Lessons from our dog

Our dog, Scout is outside in the rain and sleet and I am ticked at him. No he didn't have an accident or get into the garbage. He was able to get a package of mini cookies from the center of the counter. Now Scout is no dummy, most dogs aren't. Remember we take care of them. At three in the morning he and Frizzy needed to go outside. When they come in and have done their thing they usually get a treat. Well at three I gave Scout his usual peanut butter flavored dog biscuit. Now Frizzy has no teeth left, so he got one of the cookie treats. They are about an inch in diameter, just the size of his mouth. Both got their treats and I headed off to try and sleep. Three hours later Scout wakes me in his usual way, he puts his massive paws on me and tries to roll me over. His paws are wet and I know something is up. Out of bed and into the kitchen I go. As I pass the arch into the living room I spot a dozen unwrapped and empty mini-cookie packages. I can't even open them without turning red. So outside Scout goes and now he wants in. I probably should go lay down outside and let him in. Lord, thank you for the found in the ditch, weighs 120, eats like a horse dog. Help me be as patient with him as You are with me.

Most people have a problem with time. We look at time as a collection of spent moments, spending moments or moments to spend. We look at time as if we were peering down a long rope. We only see the end of the rope, today, in our field of vision. God on the other hand looks at the same rope, but from a different perspective. He looks at the length of the rope from the side and He can see the beginning and the end all at the same time.

That is why He has such a hard time invading our tightly focused existence. We need to look at time, our time, the way He does and allow Him to, be open to Him, change the path, invade our day, give us different eyes so our life will be the rich and rewarding fellowship He wants.

When our Ana was carried by her uncle for two days through the bush God was preparing to invade our lives. Praise the Lord Donna was open to and aware of the invasion. On the other hand I had to evaluate the situation. I am happy to say that my head only evaluated until I held that precious life in my hands. Evaluation was over and the invasion was underway.

Time and Waiting

I touched on the timing of God and want to say a little more about our experiences on waiting on God. For ten years my wife and I prayed and waited on the Lord to open the doors so we could fulfill our calling to missionary service. For ten years we informed our administration of our calling and for ten years we heard nothing but, "wait patiently". And then the letter came in the mail and we began to prepare to move our family thousands of miles away to Zambia.

During our time of preparation a mother was pregnant again. She lived in a very remote region of Zambia known as Chavuna-Chinjawa. Her village was devastated by another drought. Her children suffered, one was blind from measles and another was suffering from malnutrition. The land would give them no food this year. As her pregnancy progressed she regressed.

We landed in Zambia on September 22nd and began our work. Four hours away over extreme terrain a woman was getting ready to give birth. My wife began working in our hospitals orphan nursery and the initial patient survey room. On October 7th the woman in Chavuna-Chinjawa gave birth to a girl and died. The babies uncle afraid of spirits carried the baby for two days and upon arriving at the hospital handed the near dead baby to my wife.

And the story continues.

Greetings

Greetings!

What is blogging all about? I guess there are numerous answers, perhaps hundreds or thousands. I want this blog to be about living as a servant. Yes, I want to be a servant , a servant of God. A lot of days I feel that my serving has pretty much flopped. I have a feeling that there are a lot of people that share that feeling. I want to reach people that have real questions about faith, suffering, justice, poverty and issues that at times leave us with more questions than answers.

My adult life has pretty much been spent in ministry. I was ordained in 1979 and served churches in Michigan and spent time in Zambia on the African continent. While living in Zambia a wonderful baby came into our life. Her birth mother died of malnutrition during delivery. My wife, Donna, began taking care of her when she was two days old. Many times that little baby came close to death but the Lord had other plans.

Did you ever wonder about the timing of God? Well I sure have. We live in our little world totally unaware of what God can do. Our plans get upset and we wonder waht in the world is going on. We went to Zambia ready to serve God in a nice planned out way. We were not expecting another child, in fact I went to the doctor to make sure we didn't have any more children. Then God invaded our nice plan and blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. More about that later.