The Afternoon of Life

                                                 We left Buffalo on Wednesday morning at 8:10…it’s now 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening in South Africa.   Not only have we traveled 8,000 miles in the past three days, we’ve also experienced some of the greatest heartbreak of our lives. LeeAnne’s senior year in high school…2005-2006.   Stephen had a friend, a Native American “boy”, who needed a place to stay.   His disrespect and abuse of home privileges had led to his mother telling him to leave.   We had already know Sampson for a few years…and so we opened our home to him.   Rules:   no drugs and you have to stay in school and finish your senior year.   We had no idea how that year would turn out for Sampson, but ...

I’ve heard many say recently something along the lines of… “I can only do the best I can, loving others, treating people with kindness, and hope that it’s good enough to get me into heaven.”   When we make statements like that, we are saying that we believe our place in heaven is due us because of OUR actions.   The truth is that our place in heaven is warranted because of CHRIST’S actions.   His death, burial and resurrection open the doors of heaven.   Nothing else can get us to heaven.   NOTHING.   Jesus said, “I am THE way, THE truth and THE life.   No one comes to the Father but by ME.” [Emphasis mine.]   That means we cannot get to God through our good deeds or the kind, loving way we treat others.   We cannot “earn” the “mercy” of the Lord, but we are accountable to respond to God’s mercies with repentant, grateful, and obedient hearts. Repentance , faith, gratefulness, and obedience – in light of the numerous mercies ...

Tonight I feel vulnerable.   I sit in the darkness and let the memories unfold layer by layer.   They whisper of days gone by.   Most of the memories have a scent or sound associated with them…playing under the dark firs that lined the college football field.   Dad took my brother and me to practices when he was coaching to get us out of mom’s hair.   I hear the sound of young men challenging others…the grunts of pain…the shouts of victory when something works right.   I don’t understand the game at all.   I’m only seven or eight.   But I know the sound of doing something right.   I also smell the decaying leaves and the dirt under the trees in the shadows.   The shadows are not a good place to be.   Dad can’t see us there so he doesn’t know.   The woods are a scary place too.   Things happen to little girls in the woods that shouldn’t happen to little girls.   Little boys can be mean.   This is a lesson lear...

I got a wonderful 7-page letter from missionary Marcia Gustofson last night.   Marcie serves at the Durban Bible College and invited me four years ago to come visit her.   Little did I know when I accepted then that I’d leave a chunk of my heart behind.   I’ve felt those heart-strings tugging all four years…and this week Dan and I made a commitment to return to the land and people I fell in love with on my earlier trip. Our plans are to leave Buffalo on July 2 nd and return on September 7 th , allowing me to teach all eight weeks of their third term.   Dan will help me with the choir… how could we not allow him to bless them with his magnificent voice?   He will also play “handyman” and work on several projects they are already lining up for him.   I will work with the choir, teach a “Music Foundations” course (all about theory…guess I should be honing up on that), and teaching something along the lines of “Leading Worship and Music Fundamentals”. ...

The sun is shining and the sky’s a brilliant blue as I open up the curtains in my home.   Maybe this would be a good day to open the windows and let fresh air in.   I slide the locks over, and raise the window wide…only to slam it shut almost immediately as bone-chilling cold enters the room.   What looks so good out my window is deceptive.   I check the weather on my computer and discover that the temperature hasn’t risen above forty this morning.   How easily I was deceived by what I saw , but it was what I felt told me the truth.  Even our eyes can deceive us. I wonder if I can be this way as a Christian.   When people look at me and hear what I have to say, are they convinced that all is well?   Am I doing all the right things to “look like” a good Christian?    But am I being deceptive? I know that sometimes my heart feels cold.   I lack compassion for those around me.   My patience and long-suffering a...

My Dear, Precious Holden: As my first grandson you’ve given me more gifts than any child has ever given me, even my own children.   With them I had to be so “responsible”, but with you and your cousins I just get to enjoy.   Right now your mommy has trusted you to wonderful Dr. Leonard who has been watching over you since you were a baby.   He convinced your mommy to let you grow as big and strong as possible before he worked on repairing a hole in your heart.   And now you ARE big and you ARE strong (you even fought the doctors when they tried to put you to sleep today.   That made your mommy cry…but that’s because she loves you so much).   You are sound asleep and don’t even know something so important is happening inside of you right now.   This is a day we’ve all known was coming since the day you were born, and we’re ready to know that your heart will be repaired so that you can continue to grow big and strong and have the beautiful life th...

Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. In a little over 10 hours, I will watch my very strong, courageous, beautiful, frightened daughter hand our precious Holden over to Dr. Leonard for heart surgery.   How she can have the strength to do that, I’ll never know.   At her age I hadn’t even married nor had children yet.   But she has learned through these short four-and-a-half years to trust the doctors that are helpin...