Just a Couple More Divine Arrangements

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…” Ephesians 3:20

I often unintentionally underestimate God. Otherwise how could I be so surprised when He often answers my too-general, small-faith prayers in such flabbergasting ways?

This year, as usual, we began searching for tickets at least a month before our return trip to Bolivia. We asked God to guide us in the process, but I was filled with uncertainties. How should I plan? What would be the best day to go?  There are always so many variables to consider. At some point I remember asking God not only to guide us in the logistics, but to also give us an opportunity to bless someone else during our journey.

Finally we bought tickets departing from Sacramento on the 28^th of October.  I chose our seat numbers on the first two flights, but on the last one from Miami to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, the only seats available were the ones that cost an extra $60 or more. They can forget it. I thought. They’ll have to give us seats anyway; I’ll just leave it blank and see where they decide to put us! It never crossed my mind that God might want to pick our seats for us.

            After a short stop in Los Angeles, we boarded our flight for Miami.

            “This is a relatively empty flight,” the stewardess announced. “So you should have room to stretch out!”

            “Hey! Everyone seems to have boarded! Maybe we can lie down and get some good sleep tonight!” I remarked to Lyli. “You take this row, I’ll take that one behind us!” Alas, the words were hardly out of my mouth when the last man to board the plane appeared and made his way past other empty seats all the way to our row.

“Excuse me. I’m 29 A.”

I told Lyli she better take the row behind us before someone else did.

“What if the flight attendants are going to use it? Ask her first!” Lyli responded.

I thought it was better to act first and apologize later if necessary, but I decided my wife was right, as usual, so I asked the stewardess. Naturally she informed me that she had a young mother with a baby who she planned to move to the empty row.

Great, now we’ll have a crying baby behind us yet! I fumed. But the mother and child never arrived. Instead, another passenger quickly occupied the empty row right after takeoff!

I glanced knowingly at my wife, unable to pass up the “I told you so” moment.

Tom, our seatmate, was an amiable fellow, and we chatted briefly before he dozed off like a tractor, snoring nearly all the way to Miami. Sometime midflight I began to move some dreamland of my own, I hope with less noise pollution, than our companion. When we began our descent toward Miami we were all awake, however, and Tom was surprisingly talkative. I don’t remember what, but something I said must have tipped Tom off, and he said “You’re a Christian aren’t you?”

“Yes.” I replied, not sure what would come next.

“No wonder you’re such a nice guy to talk to! I’ve been reading the Bible lately and I really like the book of Proverbs!” Tom’s enthusiasm only increased. We had a nice talk as we landed, and I gave him a few tracts as we exited the plane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone more excited to receive tracts.

“Man, thanks so much! These are great!” He thanked me a second time inside the airport terminal.

I smiled and could only thank God that Lyli and I had missed having each a row to ourselves.

The horizontal rest we’d missed on the plane we soon recovered in the Miami airport. We found an out-of-the-way corner, I bought a newspaper to cover the dirty floor, and Lyli and I took turns sleeping for the next few hours while we waited for our final flight.

When departure time came, we were among the last to board flight 922 with service to LaPaz and Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Our tickets indicated that we had seats close to the front of the plane. Nice. I thought. They must have assigned us some of those good seats that they wanted to charge $60 for! We had scarcely settled into our seats when suddenly, the conversation of the people in the row behind us arrested my attention.

“Oh, the Seventh-day Adventists! You are the ones that have special dietary rules. You don’t eat any kind of meat right?”  The question came from a respectable looking gentleman of perhaps 60 years of age seated with his wife and was directed toward a young man with slicked-back wavy blond hair.

As soon as we were in the air, I reclined my seat and turned my ear to the resulting gap so I could hear their conversation better. The young man was explaining the biblical dietary guidelines in Leviticus chapter eleven.

“There are meats that are okay to eat, and there is meat that is not good to eat… what is it called? Not dirty, what’s the word in English?”

I could no longer hold back.

“Unclean!”

And that’s how I introduced myself into the conversation. The couple, Jack and Jenny are Canadians with Mennonite background. Jack is partial owner of a company that sells agriculture equipment and Bolivia. I asked Jack about farming techniques in Bolivia, and explained that we are trying to improve our agriculture program at the school.

The young man, Edwin, haled from Holland, and was on his way to work at the Television Network, RedAdVenir, in Santa Cruz. He was very happy to make our acquaintance, as he had been worried about who would pick him up at the airport since no one had responded to his emails about his arrival, and he doesn’t speak any Spanish. He grinned and showed us a sign “Red AdVenir” that he had prepared to display upon arrival.

It didn’t take long however before the conversation returned to topics of faith.

 “I know God exists, but I don’t believe the Bible is the infallible word of God. It has too many contradictions. It is just man’s attempt to explain God. For example, in Genesis when God put a mark on Cain and sent him away, it says that he built a city. How is that possible when he and his parents were the only people on the earth? How could there be a city?”

I found myself praying silently for the right words to answer Jack. We had a lively and friendly discussion for several hours ranging over various topics. Arguments and explanations seemed to come clearly and rapidly to my mind, and it was one of those rare and awesome moments when I could sense the Holy Spirit moving with power, both in what I shared as well as in Jack’s reaction.

“Why make a big deal about diet and the Sabbath? These are just all details. The only important thing is what Jesus said, that we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.” Jack challenged. 

 “I agree with you, that is absolutely the most important! But how can we know what that really looks like? What you think it means to love God and love our neighbor may be different than what I think it means. Does it matter what we think? What does God say it means?  How can we know? From my perspective, a plain reading of scripture as God’s Word to us is the only objective standard that we have!”

It is difficult to reconstruct the conversation as it occurred, but I remember being able to share the following as well.

“The topic of diet is really interesting because although it has a lot to do with our physical health, it also has deep spiritual implications. The bible is clear that there will be no death in heaven, so that rules out eating any dead animals! So I choose to accustom myself ahead of time to a vegetarian diet. But I have been discovering that the issue of diet has to do with a whole lot more than just whether or not I eat meat! The real issue has to do with my heart. Am I willing to give up my own desires and make sacrifices because God asks me to, because I want to have a closer and better relationship with Him? Am I willing to do it for the benefit of my own health? For me, the Holy Spirit has impressed me that I need to control my appetite for sweet, sugary foods. I know it must have been the Holy Spirit, because I never would have thought of this on my own! But I felt distinctly impressed, how do think you will ever learn to make real sacrifices for the good of others if you aren’t even willing to make them for your own good? It’s like you were saying, the most important thing is to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbor as ourselves. But I am slowly learning that that takes in a lot of territory!”

During one of the natural breaks in the conversation, Jack went to the lavatory, and his wife took the opportunity to apologize.

“Please excuse my husband. He always likes to ask the hard questions, but he loves to have conversations like this. He really is a good man; he just has always had a lot of doubts. Every Easter we watch the movie (I don’t remember the title, but it is about the crucifixion) and he cries and says, “If only it were true!”

When we said good-bye to Jack and Jenny we parted like old friends. They gave us their contact information and invited us to visit them anytime.

            At the airport we helped Edwin negotiate immigration, although when we arrived at customs he got the green light while we had all of our bags searched. When we finally got out, there was nobody waiting to pick us up. I made a couple of phone calls and found out the missionaries who had planed to come had car trouble and couldn’t make it, so we hired a taxi. As we left I was again deeply impressed by the goodness of God.

“Praise God you were willing to speak up about your faith!” I remarked to Edwin. “Not only would we have missed the opportunity to meet Jack and Jenny and have such a wonderful conversation, but if you hadn’t said anything we could have easily passed the entire flight and left the airport without ever having met you!”

“Yeah, and I would have had to spend the night in the airport!”  Edwin agreed with a grin. “Our God is amazing isn’t He?”

Isn’t He ever!

Give and it shall be given unto you

  Hello everyone! Lyli and I are back at the school in Bolivia. As it turned out, the day we got here a couple of teachers had to leave because of health concerns. So we jumped right back into teaching classes and all the rest of the school activities. I told the kids we came back to finish what we started! (If you recall we were here to help get things started for a few months at the beginning of the school year in February-April.) Graduation weekend is a week from tomorrow. The kids asked me to speak for Friday night consecration. Please pray for me with that. Also if you would remember in prayer the school’s need for an improved water system for both irrigation and potable water and for a new vehicle! Our Nissan Condor of 9 years has seen better days. As you will see in the following story, He is more than able to provide for all of our needs in His time! God never ceases to amaze us!

Give and it shall be given unto you…

good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom...” Luke 6:38

            Names in Scripture are an index to character. That’s why God often changed people’s names. For example, Jacob (which means the usurper or deceiver) became Israel the conquering prince. In English my name means “helper,” and I was pretty pleased with that until I came to Bolivia and found out that in Spanish, the diminutive of my name, “Codito,” means stingy. Not cool. But as I thought about it, I had to admit I am not naturally a generous person. In many ways I am selfish and parsimonious. Sure, I’m a helper: I help myself right well! I think that is at least half of the reason God assigned me to mission work: to show me what a mess I am and how much I need Him!  All I can say is, “Lord, have mercy! I don’t want to be this way anymore! Please help me!”

            So over the last few years I have slowly been learning how to be more giving. (Only one of the many areas in my character that needs an overhaul, but thankfully God is a Master at recreation, and He’s very patient too!)

A couple years ago, I decided to part with my Honda Accord “Sliver,” as grandma had christened my trusty vehicle of 186,000 miles.  Since Sliver sat 9 to 10 months out of the year while I was in Bolivia, he began to show his age in a rather accelerated deterioration.  I thought of selling the car, but after I prayed about what I should do, I found out that a group of Bible workers needed another vehicle, and I felt impressed to give them my car. Selfishness, however, is a pervasive weed, and its roots run deep and wide. I decided on what seemed to be a mutually beneficial deal: I would give them the car with the condition that I would be allowed to drive it while on furlough! The bible workers gratefully accepted the terms.

Alas, two months later, one of the Bible workers crashed the car into a bridge while texting. Thankfully he was unharmed, but the vehicle was totaled. The towing company came after me, even though I had signed the car over, and my dad had to field the phone calls from the collection agency since I was back in Bolivia.

I should never have given away my car! I fumed.  But I couldn’t help but remember that I had prayed and God had given me peace about the decision at the time. So I tried to surrender my frustration to the Lord. It all came storming back however during my next trip home. My wife and I had to rely on others to transport us to and fro, and although my dad let us use his truck, we didn’t feel at liberty to just go wherever whenever we needed to.

This year when I knew we would be in the U.S. for close to six months, I again felt tempted to lament my decision to give away my car. Instead, I decided to ask God to provide us some means of transportation while we were home. My mom and grandma prayed as well. I thought that someone would probably just loan us a vehicle while we were home. As I continued to pray, I remembered a conversation with a friend of ours from North Dakota about four months previously. He had invited us to come visit the next time we were in the states.

“If you need wheels, just let me know” he had said. Immediately I wrote him to find out if his offer was still standing.

“Let me check” was his response. As it turned out, he had already given away the vehicle he had planned to let us use, but he didn’t tell us that at the time. Instead, his wife shared one of our mission stories at their local church, and then made known our need. After the service, a man approached our friend and said his mom had a car that we could use, as she was in a care home and no longer able to drive.

“What sort of condition is this car in? What if you break down on the drive back home? How are you going to return it when it is time for you to go back to Bolivia? There was no shortage of questions to try my faith.

I called our friend and asked for our benefactor’s name and number so I could thank him and also find out a few things about the car.

“So who is this guy that’s loaning you his car?” My dad asked when I got off the phone. “What’s his name?” Dad used to live in the same part of North Dakota, so he was curious if he knew who it was. When I told him, Dad was shocked.

“You have got to be kidding me!” My dad not only knew the man, but their last interaction those many years ago had been somewhat less than positive.

“Does he know who you are?” Dad asked.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. But after this new revelation I really didn’t want to call and find out! After a brief struggle however, I decided I had nothing to lose. God seemed to be answering my prayers this far.

When I called and introduced myself, the man told me he had been talking more with his wife and that they had decided to just give us the car! All I had to do was find a way to get from California to North Dakota to pick it up!

I checked flights, but they were too expensive, so I decided to ride the train. I would go alone to save money. Or so I thought. As I was buying my ticket online, I noticed a field that said “enter your ticket voucher number here.”Hmm. I wonder how I could get one of those.  I thought. Why don’t you ask on Facebook? The answer seemed obvious. Within minutes I had a reply. Another missionary friend of ours had Amtrak vouches that he couldn’t use and offered to buy Lyli’s ticket!

            In North Dakota we had a wonderful weekend with our friends and were able to share more mission stories at one of the local churches. Another stranger gave us enough money to get the car insured and pay for our trip home. The car was low-mileage and in excellent condition, newer and better than the car I gave away! Two of the tires were quite worn, but we had no problems on the long drive back to my grandparents’ house in Idaho.

           And that’s pretty much an example of how our six months stateside went. It seemed that nearly every time we tried to do something for someone else, we ended up getting back five, ten and even a hundred times as much blessing in return, sometimes from people who didn’t even know that we had just helped someone else! It was just wild! God proved again and again to us that His promise is true: “Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over…”

Next time I’ll tell you what happened on our flight back down here. J

One book, three stories.

“The Great Controversy should be very widely circulated. It contains the story of the past, the present, and the future. In its outline of the closing scenes of this earth's history, it bears a powerful testimony in behalf of the truth.”[i]

As if Scripted! 7-9-2014

           I have been so grateful to have a part-time job this summer with Jim and Barbara, a very nice couple who moved here from New York. This morning Grandma prayed that God would turn my new job into a missionary endeavor. I prayed that I would not miss any opportunities to illustrate the goodness of my God, and for special wisdom to include some words about spiritual realities in today's conversation with my employers. These are prayers I should pray every day, for too often I am like Hezekiah and talk about myself when I should be talking of my Savior![ii]

            So at work today, I met Scotty, a real estate agent and private contractor who is building an addition on Jim’s garage. We introduced ourselves briefly and then went about our business. Around noon I was on my way inside for lunch, when Scotty called to me from his truck where he was taking his meal. The conversation that followed couldn’t have gone better had it been scripted![iii]

            “Hey Kody, where are you from?”

            “I’ve been living in Bolivia the last several years.”                       

            “Really? What do you do in Bolivia?”

            “I teach high school.”

            “What classes do you teach?”

            "Let’s see, language, philosophy, government, geography, history...”

            “Wow! So you must be fluent in Spanish then! What kind of history do you teach? I bet it’s not U.S. history!” he laughed.

            “No!” I laughed with him.

            “Do you teach Bolivian history?”

            “Well, not too much, it’s more like world history...”

            And this is where I usually would have stopped my description of my senior history class and the conversation would have moved on to other things. But today it was as if God gave me my next words as clear as a teleprompter, and for a few priceless moments turned our simple chitchat into a conversation of things eternal.

            “…I actually have a really cool textbook that I use, it’s one of my favorite books called The Great Controversy” the words came naturally.

            “The Great Controversy?” Scotty repeated, intrigued.

            “It covers the history of the Christian church from the time of the Roman emperors all the way down to the late 1800’s when the book was written. The last section of the book covers major prophecies from the scripture, and talks about the role of the U.S. in prophecy.”

            “Wow, that sounds really interesting!” Scotty enthused.

            “It is! It’s a great read. I’m sure I have an extra copy I’d be happy to lend you if you’d like.”

            “Yeah! That’d be great!”[iv]

            We chatted a few more minutes about where we have lived and where we went to school. Scotty grew up in Orofino (as did I), then went away to college in another state and got through debt-free by fishing in Alaska every summer. Now he works multiple jobs, owns his own business, and saves money so he will be able to help his three little kids get through college debt-free someday too!

            After my conversation with Scotty I joined Jim and Barb upstairs for lunch. And wouldn’t you know it, right on cue, we had our first discussion on religious things. I don’t even remember how it started, but Barb mentioned that she and Jim are not religious people (I had already picked that up) and began to share her experience of going to different religious private schools as a kid and how she was always shunned, or treated differently because she wasn’t a member of the group. So that left a bad taste in her mouth. Then Jim commented with a touch of bitterness that most of the wars throughout the ages have been religious ones.

            “You are right, and that is unfortunate, but it is only what we can expect, considering the origin of war.” I said.  

            “What is the origin of war?” Barb asked with interest.

            “The Bible tells us that the first war ever happened in heaven! Kind of sounds like an oxymoron right, war in heaven?”

            “Yeah!”

            “But that’s what happened. The Bible says that Lucifer, the created being with the highest position who was closest to God, began to be proud of his beauty and power and began to covet the place of God himself! Eventually he rebelled and then blamed the war on God. Now he has brought that war here and he still uses the same tactics! What better strategy than to get professed Christians to fight and kill each other! A lot of honest people look at that and say ‘if your God is like that I want nothing to do with him!’ So Satan, the adversary, is still causing all sorts of carnage and blaming it on God!”

            Several more times throughout the conversation God gave me opportunity to drop little seeds that I pray will germinate and grow. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to work here for the next few months, that I will honor God consistently in my work and conversation.

Flea Market Colporteur 6-15-2014

            Last June while I was home I decided I needed to get rid of some of my stuff and free up more storage space for my parents.  A cousin referred me to a flea market about 30 minutes from home where you can rent two tables for $20 and sell to your heart’s content! So Lyli and I drove down one Sunday with all our wares: some kettles, old SCUBA gear, a few items of furniture from my college apartment, and several boxes of books. Amid the books I noticed I had an extra copy of The Great Controversy, and I sent up a quick prayer that that book would not come home with me.

            God, please send a buyer for that book who will actually read it!

            Lyli and I both prayed that God would bless our market venture not only financially, but spiritually. The venue proved to be well worth the $20 on both accounts! In a couple of hours we had sold over half of our stuff, and every buyer took a free GLOW tract along with their purchase. The sun was quite hot by this time, however, and the stream of shoppers began to diminish in both quantity and zeal, and there were still three items I really wanted to sell before we had to leave at noon: my desk, a small table and The Great Controversy. So we bowed our heads again and asked God to send buyers for the furniture and the book.

            About this time a young Hispanic fellow began searching through my books, picking up first one, and then another.

            “How much are your books?” he asked.

            “Well, it depends! I have books from $1 all the way up to $15” I responded. “Do you read much?”

            “Oh yeah, I love to read!” He continued browsing, and suddenly I noticed that he was looking at The Great Controversy! I thought this must be my cue. Lyli thought so too, and while I talked, she prayed. 

            “That is an excellent book!” I encouraged. “It’s one of my all-time favorites! I would never sell it except I have more than one copy!”

            “Really? What’s it about?” With that invitation, I launched into a sales pitch for the book that I learned years ago while working the streets of the greater Fresno area. Yet for all my eloquence, the young man put down the book and continued to look at some others. Lyli kept praying, and I kept talking. After a gander at a few other titles, the man made his decision. Seizing The Great Controversy he said, “I’ll take this one. How much?”

            “Good choice!” I affirmed, and offered him a price he couldn’t refuse.

            “I look forward to reading it!” he said. 

            Someday I expect I will hear the rest of that story: hopefully when he drops by to visit me in the hanging gardens around my tree-house cottage outside the New Jerusalem! 

How Igor the Engineer came to visit

“God gave me the light contained in The Great Controversy and Patriarchs and Prophets and this light was needed to arouse the people to prepare for the great day of God, which is just before us. These books contain God's direct appeal to the people. Thus He is speaking to the people in stirring words, urging them to make ready for His coming. The light God has given in these books should not be concealed.”--CM 128, 129.  {PM 357.1} 

            This story happened in 2011 at the school in Bolivia. I always wanted to share it, but finally finished writing it to complete this trilogy.

            Igor is an engineer crew chief from the road construction company that built the highway in front of our school. Rumor has it that Route 8 is part of a transcontinental thoroughfare that will connect Brazilian ports on the Atlantic with their Peruvian counterparts on the west coast. Igor began to visit our school occasionally after he met Ruan, our director at that time. Several times he showed up during the lunch hour because he wanted to experience the vegetarian cuisine, quite a novelty for the average Bolivian!  

            One day when we were expecting him to visit, we had the kitchen crew make something special, but he never showed up. The next morning I was at work and I thought about Igor and prayed for him. At lunchtime I saw his truck pull up! I hadn’t planed on eating in the cafeteria, but I felt impressed to go sit at his table and make conversation. That was not difficult, as Igor had plenty of interesting things to say. He was educated, amiable, and well mannered, and he spoke with ease about his varied experiences in many circles amid the wealthy and the powerful. I quickly realized that as a highway builder, he was well informed with the political, social and economic structures of his country, and necessarily of the world abroad as well.

            “The Chinese are crazy man. They offered me work but they said, if you come to work for us you won’t ever leave, and I thought, man, I’d rather work for the Bolivians. They pay less, but at least I’ll be at peace!” he laughed.      

            “Bolivia is changing,” he continued. “It’s not the country that it used to be.”

            He asked about what things are like in the U.S. We explained how the U.S. is changing a lot too. Ever since 9/11, it has been one thing after another. Recently, the economy is in dire straights. In general, society walks on its head and we seem to be headed toward some inevitable crisis.

            “What do you guys believe about the end of the world?” The candidness of his question caught me by surprise, and I breathed a quick prayer for assistance. After he heard an abbreviated version of Adventist eschatology, he said:

            “It’s like Ellen White says…”

            What? Like Ellen White says? I barely refrained from bursting out loud. I was so surprised to hear him mention her name that the last half of what he said didn’t even register! As it turned out, Igor has read The Great Controversy, the book that tells the history of God’s people in the dark ages, the story of the birth of the Adventist Movement during the Great Religious Awakening of the 1840’s, the role of the United States in bible prophecy, the mark of the beast, and the second coming of Christ! He had bought the book from a colporteur.

Igor has been back to eat vegetarian several times this year. He is always so friendly, and he wants to finish the runway for us.

            “You should call my boss in Cochabamba” he would say every time he talked to Ruan. When Ruan called and mentioned Igor’s name he was given immediate recognition. An arrangement for the donated time of company machinery for the runway, however, has never materialized.

            “I love how this place is like one big happy family” Igor exclaimed during one visit. I can only thank God for anything positive he has seen, and for hiding from him our many imperfections, at least for now!

Igor was here again last Friday (June 3) and brought his mom with him. When I went to say hi, he introduced me.

            “I brought my mom here to see the happy people!” he grinned.

            As it turned out, his mom had much more pressing business.

            After hearing from her son about our school, she wanted to donate the huge family plantation as a location for another similar school on the other side of the country. It is an enormous track of land that takes a week on horseback to ride across and includes an entire tribe of indigenous people. Before liberation back in 1825, multiple indigenous groups lived and worked on the land.

            “I’m not just talking, I want to see this happen” Igor’s mom explained, as she elbowed her son every time he got off topic.[v]

            A few weeks ago it was Sabbath afternoon and I had a few hours of precious downtime to just relax and have some peace and quiet. I had just settled comfortably on my bed to watch a sermon from a Professor Veith series called “Rekindling the Reformation” when I heard a truck drive in. I had the distinct impression that I should get up and go see who it was, but I dismissed it lethargically with the excuse that someone else would surely attend whoever it was. I promptly forgot about it and continued to watch the sermon until what must have been three or four minutes later when I heard the truck leaving and again felt impelled to get up. I responded this time, and surprised myself with how quickly at that! As I opened the front door of my house, the pick-up with two men inside was just passing by. The driver spotted me immediately and stopped the truck, and motioned me to come. Approaching the vehicle I suddenly recognized the driver as Igor. We exchanged greetings and Igor explained that he had brought his friend to show him the school.

            “I wanted to see if you had any copies of that book, The Great Controversy. My friend wants his own copy.” He explained.

            It took a split second for me wipe the shock off my face and invite the two men inside. “That’s the one” Igor exclaimed eagerly when I presented them the copy of the book. He grasped it eagerly and scanned the cover. “How to face the new world order successfully!” he read the subtitle aloud. “Is that really possible? They are so powerful and they are everywhere! I used to think that Bolivia was not in cahoots with the new-world-order movement, but I have discovered that Evo Morales (the current president) is deeply involved.”  

We spent the next the next forty-five minutes conversing about end-time events before the two men continued on their way. This is another story that needs your prayers to be concluded for the glory of God! I take courage from the following passage:

            “The results of the circulation of this book [The Great Controversy] are not to be judged by what now appears. By reading it, some souls will be aroused, and will have courage to unite themselves at once with those who keep the commandments of God. But a much larger number who read it will not take their position until they see the very events taking place that are foretold in it. The fulfillment of some of the predictions will inspire faith that others also will come to pass, and when the earth is lightened with the glory of the Lord, in the closing work, many souls will take their position on the commandments of God as the result of this agency..." {The Publishing Ministry 356.4}           

---

[i] The quote continues saying “I am more anxious to see a wide circulation for this book than for any others I have written; for in The Great Controversy, the last message of warning to the world is given more distinctly than in any of my other books.” –(Colporteur Ministry).

[ii] Jesus says in John 7:18 “He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he who speaks of Him who sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.”The story of Hezekiah can be found in Isaiah chapter 38.

[iii] As I think about it, that is surely because it was “scripted” by divine influences that orchestrated the entire scene and dialogue in answer to our morning prayers!

[iv] I have a copy of The Great Controversy in my car already to give to Scotty on Monday. Please pray for that!

[v] Ruan had plans to go look the land over with Igor and David Gates. Unfortunately (or so it seems to us, but God knows why) the donation fell through, as others in Igor’s family were not favorable to the idea. Not long afterward, Igor was transferred to work at another location, and we haven’t seen him since. 

Temporarily to work on the home front

Dear family and friends

What a blessing it has been to be here helping the school year get off to a good start. We just had a short-term volunteer group here for a week to help put the roof on the church in Yata (You can see photos below). That was some hard, fun work, and we are thrilled that we will soon be able to hold worship services right in Yata. Especially considering that there was a baptism this week and nine of our students and three adults from Yata, including the mayor, gave their lives to God! (More on that story later! Although, for blog viewers it will show up as an earlier post than this one.)

Lyli and I are on our way to the U.S. because Lyli has been granted the visa that enables us to process her green card, but we must do it in the U.S. We are also planning to spend some time helping my grandparents who are feeling the need for some extra hands. Grandma also has some ideas stewing for some missionary work with their local church! We are excited about that! So we will be stateside for a number of months, and are looking forward to seeing many of you! As of now our plan is to return to Bolivia at the end of the school year in November to watch the property during the vacation and prepare for the next school year. In the meantime we will continue to pray for and support the school in every way possible. I will keep you posted. I have a few more backlogged stories and meditations to send your way as well over the next few months. May God’s grace and peace be with you, and may your voice sound His words for this time, and may our lives portray them! Maranatha!

Yata Church Construction!

Bypassing the sign with the church trusses

It took a couple of ours to get the first load of trusses out to the main road

Starting to look like a church

Two hours later, she's won the laurel crown!

Mr Joaquin cuts lumber for the church building project

Setting the beams for concrete pour

God’s timing

  

30-3-2014

“But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay” (The Desire of Ages, 30.1)

Last Sunday I was up at 4:30 a.m. to get some study time in, because at 5:30 it was my turn to help prepare breakfast in the kitchen. Directly after breakfast I had a group of colporteurs[i] to keep occupied until mid-afternoon. I did not relish the thought of packing books around all day under the hot sun, especially after already laboring for two hours over the cooking fire! By the time the water boiled, I had half-decided that we would stay on campus. I would have the kids work on their door-presentations, which they still needed to memorize anyway. On the other hand, I knew the kids could use some practice in the field. I only have a few more Sundays here with them this year before I have to leave, so I need to take advantage!

But then I heard there were drunken festivities in Yata, our chosen territory for the day. Oh great, I thought. That is the last thing we need! I could already picture potentially awkward and even dangerous scenarios. That settles it, we’ll definitely stay here today! I thought, happy for what seemed like a completely legitimate excuse. But suddenly I was strongly impressed with the selfishness of my decision. Don’t those people need God just as much even if they’re drunk? My thoughts took on a different tone. You know the holy angels are with you! You have nothing to be afraid of!

So I went and talked to drunk people in three different houses. At our first visit, a young man invited us inside. He had obviously been drinking, but he listened to us respectfully and was able to respond with a semblance of intelligence. Meanwhile a toddler played on the dirt floor, occasionally looking up with wide, startled eyes. The man expressed interest in our materials, but said he had no money, so we prayed with him and gave him a GLOW tract. After we left, Gina, the student I was working with was teary-eyed.

“It is so different out here than it is in the internado[ii]!”

“What do you mean?” I was surprised at her emotion.

“Being in that house brought back bad memories!” She paused, and I waited for her to see if she would say more. “I am so glad I am at the internado! I am so glad God brought me here! I was thinking about leaving, but I don’t want to anymore. I want to stay here for all four years of high school! That man back there reminded me of my dad.” she added.

As we continued down the street to the next house I tried to encourage her as my heart overflowed with joy to see the working of the Holy Spirit. Thank God! Even if Gina’s epiphany turns out to be the only reward for the day’s labors it will be worth it!

In the background thumped the heavy ubiquitous rhythms from a conglomeration of raucous party music. 

“This music is awful!” Gina continued. “It brings back bad memories! I’d rather be at the school singing hymns!”  

At the next house two young inebriates sobered visibly as I presented to them some DVD’s on the Great Controversy. They bought the whole set on the spot, and I could hear them playing it already as we walked to the next house where we sold Steps to Christ and Bible Readings for the Home to a very interested elderly woman while we also humored the conversation of her drunken brother.  

 

Today we went back to Yata and sold nearly $100 worth of material in a couple hours of time. That is big spending for the little town of Yata, where previous efforts never netted much more than about a tenth of that amount! Even more surprising was the level of interest in nearly every home. I’ve never seen anything like it here before! Even those who were unable to purchase anything listened intently to our presentation and expressed a desire to acquire our materials. Praise God for His sobering Holy Spirit that is counteracting the foul inebriating spirits that have so long held this village captive! 

            For years now I have been frustrated at what seems to me such slow progress of the gospel in Yata, including our delayed church construction project. But next month the church will finally have a roof! A sawmill was built in Yata just last year, and it began operation a few months ago. The new mayor, Richard Cordero, has four of his kids in our school, and has promised to speak to the mill owner and secure us a discount on the lumber we will need for the roof! Combine all that with this suddenly-heightening level of spiritual interest! Coincidence? I don’t think so. God always has his timing![iii]

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[i] Colporteurs are door-to-door booksellers. Our main goal in colporteuring is to meet new people and find opportunities to do good and to share Christ. The books we sell contain life-changing material that has been of inestimable value in our own lives. (The quote at the beginning of this story comes from The Desire of Ages, one of the books we carry. It is widely recognized as the best and most complete commentary on the life of Christ in existence.)

[ii] Internado is Spanish for boarding school, and it is the name that most people use for our school since we are the only boarding school in the area.

[iii] Another factor not to be ignored in all this is the flooding we’ve had this year all across the northeastern part of the country. I think God is using it to make people reflect. If a life’s worth of work and savings can be swept away in moments, maybe it is time to look for something sure and more lasting!