Terrible Fight in Middle of Night--on the Other Side of the Wall

Last night, little did Jonathan and I know that our pleasant evening in Hot Springs after my last chemo treatment would end up a little less than pleasant. We had enjoyed the sun-bathed scenery as we traveled to Hot Springs, stopping to admire this stream and snowy pines in the red rocks--so like Colorado.

Then we checked in to our room at Sleep Inn where Jonathan had found a good price on a room--and it was one of the nicest rooms we'd ever booked. While I continued to revel in the warm, spacious room where I could quit shivering, Jonathan brought in a couple extra loads of stuff--veges and fruit we'd bought that must not freeze overnight in the vehicle.

The room came complete with two queen beds, and since we had the option,

I teased about sleeping in separate beds--which resulted in both of us reaching out to each other with a huge hug and kiss and the decision to ditch that idea. 

Every day, Jonathan and I choose each other--on purpose. Doesn't matter if other people are ditching their spouses right and left, we choose each other all over again. 

I practically forgot about chemo, thinking how comfortable the bed was, and that I got to share it with a warm husband that I can huddle up to if I'm shivering.  

Well, Jonathan and I both  fell asleep rather blissfully--until about 12:30 when I woke up to hear loud  noises, thumping and yelling. It sounded like it was below us, but then I drifted back to sleep. Soon, however, I was wakened with louder yells and bangs. It took me a while to figure out that it was in fact in the room right next to us--the noises were coming through the wall behind our pillows! 

"If you won't be--" I heard one man shout. Thump, thump! More yells. More bangs.

I couldn't make out much of what was being said. But then more unmentionable shouts and yells and thumps and bangs going around the room next to us. 

"I'm going to kill your mother!" the loudest man shouted. More yells, bangs and thuds.

"I'm going to stab you!" the loudest man shouted. 

Gone were the blissful moments.

"Jonathan!" I whispered, "are you hearing this?"

He nodded. "He was threatening to stab the other one," I said. "We need to do something."

"He's probably drunk," Jonathan said.

We got up, while listening to more thumps and bangs. Jonathan was looking for the hotel number and dialed it. He was able to get hold of the front desk and tell them what was going on and which room number he thought it was. We heard three sharp bangs. 

Was it a head being banged on the floor? Was it a nightstand being banged on the floor? I put on my robe and creaked our door open, hoping the hotel person was coming. As I looked out, a young man had just come out that room door and was starting down the hall, letting the door behind him slam. He was pulling on a rust and yellow fuzzy jacket and hurrying down the hall. He went one way, then the other to find the stairs. In a minute I heard another door slam. 

We waited with bated breath. Finally the hotel person came around the corner and listened at the door of room 405. "In here?" she asked. "Yes," we said. An angry voice was still in there, we suspect talking to the younger man on the phone now, since the younger man was downstairs also talking on the phone.

"I'm concerned for your safety," the hotel lady said."I need you to go back into your room and I'll call the cops."

"Thank you," I said. "I would call the cops myself. We are willing to tell them what we heard."

We went back into our room. "If Rapid is like other cities," Jonathan said, "it might be an hour."

In less than 20 minutes, two police cars were pulling in.

Still, "You better not depend on cops to save you from getting killed," I said.

The police knocked next door, and we heard voices but couldn't make out anything. Later outside, the police were talking to the younger man, probably the other man's son, and he ended up going with them in the car's back seat without handcuffs. We suspect he went with them for his own safety. I don't know why the older drunk man wasn't arrested.

Now that the fight was over and no one could be harmed, I crept back into bed. The fight had been on the other side of the wall. I could go back to sleep.

This morning we enjoyed visiting the generous breakfast nook. I chose instant hot oatmeal, scrambled eggs, a sausage, and yogurt, along with chamomile tea. 

Upstairs again, I kept looking out our 4th story window to watch McDonalds next door with no end of vehicles snaking through the drive-through. 

Once a dove landed on a light pole below me--God keeping on sending doves of peace into my unlikely places.

And I treasured the peace on this side of the wall.

No drunkenness, no shouts, no fights, no threats of stabbing or killing.

Instead, warmth and love and togetherness and gratitude and Jesus--with just a wall between the two different worlds.

Post-chemo Supper at Jalapeno Grill

Yesterday I had my final chemo at Rapid City. Usually we stay at a friend's overnight before getting an injection next morning to stimulate white blood cells, but the lady of the house had influenza. So Jonathan found a hotel room on Priceline for just $55. But there was no stove or microwave, and I had been too exhausted the day before to figure out meals.  

 

We decided together to go somewhere for a hot meal as long as we could ask for a corner away from people since I'd just had chemo. 

To complicate matters, (or make things more interesting depending how you look at it) we had to travel 50 minutes away to Hot Springs to swap vehicles with Crystal who needed our van for picking up Amish ladies in Hot Springs. 

We had the van with a trailer because Jonathan had just picked up a trailer full of appliances from Lowes for Building Hope Enterprise. So we met Crystal where she took the van and trailer and went to pick up Amish ladies while Jonathan and I drove straight into the setting sun to find Jalapeno Grill restaurant. 

It was a Mexican restaurant, and the name intrigued us since Jonathan loves jalapenos. The menu options online looked like I could find something un-spicy, and so we found the place. 

 

There it sat with the cutest jalapeno yard decor. Inside was just as charming, with wagon wheel lights. 

There were less charming things as well, but no matter where we go, we have to put up with something. 

I got a small plate of a cheese and mushroom enchilada with rice and beans, and Jonathan had some sort of shrimp and bacon dish.  

The hot supper in such a charming place really hit the spot. I could tell that both of us were enjoying ourselves very much. It is a very good habit to follow my chemo treatments with something enjoyable--on purpose. 

There's often a risk to take, but we learn to make the best of things and enjoy the moments and the charm along the way.  

I left this Scripture card with our tip. Looked at one way it reads, "The wages of sin is DEATH," but you turn it upside down and it reads, "But the gift of God is eternal LIFE." The very same decorative print spells both words, Life and Death, depending how you turn the card.

Each of us has the choice to determine whether our destiny is Life--

or Death.

Every choice leads one direction or another. 

 Likewise, our decisions result in whether we will be happy or grumpy, bored or fulfilled.  

Will we truly live each day, or will each day be one step more toward a lifetime of dying, grieving, and regret?

I could have arranged my chemo day to be a great day to complain and grudge and worry.

Instead, we took advantage of some complications along the way to visit a new place and enjoy a wonderful meal in a fascinating venue--leaving behind a piece of the Word of God in print. 

A Whole Pew Full of Love

Last week on Thursday night before Valentines Day, we attended a Native American Missionary Rally in Mitchell, SD. In front of us sat a couple we've learned to know and love who live about an hour from us and who work every Sunday with native children. They are not "missionaries" per se, as in under an organization, but they are missionaries, if you know what I mean. Lay people. He's a mechanic/rancher, and she's a homemaker, and they just look for opportunities to minister, to help, to reach out to the needy, to youth, and to children on the reservation.

 

I couldn't help noticing his arm around her (after all it was day before Valentine's Day) because they were sitting right in front of my eyeballs. But I also noticed that further down their same pew, both of their son-in-laws were sitting likewise, with their arms around their wives.

I wish I could have taken a picture of all that without anybody noticing or wondering what on earth was that crazy Anna Lucas doing. But since I didn't want to raise any proverbial eyebrows, and for everybody's obvious privacy, I just snitched this little photo. 

In a world full of chaos and chasms between relationships, it was an incredible witness to the grace of God in a family to see quiet little acts of love like this. Probably not one of them thought anything about what they were doing, or what it meant to a couple sitting right behind them all--seeing wives happy inside a husband's arm--a family of them, including a small child who was obviously loved yet also trained to be quiet and obedient in church.

  (And how important that is, because as I see it, neglecting to train one's children to obey and behave is one of the best ways to strain one's marital relationship. Even just one spouse can make all the difference in training young children. It can look automatic to people looking on in church, but we know from experience it requires round-the-clock effort to have a child obedient and happy in church.)

 Jonathan had gotten me a miniature rose early for Valentines Day a week earlier, but I forgot to water it till it was wilting, and that was the end of it. Jonathan bought me more flower! :) :)

Every day he and I choose to love each other, forgive each other if necessary, and care for each other. He works every day to provide for our family, besides working within our common goal of missionary work, and I do my best, even with the side effects of chemo, to make sure he is well taken care of. One morning last week, I made him a special breakfast of salmon omelet with jalapeno slices and salsa on top. Because I value my man and I want to "build my house," as Proverbs says, and my marriage, and not tear it down with my very own hands.

And it is such an encouragement to see other couples doing the same. Without even any words, this scene is an indelible witness to the world around us that love is still possible. Love still surmounts obstacles, and love never fails. 

Mustard Seed on the Windowsill

If you were to go into my bedroom today, you might see something a little strange on the window sill. 

Or you might not see it at all, because it is so tiny that you might not even notice.

It happened Sunday night. An SIM visitor, Drew Rehfeldt, had shared a message Sunday evening about faith, and we had sung "Faith in God can move a mighty mountain."

And when I arrived home, I was thinking about what Jesus had said about the kind of faith that can move mountains.

He had said that if His disciples had faith, they could tell a mountain to move and be thrown into the sea, and it would be done. 

And how much faith? "A mustard seed," Jesus said, the kind that goes not forth except by prayer and fasting.

As I was pondering these things Sunday night, I went to my kitchen cupboard and pulled out my little spice jar of mustard seed. There were an awful lot of mustard seeds in that jar. Each one is incredibly small.

Usually I use mustard seed as a spice for pickes and relish, or we use ground mustard for stir fry or for chest poultices when Jonathan's lungs are filling up with phlegm from illness. 

Sunday night, I had another use for the mustard seed.

A situation that is needing a miracle was weighing on my mind (actually more than one situation) and I had something I wanted to say to  God.

Say?

I wasn't sure I had anything to say in words.

That's why I brought in my mustard seed.

I thought, "I don't even know if I have any faith right now, but, " I said to God, "I am placing this mustard seed before You." 

And I just set it there on the windowsill on my written prayer request that is sitting there day and night before my God.

I set a second mustard seed on the second prayer request.

And I just stood there before God.

What does God do with someone with no faith, just a mustard seed on the window sill?

I don't know.

I just know that about the time I was pondering about faith and placing a mustard seed on the window sill, something was happening in one of the situations I was bringing before God. A message came to my phone, and later I would learn of a special miracle.

It wasn't the mustard seed.

It wasn't my faith.

It was God.

Meanwhile, during the next morning when I kept turning to prayer, I brought the whole jar of mustard seeds and set it on the Bible on the window sill.

And there we were--me not sure I have any faith at all, but also a whole jar of mustard seed waiting before God.

Because based on God's Word, faith the size of a single mere mustard seed can move a mountain into the sea.

I'm getting ready for a huge splash!

Six Vials of My Precious Blood--Does Blood Actually Cover Sin?

A few weeks ago when I had to have blood drawn for a major blood test, I decided not to watch during part of the draw. With some comparing of milliliters and tablespoons, we guessed that about 2/3 cup of blood was drawn from my veins that day. I hoped I would not faint.

I did not. But all that blood was a rather awesome sight. 

My blood was valuable to me. Had they drawn much more, I would have started to be in bad shape. I need my blood! 

But I can't help thinking of One Who shed all of His life blood for sinners like me. 

He shed it all, and died. 

God chose to forgive sins through the medium of blood, for without the shedding of blood, Paul wrote, there is no forgiveness.

 

In logic, one learns that there is such a thing as Opposite truth value--i.e. A statement and its negation always have opposite truth values.

So when the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, then the opposite is also true--Because of Jesus shedding His blood, there is, in fact, remission of sins.

The formal definition of remission is forgiveness, but it also means "the cancellation of a debt, charge, or penalty."

Today as I sat in my kitchen on this quiet Sunday afternoon, I was reliving something that had happened many years ago. It was as vivid as if it had just happened. 

It was not a good or a happy memory. 

Sin was involved.

And then I was thinking about other memories that were not good.

I wonder, is it the Lord that brings up memories of the sins that we or others commit after they have been confessed, repented of, and brought to Jesus?
Is He regurgitating these things to me, or is the devil?

I was still pondering some of these things on our way to church this evening. 

I was sitting in the back seat of the Honda with a basket of hot biscuits in my lap that Crystal had made to take along for the supper. We were driving along with a young man who is visiting SIM mission for 10 days, pointing out the names of different native housing developments such as Swift Bear Community, Lower Swift Bear, and Horse Creek. 

And I was looking at all those homes in this bitter cold weather, wondering what God was seeing inside--all the sadness and loneliness and sin. 

What sin was He seeing that we couldn't even start to see?

And then I started thinking about other sin again--from way back a long time ago.

And it was such a comfort to suddenly realize that something was gently speaking to me--

"Doesn't the blood of Jesus cover sin?"

Does it, or does it not? 

I sat there in the back seat of the Honda with tears in my eyes, looking out at the snowy landscape.

I can  rejoice humbly in being forgiven and in having my sins covered by Jesus' blood as well as rejoice that I can also forgive others who have wronged me, and keep their sins under the blood, too,

as far as I am concerned. 

What a burden lifted to know that sins, however many or of whatever size, may be covered by the blood of Christ and that is enough for me. 

Whirlwind Valentines Day

 Valentines Day this year was very full for us! It started out with four of us in Mitchell, SD, for the Native American missionary morning rally, after which we packed up and headed back toward home, stopping at Dollar Tree to pick up tableware and plastic cutlery for the evening Valentine couple's night at Mission, SD.   

Crystal had spent hours putting together decor--finding all the red, pink, and white flowers between her stash of artificial flowers and mine in our seasonal bins.

 

She used Mason jars, a roll of burlap, and ribbons.

Our kitchen table was a mess for a little while! And so was the livingroom! But she came up with some really pretty decor to use to spruce up the same old, same old room where church people get together for meals. 

Jonathan and I went early to set the tableware. We also were in charge of a game that we tweaked for a couples' game. It was Three Truths and A Lie. 

Everyone of the nine couples was to come up with four statements about their dating or wedding, three of which were to be true, and one of which was to be not true. The rest of us had to guess which one was not true.

That game was a blast. We all learned most interesting things about each other. One couple, by accident, ended up with a brother and a hitchhiker with them at a Chinese restaurant on their first date!  

Another couple had two anniversaries--because after their engagement they had sort of eloped via the courthouse and three witnesses, and then had their wedding ceremony a few months later. Another said that the girl had gotten mad at the guy on their first date and threw a candy bar at him! (No details, so who knows exactly what happened, but it sure made for some laughs!)

One couple lived in a former mortuary after getting married (and upon doing that, what questions she said they got, such as did they ever see spirits or ghosts?)   

Jonathan and I shared about our first date--how it happened at the apartment of one of my English/Bible students in Kiev, Ukraine, and how they had a parakeet flying around, landing on our shoulders and pecking at Jonathan's lips!

Taquitas were served with pulled pork, seasoned rice, fresh veggies, shredded cabbage, and sauces--purchased by our friends' church. Everything was delicious!

And a choice of cheesecakes was dessert. 

We had a lot of fun!

Our friend Joe, pastor of another church in Mission that went together with our church to put this little couples' night together, admonished all of us couples to first of all be Christlike in our marriage and then use our marriages to present the love of Christ to our communities here on the reservation where marriage is not valued or even practiced much of the time. 

There are so few couples, really, in the vicinity.  People are afraid to get married as most marriages quickly disintegrate or slowly fall apart.

Marriage is a risk, it's true. But it is also an opportunity to do our best to trust and glorify God by our marriage relationship--and sticking it out through thick and thin.

No marriage will be perfect. 

Most, if not all, marriages require a lot of forgiveness and overlooking of faults--unless you landed the perfect guy or gal.

But one key to staying together is to not focus so much on each other as on the Lord and on what you can do--together--to serve Him.  

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”

Still--for little moments on Valentines Day, we did look at each other with love--and a few kisses--but then continued looking outward, together,

in the same direction.