A Challenge

The man on the left in this picture is Sir Edmund Hillary. The man on the right is Tenzing Norgay. These two men were the first two human beings ever to set foot on the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. They accomplished this in 1953. Many have done this since. Many more have died trying. Hillary typically gets all of the mention for some reason. We watched a National Geographic documentary on Hillary over the weekend that we checked out at the library. It told about his trip up the great mountain as well as his accomplishments in some of the villages surrounding Mt. Everest. He has done some amazing things for some of the underdeveloped villages of Nepal. He has built school-houses where there have never been school-houses before. He has built hospitals where there have never been hospitals. The fatality rate for children up through the age of twenty was astronomical before he built the hospitals. It is now a fraction of that number. His brother is a carpenter by trade from New Zealand. They built several buildings with their own hands and the help from some of the locals. The villagers literally treat him like a god. They invite him in, give him food and drink and shower him with gifts. They even honor him with festivals.

After watching the show, it left an empty spot in my gut. This man and his family had such a wonderful opportunity to witness to these people about God's goodness and his mercy. About the love that God has for us. About Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, and still does for us. I don't know if Sir Edmund Hillary has any sort of "religion" or a faith in God. I do know that he was participating in the annual festivals that they have. The festivals where they worship the mountains and trees. The festivals where they dress up as eight different gods and dance around to scare away any evil spirits for the following year. I just felt grieved for the whole situation.

I can't blame Hillary for not sharing the gospel with these lost people. If he doesn't know the truth, I can't expect him to share it. All he saw was a people with some physical needs. He may not even see the spiritual needs that they have because he has those same needs. And I do appreciate what he has given to these people. Maybe through his selfless giving, he has opened up an opportunity for missionaries to enter into this part of the world and share. I don't know how God will work it out. This documentary was filmed (I believe) in 1989. A lot could have happened in that time.

This definitely made me search my heart, though. Those people that respect me and look up to me; do I share with them the gospel? Do I just meet their physical needs (which is still very important). Am I missing out on great opportunities by holding my tongue? Even with my own children. They love to serve me like these villagers did with Hillary. They love to give me gifts. Am I missing opportunities with them? I have their hearts, which usually means I have their ears. What message am I sending if I'm not sending the gospel? Good works? "Oh, he's just a nice person". I'm know that I have missed opportunities with people. My family; my children; my friends; my co-workers. This is a challenge to myself. To meet needs where needs need met, but also to share the gospel with those who don't know. I didn't say to share the church. That has been my escape my whole life. "Hey, why don't you come to church with me?" in the hopes that they might get saved through that. What's the problem with me sharing the gospel. God has equipped me with a Bible and the ability to read it.

I pray that God would open my eyes to opportunities that I get. (Sometimes I seem to be oblivious to these opportunities until after the fact; then it's usually too late.) That I would share without fear and not get discouraged when rejection comes. This is the least I could do, isn't it?

God bless!

Checking In

Posting once a month kind of seems like a waste of web space, huh? Oh well, it's free.
Just a brief update:

• My family has been sick off and on (mostly on) for about two and half weeks now. It started as the flu and kind of went through the family that way. After we healed up it turned into the cold. My wife went to bed at six o'clock tonight with most of the children shortly after. Grace (our almost three year old) and I did the dishes for mom so she wouldn't have to face that in the morning.
• We did heal up enough to take a short family vacation into the mountains of West Virginia last week. We borrowed a pop-up camper from a "friend" so we could stay in a state park. We got to the state park and began setting up the camper only to realize that there were big rips in the canvas and the heater didn't work. Did I mention that it was below freezing and the wind was whipping like crazy? We huddled up in one end of the camper and it collapsed. We then huddled up on another bed to try to get through at least one night. At 1:00 a.m. Grace woke up and threw up all over the place. We went up to the lodge and asked if they had a room. Praise God they did! That's where we spent the rest of our vacation. It snowed about ten inches while we were there. When we went to check out, they discounted our room enough to make up for the campground lot that we had paid for in advance. God's provisions always amaze me.
  
• It was my turn to preach this weekend at our fellowship. It was my first time preaching here. It had been about a year since I preached last. There were the typical nerves to hurdle, but God got me through. My family couldn't make it because of sickness so I gave them a practice run at home before leaving for church. That helped a ton. I preached on a topic that has been with me for about a year now and strongly for about two to three months: making sure your heart is in a condition to be used (and even accepted) by God. I used many passages, but a few were the story of the rich young ruler. Jesus turned him away because something else had his heart (his possessions). Various pharisees, and also those that called "Lord, Lord" that he sent away.
• Had a brief discussion with the guy I work with today who is Methodist. I asked him about the lesbian Methodist pastor that they made step down. His response: "I don't know why they fill the news with this junk! This isn't news!" He was the first to jump on the band-wagon when the Catholic sex-abuse scandals were rampant in the news, bashing the priest and looking for someone to listen to the latest joke he had heard. He also stated "I thought we were supposed to be tolerant of those who aren't like us. Why are they doing this?" One thing to note: the Methodist do allow homosexual clergy as long as they are committed to celibacy. I found that interesting.
• God has been putting some families in our lives who seem to be like-minded and mostly without church homes. Not sure what's going on with that. Not all are too local to us, but some are. I have a hard time encouraging these people to attend our church because we are about forty-five minutes from church and further yet from most of the families of our church. I really like our church, but it's hard to establish a sense of community when you are so far away.
  
• Ross and I took the last air-conditioner out tonight. I always drag my feet about it. You never know when the Indian Summer might hit. It's now November so I think we're pretty safe. Actually for the last three weeks it's been more procrastination than anything else. We also got some wood cut up.
• We had to run out on Saturday to get some animal feed. When we got home both of our gardens were plowed up. We have great neighbors!

Well, that's enough rambling for now.

God bless!!