April Eggs and Ego

Our children have had no end of excitement this spring 

watching egg after egg hatch in the incubator.

The children had collected a number of eggs warm from the nests in our barn
and put them into the incubator.
Twenty-one days later they started hatching! 

They are the cutest little things!

 Black ones, brown ones, speckled ones, yellowish ones.
And Jonathan was awed at how, at two days old, they know to tip their heads back to swallow the water they drink--
as if to remember always to thank the heavenly Father Who cares for them!
Of course these pics are of chicks a little older.

Also in early April,
Jonathan found an encouraging clip on Facebook which he sent to me for my blog.

It said:

"Apologizing does not always mean that you are wrong and the other person is right. It just means that you value your RELATIONSHIP more than your EGO."

As a wise old preacher from India said, "It's more important to be humble than to be right."

It's comforting to know that the issue is not so much about who is right or wrong as about who is willing to be humble. 

* * * *

And another clip Jonathan forwarded to me was:

"You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one."

Paul wrote, "But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

And so those clips, along with my favorite verse of Scripture on our daily calendar, helped make a  positive start to the beautiful month of April:




"The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms."

Durhams from Hungary Visit--and More Fruit Made in the Dark

 Well, I spent most of the afternoon working in our garage until I knew I better stop, and then it was too late! I'm totally trashed.
So since I can't do much else, I will finish this post that I started last night.

It was such a privilege to get to visit with Ed and Heather Durham again on Sunday after they spoke at our church.

They had spent several years working in Ukraine, (they were there most of the time we were) and then moved home to put their daughter in school. 
Now 9 years later, Ed shared how the Lord has led them to work as Regional Director for Eastern Europe under Hope International Ministries, and how they are headquartered in Budapest, Hungary.

And Heather shared about their work in Hungary with youth camps, teaching English in nearby schools, and their hospital ministry.
She loves to pack little gifts such as soap, kleenex packs, a tract, a gospel of John, a granola bar, and whatever else into a pretty gift bag with a card expressing that since "God has been good to us, we want to share His love with you."

A little cross made by ladies in Florida shares the verse on the back of it, "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."
People in the hospital, bereft of the care we typically expect in western countries, are deeply touched by these small tokens of love and care. It's a wide open door to share the gospel.
Of course, I'm intrigued with anything along this line.
Ed also then shared about how they are opening a transition home for orphans who have been turned out of orphanages and have nowhere to go, so they end up on the streets or trapped into sex slavery and other horrible situations. A house has been bought and they are working toward getting it and a home mother ready for the first set of girls. The hope is to teach the girls skills that they can use to get a job and navigate life and learn to keep their own home
.

On their display table, they had a very old Bible that had been brought into Hungary during Communist days by a 15-year-old boy who is now a pastor.

Durhams also passed out ball point pens to each family at church, since it was a woman from Hungary who invented the first ball point pen. The pen is to help us remember to pray for Hungary and the missionaries there. I thought that was a really nifty idea.Heather had slipped into my pew before service to give me a little gift from Hungary--a package of paprika, a Hungarian specialty--with a recipe she uses for a Hungarian stew made with this paprika!
I remembered that the mother of my home school friend is also from Hungary and likes to cook with paprika!

While Durhams were here, they told us about the lady who is willing to work at the transition house they are setting up for orphans. 

It's a young lady (no longer so young anymore!) who attended the Bible College while we were in Ukraine. 

In fact, it struck me as we were driving home afterward, that this was almost certainly the Natasha who had spent a day in our log home with me once.

I vividly remembered sitting and visiting with this precious girl in our kitchen as she poured out her heart.

She had recently suffered a bitter disappointment and was at wits end what to do with her life.

I had written about it in a newsletter which I found yesterday as I searched through my newsletters from Ukraine. There it was, what I had written about that day.

"Once a young lady named Natasha came for the day. She helped me lacquer kitchen shelves and after supper we sat down together to talk. She felt she had no talents and low self-esteem and was despairing as to the next step in her life.

 I shared with her the Scripture that says how God has chosen not the noble or mighty [or talented] but "the weak...the base," the insignificant. I showed her that Proverbs 31 said nothing about a virtuous woman being talented, but that she was trustworthy, hardworking, kind, loving, and feared the Lord. What is of value to God is not talent, but a meek and quiet spirit. 

She listened with tears in her eyes. Pray for Natasha that she will sense the leading and love of God and will find new hope in Him."

We learned from Durhams that Natasha had lost her way for a while, but had come back to God several years ago. She is a single mother now with a six-year-old son, but she has had a desire to work in some type of orphanage, and she's their candidate for their transition home!

My eyes kept brimming with tears as I thought how our work and the work of the missionaries working with young people over there in Ukraine had not been in vain. 

I thought how that perhaps even that evening of listening to a disheartened young lady and sharing comforting truth from God's Word may have somehow borne fruit years later.

My eyes could hardly stop brimming with tears.

I pulled out our photo album of pictures in Ukraine to see if I could find a picture of Natasha, but I couldn't find one. I did find pictures of the campus of several missionary homes that Jonathan had helped to build during those 4 1/2 years we were in Ukraine and which ended up being taken over by a national leader.
It hurt to look at those pictures.
I pointed the one picture out to Jonathan, all those houses he worked so hard to build.
And I said how it seemed like such a waste.

"But," I went on, and
 "But--" he agreed almost in the same breath.
I finished,  "That's not what we went for.
Our work was not in vain!"
The houses were not the point.
It was the people, and now years later, we see and hear of fruit for us missionaries' labors.

The Durhams had paid a dear sacrifice for ministering in Ukraine. They had lost their eleven-year-old daughter Janette to a tragic accident in Kiev, Ukraine, when we were home for baby Sammy's birth.
They had flown home to Canada with Janette's body, and we had driven to Canada for the funeral.
I still remember sitting in the nursery at the funeral with little Crystal and new baby Sammy, crying and crying, and Crystal wondering what was wrong.
We had gone to support and comfort the Durhams, and instead, they met us with brave faces and smiles, thankful that their daughter had left a precious Christian testimony.

Souls had come to Christ in the funeral service of this precious girl who left behind a sweet testimony of her love for Jesus and others.
That sacrifice was not in vain.

In a month or two, Jason Sturtevant is planning to spend a week in Ukraine visiting with and encouraging Pastor Roman,
another Kiev Wesley Bible School student, who was mentored by dear, deceased Bro. Glenn Pelfrey and who has remained faithful to what he was taught.

As I shared a quote a couple posts back, "When it looks like he is buried for good, Jesus is doing something awesome in the dark."

 "His hands will be full of fruit made in the dark."

Meadowlarks on Fenceposts-and How Do Weak People Do Strong Things?

Meadowlarks on fence posts aren't exactly what you picture when you think of strong things.

But they have a strong, beautiful song that can be heard for a long ways--

and they love to perch on fence posts to sing it.
So do robins.

 "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer," I read one time.

 "It sings because it has a song."
And we don't always have answers to life's perplexities, but we can still sing.

Here's excerpts from another post from desiringgod.org that really ministered to me.
Called "Take Pleasure in Your Troubles."

"Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)

 And we don't have all the answers for life's problems, and we aren't all strong people, especially when we live very simple lives out on the prairie, tending children and animals and remodeling jobs.

We do simple things like admire strange ice formations and drive down dirt roads to do chores for friends,

give spelling tests,

help children with math problems and check lessons and writing assignments when they are done,

search online for hours for the best price tickets to Papua New Guinea,

vacuum, do laundry, clean, dust, sweep, shake rugs, empty ashes, and iron,

prepare meals for fellow former missionaries in Ukraine,

Ed and Heather Durham.
What a treat to spend a long evening visiting, catching up, and listening to how God called them back to Eastern Europe after about nine years back in the States!

They are just some ordinary people, who had an ordinary family and an ordinary job

after being missionaries several years in Ukraine. 

But God is using these small, weak, ordinary people and making them strong with His grace and vision.

We listened to how God miraculously provided for them an apartment in Budapest, Hungary,

as they are working in ministries of evangelization, orphanage work, and other things.

The children kept them entertained with the baby bunnies.

And, as this post I'm copying now goes on:
"Jesus’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. His grace is sufficient. So Paul will actually brag about his afflictions because he knows they set off the power of Christ in his clay pot. In fact, and this is rather amazing, Paul takes pleasure in these things. He takes pleasure in infirmities (physical weaknesses); in reproaches (when others blame or insult him); in all kinds of needs (physical, emotional, spiritual); in persecution (when he is being arrested or beaten); and in distresses (when he needs to send an SOS).

"Take Pleasure in Your Weakness

Consider your own infirmities, ailments, weaknesses, needs, and distresses. Can you boast in these? Can you take pleasure in these? Certainly not, if you are looking to your clay pot to find strength. You will find no help there. But what if you approach this by faith? What if you begin to view each trouble as a golden opportunity to show off the glory of God? When we begin to take pleasure in our troubles for Christ’s sake, they lose their power over us."

"We are set free in Christ to watch God work.

Take your God-given weaknesses, and ask God to showcase his power and strength in them. Take your God-given infirmities and boast in them. Take pleasure in these things. Not because they are good in themselves, but because they are clay pot troubles. And when the clay pot is buffeted, more of God’s goodness and glory rests on the lowly earthen vessel. And finally, when we see that the excellence of the power is of God and not of us, our faith grows."

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/take-pleasure-in-your-troubles

Fruit From the Darkness

Here are two posts, or excerpts I read one afternoon and copied for you because it meant a lot to me, and I feel sure it could help someone out there, too.

I will let the posts speak for themselves.

What If Your Reputation Is Unjustly Bad?

---

• Article by John Piper
• Topic: Glorification / Resurrection of the Body

[Jesus] told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:7–11)

"Jesus says it is better to be thought worse than you are, and then be publicly vindicated, than to be thought better than you are and then be publicly humiliated.
Yes, but what if you take the lowest seat and no one comes to invite you to the front? What if your reputation in this world is always worse among men than it is with God? What if your life is one continual false accusation (Matthew 5:11)? “We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” (Psalm 44:22; Romans 8:36). “We have become like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things” (1 Corinthians 4:13).
This parable does not promise that people will always come through for you. They won’t. Some will think you worse than you are till the day you die."

"What this parable ultimately promises is that at the final wedding feast, Jesus himself will set things right. Your reputation will be vindicated. Truth will come out. The whole universe will know if your reputation was wrong.

So here’s the life-changing truth: It is better to be thought worse than you are now, and have the Lord set things right in the last day, than to be thought better than you are now, only to have Jesus put you in your place in the end."

"In other words, don’t care much about whether your family and friends and acquaintances and enemies know what you are really like. Be true, be real, be humble, and let the Lord settle the matter in the end. In that day, the price of taking the lower place will be seen to be very small."

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-if-your-reputation-is-unjustly-bad

Here's a second excerpt.

"Try as they may, people can’t keep Jesus down. They can’t keep him buried. They may use physical force or academic scorn or media blackout or political harassment or religious caricature. For a season, they will think the tomb is finally sealed. But it never works. He breaks out."

"China may have been “closed” for forty years to Western missionaries, and it’s not because Jesus slipped and fell into the tomb. He stepped in. And when it was sealed over, he saved fifty million Chinese from inside — without Western missionaries. And when it was time, he pushed the stone away so we could see what he had done."

No One Takes His Life

"It’s not hard to figure out: He can break out because he wasn’t forced in. He lets himself be libeled and harassed and black-balled and scorned and shoved around and killed.

I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. (John 10:17–18)

No one can keep him down because no one ever knocked him down. He lay down when he was ready."

At Work in the Dark

"When it looks like he is buried for good, Jesus is doing something awesome in the dark."

 “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mark 4:26–27).

The world thinks Jesus is done for — out of the way. They think his word is buried for good in the dust of irrelevant antiquity.

But Jesus is at work in the dark places: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). He let himself be buried — “no one takes my life from me” — and he will come out in power when and where he pleases — “I have authority to take it up again.” 

And his hands will be full of fruit made in the dark.

from http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/can-t-keep-jesus-down

Robins over the Prairie--and Plans to Fly to New Guinea!

This week was extra busy for us!

Every day we drove twice a day to friends 14 miles away to do their chores.

But it was great because Carrie was needing to learn to drive, and driving dirt roads most of the way was a perfect start to learning to manage the wheel.

I loved going along because their little old homestead with its huge cottonwood trees and rows 

of evergreens and old water pump in the back yard reminded me of growing up in Pennsylvania.

And oh, the robins!

I stood and listened and listened to the beautiful robins singing and singing in those cottonwood branches.
I couldn't get enough of it.

The dogs would always come and treat us like we were a million dollars.

You'd have to love on them a bit before walking the long drive to pick up the mail for our friends.

Indoors I'd water the many plants and seedlings started for the garden, 

and then walk quietly in the peaceful stillness of that simple old imperfect house

and pray and meditate and think--

because on days extra busy like these I have to get creative about how to fit in devotional time.

I'd watch the kitties on the loft beams of one of the little barns,

and clean out the kitty litter box,

and be glad for how happy my children were as they fed and watered everything from calf to bunnies.

It was so cozy in those little barns.

Nothing like it.

Some days, like some of our life, were warm and cheery, and the beautiful meadowlark would serenade me as I walked the long drive to get the mail, thinking about whatever was encouraging or burdening me,

and especially about our upcoming trip to New Guinea,

Lord willing in June.

I'd walk along to the tune of meadowlarks and robins, considering the little miracles that have happened that gave us peace finally about going, and the other little miracles that helped our tickets come together for the three of us,

Jonathan, me and Sam, who graduates this year and wants to come with us on this Mission Helps trip

to finish the house Randy and Sharrona Dimmitt are building at Mt. Hagen, PNG.

And then there would be the not-so-balmy spring days, when sleet and snow would be whipping.

But the robins were still there! 

Right in the middle of the sleet and cold wind, they were singing and chirping and being merry!

My special newsboys from more eastern times and climes,

they brought cheer to my heart in the middle of the cold and sleet and whipping wind. 

Just like God sings us songs in the middle of our storms.

Like a robin He comes to cheer us with His comfort and peace when life isn't smooth and balmy.

It was so fun, after hurrying through our own chores and breakfast and more chores,

to drive the back way to our friends, and then come home, 

seeing Pikes Peak lofty in the distance as we crested hills.

Some of us also ate two or three meals in our office this week where we could watch livestream the Penn View Missions Convention where we hoped to catch a glimpse of Crystal.

A week ago, she stayed the weekend with relatives, and was involved in a fundraiser at Applebees restaurant.

A couple from Crystal's home church there is adopting two little children from China, and Applebees allowed them to use the restaurant for 2 hours Saturday morning for a fund-raiser pancake breakfast.

A cousin snapped this photo of Crystal serving a plate of pancakes in her section of the restaurant.
She had a very enjoyable time!
And the fund raiser was tremendously successful, with about 200 people showing up for pancakes.