Day by Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Hit a Wall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My oldest granddaughter, Vanessa, is 20 years old.

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

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

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

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

Through the Jet Lag Fog

As you have heard, Colorado is devastated with floods. 19,000 homes damaged. More evacuees than Katrina, but the total death count was only eight. In 1976, a flash flood through our canyon killed 146. Many people were stranded up in the mountains without any way to communicate with the outside world, and there are no roads to come down on. I haven't heard more on that. I know that John Roeske has been walking people out from Storm Mountain, a six hour trek one way. There is 17 miles of road gone between the Damn Store and Estes Park. They say it will take a year to repair the damage on that road alone. Boulder and Lyons are in much worse state. 


Eden Valley was without natural gas, or internet for nearly one week after I came home. We had to give our lifestyle guests some money back because we couldn't give them fever therapy. We had no natural gas to heat the water. We were able to give them Russian steam baths and fomentations.


When my lover returned to her mission, one month ago, she, as often happens, couldn't find the money she had hidden--$10,000. She usually gets pretty frantic when she does that. Also, she usually finds it by and by. This time she didn't find it for three weeks. There was one place where she hadn't looked, but she hesitated to look there for fear of being disappointed, again. Finally, she made herself do it. The money was there. I told her that next time she needed to make herself a note and hide it, then another note stating where she had hidden the first note, then she could tell me and I would tell her when she returned. 

Last weekend, I had an appointment in Kentucky to do some revival meetings. I missed my flight in Denver. I was sure my flight was at 12:00 PM, but it turned out to be  at 9:25 AM. Maybe it was good. I got to do the devotion for the Lifestyle guests, which was very good for them, I think. And I got to talk with one of our staff we are trying to help with an addiction. 

David and Candi Katsma asked to store stuff in one of our storage sheds for when they go to Kibidula to work. We gave them permission with the stipulation that they know that they belong to us and are only on loan to Kibidula. Apparently, that made David happy.

Praise God, I travel no further than DayStar until November. I am so ready to stay home. It is hard to live with a chronic case of jet lag. 

I finished a series of four sermons in Kentucky. The Lord continues to bless my feeble efforts. I was worried. I've had it rough with almost chronic jet lag for the past two months, then when I flew over to Kentucky, my flights were delayed over and over in Chicago, at last, my flight  was cancelled altogether, they said on account of lightning. That didn't leave me with much time to prepare, yet I spoke once Friday night and three times back to back on Sabbath. I thought I would be unprepared, but the Lord gives me grace and I preached with power. 

On my way home from Kentucky, my flight was delayed again and I didn't get home till 12:30 AM. Flying is disgusting these days. 

The sermons I preached where effective and they want me to come back next year.  We'll see. I really don't want to travel as much next year as I have this year. 

At the Rocky Mountain Conference Executive Committee this week, the president spoke of the devotion I gave at the ASI board meeting and asked if I would share it with his Executive Committee at our next meeting. I will. It's an honor.

This morning I finished writing an article for the OCI magazine. I did a little religious blurb on Facebook, also. I've probably had 10 people respond already. I washed windows at the church. (Convention weekend coming.) Our head Deacon and I repaired the church roof in several places. Then I made myself some lunch--tofu and toast..

This week, I started Bible studies with  three guys at EVI, two students and a staff. I'm enjoying that. I hope these guys will stay with me through the whole series. 

Blessings to all

The Lion Port, Singapore

On September 1, my wife and I went our separate ways. (No, not divorce.) She returned to Africa through Dubai, and I began to get ready to go to Singapore.

Antionette made a bet with Jason that his mother would remember to wish him a happy birthday. Ahhh, I don’t think she won. My Lover does not remember b’days, or anniversaries, not even her own. Our forty-fifth anniversary happened yesterday, on the 14^th. I was in Singapore, and she is in Mago, I think. The last I heard from her, (one sentenced in two weeks) she had misplaced some money and was frantically tearing her place apart to find it. Earlier, the kids, Jason and Antionette, were looking for her. She arrived a day late from Dubai, as far as I can tell. They were worried.

Dr. John Clark confirmed that he and his family will be coming to EVI for three months starting Nov. We are praying that it will all work out. We need to start worrying about other things than finding a doctor. I am truly blessed by the United Prayer Meetings we are having at EVI. True or not, I attribute the gift of a doctor as an answer to that new initiative. Also, our lifestyle center is full for this month’s session. I expect more, if the prayer warriors do not get discouraged and quit prematurely. It isn't easy to persevere in getting up to pray with a group at 5:30 every morning. It is especially hard when the president up-and-leaves every second week. In any case, I will keep pushing, and the Lord will reward.

What follows is a rundown of my trip to Malaysia and Singapore:

I arrived in Singapore at 12:05 AM, Thursday. (Lost Wed. in crossing the dateline.) I preached at 10am the same morning in Malaysia. There were about 300 in attendance at these ASI Asia meetings, which managed to fill the hall in the Grand Paragon Hotel. The place is beautiful enough. The food was good. For the first time I tasted dragon fruit, both white and purple. It has a mild flavor, the purple being stronger, something like papaya. The three preachers are Andre Waller from TEKOA, now residing in Mount Missionary Institute, Frederick Paul from India, going to school in the Philippines, and myself. They are good preachers and we were very much on the same page. The problem with these meetings was that everything ran late and I got the signal that I had 10 minutes left, ten minutes into a 35-minute talk. So I preached half a sermon, powerful non-the-less. In a sense, it was good. I ditched what I said I would do, and used the half sermon as an excuse to do what I perceived was needed. I think it turned out better.

I slept several times on the trip and still managed to read 100 pages in Volume Two of the Testimonies to the Church. I've got a new T-shirt that says Adventist on the front and ASI on the back. Everyone went for a tour of Singapore today, and I went to bed--slept three hours. Not good, I think, although, it felt great.

I reconnected with my cousin, Madeleine Farnell, in North Bay, Ontario. We spend nearly an hour on the phone, catching up. We had both lost each other’s contact info. I am sincerely grateful to reconnect. She expressed the same. My great hope is that we all can be in the kingdom of God in the end.

I'm in Singapore. Hit my bed sometime around 10:30 PM, but this was perhaps the best night's sleep I've had since arriving. The couple I hang out with drove me to visit a Lifestyle Center three and one half hours north of where I preached in Malaysia. The place is called Eanon. Hartland Institute started it. Just a young fellow (42) runs the place. Beautiful. The building is very modern. I wish we could duplicate it. It handles 34 patients and they have just that, 34. It's on the top of a mountain in a jungle, yet people come from everywhere to take their simple treatments. (Simpler than ours.) There are patients from America here, as well.

In any case, we returned to Singapore and went to a light show that evening. I am living in a guest room in the Singapore SDA Union Offices. I told the secretary to give me till noon so I can get some work done. After that, if someone wants to take me around, I'll be ready.

I ate a ton of Mangosteen?? (The Queen of fruit) and two other fruit I've never tasted before. Heaven will be like that, I think.

Today, I start doing a week of prayer at the Balestier Road Church in S'pore. I am toying with the idea of making it a real week of prayer and not a week-of-preaching. We'll see how it turns out.

I had a pleasant day, yesterday. A church member picked me up and brought me to lunch and then brought me to see some amazing gardens. We then drove around the most beautiful garden-like city you ever saw. Singapore is amazing, but it has its down side. The people are surrounded with so much wealth, and beauty and interesting things to see and do, that they cannot but lose sight of heaven. They have a little paradise on earth. They are becoming soft, and spiritually lethargic. The church is in dire trouble on this island. Spiritual Formation is a big problem. There is much complaining by the church members, and except for the damage they cause themselves; I would say much of the criticism is warranted. They most desperately need a time of trouble.

My preaching was strong last night--thank God. I organized the church to spend time in united prayer. It isn't really my place, I suppose, but I decided to employ a young Philippino to engage the church in prayer before and after the service. People seem to be so spiritually needy.

News from the island paradise of Singapore: I preached number two sermon last night. Only this time, I organized some in the church to come early to pray for the service. After the service we broke up into small groups to pray for 15 minutes. I believe it is effective in bringing the church to unity, and in bringing the Holy Spirit to work among us. I delivered the sermon with more than ordinary zeal. I've also been asked to do the devotional for the Union staff every morning, this week. They invited me to speak for one morning. After I was done, they asked me to speak every morning.

The person who took me to lunch yesterday, took me swimming in an Olympic-size swimming pool afterward. We had a better time, I thought, than going around tourist-ing. He, Paul Teo, is an old man of 64. He can almost swim as fast as I can overhand, except that he uses the breast-stroke. He can certainly swim farther than I can, as I get out of breadth too easily. (Well, not that easily. I can do more than two 50-meter pool lengths without stopping to catch my breadth.)

The lunches are always similar. We go to a vegetarian restaurant and we eat Chinese Vegetarian fare. Lot's of mushrooms--mushrooms in everything and soft tofu. Never-the-less, I am doing well on it. I have food in my room for breakfast, lots of bread, and fruit, granola and PB. What else can I possibly want?

Everyday unfolds much like the previous ones. I have my devotional time, I prepare, I exercise and someone takes me to lunch. Yesterday, four of us went to lunch together. We finished lunch with a feed of durian fruit, apparently the highest quality durian. It didn't smell, and it was delicious. I ate much more than I anticipated eating. I took a long walk in the park and preached my heart out in the evening. So much for Wednesday.

Today, I had a great lunch. We went to a buffet style restaurant. Finally, I could choose what I wanted, and I didn't want anything slimy, no eggplant, mushrooms and soft tofu. I even ate ice cream and finished off with too much sugarcane juice, too full.

There is a battle raging over Spiritual Formation here. I am in danger of being dragged into it. I hope not, but if I am, I am determined to hold no punches. Spiritual Formation may well be one of the most insidious deceptions ever foisted upon Adventism. Someone has to speak out. However, I will not invite myself into the battle. I am asked to have worship with the Union officials every morning, and the driver behind Spiritual Formation is there . . . looking pretty grim. We'll see how it develops.

September 15, 2013,

I am in the air between S'pore and Japan. I believe my preaching was with much power in that paradise city. I had a good time. It seemed long and was exhausting, but I had some really neat experiences. There seemed to be several non-SDA in the audience who were very interested in what I had to say. One wealthy couple belonging to a mega church, 20,000 members spent more than an hour with me. A very charismatic prosperity gospel preacher runs the church they belong to by the name of Joseph Prince. They question the man's motives and the validity of his messages. The couple came to my room. We talked about many of the man’s teachings, late into the night. They see much more depth in the content of our message than in the fluff of the prosperity nonsense. Another couple that wanted to talk had been led by God to the German camp meeting Janet and I attended just a month ago. Only it wasn't this year they attended, it was between the two years that I went to Germany. Anyway, the people at the camp took them under their wings for three months, and now they are close to joining the Advent movement. 

I guess you’ve all heard about the natural disaster threatening Colorado. I've seen pictures on the Internet. There are cars under water everywhere, over a hundred people missing, and five are confirmed dead. I've always wondered when our turn for a natural disaster would come. Apparently, there is no Internet at EVI or natural gas. Our lifestyle guests cannot get treatments--no hot water. So, why exactly am I going there? Dunno!

I don’t think EVI suffered any damage, but there is some doubt that I can actually reach my home. No matter, the God I serve only allows that which I need and which is best. So says the Preacher to his Tribe.

Traipsing Hither and Yon

A month ago, Janet and I entered upon a three point mission. We started in Nova Scotia for one week, then moved to the ASI Convention in Florida for boards and convention for another week. Directly from there we flew to Germany for seven days of camp meeting. It is an exhausting itinerary considering not only the travel, jet lag, and work, but more so for the stress of being in the spot light much of the time.

In Nova Scotia, I preached nine times and Janet shared the power point presentation of her Tanzanian project. What a tremendous blessing the whole thing was, not my preaching specifically, but all the preaching and the opportunity to visit with John and Janice. The weather was great, the beach was inviting, the people were wonderfully hospitable and easy to be entreated. I preached my signature series, the Prodigal Son. To the usual sermons, I worked to emphasize righteousness by faith and the matchless charms of the God we serve. You may listen to the series online at . Click on Evening Meetings.

While in Nova Scotia, I was quite stressed over my ASI duties, which were coming up too quickly. I thought I wasn't prepared. Actually, I wasn't prepared. By God's grace I met every appointment by the skin of my teeth and with the "wisdom that my varied necessities" demanded. The Lord was very gracious to me. I did a devotional for the ASI board that continues to resonate with me since then and I was tasked with doing the Keynote Address on Wednesday evening. At a quarter to twelve Wednesday morning I still had nothing prepared and I only had two and one quarter hours to produce a sermon. To this day I am amazed. The Lord continues to work miracles on my behalf. Many expressed that this year's convention was one of the best. (Not my fault, I promise.)

By another set of gracious miracles, Jason and his whole family found enough money to come to America. The youngest, Shiloh, needed surgery on her hands so they came early one month. The surgery went well, the little girl is healing nicely, and they got to visit with Jason's cousin in DC. The Lord gave us all a presidential suite out of which to enjoy the ASI Convention and to find a modicum of rest. (Well some people got some rest.)

The blessings didn't stop with the end of the ASI Convention. They continued and proliferated in Germany. What a beautiful country. And the houses in the country-side are so well kept with flowers and lawn and gardens. Everyone should be so particular and energetic. Like in Nova Scotia, I preached once per day and twice on Friday. Again, Janet presented her Tanzanian work. You know, it took some persuading to get my wife to come with me. She doesn't like to have to sit around listening to me all the time. But, without my asking, I sense that she thoroughly enjoyed Germany and its people. The highlight of the whole experience for my wife was the food. So simple and healthy. Their breads and pates (Paw-tays) were out of this world--lots of fruit and fresh greens. What they did on Sabbath I've never seen done elsewhere. For lunch, soup, period. I suppose it was because the cooks were hired and they wanted to minimize their effort on Sabbath. Whatever the reason, I loved it. The whole camp meeting was a delight. I met the GC man who is responsible for the Jewish work. He lives in Paris, France, and we mostly spoke in French. Interestingly, I was not intimidated by his French and so, I was able, better than I thought, to communicate freely with him. His sermons really resonated with me. I learned much from him.

We came home to jet-lag, as usual, but not so bad that I couldn't keep on working. My lover leaves for Africa on Sunday, and I leave for Malaysia and Singapore on Tuesday. At EVI we've started to pray as a group. This morning, there was 15 of us, and I know of two more who were up the mountain praying. We are asking for the spirit of supplication, and for the Holy Spirit and for a revival among us. Besides that, we don't intend to let go of God until we have what we are looking for.

For my personal devotions I am praying thru' the nine volumes of the testimonies to the churches. So far, I am able to read and pray thru' 100 pages per week. (I'm on volume two.) You might not think that these writings are as spiritual as that found in the more devotional books like DA, and SC, but I am finding that they are better at unearthing my sins. Nearly every testimony to bro A, B, C, D-Z, is applicable to my case. My hope is that the influence of the perfect standard will leave me more like Jesus. Without Him, what can I do. I am so burdened with so many things in ASI, OCI, EVI and friends and family, that without God I am incapable of succeeding at anything. Neither are you, by the way . . .

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.