Diagnosing Mechanical Sins

This month’s mission trip amazed me with our busiest mechanic’s clinic ever. During the last two days of our week in San Pedro Colombia, as many as ten of us worked simultaneously on different machines. We saw nearly 100 items in three and a half days, including bicycles, blenders, drills, skill saws, weed eaters, chainsaws, lawn mowers, and a generator. One student who formerly worked in the computer industry even fixed a couple laptops! 

Unlike our experience here a year ago, almost immediately after setting up shop, broken equipment began to flood in from every direction. Many villagers brought three and even four items each, sometimes making multiple trips over steep hilly roads pushing wheelbarrows or riding bicycles laden with their ailing equipment. I half-jokingly commented that there were likely more broken machines in the village than people! I only hope that they will soon seek our Master Soul Mechanic for themselves with the same intensity and dedication that they sought us on behalf of their tools! 

“How long are you all staying?” One villager asked. 

            “Just until Sunday.”

“Can’t you all stay here a little longer, please?”  

“Like how much longer?” I asked, out of curiosity.

“At least a year!”

             I’m sure a year would go by quick and at the same time feel like three and a half centuries. 

            Some fixes were simple. Yessi discovered that the liquid in the tank of one broken-down weedeater was kerosene, not gasoline. She purged the tank, added the correct fuel, and soon had the machine purring “like a brand-new used one.” Other machines were more difficult. I found myself working on an old skill saw that defied my best efforts, and chewed up inordinate amounts of time with no apparent progress. 

How does God put up with us?The thought suddenly flashed into my mind just as I was ready to condemn both the tool and myself as unworthy of the mechanical realm. 

It’s incredible! Unlike me with this saw, God knows exactly why we are broken and He knows just what to do to fix us. If He is stymied, it is by our proud, uncooperative, stubborn, unbelieving hearts! That’s got to be frustrating! How does He keep working with us when we seem like an inordinate waste of time? 

A fresh glimpse of Calvary grasped my imagination. 

But of course! Considering the exorbitant price He already paid, how could He give up on us now and let His blood be spent for naught? No wonder He continues to tinker: a touch here, an adjustment there, as He prays for a response, for some token of spiritual life in our zombie-like souls! 

The thought gave me courage to keep working. Eventually, however, I had to lay that saw aside and go on to the next item. We were on a timeframe, and the waitlist of sick equipment was getting longer by the minute. Unfortunately, my next assignment, a Homelite weed eater, wasn’t any easier. 

What is wrong with this thing?Imuttered and fumed like a sick engine myself. Well, one of us has to do it!I justified myself. Three score and seven pulls later, mine is the only murmur!Why won’t this thing run?

Have you ever found yourself asking that question in your spiritual life? 

In small motor mechanics, there are three basic systems to check: spark, fuel and compression. Similarly, all spiritual malfunctions fall under three basic categories: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Sounds simple right?  

            The problem is, those three categories include a heap of specifics. To complicate matters, in long-neglected machines there are often multiple faults in multiple areas. More often than not, one failure has led to another. The mud dauber nest and cockroach hotel we uncovered in a couple machines, though problematic, were likely not the original causes of engine failure if you know what I mean. With so many things gone wrong, diagnosis can get overwhelming, let alone repair! Now doesn’t that sound familiar? 

The good news is, there are manuals and experts to help in time of need. I remember one chainsaw that came back to life after we applied our discovery from the manual that the setting for its fuel/air mixture-adjustment needle was a turn and a half more than the standard setting on most brands! What’s the air-fuel mixture in your soul today? Have you read far and deep enough in God’s Word to discover your needed adjustments?  

Interestingly, as in the soul, finding the cause of decease is more frustrating the more perfect the machine appears! We received one bright-red Shindaiwa chainsaw in pristine condition. Next to the surrounding hunks of junk, it glowed like the inside of a shopping mall at Christmastime. Jonathan’s initial inspection revealed  that the issue resided in the spark and ignition system, but the sparkplug, wire and coil were as pretty as the rest of the machine and all tested good.  So Jonathan called on Jeff, our resident expert, who got the machine to start, though it coughed, sputtered and popped like a medley of fireless noise crackers before sundown on the fourth of July. In the end, changing the sparkplug fixed the problem. How many parts of your life test out good according to your auto evaluation? You should ask the Master Mechanic. You may be in for a surprise! Praise God, there are remedies that heal even the uttermost brokenness.

            The man who lived across the street from us told me he heard two guys walking by his house bubbling with praises about how they had received their tools back from the dead. One resident admitted to us that his machine had been parked for three years! Others, like the owner of one weed eater I worked on, claimed he had used the machine just a few weeks previous! Notwithstanding, I had to use penetrating oil to free the rust-frozen spring tabs on the pull start so they could once again engage with the flywheel. Thank God for the oil. 

            Oh, and there is one more mechanical sin that is a real killer: timing. Mechanical arrhythmias. I have learned that many times a lawn mower won’t start because when the blade hit a rock or a tree root and bent or broke the aluminum keyway on the driveshaft, the magneto no longer lines up correctly with the magnets on the flywheel, and so the spark comes at the wrong time. Sometimes its bad enough that the machine won’t even start. Just how important is timing anyway? It’s a good idea to check your spiritual timing. Are you observing time the way God designed? 

Clint joyfully repairs a sewing machine.

Mechanics getting ready to open shop. Machines in the background left from the previous day.

Sebastian the machine surgeon 

Tool inventory on the last day of mechanics clinic. 

TIME AND JUDGMENT (11-20-2018)

We are in the last week of the three-month phase of the MOVE program. The missions fair, health class outreach, survival camp weekend, student presentations, week-of-prayer, and education outreach and student-led mission trip are all in the books, and it is time for the final evaluations.

Class number 10, or Class X, as they have dubbed themselves, has enjoyed the multiple meanings available with their particular Roman numeral: names like “The generation extraordinaire,” and “the X factor generation!”

The number ten in scripture is associated with law and judgment, so it is ironic that this class, although they also have many good qualities, have been probably the most lackadaisical and relaxed group I have seen here so far. Generation laX may be a more fitting moniker for them. It has cost many of them some hard knocks to begin to see their deficiencies. In many ways they remind me of myself  and my own mediocre, Laodicean condition! 

            Lately I have been studying the pre-advent investigative judgment. What a solemn reality it is, especially in the context of current developments in the world church and the world at large! What a deep need is mine to scrutinize my life and leave no stone unturned, to die to self and put things right with God. These are golden moments to seek the Lord with a whole heart, and to invest everything in developing the image of Christ in the soul. Like a polaroid, it might take some vigorous shaking. We have way too much to unlearn, and so much more to learn, and so little time. 

Interestingly, time is profoundly connected to judgment in the Bible (Ecl 3:17, 8:5, Acts 17:31, 1 Peter 4:17, Rev 14:7). The Sabbath, as we know, is the only commandment that signals time. It is also the day that Jesus spent in the tomb when He bore the penalty of God’s judgment against sin. Thus the Sabbath serves to remind us of our need to die to self and sin, while it simultaneously illustrates the reality of both liberation and restoration, the essential experience that we need in this judgment hour (see Rom 6:5-8, Gal 2:20, Deut 5:12-15, Ex 31:13, Eze 20:12). 

But the Sabbath is even more than this: it will eventually become the visible  litmus test, the great line that will divide between those who choose to worship the Creator God and receive His seal, and those who choose to worship the Beast and his image and receive the mark of his authority.  May we be ready, and may we be faithful! 

P.S. During the Thanksgiving supper last Friday night, the students presented us with a wooden tablet they had carved the letters Gen. X along with all their names. The abbreviation made me think of Genesis chapter ten, the table of the nations, which I found very fitting, not only because this group of students represents six different countries, but also because it prefigures the work they will do among many nations, by the grace of God. Below is the list of their commissions for the next six months to a year in eight different projects across five different countries. 

n  Jose Carlos: Amazon project, Leticia, Colombia

n  Loreiny and Natalia: Healthy Living Center, Popayan, Colombia

n  Diego: orphanage in the Congo, Africa

n  John, Gerson and German: Reach International orphanage and school, Honduras, C.A. 

n  Sebastian, Azarel and Jan Pool: Peru Projects, church planting and pioneer evangelism in the Amazon region of northern Peru

n  Anthony, Damaris and Abi: Bolivia Industrial School in northeastern Bolivia.

n  Talitha: Shilo, Healthly Living Center, Medellin, Colombia

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n  Benjamin: Maintenance Project, doing vehicle and equipment maintenance at mission projects across Bolivia. 

An address to live by

             “What’s your address?” can be a tricky question to answer as a missionary. The correct response can depend on the time of year, or on who’s asking and for what reason. There are at least six or seven addresses I use frequently, depending on the occasion, and not one of them is really my own. At least it helps when I remember that my permanent address is in the New Jerusalem, even if I don’t know the street number yet! For now, I must be content to be a nomad. 

As of today, we are camping again! Please keep us in prayer as we begin the student-led mission trip in San Pedro Columbia, a Mayan village in the mountains of southern Belize. We will be here until next Sunday doing evangelistic meetings, visitation, health expos and mechanics clinics.

 Honestly though, I have it pretty posh for a missionary, with a house and a comfortable bed to go back to: nothing like Jesus who often spent the night in a garden, or in the bottom of a boat, and even said the foxes and birds had more permanent dwellings than he did! (Matthew 8:20)

 My heart goes out to all those who lost their homes in the recent and current fires, or who find themselves homeless for whatever reason. May the rest of us be willing to learn to be more generous and hospitable! We may not only entertain angels, we may entertain Christ himself!

Our campsite for the week behind the health clinic in San Pedro Columbia

Survival School

Generation 10 embarks on their Survival Camp weekend excursion

One weekend.
Pack thirteen items or less.
Follow a map to your campsite.
Find your food, (which is hidden in the woods ahead of time, so it is at least more  palatable and plentiful then real forage fare) 
Build your shelter.
Start your fire.
Cook your food. 
If you want filtered water, make your own charcoal filter! 

These are the basic rules for the traditional Practical Skills Class survival camp here at MOVE. For every missing homework assignment in class, each student will be missing one of their thirteen allowed items. Some of the less-than industrious have had to scrape by with only six of seven! 

I don’t know about you, but the present global horizon makes me feel a real personal need for some intense spiritual survival school right about now! I find myself wondering how many useful and perhaps essential items I will lack in the coming time of trial due to my prior spiritual sloth and negligence in God’s school. It reminds me of a sobering statement I read recently:

The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger, -- a faith that will not faint, though severely tried. Those who now exercise but little faith are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel conscience. And even if they endure the test, they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble, because they have not made it a habit to trust in God. The lessons of faith which they have neglected, they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement.”   {YI, July 12, 1904 par. 7}  

There is no time to lose. God has precious, though difficult, lessons of faith for us to learn today that will prepare us for what is coming. But we must be willing to endure hardness as good soldiers.  

Then who of us have entered the service to expect the conveniences of life, to be off duty when we please, laying aside the soldier's armor and putting on the civilians' dress, sleeping at the post of duty, and so exposing the cause of God to reproach? The ease-loving ones will not practice self-denial and patient endurance; and when men are wanted to make mighty strokes for God, these are not ready to answer, "Here am I; send me." Hard and trying work has to be done, but blessed are those who are ready to do it when their names are called. God will not reward men and women in the next world for seeking to be comfortable in this. We are now on the battle field. There is no time for resting, no time for ease, no time for selfish indulgence. After gaining one advantage, you must do battle again; you must go on conquering and to conquer, gathering fresh strength for fresh struggles. Every victory gained gives an increase of courage, faith, and determination. Through divine strength you will prove more than a match for your enemies. {ST, September 7, 1891 par. 6} 

Lord, may we accept with gratitude today’s trials, knowing that in Your mercy and wisdom you are preparing us to survive tomorrow’s crises. Help us to trust You more and not shirk from our duty no matter how difficult! 

In the hunter’s zone

Before leaving the bush on Sunday morning, the students must complete a series of exercises as a team. Several of them are designated as blind, mute and lame, just to make things more interesting. My job this time was to scout a location on the creek and explain and supervise the students’ river-crossing challenge in which they must get the whole team across without touching the water.

 I walked some old tire tracks until I came to the creek, and then followed it upstream, looking for wide spots that would make for a more interesting crossing. Suddenly, the jungle in front of me erupted with beating wings as half-a-dozen vultures took flight. I consoled myself that they were probably as startled as I was. A brief search for the corpse yielded no results, so I continued a little further up the creek until I found the perfect crossing place at a wide bend in the stream. 

As I crouched on the uprooted end of a fallen log, waiting for the students to arrive, I heard the distant baying of hounds. Someone is out hunting today in our neck of the woods.Not good! 

I thought of all the stories I’d heard of people shot by hunters whose emotions exceeded their vision. At least the students are all together, and their last activity was the obstacle course right on the power line access road, so they should be pretty safe.  

Several minutes passed. The baying intensified, and seemed to be coming in my direction. Could the dogs be tracking me? Will they know the difference between my smell and the smell of a forest critter? I probably smell like an animal, since I haven’t had a bath since the day before yesterday!

The barking was getting very close now, and then I heard the singing blade of a machete slashing through the brush. I’m not even wearing hunter’s orange! I could be in real danger!

One of the hounds appeared abruptly, loping along quickly, nose to the ground. He passed me by and paid me no mind, but the hunter would surely be along at any moment, and I didn't’ want to be mistaken for anything not human! Should I make noise? Hide? Run? No, definitely not run! 

And then, there he was, the man with the machete.

“Shaw! I’m sure glad it’s you!” I called out in relief as I recognized the "hunter" was one of the other  staff members. 

“The dog came by and I thought he might lead me to you.” Shaw laughed. 

“Did you see the hunters?” 

“Yes, they are out under the power lines. They aren't coming this way. They just wait until the dogs flush the game out of the woods.” 

I was happy to hear it. 

The students soon arrived and completed their activity and we hiked back to campus without incident. 

Can you imagine what it will feel like to be a fugitive, hunted by dogs and armed men? Such a day could arrive sooner than you think. But even today we live in the hunter’s zone. The great hunter, the same Spirit that inspired Nimrod, is out to bag your soul. Don’t you go anywhere without Christ, you hear? Promise me that! 

P.S.  I want to thank all of you who have remembered Luciano and his family in your prayers. Luciano attended the evangelistic meetings the week before last, although he is still not coming to church regularly. It's good to see him smiling again. He says the Lord has answered our prayers and he landed a job with the sugar company. He doesn’t start for another couple weeks though. Please help me pray that if there are Sabbath conflicts he will be faithful. I have already encouraged him in this direction, but I know the fear of being without work again will be a strong temptation for him to compromise.

P.P.S. To all of you who have been affected by the devastating Camp Fire or other fires in California, we are praying for you earnestly, not only that God will supply your every need and sustain you in this trial, but also that you will come through it as finer gold, closer to God, and stronger to face whatever may be next. Our heart goes out to each one of you!