Five of us met at the church and rode in the van 3 1/2 hours to the airport in Chicago.  Pastor Kelly, the associate Pastor Clark, and Steve Picket have all been to India before.  Lisa Odenthal and I had been on mission trips before, but not to India.  Four college students would come two days later when they finished their final exams.

The Tenacity of Life

Mom and Dad saw this in the yard a few weeks ago. This piece of grass did not just happen to grow up where there was a hole in the leaf for it to go through. It actually made a hole in the leaf to grow through it!

The lesson Dad got from it is in quotes below, and the title is my Mom's.

And I think it is neat that my parents are the kind of people that take the time to notice the fascinating things about nature and think of what we can learn from them.

"Even though God's truth is soft and tender, it is able to penetrate the most dry, crusty heart."

St Lucia Mission

I was blessed to be able to go on a mission trip to help with the building of a much needed school on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. It is down at the end of all those little islands way south of Florida and not so far from Venezuela.

The pictures will give you an idea of the flora, fauna, and friends we met there. The video was created for a get together of the folks who went on the trip, so it is not narrated. I'll give a brief description of what we did there and you'll just have to guess as to the meaning behind the pictures:

Over 85 people from the church I am working with in Indiana (and a few from South Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan jumped on board too) went down to lay tile for the new school. About 11,000 sq. ft of tile was laid! And a little room for a music building was started. Vacation Bible schools were held in 4 elementary schools. Health/hygiene talks were given at several schools. The Pastor was asked to come to two public schools to give out free Bibles and talk to the 7th graders about how to get to know God. Our medical teams went to villages and treated 460 people. And we all lived in two "houses" and kept up a family atmosphere by having worship together every morning and night and eating meals together as the various teams came back from their work sights. We made a lot of good friends and learned many precious lessons.

Enjoy a bit of St. Lucia!

The Work Sight: 10,000 sq. ft. of tile was laid in this new , much needed, elementary school.

While some worked, others visited schools in other villages and spoke to the kids about health.

One of the patients who came to the medical clinics.

The Grand Piton

A flying fish.

Lizard fighting to see who gets the female.

Fruits of St. Lucia

Our team (most of us anyway).

A New Mission and Recalibration

It is hard to believe that I have been in Indiana for two months already. I came here on the terms of at least a three year commitment (the longest I have ever been in one place), and I thought that it would feel like a VERY long time to be in one place. But if the rest of that time goes as quickly as these two months, it won't seem like long at all!

This is a picture of the church; and below it, the house I will move into eventually.

My first assignment here has been to visit all the church members (about 260 attending). It has been so much fun to get to know everyone. I have especially enjoyed visiting all the retired pastors, teachers, colporters, and missionaries; they have so many experiences to share and have gained so much wisdom!

I had the opportunity to help out with a Purity Retreat for the girls at the Christian Highschool connected with the church. And, so far, my favorite part of the job is joining the Pastoral staff as they lead out in Friday morning worship with the elementary school students - the little kids are so full of life and joy.

This past week 85 of the church members went to St. Lucia for a mission trip. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone on our team and the St. Lucian Christians we met. I will post a separate article on that so I can show you a lot of pictures.

Right now I am living with a dear couple who have taken me in as their daughter. They already feel like family to me, and I appreciate their generosity. [Mr. Teeter is even letting me use half of his garden this summer!] Eventually I will move into my own house right next to the church! I am excited to have my own home where I can have my family come stay with me and invite people over for meals, etc. Right now the house is nearly "gutted" for remodeling; but I can picture how cute it will be with Grandma's furniture and my plants...

The last few months have been a sort of transition for me. I've been recognizing my need to prioritize and keep a tighter focus on life. There is so much to keep one busy and so many good things to do that it is too easy to get caught in the "rip-tides" and never get where you want to go. (Since I can't swim this has double meaning for me!)

Trying to set a schedule and prioritizing life is difficult to say the least! I really appreciated a sermon that the Pastor I work for here in Cicero, Indiana, gave a month ago. He called it "Re-Calibrating for Rendezvous." The sermon strengthened my convictions that I need to really think about where my life is headed and what needs recalibrating in order to meet the destination I desire. Below is a list of some of the things I wrote in my journal after much thinking on the subject. Maybe you would like to make your own list?

~ spend more time with all of my family

~ keep in better contact with the people I have met everywhere

~ less chit-chat and more eternal-reality conversations

~ more intentional in caring for my health (may need it!)

~ pay more attention to the Holy Spirit's convictions

~ spend as little time as possible on "everyday life" (simplify)

~ think more about how to best use my resources

~ repent sooner/let God change me quicker

~ take time every day to remember how good God is and the Hope we have

~ keep my eyes and ears open (to "take in" the things that are happening all around us) and appreciate the wise and wonderful things God is doing to prepare us all for transition from this mess of a world to Heavenly love and rightness for all eternity. I want to capture the moments in as much detail as possible, so I can share it with the whole universe someday.

Back to Blogging

Hello everyone! (although I do not know how many “everyone” is anymore - I haven’t written for so long people probably don’t bother to check it out!)

The transition from Iowa to Indiana has been relatively easy. Now that I am starting to get into the swing of things here, I hope to write more regularly. My goal for this year is to write out a series of mini Bible studies on the first six chapters of Daniel. And I will have other interesting things to write about and pictures to show from mission trips to St. Lucia and... I’ll let the rest unfold as time goes by.

I wanted to show some of the pictures from my time at home. It was such a blessing to get to spend 7 weeks with family. I’m feeling kinda far away at the moment, so I hope to keep this light and not get melancholy.

I got to go home for Thanksgiving again this year!!! I was the only kid who made it home this year and Dad's side didn't come either, so it was a quiet holiday. Thanksgiving morning while Mom was on the phone talking to Grandpa (who we thought was coming over) I was peeling the potatoes Mom had in the sink. I saw that Mom had about 5 pounds more sitting in a basket on the floor. Obviously, she wasn't planning to use them. I decided to peel those too, since we always seemed to run out of mashed potatoes before we ran out of the other leftovers... well, as I said Grandpa and the others decided not to come. So we had PLENTY of mashed potatoes! Like two gallons of them!! Mom and Dad teased me all weekend over that. (and you know what? none of them went to waste!)

Pretty Indian corn that Mom got from the place where she works.

On December 21 my Dad got a special birthday present - the lunar eclipse. It won't happen again like it did that night for another 175 years, or something like that. Dad and I got up in the middle of the night to watch it fully eclipse. It was SO pretty! The picture (at half eclipse) doesn't do it justice... I should have gotten out my tripod.

This actually happened before Thanksgiving... Bogie ran through a barbed-wire fence and cut himself very, very badly on his tummy. The vet had to put in fifteen or so stitches, which he promptly pulled out with his teeth when he got home the next day. So the vet stapled him together the second time and gave him "the cone of shame" to keep him from trying his talent on the staples. Bogie HATED the collar. But I thought it was so cute! He looked like a flower, so I kept calling him "Bogie Begonia" which he didn't think was very funny!

At Christmas time Bogie was constantly begging to go outside to chew on the dead deer in the neighbor's pasture... I won't tell you any more details about that.

Roxie was cute as ever and tried to appear innocent of the "deer offense" but she got her share of it too. Gus (the cat) stayed out of trouble the whole seven weeks I was home.

Genesis has some sort of attack while I was home that resembled a seizure or stroke. But she came out of it in about five hours. She was sleeping peacefully here, by the way.

Charity (one of the "Texas Long-Legs" as Mom calls the kittens) couldn't keep his paws off the tree ornaments. It was like having kids around again for Christmas.

Hope (one of the kittens rescued from Texas) is still skittish, but very beautiful.

Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandpa Minikus' as tradition has always had it. I really enjoyed seeing my Grampa, all my Aunts and Uncles together, and most of my cousins. This is a picture of my Dad (2nd from right) and Grampa (in the middle), and my Aunts and Uncles.

Matt taught me some new chords and picking patterns on the guitar (my Christmas present from Mom and Dad). It was so much fun!

As usual, Mom cooked way too much good food! This is a very yummy pumpkin pie in progress.

And these are some happy people ready to eat our belated Christmas Dinner (we waited for Matt and Josie to get home).

Gretchen and Joe and the boys put on an amazing spread too. Grandma Schorsch would have been impressed with the pretty table setting.

Some of my family are not crazy about me putting their pictures on my blog sight. I promised them that I would only use their best glamour shots...

While at home at Mom and Dad's I looked down at the floor and laughed to see another good "feet picture." This was Bogie's stuffed toy called Bandy Bird.

My sister got me two hermit crabs for Christmas! I used to have crabs as pets when I was younger. It has been fun to have them again. And they are pets that can travel (reasonably well). This is Amerigo (who must be a female because she changes shells about every three days). Picket was too shy to get his picture taken clearly.

Control Freaks

Have you noticed that almost everyone is a control freak in some form or fashion?

- The wife that has to know exactly what is going on for the next five days so she can stay on top of it and make sure she gets what she wants.

- The husband who has to know exactly where the wife is at all times, and who she is talking to, and why her opinion is different than his.

- The children fighting over who gets to hold the remote control, screaming because they didn’t get the candy bar they wanted at the checkout aisle, whining some sob story that “nobody cares” because they have to clean their room “all by themselves.”

- The Grandma in her control-top, push-up, slimming outfit with dyed hair, plastered face and hand-drawn eyebrows.

- The Grandpa who watches TV all day “because I want to,” mutes the newscaster because “he’s an idiot,” and avoids leaving his lazy boy recliner because “I’ve worked hard all my life, and now I’m going to do what I want for a change!”

- The cat at the door, meowing desperately to come in. When you open the door, he starts to come in but stops just short of the door and sits down, looking off into space like he’s suddenly forgotten all about the open door and can’t hear you calling him.

I don’t think that any of us would argue the fact that we like to control things - we like to have things our way. Certainly we don’t like it when things are “out of control.” But despite our natural bent toward being control freaks, there is one thing we often don’t even try to control - ourselves!

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Galatians 5:22,23

Temperance is defined as, self-control. The ability to control our temper, our appetites, our passions, our tongue, our facial expressions... this self-control is something that the Holy Spirit would like to produce in us.

I’ve experienced the power of addictions that have complete control over one’s life. After long struggles, I’ve had to admit that I am not able to overcome these things by my own efforts. So many times I have prayed “God, please DO SOMETHING! I have no control over this!” And God is always faithful to deliver me from the enemy’s control. But then He does something that has confused me...

After God delivers us from the addiction, He turns the reigns over to us and invites us to practice self-control. Why doesn’t He just control our tongue for us, or keep our temper for us, or curb our appetites Himself?

I wonder if God’s Holy Spirit produces self-control in our lives for the same reason He produces all the other things: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness... All of these things are God’s own characteristics. Obviously God thinks these traits are worth having, because HE chooses to be this way. It must be “fun”! It must be fun for Him to be self-controlled.

If only I could learn how to have fun controlling myself like I have fun controlling everything and everyone else! If only I could learn to be temperate (self-controlled).

How kind of God to offer His Holy Spirit who can produce such changes in our lives!

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Galatians 5:22,23

Meekness Re-defined

As I study the topic of meekness, I keep remembering a recent conversation with a friend of mine. My friend thinks that it isn’t a good idea to be a submissive, meek person. Why? Because “a meek person doesn’t think for themselves, but lets someone else think for them. A meek person is too weak to stand up for themselves and therefore will be pushed around and used as a doormat. A meek person doesn’t know what they want in life, so they just go along with what someone else wants.”

But “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness...” According to Galatians 5:22,23, meekness is a production of the Holy Spirit. It is a characteristic that God would like to create in us.

Meek: quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive

Why does God want us to be “quiet, gentle, and easily imposed upon; submissive”? And does that mean that we are not to think for ourselves, stand up for ourselves, or have a will of our own?

Look at this example in the life of Moses. (Numbers 12:1-15) Miriam and Aaron, his siblings, were rising in mutiny against Moses, claiming that the Lord had spoken through them as well as Moses and that he should not have all the authority for himself. Somehow his choice of an Ethiopian wife was evidence to Miriam that Moses should not have his leadership position.

Apparently Moses did not stand up for himself at all. Moses said of himself: “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.”

In being meek, was Moses letting Miriam and Aaron think for him? No, he didn’t divorce his wife because they didn’t happen to like her. He didn’t follow their thinking at all. But he didn’t retort angry words either. He apparently stayed quiet.

In being meek, was Moses actually too weak to stand up to his sister? Earlier in his life he killed an Egyptian with his bare hands! I imagine he could have “taken out” his elderly sister quite easily! But Moses remained gentle with her.

In being meek, did Moses just go along with his siblings and let them push him around? No, there is no indication that Moses stepped down because of Miriam’s words. But he also did not climb up on a pedestal and defend himself or denounce his sister. He knew what he wanted in life - he wanted to follow God’s plan for his life, and submit to His will.

Moses didn’t need to stand up for himself, God took care of the situation!

God called the three together and made it clear that Miriam and Aaron were the ones out of line. God declared that He Himself had chosen Moses to lead the people of Israel; He had not chosen them. Miriam became a leper for 7 days...

“Meekness... is the result of a person’s conscious choice to trust in God and lean on Him, as opposed to pushing for one’s own ways.”

“Meekness is the absolute ceasing to fight for our agenda and believing that God will fight on our behalf for His.”

My friend is right about one thing. If I were quiet, gentle, easily imposed on, and submissive without a God to depend on, I would lose my identity, freedom, and freewill! There are plenty of people in the world who could run me over!

But if I am trusting in my Creator and Savior to lead me along - and I actually follow Him! - then whatever opposition rises up along the way is not my concern. God will take care of the slander, the roadblocks, and the despots. I can be meek toward others and let God be responsible for protecting me. What a relief to know that I don’t have to be on the defense around everyone!

Meekness is not weakness; it’s letting our superior Creator be our Defender.

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart. And ye shall find rest for your souls.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30)