“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.
