Into All The World

Mother's Day

2011-05-10T09:43:00.002-04:00

Recently on Sunday, May 8th millions of people celebrated Mothers Day. It was good to remember those mothers who have gone on to their heavenly reward. It is even more important for us to honor our mothers today. To help us to continue to honor our mothers, I want us to remember Marie Reeves Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, in 1858, attempted to improve sanitation through what she called "Mothers Friendship Day". In the 1800's Jarvis was working to assist in the healing of the nation after the Civil War. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. Ann was instrumental in saving thousands of lives by teaching women in her Mothers Friendship Clubs the basics of nursing and sanitation which she had learned from her famous physician brother James Reeves, M.D.

It was Jarvis' daughter, Anna Jarvis, who finally succeeded in introducing Mother's Day in the sense as we celebrate it today. Anna had spent many years looking after her ailing mother. This is why she preferred to remain a spinster. When her mother died in Philadelphia on May 9, 1905, Anna missed her greatly. Anna felt children often neglected to appreciate their mother enough while the mother was still alive. Now, she intended to start a Mother's Day, as an honoring of the mothers. In 1907, two years after her mother's death, Anna Jarvis disclosed her intention to her friends who supported her cause wholeheartedly. So supported by her friends, Anna decided to dedicate her life to her mother's cause and to establish Mother's Day to "honor mothers, living and dead." She started the campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. With her friends, she started a letter-writing campaign to urge ministers, businessmen and congressmen in declaring a national Mother's Day holiday.

As a result of her efforts the first mother's day was observed on May 10, 1908, by a church service honoring Late Mrs. Reese Jarvis, in the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where she spent 20 years taking Sunday school classes. Grafton is the home to the International Mother's Day Shrine. Another service was also conducted on the same date in Philadelphia where Mrs. Jarvis died, leaving her two daughters Anna and Elsinore. So it was more of a homage service for Mrs. Reeves Jarvis than a general one conducted in honor of motherhood. Nevertheless, this set the stage for the later Mother's Day observances held in the honor of motherhood. The Mother's Day International Association came into being on December 12, 1912, to promote and encourage meaningful observances of the event. Anna's dream came true when on May 9, 1914, the Presidential proclamation declared the 2nd Sunday of May to be observed as Mother's Day to honor the mothers.

Scriptural Guide: Jesus said to young John, "Behold your mother."

( John 19:27)

I am just a old lump of coal, but I am going to be a diamond someday

2010-07-07T10:29:00.004-04:00

Only a few miles from Trenton, Georgia, the late Johnny Cash once spent several hours lost in Nickajack Cave. He was not lost by accident. In his life story he shared that he lost himself in the cave, hoping to die there. Why? He wrote that it was because he felt worthless. He had failed to live up to the standards taught him by his family and church. Instead of dying in the cave, through prayer he discovered that his life was valuable. He found his way out and from that day forward "in Christ" he was a new man, and he helped others, especially prisoners to find new life in Christ. Johnny gave his message of hope through songs. One of those songs was, "I am just a old lump of coal, but I am going to be a diamond someday." A "lump" of coal symbolizes something of little value. When I was a boy, living in the coal camp, some poor folks used to say, "I do notexpect anything more in my Christmas stocking than a 'lump of coal.'" In those days a man working in the coal mines could get a ton of coal delivered from Moore's Coal Company for one dollar. Times were hard. Money was scarce, but we could stay warm in the winter, because coal was cheap. Coal was cheap, but diamonds, which were made from coal, were expensive, and they still are.The Pumpkin Diamond is a diamond measuring 5.54 carats (1.108 g) rated in color as Fancy Vivid Orange by the Gemological Institute of America. The Pumpkin Diamond was mined in Central African Republic and then imported into South Africa for sale, it was later cut and polished by William Goldberg, and put to auction at Sotheby's where it was bought by Ronald Winston of the House of Harry Winston for the price of $1.3 million.

Coal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. When the pressure gets great enough the coal is hardened and becomes what we know as diamond. When coal becomes diamond it will not burn.When Johnny Cash pasted through Trenton on his way to end his life by getting lost in Nickajack Cave he thought the pressures of life were just too great for life to be worth living. But in losing himself in total darkness, words of hope from Gospel songs, his family and church used to sing, gave him enough hope to pray his way out of the cave. Later he sang to prisoners, "I am just an old lump of coal, but I am going to be a diamond someday."

Scriptural Guide: "If anyone is in Christ, the old has pasted away; all things have become new."

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

Are you ready for the Super Roll!

2010-02-01T17:20:00.002-05:00

Everywhere we go we find people excited about the NFL's coming Super Bowl. It seems that no one wants to miss the biggest football event. The excitement reminds me of the time when LaFollette High's couch, Al Rottela, was getting us ready for our bowl game. He said to us. To do your best in this Big Game you must remember three things: (1) When getting your big chance, do not forget the One who brought you to the dance. (2) We play better when we forget the fancy stuff and focus on what is elementary. (3) We have always been at our best when we put our personal goals secondary, and play as a family team.

Jesus prepared his team of disciples by telling them the story of a young super star leader who took his share of the family wealth and went out on his own. For some time he seemed to prosper, but then far away from his family everything he had invested in fell apart. Instead of fulfilling his dream of being a star in his own "Super Bowl" he became a homeless man in a meaningless "dirty role." Hope came for him when he remembered what he was been taught:

First, while eating with the pigs, "he came to his senses, and said, 'my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!'"

Second, he forgot the fancy stuff and focused on what is elementary, "I will set out and go back to my father." (Luke 15:18)

Third, he decided to no longer go it alone, but asked his father to accept him back on the family team. Couch Jesus told his disciples that the home coming was a wonderful event and the young man became in history, one who has played a "super role" for millions of us who have dreamed in being successful in life's "Super Bowl."

There is no doubt that when Jesus finished the teaching story, they remembered a previous event when they had been rejoicing with how successful they had been in their healing ministry. Jesus guided them by saying, "Do not try to get all your sense of joy from your successful achievements. The most lasting joy comes from knowing that you are part of the Father's family. Your names are written in Heaven's Book. Because you have joined with me, you are on the Father's "Super Roll." (paraphrase of Luke 10:20).

Hero of Athens

2009-12-08T16:05:00.003-05:00

J. Neal Ensminger, editor of The Daily Post-Athenian, stood before the Chattanooga Civitan Club in 1974 and said, "Let me tell you about the historic Battle of Athens and its hero, Bernie Hampton, the pastor of Keith Memorial Methodist Church." He went on to say that the battle of Athens, Tennessee stands as the most violent manifestation of a regional phenomenon of the post-World War II era. Seasoned veterans of the European and Pacific theaters returned in 1945 and 1946 to southern communities riddled with vice, economic stagnation, and deteriorating schools. Undemocratic, corrupt, and mossback rings and machines kept an iron grip on local policy and power. Moreover, their commitment to the status quo threatened the economic opportunities touched off by the war. Across the South, veterans launched insurgent campaigns to oust local political machines they regarded as impediments to economic "progress." See http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=A043

The editor of The Daily Post-Atheian told us that officially, the "Battle of Athens" in McMinn County began and ended on August 1, 1946. Following a heated competition for local offices, veterans in the insurgent GI Non-Partisan League took up arms to prevent a local courthouse ring headed by state senator Paul Cantrell and linked to Memphis political boss Ed Crump from stealing the election. When Sheriff Pat Mansfield's deputies absconded to the jail with key ballot boxes, suspicious veterans took action. A small group of veterans broke into the local National Guard Armory, seized weapons and ammunition, and proceeded to the jail to demand the return of the ballot boxes. The Cantrell-Mansfield deputies refused, and the veterans, now numbering several hundred, opened fire. As the battle continued through the night a mob started turning over police cars and burning them. The ensuing battle lasted all night and ended only after the dynamiting of the front of the jail. As dawn came to the battle scene, out of the smoke and fog stepped a small man, the Reverend Bernie Hampton. He had a Bible in his left hand, and his right hand was lifted as he bravely stepped out between the veterians and the deputies. No one else dared to move out into the open. All eyes were upon the Bernie, knowned as "the quiet man", the pastor of Keith Methodist Church. He lifted his right hand and said, "Boys, the war is over. The victory is won. Let us end this destruction and begin now to work together to rebuild our town." As the hero of Athens stood there the deputies came out and surrendered. Within days the local election commission swore in the veteran candidates as duly elected. The McMinn County veterans had won the day in a hail of gunfire, dynamite, and with the faith and courage of a pastor.

The late J. Neal Ensminger, former editor of The Daily Post-Athenian and the popular teacher of a weekly radio broadcast from a Keith Memorial Sunday school class, was inducted into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame at a banquet ceremony Nov. 6, 2009. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville.

Gospel Story in Poetic Verse

2009-12-08T15:57:00.002-05:00

For sharing the Gospel with others.

Day One Existence Before Time

Paraphrase of John 1:1-3 in Poetic Verse

In the first inning, in the very beginning, before all time,

There was the Messenger, standing with God, the Father.

By Spirit power, the Messenger is present in prime time.

For the Messenger, going the extra mile, is no bother.

His deeds of kindness go beyond goodness and fairness.

Though-out history there has always been an awareness,

Of the activity of the Messenger in all the universe's frame.

All creation, not just humanity, has had a sense of the same.

This Gospel proclaims that the Messenger is eternal,

God is one and there is no other. We experience Him,

As Spirit, the Presence; as Father, the General; as Messenger, the Colonel.

In John we experience God primarily as Messenger, the Journal.

All things came into existence though Messemger's foreseeing.

Without Him, not even one thing has come into being.

Day 2 In Darkest Night a Prayer is Heard

Paraphrase of John 1:4-7 in poetic verse

The Messenger is the Word of Life,

And Life is the Father's gift to all; both women and men.

Through the Word light has shined in the darkness,

And continues to brighten the whole universe again and again.

The darkness has never over-shadowed the Messenger's Word.

Demonstrated in the darkest night, when a prayer is heard.

God provided an answer by an agent from the Hebrew Klan.

His name was John, the Messenger's "special agent" man.

John introduced the Messenger, who gives amazing ligh,

So all might live victoriously, even in the darkest night,

Overcoming our terrible loneliness and paralyzing fright.

The Messenger as God's Word is He makes the Creator heard.

In the Messenger, God's presence receives prime time accent.

By the influence of the cross, the empty tomb, and pentecost,

Given to us when He came in the great visitation event.

Day 3 The Visitation Event

Paraphrase of John 1:8-14

John came as the special agent of the Promised One.

He was not the long awaited Christ, the Father's Son.

He came to introduce the Son, as the Messenger of Light.

He helped us to meet the Son, who illuminates our night.

He revealed how the Promised One always shares with us,

As the Messenger revealing to human nature spiritual insight.

His revelation is confirmed by the image of God in every person,

Providing from our birth the gift of the Creator's Light.

John introduced us to the Messenger as the living Word,

And through Him the heavenly Father's voice is heard.

He came as a human being into the world He made,

And we did not recognize nor welcome Him with a serenade.

Though we belonged to Him and are eternally indebted to Him,

Most of us did not invite Him to lead our personal parade.

And we did not recognize Him as the One who all creation made.

In fact, we are ashamed that we hide from Him when He came,

Like dishonest tenants who've been stealing the Master's grain.

Day 4 Some Received the Messenger

Poetic paraphrase of John 1:12-14

A few received Him, like Spring welcomes the great blue heron.

They did not experience Him as being over-barren.

With Jesus we enjoyed being in the Father's family,

In Him we moved to the Father's house, accepting his name.

We who live with Him have a new birth and a new fame.

Our birth did not come from this world's well known blood lines,

Nor from the adventures of discoveries, bringing new finds.

Nor did it come from the DNA of some outstanding combatant.

But it was life, coming from our Heavenly Parent.

And the Messenger, who is Christ, the Son, became one of us,

And it is recorded history that He lived for awhile in our town.

We actually saw Him as a real person, living in God's glory,

As He healed the sick and taught the people all around.

Such glory as the only begotten Son receives from his Father,

An obedient Son, full of loving-kindness and scriptural truth,

With a life of service, filled with miracles of living proof.

Day 5 A Secret Message Has Been Given

John 1:15-18 paraphrased in poetic verse

John testified about Him and cried out, with a shout.

"This is He of whom I said, 'Jesus of Nazareth is number One.'

He, who comes after me, has priority over me, there is no doubt,

For He existed before I did, as God's only begotten Son."

Our lives were transformed when in Him we believed.

For out of His abundance we have all received,

Grace upon grace and spiritual blessings shared "a plenty."

And favor upon favor and gifts heaped upon gifts for many.

While the wonderful gift of the Law was given through Moses,

The "icing on the cake" of unearned amazing grace,

Was given to us by Jesus Christ who suffered in our place.

And as we follow Him by faith, and share, "Jesus is the One,"

We are given assurance that God gives us new life in His Son.

No one has ever seen God, the Father, at any time;

Only the Messenger has an intimate presence with the Father.

He helps us communicate with our Fater on a daily routine.

He has revealed God, bringing Him out where He can be seen;

The "hidden" Deity is now welcomed on the human scene,

Just like we as children of our dairy farmer, earthly father,

Welcomed our dad's love gift of a milking machine.

Day 6 Who is This Man, John?

Paraphrased poetry of John 1:19-27

The leaders, from Jerusalem, sent messengers to Elizabeth's and Zechariah's son,

Asking, "John, Who are you?" "Are you the Promised One?

He responded, "I am God's Christ. I swear it is true."

They asked, "Are you Elijah? " And he said, "I am not!"

"Are you then a new Prophet, passing through?"

John said, "You are on the wrong track; You have a blind spot."

Then they said to him, "Tell us, Who are you?

Whatever credentials you have, it is time for you to show.

It is important now that we, as religious leaders, know."

John answered, "I am the voice of one shouting in the desert,

It is time for you to wake up and become alert.

Begin to do your job and prepare the way of the Lord,

Start over, and walk the path you have tried to divert."

And they asked him, "If you have a word from God,

Why are your garments so simple?

Why are you not wearing a prophet's shirt?

Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ?"

John answered, "Do not focus on me. I baptize only with water.

It is a preparation ceremony to help us to be alert; to Him.

Never fear; He is here. He has already entered our earthly shire.

Look, there stands the One, Whom you are too blind to see.

With your lack of vision you have lost the ability to deduce.

It is He coming after me, as the One preferred before me,

The sandals on His feet, we are not worthy to unloose."

Day 7 The Future Started in the Past

John 1:28-34 Paraphrased As Poetry

There was a wonderful faith response in Bethany near the Jordan crossing,

Where the Gospel through John's preaching and baptizing was unfurled.

The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Look!

There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!

This is He of Whom I said, after me comes a Man Who takes rank above me,

Because He was before me and existed before I did.

And even though we grew up together as children running free,

I knew him as my cousin, but I did not know His true identity.

I could not clearly see, limited by my humanity.

But it is time that He should be made fully known,

As the Builder puts a corner stone to hold the structure together,

And to mark the historic site, where some important foundations were put right.

"I am now preaching and baptizing so we might come to know the Chief Artist's Son."

John gave further evidence, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending on Jesus of Nazareth,

As a dove out of heaven, and the Spirit dwelt on Him, witnessing that He is the Promised One.

Even though we grew up together, I did not know Him nor recognize his true nature.

But He was the Father's Messenger, the One, who sent me to baptize and said to me,

"Upon Him Whom you shall see the Spirit descend and remain,

He is God's only Son, Who by baptizing with the Holy Spirit makes all new."

And I actually did see it, and my testimony that "Jesus is the Savior" is true.

Day 8 An Invitation: Come and See

John 1:35-42 Paraphrased as Poetry

John was standing with two of his disciples, the next day,

And he called their attention to Jesus as He walked along the way,

And John said, "Look! There is God's Passover Lamb",

Remembering how God provided the Lamb meal in Egypt,

To set the children free from bondage to slavery.

The two disciples left John and went with Jesus,

Hoping to hear Him say, "Follow me!"

When Jesus saw them following closely,

He said to them, "And what is it you wish to see?"

And they answered Him, "Rabbi, where are You staying?"

He invited them, "Come with me."

So they went and saw the place where Jesus planned to stay,

And they remained with Him all day.

One of the two who had heard what John had to say,

Was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, known as a great fisherman.

Andrew first sought out and found his own brother and said to him,

We have found the Messiah!--which translated is the Christ (the Anointed One).

Andrew then led Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said,

"You are Simon, son of John. You shall be Cephas, known as Peter, the rock.

Follow me and I will make you a shepherd, a great leader of the flock."

Day 9 You Shall See Greater Things

John 1:43-51 Paraphrased as Poety

The next day Jesus desired and decided to go into Galilee;

And He found Philip and said to him, If you would be My attendant, follow Me.

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the same city as Andrew and Peter.

Philip sought and found Nathanael and told him,

We have found the Christ, the One Moses talks of in the Law.

He is the One, the Prophets wrote about--Jesus from Nazareth, a carpenter's son.

Nathanael responded,"O me, Nazareth! Can anything good come out of such a place?"

Philip looked a Nathanael face to face, and said, "Come and see!"

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said concerning him,

"See! Here is a true descendant of Jacob, an Isaelite indeed.

He has grown from pure and healthy seed. To refine his life there is not need.

In him there is no guile nor deceit nor falsehood nor duplicity!"

Nathanael, overheard Him and said to Jesus,

"How is it that You know these things about me?"

Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called on you,

I saw you when you were at home under the fig tree."

Nathanael answered, "Teacher, You are the Promised One!

You are the King of Israel! You are God's Son."

Jesus replied, "Because I said to you, I saw you beneath the fig tree,

Do you believe in and rely on and trust in Me?

Be a faithful disciple and greater things than this you will see."

Then Jesus said, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you all,

You shall see heaven opened, revealing the Father's plan,

And the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man!

Why is the First Amendment in the Constitution?

2009-12-08T15:52:00.003-05:00

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The following is an example of why there is a need for nations to have laws that protect their people from leaders of government denying citizens of the freedom of speech and worship:

In 1933, Martin Niemöller, a German pastor, founded an organization of pastors to combat rising government discrimination against Christians, especially those of Jewish background. By the autumn of 1934, Niemöller joined other Lutheran and Protestant churchmen like Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer(who was later executed in early 1945 by the Nazi government) in founding the Confessing Church, a Protestant group that opposed the government leaders, who were seeking the Nazification of the German Protestant churches.

In a celebrated manifesto, produced and smuggled out of the country, and reprinted in the foreign press just prior to the 1936 Olympics, he along with nine other pastors wrote to Hitler, who, in their opinion was attempting to influence the churches to replace their historic Biblical morality and theology with the political beliefs and standards of the Nazis leadership, who controlled the German government.

"Our people(leaders) are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God...We ask that liberty be given to our people to go their way in the future under the sign of the Cross of Christ, in order that our grandchildren may not curse their elders on the grounds that their elders left them a state on earth that closed to them the Kingdom of God." [from TIME Magazine July 27, 1936]

Arrested on July 1, 1937, Niemöller was brought to a "Special Court" on March 2, 1938 to be tried for activities against the State. He was fined 2,000 Mark and received a prison terms of 7 months. As his detention period exceeded the jail term, he was released by the Court after the trial. However, immediately after leaving the Court, he was re-arrested by Himmler's Gestapo. He was interned in concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. He was released by the allies in 1945. After his release in 1945, he was president of the Evangelical church in Hesse and Nassau from 1947 to 1961. He was one of the initiators in the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, signed by leading figures in the German church. The document acknowledged that the church had not done enough to resist the Nazis. In 1961, he became president of the World Council of Churches.

Niemöller is famous from writing a poem that challenges us to stand up for our Christian principles even when powerful forces in government are forbidding us to do so.

The famous poem: The variant found on most English and American posters reads:

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left

to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

You will be given the Nations

Psalm 2:1-12 (Paraphrase of the New Living Translation)

1 Why are the twenty first century nations so angry?

Why do they waste their time with a futile plan?

2 The so called national leaders are in a great battle,

Against their own religious historic stand;

The rulers of education and government plot together

To deny the existence of the Creator of the Universe;

Especially against his anointed One.

3 "Let us break our historic national chains," they cry,

"And free ourselves from slavery to faith in God and his Son."

4 But the one who rules in heaven laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them.

5 Then in anger he rebukes their rebellion and sin,

Terrifying them with great recessions in their faces.

6 For the Lord declares, "I will place my chosen ones,

On seats of power in the great cities and in my holy places"

7 The chosen will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

"The Lord said to me, ‘You are my daughters and my sons.

You are the chosen ones.

You, who live like orphans recognize me as your Father.

8 Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,

The whole earth is under the stewardship of my chosen ones.

9 You will break the secular rebels with an iron rod

And smash their progressive governments like broken sod."

10 Now then, you leaders, act wisely!

Be warned, you rulers of the earth! God says,

"This world is mine. It is not your turf!

11 Accept your place of leadership with reverent fear.

Rejoice with trembling, and to Me draw near."

12 Submit to God’s royal Son. Then He will not be angry,

And you will not be humiliated by your self proclaimed glory.

For only the obedient will live to tell a victory story.

What joy will be theirs, all who take refuge in Him,

Finding victory over selfishness, rebellion and sin.

-Paraphased by Curtis R. Schofield

Retired United Methodist Minister

Fishing

2009-12-08T15:50:00.000-05:00

He loved to go trout fishing in the Smoky Mountain streams. This time he was anticipating "the big one". Hilton and Ella Ruth had arrived the afternoon before, and had camped in a familiar area. He rose before dawn, gathering all his equipment, and was on the banks of the cool fresh stream by the time the Almighty said once again, "Let there be light."

He slowly worked his way upstream, quietly throwing the fishing fly exactly where he wanted it to go. In the first thirty minutes he caught several fine trout. He was anticipating the big one, when all of a sudden he was interrupted by a very low voice somewhere nearby. His eyes searched the foggy area, but he could see no one until he looked up and saw an old fisherman sitting on top of a large rock overlooking a beautiful waterfall just ahead. The old man was talking to someone, but he was not looking at Hilton and no one else could be seen. Listening very carefully, Hilton could hear the low voice saying, "I hear him. I hear him. I hear him." Then after a few minutes went by, the old man spoke again. He was still not looking at Hilton, but this time he spoke a little louder, as if trying to get someone's attention. He began to ask, "Can you not hear him? Can you not hear him?" Hilton then began to focus on trying to hear what the old man was hearing.

After several minutes went by with the old man saying, "I can hear him. Can't you hear him?", Hilton decided that the old man was following the same pattern that Jesus did, "And a great while before dawn Jesus rose and went out in a quiet place and prayed." Hilton decided to use this same time to seek to listen to God speak. Hilton began to silently praise God for His wonderful creation, and for revealing Himself to human beings, whom He had made in God's own image.

Finally, after a long silence the old man spoke again, "I can hear Him! Can you?" It was then that Hilton answered the old man. Speaking in a low voice, but very clearly, "Yes, I can hear Him. Thank you for including me in your morning talk with Him."

Hilton says that as he made his way back to have breakfast with Ella Ruth, it became clearer to him the meaning of the words of Jesus to his fisherman friends, Simon Peter and Andrew, "Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men" (Mark 1:17).When he arrived, Ella Ruth had breakfast ready and asked, "Well, did you catch the big one?" He responded, "I surely did!"

"Thou shall not's"

2009-12-08T15:46:00.000-05:00

How do you handle life when you feel like you are hemmed in by "Thou shall not's"? That was the question Lucille Campbell was dealing with in the devotional she wrote for "Time-Out for the Spirit" by Guidepost. One morning after reading to her children from Exodus 20 the Ten Commandments, her eleven year old daughter responded with a rebellious statement, "Thou shall not! That is all the Bible ever says." Her mother decided to wait and pray for a more influential opportunity to respond to Donna.

Later that day the Campbell family packed a picnic and explored some woods nearby. On one old tree, next to a fence that cut them off from a beautiful meadow, filled with green grass and thousands of beautiful short wild flowers, was a sign that said, "No Trespassing." Down in the lower part of the field was a small stream that was very inviting to the children. They asked, "Can we go down to the creek and put some of these dead leaves in and play like they are our boats going down a great river?" To that question their mother responded, "What does that sign on the tree say?" To that question Donna responded, "That sign and that fence are just two more 'Thou shall not's!' Before her mother could stop Donna she quickly climbed over the fence.

Suddenly, from the woods on their left, about fifty yearling steers burst forth, bawling and bucking. They seemed to be heading toward Donna. The family and Donna had a few moments of fear until Donna was able to reach the fence and roll under it, just in time. When the family arrived home and had their evening meal together, they had a sharing time about their experiences of the day. They all enjoyed the picnic and their searching through the woods for different types of leaves and the games they played, but the one event that got the most attention was the scary experience of the steers coming out of the woods toward Donna after she had climbed over the fence and gone into their pasture. Together they concluded that the Ten Commandments are signs that God is posting around activities that could be very dangerous for our lives. Therefore, they concluded their sharing with a pray of thanks to our heavenly Father who has given us warning signs for our safety and protection.

Scriptural Guide: "And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you" (Jeremiah 7:23).

"victory or death"

2009-10-31T09:04:00.002-04:00

It was Christmas Day in Northern Pennsylvania. A freezing, exhausted group of men, protecting American from the British, was led by General George Washington. The volunteer group of farmers, merchants, and settlers marched through an icy, driving rain and snow. Hundreds collapsed from sickness and exhaustion as they marched through the night. One third of them did not have boots. Their rag-wrapped feet literally left a trail of blood in the Pennsylvania snow. On their shoulders literally rested the future of America. Their password - "victory or death" - was their reality. Newt Gingridge claims those who made the sacrifices to win the revolution, have a message for those of us living today: He is challenging us to read the story of George Washington and his men. Historian William Forstchen has launched a new novel, "To Try Men's Souls." It is novel about George Washington and the fight for American freedom .

"To Try Men's Souls" is the wrenching, first person account of General George Washington's 1776 sneak attack the enemy at Trenton after crossing the Delaware River. This tale of heroism and sacrifice is told through the eyes and private thoughts of General Washington, writer Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Van Dorn, a young private in the struggling colonial army. It takes its title from Thomas Paine's famous work, "The Crisis," which opens with a phrase that captures perfectly the heroism and endurance displayed by Washington and his men: "These are the times that try men's souls..." "To Try Men's Souls" is a story of the miracles that can be achieved by a free people with courage and a willingness to endure. As Washington and his men march, a storm bears down on them, turning frozen earth to mud. "To Try Men's Souls" describes the unimaginable conditions the American heroes faced:

"Raise your foot, put it ahead of you, heavy mud caked thick to each boot. Put your foot forward, sink into the congealing glue nearly to the boot top, sometimes the chilled slop spilling down inside. Pull your other foot up out of the slop, stagger forward another step. There was no longer any semblance of a marching column, just an endless weaving line of men ahead, the last few stragglers of this broken army." (see Newt Gingrich Letter, October 21, 09, Vol. 4, No 42).

The Storm that brought such terrible suffering for America's heroes was called by Washington "Our Christmas Miracle." Why? Because the storm that created such hellish conditions for the Americans, who defended America from the enemy was the same storm that caused the British-paid German mercenaries, who were Washington's target in Trenton, to stay inside that night. Even though the weather caused the Americans to arrive four hours late - well after dawn - when they got to Trenton, the enemy invaders, the Hessians, were asleep in their beds. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Washington and his men won the battle of Trenton. Their victory reinvigorated the cause of American freedom. Washington's "Christmas miracle" was the turning point in the Revolutionary War in 1776, and the birth of America.

To Believe or Not Believe

2009-10-13T08:26:00.003-04:00

By Curtis R Schofield

It takes academic "faith" and some science fiction to be an atheist. An atheist is someone who does not believe in God. When we do not believe that there is an eternal Creator, logic says we must believe that what we call the creation, matter and energy, are eternal or are created by some type of force or process. If we accept that matter and energy are eternal, as Aristotle believed, then we must explain how life was created out of dead matter(stuff). If that is so, then our only choice is to believe that in the dead stuff there is a force that developed(or creates) life. Life as we know it includes living organisms that can reproduce themselves. This includes plants and animals and human beings, plus small living organisms within matter, plants and beings that are too small for the human eye to see. It takes a lot of "faith" plus some science fiction to believe that there is a force in energy and dead matter that can create life. It takes even more faith to believe that there is a force that can not only create life, but that it can create intelligent life. Intelligent life is probably the greatest act of creation that we human beings can understand. In my opinion to believe that there is a force in energy and dead matter that can not only create life, but can also create intelligence, goes beyond faith to science fiction. If an atheist can believe that there is a force in dead matter, which itself has no self awareness of its own existence, but that it has the power to create a living being, a living being that has awareness of its own existence, then that person has to have more "faith" than is called for by the theist, one who believes in God, the Creator.

However, it is important for the serious reader to realize that becoming a believer is not just a matter of giving intellectual assent to our academic conclusions. The Scriptures teach us that faith is a gift which we must accept. The late Paul Tournier, a distinguished Swiss physician and psychiatrist, in his book, "The Meaning of Persons" and in his personal taped testimonies he tells what it really means to be a person. Because of his experience of becoming an orphan as a child he claims he was never as a child was able to accept the gift of love that his care giver offered. Therefore, he was not able to form personal relationships with others and with God, until as a adult he was able to accept the personal love that his wife offered him and the personal friendship of some Christian men who truly cared for him and taught him how to share the personal part of his life with them and with Christ.

Therefore, I choose to believe what was given to us by the Biblical writers and our experiences in the faith community of believers:

Genesis 1:1-31

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...And God said 'Let there be a land in the midst of the waters'...And God said 'Let the earth put forth forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and trees bearing fruit'...And then God said, 'Let the waters bring forth living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth.' ...And then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures...cattle and creeping things and beasts...And God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish...the birds...the cattle...and every living creature on the earth...and God saw everything that He had made and behold it was very good.

John 1:1-4,14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

Curtis R Schofield is a retired United Methodist minister and an associate trustee of the Foundation for Evangelism, related to the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church.

Poem

2009-10-13T08:25:00.001-04:00

Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.

Break my bondage to this cold heart of mine,

And set me free from thinking only of me.

Over my rebellious heart give me a victory.

Once again, let us celebrate the year of Jubilee.

Then we will sing contentiously songs of praise to Thee.

Lord Jesus, once you broke the bondage of sin,

On a cross at a place called Calvary.

Surely the victory there included me.

If so, please from my self centeredness set me free.

Create in me a new love for You and all humanity.

Let it be, O Lord. Let it be.

I am listening now for whatever You have to say.

My little children, humble yourselves and pray:

Father in Heaven if You are really “up there,”

Make yourself known as the One who does truly care.

Assure us that through the power of your Spirit,

For all our needs, You will a bounty prepare.

Especially, help us to claim Jesus’ victory over the evil one.

Remember how on the Cross He said, “It is finished, it is done.”

At the Resurrection He defeated our worst enemy, death,

Through your visitation to us as the Incarnate One.

Thank You for making possible our eternal salvation.

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday at the rising of the SON.

Clarkston

2009-10-09T16:26:00.001-04:00

Some of the world's greatest missionaries began their missionary service in Georgia. In the eighteenth century John Wesley and George Whitfield helped start the Great Awakening in America by coming from England to Georgia as missionaries. It is still happening today. Adam and Mary Hoyt, former Christian missionaries to Muslim refugees in Tajikistan, have recently become missionaries to Muslim refugees in Clarkston, Georgia. In a recent newsletter Adam wrote,

"Celebration Fellowship, a refugee church has become our everyday church when we are not in the Atlanta Vineyard Church. Celebration Fellowship is a house church model which is so effective as a strong Christian movement in China.We meet two Sundays a month in homes, like the early New Testament Church did. One Sunday a month we meet at a community space in a local park, and one Sunday we meet in rented space in Dekalb Technical College. We have 5 house churches, divided according to language, providing refugee leaders a opportunity to hone their skills in leading Bible studies, worship, and hospitality. These large group gatherings allow us to maintain a sense of camaraderie and community as a church...We are excited about what God is doing here by his grace, and the way God is growing us."

One day when Adam and I were both serving at the Mission Society headquarters in Norcross, Georgia, Adam told the story about a father who took his children for a ride through Atlanta on the public transportation train. He said that at nearly every stop someone of a different nationality would get on the train. Hearing all the different languages excited his children. Finally, his son asked, "Daddy, why have these people from all over the world come to Atlanta?" The father answered, "When Jesus came into the world over 2000 years ago, He asked us to tell his stories to all the peoples of the world. Since we have not yet completed the task, I guess He just to decided to send them here to Atlanta so we can share the stories of Jesus with them here."

In a recent newsletter Adam wrote, "We love Clarkston. We have big dreams for Clarkston and her refugees. We love the people we are becoming through our daily interactions with our neighbors. We feel a deep sense of belonging, of mission and of spiritual fulfillment here."

If you have been wishing you could find a way to share Christ with Muslim people, consider becoming a prayer partner with Adam and Mary Hoyt. You can communicate with them at PO Box 1151 Clarkston, GA 30021 or by calling 404-294-8177. Tell them Curtis Schofield asked you to contact them.

"Change your focus, change your life"

2009-10-09T15:32:00.000-04:00

"Change your focus, change your life" wrote Anthony Fernando to his readers on June 19, 2008. He illustrated the truth of his challenge by the life of Sarah, a gifted dancer. From the age of three, her world revolved around ballet and she wanted nothing more from life than to dance each and every day.

As she grew older Sarah received numerous ballet awards and when she was fourteen she was awarded a prestigious scholarship to study at the National College of the Arts. Sarah continued to work hard at her dancing. Her teachers recognized both her talent and her work ethic and encouraged her to audition for the Australian Ballet.Three days before her audition, Sarah was involved in a car accident and broke her ankle. While the hospital classified this as a ‘minor injury’, for Sarah it was a life changing incident. Although her ankle healed, she found that she no longer had the extension required to be an elite dancer. In the blink of an eye her life long dream of dancing with the Australian Ballet was over. Sarah became very depressed and all she could think about was how unfair life was. For two long and miserable years Sarah was lost in a personal world of anger and disappointment.

Then one day she found encouragement from a friend, who helped her realized that by spending all her time thinking about what she could no longer do she had been making herself miserable. With a new outlook on life, Sarah made a change and began focusing instead on what she could do. While she could no longer be a professional ballerina, she was still a talented dancer. Anthony Fernando reports that Sarah began to persue contemporary, jazz, and swing dancing and to her delight she discovered that her years of classical training meant that she picked things up very quickly. She also discovered a passion for teaching and over time, Sarah’s life was once again filled with the joy of music and dancing.

A fellow pastor of mine told me about visiting an elderly member of his church who had suffered a stroke. Once when he was visiting her after long weeks of therapy he reported that he said to her, "I am so sorry that through this stroke you lost so much of your ability to function. It must be hard on you to think of all the things you no longer can do." To this she smiled and said, "Pastor, at first I focused on the things I could no longer do. I became depressed as I counted over ninety things I can no longer do, but I was encouraged when I read in the Scriptures, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' That verse changed by point of view. I began to focus on what I can still do. There are hundreds of things I can still do. That is why you see a smile on my face and a gleam in my eyes."

Curtis is a retired United Methodist pastor who lives on Sand Mountain. You can his read inspiring stories in his book, "Into All The World" which you can buy at CVS Pharmacy in downtown Trenton, GA.

We Were Lucky!

2009-10-06T10:33:00.001-04:00

When we lost Coach Armstrong we were sure that all hope for a great season was lost. Coach Al Rotella came to us in LaFollette, Tennessee as a our head coach. He was different.

We first noticed that he did not own an automobile. He was dependent on someone else getting him to and from the high school. He and his wife had a large family. It was important to him to have them in church every Sunday.

He was a very big man, but he could move fast. He was very friendly. We liked him as a person, but we missed Coach Armstrong, who had made us a winning team.

It did not take Coach Rotella long to make us forget about Coach Armstrong. He expected a great deal from us. After he led us through our first day of exercise, it was hard for us to get out of bed the next morning. Every muscle in our body hurt. He put each of us in a position and taught us a several running and passing plays. He told us that each of us had a very important role to play. He revealed to us that every play is designed to go for a touchdown if every player executed his assignment. Therefore, we knew that everyone had an important job to do each time the ball was in play.

He was always helping us to look on the positive side. In the heat of a hard practice, he would stop us and say, "Look around you at the mountains. Thousands of people come from all over the country every year to see these mountains. They spend millions of dollars to get here. You get to see them everyday for free. Enjoy them."

When we were preparing for an important game with Lake City, one of our strongest rivalries, he asked us why in the past our team lost so many times to the "Blue Devils." Someone spoke up and said, "It is because they are lucky!" Coach Rotella said, "You are right. The lucky team always wins. What is that makes a team lucky?" We could not answer him. Then he quoted Thomas Jefferson, one of our country's founding fathers. Someone asked Jefferson, "Why is it when we are in a battle with the English they seem to have all the luck?" Jefferson answered, "To win battles it is important to be prepared to fight. You have to have a plan, and every soldier has an important job to do. Yet when all is said and done, luck does play a role in who wins. Therefore, I have studied why it is that some persons have more luck than others, and I have come to the conclusion that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." Every year Al Rotella was our coach, LaFollette had a winning season. We even completed one season undefeated. We were lucky!

Biblical Guide: "God blessed the seventh day, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation(Genesis 1:31).

Poem - "The Freedom Dream"

2009-07-30T10:00:00.002-04:00

The Freedom Dream
A July 4th Celebration
by Curtis Schofield

What were our ancestors to do? Where could they turn?
With hunger and illness, exploitation and persecution on all sides.
There was fear and frustration in the land, especially in Europe.
The stories about American land and new life made them yearn,
Giving our grandparents a new hope, a "yes we can."
And a vision of a future place to make a new stand.
They were hearing America calling, with freedom to worship,
To learn, to assemble, and to speak one's own word.
They especially wanted the freedom to have their own land,
For a home, for a place to work, and for their voice to be heard.
They wanted freedom to move, when necessary to avoid strife,
In their efforts to seek and make a better life.
Thomas Jefferson later expressed their desires for bliss;
"To have God given rights, of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness."
To the immigrates the American natural bounty,
From border to border and sea to sea, was incomparably varied.
To them it was an inexhaustible paradise and more.
For the most part, the new comers enthusiastically worked together.
With imagination, vitality, and persistence they were able to score,
With triumphs of inventiveness in technology and industry galore.
Also in communications and transportation they were esteemed.
It was beyond anything the world has ever seen or dreamed.
Unprecedented in the history of the world was the explosion,
Of social, political, religious, and technical phenomena. Wow!
This all occurred in America, especially from the 1850's till now.
In that brief span humankind accelerated the rate of travel,
To twice the speed of sound and we saw many barriers unravel.
Communication progressed from the pony express to instantaneous.
Comfort and convenience advanced from candlelight and open flame,
To control of every nuance of light, heat, and humidity the same.
While it is true that other countries helped provide the pioneer,
The most dramatic breakthroughs in progress happened here.
Right here! With the America dream in the land of the free.
While the harsh restrictive aspects of the Calvinist doctrine,
Espoused by the founding pilgrims, current Americans tend to veto.
The founders dedication to the practical virtue of hard work,
And the importance of faith in God are still valued in our credo.
Anyone not valuing freedom of worship and hard work,
Is considered not a leader, and only tolerated as a jerk.
Freedom of worship went hand in hand with a widespread belief,
That our primary goals should always be righteous,
And designed not only to see American's glory unfurled,
But to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world.
The founders believed devoutly in this country,
And believed that Americans were beneficiaries of a will,
Not for pleasures like the Roman followers of Aphrodite.
Our founders believed that theirs was a "City on a Hill,"
Being guided for greatness by the hand of the Almighty.
Puritan historian Edward Johnson wrote in the 1650's,
That the Lord has "sifted a whole Nation to plant his choice grain."
To him we were destined for great service, not just for personal gain.
Two centuries later this theme was still being played,
When Novelist Herman Meville said, "Americans are the peculiar,
Chosen people, the Israel of our time;
We bear the ark of liberties of the world."
From the very beginning the engine that would subdue,
A wild continent was fueled by a dream and a faith view.
People from all over the world were attracted to the freedom dream.
To worship, to freely speak, and to work on your own land,
Was and is the settlers' primary theme.
With the success there was an ebb and flow of cooperation,
Overcoming divisions over conflicts that arose among the settlers.
They came from every land, bringing their religion, language, music, and cuisine.
Some came as slaves, without their consent, and without a dream.
But the freedom vision was too much even for slavery's strong hold.
By 1864 President Lincoln set all slaves free, we are told.
With the 20th century leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. came full civil rights.
The sun began to shine in hidden places. It was a beautiful sight.
The American Indian also has played a significant role in the freedom dream.
By the 1880's the whole nation was asking,
What have we done to the red man and the buffalo on the virgin land?
Without them the western plains seemed as empty as a broken glass.
The evening sun cast long shadows on the lonely endless grass.
Yet the Indians' dream would not so easily fade from the scene,
Even when the hopes of the slain red ones lay lonely on the plains.
The shadows tried in vain to hide the American Indians' pain.
But the faithful witnesses of history tell us a different story.
In the victories over the red man there was little glory.
Most died a starvation death, from destruction of the buffalo meat, and
From illegal immigrants destroying wild game that was the red man's claim.
"Total warfare" was a phrase the red man at first did not understand.
By the time he understood, the US command had already spoken.
It was then the red man's dominance of the west was broken.
He could not win, while believing one battle can decide all claims.
In his war history, a great victory in battle could achieve all aims.
He was not ready for the army's continuos campaign of war games.
But the US Army kept a coming, seeking total victory.
The Indian, not able to win an army campaign, still had a plan.
When he had to slip away, he never gave up his battle array.
Like a Roman senator in his toga, he continues to impress today.
Many rivers, roads, and places wear Indian names, they say.
These signatures verify the Indian was never fully defeated.
Think about how the US Military names its equipment,
The AH-64 Apache (helicopter), the BGM-109 Tomahawk (missile),
And the UH-72A Lakota (helicopter) to name a few.
When the academics teach about great military leaders,
The west's best warriors as listed in "who's who,"
They tell how the US army lost to Crazy Horse and the Sioux.
For General Custer and his 700 veterans, the event was a "Waterloo."
When Custer's battle against the world's finest cavalry was over,
There were no US army attackers left for the Sioux to pursue.
Therefore, we ask, where have all the red men gone?
They are undefeated. They are living among us, everyone.
We find more Americans every day with the red man's DNA.
They are butchers and bakers and "candlestick makers."
They are bankers and teachers and child caretakers.
They are city officers and drivers of buses and vans.
Many are soldiers who help protect this free land.
In World War II the U.S. sought a fool-proof encryption code,
So as to protect the nation and the services of the G I Joe.
The answer was found in the ancient language of the Navajo.
It all began with a vision of freedom unfurled.
This vision was shared by the immigrants with friends in the old world.
They responded to the vision in great numbers.
It must have been a sight to stand watching the caravan of immigrants.
They had been rejected by the land owners of their place of birth.
They made the hard decision to leave most of their wares and cares.
Because nearly all their past dreams had become nightmares.
All that is except the dream of a place to begin anew.
That was it! The dream inspired them with a new point of view.
No one can describe early American better than western writer, Louis Lamour.

"They were haggard, worn, hungry for rest and cool drink.
The inner urges of the flesh were crying out to stop and think.
But the deep desires of the heart moved them further, one step at a time.
How was it possible for them to go on? One step at a time in a death march rhyme.
But they kept moving, because the vision was upon them, with all it thrills.
They could not forget the golden promise of the distant hills,
Offering a land of milk and honey, the fair and flowering land,.
In their dream they could see it, in spite of their struggle in the desert sand.
The dream is sought by all wandering peoples of whatever time and place.
No hardship is too great. No road is too steep or rough.
No mountain is impassable when the vision is upon a people."
The vision sustains us no matter how tough.
The sacrifice can be endured as long as we can see the steeple.

- Louis Lamour (paraphrased) THE TALL STRANGER. p.6.

This freedom poem was inspired by reading "The Story of America" by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc, 1975, especially pages 8-15 and by reading novels y Louis LaMour(see "The Tall Stranger". p.6.)

Hero - Dr. Don Cannon

2009-07-30T09:57:00.001-04:00

Dr. Cannon practiced medicine in Chattanooga for over 46 years. He touched many lives with his kind and compassionate way of making each patient feel special. We felt as if each of us was part of his own family. He will be greatly missed. He certainly will be missed by the Schofields. He was our doctor.

I remember what a blessing he was when I went to see him for my annual physical examination or when I was dealing with some physical problem. In the last few years he would come into the room in his wheel chair. First, he would want to know about my family and my ministry. Then he would ask about the issues that his assistant had put on the chart. He would cover each detail, including the effects of physical issues that he had treated me for long time ago.

One patient, who nominated Dr. Cannon for Memorial's National Doctor's Day award in 2007, wrote that Dr. Cannon continued to practice medicine even while he was fighting cancer. "He is a survivor and a dedicated doctor," the patient wrote, "I have asked him several times, 'Why do you not retire and enjoy your life resting?' And he always responds. 'I'll be in the office until the day the Lord takes me home.'"

It was a blessing and a Christian witness to walk into his office and see on a table his picture, along with a personal statement. This personal statement was placed there when he returned to work after cancer surgery and a period of recovery. The statement was an appreciation to his patients for their prayers and for their encouragement during his time of recuperation. I was very much blessed by his personal testimony, giving God the glory for the healing that had taken place in his body. I have read that statement several times. It has always gives me hope as it assures me that "the Great Physician" is at work in my life, as well as my favorite doctor and his dedicate staff.

Recently, he died at the age of 75. He will be missed by his wife, Grandeana, to whom he was married for 56 years, his daughters, especially Dr. Allison, who has been his professional medical partner for several years, and the many of us who have been his patients for many years.

The medical doctor, Luke, wrote one of the Gospels. He recorded that Jesus said, "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge him or her before the angels of God"(Luke 12:8). I have no doubt that, even now, Don Cannon is being acknowledged before the angels. Lord, help me to live for others so that You and they will be blessed and honored among the angels.

Count Olaf, the Norweigan Viking Giant

2009-07-30T09:44:00.007-04:00

In the mid 40's my dad and mom rented a dairy farm near Scandanavia, Wisconsin. It was there I learned how to milk a cow. Before long I was milking five cows every morning and again in the evenings. The owner of the farm was Clifford Thompson, known in Wisconsin as the tallest man in the world. I remember the times that he came to visit. As he walked in he had to bend over to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling. He always came in a light gray suit, and used a walking stick to steady himself. He recognized each of us individually. Dad always referred to him as a lawyer. On one of his visits to our home he gave dad a ring from his finger. Dad used to impress others when he would take out Mr. Thompson's ring and push a fifty cent piece through it.

I was totally surprised, years later, when I was doing research to discover that Mr. Thompson had spent several years in circus life. He was known as Count Olaf from Norway. In fact he was actually Clifford Marshall Thompson, a Norwegian-American farm boy from Rugby, North Dakota. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Julius Gustavus Thompson, moved to Scandanavia, Wisconsin, shortly after the birth of their son. Clifford kept growing long after other boys his age had stopped, and eventually reached the height of eight feet, six inches, making him one of the tallest men in history. Despite the limitations of his size, Clifford managed to finish school in nearby Stevens Point before embarking on a career as a professional giant.

After eight years as a career giant, he left the circus to become a traveling salesman. Though no longer a freak by trade, Clifford was still continually on display, representing The Big Shoe Store in Stevens Point. At the Wisconsin State Fair he wore a sign that said "Drink Milk: Look what it did for me". He advertised the 1935 Ford V8 as roomy enough for a giant, although his own car was custom-fitted to accommodate his size.

The research revealed that in his spare time Clifford enjoyed lecturing to civic organizations and was a member of the B.P.O. Elks in Wisconsin Rapids. He and his wife owned a 110-dairy farm near Scandinavia. That farm was the Schofield home in the mid-forties. Like most giants, Clifford required custom-made clothes; his shoes were size sixteen, his hat size nine, his chest forty-six inches and his waist forty-two inches. He was said to consume at one sitting three pounds of steak, three potatoes, three dishes of vegetables, a quart of milk and a whole apple pie. In 1949 he entered Marquette University in Milwaukee and obtained his law degree within two years, becoming the tallest lawyer in history. He practiced first in Iola, Wisconsin, then in Los Angeles, before finally settling in Portland, Oregon. He died on October 15, 1955, four days short of his 51st birthday. See http://phreeque.tripod.com/cliff_thompson.html. To many people in the circus life he was a freak, but to the Schofields he was a hero. He made it possible for us to get into the dairy business.

Scripture Insight: "A friend loves at all times." Proverbs 17:17

The Power of Presence

2009-07-30T09:41:00.002-04:00

Several years ago, when I was a young pastor, I rushed to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee to visit a person who had called Contact Telephone Ministry to share that she was in the process of making a suicide attempt. I was following up after the caller had been rescued and taken to the hospital. When I entered I was very anxious. But I found myself immediately calmed as I hurriedly walked into the hospital and saw in the hall a friend, the pastor of First Christian Church. He was listening to a troubled family member of someone who was in surgery. Since he was focused on the person with whom he was giving support, I did not interrupt him, but I still felt the same support he was sharing with another person. The support was coming from his presence.

When Dr. Debbie Hall wrote an article in 2005 named, "I believe in the power of presence" she had been a psychologist in San Diego's Naval Medical Center Pediatrics Department for several years. She was reminded of this belief when she and several other Red Cross volunteers met a group of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. They were there, as mental health professionals, to offer "psychological first aid." Despite all the training in how to "debrief," to educate about stress reactions and to screen for those needing therapy, Debbie Hall was struck by the simple healing power of presence. Before they had done anything, as they walked in the gate to the shelter, they were greeted with an ardent burst of gratitude from the first person they encountered. Since Debbie and her team had not done anything yet, they felt guilty for receiving the affirmation. It was at that moment that Debby was reminded of the healing power of presence.

In her article Dr. Hall shares how she was first hurled into an ambivalent presence many years ago, when a friend's mother died unexpectedly. She had received a phone call from the hospital where the mother had just passed away. Part of her wanted to rush down there, but another part of her didn't want to intrude on this acute and very personal phase of grief. She was torn about what to do. Another friend with her at the time said, "Just go. Just be there." She did, and she says, "I will never regret it."(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5064534)

Billy Wilson, a friend of mine, recently lost a close friend through death. Several days after the burial he saw his late friend's wife. When Billy greeted her, he said, "Mary, I am sorrow you lost your best friend." She responded immediately, "Billy, my wonderful husband died, and I miss him very much, but I did not lose my best friend. My best friend is Jesus, and His presence is faithfully with me all the time."

Jesus said, "I am with you always. Even to the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20)

Faith Story - Dr. Worley

2009-07-30T09:39:00.000-04:00

He had everyone's attention just by walking into the room. For many years he was the pastor of Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. He brought smiles to our faces and laughter to our inner being. Once he told us that he used every occasion to share faith with others. He was an incarnation theologian in that he saw Christ somehow in every situation.

One of his favorite places of sharing faith was when he left the church at noon to cross six lanes of traffic to go to his favorite cafeteria. When he arrived at what he called "busiest street corner in the state of Tennessee," most of the time there would be several persons waiting for the right moment to cross. Usually there was someone there who needed assistance. Paul Worley was in his "hay day" helping someone in need. He not only helped them across but he also made sure he got their names and a story of something they liked about themselves or about someone else. When they reached the other side, Paul would then, thank them for the blessing that the person gave him by sharing his or her story with him. He would share, "God has used you to be a blessing for me today. I believe the rest of this day will be better because you and I got to spend some time with each other." Sometimes the new friend would say, "Dr. Worley you are the one who is a blessing. Most people ignore me when I am in need. Then some would say, "Dr. Worley, if there is anything I can do for you, do not hesitate to ask me." "There is something very important you can do for me today!" They would always say, "I can't imagine anything I could do." He would then say, "I am great need of someone who will pray a simple prayer for me three or four times during the rest of this day." "What simple prayer?" "Dear Jesus, have mercy on Paul today!"

"Would you pray that prayer for me today?" When they answered in the affirmative, Dr. Worley sometimes would say, "Why don't we just stop here for a moment, look each other in the eyes, and pray that prayer for each other."

Sometimes there was great humor in one of Dr. Worley's encounters at the corner of Church Street and Smoky Mountain Drive. He loved to tell about the day he helped a drunk man cross the street. When they made it to the other side, Dr. Worley decided to get better acquainted. When they exchanged names, the fellow got excited and said, "Paul, I knew there was something special about you. I could feel it. Is that your church across this road?" Paul said, "I am the pastor of that Church." Then his new friend got really excited. "Paul, I have been wanting to meet you for a long time. I have been wanting to ask you a question." Paul, asked, "My friend, what do you want to ask me." The man looked him straight in the eyes and asked, "Did those Corinthians ever answer that second letter you sent them?" What a joy it is to be in ministry on the street.

Scriptural Guide: "Then Jesus will say to some, 'Welcome to my house, for one time I was a stranger and you took me in.'"

(Matthew 25:35)

Faith Story - Todd Beamer

2009-07-02T09:27:00.001-04:00

Shorty after noon on 9/11 a friend handed the phone to Lisa Beamer. The voice on the phone said, "Mrs. Beamer, my name is Nick Leonard from United Airlines. I'm sorry to inform you that your husband, Todd, was a passenger aboard Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania." Lisa turned to her friends, who had come to her home to support her and the children, and said, "That was United calling. Todd was definitely on the plane taken over by terrorists; the one that was on the way to Washington, but that crashed in Pennsylvania." Her husband, Todd, had kissed her good by early that same morning as he prepared to catch an early morning flight to California. The plane had been taken over by terrorists shortly after it took off. After traveling west for some time, the terrorists turned the plane around and by the time a group of brave passengers attacked the hijackers, the plane was heading back east, toward Washington DC. Two other planes had been hijacked and had been flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. One more had been crashed into the Pentagon. Flight 93, on which Todd Beamer was traveling, was brought down in a crash on a Pennsylvania farm.

Two days later, on September 13, Larry Elison, sent out an e-mail to all employees of Oracle Corporation, saying, "Todd Beamer, an employee of Oracle Corporation died when Flight 93 crashed. We believe that he died when he and other passengers tried to recover the hijacked airplane from the terrorists...Todd's courageous actions may have helped keep the airplane from reaching its target-our nation's Capitol. Todd and other passengers probably helped save the lives of many in Washington DC."(see "Let's Roll" by Lisa Beamer, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois. 2002. p. 184).

Nick Leonard called Lisa, Todd's wife, reporting to her that the FBI had confirmed that during the flight Todd Beamer had called on the GTE Airfone aboard the plane. The call went to a GTE supervisor, Lisa Jefferson. Todd had told her that he and some other passengers were going to fight their way into the cockpit and try to overcome the terrorists. He had asked her to get a message to his wife, Lisa Beamer, telling her that he loved her, and then asked the supervisor to pray with him. Together, they prayed the Lord's prayer, which Todd concluded with "Jesus, help me!" Then Todd's call was interrupted by one of his associates, and Todd's last words were recorded as he called to the small group, planning to stop the hijackers, "Let's roll!" A minute later, at 9:28, the Cleveland controllers clearly heard screams over the open mike aboard Flight 93. Then, just before the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, the controllers heard a voice in English, demanding "Get out of here! Get out of here!"

Scriptural Guide: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." -Jesus(John 15:13)

Faith Story - Lee Strobel

2009-06-29T13:08:00.004-04:00

When Lee Strobel was in the process of writing "The Case for Christ" he was interviewing a famous scholar. About halfway through the interview the scholar said, "By the way, nobody's going to read your book. Lee, we live in a postmodern world. People don't care about the historical evidence for Jesus anymore. They don't care. Nobody's going to read your book." Lee says that after this interview he was "bummed out." But he did not let this discouraging word stop him from completing the book that was on his heart and mind.

But the ironic thing is, when the book came out, and the biggest group of people who contacted him saying, "God used that book to bring me to faith in Christ," were 16- to 24-year-olds—the very people who supposedly don't care about this stuff.

When he shared this wonderful surprise, a another friend responded, "Of course, you wrote it as a story." Lee now proclaims that we Christians ought not to lose "the story" as a resource of witnessing for Christ. He is urging us to adapt story telling in sharing Christ. In his book, "Taking Everyday Risks to Talk with People about Jesus" Storbel says that through story and through relationships, we can deliver the Gospel not as a soliloquy but in dialogue and a conversation with groups." He says that people have become more relational, more story-driven. He reports that a famous youth leader used to go on college campuses and describe why to trust the Bible. And people would come to faith in droves. Then they stopped coming to faith in so many numbers, and he didn't know why. Now he uses the story approach. "You know," he says, "I was the son of the town drunk. This is how it affected my life and my relationship with [my dad]. This is what prompted me to seek spiritually. This is the evidence I found. This is how my life was changed. This is how I reconciled with my father." So now his witness for Christ is more effective.

Strobel says, "that's what my ministry is about. I tell my story: I was an atheist. I scoffed. My wife became a Christian." It prompted him to use his skills as an investigative reporter to research Jesus of Nazareth. Then he began to share the evidence he had found. He then concludes by sharing how he received Christ, the difference it's made in his life. It's his story. He found that people often are willing to engage on the level of story. See "The Unexpected Adventure: Taking Everyday Risks to Talk with People about Jesus" by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg, Zondervan, May 2009.

Strobel's book, "The Case for Christ" was shared with me by my young adult son, Philip, who is by vocation a project engineer. He and I have both found that Strobel's book has helped in sharing Christ with others.

Sea Gulls

2009-06-29T13:01:00.001-04:00

When I served in a development ministry with the Foundation for Evangelism, Clara and I usually made a "thank you" visit to Florida to see Alice Lockmiller. Alice was so much fun to be around. I usually worked in her area and spent some time with her for two or three days. She always wanted to take Clara and me to the beach. On the beach Alice truly enjoyed God's creation, especially the sea gulls. When she walked out on the beach with her bucket filled with shrimp, instead of flying away which was their usual custom with most visitors, they came to her. It was unbelievable to see the excitement that both Alice and the sea gulls had together.

In his book, "In the Eye of the Storm", author Max Lucado described the following scene.. "An old man walks down a Florida beach. The sun sets like an orange ball on the horizon. The waves slap the sand. The smell of salt water stings the air. The beach is vacant...

"He carries a bucket in his bony hand. A bucket of shrimp...for the sea gulls.

"He walks to an isolated pier cast in gold by the setting sun. He steps to the end of the pier for his weekly ritual.

"Soon the sky becomes a mass of dancing dots. The evening silence gives way to the screeching of birds. They fill the sky and then cover the moorings. They are on a pilgrimage to meet the old man.

"For a half hour or so, the bushy- browed, shoulder-bent gentleman will stand on the pier, surrounded by the birds of the sea..

"But even after the food is gone, his feathered friends still linger. They linger as if they're attracted to more than just food. They perch on his hat. They walk on the pier. And they all share a moment together." This elderly gentleman is committed to the task of feeding the seagulls, though the task seems very mundane (http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Storm-Max-Lucado/dp/0849943256).

Recently, a well known minister wrote, "We live in a society that both fears and avoids commitment. Nobody wants to be committed to anything these days. In fact, the operational attitude today appears to be, 'I want to keep my options open. I don't want to be tied down...

"This philosophy of life is tragic because the fact is that we cannot live without making commitments. Nothing truly great ever happens without the making of commitments. Lack of commitment leads to lack of focus, and lack of focus leads to a life of drifting along with the tide"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR8rlTIU8_Y).

Learn from both "the old man of the Sea" and from our friend, Alice. Find a need and commit yourself to help meet it.

Scriptural Guide: "If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters; yes, more than your own life. Otherwise you CANNOT be my disciple. And you CANNOT be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me; No one can become my disciple without giving up EVERYTHING for me." (Luke 14:25,26,33 )

Faith Story - Frances Deter

2009-06-11T09:04:00.004-04:00

The year was 1969. We pastors were so excited for the opportunity to hear Dr. Frances Deter. He was the guest speaker for a training session for pastors in the Chattanooga area. Clarence Salee, the chaplain of Moccasin Bend Mental Health Center was sponsoring this event. His topic for the day was "You are more important than a tree."

Dr. Deter began his presentation to us with a personal story. He and his wife had made arrangements for their seven year old grandson to spend some time at their home during the Spring vacation. Their grandson, Tim, was ready. He was so excited, trying to guess what his grandparents had planned for the day. Both granddad and grandmother had some special activities in mind. At the breakfast table Tim asked "What are the plans?" Dr. Deter said, "I was ready." "I suggest we go to the plant nursery and buy a special tree in Tim's honor, and plant it today somewhere on our property." Both grandmother and Tim thought it was a great idea. As grandfather and Tim went off to buy the tree, grandmother reminded grandfather to not use up too much of the day, because she had several things she wanted to do with her grandson.

It turned out to be a long morning. First the "men" were gone about two hours picking out the tree, a beautiful cherry tree. When they returned, after some refreshments, they were off to find just the right place to plant the tree. Grandmother was getting irritated, because they were taking so long to do what she considered to be a simple task. By the time they got in for lunch, grandmother was not in a good mood. When they sat down to eat, grandmother, immediately said, "I want you two to know that I am a little irritated with you. You have used up half of the day. Now we can not do all the things I hoped we would be able to do." After listening to grandmother for sometime, she finally said, "It just does not make sense to spend all morning planting one tree. Just how long does it take to plant a tree?" To that question grandfather answered, "It took all morning because Tim is more important than the tree."

Then Doctor Deter turned to those of us he was teaching and asked, "What do you think I meant when I told my wife that the boy is more important than the tree?" We had a wonderful discussion about our need to relate to persons as more important than things, or schedules, and activities.

Scriptural insight: "Jesus asked, 'Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?' Then He called a child to come to him. Jesus took the child and put him in the midst of those He was teaching"(Matthew 18:1,2).

90-yr-old gets diploma

2009-06-09T08:29:00.004-04:00

90-year-old Ill. woman gets high school diploma

(see story after poem)

Poem
Congratulations Eleanor for your Graduation

Eleanor Benz left Chicago Public Schools' Lake View High in 1936.

Her friends could not believe, that in the middle of the year,

She would leave, with only a short time left before her graduation.

They knew that education to Eleanor was very dear.

It was a puzzle that she would drop out with graduation so near.

To her teachers and fellow students Eleanor's reasons were not clear.

Later they discovered that her leaving was related to a family need.

When a job offer came, she took it with amazing speed.

Therefore, she became the most famous "drop out" of the year.

Over the following decades she moved to the suburb of Gurnee,

Where she developed a "career", and continued a family whoopee.

Though out the years, Eleanor increased her family,

By adding 15 children, 54 grandchildren and 37 great grand ones.

During this time she never lost her love of learning.

She continued night school along with her daily income earning.

Eleanor increased her skills by attending night school,

Where she became a proficient typist and bookkeeper,

Adding valuable offerings to her employment skills pool.

Recently, in the spring of 2009, she shared with one of her daughters,

That never completing high school was a greatest disappointment.

Her children contacted Lake View leaders, and made an appointment.

A 90-year-old suburban Chicago woman who dropped out of school.

To help family during the Great Depression now has had her graduation Jubilee.

During the first week of June, at Eleanor's 90th birthday party,

The Benz's family presented her with a Lake View High degree,

Plus a 2009 gown and cap with a 1936 tassel.

She was as pleased as a queen, being crowned in her castle.

90-year-old Ill. woman gets high school diploma

A 90-year-old suburban Chicago woman who dropped out of school to help her family during the Great Depression now has her high school diploma.

Eleanor Benz left Chicago Public Schools' Lake View High in 1936 during her senior year to take a job. Over the following decades she moved to the suburb of Gurnee and had 15 children, 54 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.

Benz attended night school for typing and bookkeeping, but she recently told one of her daughters that never completing high school was one of her greatest disappointments. Her children contacted Lake View, and the school approved Benz's diploma.

This week, at her 90th birthday party, Benz's family presented her with the diploma and a 2009 gown and cap with a 1936 tassel.

http://my.freeze.com/StoryHandler.aspx?category=31&story=314457

Faith Story - "Jane"

2009-06-09T08:26:00.000-04:00

Several years ago I was preaching for Curt Mckee, a close friend of mine, who was a pastor in Virginia. One of his members, a student, who was about ready to graduate from college, asked me to counsel her concerning her call. She was sure that God was calling her to become a missionary. Her heart was set on North Africa. Let's call her Jane. Today I have been reading Jane's mission letter to her supporters. She had been on vacation only a few days when she decided to call her host national family with whom she lives. She wanted to report to them that she was doing well and having a good vacation experience. While talking to the mother of the home she was surprised to learn that her young daughter, Yusra, was to be married in three weeks. This surprised Jane since she knew Yusra very well, and she had never mentioned that she had found that special one to be her husband. In fact, Yusra, had not seen her prospective husband, a cousin, for several years. Within the last few days, Yusra's cousin, had returned to their village with the desire to find a wife from among his cousins. He took a few days to visit all his cousins in the area. He decided that Yusra was the one he wanted for his wife. He worked out the details with her parents and the date was set for the wedding.

When Jane arrived back "home" she found that Yusra was very busy getting ready for the wedding. She was busy with intensive 'beauty treatments' and could not see her fiancee until the wedding day. Yusra excitedly showed Jane a suitcase full of new clothes that her fiancee had bought her. Since he arrived, looking for a wife, Yusra had only seen him twice before the day of the wedding. Since they practice another religion rather than Christianity, Yusra and her husband to be had no expectations of marriage involving shared decision making, caring for each other, building trust or a sense of equality. Marriage to them was a set of roles and tasks. They do not see that in their marriage they might have love, grace, forgiveness, redemption and a God who put on skin so we could know Him. Jane asked us to pray for Yusra and her new husband so that they might realize that it is possible in marriage to have what Jesus called, a relationship where "two shall become one."

If you want to receive missionary "Jane's" newsletter and support her in her mission work, contact me and I will be able to arrange for you to communicate with her. Call me at 423-413-5653 or email me at Curtis@farmerstel.com.

Trinity

2009-06-08T18:19:00.004-04:00

Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked his disciples to baptize new believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit(see Matthew 28:19,20)? The theologians of historical Christianity describe this mystery as the Trinity: God is one, but there are three persons in the Godhead; and all three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are all the same substance.

When I was in theological training we asked professor Dr. Mack Stokes to explain the Trinity so that we could better understand it. He answered us "God is three in one. Is not this a contradiction? No, but it is a mystery. There is only one God. But, on the basis of the Bible, Christians across the centuries have urged that we say more than that. Like Philip in John 14 we keep asking, 'Show us the Father and we will be satisfied.' For the one true God is revealed in different ways in relation to our lives.

"For example, we use several identities of a person to reveal who he or she is. We ask 'Who is that man standing over there?' Someone else says, 'He is the manager of this rail road. He sees that the trains run on time and do not crash. He is more than the manager, he is the owner of this railroad. And more important than that he is my dad.' He is only one man, but he lives as a manager, the owner, and my dad.

"The one true God is revealed in different ways in relation to our lives. So, in struggling to express this fact, Christians have recognized three interrelated but distinct kinds of activities in which God is engaged. What are they?...God is one being with at least three structural differentiations...They are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (1) God the Father is Creator and Sustainer of the universeand He maintains the creation. (2) God the Son is the redeemer and the re-creator of our souls. God has come to us as Jesus Christ, the incarnate One. In Jesus God has revealed His personal and loving character. (3) God the Holy Spirit is experienced by us as God in our hearts and minds. God is experienced as very present in the community of prayer and faith where Jesus Christ is proclaimed as Lord. God as the Holy Spirit is especially experienced by us in the mission of the Church. It is God as the Spirit who inspires us to share the Gospel with others, and who gives us gifts of the Spirit to enable us to fulfill Christ's mission in the world."(see pp.43,44; MAJOR UNITED METHODIST BELIEFS, Mack Stokes).

Find a place apart today and focus on Matthew 28:19, 20. Pray that your heart, mind, and soul will be more open to understanding who and what God is.

You can read faith stories by calling Jenny, toll free(1-866-308-6235, extention 5127), and ordering: "Into All The World."

Faith Story - Larry Williams

2009-06-08T18:16:00.004-04:00

In 1999 I shared with Larry Williams, the pastor of Sand Mt United Methodist Church, how God had opened up a great mission field in Kazakhstan, a newly established nation in Asia. Kazakhstan, as a nation, came into existence after the 1992 fall of the former Soviet Union. I was serving as the Vice President of Development for The Mission Society for United Methodists. God had opened the door for The Mission Society to place twenty six missionaries, serving in the new country. Our missionaries had discovered a serious problem facing the people of Kazakhstan. Because of the long winters, there was only a short summer season for the people to produce all the food that was needed. Our missionaries had established several orphanages. They were struggling to keep the children alive and healthy because of inadequate food supplies.

Since Larry Williams, our part time pastor, was a full time agriculture teacher in the Georgia public education system, I felt led to ask him to consider putting together a small team of agriculture professionals and to do a short term mission in Kazakhstan,

studying the situation so as to establish an agriculture program that would be available to the people through our missionaries.

In the summer of 2000 Larry met three agriculture specialists at the Atlanta Airport. He recruited them to go with him on a short term mission to Kazakhstan. He had never met them personally until that moment when they came together for this mission. He had prepared them to do a professional study of the needs of the missionaries and the Kazak people as related to the benefits of an adequate agriculture program. One was Dr. Earl Goodman, retired agriculture professor from Clemson University in South Carolina. Another was a retired administrator, Wilson Lee from Auburn University. The third was the Reverend Steve Johnson, a pastor and former chicken farmer, from California. Their mission was not only successful for helping the missionaries and members of the six churches established by our missionaries in Kazakhstan, but has launched a new ministry of The Mission Society, called Argimissions.

Recently, I had the privilege of going to Crockett, Texas with Larry and several others leaders of Agrimissions to clean up what was at green house and garden center of an abandoned high school building. Through the leadership of Larry Williams and Doug Neel, a partnership with Crockett United Methodist Church and Agrimissions has been formed to train short term and long term missionaries how to help people to be more effective in growing their own food and also in sharing Jesus Christ, who is the Bread of life.

You can find out how you can serve with your faith and your skills in agriculture, by calling Larry Williams, a retired teacher, who lives among us, right here in Dade county.

A few days in the life of missionaries in a strange country

2009-06-08T18:11:00.000-04:00

The following is part of a letter from Carol, a missionary with her husband Steve.

Recently, missionary, Carol Johnson, wrote, "we hosted two leaders from The Mission Society who came for the big 15th birthday of The Friendship Corporation and the Living Vine Church. The Living Vine Church actually has become two wonderful churches. The original one that we attend, which is all in Russian, and a Kazakh fellowship which meets at a different facility and whose services are all in Kazakh. There were lots of events around that weekend including a big all day church event. The morning was a worship service with mini-sermons, lots of praise music, prayer and testimonies by people of the Living Vine Church. Then there were special gifts given from America to the church and from the churches to The Mission Society. A wonderful lunch was provided by the Kazakh church for all. The afternoon service was testimonies, prayer, mini-sermons, praise music Kazakh style and it was absolutely beautiful. Some were familiar songs but with a different musical twist. I wish you could all hear it. Once again there were testimonies and then there was a very powerful skit by the university students and special dancing by Kazakh women and one young girl did her own dance all in national costumes. It was very, very special. The entire event started at 10 am and ended at about 5:15 PM. A very full and appropriate date full of celebration."

Steve, Carol's husband is working with the mission Field Leader, Douglas, concerning management and financial issues. The two leaders from The Mission Society met with Steve several times while they were there to get reports, discuss and help come up with a game plan. Steve is devoting a lot of his time and energy to this process. The Field Leader, Douglas, has been under a lot of stress. He and his family have left for a vacation and time of renewal in the States. They will be gone until sometime in July or August. Steve will be overseeing the field while Douglas is gone and as long as he and Carol are there. Steve's administrative background before becoming a pastor is a huge help there along with his natural analytical skills. His Pastor's role must cover it all so that everything is done in a Godly way. Your prayers for the entire process will be greatly appreciated.

It is amazing how God has worked in the lives of the over twenty missionaries who have served or are serving in Kazakhstan during the last fifteen years. One of the outstanding churches began when a medical doctor from Michigan went to serve for a short period of time. When missionary, Joyce Chelius, took the doctor to visit one of the villages where immigrants from Poland had come to Kazakhstan by force from the Communist government. The doctor was immediately rushed to the home of a very old lady who was very sick. When the guest doctor examined the patient, he reported bad news to the patient's daughter. He said, "I am sorrow that I can not help your mother. She is dying." When the daughter and her family insisted that he try, the doctor said, "I can not help your mother, but I have a boss who is able to heal her if it is His will." When they inquired who his boss was, the doctor said, "My Boss is Jesus Christ, the great physician. Will you give me permission to pray with your mother?" The daughter said, "By all means." When the family members filled the house, the American doctor, in fear and trembling read the story of how Jesus healed a woman who had been very ill for a long time. He concluded the story by saying, "When this woman slipped through the crowd and reached out and touched Jesus coat, she immediately felt the healing power of God go through her body." Then the doctor said, "All who will pray with me that the healing power of Jesus will go through her body, do so as I pray." When the prayers were finished, the older woman who had been very ill, opened her eyes and asked for something to eat. The whole village began to praise God. No one was more amazed than the visiting doctor, who found that his faith in Jesus Christ was the most powerful medicine available to him, and he had become the founder of a Christian Church. Scriptural Guide: Read Matthew 9:20-22.

Call The Mission Society(1-800-478-8963)

Faith Story - Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey

2009-05-14T15:22:00.002-04:00

Challenge: Use this May 09 letter as a prayer guide for missionaries Arthur & Mary Alice Ivey, Huancayo, Perú

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord Jesus Christ for all He is doing in our lives and in the ministry here in Peru, for filling us with His Holy Spirit to guide and direct each of our steps, and for pouring out His grace upon us...

In April, Billy, Genaro, and Arthur traveled to Panao to make preparations for the upcoming medical campaign that will take place in July. A team from Asbury United Methodist Church in Kentucky will be coming to work with us on this project. Panao is a small town in the middle of the Pachatea region outside of Huanuco. The people of this area are Quechua Panao speakers. We currently have ten to twelve discipleship groups functioning in this area, and the ministry is growing. We have been working to translate the discipleship materials to the Panao dialect, and hope to have the first small book ready for use in this medical campaign. This is very important because the Bible has not yet been published in this language, and is due to be released in late 2009 or early 2010.

These medical campaigns require months of planning, but always result in a great harvest. We are expecting to treat between 1500 and 2000 patients, and based on past experience we expect to see around 500 or more professions of faith. Three churches in Panao and the discipleship groups will all be involved in the event and the follow up of these new believers. Please be in prayer for us for everything to be planned and in place for this event, and for the Lord Jesus’ will to be done. Please pray that God will prepare the hearts of the people in Panao to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord. Please also pray for our local workers in Panao: Manuel Villar, Pablo Villogas, and Edmin Leon.

We were also blessed to have John Pearson, and Chris and Angela Mitchell from Roswell United Methodist Church with us to conduct a workshop on micro enterprise. We taught 13 students the basic concepts for analyzing a micro business idea, writing a business plan, and starting and running a small business. A number of the students were some of our national missionary workers. We are hoping that this will help them to find ways to sustain themselves in the ministries in their respective areas. Three of our national workers are already involved with us in two small businesses. One is a restaurant in Lima, and the other is the soft drink bottling plant in Puerto Bermudez. Please be in prayer for each of these students, that the Lord Jesus would lead them and guide them though this process, and that he would bless them with means to support themselves in the ministry.

Pastor Alberto, Karen, Arthur, and Mary Alice held another leadership retreat for the discipleship leaders in San Ramon. The participants received the teaching well, and seemed to grow in their relationship with the Lord. They were excited about continuing the work of discipleship. Please pray God will give wisdom to these leaders as they lead their discipleship groups, and that Christ will change the lives of each person involved in the groups.

Please give praise to the Lord for bringing us additional persons called to be part of the missionary team in Peru. Covenant with us to continue in prayer for the young adult leadership team and their continued ministry to the spiritually lost and dying youth of Huancayo. Please pray for the leaders of the churches in Peru, and for their spiritual protection and growth in the Lord Jesus. Also be in prayer for Billy and Laurie Drum, Ash and Audra McEuen, Martin and Tracy Reeves, Louise Reimer, and their families. All are missionaries with the Mission Society that currently or will soon be working in Peru. Pray also for Obed and Cynthia Alvarez, the head of NEWMA, as well as their other leaders and national missionaries. Please pray for our safety as we travel, and that we will boldly speak God's Word wherever we go.

We pray that Jesus will continue to give you hope to live each day for Him, and we also pray that God is drawing you closer and closer to Him every day. God bless you. We love you.

Yours in Christ,

Arthur, Mary Alice, Benjamin, Joshua, and Mary Beth Ivey

Write for a picture and prayer card of the Ivey family: The Mission Society Missionaries to Peru, P.O. Box 922637 Norcross, Georgia 30010-2637

"Take the teachings that you heard me proclaim in the presence of many witnesses, and entrust them to reliable people, who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:2 (Today’s English Version)

The Privileged Planet

2009-05-13T09:43:00.012-04:00

Recently I watched The Privileged Planet. Contemporary scientists, were challenging the so called scientific theories of the past that the earth is just an insignificant planet rotating around an insignificant star. They concluded that all the present day knowledge of the earth and the universe reveals that the earth is uniquely placed in the universe by an intelligence for a purpose. Therefore, I want to share their conclusions.

There is an opinion, common among purely secular scientists, that our earthly existence is not only rather ordinary, but in fact, insignificant and purposeless. An accomplished astronomer, the late Carl Sagan, typifies this view in his book '"Pale Blue Dot". He took the position that a space photo, showing the reflection of sunlight on the earth, making the earth seeming to be sitting in a beam of light, can be misinterpreted as if there were some special significance to this small world. Dr. Sagan, momentarily stepped outside his scientific discipline, to say that a photo of the earth sitting in a beam of light is just an accident of geometry and optics. "Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe", was challenged by Dr. Sagan( Sagan, Carl,1994. "Pale Blue Dot": New York: Random House). He claimed our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint('except in Biblical revelation, such as the star of Bethlehem', -this writer's observation ) that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. However some present day scientists, sharing their expertice on The Privileged Planet documentary say "unprecedented scientific knowledge acquired in the last century, enabled by equally unprecedented technological achievements, when properly interpreted, contributes to a deeper appreciation of the earth's place in the cosmos."

In The Privileged Planet modern day scientists explore a striking feature of the natural world. A feature as widely grounded in the evidence of nature as it is wide-ranging in its implications: the conditions that allow for intelligent life on earth also make it strangely well suited for viewing and analyzing the universe. The fact that our atmosphere is clear; that our moon is just the right size and distance from earth, and that its gravity stabilizes the earth’s rotation; that our position in our galaxy is just so; that our sun is its precise mass and composition: all of these factors (and many more), are not only necessary for earth’s habitability; they also have been surprisingly crucial for scientists to measure and make discoveries about the universe.

According to the producers of The Pivileged Planet, "Mankind is unusually well positioned to decipher the cosmos. To put it more technically, 'measurability' seems to correlate with habitability. But is this correlation between the existence of complex life and our ability to make scientific discoveries simply a coincidence or the result of blind chance? Or does it point to a deeper explanation? The Privileged Planet examines these questions in a remarkable search for evidence of design and purpose within the universe. Utilizing stunning computer animation and the visual archives of NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope Institute, the European Space Agency, and leading observatories throughout the world, the program present a spectacular view of our planet, galaxy, and the entire cosmos."

Scriptural Guide: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were created by the Word and without the Word was not anything made...and the Word became flesh and lived amoung us."(John 1:1, 14).

Faith Story - Jake Matthews

2009-04-27T12:48:00.006-04:00

Recently I received an email from Milton Slater. Milton wrote about a man from Norfolk, Virginia and how on Sept 11th, 2003, TWO YEARS AFTER THE TRAGEDIES OF 9/11/2001, he called a local radio station.

His name was Robert Matthews. Robert reported that a few weeks before Sept. 11th, that he and his wife found out they were going to have their first child. She planned a trip out to California to visit her sister. On our way to the airport, they prayed that God would grant her a safe trip. Shortly after Robert said 'amen,' they both heard a loud pop and the car shook violently. By the time they had stopped and replaced a blown out tire they had missed her flight. Shortly after they returned home, they received a call from Robert's father who was retired NYFD. He asked what his daughter-in-law's flight number was. He informed Robert that the flight she missed was the one that crashed into the southern tower. He also shared that he was going to help. He said, "This is not something I can't just sit by for; I have to do something."

Robert was concerned for his father's safety, of course, but more because his father had never given his life to Christ.

Before he got off of the phone, he said, "take good care of my grandchild." Those were the last words Robert ever heard his father say. He died while helping in the rescue effort. After receiving word that his father had died, Robert's joy over the safety of his wife quickly became anger. He was angry at God, at his father, and at himself.

Several months later Robert reports that he was sitting at home with his wife and son, when there was a knock on the door. When Robert opened the door he saw a couple with a small child. The man looked at him and asked, "Was your father's name Jake Matthews. When Robert said, '"Yes", the visitor quickly grabbed his hand and said, "I never got the chance to meet your father, but it is an honor to meet his son."

He explained to Robert that his wife had worked in the World Trade Center and had been trapped inside after the attack. She was pregnant and had been caught under debris. He then explained that Jake Matthews had been the one to find his wife and free her. He then said to Robert, "my wife has something else to tell you." His wife then told Robert that while his father worked to free her, she talked to him and led him to faith in Christ. To this good news Robert shared, "Now I know that when I get to Heaven, my father will be standing beside Jesus to welcome me, and that you will be able to thank him yourselves." To make the event even more exciting the couple shared that when their baby was born, they named him Jacob Matthew, in honor of the man who gave his life so that a mother and baby could live.

Scriptural Guide: "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures Forever." Psalm 136:1

Faith Story - Bishop Fulton Sheen

2009-04-27T12:40:00.007-04:00

Recently, through one of the religious broadcast networks, I was able to reach back into the past to the 1970's and listened to Bishop Fulton Sheen, a Roman Catholic priest, who was one of the first leaders of the Church to use television to share hope. He was seeking to bring a message of hope to what he called "a people caught up in the down cycle of life." He was speaking to a generation who had recently experienced World War I and World War II, and who were facing a future darkened by the mushroom cloud of the spread of atomic weapons. He called our attention to our grandparents who gave us hope because they were the people of the 19th century, a people of hope, living in one of the up cycles of life. The 19th century was one of many great inventions and heroes who refused to flounder in the ashes and wreckage of the moment and stood on something solid, called faith, and used the fallen stones of their civilization to build new homes and factories, and places of worship. A great missionary movement began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A cry went out from the youth, "Let us win the world to Christ in this generation." Young people, caught again the spirit of hope that was experienced in the eighteenth century when Francis Asbury, a 26 year old young man from England, landed on the shores of North America to lead and expand a Methodist movement that found thousands of young men eager to answer the call of spiritually leading the pioneers of hope on the frontier. Hope spread by providing "preaching places' and Christian communities, in nearly every community in this new land.

Bishop Sheen said these were people of hope, not because life was easy, but because they refused to be satisfied with just the answers of "how", but were determined to find answers to the questions of "Why." In the 1950's through the 1970's Bishop Sheen called the post war generation to seek from their faith the answer to the "why" question. He closed his message by pointing to Jesus Christ who lived and died victoriously because He knew why He was here up this earth. "If you seek to save your life, you will lose life, but if you give your life for my sake and the gospel, you will find life"(Matthew 10:39).

Faith Story - Cheyenne

2009-03-19T09:25:00.003-04:00

Recently I received an email story from a good friend of mine. It has a powerful message. The author suggested that those who read it might want to forward the good news story to others. I have revised the story to be able to make it fit the newspaper column (and this blog.)

The daughter of an elderly father tells the story. Four days after his sixty-seventh birthday, he had a heart attack. He survived. But something inside Dad died. His zest for life was gone. Offers of help were turned aside with sarcasm and insults. His friends stopped coming.

She and her husband, Dick, asked Dad to come live with them. Within a week, she regretted the invitation. He criticized everything. Alarmed, her husband sought out their pastor. At the close of each session he prayed, asking God to soothe Dad's troubled mind.

But it seemed God did not hear. Finally, she called a mental health clinic. Just when she was giving up hope, one worker suddenly exclaimed, 'I just read something that might help you!' The article described a remarkable study done at a nursing home. All of the patients were under treatment for chronic depression. Yet their attitudes had improved dramatically when they were given responsibility for a dog.'

The daughter went immediately to a dog pound. There she discovered the pointer. He was a caricature of the breed. Years had etched his face and muzzle with shades of gray. His hipbones jutted out in lopsided triangles. But it was his eyes that caught and held her attention.

She pointed to the dog. 'Can you tell me about him?' The officer said, 'Appeared out of nowhere and sat in front of the gate. We brought him in, figuring someone would claim him. His time is up tomorrow.' He gestured helplessly.

As the words sank in she turned to the man. 'You mean you're going to kill him?' 'Ma'am,' he said gently, 'that's our policy.' She looked at the pointer again. The calm brown eyes awaited her decision. 'I'll take him,' she said. When she reached home she was helping her prize out of the car when Dad came up. 'Look what I got for you, Dad!' Dad looked, with his face in disgust. 'If I had wanted a dog I would have gotten one.'

Anger rose inside her. She yelled. 'You'd better get used to him, Dad. He's staying!' They stood glaring at each, when suddenly the pointer pulled free. He wobbled toward dad and sat down in front of him. Then slowly, carefully, he raised his paw.

Dad's lower jaw trembled as he stared at the uplifted paw. The pointer waited patiently. Then Dad was on his knees hugging the animal. Dad named the pointer Cheyenne. Together they explored the community, making many friends. They even started to attend Sunday services together.

Dad and Cheyenne were inseparable for three years. Dad's bitterness faded, and he and Cheyenne made many friends. Then one night Dad died in his sleep. Two days later the family shock and grief deepened when they discovered Cheyenne lying dead beside Dad's bed. They wrapped him in the rug he had slept on. As they buried him near a favorite fishing hole, Dad's daughter silently thanked God for the dog and the help he had given in restoring Dad's peace of mind.

An Exercise in Faith Building

2009-03-19T09:19:00.002-04:00

Recently the National News reported the results of a survey,
"More Americans Have No Religion, They say."
Since a religion is an organized system of values,
Giving lives meaning, purpose and faith for each and every day,
What does it mean when an increasing number begin to say,
"The foundations of our family heritage now get in our way"?
Is it possible when people say, "I have no religion,"
That their conclusion fails to come from a well designed position?
Often, it is only an expression of a popular secular cliché?
After all, it usually takes finding a higher set of values,
Not less values to say,
"I have given up our God. Our family's faith has been a facade."
It may mean that some, answering the survey, are saying,
"I no longer practice a regular ritual of praying,"
Or they mean "I am not, at this time, active in a religious institution,
Where I am regularly confessing my sins, seeking absolution."
Or maybe, " We no longer belong to a fellowship of believers,
In practicing sacrificial service to be better achievers."
If you are not at this time practicing being religious,
How you are going to fill your need to be more prodigious?*
Begin by making a list of your time consuming activities:
List the ones you practice regularly to meet your daily desires.
Rate them on a one to ten scale, as to how much time each requires;
Secondly, based on which ones, in a crisis, you will definitely keep,
Note the ones, in an emergency, that go to the garbage heap.
Now make a list of the different ways you spend your money.
Then circle the costly practices you will never give up,
Even if your income is cut to "half a cup."
Write a brief paragraph indicating where you need divine intervening.
To help you establish what is important in your search for meaning.
Then make a list of persons with whom you spend most of your time.
List some of the values in these persons, which you consider prime.
Move on to make yourself a list of things you "must do."
As if, you discovered that you have less than a year to live,
List the causes to which you would want to give.
Then make a note by ones calling you to be more active.
Now underline the ones you consider most attractive.
Write a prayer, asking for a focus to make you more proactive
Make a copy of the commandments you find in Exodus twenty.
Rate each one of these commandments on a one to ten scale,
With number one meaning "definitely not important to me"
And number ten meaning "very important for me,
To become the person I want to be."
Then write a paragraph on what your ratings of the commandments reveal.
Conclude with a one sentence prayer appeal.
The final test is to go and buy a paperback Gospel of John.
Read one chapter a day, and use a yellow highlighter to mark verses,
Which are saying something with which you totally agree.
In other words, do not focus on the sayings with which you disagree,
That exercise is for another day. Do you not see?
For now set aside the statements that are questionable to you.
Focus only on the teachings, you have no problem saying, "This is true!"
Then conclude this exercise by asking a special friend,
To discuss the verses you believe to be true for you.
Asking the friend to help in this "faith battle" to win.
Following each faith conversation with your friend,
Use the Scriptural verses to help write a letter to God's Son,
A letter, stored in your Bible, saying "Jesus, You are the One."

*receiving power beyond human limitations

Are You Religious?

2009-03-11T09:21:00.004-04:00

Recently Fox News reported the results of a survey, "More Americans Say They Have No Religion." Since a religion is a system of values that give human beings meaning, purpose and direction for their lives, what does it mean for a person to say they have no religion. Is it possible to have no religion? It takes a system of values of some kind to make a judgment that one has no religion. It may mean that the one answering the survey is saying, "I no longer practice the moral standards of my traditional religion," or it may mean "I am not active in any type of religious institution, such as a United Methodist Church, or the Roman Catholic Church, or a fellowship of believers in practicing a special activity that gives meaning and purpose for my life."

If you no longer consider yourself religious, how can you get some insight into what your new religion is? Begin by making a list of the following: List the activities you practice daily or weekly. Rate these activities on a one to ten basis; first as to how much time each requires; secondly based on which ones, in a crisis, you would definitely keep.

Then make a list of the different ways you spend your money. Then circle the items that you would definitely not give up if your income was suddenly cut in half. Write a brief paragraph as to what these exercises reveal about what is most important. Then make a list of persons you spend most of your time with. List some of the values of each of these persons, and underline the values of each you consider most attractive. Make a "to do" list. If your doctor told you that you have less than a year to live, what would be on your list? Circle the activities you consider most important and make a note by each, stating why you have circled each.

Another test I would ask you to do is to open the Bible to Exodus 20 and make a copy of the Ten Commandments. Then rate each one of these commandments on a one to ten scale, with number one meaning "definitely not important to me" and number ten meaning "very important to me." Then write a brief paragraph about what your ratings of the commandments reveal about you. The final test I would ask you to make is to go and buy a paperback New Testament. Then open your new Bible to the Gospel of John. Read one chapter a day, and use a yellow highlighter to mark each verse or saying that is something with which you totally agree. In other words, do not focus on the sayings that you disagree with or that are questionable to you. Focus only on the teachings, that from your own experience, you have no problem saying, "This is true!" Then conclude this exercise by asking a person, for whom you have great respect, to sit down with you, looking at your Bible and discussing with you verses you have highlighted. After the conversation with your friend, take the copy of your highlighted Bible and use it to write a letter to God which you will keep in your Bible as a future faith builder.

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

2009-03-09T18:14:00.001-04:00

Yamauchi was sought out and found by Lee Strobel, an investigative journalist who was determined to discover any corroborating evidence about the life and teachings of Jesus and the early church. After a long conversation and examination of historical sources in Professor Yamauchi's study the investigative reporter asked, "What do we know about Jesus apart from the teachings and witnesses of the New Testament?" He followed up his question by asking, "What if we pretend we do not have the evidence of the New Testament or that of historical writings by ancient Christian leaders, what would we be able to corroborate from ancient non-believing writers about who Jesus was?

Professor Yamauchi answered, "Even without the Christian writers we have several non-Christian sources that give us insights into who Jesus was. We have Josephus, the Jewish Talmud, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and others. From these records we know the following:

1. Jesus lived in the first century and was a Jewish teacher;

2. Many people believed that He performed healings and exorcisms;

3. Some people believed that He was the Messiah;

4. He was rejected by the Jewish leaders;

5. He was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius;

6. Despite his shameful death, his followers, believed He was still alive and spread the story so much so that a large group of Christians lived in the City of Rome in AD 64.

7. All kinds of people, across the Roman Empire, from cities and countryside -- men and women, slaves and free -- worshipped Him as God."(see Lee Strobel, "The Case for Christ" pp. 86,87).

In the early 1990's Clara (my wife) and I visited Jerusalem. We walked through the ancient city, tracing the last journey Jesus made through the city before his death. We stopped at the places, called stations of the Cross. These are places that tradition says certain acts of suffering happened to Jesus as He made his way out of the city to "place of the skull" to be crucified by the Romans, dying for the sins of all humankind. We ended the journey, outside the ancient city, at a place where a great stone cliff bears the image of a human skull. The scriptures tell us that Jesus was crucified out of the city at the place of the skull. Close by is an ancient garden. In that garden is an ancient grave, carved out of a large rock. It was there we paused for a worship service and including looking into the empty grave as some disciples did on Easter morning. Then we sang, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." We concluded the service by the reading the Easter story.

Twenty four hours later we were standing in New Home Baptist Church near Trenton, Georgia singing with a wonderful choir, led by a member of our family, singing, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." We thanked God for the many unknown witnesses who have carried the story of the death and resurrection to multitudes from the empty tomb outside Jerusalem to the dedicated group of Christian disciples in Dade Country, Georgia.

Lenten Insights From A Preacher*

2009-03-04T09:57:00.003-05:00

We humans are part of creation; physical beings; considered the most complex of the mammals. We are also homo faber, the maker of tools; creating some wonderful and some monstrous ones. We are also the humanus, who can not only communicate with signs, but can speak. We not only maintain our existence, but also create and shape culture and civilization.

What is more amazing is we have an individual identity, like no other known created being. Soon after birth it is evident to those who care for us that we quickly become individuals. We each are a person, who becomes the 'I-Self' in union with the 'Thou.' We are also the creatures who are forever seeking to know ourselves, even while we flee from self. We are forever drawn and attracted to something higher than ourselves. We dream of 'eternity' and are forever trying to make an everlasting contribution.

Therefore, human beings have gods or a God, from whom we are seeking guidance. In other words, human beings are religious, always seeking a Higher Being; someone who can help us to make meaning and eternal purpose out of existence. Our sense of being related to a Higher Power drives us to seek to influence outcomes; not only in his earthly life span, but also in eternity.

Therefore, human beings are incurably religious, often even trying to substitute Self for God. We are never satisfied with accepting our physical and intellectual temporary existence. No matter how sophisticated and knowledgeable we become we are always homo religious. We are forever seeking to find meaning in our lives, not only for this life, but for eternity. We can no more rid ourselves of our homo religious nature than we can reject our need to experience life from the concepts of past, present, and future.

It is no wonder that from the time He was born until the present, 2000 plus years later, millions of human beings find in Jesus Christ the One who gives life meaning and hope.

During this Lenten Season we celebrate that in Jesus Christ, God became one of us; Even to the point of taking our sins upon Himself, in order to save us for God's eternal purposes.

*Curtis Schofield was moved by these insights while reading "Man In Revolt" by Emil Brunner.

(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Brunner)

"I Love to Steal Awhile Away"

2009-03-03T08:23:00.003-05:00

Is there any hope to accomplish anything worth-while when your life has gotten off to the wrong start? Phoebe Hinsdale was left an orphan when she was only two years old. A member of her family , the keeper of the county jail, raised her amid drudgery and cruel hardship. She, who was destined to write one of the great Christian hymns, never learned to read until she was eighteen. In the three months she was allowed to go to school, she not only learned to read, but she learned about Jesus, and gave her heart to Him.

Later she married a house-painter, Timothy Brown. They lived in poverty in a very small unfinished house in Ellington, Connecticut. She had very little time for herself, with a demanding husband, four children, and a sick sister to care for. She had a strong need to find time to be alone with the Lord, but there was no place in their crowded small house to find a place to be alone with Jesus. Therefore, at twilight she would frequently slip away from the house and walk alone along the road as far as her neighbor's beautiful garden for devout meditation and communion with God. The owner of the garden confronted her one day by saying, "Mrs. Brown, why do you come up at evening so near our house and then go back without coming in? If you want anything, why do you not come in and ask?"

According to Carl Price, who wrote "One Hundred And One Hymn Stories," that very night with all the children in bed, except the baby in her arms, she wrote "An Apology for My Twilight Rambles, Addressed to a Lady." Her letter became the heart of one of the most famous hymns ever written, "I Love to Steal Awhile Away."

I LOVE to steal awhile away from every cumbering care,

And spend the hours of setting day in humble, grateful prayer.

I love, in solitude, to shed the penitential tear;

And all His promises to plead, when none but God can hear.

I love to think on mercies past, and future good implore;

And all my cares and sorrows cast on Him whom I adore.

I love, by faith, to take a view of brighter scenes in heaven;

The prospect doth my strength renew, while here by tempests driven.

Thus, when life's toilsome day is o'er,

May its departing ray

Be calm as this impressive hour,

And lead to endless day.

-Phoebe (Hinsdale) Brown. 1783–1861

BROWN, Phoebe Hinsdale, poet, born in Canaan, New York, in 1783; died in Henry, Illinois, 10 October, 1861. She married Timothy H. Brown. In 1824 she contributed to Dr. Asahel Nettleton's "Village Hymns" the popular lyric, "I Love to steal Awhile Away," and several of her hymns are in Cleveland's " Lyra Sacra Americana." One of her sons became a missionary in Japan.

http://www.bartleby.com/102/4.html

"Your Mission"

2009-03-02T16:33:00.003-05:00

History records that Daniel March(1816-1909) said the hymn, "Your Mission" was a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln. March claimed that Lincoln especially liked the version sung by Philip Phillips during the Civil War. The hymn begain with "Hark, the voice of Jesus crying, 'Who will go and work today?"' and closed with the words, "Who will answer, gladly saying, 'Here am I, send me, send me.'"

After his graduation from Yale in 1840, Daniel March studied for the ministry and in 1845 received ordination .He became a pastor and was asked to preach for a special occasion before the Christian Association in Philadelphia. He wrote his own closing hymn to fit the text of his message which was from Isaiah 6:8, "Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me."

Many believe that George Duffield was influenced by March's hymn when he wrote, "Stand Up For Jesus." Many disciples, who go to battle to protect their loved ones, their country, their church, the freedoms and the values which have made them strong, have been inspired by the third verse, "Stand up for Jesus. Stand in His strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you. You can not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor. Each piece put on with prayer. Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there."

Each of us has his or her own battles. Even though we tend to think that our primary adversary is some person or people, the Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatian Christians informed them and us, our conflict is not primarily with others, but our enemy is spiritual: "For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit...These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness...yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions...But what happens when we live Christ's way? He brings gifts into our lives—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way...(Galitians 5:16-24, The Messenger Version).

To be almost saved is to be entirely lost

2009-03-02T16:26:00.005-05:00

In the year A.D. 62 a well known Roman citizen was thrown into the city jail, because some business people, along with the support of some of the religious leaders, did not like the popularity of his message. Because he was a citizen of Rome he was protected from being abused by the locals. When it became evident that the local leaders were determined to build a false case against him, the prisoner appealed to the justice system to give him his rights as a Roman citizen to have his case heard by the Caesar himself. Therefore the local officials were obligated to submit official charges against him, to accompany him on his trip to be heard by the Caesar. Therefore, the prisoner, Paul, a leader of the Christian movement, was asked to state his defense before King Agrippa and Bernice, who were visiting with the Roman governor, Fetus. The defense of Paul is found in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Acts of the Apostles. I believe you will be greatly impressed by the power of Paul's defense when you read it. At the conclusion King Agrippa said to Paul, "Almost you persuade me to be a Christian." To this statement Paul responded, "I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains that hinder me."

Once when Philip Bliss was listening to a well known pastor, preaching from this very same text, he was really moved when the pastor said, "He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is to be entirely lost." He went home and sat down and wrote the words to what would become a great hymn, which was used frequently in the camp meetings of the great awakening in 19th century. Many unbelievers were moved to step forward and proclaim their faith in Christ once the words of Philip Bliss's great revival hymn touched their hearts:

Almost persuaded now to believe;

Almost persuaded Christ to receive.

Seems now some soul to say, Go, Spirit, go away.

Some more convenient day, On Thee I'll call.

Almost can not avail.

Almost is but to fail.

Sad, sad, that bitter wail;

Almost but lost.

I personally like the affirmation of a man whose life was saved from being "slave trader John," to being "soul winner, Brother John Newton": "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see."

2009-02-23T10:52:00.003-05:00

Recently a friend recommended a book to me, "20/20 Vision: Amazing Stories of What God Is Doing Around the World," by Bill and Amy Stearns. In the book is the story of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ came to Mongolia.

"In the 1870’s Swedish missionaries arrived in Mongolia. After four decades not a single indigenous church had been established. Then, in 1921, Mongolia voluntarily invited the Soviets to bring communism to their country." In the ensuing purge, every vestige of any religion was erased.

"In 1980, a young Mongolian named 'Yi'...went to study at a university in Moscow. He was given an English-language Bible by a fellow student from Tanzania. 'You can study English with it,' the Tanzanian student explained. Yi studied the Bible for seven years, returning to Mongolia and rising to a top English interpreter position with the Mongolian government.

"In 1987, Yi was assigned to an American big-game hunt tourist group. Douglas Coe, Evangelical leader of 'The Family' and political mentor for many politicians...During the hunting trip, Yi found the opportunity to secretly ask him, 'Do you know God?' Douglas nodded. Three hours later, Yi was able to whisper, 'What is His name?' 'Jesus Christ' In bits and pieces of stolen conversations throughout the rest of the big-game hunt, Douglas was able to introduce Yi to Jesus. 'Don’t worry,' he told Yi. 'I know it’s illegal to be a Christian; and, it will be hard for you. But friends will come.'

"Three years later, Yi was assigned to another foreign tour group, this time a group of Native American cowboys of Navajo, Winnebago, Cocapaw, and other Native American descent, who came to Mongolia to perform in the national nadim, a competition in horsemanship! By God's grace and foresight, the tourist group was composed of Christian Native American cowboys! Yi translated their testimonies on national television and interpreted their explanation of the Gospel to press groups and officials.

"Several Mongolians responded to the tourist group’s challenge to receive Jesus Christ, and Yi spent hours and hours absorbing everything the cowboys knew about God! Then, they too left Mongolia. Yi began discipling those Mongolians who had come to Christ through the cowboys’ ministry. Some time later, another tour group came, a few members of which just happened to be pastors! The ministers, after days of intense discipling, realized the depth of Yi’s Bible knowledge. For this reason they all gathered together in a hotel room in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, on a cold day in November 1990 and ordained Yi as an elder of the first Mongolian church in the history of the world!" Report by BROWNNAIK@aol.com.

Jesus Christ builds His Church 24/7, night and day, all around the globe. The work of building the Church never ceases! The Church triumphant is not about building buildings. Rather, it is about building lives!

According to the record in "Operation World" by Patrick Johnstone "The young Mongolian Church is a reality for the first time in modern history. The believers are eagerly evangelizing, and new converts are won weekly."

Read more inspiring stories by ordering "Into All The World" by this writer. Call toll free, Jenny 866-308-6235 extension 5127.

Make plans now to plant a garden

2009-02-20T14:12:00.003-05:00

The projections for the near future of our economy are not good. Many of our leaders are telling us that our incomes will get much worse before they get better. This makes me ask, "What can we learn from our ancestors, who survived when the economy was bad? From our library I picked up a copy of "Count Me In" by T. Euclid Rains, Sr. Euclid was a relative of Clara, my wife. He is famous in the Alabama area for his being able to manage a farm even though he was totally blind. His wife, Nell, had to give up her job when Tommy was born, because Tommy's health problem required constant attention from his mother. "When we brought Tommy home from the hospital, we knew we had monumental financial problems to solve. After Nell and I huddled, we agreed the answer to our survival and well-being as a family would have to come from the soil and our frugal handing of personal needs...Nell had a deep freeze and we bought a pressure cooker for canning. We rounded up some 300 canning jars of all sizes...The notion of our turning to the soil for the solution of our problems was realized in full. Within a year we were growing 52 items of food on Sunshine Farm and had reduced our grocery bill to about $2.75 per week."

How did they do it? They canned the blackberries, jellied the muscadines, and drank sassafras tea and grape juice. They "raised" their own milk, butter and eggs-butchered their own beef, pork and chickens-got fish from neighboring ponds and streams-and sometimes had rabbit, squirrel and quail from their farm. They ground and mixed their own sausage and raised the dill for their own pickles. In his book, "Count Me In" Euclid reported, "we became partners with my dad in pig farming. Dad did the driving and the hauling of the pigs, and I did the handling of the feed and other manual labor. And soon that whopping hospital bill for the weeks of care for baby Tommy just melted away like a snowball in July...We were prospering. We never stopped supporting our church and other charitable institutions and causes."

In his book Euclid asks, "Where have all the gardeners gone? Surely the answer to some of our poverty and hunger lies in the land up which we walk. A few plants of tomatoes, squash and cucumbers would brighten up a menu. Surely some of the fertile soil about us that is so rife with weeds and briars would be better off growing potatoes and beans. It requires only a little know how and some elbow grease."

We used to sit around at the family reunions and listen to Euclid talk. It was a treat. He would often conclude his sharing with these words, "Please let me reiterate: We were not poor. Our family was simply wallowing in plenty. We made ice cream nearly every warm day of summer and early fall. I remember one hot August afternoon, we made and consumed a whole gallon of rich Jersey ice cream. If we wanted walnut, if we wanted peach, or it we wanted strawberry or whatever flavor, it was in our pantry or deep freeze."

What can we do to help secure for our future? I believe Euclid would say, "Make plans now to plant a garden."

Sierra Leone, West Africa

2009-02-12T14:24:00.007-05:00

In January of 1979 twelve young adult members of Trinity United Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee led a three week medical mobile dental ministry to the poorest and richest area of Sierra Leone, West Africa. One of our assignments was to spend several days in Bo, known as one of the richest and poorest areas of the world. "Rich" because of its many productive diamond mines. "Poor" because the local residents, whose ancestors "owned" this area of the country for generations, now do not share in the great wealth from the resources that the Creator put in the earth for their well being.

When we arrived in the Bo area one of the first sights that caught our attention was a crew of men digging graves in a very large cemetery. When we asked if there had been some kind of natural disaster, we were told that the constant grave digging was natural because almost half the children in the Bo area die before they are five years old. We asked, "How can this be in one of the riches areas of the world?" The answer we received was that most of the wealth, except for some low paying laboring jobs, ends up in the hands of foreign investors. And when a baby is born many perform an ancient ritual of thanking mother earth by washing the child in mud made from the "sacred soil". Too often the tetanus germ enters the child's body through the "washing." For several days we provided medical and dental care for the residents. One of our hardest experiences was when a mother brought to us her baby boy with a high fever. Our medical team treated the child and our prayer team prayed with him. But to the mother's and our distress the child died during the night.

After serving for a week in the Bo area, we were pleased to receive an invitation to have dinner as guests of the wife of the Superintendent of the Bo Diamond Industry. We could not believe our eyes when we entered through the gate into the British compound of several hundred thousand acres. We dined in a mansion, entertained by one of the most gracious hostess I have ever met. She focused her attention on us. She was eager to hear our story. When we told her about our work with the citizens of Sierra Leone in the area near the British compound she could hardly believe that the citizens nearby were living in such poverty, and experiencing the death of so many of their children. She confessed that she had lived in the Bo area for several years, but she had only left the British compound by air and had never met any of her neighbors. She was not aware of the sickness and death all around her. For the next ten years the young adult Sunday school class of Trinity Church gave three weeks every January to send a group of their members to practice a medical and dental ministry with the citizens in the bush area of Sierra Leone. The class also provided the money for the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone to hire and supervise two full time dental nurses to serve the people in the bush area.

Nearby each of us there are persons who are lonely and suffering from poor health, feeling like no one cares. Some of them we see when we go to buy groceries. Others we meet at the post office. Sometimes we see them playing in the streets. Let us decide today when we meet others we will for them breath a prayer, and when the Lord opens the door, let us put "legs on our faith", and share with them Christ's care.

Pictured above is the late Bishop T.S. Bangura of the United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone.

Curtis Schofield was the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee for seven years. He is now retired and enjoying telling faith stories in churches and to his grandchildren.

Pray for the missionaries in Venezuela

2009-02-10T16:23:00.003-05:00

Pray for the missionaries in Venezuela, and for the Christian people who have come to Christ and Christian discipleship by working with missionaries. The Supreme Court of Venezuela recently, in November, 2008, ruled that the rights of New Tribes Mission of Venezuela had not been violated by the resolution issued by the Ministry of Interior and Justice on the 14th of November, 2005 that gave New Tribes Mission of Venezuela ninety days in which to remove its personnel from all indigenous areas. New Tribes Mission of Venezuela believed the government resolution to be unconstitutional and had sought to have it overturned by the Supreme Court. Recently the Supreme Court disagreed and ruled in favor of the government resolution.

One of the missionaries said "This has been disappointing, but we trust God, and seek to work within the context that He provides. We know that it it God who keeps the door open for His Word to continue to be proclaimed."

A recent report by Chris Mitchell, the CBN News Middle East Correspondent gives us hope for the places, like Venezuela, where the government is closing doors to Christian missionaries: "Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ commanded His followers to take His Gospel to the ends of the earth. This command, known as the Great Commission has yet to be completed. But a movement out of China believes the inspiring vision is helping them and Christians worldwide to fulfill that command,possibly within this generation.

The history of the Chinese house church is a powerful chronicle. In 1949, Mao Tse Tsung expelled the Western missionaries and began a campaign to purge China of Christianity. During this long campaign of persecution, many in the West feared that the light of the church would be extinguished. But like a stream in the desert, the church not only survived the harsh conditions, it thrived. Today, it is estimated that there are from 70-million to 100-million Christians in China. Brother Yun says it was like a modern-day book of Acts. Brother Yun told us, 'We just went everywhere. We found people who didn't know about Jesus. We healed the sick, we cast out demons and we led people into salvation of Jesus, and that is what we are doing today.' "During this time, Brother Yun, like many other Christians, was imprisoned and tortured, but his faith remained strong. Brother Yun said, 'It's that God Himself or Jesus Himself in a special way helped me to overcome this thing. It was more like, in myself, in my spirit and in my heart, I have to focus my eyes on Jesus. Think about His suffering for me. And so I was receiving strength from His suffering and that made me strong enough to overcome the persecution.'"

To learn more about how you can help missionaries share the gospel call The Mission Society(800-478-8963.)

We Have A Savior

2009-02-10T16:18:00.000-05:00

Once He was mocked as a despised Galilean "King".

To religious leaders He was no more than a play thing,

Belittled while He suffered rejection and execution to save us,

Suffering for our sins He died in our place.

Through His life and death, He brings us God's grace.

His enemies labeled Him a terrible sinner,

Who was for His own suffering and death to blame.

Today we hail Him as One who bore our sin and shame.

By His sacrificial merits we find mercy and favor,

Praising God for grace and resurrection power in Jesus' name.

He is the Paschal Lamb, appointed by God the Father,

To freely accept all our sins on Himself to be laid.

By His sacrificial gift we see God's love incarnate,

Suffering the total cost for full atonement made.

He made possible for every sin to be forgiven.

Through the virtue of the shedding of His innocent blood,

He destroyed the gates of hell,

And fed us everlasting bread unleavened,

So we could recover from the pit in which we fell,

Reconciling us with God, fully opening up the gates of Heaven.

Faith Story - Joyce Chellis

2009-02-05T17:07:00.002-05:00

Joyce Chellis is special. Her life in Sergeievka, Kazakhstan, as a missionary is an example of abundant life, even when living in poverty. She reminds us of the words of Jesus, "I am come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Her experience as a missionary in a poverty world gives us some good news today as we are now faced with recession. She recently wrote.

"I returned home to Michigan this fall just as it was becoming clear that our nation’s economic crisis was going to impact my state hard...I have recently been pondering Jesus’ promise of 'abundant life' vs. our understanding of 'abundance' in my village in Kazakhstan…

"Ten winters ago, I lived through a economic crisis far from Michigan. I watched children pass out from hunger, mothers with frozen fingers and frozen tears on their cheeks begging for flour to make bread for their kids, people were dying for lack of medicine and many elderly dying from lack of heat in their homes. I was overwhelmed. I found it easy to share Christ’s promise of eternal life but difficult to teach them Jesus’ promise of an abundant life here on earth. It has been these new Christians, most who continue in poverty that have taught me about abundance…

"The Lord didn’t just deliver Doosya from her sins; He delivered her from...a spirit of fear... It has been a rough road for this young wife and mother...but over the years she has seen answer prayers for her husband and daughters. All are now professing Christians; I am still amazed at how God provided a way for her two oldest daughters to go to college…an answer to a prayer she had shared with no one but God...

"Young Katya and her sister Tanya moved with their family of 13 when things were at there worst in our village…Why move to a village with no jobs and no food? Because it was better than one with no jobs, no food and no water. Katya, at 11 years old became one of the first converts…and she suffered ridicule and bitter abuse for it. Over time we’ve celebrated with them the purchase of a 4 room house that replaced a 2 room shack, the opportunity for both to attend university, and best of all, the conversion of several siblings as well as their atheist father before his death. Tanya said, 'We came here in search of water and God provided Living Water.'

"Just let me say that Katya’s families will probably never have running water, indoor bathrooms, or even a matched set of plates in their homes...But every single one of these 'poverty stricken' people are delighted to tell you about the abundant life that Jesus has given them…as Natalya once said to me when I was weeping over the abuse she was enduring, 'Joyce, you don’t get it, do you?'

"My prayer is that all of us...will 'get it'…the fact that sometimes God needs to realign our definition of abundance with His so we can continue to share that part of the Good News."

If you would like Joyce Chellis on your prayer list, and to receive reports from her about her mission work in Sergeievka, Kazakhstan, please call Dennis E. Brown at The Mission Society, 800.478.8963 ext. 9037.

Power in the name of Jesus

2009-02-04T08:18:00.004-05:00

She was so excited to be chosen to take the training to be a volunteer with Contact Telephone Ministry of Chattanooga. Her pastor had recommended her. She asked him "why me?" He replied, "The Contact workers are trained to befriend troubled callers. The way you are skilled at listening to the rest of us here in this community, makes me believe you would be an effective volunteer." Since she was retirement age, she was not sure she would be chosen to serve, even after taking the training. But even being given the opportunity to take the training excited her. So she took the fifty hours of training. She graduated and was invited to serve on the six to eleven shift. This meant she and another partner would sit by telephones and respond to callers who were aware that "help is as close as your telephone." Each time she was relieved from her service at 11:00pm, she left the center so content. What a joy it was to serve troubled and lonely people...She was rejoicing that life is so good. How wonderful it was to belong to this special group of servants, called Contact workers.

For her, life was so beautiful. That is until one night when she stepped out of the Contact Center into the darkness on a street in Highland Park, where the street was not well lighted. She looked up the street to her car. When she parked her car before entering the contact center it seem close to the Contact Center. Now, at 11 PM, in the dim light from too few street lights, her car seemed so far away. She started to go back in and ask Ralph, the volunteer who had just relieved her to walk her to her car, but she thought, "I can not let fear control me. If I am going to do this important work, I must be brave." So she said one of her favorite prayers, "Jesus, I accept your promise, 'I am with you always.' " So out into the darkened street Sarah went. She had walked no more than fifteen steps when she could hear the steps of a man behind her. She wondered, "Where did he come from? He was not anywhere to be seen, when I left the building." She hurried her pace to get to her car. She prayed, "Lord Jesus, thank you that I am not alone." She got her car keys out so as to be ready. When she got to the car, and put her key in, the hand of a stranger reached out and took hold of her shoulder. Her first thought was to scream, but instead, she said, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to take you hand off me, and leave." The intruder fled. She started her car and went home, rejoicing that there is power in the name of Jesus.

Twin Umbrellas

2009-01-26T09:44:00.003-05:00

Recently a friend sent me a story written by the late Rev. Dr. Gordon Targerson, a pastor in Worcester, Massachusetts, who was crossing the Atlantic Ocean by ship some years ago. He noticed on several occasions, a man sitting in a deck chair reading a Bible! One day, Rev. Dr. Targerson sat down beside him and said, "Forgive my curiosity. I’m a pastor. I notice you are a faithful Bible reader. I’d like to meet you."

After introductions, the man said, "I am Filipino. I was born into a good Catholic home. I went to the United States as a young man to study in one of your fine universities, intending to become a lawyer. On my first day on campus, a student dropped by to visit. He welcomed me and offered to help in any way he could. Then he asked me where I went to church. I told him I was a Catholic. He explained that the Catholic church was quite a distance away; but, he sat down and drew me a map. I thanked him and he left.

"On the following Sunday morning, it was raining. I decided to just skip church; but, then, there was a knock on my door. There stood my new friend and he was holding two (2) umbrellas. He said that he worried that I might not be able to read his map. So, he said he would escort me to the Catholic Church. I hurriedly dressed, thinking all the while what an unusually thoughtful person he was. I wondered what church he belonged to.

"As we walked along, I asked him about his church. He said that his church was just around the corner. So, I suggested that we go to his church this Sunday; and, then to mine the following Sunday. He agreed. However, somehow I felt so much at home in his church that I never got around to finding mine. After four years, I felt that Almighty God was leading me into the ordained ministry; rather than, the law! I went to Drew University Seminary and was ordained a Methodist minister. Then, I returned to the Philippines to serve in a Methodist parish. My name is Valencia - Bishop Valencia - Bishop of the Methodist Church in the Philippines."

Who is the hero of this story? It is the anonymous young man with "Twin Umbrellas." Thank God for these anonymous persons, who go the extra mile to be a friend to someone, and who share their "umbrellas" when there is wet weather, threatening to keep someone from the place he or she needs to be. Remember Andrew, one of Jesus disciples. We do not read that he became a great leader, like his brother, Simon Peter. But we do read that Andrew, after he found Jesus, went and found his own brother, Simon, and invited Simon to go with him to meet Jesus.

Faith Story - Tony Schofield

2009-01-26T09:33:00.004-05:00

Three months ago my brother, Tony, was doing a simple painting job on the side of his home. Because he could not reach high enough, he got a ladder and climbed higher. He had nearly finished the task, when he discovered that he needed to reach out a little further. When he did, the latter moved and he fell fifteen feet to the pavement below. In so doing he crushed his left ankle. His wife rushed him to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. His ankle had to be completely rebuilt.

There was some question of whether or not he would be able to walk without crutches. He called friends and asked for prayer. Today, I received a report from him as an answered prayer:

"After 3 months in a bed and wheelchair the doctor released me on Tuesday to put full weight on my left leg and start walking again. When we came back from the doctor I actually held on to the rail and walked up the front steps (beats the heck out of crabbing on my butt up and down). I am walking with crutches now for about 30 minutes a day. I can take a few steps without them, but I look like a drunk sailor in a hurricane. Anyway, the doctor says I should be able to walk a mile without assistance in 6 weeks. God is good. I am scheduled to get back to work on March 1st and can't wait. The only good thing is winter has passed me by. Thanks to all who have kept me and my familiy in your prayers."

A few weeks ago our son, Stephen and I went to Nashville to The Congress on Evangelism. We spent two nights in the home of my brother, Tony. We had some good times sharing with each other. We prayed together. It is good for brothers to pray with each other. In The Congress on Evangelism we heard Dr. Billy Abraham share how God had opened a new door in his life by getting to know a friend, who has become a prayer partner with Billy. The friend shared with us how he became a Christian by being influenced by the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote, "The Cost of Discipleship" while he was in a prison camp before he was put to death by the Nazis. The friend of Billy Abraham shared how he learned from the writings of Bonhoeffer the power of "The Jesus Prayer." Once he started praying "the Jesus prayer" throughout the day, his doubt began to be replaced by saving faith.

Let me challenge you to pray the Jesus prayer the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do before you go to sleep; "Jesus, the Son of God, have mercy on me." The Gospels reveal the power of one sentence prayers. Jesus assured the thief dying next to Him on a cross that "This day you will be with me in paradise," after the dying man had prayed, "Lord, remember me when you come to your Kingdom." Jesus told the story of how a man, considered to be unclean by the religious leaders, found a way into the Kingdom of God by sitting in the back of the worship service and praying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."

Faith Story - Larry Stewart

2009-01-22T08:37:00.004-05:00

Recently tears came to my eyes as I read about what influenced the late Larry Stewart, a Kansas City businessman, to anonymously give away an estimated $1,300,000 to causes that help those in need. The real story came out after Larry's death in February of 2007.

In an interview before he died, he was asked, "Is there some experience you had in your past that has greatly influenced you to want to help the needy?" He responded by telling this story. "I grew up in a poverty situation. It was very embarrassing. Once as a small boy I was desperately hungry. I went into a restaurant and ordered a large breakfast. It was wonderful. That is until it came time to pay the bill. I took the ticket to the cashier, and cried telling her I must have lost my money. The cashier was not fooled one bit. She called for the owner to come out. I was scared. The owner was not harsh. He encouraged me to tell my story. When I told him that I must have lost my money, he looked down at the floor where he had dropped a twenty dollar bill. He then reached down and picked it up and handed it to me, and said, "Here it is Larry. You, no doubt, dropped it right here." The cashier looked at her boss with astonishment on her face. Then she smiled, and took my new twenty dollar bill. She took the cost of the breakfast out of it, and gave me the change."

In telling this story, author Stephanie Thompson wrote, "That act of kindness inspired Steward's generosity. Sometimes he worked with social agencies, but often he roamed the streets, handing out cash to those in need." Once he was asked why he gave cash to poor people . He responded, "Poor people need, not only a meal, but respect. A cash gift is something people do not have to beg for; nor do they have to get in line for." To learn more about what makes a person generous go to the website: secretsantausa.com.

Poem about current event

2009-01-22T08:16:00.004-05:00

This commercial airline story is the image of raw fear.
It began with passengers only a mile from the site of the crash.
Only then did they realize that almost certain death was near.
On January 17, 2009 a dramatic photo was taken,
Capturing US Airways Flight 1549's sudden end,
Damaged by birds, the flight suddenly had to descend.
Down it came toward the frigid waters off West 69th Street.
All 154 souls aboard started getting ready, their Maker to meet.
Then Pilot C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, called for a special act.
Calmly, but with authority, he commanded, "brace for impact."
A command he had long ago been trained to deliver,
Just before the miracle landing on the Hudson River.
Seconds later, the plane made the unprecedented water landing,
Becoming the stuff of legend, called "outstanding."
After hero Captain Sullenberger, known as "Sully",
Turned the Hudson river into a runway, his co-pilot proclaimed,
"No one has ever pulled this off," Jeff Skiles joyfully exclaimed.
In the rescue the co-pilot, looking at Sully, couldn't stop gazing,
Jeff said his pilot, "You've done something amazing!"
With the praise, Sullenberger did not seem all that impressed,
His satisfaction comes, not from glory, but from passing the test.
When passengers thanked Sully for saving their lives,
"You're welcome," was the response of Flight 1549's chairman.
Such humility was not surprising to friends this airman.
Kitty Higgins, a NTSB board member, was overheard saying,
"This is the most successful ditching in aviation history."
But to Sully and his the pilots, it is no extra ordinary mystery.
Even after Sully had more time to reflect on being called heroic,
He is more comfortable with the role of an unemotional stoic.
"He seems overwhelmed by all of this hero talk,"
Said a spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association.
"Captain Sully prefers to just a pilot, and is pleased,
His passengers are well and death has been appeased."
In his silent way, "Sully" is rejoicing all are safe and sound,
Having escaped the the icy water, making it to solid ground.
Fighting tears, Sully's wife, Lorrie, said: "We are proud of him.
However, it's 'a little weird' hearing the world calling him a hero."
His friends say, "He is just a professional who does his job well.
He wants to be seen as a family man and a pilot, not a masahiro!"

The Shot Heard Round The World

2009-01-16T13:50:00.003-05:00

He stood with those who had gathered to honor heroes past.
Who at Concord continued a celebration that had no end.
It was a victory that Americans were sure was going to last.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was their poet and every man's friend.
It was his honor to write for the occasion a memorial hymn,
To be sung in celebrating their ancestors revolutionary win.
They were on Concord ground made sacred by shed blood.
It was a special moment, celebrating the birth of nationhood,
Dedicated first in 1775 by tears for the wounded and those who died.
Celebrated in cheers by heirs on April 19, 1836. We had survived!
All stood in silence before him as Emerson said,
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world...
To truly celebrate the victory won, we must recognize,
The God, who answered the prayers of the victorous ones.
Today we need God's Spirit who inspired the heroes to care,
Enough to dare to risk all for freedom to come and to expand.
Expand for their children and those still unborn who will come,
To settle and continue to develop this wonderful land.
May Time and Nature gently spare, their memories we treasure,
Symbolized by this memorial we lift as high as we can.
Fill us, O Lord, with the strength the Spirit of God does give,
So that with our ancestors' gift we might faithfully live."
Then Emerson paused briefly with a gleam in his eye,
And with a strong cry, he concluded with a great truth as a plus:
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are a valuable trust,
But they are small matters compared to what lies within us."

Remembering Life Experiences

2009-01-02T15:14:00.009-05:00

As we begin to live out January of 2009, most of us not only dream about experiences we hope to have in the new year, but we also spend some time thinking about how we got here. What experiences influenced what we are today? All of us have had some good and some bad experiences that continue to influence us today. Life has been exceedingly good to me. I've listed several in my notes. Then I began to think about how God has used some hard experiences to be a blessing for me. One of those experiences it took me some time to understand. It was the last day of Spring football practice in 1954, my junior year in high school. I had been so excited all Spring as our team prepared for the Fall season. In the first part of Spring practice Coach Rotella had been allowing me to alternate with Eddie Murry with the first team backfield. I had been used to Coach praising me in front of the other players for my efforts. But on this last day of Spring practice when Coach said, "we are going to see what each of us is made of, today." there was no way I could please him. It seemed that on every other play he found something wrong with my play. Finally, he said, "Curt, what is wrong with you today?" Then he put me with the defense team, and put Eddie, my competition, with the offense for the rest of the day. That is the way I finished Spring practice. It was a long hard summer for me.

All summer where I worked at the local golf course, the men of town would talk with me about their expectations for fall football. They talked with me as if it was certain that I would be on the starting team. I thought I would be too, until that last day of Spring practice. So all Summer I feared that come September that I would be embarrassed in front of the my friends and the entire community. But my fears were unfounded. Because after two weeks of practice in August, just before our first game with Carter High, a newspaper reporter showed to write a story. To my great surprise when Coach Rotella lined us up for pictures of the staring backfield, there I was on the front of the sport page.

It was then that I remembered that often in practice he had frequently singled out one of our best players and gave him a "hard time." He used this method to fine tune the best of the best. Most of the players were honored by his giving them that very special attention. From that day on I truly enjoyed the season, even when he disciplined me before the whole team.

Scriptural Guide for this new year:
"My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline...for the Lord reproves those whom He loves, as a father the son in whom he delights"(Proverbs 3:11,12)

The Contemporary God Issue

2008-12-11T08:30:00.004-05:00

In Memory of the late G.K. Chesterton

No matter what you say, you cannot evade the God issue.
It is much more than crying in church and using up tissue.
Even the modern secularists and professing atheists are not exempt.
It is true! The God issue is not only for those who worship in church,
But for those, as well, who focus on God in contempt.
Both sides have leaders who are emotionally and intellectually involved,
As persons who have a calling; as ones who have been sent.
Both seem to be addicted with the God as an issue to be solved.
Some tend to camouflage their interest in God by faulting believers.
Yet, if there's no God, why are we concerned about God's non-achievers.
If you had no interest in their case, why are you giving them space?
A teacher from our past used to say,
Whether we like it or not we will talk about God today.
For some the subject is cheery; for others it is weary.
But the God issue is involved and can't be easily solved,
Whether we talk about pigs or the binomial theory,
We are still talking about the active Creator of all.
Now if Christianity be a fragment of metaphysical nonsense,
Invented by a few misled people with a false sense of call.
Then, of course, defending it will simply mean talking "spin,"
Metaphysical nonsense over and over again.
But if Christianity should happen to be true,
Then defending the Faith will mean talking,
About anything or everything, exciting and new.
Some issues can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false,
But nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true.
Therefore, talking about God is not living with irrelevant views of the past.
The worship of idols, not being grounded in reality, does not last.
But contemporary persons of faith look at life from a whole different view.
In talking about and with God, they are climaxing the past into something new.
Because the prophet says, "The revealed God from the past is still with us,
Because the Word of all creation and redemption comes to us,
Not totally from experiences from the past, but also from out of the future too".

Faith Story - Chang Pharm

2008-12-05T09:51:00.003-05:00

It was March 15, 1981. It was the anniversary of the Chang Pharm family's coming from Vietnam to make their home in the United States. The celebration was taking place with their extended family in America, Trinity Church. One year before, on March 23rd, Chang and his wife and children and relatives arrived in Knoxville, a total family of twelve.

It all started two years before when Azalea Grissom called her pastor. The pastor went over to her home to find that she was watching a news documentary of the "Boat People" from Vietnam. Hundreds were fleeing Vietnam in small boats. Some, who were rescued, somehow were making it to refugee camps, and were now waiting for someone through a refugee service to bring them to a new home. Many of them were being placed with Christian families in the United States. Mrs. Grissom asked her pastor, "Would you work with me to bring a family to our community?"

Within six weeks some strong leaders organized to sponsor a family. Carolyn Fuller, a new member of the church, found her voice, calling for the church's help. The social concerns committee, led by Gail Vanderver and Beverly Reed, worked with the family life committee to create a Trinity Refuge Committee. When the members of the Pharm family arrived, a fully furnished four bedroom home was ready for them. The children were placed in public schools. Some men of the Church made sure all the adults of the Pharm family had income producing jobs. Within three months, the members of the Pharm family were enrolled in a Confirmation Class for Church Membership, led by the pastor and an interpreter.

One year after their arrival, twelve members of the Pharm family were baptized and became full members of Trinity United Methodist Church. Chang, the leader of the family stood at the altar of the Church and said, "We appreciate all you have done for the Pharm family. When we arrived here we had no home. We had left all we had when we fled the Communists. But when we arrived you had a beautiful home for us. We had no income, but within a week after we arrived you had jobs for us. We had no place to train our children, but you put our children in school and provided transportation for them. We had no family here to support us in a strange land, but you became our family. We have been so pleased how you loved us from the very beginning. We did not understand your faith, but you prepared a class every Wednesday night to teach us from the Word of God, and today we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and been baptized and joined this family. Thank you for teaching us the Word of God. Thank you for the special freedom you have in America to teach the Word of God. Please pray for other members of our family who have lost their freedom in Vietnam."

A leading member said, "Pastor Curt, you know that I have not always agreed with you in your bringing in so many new people. It has made many of us who have a long history in this church very uncomfortable. But what we are experiencing today, I truly affirm. I am so proud today to be a member of this Church whose people have truly discovered what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about."

POEM - "The Advent Gift"

2008-12-05T08:38:00.002-05:00

Both darkness and conflict are always present,
but they never over-shadow the great Advent,
Displayed for us when God sent His Word;
when a new born Baby's cry was heard.
God provided for His special One an emcee,
by sending a chosen voice from the Hebrew Klan.
The voice came through a witness named John the Baptist,
Who was the Child's special agent man.
A second John introduced the Christ Child as the eternal Word,
Who reveals our value through His amazing insight.
Through Him we learn we can live victoriously and joyfully,
even when we can not see the future in our blackest night.
Through Him we overcome our strife and terrible loneliness,
being healed of our fears, coming from our paralyzing fright.
From the two Johns we learn to trust in Jesus, God's only Son.
Whom we discover as the eternal everlasting Light.
From Jesus' life we hear God's assuring Word.
As He reveals to us the Creator as seen and heard.
Also through His life of compassion and care,
there is a mighty Presence of which we become aware.
In the Birth, the Cross, the Empty Tomb and Pentecost
God comes into our lives with prime time accent.
Then we begin to understand the Great Advent,
happening when angels sang at the first Christmas event.

New Book Featured in Newspaper

2008-12-01T09:42:00.003-05:00

My new book "Into All The World" was featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Saturday, November 15, 2008. The on-line article also includes an audio clip of my interview with the journalist. To read the article and/or listen to the interview, click on this link.

Faith Story - George Whitefield

2008-11-24T08:31:00.008-05:00

Recently I was reading from a book, "Great Iron Wheel Examined" by William Brownlow, editor of Brownlow's Whig, published in 1856. In his book he gives some history that might be of interest to those related to the great state of Georgia.

"The settlement of a colony between the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha, was meditated in England in 1732, for the accommodation of poor people of Great Britain and Ireland, and for the further security of Carolina. Humane and wealthy men suggested a plan of transporting a number of poor families to this part of America, free of expense. For this purpose they applied to the king, George II, and obtained from him letters patent, bearing date June 9th, 1732, for legally carrying into execution their project. They called the new province 'Georgia', in honor of the king...A corporation of 21 persons was constituted by the name of 'The Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia.' In November, 1732, 116 settlers embarked for the place that became known as Georgia, conveyed thither free of expense, and furnished with every thing requisite for building, and cultivating the soil. James Oglethorpe, one of the Trustees, and an active promoter of the enterprise, embarked as the head of these settlers, and they arrive at Charlestown...early the next year. It was the sixth of February, 1736, that a young man, named John Wesley, an minister of the Church of England, later known as the founder of Methodism, set foot in Georgia to begin his ministry as a pastor to the new settlers." He served in Georgia for nearly two years before returning to England.

One of the most influential preachers to spread the Christian faith in Georgia was George Whitefield, also known as George Whitfield, (December 16, 1714 - September 30, 1770), a Church of England itinerant minister, who helped spread the Great Awakening... He was a very influential figure in the establishment of Methodism. He was famous for his preaching in America which was a significant part of an 18th century movement of Christian revivals, sometimes called "The Great Awakening."

As a student Whitefield was a part of the 'Holy Club' at Oxford University with the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. He had earlier become the leader of the Holy Club at Oxford when the Wesley brothers graduated. He was the best known and the most written about Methodist when he adopted the practice of Hywel Harris of preaching in the open-air at Hanham's Mount, near Kingswood. In 1738, before going to America, where he became parish priest of Savannah, Georgia, he introduced John Wesley to preaching in the open-air. After a short stay as a pastor in Georgia he resumed his open-air evangelistic activities in both England and America.

When Whitefield was only 25, he led the way for the care of children with the establishment of an orphanage in the newly-founded colony of Georgia. Whitefield called the orphanage Bethesda, which means "House of Mercy", for he hoped many acts of mercy would take place there. Many students of history name the leaders of Methodism, especially George Whitefield, as a significant influence on the compassion of the contemporary Georgia residents for extraordinary care for children.

Faith Story - Tex Evans

2008-11-17T08:06:00.001-05:00

Tex Evans was a wonderful story teller. He said that when he was a young preacher he had an opportunity to visit the mission field in India. He preached in one of the mission churches for a week. He was the guest with one the Indian families. Like most of the members of the church they were poor. Surviving was a full time job. There were several children in the family. He had a great time, getting to know them. One of them was a young teenage daughter, who was eager for him to tell Bible stories and stories about farming in America.

One of the stories he told was about how his mother put her family in the chicken business. His mother cooked on a kichen wood stove. Above the stove was an enclosed place, called a warmer. The warmer had several purposes. After you cooked the meal, you could put some of the food in the warmer so that it would be ready when a member of the family came home after everyone else had already finished supper. One of her favorite ways of using the warmer was to put in an old cigar box a few chicken eggs. The heat from the stove kept the eggs just warm even to make them hatch. When the baby chicks starting hatching, there would be a new one or two every day until about a dozen hatched. As they hatched she would take them out of the box and place them in a larger box with chicken feed and water. When they got big enough she would put them out with the rest of the grown chicken in their chicken house. Soon they would be laying eggs too.

When the week was over and it was time to move on, Tex Evans took from his pocket a silver half dollar. He handed it to the young girl and said, "I want you to go to the store and buy a dozen eggs. Then come back and put them in a small box over your mother's stove. Do what my mother used to do after they hatch. This half dollar can turn into many dollars if you will follow my mother's example.

Tex shared with us at Trinity Church what he found when he visited the same community in India again, twenty years later. The young girl now was a grown woman with a family of her own. She no longer lived in poverty. She was the owner of a chicken processing plant. By faith, she had learned the lesson of Jesus' story of the mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). Not only was her family prosperious, but so was her church and her community. Her favorite charitable service was to share Jesus' stories with children and to give away silver half dollars.

Why I have written "Into All The World"

2008-11-11T09:28:00.001-05:00

Curtis Schofield, a retired pastor, has written a book, "Into All The World", including fifty inspiring mission stories. Many of the stories are related to volunteer in mission service projects, which were sponsored by churches in local communities and in international situations. The book has the following possibilities:

A gift to yourself to be used for your own inspiration.
A gift to a pastor for sermon preparation illustrations.
A planning tool for the leaders of a local church mission committee.
A gift to a friend, who is interested in exploring what it means to be called to be a missionary.
A resource for those who are interested in reading inspiring stories to serve as a guide for the fifty days from Easter to Pentecost.

Copies of this book can be ordered from Amazon.com or by calling
Book Surge (843)579-0000, ext. 5120, for $12.99 each.

About the Author

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Family: Curtis R. Schofield has been married to Clara Slater Schofield since 1961. They have two children: Stephen is a pastor in the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church, and Philip is a civil engineer in Dalton, Georgia.

Education: Dr. Schofield is a graduate of Hiwassee College, Tennessee Wesleyan College, and Candler School of Theology, Emory University.

In addition to the Master of Divinity Degree, Dr. Schofield has earned from Emory University a terminal degree, The Doctorate in Sacred Theology with an emphasis on pastoral care.

Professional: Dr. Schofield has been a member of the clergy of Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church since 1961. For most of his ministry he served as pastor of churches in the Knoxville and the Chattanooga areas of East Tennessee and North Georgia.

Dr. Schofield served as the founding director of Contact of Chattanooga, a Christian telephone counseling ministry, and as

President of Hiwassee College(1984-1988) and as Vice President of the Foundation for Evangelism at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. From January 1994-June 1997 Dr. Schofield served as senior pastor of Hixson UMC, one of the largest churches in the Holston Conference. For the next four and one half years(January 1998-June 2002) Dr. Schofield served as the Vice President of Development for The Mission Society for United Methodists, with offices in Norcross, Georgia, sponsoring over 200 missionaries in over 30 countries.

Associations: Dr. Schofield is a general evangelist with the National Association of Evangelists of the United Methodist Church. He has been elected six times as a delegate from Holston Conference to the Jurisdictional Conference. He has served as the chair of the communication committee on the SEJ Council of Ministries, and has served as the chair of the volunteer in missions committee on the Holston Conference Council on Ministries.

Dr. Schofield has received professional training in development from the National Planned Giving Institute. The late Dr. Robert Sharpe was his primary instructor. While serving as a college president, and as Vice President of The Foundation for Evangelism, and as a Vice President of The Mission Society, Dr. Schofield has been active in the United Methodist professional development organizations for the general church and for the Southeastern Jurisdiction.

In 2002 Dr. Schofield, along with 23 pastors representing all jurisdictions of The United Methodist Church, became part of first class of The Intentional Growth Center at Lake Junaluska to be professionally trained as consultants and interim pastors. The purpose of the training was to provide leadership to help churches in transition. As a retired minister Dr. Schofield works with the district superintendent of the Chattanooga District as a consultant with selected churches. He is also working with the Foundation for Evangelism as a volunteer Regional Director. He is also a volunteer member of the advisory board of Agrimissions with The Mission Society.

Hobbies: Curtis and Clara live in Dogwood Hills Estates, Flat Rock, Alabama, where Curtis enjoys playing golf, the game he learned while he worked as a young caddie on LaFollette Golf Course in East Tennessee many years ago. He enjoys writing poetry. Recently he received the Editor's Choice Award and had one of his poems, "God Has Plans for You and Me," selected to be printed in Forever Spoken by The International Library of Poetry. He and Clara enjoy raising a small herd of cattle, and they it is a special enjoyment for them to study and visit historic places. They consider spending creative time with their five grandchildren a gift from God.