September 17 - Wednesday

Impressions by Dave:

On a “small world” – Diane and I try to eat each meal and connect in other ways with as many different people that speak English as we can. One breakfast we chose to sit next to two ladies from the ‘far north.’ They always seemed to be smiling. After figuring out how to pronounce their last names, I mentioned that I pray daily for a different classroom of kids whose names sound very similar to theirs and they also are from the ‘far north’ and I gave them the name of the town the kids were from. They both looked shocked and asked me where I had gotten those names. I told them that a young, committed girl from another mission organization had gone though a cross cultural training school with our family 25 years ago and we had bonded and she began supporting us, both financially and with prayer. We only see each other every five years at the Inter Mission Cooperative Outreach gathering in Canada. She does some translating work on the Bible, but mainly she works in the schools. She sends me a new list of kids by class and grade with the teacher’s name each year to pray for. They said, “What is her name?” I said, “Ruth…” One of them said, “My daughter works with her!” Needless to say we wept and rejoiced in our sovereign, personal, loving Creator.
On “attitude” – As mentioned in earlier “Impressions” there is spiritual warfare going on constantly at these types of Christian Gatherings. A recent one was a bus strike that affected our visit to Bethlehem. A number of creative problem solving strategies took place. Very few of the participants were aware of it, even though they knew they had to wait extra long to get on the bus to go to Bethlehem. However, it became very apparent when we returned to the busses after our tour of the Church of the Holy Nativity. People couldn’t find their bus or their belongings. Unbeknown to us, the busses had been changed and our belongings transferred into new busses with new drivers. Needless to say this caused considerable tension and confusion. Once on the bus and headed back to Jerusalem, one of the ladies from Australia felt led to share. She asked us to focus on times in the past when others felt tension and confusion in Bethlehem.
How did Jacob feel when he lost his wife, Rachel, at the birth of their last son, Benjamin?
How did Naomi feel when she returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth, empty handed?
How did Joseph and Mary feel when they arrived for the census and she was due to deliver a baby and there was no place to stay and it was crowded and she was tired and dirty from a long journey?
Needless to say it was a gentle reminder once again on the choices we make every day to grumble and whine like the Israelites did in the wilderness or to “in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.”

Keep “looking unto Jesus,”
Dave