Happy Anniversary Sally!

Yes, it is true.  That is Sally and I, just a bit younger.  28 years ago on the 18th of June at Henry Ford Memorial Methodist Church in Detroit we got married.  Family and friends from school were there.  My brother-in-law, Barry Smith co-officiated (sorry that sounds like it was a game of some sort) the ceremony.  We had the reception in the basement of the church.  It was a hot and humid summer day in June but we were very happy and very much in love.  I can say we are still very much in love and very happy.

We met at in the Fall of 1981 at Michigan State University where I had just started medical school and Sally had just started her Masters degree.  We fell madly in love and I nearly flunked out of medical school from spending too much time with Sally.  After a stern 'talking to' by the assistant dean of the medical school where he told me to choose either medicine or her, I chose her (and got my study habits in better shape).  We had long Autumn walks among the trees at the MSU campus, enjoying the beautiful fall color of the leaves and her beauty.  After just 6 weeks we decided we should get married.  There's still an argument about who asked who first, but I have learned that Sally is usually right.

We praise God for his mercy and grace and patience with us.  We decided early on to work on loving Jesus more and more and that would result in us getting closer and closer to each other, and to God.  It has worked.  I thank God every day for our marriage, for God blessing me with a God-loving wife and best friend ever.  We are so thankful for the three children God has blessed us with.   Our prayer is that our kids too will experience the joy of a long marriage that is God centered and God blessed.  We are thankful too for our family and friends who have encouraged us and blessed us over the past 28 years. 

I love you Sally!

Urgent Request! Calling on all people to pray for the Blind.

Here’s the irony. So the blind guy can see, yet those who say they can see are really blind?  So the story in John’s gospel is narrated (Chapter 9).  A middle-aged guy who was born blind is miraculously healed by Jesus and can now see fully.  When the religious leaders get wind of it (especially because Jesus did this on the Sabbath) it gets really crazy.  They are the religious guys who are supposed to ‘see’ the way of God and lead the people, yet they can’t see that the Messiah has come in their midst.  The guy who was blind, now sees physically with his eyes, but also ‘sees’ with his heart that Jesus is God and his Savior.  If you take the time to search the bible, there just aren’t stories of the blind being healed before Jesus appears.  I am fascinated by the irony in this story, but also saddened as it is a modern day commentary.  More on that later...

Just a short digression…  In the Apostle Paul’s writings to the young believers in the city of Corinth (his second letter to them) he reminds them that the god of this world has blinded the eyes of people so that they don’t see the beauty of Jesus Christ.  They are unable to see and comprehend the gospel of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).  They are spiritually unable to see, and that is why they remain in darkness.

Hence, my urgent request for people to pray on behalf off the blind.  (Christians call that interceding prayer, or intercessory prayer, where you ask God on behalf of someone else for the will of God be done in their life.) 

Sally and I serve in a place with a lot of ‘blind’ people.  Allow me to share with  you a brief story.  Today I sat in the store front of a young 30-year-old father of two who is ‘blind.’  As I was waiting for our new truck tires to be installed, I struck up a conversation.  Sally says I talk to every one, something I inherited from my dad which I am very appreciative of.  Anyway, this young man is a fascinating self-made businessman. 

He shared with me about his life (he’s Indian by descent but a second generation Tanzanian and a ‘not so good’ Muslim by self description).  He told me about his family and several of his desires for his life, his business, and his family.  We discussed a number of things including my life and why Sally and I have served in Africa so long.  The conversation naturally turned to ‘religion’ and I had the opportunity to share with him about my love of Jesus.  He seemed very interested, even if we were interrupted every 2-3 minutes by phone calls (he really is a good businessman). 

I explained to him that I wasn’t about promoting religion, but all about finding a relationship with God.  That got his attention as I got the impression that he was used to foreigners that promoted their religion.  He hadn’t heard about this whole thing of relationship with God. In that moment the Holy Spirit reminded me of the story of the rich young ruler that came to Jesus, which I was able to share with him.  And then we talked about how that every person has a ‘god’ that they are worshipping and for the young man in the story it was his wealth that was keeping him from having a life altering relationship with God.  The story got him thinking, but then unfortunately it was time for him to leave on a journey. 

I pray for him as he continues on in his life in his state of blindness.  God, I ask that you open his eyes to see you!

I close with these humble requests:

 

Please pray 

• for blind people that you know.   

           Our pastor (Dr. R.R. Creech) once said ‘if you are not talking to God about people, you probably aren’t talking to people about God.’

• That God will open their eyes to the beauty of Jesus Christ

•  That they will ‘see’ their own God-dishonoring lifestyle (sin) and turn to God for forgiveness and new life

• That they will have visions of the living Christ and believe in Him

• Please pray too for those that you know that say they can ‘see’ but are ‘blind’

• Thank God from the depths of your soul that you are no longer blind.  Thank Him that today you woke up seeing once again.

o   Thinking of the ‘religious’ types that seem to be able to see the speck in your eye but don’t see the plank in their own (read in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7:3-5)

• Pray for brothers/sisters in the faith that are having a hard time seeing the real beauty of Jesus Christ, his life, his teachings, the fact that he is fully God.  If you want to see God, then study Jesus – it’s that simple.

In closing, I really want to encourage you to open a translation of the Bible that you can read and read afresh John chapter 9.  While you’re at it, read 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 too.


Lastly, thanks to all of our churches who graciously give to the Lottie Moon Offering and through out the year so we can buy new tires, and in doing that, share the good news of Jesus Christ!

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind but now I see.  (John Newton)

Language Evaluation

Thanks for your encouragement and prayers.  Sally and I had our 'mock' exam for language and communication on Friday.  It went very well!  We Praise God!

As we expected there were those moments of 'head scratching' but then the light went on and we were able to communicate.  Each of us had a time with the head of the language school and our language coordinator.  We shared our history (where we were born, family, work history, relationship with Jesus Christ, some Scriptures, and what we hope to do in Kigoma) then they had time to ask some questions.  Also had a one page written quiz covering some grammar as well as translating.

Don't know if you ever made tin-can/string communication devices when you were a kid (like the screen bean pic)?  After careful planning and construction, the real test came when you stretched out the string, and invariably you would say "can you hear me?"  Am thankful that we were able to hear each other, and communicate.

We still have a long way to go.  This is one of those language plateaus.  The danger is resting on the plateau, instead of pushing harder.  By God's grace, we'll do just that, one day at a time.  

Think our next evaluation will likely be mid June before we head to Kigoma.  OK, back to language learning…

Daily by His grace.

Test and Final Test

We are approaching the end of our Primary Course in Kiswahili (4 months).  The past months have been intense to say the least. Five days a week of class (5hrs/day) plus conversing, plus reviewing and homework and more review.  Through formal teaching along with immersion we have made real progress.  The 'immersion' part at times has felt like the word implies – drowning…  OK, maybe I am exaggerating a bit.  Our school has provided us with a variety of teachers.  We have compiled a vocabulary of at least 1500 words, not counting the multitude of verb derivations.  Our grammar has changed weekly (for the better most weeks), and  we are now at the point of doing a mock-exam this Friday, followed by our final exam for the primary course on May 27th.

We would really appreciate your prayers for us this Friday and the final two weeks.  We don't end learning Swahili after then, it just means that our language evaluation is done for this phase.  I always say 'when you stop learning, you are dead.'

We'll let you know our results.

Daily by His grace…

"I will speak your name!"

When you hear of someone speaking your name, what do you do?  What do you think?  I like to read, as well as listen to podcasts.  Some times you come across stories that really speak to your heart.  I heard this one, but not sure of the source of it.

In a certain village in Africa there came a disease the struck most of the villagers.  When it was over, nearly all in the village were blind.  Word of the problem reached a mission station some distance away. The doctor there set out to reach that village to see if he could help. After a long journey he arrived and began the process of determining what had caused this dreaded blindness. After some time he discovered that he had the means to treat the people and cure the blindness.  He worked hard day after day, God blessed his efforts and people were able to see again.  

When the doctor completed the work he was slightly taken aback that no one expressed 'thank you' to him for all the work.  Upon investigating, he discovered that there was no word in their particular language for 'thank you.' He could see that people were very happy to be able to see again.  As he was preparing to leave, one of the elders of the village came and shook his hand, and looking him in the eye said "I will make your name known. I will speak your name. You have done so much for us."  As the doctor made his journey home, he realized that what the elderly man said was profound.

What a challenging story!  When we look intently at what Jesus has done for each of us, when we read the gospels to know Him, when we ask God to give us understanding of who He is and what he is like and what he has done, how can we not also, like the elderly man cured of his blindness, say to God – "I will make your name known.  I will speak your name."

That is really what Sally and I and others in our group are here in Africa to do.  To speak of the mighty name of Jesus, to tell of all that he has done, of his love for all, and of his fulfilling the law perfectly, and then dying on the cross in our place to make a way for us to have a restored relationship with the Father.  To do that in the heart language of the people that we are here to serve.  

Our section of our organization has as a motto "Shatter the Darkness" (you see the logo on the right side of the blog).  It comes from Psalm 96:3 where the writer implores us to "Declare His glory among the Nations…" It's another way of saying "I will make your name known."

I want to encourage you to do just that in your home, in your villages, in your workplace, where ever you are.  And if you have never known Jesus, I want to encourage you to get a version of the bible that you can read easily, and start reading about Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John as a starting point.  Ask God to show you just who Jesus is and what he is all about.  You will be amazed.

In closing, I want to thank you for praying for us as we traveled LONG distances to our meeting in Nairobi and back.  We only have one flat tire, and that after we had parked for the night.  All our people arrived safely, even the special guests from America.  We went away encouraged, uplifted, refreshed from the teaching, the discussions, the fellowship.

Daily by His grace, speaking His name…

Off to Kenya

We head out Friday morning for Kenya for our annual meeting with others in
our E. Africa region. We'll be at the Brackenhurst Conference Center in the
highlands of Kenya - a beautiful venue surrounded by tea estates. We'll be
there to share our experiences in ministry, to be challenged by our guest
preacher from the US, and be ministered to by a great group of people coming
out from the US. This meeting also gives us opportunity to talk with our
leaders from our regional HQ (South Africa). And for many of us, it is a
time to get medical/dental/eye stuff done that we can't get done where we
live.

What Sally and I like the most is the time to talk with others. We all have
stories of what has worked and not, of mistakes made and what went right.
It's also a time to just have fun together. Some of our people are working
in rather remote areas so this is a time to 'hang out'. And we love the
times of group worship.

This will be our first time to drive 'up' to Kenya from Tanzania. We've
made the trip many times from the Uganda side, but not from here. It will
be three days of driving to get there.

As you are able, please pray for:
- safety on the roads. That the truck will not break, that the roads will
be reasonable, that we and other drivers will be alert.
- for safe travel for the folks coming out from the USA and those from South
Africa
- for all of us to be refreshed physically and spiritually
- for understanding as we learn new things from the Word and from our
leaders
- for safety in the food that we will eat. There is a great staff there but
there is always the risk of food borne illnesses

I'll share more after our meeting.

Daily by His grace...

P.S. We've now completed 12 weeks of Kiswahili language school!

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