so short. She is bigger than life in some imaginations. Never mind, they'll find out.

Oh, and it's my birthday today, 63. I just discovered why a person shouldn't be on Facebook. Not at least, if you want to respond to everybody's good b'day wishes.

In any case, I'm happy. I've got health, and wealth, and a wife with children and great-grandchildren. The Savior is Lord of my life, and He showers me with honors and blessings constantly. What more could a man want? May He gives you as much.

Love to all

December Highlights

2010-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

Two days ago, December 10, my dad would have turned 90. He died at 56. No matter, I still think fondly of him every year on this date. We always got along very well, until of course, I began to read the Bible. I never help was angry over the situation. To him, what I was doing was treason, a rejection of important tradition and the one church that had to be the only church. I understood then. I understand better now. Nevertheless, if a person chooses to walk with God using God's word, he will garner resistance and sometimes persecution. (I was never persecuted enough to wad a shotgun.) I did the right thing. I hope that doesn't sound too arrogant? But I did.

It's like I told someone not long ago. If I hadn't, I would be sitting in the same chair, drinking the same beer, watching the same hockey puck go up and down the ice for forty years. Instead, I've been used to preach the plan of salvation from God's word in most of the 33 countries I've visited or lived in. I don't have many talents, but God uses the little I have so consistently that sometimes I'm embarrassed to be in the positions I find myself in. My wife is remarkable for the achievements she's reached, even still today. My children are not only law abiding citizens, but aggressive missionaries, amazingly talented and accomplished. You just need to read their blogs to see it. If the Lord does nothing more for me than He's done to date, I have enough to praise Him for eternity already.

Yesterday, was Julie's birthday. She's finally reached the big forty. I'm not sure she was really looking forward to this day, but it's better than the alternative. My Lover comes home in three days. I think I've written that I may not recognize her, it's been so long. I really have to be careful at the airport not to make a mistake.

It was on a December 15 that my grandmother/godmother died. I was 15 years old doing math in my bedroom when the phone call came. Why do I always remember that on this date? Somethings are unexplainable.

Hey, If you are going to retain anything, retain this: Jesus is everything to us. Set your affections on Him. Behold Him, His condescension, His lowly birth; consider His sacrifice, His love for you, His eternal vigilance over you and . . . give thanks. Love you all. The Preacher.

Hungry? I hope so.

2010-12-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it, it's December 7 and the weather is wonderful, in Colorado. Usually, arctic weather has settled in by now, pipes are freezing and we are not acclimated. I suppose it will all change in time for my wife's arrival, December 15. No matter, I'll see that the house is warmed up.

Besides that, nothing is new. We have a new intake of lifestyle guests. Very nice people. I believe they all have cancer, except the supports, of course. Leonard and I put new laminate flooring in my dining room, kitchen and entry way. Today, the maintenance men put the trim back down. I get to preach in Copper Mountain this Sabbath. Today, I rec'd an e-mail asking if I would do some meetings at a youth camp in Romania in August, and a GYC in Romania next December. I might. I'm already scheduled for Washington state in February, Ukraine and Romania in May, Germany and Sacramento ASI in August. With that I'm suppose to move to Africa. Can I keep all that organized from Africa? Lots of questions; lots of hurdles.

Did you notice in the Beatitudes that Jesus did not say blessed are the righteous. The reason is, "there is none righteous, no not one." Romans 3: 10-12. Jesus said, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness." Matthew 5. We don't hunger when we are full. We hunger when we feel our emptiness. It isn't the proud religionist, the man satisfied with his christian experience, his self-sufficience, that is blessed/accepted of God. It's the one who feels His need of help from God. "From the soul that feels his need, nothing is withheld." DA 300. Feeling our need is the qualifier, the qualification that nets for us the gift. Do you know your need of God? Oh, I hope so. I do,

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Correction

2010-12-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

The info I rec'd last night was that Shawn, Frances' grandson, was killed. Sorry, uh, not sorry, he wasn't killed, but he was run over by a car and is in pretty bad shape in the hospital. Praise God, the Lord heard our prayers and resurrected him. Well, at least He saved his life.

Trip to the Great, not so Great North

2010-12-01T18:55:00.000-08:00

It's 10:00 P. M. I'm sitting in a motel in Michigan, somewhere, and feeling sad. (More about the sadness in a moment.) I managed to visit everyone I planned to visit in Northern Ontario. I wish I had had more time. I would have visited Andre and Line, but time ran out.

The meetings in the Soo were very well rec'd. I enjoyed all the people there. I don't know if the meetings made a difference insofar as the division among them, but I hope so. I spent four days with Champy and his family. His girls are adorable--very affectionate. They come by their cuddliness honestly. Their mother, Bonnie; their grandmother, Linda; their great-granny, oh, I forgot her name, and their aunt Noel are all affectionate huggers. I took a shine to all of them.

I spent five or six days with Nelson and Anne. We had a great time and they came to all the meetings, even though I did not do the meetings in their church. They are quite the couple: I love them to death. Nobody is more spiritual than Nelson. We teased Anne-Marie too much as usual, but I think she likes it. In speaking, they punctuate every point with the phrase, "you know what I mean?" Very interesting. I think they were made for each other, you know what I mean?

I really surprised Hermel and Sue. Hermel says he was thinking of me at breakfast time and presto, I'm standing in his house a couple of hours later. We really had a great visit. Sue has had a knee replacement and needs the other done next. I saw a lot of signs of aging in my old friends. Not so with Hermel. He still plays hockey at 64. He was telling me of going fishing with a "vieux bonhomme de soisante" (old man of sixty.) He had to spend most of one night rescuing the old man off of a foggy lake, and then the guy tipped his canoe and Hermel had to jump in the lake up to his neck to save him from drowning.

I visited with Monique, Sarah and Sarah's little girl. Sarah is back, without two of her children, from the Philippines. I found her to be mature and looking very good. (I wouldn't want her to sit on me, but looking good, nonetheless.) Monique continues to beat the odds with her heart condition.

I stayed at Roger and Maggie's that night. The biggest change in anyone is in Roger. He brought his Bible out and showed me how much he studies that book. He told me he has a lot to do to redeem himself. I told him he didn't have to do that, the Lord did it for him already. I've never been better treated than on this visit. All is well, if you discount old age. Roger has diabetes, heart trouble and a back so bad that he can't work anymore. They are now Mennonites and loving it.

Then I visited Buck. Some people don't change, except that he too was very happy for my company. (Buck was baptized into the Adventist church a year ago.) He made lunch for me and we had a good talk.

The last visit in the Sudbury area was to Eddy Charrette. The guy is doing good. He is the oldest in a family of a dozen and he remains the strongest. He does a lot of fishing now that he is retired. His house if real clean and organized. I"m impressed. His wife died four years ago.

In North Bay, my cousin, Madeleine and I stayed up till midnight talking. That's what happens when you don't see one of your favorite people for thirty years. She really is a sweetheart. We reminisced a lot about times gone by. She had many pictures of old relatives when they were young. I really have a soft spot for that family member.

In the end, all of these visits warmed my heart. Wish I lived closer to these dear people. Ah well, if that is what God wanted, that is where I would be. The only negatives I can point to is the weather. Oh my goodness, I haven't seen the sun since I left EVI. Rain, sleet, snow, ice and storm after storm. Through it all, however, I didn't miss an appointment. Even today, I drove through a snow squall. The other thing I can't appreciate is the scenery up north. Outside of Southern Ontario, everything looks poverty stricken. There are so many shacks up north, it's amazing. On that good note, I'll say, aurevoir!

PS: About being sad: I just got a phone call. My secretary's grandson, Shawn, was killed today. A road accident. Frances, my secretary, has a daughter in Boulder. The daughter adopted to problem children. Shawn was autistic and the girl, Becka, is Bipolar. That is the third person connected with EVI killed this year. What is the deal?

Good Trip So Far

2010-11-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in my nephew, Allan's, living room. The sky is as gray as I remember it being in northern Canada at this time of year. There is snow on the ground and the wind is howling like it was mid January. Actually, Allan's home is not in Canada at all, but it is as far north as it can get and not be in Canada. Americans this close to Canada are really Canadians at heart. They even say "eh" and act like Eskimos in caucasian disguises.

I drove from Colorado so that I wouldn't have to rent a car at this end. I intend to visit some family members after I am finished with the Revival meetings. I drove one thousand miles the first day and finished off with five hundred miles the last day. Piece-o-cake. I listened to two very good audio books. One on Winston Churchill, excellent. And one on Deepthroat, the man who leaked the truth about Watergate to Bob Woodward, the reporter. That book was excellent, as well.

I preached the first of five sermons, yesterday. It seemed to be well rec'd.

Allan and his cutie, Bonnie, are very hospitable. Their three girls, Jesse, Mac, for Macayla, and Elaina, are wonderfully sweet, well behaved and very social. The oldest, Jesse, is great at checkers, but when she comes close to winning, she backs off and lets her adversary win. She can't stand to offend. I love it. Everyone should be so loving.

I'll be moving over to Anne and Nelson's place on Tuesday. We had a nice visit yesterday, but with too many others. All is well. If winter doesn't ramp up too quickly, I should be home safely in two weeks. Till next time.

Be Diligent in Prayer

2010-11-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

I saw the most beautiful rainbow, yesterday. I went up the mountain twice during the day, to pray. The second time, it was beginning to rain when I left, but I really didn't care as I was determined, since I am mostly alone anyway, to pray as much as I can. When my wife comes home in one month and one week, I'll have less time. We'll spend all of our time looking into each other's eyes. Well, that will take three and one half minutes, or four. Anyway, I had worked five hours on this topic of Righteousness by Faith without much success and in a state of semi-discouragement, I went up the mountain to talk to the Lord about it.

He got through to me, or maybe, I got through to me that it is nonsense to fret over sermon material. I can't produce a good sermon on an ideal day. If the Lord doesn't give me the material as a revelation, a gift, then I am up the creek. I didn't ask for the assignments and if He wants to use me, then that is His prerogative, but He'll need to supply the talks. So instead of busting my head over blank thoughts, I've decided to have faith in God and relax. He never lets me down, anyway. So, as I am making my way home with a hard wind at my back and the rain soaking my backside, the sun came out and produced the sharpest rainbow I have seen in forever. The rainbow, a double, spanned nicely from one end of Eden Valley to the other. I took it to be God's promise to me as well as giving Eden Valley a favorable nod.

Honestly, I am praying more and more and more. "Only the work accomplished with much prayer . . . will in end prove to be efficient for good." DA 362. It is as if God goes out of His way to answer my prayers, when I go out of my way to pray them. That is so encouraging. In 2008, it took a year, it seems like, to reveal that He heard. Sometimes, it's immediate. In any case, my confidence grows. I'd like to encourage you likewise. Don't tell me God doesn't answer your prayers. Tell me instead, how faithful, how earnest, how determined, how persevering you are in petitioning His throne. God will do wonders for them that "believe that He is and that He rewards them that diligently seek Him." The key word here is "diligently".

So says the Preacher to his Tribe

God is so Good

2010-11-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

The weather is fabulous. It's November and to my Canadian senses, the summer hangs on. One of these days it's going to turn, but till then we will bask in God's gift of warm sunshine.

No new events in my life, I think. I've been praying a lot about the ASI meetings I've been ask to do. Yesterday, I presented the first of the three sermons to my staff. I can only praise the Lord. It turned out far better than I expected. Usually, the Lord lets me sweat until the last minute. True, He never lets me down, but boy, He gives me plenty of opportunity to stretch my faith. So now, I have one. Just two to go. Will they come easy? I'll let you know. Once I am satisfied that I have the messages, I am suppose to write a book/booklet using the sermons God has given me. This is so we can hand them out at the Convention. Since I've never done anything of the sort, I am somewhat intimidated. Nevertheless, I am determined to go forward. It will be interesting to see how things develop. I'd never put myself in such a predicament willingly, but being pushed into it, I am actually grateful for the challenge.

Julie just moved in to her new-to-her house, Angie's battle with her adopted twins is intensifying (I believe that thru' the Lord, she will overcome), Jason is on his last major trip of the year putting up One Day Churches. My wife arrived home yesterday with a guest from Canada, Beverly is her name. I'm working on putting out a new Faith Ventures magazine and I have to preach every time I turn around. No problem, the Lord always gives me something to say.

Being alone, well mostly alone, I endeavor to pray two and one half hours per day. The dividends are definitely noticeable. I am encouraged to pray more and more and more. "Only the work accomplished with much prayer, and sanctified by the merit of Christ, will in the end prove to have been efficient for good." DA 362:2

Are you sometimes overwhelmed? Are the challenges you face intimidating? Is the future dark and uncertain? Welcome to life on a fallen planet. That's what life is like for everyone I know. The dark future we face is lighted up by the fact that Jesus is the orderer of all our experiences and if we could see the end from the beginning, we would choose no other way to be let. Just put one foot ahead of the other. Go forward. The outcome is sure to play itself out to our advantage.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Not Enough to do!

2010-10-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

I got a ticket for my wife to come home on Dec. 14 and arrives on the 15th. I tried to get her to come home with Deniece on the 22nd of December, but there were no seats. With the travel agent we began to work our way backwards in time and finally we found one seat on the 14th. When I told her, she said she was so glad. If she would have had to wait till the 22nd, she said she would have cried. I told her to hold her tears. I've been crying for months and nobody cares.

On the way to Brazil, I read a book called "Left to Tell." It is the story of a girl who spent three months in a small bathroom with six other women during the Rwanda genocide. On the way back from Brazil, I watched a PBS documentary on the Rwandan genocide. So heart breaking. Yet, there was heroism among the few and a strong connection with God with some. It was both inspiring and maddening by fits and starts. I recommend both the book and the documentary.

Romeo Aggio is dead. As far as I can tell, he was having headaches for a couple of weeks. One day, he suffered a stroke while driving and drove into a field. Apparently, he never came to. He died in hospice. The conference secretary who told Patty LaVanture said that Romeo was in great shape and was very careful with his diet, et al. Go figure!

My dear energetic Vice-president, Leasa, organized for me to preach three sermons at the Nation ASI Convention in Sacramento, CA next August. The last time I preached at ASI, I told myself I shouldn't preach there again. It is just too stressful. But, how can a President say no to his VP? She wants me to preach on Righteousness by Faith and the Third Angel's Message. Her question a few weeks ago was: Why does EGW say the 3rd Angel's Message is R by F in verity and all our evangelists do is preach on the Mark of the Beast. Where is the R by F in the Third Angel? Now you must pray for me. It would be good if I could prepare the three sermons before Xmas. Then, I need them printed in a booklet to hand out at ASI. Doesn't that sound like a plan? (All Leasa's ideas. The Lord sent her because I didn't have enough to do.)

Brazilian Adventure

2010-10-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

I'm home. I've been all the way to Brazil and back. I didn't think Brazil was so far, but it took me 33 hours to get there and probably longer coming back. That is as long as it takes me to go to my wife's project in Africa. I was a great trip, if you don't mind discomfort--overnight travel, long lay overs, extreme heat, fire ants, canker on my tongue, sleeping on a foam that gradually became nothing in about ten minutes, etc.

In the Sao Paulo airport, I could have rented a room to sleep called Sleep Fast. Not a bad idea when you have ten hours to spare and you flew all night, except that it cost $49. (Forty nine dollars for the first hour, that is.) I saw young couples coming out of there. Must be someone thought of another way to make renting the rooms worthwhile.

The project on the Amazon river was impressive. Not the project so much, maybe, the young people running it. They bought this beautiful property for $225,000 without a penny in their pockets, and paid it off in five months. The leader, Brad Mills, is married to David Gate's daughter, Lena. They have two little boys. I am wonderfully impressed with their dedication and balanced, intelligent approach to ministry. The Lord is blessing them greatly.

They operate three mission boats on the Amazon river. They've interested 200 Brazilian professionals--docs, nurses, radiologist, dentists etc.-- to volunteer from mission trips into the interior. Now they are part of OCI's network of missions and I deem them worthy of our support.

I went with the purpose of speaking at a convention-like weekend four times. I ended up speaking six times. I had prepared three messages on Medical Missionary work and preached only two of them. I believe the Lord led me to touch other subjects. The Lord gave us a very spiritual weekend. The people are very friendly, good looking, intelligent and fun loving. Of course, the Adventist involved in this project are upper-middle class professionals. Much of the country reminded me of Dar Es Salaam, or Santo Domingo--steamy hot, sewers running down the streets, tropical fruit growing everywhere, children playing soccer on every street corner etc. The young ladies are beautiful. The older ladies still dress like they were beautiful. I guess it is too hot to dress otherwise. Last year, the Amazon river experienced its biggest flood on record, something like 50 or 60 feet above normal. This year, they set the record in the opposite direction. The waters have never been so low.

All in all, the trip was worth it, even though, I left my cell phone, pen and little note book in a motel in Miami. It was still worth it. The cell phone is coming by UPS. It's still kind of early right now, but I think I'll go to bed anyway. Tomorrow, I must speak at assembly. Yuk! As in rare cases, I haven't a thing prepared and I don't even feel like trying. Tomorrow, God will fill my mouth, just watch.

Love to all.

Little Newsy things

2010-10-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

In two days I fly to Brazil. I was asked by Markus Yaudas to take his spot in speaking at a small convention in Manaus. That normally would be a rest of sorts, except that I fly a red-eye overnight to Brazil and I get the privilege of waiting or sightseeing in Sao Paulo for ten or eleven hours the next day. I hope I am in shape to preach on Friday and Sabbath. I return on Monday. I've never been to Brazil. I anticipate an exciting adventure, maybe.

I was talking to Julie the other day. She's got all kinds of news, but hasn't got time to blog, so I get to scoop her this time. 1. Caleb was baptized on Sabbath. Ziggy would like to be baptized also, but his mom convinced him that he is too young still. Jacob is sure he isn't ready. Caleb is still looking forward to going to Africa next year with me. 2. Julie and Art bought a house north of Whitehorse, two and one half acres juxtaposed against a game park. 3. Janice Schnurr is visiting at Julie's for a couple of weeks. 4. Julie says the first Bruce's airplane was found. The only trouble is, they found it ten years ago and they tried to keep it quiet. Finally, the cat was let out of the bag. Go figure! 5. Julie says that Champ just got out of the hospital after having appendicitis surgery. I hope he contacts me soon about preaching at his church. I'm thinking of getting my wife a ticket for late November if he does.

More news:

a) Apparently, Jason Aggio called Patty LaVanture to tell her that his dad, Romeo, had a major stroke. Not expected to live.

b) I attended a meeting by Lewis Walton at Campian last Sabbath afternoon. Very good. I'm convinced the economy will not rebound. I believe we have entered the beginning of the small time of trouble.

c) We have a doctor from Poland with us at EVI. Yesterday, I invited her and Mavis Nusser to the Zoo in Denver. It took four hours to go through that Zoo. It was 80 degrees. Summer persists in Colorado.

A few minutes ago, I rec'd a phone call from Kim Busl. He sits on a search committee looking for a president for the EBS school in Norway. The call was for Leasa Hodges. She doesn't think God calls a person to one place only to uproot her to another before the job is done. Amen!

There are several search committees busy these days. One for the president of OCI, EVI, Kibidula, and EBS. Want a job?? Apply here.

Talk Too Much

2010-10-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Easy week. We are in the middle of a good lifestyle session (fifteen guests). One little scare: A lady slipped in the fever tank and her son threatened to sue?? The next day, she was fine. Leasa hurt her back. Sometimes she can hardly walk. We can't afford for her to be hurt. The weather has turned cold, but not unseasonable. Leasa, Leonard, Roger Hatch, the Maranatha Chief builder, and I went to visit a retirement center in Denver. We wanted to see what our new Lifestyle Center will potentially look like. I was suppose to wire my wife $20,000 and I misfired. I'll send it Monday. She needed it sooner than that.

In 12 days I leave for Brazil. I'm stressed a little over the fact that I still need three more sermons. On the other hand, the Lord never lets me down. So, I'll see what He does.

Today, I drove the lifestyle guests to visit the Celestial Seasoning factory. It'a beautiful place and quite enlightening--Canada is its biggest foreign market; Sleeytime Tea is its hottest seller; this one factory supplies the whole world.; and white, green, and black tea are all bad for you, because the difference is only in the amount of caffeine.

I learned something, being a leader. The only way to win a war is to avoid one. Because of the Board Meeting, things necessarily need to get adjusted. When people are asked to leave, it is always painful. People are not asked to leave without a reason, but the discussing of it can easily turn into an accuse and counter accuse situation. Why do we think in terms of blame? It isn't always someone's fault. In any case, there are adjustments to be made. Now, here is what I learned: "Where there are many words, there is no want of sin." This is a paraphrase of a Bible verse in Proverbs, I think. It's so true. I had to apologize this week because I am not faultless in my dealing with people. I talk too much. Do you?

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Bummer

2010-10-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

I hate to extend the time between blogs too long. If everyone is like I am, then everyone gets frustrated when they hear little to nothing.

We had a Convention on the weekend. Pastor Peter Neri from the Paradise Church in Las Vegas spoke. I believe he is the best speaker we've had. Very, very spiritual and his messages are wonderfully applicable. The attendance didn't seem to be as many as last year, nevertheless, we had a great group of people. I sensed the Lord's blessing.

On Sunday, we had a Board Meeting. It is perhaps one of the most stressful boards I've attended. I usually find a board meeting stressful when I get beat up, but this time I didn't get beat up. It is just that I came to the place where I felt I couldn't go any farther with one of my departments, and it meant asking someone to leave. With some people, esp. the people you appreciate the most as friends, it is so hard. These kinds of situations do not promote good relationships. In any case, I dug in my heels and did what I genuinely felt I had to do. I prayed so much about this and I saw no other solution.

Afterward, we drove to DayStar Academy. The board there was a breadth of fresh air. The new leader has arrived on campus. This year's students are beautiful and easygoing. The farm invested $31k and expects to gross $110k when the 12,000 bales of hay are sold. I am greatly encouraged. Daniel Butler and Stephen Leach were on the board as invitees. They were both voted in as members. Daniel wants to pray about it. I enjoyed the contributions they made.

We have a new Lifestyle Session going on. This group seems so quiet compared to the group we had last month. This will be a rest for us.

News:

Linda Horner is courting Michael "Tigh-tee". He is a Wildwood-ite. I had breakfast with him last April. He is very well groomed, looks like a businessman, and gives me the impression of being just a little exacting. Perhaps I'm wrong. I wish them well.

Michelle and Yuli are with me one more day. We've had a good time. The kids and I are the best of friends, i.e. the big kids and the little kids too. We were talking this morning and Yuli says he's like to come back and stay too months next year. I appreciate the whole gang. I think Yuli is convicted that he needs to do something more than he is doing for Jesus, besides leaving the big city.

Talked to my Lover this morning. She is sorry that she can't come in November. Some woman is coming from the Yukon to be with her. She was doubly sorry when I told her I might be doing a series of meetings in the Soo, in November. Boy, what a bummer. Otherwise, all is well with her and me. Bummer!

God is Amazing

2010-09-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Big Weekend

2010-08-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-08-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Dogs

2010-07-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at the computer waiting for the words to flow out of my fingertips. Boy, sometimes my fingertips are dumb. So now, lets see, hmhhh. . .

Well, ok, I did have something exciting happen to me, and to many others, this week. Our new doctor has two dogs. The noisiest barkers I've ever had to deal with. It seems they can see me coming from miles away and they stir themselves into a fury, every time. The staff at the Lifestyle Center are aggravated and the lifestyle guests are sometimes afraid, and the docs family is frustrated. Finally, Dianne, our cook decided to buy three "Stop Bark" contraptions. I really didn't expect much of them. You know, made in China and probably don't work. But wow, they work wonderfully. The dogs are totally quiet. I can even go in their yard and antagonize them and they won't let out even a peep. Makes me feel like going over there and teasing them. Maybe I should bark at them. The gadgets are bark induced frequency machines. Shouldn't they feel what we've had to feel all these months? Or should I just forgive. Or is it ok not to forgive dogs?

Bill, my farm manager, is scheduled to leave the hospital today. We don't know too much yet. The docs can't figure out what the problem is. I believe Bill has an appointment at the University Hospital next week. The big experts will take a shot at it. Keep praying.

Let God be God

2010-07-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

I'm home. I left the board meeting at Oak Haven at 7:30 PM on Sunday night. The board was almost over, and I wanted to get past Chicago before morning. Oh Chicago! What a traffic mess that is. In any case, I did get two hundred miles behind me that night and that left me only 1,000 to go. I got home at 7:30 PM, last night. The trip was good. I listened to three Audio Books--tho' nothing to write home about.

The Polish couple had given me a CD of Chopin's music. I listened to it several times. Very good.

The board was not an easy one. Three years in a row, not easy. The leaders of Oak Haven are the best in many respects. I don't know anyone who would succeed better on the business side of things. But there are always relational struggles. We can't know for certain where the blame lies, but we've asked Steven Graviner to sit with the leadership circle of Oak Haven and give them some counseling/coaching. I'm very sure he will be able to help them tremendously.

All is not well at EVI. My farm manager, Bill, is hospitalized. The left ventricle of his heart quit working, or works less. It may be serious, or not be serious. We await the results of the tests they will do tomorrow. The doctors call it heart failure. It seems a little overstated, I hope. Please pray with us for Bill Bosko.

I look forward to going to ASI with Jason. He arrives next Monday. We'll take off from the airport toward Orlando immediately. It's going to be a grueling trip, but we should manage some quality time, don't you think? Unless, of course, one or the other will be sleeping all the time.

Do you know that God lives outside of space and time? Space and time were created to accommodate His creation. Therefore, as Creator, He automatically is outside of His creation. Wouldn't it be interesting to get a glimpse of the dimension God lives in? I bet it would blow us away. No space, no time, no material. God needs no things. Things were created to support us. God lives during every era of time simultaneously. That is why Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I Am." Only God can say, I Am, at all times. That is why He knows the end from the beginning. Why would we ever want to tell God how to solve our problems, when He is living during the time that the solution is or will be applied. He knows, absolutely what is best. So, let us let God be God.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Current Happenings

2010-07-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am at Oak Haven, in a beautiful guest room. It is about 100 degrees F. and promises to be a sweltering weekend. The place, Oak Haven, is looking fantastic.

I drove 1,000 miles yesterday and that was, to me, leisure. I listened to two audio books, got to bed by 9:30 and didn't get up till 6:00 this morning. I preach tomorrow early meeting on the Declaration of Independence.

Nothing is too new in my life: Our farm manager, Bill Bosko, has been having trouble with his health lately, and it didn't look like he would recover easily, according to the doctors. It turns out he has pneumonia. I noticed last week that some of his symptoms were similar to what I have experienced twice already when I had pneumonia.

I sent my wife $10,000 by wire. She hasn't got it yet. It got routed thru' Zanzibar, of all places, and hasn't made its way to her bank, as yet. She is not feeling good either. Overworked, I bet. Angie, Christina, Jason . . . are all under the weather. Well, not onto death. I've got to get everyone on XPC's.

We are buying a new booth for EVI from someone in Florida and I have had to struggle finding pictures to send to him. The Lord worked some wonderful miracles to drop those pics in my lap. I never would have guessed. Anyway, the booth is coming together, even as I have to consult Leasa in Ukraine. Technology is amazing these days.

Finally, we are trying to submit our Master Plan for the new construction of EVI. The deadline is Monday and we don't have all the pieces together. Laural, our Master Plan spear header, may swing it by Monday. The great fear is that we submit it with the hefty fee, (something like $1,500) just to find out we don't have all our ducks in a row. We would lose our fee. We may have to postpone for one month.

I've had a Polish couple in my house, with their son, Michael, for two weeks. It's been a blast. I enjoyed them immensely. Grazyna, Mrs. Kuczek, is a physician. She's done many lifestyle sessions in Poland, but not on their own institutional property. She is thoroughly inspired by what goes on at EVI, and hopes we/I can help her/them get started on their property in Poland. My heart is with them. I don't know if I can do anything, but I am certainly willing to try. Oh, if I were rich. I know she would be great to invest in. There is no doubt they would succeed.

Never Lets me Down

2010-07-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Another blistering hot Sunday in Colorado. To cool a little, I took my Polish friends to the top of the Rockies. (12,000 feet.) They were amazed at the sight, and at one point, the highest, we needed to run back to the van because it was too cold.

I talked to Uncle John last week. They just returned from London, visiting Michie and their grandchildren. Sounds to me like they are delighted with those kids. (Can't imagine why.) Michelle is happy and England swings. Well, it did for a day or two, anyway.

For those of you who know him, Michael Burkhart, Sarah's brother has been coming to church at EVI for the last couple of Sabbaths. I never would have known who he was if he hadn't told me. Looks good, very muscular, works with his dad in Estes Park, tree trimming. There is a very good aura surrounding him. If He continues to to come to our church I'll want to get close to him if I can. Hard to believe, but the kid is 29 years old, and Sarah married in March.

I preached yesterday. (What else is new.) I am so busy that I can only prepare sermons on the fly. This last one I thought was a dud. However, I did pray more over it. (I don't like dud sermons.) And I reviewed it twice more than I usually do. It was so well appreciated that one lady ordered twenty copies to give to others. Go figure! Actually, there is no mystery to this thing. God can bless whatever He chooses to bless. Prayer is the key, and hard work is the only way I know to cooperate with my prayers. God is so good. He never lets me down, never.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Bed Bugs

2010-07-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Where did they come from?

We started a new session, yesterday. Approximately eighteen people are here for treatments. All are Adventist. (A rare thing.) Sometime during the day, one couple laid down to take a nap. In a few minutes, the man felt like he was being invaded by ants all around his neck. When he looked down he saw his pillow was invaded with bugs. (Approx. 40) What in the world? So the cooks in the Annex asked if they could move this couple to my house. Of course, they can. My house is always full anyhow.

I have another couple with a 10 year old from Poland with me.

I went to see what the bugs might be. Yep! I knew what they were. Bed bugs! Yuk.

Today, we called an exterminator and he went over the room. John Roeske and I burned the new mattress and box spring. (Drastic, no?) We hope that takes care of that. Some lifestyle guest must have brought them in. We've had many folks from the islands lately. Who knows?

All is well besides. The weather is hot, 90 degrees. Everyone is of good courage.

Sometimes I just sit and think. I reason things through to the best of my abilities. This morning I was thinking: We all would prefer to be saved then to be lost, right? We would all prefer to succeed than fail, surely. We all work toward happiness and not misery. We all want a lover rather than to be alone, at least I would. (And, mine isn't around to do much loving.) And, we all realize that these great blessings don't just happen by chance.

There are laws to govern the success we make of these things. If there wasn't, there wouldn't be so many books written on these subjects. You want to know how to make money? Somebody's figured it out and wrote a book about it. (Ten thousand books about it.) You want romance, health, success. Go to the library. The point is, there are laws that govern every aspect of life.

Now, who knows "how to" better than God? Where would we find the best advice on all those subjects? So it boils down to this, search the Bible on any topic and do it. It's just that simple. People find it irksome to have to obey God. That is so-o-o insane. We want to succeed, but we don't want to do what it takes to succeed, or to be happy, or to be healthy, or to be lovers. Insanity!!!

So says the Preacher to his Tribe

Oblivious

2010-07-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a beautiful day in Lake Woebegone, uh, I mean Loveland, Colorado, sunny and warm with a cool breeze. The Sabbath will soon be here, praise the Lord. I talked with my wife this morning. All is as well as can be expected. Somebody was suppose to make windows for her and they didn't. She drove to Mafinga to pick them up, approximately four hours, and the guy hadn't done anything. You can imagine how frustrating that must be. She surely will become the most patient woman around if she can take this nonsense sweetly.

The Baumans from Walla Walla will be going to join her on September 1. We are all praying this new family works out. If they do, my wife should be able to spend more time in America. Meeting her standard, however, may not be that easy. We'll see.

A new Faith Ventures magazine should be going to the press this week. And, that's the news.

Sometimes I think. (We ought to give ourselves to thinking, sometimes.) Proverbs 10:19 says, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin." We don't know how bad it really is. We are sinful, i.e. full of sin. Can a clean thing come of the unclean? Can perfection come out of imperfection? Can the pure come from the corrupt? It's impossible! If we fully realized our real state of being, we would be apologizing all the time, or we'd keep our yaps shut. (I had to apologize to someone who was oblivious that I had said something wrong, this morning.) How careful we would be; how humble; how merciful when others would say something untoward.

Though all of that is true, Jesus makes up for the shortfall with His own perfection. Otherwise, we are all toast. It blows me away. People go on as if God doesn't exist, while He sustains, protects, blesses, and makes up for our deficiencies. He doesn't just make up for the Christian's deficiencies, He makes up for everyone's sin. Otherwise, all would be fried. In oblivion they go, living like they are the center of the universe. Indulging as many lusts as they can without destroying themselves too quickly. Lord, how do we get through to our own heads, much less theirs? If only we could see.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Disappointed

2010-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Drizzly day. I just finished preaching a sermon on freedom, giving a beautiful picture of how God offers salvation. I expect the two families from Czech Republic today. I'll have to go out and buy food. I ate at this family's house some years ago. The meal consisted of European breads, very substantial, dark and crusty with various pates and tomatoes. I don't know if I can duplicate that cuisine, but I'll do my best.

I got word from my lover that she will not be coming from Africa to ASI this year. She has too much work to do. She has a family coming from Walla Walla, WA., and she has no house ready for them. So duty calls.

Surprisingly, I feel disappointed. The reason its a surprise is that I understand duty and its demands. The voice of duty is the voice of God, right? I am not disappointed intellectually, it's a heart thing. We were planning a vacation in August. Every now and again I think to just go away for a few days, but I never do it. Where would I go? And who would I go with? No one. So I stay and work.

We've got more than twenty people coming for the Lifestyle Session starting on Sunday. We'll have our noses to the grindstone. Especially seeing that Leasa will be gone for most of the month. On the 21st of July, I need to go to the Oak Haven Convention. Then Jason comes in and we go to the ASI Convention together. That will be fun.

That's today's news.

July 4th

2010-07-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

It's Monday morning and all is well . . . I think. I got a text message from my wife saying the paper work is done for the Bauman family. They now can make their way to Mago, Tanzania. I need to call them this morning with the good news. I sure hope they still want to go.

My wife is starting to fudge, as she always does at this time of year. She was suppose to come home from July 21 to Sept 6, and as usual the work starts to look overwhelming and she calls to see how I'll take to the idea of her not coming, or her coming just for ASI. It's a disappointment to me, but I happen to understand the call of duty above other calls. So, if that is duty calling, so be it.

Yesterday was Sunday. I like Sundays, usually, because I can get some things done that I haven't much time for during the week. Yesterday, I managed to prepare a sermon. That is always such a blessing. This week I have to preach twice, and I have little time to get it all together.

I got caught up on all my e-mails, put out the campus mail because my Secretary is on vacation, and got ready for a picnic we planned for the campus. That was fun. Well, it might have been fun. A huge storm came up and chased us home. So much rain fell that HWY 27 was flooded in many places. Half a dozen driveways were washed out onto the road. Our Annex (Lifestyle Center) was flooded with about an inch of water on the bottom floor, and the store floor was filled with mud. Being the 4th of July, we were suppose to go watch the fireworks at Loveland lake, but I just went to bed instead. I don't know if anyone went to watch.

Today is a day off for my staff because July 4th fell on a Sunday. I'm going to go finish cleaning up at the Annex.

Till next time.

Life is Adventure

2010-07-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

I took a flying trip to the General Conference, in Atlanta, this weel. OCI decided to have a board meeting while everyone but yours truly was there. I never would have gone otherwise. Lots of people in a big party mode. I arrived late afternoon Tuesday and left late morning on Thursday. On Wednesday I sat through four meetings--the OCI board, the Search Committee, a Country Haven board, and a meeting to address minor issues between two brothers. (I get invited to these stressful events because I am the board chairman and because I do it, it gives other people an excuse not to have to.)

All the meetings went well. The Search Committee holds my interest more than the others. I have no desire to be president of OCI although a few people wish I would change my mind. I'm interested because the dynamics are intriguing and my future is somewhat intertwined with the outcome. I'll let you know when it is all over. There are many people who could do the job, but few of them are free to do it. The way I see it, the Lord will have to free the individual He wants in that position, or we will need to choose the ones that are currently available namely the present VP. When the person is found and agrees to be president, then he must have a hand in choosing his own vice-president.

All is well. I hope you are following my children's blogs. Jason's is an extreme adventure in practical missionary work. Angie's is extreme adventure in child rearing. Something akin to a domestic rodeo, and Julie's is extreme adventure in the realm of gifts falling from heaven.

Let us never get bent out of shape because someone's done us a bad turn or things don't turn out as we wish they did. We fight not against flesh and blood or against God. What others do to us, God chose to allow, and He allows nothing but that which is for our good or the good of His cause. Be free, be happy, "nothing shall by any means hurt you." Luke 10:19.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Keep it Together

2010-06-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

I just read Jason's blog. It's been a long time, if ever, that we've been through that much hassle because of being in Africa. It's wonderful to have adventure, but it gets tiring when you can't eat, or when all they give you to eat is green slime and goat meat. Hey, the kid wanted to be a missionary. . . we are glad for it. Hope he survives.

When I have a camera, I don't use it. When I don't have one, I wish I could take pictures. That's how it was on the weekend. I did a wedding in Moab, Utah. Moab has to be the most awe-inspiring land I've ever visited. When there, I always wish I could capture the magesty?? of it all.

The wedding, as most weddings do, make me real nervous. First of all, there is no pulpit. SoI have to hold my big-ole' Bible all the while, with my notes in it. Then the couple stand practically on your toes. (I tend to spit when I speak. Only half kidding.) I have to juggle all of that and remember what I am suppose to say, then I have to keep track of events because I'm suppose to be directing traffic. Anyway, the wedding went off more smoothly than most, and I was complemented because of being so practical in my advice to the young couple. If the Lord hadn't blessed, I would have made a mess.

My car's AC didn't work. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Mavis, Beverly and I went to the wedding. We nearly cooked.

Right now, I'm sitting at the airport again, on my way to the GC. I will be there one full day, and I have three meetings to attend. This afternoon at four we have a Search Committee meeting for the OCI presidency. The initial letter we sent out revealed a very interesting fact. (I'll tell you about it some day.) Tomorrow at 9:00 A.M., we have an OCI board meeting. Then, I have to meet with Markus, I think it is over the Country Haven sale. I guess I'll find out.

I need to talk to the new President of DayStar also. He is making changes and his future staff are very worried over those changes.

It's flattering when people think very highly of you, but there is a danger. They might just put you in a position beyond your ken. There is more to contend with than meets the eye. Pride, once awakened, clamors for recognition. It's a job to hold one's pride at bay and to keep your well meaning friends from doing you a disfavor.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Happy Summer Days

2010-06-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

For a week now, the days have been sunny and hot. The evenings cool and my walks through the forested mountains are always surreal. The temperature couldn't be more perfect, the breeze is caressing, the company, heavenly--seeing I go up there to pray. Yes, every night and yes, I pray for you.

Nothing out of the ordinary is happening. My lifestyle guests asked for the series on the Prodigal Son on CD. I always give them away. For the first time in my experience, three or four of the guests turned around and gave me $105. I'm touched. Almost as touched by that gesture as by Angie's tribute to her dad last Sunday on her blog. I nearly cried, nearly. (At Angie's words.)

A Korean lady from Denver came to meet another Korean lady visiting from Korea. The lady from Denver brought food to feed me. Kim-shi, the main dish. It was all good, except the kapenta (little fish), which I skirted. We use to buy kapenta to feed our dogs in Zambia. Maybe if I was mixed in mealy-meal I would be more tempted. (Just kidding.)

I'm putting together our next Faith Ventures magazine. I hope to have it gone to the Graphic Designer within the week.

Tonight is graduation night for our lifestyle guests. They've been a great bunch. I'll miss these guys.

I'm listening to Walter Veight's series called The Genesis Conflict. (Creation vs. Evolution.) It is more than excellent. I recommend it highly. At the same time, I am reading J.A. Wylie's massive History of Protestantism. It just thrills my soul. In the Dark Ages, people committed their lives to Jesus unto death. And death was the end for at least 50 million of them. I wonder if our commitment is anything like that? It might be profitable to find out now, rather than when it is too late. Don't you think?

So says the Preacher to his tribe

Hodge-podge

2010-06-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ho-hum, same old. I talked with my wife today. She was doing a puzzle with Twalisa and Deniece. She has a bunch of fundis working and is trying to keep up with their needs. She and Antionette and the kids sleep in the church. Deniece sleeps in the bathroom, and others are scattered wherever there is a place. I called because I need an article for my Faith Ventures mag. I have been so busy that I skipped one whole issue. I'm determined to produce over the next week. Lord help me.

We had an Executive Committee today. Usually, it takes forever, but we got through in record time. It's really hot around here, today.

For those of you who know Brenda Eskelson, she and her husband of five years, was visiting me since yesterday. It was a blast to get reacquainted. She married a macon?? --bricklayer. They are on their way to Canada to visit family.

Lori Mundall is engaged to be married, and Verlin has a girlfriend.

One more day and our present lifestyle session is over. It was a good one. Praise God.

Dying with a Mouth Full of Praise

2010-06-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

People are not Christian because they say they are. Many, I’m afraid, will think to enter in, but shall not be able. Today, I met one of God’s children. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I am surrounded with God’s children, but the evidence is not always conclusive. Today, it was.)

I officiated in the communion service, this morning. After church, a woman asked that I bring communion to her dying mother. The lady is not so old, perhaps in her mid seventies, but she is very sick with cancer. When I got to her, she would not, or could not so much as open her eyes for weakness. I went through the communion ceremony, abbreviated, and then asked what she thought of the way God led in her life.

With her eyes closed, no teeth in her mouth, an accent from the islands (Bahamas, I think) she began to recite the words of a familiar hymn. A hymn of praise. Then she expressed nothing by gratitude. God has been so good to her, she said. She thanked Him, over and over and over again. Do you see the picture? Here is a woman who came to EVI for treatment. Her hope was of recovery. She isn’t so old. She came with expectations, like everyone else, her mouth filled with prayer. But instead of realizing her hopes, she appears to be sinking. Is she disappointed? Discouraged, perhaps? I don’t know, because all she can say is thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus.

The greatest evidence of faith, that I can think of, is gratitude. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. I met someone today who knows Jesus. I can tell. She speaks the language of heaven.

Criticism, complaining, murnmuring, pessimism, discouragement, and all the negatives in the dictionary, when expressed, reveal only one thing. We haven’t come close enough to Jesus to experience the eternal reality He’s created for us. The temporal reality still occupies too much of our hearts. Dear ones, live by faith, not by sight.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Get some, that you Might have Some to Give

2010-06-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a full week at Eden Valley. No let-up in the work and Satan took a few shots at some of us. I don't usually worry when people accuse me of sin or fault or flaw, (it is always so nearly true) but I must say that I did fret for a few hours this week when someone said that another vowed to take me down. It occurred to me that if anyone wanted to take someone down badly enough, it would be a matter of inventing the worse and getting another to back him up. In the end, I had a meeting with the individual and as usual, it wasn't anywhere as grave as at first thought. Praise God. I don't need to be dragged down by another. I do well enough on that count "all by myself."

The farm crew put a whole new roof on the grow and exercise rooms. It was a big job on very hot days.

I rec'd visitors from Singapore (The Lion Port.) I met these people in S'pore 12 years ago. They had taken me around to see some sights. We had a delightful time together. We ate at a Thai restaurant and I treated them to a hyperbaric chamber session. They left this morning with tears.

Tomorrow, Sabbath, I preach on forgiveness. Do you know that "pardon and justification are one and the same thing"? That means that when Jesus forgives, He saves, period. But do you know, that He forgives as we forgive. That unless we enter into this act of giving salvation/justification, we ourselves are not saved. We are saved in proportion to the salvation/forgiveness we proffer to others. So, my dear loved ones, is there anyone you can't forgive? You had better seek forgiveness from God that you may have some to give to them.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

God's in Control

2010-06-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Sunday, I got up at 5:00 A.M. and did the juicing for the lifestyle guests. That took an hour and a half. I then served them breakfast. Dale Zumwalt came and we replaced a breaker box in the Annex with a bigger one. That took five hours. After I took Dale to lunch, because it was 3:00 P.M. and there was no food around, I determined to stain a new cabinet that is in the church. I was half way through when Svitlana and her boyfriend offered to finish the job for me. Hurray, maybe I can work on a sermon for Wednesday. Fraid' not! As I stepped outside, I was met by a car with two people who had hosted me in Singapore twelve years ago. Wonderful couple. We had a great time, but it consumed the rest of the day. Oh, by the way, that was my day off.

Life unfolds like that for me daily and guess what? I love it. If running my tail off is good for me, then run I will.

Today, Monday, it is much the same. I decided this morning, after doing the devotional for the lifestyle guests and feeding my visitors, that I would write two very important letters. I did, by the way, but not until after I had to run to town, rent a U-haul, go get a load of donated furniture, load it and unload it by myself. (Not a complaint. There wasn't anything I couldn't lift by myself.) Besides that I got to talk to the fellow who lambasted me on Sabbath because my sermon made him want to throw up. He apologized, not for the principle of the conversation, but for the spirit in which it was conducted. Forgiven. Hey, why not? Life is too short. People are too hurt and should a hand never be laid on me? Do I think I do nothing wrong? For all I know, he was probably right. He's got me thinking, anyway.

Wonder what tomorrow holds? (I still haven't worked on a sermon for Wednesday Assembly.)

The Preacher may have nothing to say to his tribe.

One Sermon, great and rotten

2010-06-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Sabbath. I preached in Copper Mountain this morning. One fellow that I've known for quite some time said it was the best sermon I ever preached. Well, I don't think so. It turns out, as far as I can tell, it was a sermon that brought him under deep conviction. It left him really questioning whether he had faith or not. It's a blessing to see God work.

The same thing doesn't happen to everyone. Another fellow, which I've known for even longer, lambasted me thoroughly for not preaching strait enough to suit him. He accused me of preaching smooth things, of being chicken, of being a coward and on and on and on . . . That kinda rattles my cage a little. Not as much as it would have in the past. He especially didn't like that through the lambasting I never lost my smile. I think that is aggravating to people who are trying to be ultra serious with me. In any case, I'll be asking the Lord about my preaching. Should I preach a straighter message? Am I being cowardly? Or, is this friend a little off his rocker? Lord guide me. Truly, I want to do right. Preaching there next month will be an event. Yuk!

Yesterday, I lent my car to the lady who lost her daughter, till Monday. One day, a decision like that will cost me. Hey, I'm going to help if I can. I gave her a hundred dollars so she could put gas in it.

On to the Next Thing

2010-06-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

I'm blessed. No matter how hectic the situation, I always get through it with God's help. Funerals need organizational skills that I may or may not have. My problem is, my wife is perfectly endowed with said skills. Whenever I need something organized, she is there to do it for me. Not so this time. I took it on, however, and all went well. (I worked all day long every day for five days. I would never believe anyone else who told me it took that much organization to pull off a funeral.)

Many people attended. I believe the Holy Spirit gave me a strong sermon. I spent half the sermon comforting the bereaved and half the sermon teaching the many non-SDA about the state of the dead. My little secretary bought the casket. It was amazingly good looking. All metal, white, with gold handles. I had told the funeral people that Brittany's mother was very poor and that she couldn't afford any frills. We paid $450 for the casket and another $457 for everything else they did for us. (I hope I am not repeating myself.)

In any case, the Pastor and I shared the service. I did the church service. He did the graveside address. All went well.

Tomorrow I preach in Copper Mountain. Brent Waggoner is coming with me.

Relieved for the Moment

2010-06-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Things are coming together, a little. This morning's prayer time was heartfelt and agonizing. Today is Monday, and by Thursday morning I am to build a coffin, prepare a funeral sermon, weed-eat our cemetery, have the hole dug and organize the program. All or any of that is pretty manageable, but the idea that I had so little time to build a decent casket was terribly nerve wracking. For prayer, I usually go thru' my list and whatever it is I am reading, plus talk to the Lord about the things that are on my heart. Today, my heart was so troubled with this coffin project that I couldn't rest. I could just plead with the Lord for help and wisdom.

Well, guess what? My little secretary has a huge burden for her own granddaughter who was a friend of our Brittany who drowned. The little lady has no spiritual interests at all. She is coming to the funeral and Frances, my secretary, sees it as an opportunity to teach her about death and where the dead go when they die. So Frances volunteered to buy a casket out of her own pocket. Pastor Eagan and I will share the service. I'll do the short sermon in the church. He'll do the talk at the cemetery. I am perfectly relieved. Praise God, I feel like I have time to accomplish what is before me now.

We have beautiful hay and the Lord has been keeping the rain off of it. Yesterday, we started baling it. So it poured torrential rains on it. It looks like we've lost most of our first crop. Ah well, it's the Lord's hay. He can do as He pleases with it.

Till next time. Got to go prepare a sermon.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Tragedy at Eden Valley

2010-06-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

I've cancelled my 3ABN assignment. I have yet to call them to let them know.

I was preaching at the Estes Park Church today. The Lord blessed in a mighty way. After potluck, I rec'd a phone call. Bill told me that Brittany Schult and Sylvia were walking their dogs on the canal road after lunch. Brit's dog jumped into the full canal. She tried to help the dog out of the canal and fell in. The dog got out of the canal easily, but Brittany couldn't get out. She told Sylvia to put the leach on the dog and throw the dog back in. I think she was hoping that the dog could help pull her out. Sylvia did as she was told but, the dog just came back out.

Sylvia ran to Brit's mother's house and told her mother. I assume the mother called Bill and he rushed over to the canal, but couldn't find any trace of her. They called 911, and the police, EMTs and divers worked all afternoon trying to find her. The divers couldn't do anything in the canal because the current is too strong. They resorted to closing the flow in the canal to reduce the current.

I arrived late in the afternoon. Cindy was pretty sure her daughter was gone, but she held up pretty well. When they found Brittany, five miles down the canal, they said she had a big bump on her head, but she was dead. That's when it was apparent that Cindy had been hanging on to hope. She broke down fully.

At the moment, Cindy, Sylvia, Leasa, and Shari are gone to the morgue to identify the body. Nearly everyone at EVI spent the whole afternoon with Cindy and the emergency people. There were ladies among the police and medics sent especially to comfort Cindy. They expressed that they were surprised at the support Cindy rec'd from her community, and the spiritual impact it had on their hearts. One of the ladies, the one that appeared to be in charge broke down and said she will be forever changed because of what she witnessed today.

Who knows? God's ways are mysterious, but predictably good. I believe it with all my heart.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Doing all I Can

2010-06-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

It's Friday morning and I'm still on course. I managed to send 3ABN the information they wanted, I taught two classes yesterday and three this morning. For tonight, I see my way clear to present a message at the graduation ceremony. (I still have to determine what I will share. I still have to decide what I'll preach in Estes Park tomorrow, but the Lord doesn't let me down.)

All our hay is cut, but there is such heavy dew that it is soaked every morning. We just have to wait for God to dry it.

I leave for 3ABN on Sunday morning. I will have all day, Monday, to fill my head with the topics I am suppose to present. I'm more relaxed about it now. If it fails, I will have tried. If it doesn't fail, then someone will gain a blessing. I've long established that I can't succeed if I don't try. So, here goes.

I have a young couple coming in tonight and staying two nights. My house accommodates visitors on a regular basis. After they leave, two lifestyle guests should be moving in. Probably on Sunday.

I'm doing all I can do for as many people as I can do it for. Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Relaxed

2010-06-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

Are you relaxed? I am, I'm totally at peace. It isn't because everything is going my way, however. It's because I know that when I am pressed to the limit, the Lord will pile it on to teach me that He can get me through anything.

I'll be taping at 3ABN on Tuesday the 8th of June. I haven't even seen the TV program I am suppose to participate on. Dee Hildebrand (of 3ABN) called me yesterday and wanted to make sure I was ready. She said I needed to have sent 10 questions per program for the host. I had never heard anything of the kind. There is suppose to be some forms that she sent in my packet. (Attachments on my internet packet.) I suppose its there. I will look soon.

Soon should have been last week. In any case, I was going to work on that today, but things didn't work out. I taught a class (preached a sermon) to my staff and to the students this morning. Someone suggested we have a work-bee today. Work-bees don't work unless the president participates. Tomorrow, I need to teach two classes. Friday, I need to teach three classes and prepare a sermon / challenge for the graduation Friday night. On Sabbath, I get to preach in Estes Park and take the students to the Rockie Mountain Park in the afternoon. Jack Long showed up. He had made an appointment to meet with me today. Something about fixing the road to the cemetery. So we went up to the cemetery and examined the road. Leasa asked me to call Quest telephone company and arrange to have our telephone system changed. I got Laural to do that for me because she's the expert. But, I needed to spend two hours chopping veggies for her so she could do my job. Then, dear Leasa was to buy me a flight on-line. She was working on it, but she had to go teach a class.

"So," she said, "you finish it."

It took me one and one half hours to get that done. Then, guess what? It is 6 P.M. and I haven't even looked at my 3ABN assignment.

Do you think I am frustrated? No, I am not! Do you know why? It is because this is what I can expect of God, every time. Then, He turns around and rescues me (He'd better rescue me. He's always done it that way in the past) and I praise His name. Isn't that great? I count on Him and He never fails me. If I didn't have God, I go crazy.

So says the Preacher to his tribe. . .

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Learn your Lessons

2010-06-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

I just came back from DayStar Academy. We had a board meeting yesterday. Steve Grabiner and I rode over there and back again together. On our way, we were not very optimistic about the prospects for DayStar. It seemed, at the moment, that their financial woes would be too much to overcome. On the way back, we were thrilled to be encouraged. There are certainly financial troubles, but somehow the people are full of faith and even if they've had no stipend for a long time, they believe the Lord will turn things around for them. Oh, I need to find someone with means to help these lovely people.

Joy Grabiner (five foot two, cute as a button and only 26) has been a missionary in Honduras for the last two years. A couple of days ago, she and a visiting friend, Alissa, needed to go a few blocks away from Joy's house. Joy asked Alissa what she was carrying. (Joy lives in a bad neighborhood.) The girl had her camera and some money. Joy was worried, but it's just two blocks, "we should be alright," she thought. On the way, two men came around on bicycles, stopped right in their faces and pulled a gun.

"We want all you have," they said.

Joy stepped between Alissa and the would be robbers and accosted them in Spanish with, "That's not nice." (Or its equivalent.) She proceeded to chastise them for what they intended to do. Well, she took so much time that, in their urgency, they decided to grab her cell phone and high tail out of there.

Was the gun they were brandishing real ? I don't know, but poor old Steven wishes his daughter wouldn't be quite so bold in such circumstances. Anyway, all's well that ends well, and Joy is a heroine for a day.

We are doing our first cutting of hay for this year at EVI. The weather doesn't look too promising, but we are going ahead anyway. We are praying for no rain. With that, we are selling tiny tomatoes and cucs to Whole Foods, Inc. and sunflowers to someone else. Everything on the farm looks great. May the Lord keep the blankedy blank devil at bay this year.

I have eight or nine classes (sermons) to do this week in the L.I.G.H.T. program and in Estes Park on Sabbath. Then I go to 3ABN. (That is so nerve wracking.)

We had our first Search Committee to find the next president for OCI. My logic and heart leans heavily toward Steve Grabiner for President. On the other hand, my prayer is that God's will be done. It will be interesting to see how things develop. I'm glad we are finally on our way with this responsibility.

I was asked, by another search committee, if I would accept to be the president of another OCI institution. The answer is no, no more if I can help it. I hope that my institutional leadership days are over. I'll be happy to support my wife in her work and to teach at Kibi, RFI, and any other African school on a relaxed basis. The Lord knows the freedom I experience from knowing my incompetence in these matters. Let the young men/women pick up the heavy loads and by God's mercies avoid the mistakes I've made.

RH Dec. 16, 1902:9 "There are some lessons that are never learned only through failure." Supposing now, your life has been an on-going success. You've learned every lesson you can possibly learn through life thus far and all that remains is to learn the lessons that can never be learned except through failure, would you be willing to learn those lessons too?

Doesn't that place failure in its proper perspective? The quotation goes on to say that "Peter was a better man after his fall." He lost his self-sufficient confidence. Listen, dear ones, the sooner the better. Try, unlike me, to learn on small projects instead of big ones.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

2010-05-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Ramblings

2010-05-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Did you check out Julie's blog? All she did was put her fingers on the keys and voila, presto. Isn't that easy? It will work for you too.

Well, today was an uneventful day. I ran to Denver to get a fender and bumper for my car. We had a short Executive Committee this morning. We made one tough decision. Sorry, I can't tell you what it is. I've been trying to write or edit some articles for my next Faith Venture magazine. The weather is in the mid 70's and all is well. I wanted to call my wife today, but our land lines are down. I hope to do it tomorrow.

I have to run to DayStar Academy this weekend. It is Graduation time and with that we have a Board Meeting. Things are in a crisis over there. They have no way to make enough money to run an academy. The old team is burnt out and the new leader, Chris Andersen, in suppose to move in this summer. Last week, before moving in, he resigned. The situation seems hopeless. It is hopeless, but apparently, the Lord spoke to him and convinced him to accept the position anyway. Poor guy. It's a good way to become very humble. My heart goes out to him.

The next weekend, Sunday to be precise, I'll leave for 3ABN. I will record three half hour TV programs with Shelley Quinn. The title of the show is Issues and Answers. I am suppose to introduce an issue and we discuss it. I assume I must have the answer, as well. Stress! I'm a glutton (or is that gluten) for overwrought nerves. Ah well. It will either be good, very good, excellent or lousy. My trust is in God. Pray for me.

Just Put your Fingers on the Keys

2010-05-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Jet-lag again! It's 5:30 P.M. and I feel like going to bed only I am determined to blog more often. I'm trying to encourage Julie to just write. So, I am just writing. The way I see it, if you put your fingers on the keyboard words will just start running out the ends. It's true, I am experiencing it right now.

I got back from South Korea the night before last. I left Friday and returned Monday. Quick trip. I should have given myself a few more days. There were places I could have visited that would have been a blessing to them, as well as for me.

I preached three times at a self-supporting convention. (Imagine going to Korea to preach three sermons). Last year, about 95 people attended--mostly people who had been connected to self-supporting work in times past. This year, there was at least 130 people, including the Union and Conference presidents. Since last year, the Koreans have organized themselves into what they call OCK (Outpost Centers Korea). Amazingly, they are planning to invade Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Japan. They plan to spend $50,000 in literature for Japan. It's amazing. I wish I could help these folks.

The three or four present institutions in Korea were started by Eden Valley many years ago. We've neglected them for years now. I think it is because we changed leadership too often at EVI. We should do more.

Last year, I visited Gilead Valley (Lifestyle Center), Achine, now closed and Eden Valley Restaurant in Seoul. This year, I visited Waldensian Valley Academy. Korea is one rugged country. It is mountains from one end to the other. The people resemble the country--rough and ready.

There you are Ju. Just put your fingers on the keys.

Must go.

2010-05-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at Sea-Tac, the aiport in Seattle, WA waiting to board a flight to Seoul, South Korea. I like traveling. For me, it is a chance to unwind, but not if is too often and I'm constantly in a state of jet-lag. Anyway, this is Thursday, the 20th of May, and I'll be back Monday the 24th. I will enjoy nothing but jet-lag. You are welcome to pray for me. I need the Holy Spirit to preach with power. I don't even know (fully) what I will share in Korea, but I took a half-dozen sermons with me. We'll see how the Spirit moves. I am weary enough to consider canceling the six television programs I have scheduled for early June at 3ABN. Too much prolonged stress. Who needs to do this anyway? What if it is only a part blessing, or a flop for that matter? Yuk! I need to decide. I suppose, (the answer to a prayer I haven't prayed yet) that I should throw caution to the wind and just do it. It will be what it is, right?

Oh-oh, they are boarding. Must go.

2010-05-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, I posted two blogs. Don't miss the pictures of our beach outing in Tanzania.

Life's a Blast

2010-05-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I just spent two weeks in Ukraine. (12 days, I think.) With Wilbur Atwood and Dr. William Dysinger, I did a camp meeting. I preached 20 sermons on the Prodigal Son and The Beautiful Way (Christian living.) We had a great time and we were well rec'd. As a matter of fact, I've been asked to do three more camp meetings in Russia in September. I'd love to do it, if only I could do it without leaving home.

Jet lag is a bummer. I came back from Africa and within two weeks went to Ukraine, and within two weeks returned home, and within two weeks I will be going to Korea. During the time I am at EVI I am participating in a L.I.G.H.T. program. That means, jet lag notwithstanding, I have to preach three sermons every morning. I taught the book of Daniel this week. I've never done it before, so it was extra work to be ready.

Last night, I picked up two teachers for L.I.G.H.T. at the airport. We got home at 1 A.M. Good when you are suffering from jet lag. Oh, did I tell you I had . . . jet lag? Truth is, I handle it fairly well. God gives me the strength to do whatever is before me to do. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

Life is a blast.

So says the Preacher to his tribe.

Matema Beach

2010-05-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures from our time at the beach on lake Malawi. I'd go back there in a minute. Next year, I'll be living only 17 miles from this beach. Except that it takes six hours to get there. Maybe I can create a short cut.

Till Next Time

2010-04-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-04-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Tiring Schedule

2010-03-07T17:22:00.000-08:00

After participating in Weston's funeral in Minnesota last Thursday, I flew to Chattanooga where I met my wife and we attended the OCI Retreat/Board Meeting weekend. I preached to the OCI board members and the Wildwood people on Friday night. The topic was Job and the Time of Trouble. It was well rec'd. On Sabbath, I preached in the New England church. This is Pastor Boykin's church. We had a great time there as well.

On Sunday, OCI had an all-day board. As pleasant an affair as can be expected. There are no grand decisions to report, or strange surprises. The members of this board get along very well. After the OCI board, I sat on the H.E.R. board for an hour. This is Chuck Cleveland's project. All is well there also.

We've been home for a week now. Janet is working hard trying to get ready to leave for Africa Saturday, after Sabbath. The airlines have cut the number of luggage from two each to one. This is not good. It is forcing us to pay extra because we must necessarily bring more rather than less of the stuff we have.

Tomorrow, Monday, I leave for a board meeting at DayStar on Tuesday. This is an emergency board, which might, if we don't come up with a solution, close the school down for one year. I come home Tuesday night and fly to Mexico on Wednesday. We are trying to organize three one-day-churches and seven evangelistic campaigns for the ASI Mid-America Chapter in the fall. I'll be home Friday to fly Saturday night to Africa. It's great to be busy, but . . . "me not", as my granddaughter would say.

My wife will remain in Africa until August and I will return April 8, 2010. I am taking an extra week to be with Jason and family. I guess you'd better not expect any blogs until April, unless I find a good place to do it in Africa.

Oh, by the way, Sidney Sweet recommended I read The Shack. It is a christian fiction. Actually, it is pretty well an allegory. I had heard of its great success before, but I didn't want to read it because it is a fiction. However, when someone I respect urges it on me, I pretty well expect it to hold a blessing. I should finish the book tonight. It is hard to put down. It is a book for someone who is solidly grounded in truth. The reason I say that is that it has a few mistakes in it. If you take the author's intent, however, there is a great blessing in it. The author is trying to reveal God's character and His great love. For instance, you and I know there is no life after death until the resurrection of the just and of the wicked. So, seeing the author writes as if there is such a thing, then I simply ignore the mistake and look for that which he is trying to teach. The story is gripping and heartwarming at the same time.

God be with you all, The Preacher.

Weston's Influence

2010-02-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

Last month, we rec'd a patient at our Lifestyle Center from the McNeilus family. Weston is the son of Denzil's brother, Brandon. Weston was in a car accident when he was four years old. Apparently, he was left with brain damage. If there was brain damage, it wasn't to his intelligence. I can attest to that.

The boy, now a man of 20, is super intelligent, but more, he is super spiritual. A pastor Rood, from the Seventh-day Baptist church, in Dodge Center, tells me that when Weston recovered from the car accident he told of Jesus visiting him, and apparently he described the visit. The Pastor said Weston was never the same again. He was a constant witness.

Seven or so months ago, Weston contracted cancer. That is why he came to EVI. We did what we could for approximately a month. Weston and I studied the Bible together. Those were the times when he forgot his pain and became animated. Then we would talk. We became friends. It became apparent to everyone, however, that he wasn't going to make it. He went home to die. Before his death, he requested that I preach the sermon at his funeral -- a huge honor, not because I've been asked to preach, but because Weston thought that much of our friendship.

I am in Dodge Center now. I preach in two hours and twenty minutes. I will try to focus on the same themes Weston wrote about. Weston, who was deathly ill, would, without warning jump up and say, I have a writing. Somehow, he'd get these instant inspirations and run to his computer and write them down. He wasn't a great writer, but the things he wrote blew me away. They were so true, so deep, so applicable that it left me believing that God communicated thru' this dying boy. I will use Weston's writings as a springboard to my sermon this afternoon.

Tomorrow, I fly to Chattanooga where I will meet with Janet and Leasa for the OCI Retreat and board meetings. I preach tomorrow night to the OCI Princes and Dames. My sermon is prepared, but I will have little time to fix it in my brain.

News

Janet and I met with Leasa a week ago, or so. She called us to ask if I would consider staying at EVI till May 2011. It is hard, under any circumstance to say no to someone with a special and important (to them) request. What makes it a bit harder is that my wife truly believes I won't end up in Africa anyway. That may well be right if she keeps enforcing the thought in my brain. I am honestly preparing myself to go to Africa. However, God may have other plans, who knows. Stay tuned to this blog to see how this drama plays itself out.

Janet and I take a couple of hours to go swimming on Sundays lately. It is good exercise and something we can do together. We exercise in the gym afterward and then go out to eat. It makes for a pleasant day.

I spent a day getting firewood last week. I love getting firewood. It's hard on the arm I hurt five or six months ago, but so long as I can, I will do it.

That's it for now. Angie is taking in twins, Julie and her brood are playing in the snow, big time, and Antionette is telling us to make sure we bring our bathing suits to Africa. We are going swimming in lake Malawi. I've been waiting for years for that.

Garwin and Marilee McNeilus took me aside to tell me how spiritual, organize and competent my son is. Apparently, Garwin told Alan Knowles that Alan could take lessons from that guy. (Alan, more or less, trained Jason.) It's good to know that Jason takes after his good ole' . . . mom.

So much for what the Preacher has to say.