Saturday, March 24, 2007

Bathrobe or Bust


I heard Lydia moaning from the street. She is 70 and suffering from colon cancer. I called at her window and she said “Come in Pastor, the door is unlocked.” She was very skinny. I could see the outlines of her bones clearly. I brought her a large print bible to read and she was thrilled. I read her some verses and prayed with her for about a half an hour.

She told me “I want to go to church tomorrow and walk up front and make a public declaration of my faith. Even if I only have a bathrobe and have to be carried, I am going!”

I smiled at her enthusiasm and hope she can do it! But just wanting to do do something like that shows a heart full of faith, which in the Lord’s book, counts for a whole lot.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Soup and Salvation


During one of our weekly visitation times, I came across the home of a seventy year old woman named Lydia.. She is suffering from intestinal cancer and is often in pain. I was surprised one Sunday to see her in church. She grabbed her side in pain a few times during the service, but she was all smiles and friendly between these episodes. She has visited for about a month. I go to her home about once a week and pray with her.

The other day I found out she hadn’t eaten for two days. I went and got some chicken soup while my visitation partner stayed and spoke to her. I made her the soup and we sat and talked while she ate it. I had asked her before if she was a Christian and she said yes.

This day I asked her, “How do you know you are a Christian? What happened to you that makes you say that?”

She replied, “I went forward in church and the pastor touched me in the forehead with his finger.”

I replied, “He could touch you with all ten fingers, take off his shoes and use his toes too, but that would not save you. Only Jesus can save. Here is what the Bible says about it…”

I shared what we call “The Roman Road” (Romans 3:10, 23; 5:6-8, 6:23, and 10:8-13.) and asked her to pray, and ask our Lord to save her.

Lydia prayed and was all smiles a bit later. We witnessed to her son Juan Carlos and are keeping in touch with her neighbors. Please pray for Lydia. She is in the hospital a lot and still in much pain. We wish to be a blessing to Lydia and her neighbors.

There was a Lydia in the Bible whose hospitality became a great blessing for the early church and aided in the spread of the gospel in the regions beyond. We hope these visits to our Lydia may have an impact in her life, but also an impact that may be felt beyond the four walls of her house, and may spill over into the neighborhoods all around our town.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Some Things You Don't Learn in School

Videojug and PBwiki: Two great tools for our students

Our college students arrive and many of them are quite competent. Others seem to have missed some basic life lessons. We take them into our home and teach them more than how to do church work. Cooking, basic life skills, how to study, how to change a flat tire, etc., may be the subject of the day.

It is a lot of fun for us to use our home on the mission field helping college students become competent young adults.

Here is a site that is a lot of fun, http://www.videojug.com/

You can learn how to wash a car, make buttered toast or fix a doorknob. So now we too have a way to fill in those gaps in our education.

PBWIKI:

There is another site we use that is excellent. It is PBwiki.com. This site allows our students to post their homework online. Enough students doing enough homework can add up to quite a bit of information, that in turn can be used to teach others. Come visit our site:

Check out the PBwiki tour!

Create your own wiki at http://www.pbwiki.com/?r=pob

Link to
http://educators.pbwiki.com/PBwiki-educator-videos