We must be doing some things right. 

So far this month, we have already spoken to eight churches and have five more this week (Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday).  If my math is right that makes a total of 13 churches this month.  Every place we have gone, we met with positive response and enthusiasm.  We have been told by many that our story is “an inspiration to hear” because we heard God’s call and decided to actually follow it.  I’ve seen tears in the eyes of many people during our presentations.  I know at the very least, people are praying for us…and those prayers are important.  We feel them. 

Slowly, the financial support is coming in.  We still aren’t as far as we wanted to be right now, but I’m trying to learn to be patient and to do my part while waiting on God.   Recently we have received some encouraging news from some of the places we have spoken a few months ago.  We are learning about the pace in which some things move.  Churches have made commitements to us, but there is a process to go through with councils and committees.  We understand that and appreciate it.  We will wait.  God is good.  We know it.  By the grace of God, we will make it to Peru.

Persistence pays off.  Some of the places we have called, we’ve had to call back again and again and again–leaving messages on the answering machines and with church members–until we finally get to speak with the people who can make the decisions.  Most have had good intentions to call us back, but busy schedules have pushed us to the back burner.  I can relate to that.  We understand busy schedules.  What a blessing it is to finally reach someone and have them say, “We’d love to have you come and speak to us!” 

There’s an old saying somewhere along the lines of “The wheels of progress grind along slowly.”  I can see that.  Right now, though, I’m okay with that.  I have a peace about it.  I wish it were faster, but it’s not.  We are doing what we can right now.  We call and make appointments.  We speak to groups.  We write letters.  We do all that.  But most importantly, we do our best to stay close to God.  After all, if we don’t do that; anything we do is useless. 

I’m surprised how quickly time slips by.  Has it really been a week since I last posted?  Please accept my apologies, because such a long space of time is not my intent. 

This week marked the birthday of one of our family’s lifelong friends.  Audra and I met her parents when we first moved to Georgia thirteen years ago.  Audra was seven months pregnant with our oldest child.  The other couple was as well.  For some reason we hit it off and have been friends ever since.  Their daughter Rachel turned 13 this year on September 13.  Audra calls this her “Golden Birthday” — she turned thirteen on the thirteenth.  She said we only get one during our lives and this was hers.  Audra doesn’t remember hers (she was born on the third) and I don’t remember mine (the fifth), but our kids (so far) will remember theirs (17, 20, and 29). 

Have you ever heard of a “golden birthday”?  I hadn’t, but Audra was wondering about the origin of the phrase.  Maybe it’s a midewestern thing…

We spoke at Boyton UMC near Chattanooga, TN, this morning.  The reception was good, but we won’t know whether we get any ongoing support for a few weeks.  The teachers of two of the Sunday School classes are going to speak with their classes about ongoing support (that’s a good sign!)  This evening we go to Woodstation UMC (only about 15 miles from Boynton and on the way home). 

We had two presentations yesterday.   In the morning we were at the United Methodist Church in Woodbury, Georgia, and then in the evening we traveled to Columbus, Georgia, to speak at St. Marks United Methodist.  Both presentations went well and now we have to wait and see the results.  We should start hearing some things in a few weeks.

 Between the two churches, we had a bit of time.  Woodbury is only about 15 miles or so from Warm Springs, Georgia, where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to find relieve from his polio.  He built a white pine cabin there called The Little White House and made 41 trips there from 1932 until his death (at the house) in 1945.  Today the house and grounds are a State Park and Museum.  Fantastic place to visit!  Throughout my life, I’d heard stories about FDR and all the things he did.  I learned a lot more yesterday.  While inside the Little White House, the guide told us a story about the relgious faith of the President.

He was an Episcopalian and had faith in God.  When he was elected President, he was invited to attend the National Cathedral.  He attended, but immediately felt something was wrong.  He knew at church we are supposed to focus our attention and worship on God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  While at the National Cathedral he immediatly realized all eyes were on him, not on God.  For the rest of his life, he didn’t attend worship at a church…with a few exceptions.

While at Warm Springs, he would attend chapel services on the grounds of the Warm Srings Foundatin (a foundation set up to help those with polio).  He would attend services there becuase he could simply roll his wheelchair into the chapel and just be one of many.  He wasn’t the President of the United States at those times.  He was a person with polio. 

The park ranger told us another story about FDR and his faith:

A woman from the Warm Springs area told him her father was the pastor of a small country church there in the area during the 1930s and 40s.  During one evening service, the weather was hot and humid.  With no air conditioning, the doors and windows were left open to catch whatever small breeze blew through.  As a little girl, the woman sat listening to her father preaching when suddenly he stopped for a moment before continuing.  She looked around to see if anything was different, but everything was normal.  Later that evening after everyone had left, he father asked his family, “Do you know who came to worship tonight?”

“No,” she said.  “I looked around, but it was the same people.”

Her dad smiled and said, “The President came to church.  During one of the songs, a car drove by the front door.  Another one quickly followed behind and stopped.  The President was in the car.  He listened to my entire sermon and when we sang the last song, I saw his lips moving.  He drove off before the service ended, so no one else saw him.”

He attending services at that church about three times while in Warm Springs.

The President had his priorities correct.  More of God.  Less of the President.  John the Baptizer said this, too.  When asked if he was jealous of Jesus’ growing fame, John said, “I must become less so that Jesus can become more.”

That’s a goal I’m going to keep in my mind as well. 

Tonight we go to Fishers Chapel United Methodist Church in Summerville to speak with their newly formed women’s group. 

Yesterday was Audra’s birthday.  Since we are moving and selling almost everything, it was hard to decide what to get her for her big day.  I took the easy way out and asked her what she wanted.  “A movie would be great,” she said.  Sounded good to me, so we got in the car to drive to Chattanooga.  There is a cheap theater there ($2.50 a seat — woohoo!) and the only thing that looked remotely good was Evan Almighty. 

I don’t know if you have seen it or not, but for me it was one of the best movies I’ve seen all year (okay, to tell the truth, I haven’t seen a lot of movies this year…but this one was good).  I won’t spoil it for you, but the premise for the movie is simple:  God (Morgan Freeman) tells newly elected Congressman (Steve Carrell) to build an ark because a flood was coming.  He and his family have moved into an upscale subdivision…not the best place to build a big boat…  I won’t tell you the rest, but I will tell you it is a fantastic movie.  It’s not a perfect movie.  There are some times you have to suspend reality a bit.  There are times the plot is a bit forced.  Be that as it may, what I liked most about is was this:  they got it right.  It is sad when Hollywood has a better grasp on who God is than a lot of the church. 

 A sample of how they got right:

• Question:  What makes you think God chose you?  Response:  He chose all of us.
• How do we change the world?  One single act of random kindness at a time.
• If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
• God says:  Everything I do, I do because I love. 

If you don’t want to watch the movie, that’s fine.  I’m not here to get you to watch movies.  I’m encouraged that there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are watching a secular movie about God in which God is a lot like the God I know from the Bible.  God works in mysterious ways, I know this.  Maybe Evan Almighty will help lead some to know the Almighty of Heaven.  That is my prayer. 

To God be the glory.

This evening we went to yet another church.  This one was way out in the country in Floyd County (I think), Georgia.  Getting there we passed by a farm selling Simmental and Angus bulls and a bit further down the road was a “bull experiment center.”  The latter was part of a large agricultural program of the Univeristy or Extension Agency or something.  In the middle of all that was a small country church built in the 1840s.  It was one of those places that we dream of attending:  a little white church in the country.  Cattle lowing in the background.  Turkeys trotting up the hill behind the buildings.  Beautiful shade trees in the yard.  A cemetery across the street.  Very pastoral.  Driving up to the church, some impressions popped into my mind.  This church, however, was one of those proverbial books we should not judge by the cover.

 This church is alive and vibrant.  Even though it is Labor Day weekend, about 15 youth led the singing at worship.  (These youth inspired me with the excitement and joy with which they lived out their faith!)  Another 15 or 20 adults joined in the worship service.  Following our presentation, many people cam up and talked with us.   One of the women shared a bit of the story of the church.

 She came to the church from a large congregation in another denomination.  At that church she saw the work being done by men and women putting their shoulders to the wheel.  Of course, God was involved there, but it was mostly the people who you saw doing the work.  It was here in this church, she said, that she first saw God at work directly.  She enjoyed worshiping there.  The fellowship was wonderful.  She didn’t really care if the church grew or did not grow.  But God cared.  God started sending people with the gifts and graces and talents the church needed.  “And they stayed!” she said with joy in her eyes.  Eventually the church decided to stop being yoked with another congregtion and to strike out on their own (with God, of course) with a part-time pastor.  The people within the bigger denominational church who make those decisions, though, said, “Not now.”

 ”Who do they think they are?” she insisted.

They said, “Not yet.”

“Why do they think they are?” she persisted.

 They said, “Okay, let’s talk.”

“Who do they think they are,” she thought,  “This is God’s work.”  At the meeting she gave her reasons.  They agreed and the church and continued to grow since that day.  Too often, she reminded me, we get in the way of what God has planned.  “When you get to Peru,” she said to me, “When you have those dark days when things don’t seem to be going right, ask yourself, ‘Who do you think you are?’ and then step aside and let God work.  It’s God’s job anyway…not yours.” 

Good advice.  A good prayer for all of us to remember…no matter who we are.

 To God be the glory!