Prayer Request for our Family

Sally and I would ask that you remember my dad (Leo) and mom (Wanda). Dad
was just readmitted to the hospital Saturday with strept pneumonia. Mom has
strept throat. In January my Dad had pneumonia and was hospitalized. He
was just discharged from rehab this past week after two months of PT. He and
mom just moved into a new apartment in the same town as my sister Gloria.

We know that God is sovereign over all things and we trust Him as always.
But it is really hard to be 8,000+ miles away when your family is in times
of trouble. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm whining, just stating a truth.
I know it is not easy for my sister and brother-in-law to be in the thick of
it all every day either. On Friday, they had just gone up North to see
Barry's mother as she had just had a stroke. She passed away on Saturday
and while there, they got a call that dad was sick. We were glad that our
two daughters were at my sisters this weekend and were able to help out
some. (We are really blessed as Gloria and Barry have taken care of our kids
since they came back to America and have made their house our kids house.
They even have a room for our girls in their house.)

When we left the US for full time service over here, we knew that times like
this would come. They are hard on the whole family. We trust God and are
praying for healing for my dad and mom, peace for mom as she sees her
husband in the hospital once again, for strength for my sister and her
husband, and wisdom for the health care staff. Pray for us to experience
the peace that surpasses all understanding, and that that peace will guard
our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:4-6).

Daily by His grace (today, moment by moment by His grace),
Larry and Sally

What have you put into someone's heart today?

Words are so interesting and powerful.  We use them for such a variety of reasons.  To inform, to command, to instruct, to rebuke, to hide, to share our heart, to help, and unfortunately, sometimes to hurt.  As a doctor, I have my own language.  In theology we have our own language. Even in the ‘church’ we have our own language.

As we have been progressing through these weeks of Kiswahili language study we have been learning how easy it is to say things in a variety of ways.  I suppose it is the same in English.  Sometimes you just flat out say what you want to say. But usually, we say things the polite way, or at least in a little less harsh way.

Today, Sally and I had the assignment to each prepare a Bible story to narrate, and a Bible study to teach.  Our language and culture supervisor was here with us to offer encouragement and to add to the instruction of our teacher.  We had both finished presenting our stories and I had shared my lesson. Sally was on the next to the last sentence of her lesson when we entered into a discussion on how important and common it was for Tanzanians to encourage one another.  It is an essential part of their culture.  In her lesson, Sally was ending with a ‘challenge’ for the student.  In English the word “challenge” works (to invite someone to do something that will be difficult or challenging), but in Swahili, the corresponding word ‘changamoto’ doesn’t work. It means challenge, but in a negative way. Sally was wanting to encourage the student to memorize Scripture.   Turns out the verb she needed to use in Swahili is -tia moyo.  Literally ‘to put into the heart’ meaning to encourage.

I really like that.
Some other ways it can be said is:
Tutiane moyo – “Let’s encourage one another.” Used when a group or family are facing some difficult situation.
Umenitia moyo – “You have encourage me”
Jipe moyo – “Encourage yourself”

That discussion naturally led to the other phrases used in Swahili like:

Usikate tamaa, jipe moyo – don’t lose heart, encourage yourself  (tamaa = desire)
Umenivunja moyo – you have broken my heart
Umekatisha tamaa – you have lost desire
Amekata tamaa – he has given up hope

Then we got into the ways to say that a person has died.  Much like English, Swahili has blunt, polite, and more polite ways to say things. You can probably tell which is which.

Hayupo hai – he is not here alive
Amefariki dunia – he has died earth (really hard to translate this one but common)
Hatupo naye tena – we are not with him again
Tumemkosa – we have missed him
Ametukimbia – he has run from us
Amekufa – he has died (least polite)

I am sure that there are other phrases like this that I will learn when we get to Kigoma Baptist Hospital and begin working.

So back to the topic of this blog.  Have you been encouraging others with your words and actions by putting good things into their heart? Or have you been discouraging – putting bad things in their hearts?

When we learned this Swahili phrase today, it made me start thinking about what I had put into Sally’s heart today.  It is SO easy to put something there, it’s just that I don’t always purpose to put something good there.  Isn’t that strange that we have such awesome opportunities to be heart doctors with our words, and yet often times we are just lazy.  Unfortunately, sometimes we are just plain mean and put bad things there.  God help us.

By the way, He does care a lot about this topic.  It’s addressed in a variety of ways in several places in the Word of God. Jesus taught about the power of words, how they were manipulated and misused by some of the religious leaders as well as the common person.  The Apostles wrote often about encouraging one another (“Tutiane moyo”). In other parts of the Bible, we are instructed to be careful with our words, to guard our tongue, and that we will all be held accountable for every word that has come from our mouths. (That’s a staggering fact.) The truth is we have opportunity each and every day to do something good.

A word to moms and dads.  We have such an awesome opportunity (and responsibility) to put good things into the hearts of our kids no matter how old they may be.  Please keep in mind that kids and adolescents are especially vulnerable to bad things put in their hearts, but also very responsive to the good things. Please don’t miss out on putting good things there. Would you commit today to proactively seeking opportunities to put something good into their hearts. One a day?

For all of us, we have opportunity each day to be heart menders/helpers or heart breakers. I pray you choose the former.

Daily by His grace,
Larry and Sally

p.s. If you want to see some really cool stuff, take time to do a word seach/study in the Bible on the word “heart”.  You’ll be surprised and certainly be blessed.

Can You Think of 50 Reasons Jesus Christ Died?

How far did you get in making your list?  It is tough, but if you really think hard and search the Scriptures you will find so many reasons.  As we approach the greatest days in our Christian calendar, Good Friday and Easter, I want to urge you to consider doing something.  
 
On the Desiring God website you can download John Piper’s book “Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die” for FREE.  It is in PDF format and not so big to download (less than 1MB).
 
I copied the following right from the Desiring God website page.  You can also download the accompanying study guide for free as well (I posted the links below).
 

In this book, revised and updated from the previously published The Passion of Jesus Christ, John Piper has gathered
from the New Testament fifty reasons behind the crucifixion of the Christ.
Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes—in answer to
the most important question facing us in the twenty-first century:
Why did Jesus suffer and die?

 
I would encourage you to read a section a day (they are only 2-3 short pages) as your devotional over the next weeks.  I will guarantee that you will be blessed.  I have read this book the past 4 years and each time I have been blessed and humbled.  I pray that you will be also.
 
Daily by His grace,
Larry and Sally
 
LINK FOR BOOK:
 
http://s3.amazonaws.com/media2.desiringgod.org/resources/documents/2289/bpojc_all%20(1).pdf
 
LINK FOR LEADERS GUIDE:
 
http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_b50r/b50r_leaders_guide.pdf

Looking back...

It's good to look back occasionally. Someone has said that at least you
know where you've been. We've now completed 6 weeks of intensive immersion
Kiswahili language study. In many ways I feel like that baby elephant,
looking back not sure what has happened, but thankful there is someone with
me to show me the way forward.

One day this week I was asking myself just exactly how far had we
progressed. We had just come out of Thursday evening bible study at church
and neither Sally or I seemed to have gotten ANYTHING from it. Sure we
understood the bible passages, but what the leader had said, might just as
well have been Chinese. Then the next day, a big rain storm came as our
class was ending and we invited our teacher to stay and have lunch with us.
As Sally was preparing Shepherd's pie, Sayi and I were in the sitting room
talking. I was actually surprised at how easy I was finding myself
discussing things with him, like issues that youth are facing, problems of
married life in Tanzania, and other things. Now I know that our teacher
knows where we are in our language skills and I am sure he was modifying his
part of our conversation to adapt to my skills, but even so, we really
seemed to be talking with each other. I praise God for that.
He is a really nice guy who has grown up in a difficult situation yet has
seen God bring him far.

Then today in church, it really seemed that Sally and I were getting things.
I know we have a looooooong way to go, but yet today, things were clicking.
I looked back at my first week of notes from classes and now laugh at the
things I wrote, equivalent to "See Dick run. See Spot run..."

This past week we had the privilege to write out and then share our
testimony with our teacher, Sayi. We had to make a lot of corrections, but
he really felt that what we wrote helped him to understand who we were, what
God had done in changing our lives, and why we're in Tanzania now. Now
we're working on re-writing it and learning to really share it more
naturally than reading it. It is exciting to think that soon we'll be able
to teach the truths of God's word to Tanzanians. Man, I get excited when I
think about teaching them about THE Truth, the person of Jesus Christ.
Soon...

Lastly, I have to share a funny with you. I love to laugh. I really
believe it is good medicine. Well this week, the last thing our teacher
taught us was a song about the parts of the body. It's kinda like "head,
shoulders, knees and toes" if you remember that song from primary school.
He had us standing up and doing the motions of touching our head, eyes,
nose, etc. as we sang it. Well, right in the middle of the song I just
broke up laughing and couldn't go on. It was a bit disrupting to the
teaching moment, and he looked at me like what is wrong with you. I kept
laughing. OK, so I got ahold of myself and then shared that in the middle
of the song I just got this picture of myself doing a consultation with a
patient in the hospital, and then not remembering the name of a body part,
having to turn away and sing the song to myself to remember what to write in
their file. We all started laughing and laughing. He suggested that
perhaps I could learn the parts well enough to not have to use the song as
patients might think I was a bit strange. It was a good way to end the
week, with laughter and then a meal shared.

We truly have come a long way in 6 weeks. God has blessed us with 4
different wonderful teachers who have been patient and have encouraged us as
we plod along. God has helped us to learn so much. We've surpassed 600
vocab words, we're reading and writing, and slowly getting better. I don't
say that to brag at all, but to praise God for his many blessings.

Please continue to pray for us as we exercise these 50+ year old brains. I
am grateful that it is possible to remodel the brain at this stage in life,
that God created each of us in such a way. And pray for us to continue to
know his presence with us as we continue forward in language learning. It
won't be long and we'll be in Kigoma! To Him be the praise and glory!

Daily by His grace...

There's Something Crouching at Your Door!!!!!

Last Sunday I heard a sermon from Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel bringing their sacrifices to God.  When I got home from church, I re-read the passage. I was struck by a portion that I think I have rarely heard preachers preach about.  The usual message is something along the lines of ‘be sure you bring a good sacrifice to the Lord’ and then tie it in with Romans 12:1-2 which talks about presenting yourself as a living sacrifice.  Great sermon but not what struck me.
 
What struck me was the latter part of Genesis 4:7 that says “…sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (NIV)
I happen to be looking through some of my game park pictures and it struck me.  The apostle Peter writes in his epistle (1 Peter 5:8) that Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us, and that we need to be self controlled and alert.  He likely had some experience with that, as the ‘sport’ of feeding Christians to the lions was a favorite pastime of the Romans.
 
I don’t know about you, but I get a mental picture of what the writer of Genesis and Peter are saying.  It is like the lion pictures above.  Crouching, awaiting to leap, crush with their powerful jaws, and tear apart its victim.  Not a pretty site.
 
The Genesis passage says ‘it desires to have you.’  Satan wants to destroy you. Why? I have heard it said that he desires that because we are made in the image of God, and so anything that might possibly praise God, or reflect God’s glory, Satan wants to destroy.  He is a glory-stealer because he is so into himself.  He wants the praise.  He is crouching, waiting for the opportune time to pounce!  
 
The amazing thing to me is that small word “but” in the latter part of Gen. 4:7.  My pastor, Dr. Creech, always said that whenever you see the word ‘but’ in the Bible, pay attention.  It’s usually followed by something very important.  In this case, God says to Cain (and to us) that ‘you must master it.’  Master your choices, and master the crouching lion.
 
I think the key is in the beginning of that verse, as well as in the awesome promises of the New Testament writers.  First of all, it says “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?”   Pretty simple.  Not a difficult passage that needs expert seminary training to figure out. Do the right thing!  If you are really honest, most times it is not too difficult to decide between them.  The problem is that we like so much to do the ‘other’ things. That is like inviting a lion to crouch at your door.  I’ve seen them up close in game parks, and believe me, you don’t want one at your door.
 
The New Testament writers tell us of God’s promise of the empowering of the Holy Spirit who lives in believers.  On our own power, we are not very good at overcoming and fighting lions.  But Romans 8 (especially verses 10-11) reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead (three days stinking, decomposing, rotten dead) is living in you, if you belong to Christ. That is amazing power! Resurrection power, availed to us to enable us to choose to do right.  The result is no lions crouching at our door.  I like that.  
 
I thank God that he cares.  He doesn’t leave us powerless – left to the lions.  He graciously gives us resurrection power to follow his life-giving way.
    Choose Self – get a lion at your door.      Choose Jesus – get real life, God designed life.

Our prayer is that you keep yourself from the lions.

Daily by His grace...

Small, but dangerous things...

It's called the Paederus beetle, or Rove beetle, commonly known in E. Africa as the 'Nairobi Eye.'  It doesn't sting or bite humans, but when you injure it, or crush it, it's insect 'blood' contains a dangerous substance that burns you.  I won't bore you with the chemical name or structure, just to say that it is a powerful substance packed in a tiny insect.  So much so that the burn can have blisters and even secondary infection. In severe cases it can cause scarring, long term skin discoloration, and can even cause systemic symptoms like fever, nausea, etc. I saw someone just this week that had gotten 'burnt' on the nose where her glasses normally sit.  It made me go and look on the back porch ceiling and sure enough, we have them!

Agriculturally they are an important part of the way God designed our ecosystem.  But from a human perspective they are a problem.  They appear during the rainy seasons and are attracted to moisture and light, especially florescent light.  They are so small (3-7mm) that they find their way into homes through cracks and screens, and are often on the ceilings.  I was told they got the name 'Nairobi Eye' because they are found in Nairobi and when a person is sleeping and feels something on their face they brush it off, injuring the beetle in the process.  They wake the next morning with burning in the eye and a red, swollen, sometimes severely damaged eye.  There are even outbreaks of so called epidemics of patients suffering from skin burns.  The rove beetle is actually found all over the world, but this one especially in tropical climates.

They are small, seemingly innocuous, but dangerous.  It reminds me of something else in life like that.  So called 'small sins' are like that.  They work their ways into our lives, often because of some attraction.  They don't make much noise, don't seem to cause any problem, but they are dangerous.  If you let them remain, they will 'burn' you.  Perhaps in a way that causes secondary issues and can even leave you with permanent scars.  I probably don’t need to make a list of those ‘small sins’ as you know what they are.  Small, but dangerous.

They great thing about the Nairobi eye beetle is you can prevent them from coming in your home, and there are means to destroy them when they come in.  For most things in health, prevention is the best method.  In the same way, for our spiritual health, preventing so called ‘small sins’ from entering our homes is the best method of staying healthy.  Making sure we know what they look like, when their ‘season’ is, and how to prevent them is key.  And then, if we discover that they have entered, we take measures to get rid of them.  Neither Sally or I have any plans to live together with Nairobi Eye beetles in our house.  They are too dangerous.  

In the same way, we take both preventive and other measures, sometimes severe if necessary, to rid ourselves of sin.  As I read God’s word there are no ‘small sins’ that we can let hang around and live with.  God’s desire is that we ‘be holy, as I am holy.’  That means prevention and active measures to deal with sin in our lives.  The awesome thing is that God has dealt with all the sin of humans on the cross of Calvary.  Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection provide the only means of atoning for our sin penalty.  His sacrifice was a perfect one that once and for all took care of the sin and death problem. We can rest assure of that.  I love reading and re-reading Romans and the Gospels as they clearly spell that out. And when we place our faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, God re-births us with a new spirit that can respond to Him, that has a desire to follow His perfect path of life, and finds satisfaction in Him.  I would encourage you to read in the Bible in John 3 and Ezekiel 36:24-32 about this re-birth and new spirit that God wants to give you.

Just as Sally and I have taken all measures to protect ourselves from this small, but dangerous insect, our prayer is that you will take any measure necessary to deal with any small, but dangerous sins in your own lives.  We’re doing all we can to prevent and aggressively deal with both bugs, and sins.  Keep safe, and enjoy life.

Daily by His grace...

A great day at church

A great day at church.
We had a great day Sunday at Ipogolo Baptist Church. Although Sally and I
don't understand all that is taught, we are able to get a lot of words and
of course knowing what portion of the Bible they are reading from helps.
The church uses a Baptist Kiswahili song book that has lots of old hymns
that have been translated to Kiswahili. The nice thing about the language
is that it is really easy to pronounce so we are able to sing along. Oh
yeah, the children's choir is so enthusiastic in their singing and dancing -
you just can't help but smile and thank God for the joy of children. Many
of them are orphans and live at the church through a program that started
some time ago.

It was great to be together with other brothers and sisters in Christ
worshipping the One True God.

For the glory of His name!