I hadn't thought about it for a long time....

...and then... I thought about it...

....and kept thinking about it....
...which made me think about looking up a friend of mine who I hadn't talked to for a long time, on Facebook....
(my friend, Lois, is in the yellow outfit)

...and then I was looking at her pictures...

...which made me think about it even more...

...about people who need Jesus...

...an Odissi dancer...

...a miserable-looking Hindu couple, who probably didn't even know each other until that day they got married...

...precious little children...

...a rather frightful-looking Hindu performer...

...because they were taught to believe in and slave under this...

...instead of to believe in and worship the One True God, Jehovah, and His Son Jesus Christ.

Who knows how long I'll be thinking about it, or what will come of it. Nevertheless, I have been reminded...
India needs Jesus.

Thanks for bearing with my ramble. I have a lot on my mind these days.

Probably the Most Accurate Facebook Quiz I've Ever Taken...

What is your Temperament?

Melanie took the "What is your Temperament?" quiz and the result is Sanguine.

 

You sparkle. There is something about you that is lovable and fun. You are a people-person and people are drawn to you. You are lighthearted and carefree. You are a born storyteller, everyone knows that when you start a conversation with "You'll never guess what happened..." they are in for a good story. You have a good sense of humour and a memory for colour. You feel things passionately and you are very demonstrative of your feelings. You have a natural curiosity and a wide-eyed innocence that is charming. You have a changeable disposition but a sincere heart. Whatever is happening now is the most important thing and whoever is in the room is your favourite person - and you are theirs. Extrovert: The People Person.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that was what I came up as in the "What is Your Temperament" quiz. :-)  I thought most of the things were pretty close to the real me. 

Please forgive me for not posting sooner.  I have been doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of writing, but have not gotten much of it onto my blog here! :-J   I am still planning on writing the second part of the series I started on Faith, Hope, and Love.  Also, I might post the article about Malaysia that I'm working on, tell about my new writing diary, and share some other things the Lord is teaching me.  Right now, I am going to make a cup of chai tea (which kept me up until 3:00 AM last night...) and read a book.  Then hopefully I will get to writing Airborne and possibly working on my childrens' books series.  I hope all my dear readers are doing well.  Let us keep our eyes on Jesus and put Him first in everything, that He may receive all the glory. 

Something to pray about: In my studying to write an article on Malaysia for the Tuckleberry Times, I have learned a lot about the persecution Christians receive there from the Muslims (which make up 60.4% of the population.)   In the last few months, they have been suffering from angered Muslims making attacks on some of their churches.  Please keep the Malaysian Christians in prayer.  Pray that they would be strong in their faith, that converts to Christianity would hold to Jesus no matter what the earthly cost, and that Christians would be bold to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even with the Muslims (which is illegal).  I can't wait to share with you what I have been learning about Malaysia!

Pray for the Dakus in Fiji

Hey folks! I got this email from some missionary acquaintances of ours serving God in the Fiji Islands. I am posting it here so that you can pray for them as well. (This is an AWESOME family; Paul and Martha have been serving as missionaries for I don't know how long, and each of their grown sons has gone on to serve the Lord in the same area as well! I wish you could hear Mr. Daku speak; he is phenomenal!) Anyway, here's the letter:

Dear praying friends,

Greetings from the Fiji Islands! This week, the church in Rotuma is being built and the boys' dormitory at the Master's Use Baptist Institute is being built as well. We are thrilled that all the red tape and preparations were finally conquered and completed so these buildings could go up for God's glory.

However, the powers of darkness are not celebrating these victories. In fact, we are experiencing some big spiritual battles within our ministry just this week. Four of our families are facing major problems. We ask that you join us in fervent prayer over the next four days that Satan will be defeated in these situations and that God will give us the victory. We will be meeting with two of the families again over the weekend to try to show them God's way from the Bible.

1. The landlord of one of our families is trying to force them out of their rental house, even though he has no legal grounds to do so.
2. A young man has a heart to follow the Lord and train for the ministry, but his wife is opposed to it and is planning to break up the family just to have her own way.
3. Another family has experienced a complicated situation regarding an uncle and a teen girl who lives with them.
4. A young married couple is on the verge of splitting due to the secret life and habitual sin of the husband. He walked out a week ago.

It is difficult to explain to you the level of spiritual warfare we face in Fiji on a daily basis. We have never experienced this many situations all at one time.
We know that our only weapon is the armor of God. Pray that we will be strong "in the power of his might."

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." II Cor. 10:4

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING WITH US.

Trusting God for the victory,

Paul and Martha Daku
Fiji Islands

Eric Liddell

Eric Henry Liddell was born in Tientsin, China, on January 16, 1902, to Scottish missionaries James and Mary Liddell. He lived there with them in China until he was six years old, when his parents enrolled him and his brother Robert (then age 8) at Eltham College of Blackheath, England, a boarding school for missionaries' children. His parents left them there and returned to China with his younger sister, Jenny.

While at Eltham, and later at Edinburgh University, where he went for a BSc in Pure Science, Eric became noted for his athletic skill and sportsmanship. People began to hale him as a potential Olympic winner.

Eric trained for Olympic running and chose to run the 100-meter dash in the Paris Olympics of 1924. When he found out they would be run on a Sunday, he chose to run the 400-meter dash instead, as he believed the Sunday was a day dedicated to his Lord. People didn't think he would win the 400-meter, but he pulled out at five meters ahead of the silver-medalist and beat the world record at 47.6 seconds. Eric was an Olympic hero.

After his Olympic victory, Eric surprised the world by going to China as a missionary in 1925. There he taught at the Anglo-Chinese college for wealthy Chinese students, using his athletic experience to train in sports. He was also Sunday School Superintendent at his father's church, Union Church, there in China. In 1934, Eric married Florence Mackenzie, the daughter of Canadian missionaries who were working in China. There they had two daughters, Patricia and Heather.

But things weren't going altogether smoothly. As World War II began to terrorize the Pacific Rim, Eric began to realize that his family would be safer back in Canada with Florence's relatives in Toronto. So Flo and the children sailed to Canada while Eric stayed behind, with hopes that they would be reunited after the war's end. Not long after they left, Eric received the news that his third daughter, Maureen, had been born.

In 1943, Eric and many other Americans and Brits were taken to Weihsien, a Japanese Interment Camp, or, prison camp. There he took up teaching and leading at the camp, and became a godly and revered example for many of the young people there. But soon people began to notice that he was getting more easily tired and was complaining of headaches. On February 22, 1945, Eric went home to be with the Lord as a result of a tumor that was killing his brain. At his funeral, the Salvation Army band played his favorite hymn, Finlandia (“Be Still My Soul”). The runner had finished his dash through life, and was at rest and at home with Lord.

Many people remember Eric for his athletic reputation. However, the young people that he taught and befriended at Weihsien remembered him for his deep love for the Lord and his godly influence. They remembered him not only teaching on the Sermon on the Mount and the Love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13), but also living it out in his daily life. Eric ran his race through life well, and the message of his life still touches us today.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...” Hebrews 12:1,2

This article was originally featured in the March/April 2007 issue of the Tuckleberry Times.

God at the Controls/ When Things Seem Impossible

Paul commended Steve for the neat landing he had made in spite of the rough wind and difficult runway. They began to taxi back to the trail which led to the village.

"Man, this doesn't feel right," Paul remarked, not seeing any Indians around where they usually parked the plane. No sign of the Cains either, in spite of the radio call made en route...

Steve swung the tail of the airplane around and was shutting off the engine as Paul said again, "Steve, something doesn't seem right to me. There's nobody here."

"Here they come!" Steve announced.

Paul looked under the right wing down the trail to where people normally came, and said, "I don't see anybody."

"No, the guerillas!"

Then he saw them. Two were coming toward them from the front, out of the jungle, and two were coming from behind. There was no escape.


The year is 1985. Tim and Bunny are ministering among the Puinave people in a village called Morichal, in the Amazon River Basin area of Colombia, when one day strange Colombian men, donned in camoflauge and armed with guns, appear on their doorstep. They are the F.A.R.C. (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), a Colombian Marxist guerilla group. Tim is forced by the guerillas to call in the missionary pilots to fly him out-- all the while it is a trap for pilots Paul Dye and Steve Estelle!

Separating the missionaries, the guerillas have Paul fly them to one of their small jungle bases while Steve, Tim, and Bunny are held at Morichal. Here the Lord deals patiently with his children, and they must learn to wait on Him and trust Him to do the absolute Impossible!

God at the Controls, now entitled When Things Seem Impossible, is a true account of God's amazing power in the lives of His children in a very troubled part of the world. Written by Jean Dye Johnson and published by New Tribes Mission, it is an inspiring testimony of the power of the God of Creation in spite of the powers of this world. When God's children allow Him to work in their hearts, and when they trust their lives to Him in complete faith, He shows Himself strong above all that they could ask or think. You will read with baited breath as you see God close the eyes of the enemy and aid in a miraculous escape from the powerful guerilla forces, and you will put down the book with a new confidence that we do serve the God of the Impossible!

Karen Legend About the Bible

The following is an interesting exerpt from Courtney Anderson's biography on Adoniram Judson, describing the Karen people whom Judson began to work with some time after his first wife's death.

"The Karens had some peculiar legends which suggested the Bible, even including one about the consequence of the eating of forbidden fruit from a 'tree of death'. One of these involved a Creator called 'Y'wa', who had seven sons, of whom the Karen was the first-born, the white man the youngest. Y'wa was to go on a journey and invited the Karen to go with him. The Karen refused because he had to clear his field. The Burman refused, too, but he and the Karen each gave their father a gift. Finally the white brother went with Y'wa. When they reached the 'celestial shore', Y'wa made a silver and gold book for the Karen, a palm-leaf book for the Burman and a parchment book for the white man. But the white man kept the silver and gold book for himself, and sent the Burman with the parchment book to the Karen. The Karen, who was still busy clearing his field, scarcely looked at the book. Instead, he left it on a stump. While he burned his clearing the book was ruined and the pigs and chickens ate what was left. But, said the legend, some day the white brother would bring the Karens the lost book from across the water. Naturally, some of them took the missionaries for that 'white brother' of the legend."

-Anderson, Courtney: To the Golden Shore. (Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1987) pages 401, 402

Prayer Request

I would like to ask you all for prayer for the Kevin Bruce family. They are serving the Lord in Ecuador and are currently going through a trial as one of the men they have worked with was brutally killed in a fight last week. Tribal superstitions surround them, and the relatives of the murdered man are thirsty for revenge. Please pray that the Lord would give the Bruces strength, encouragement, and wisdom during this time. Pray for the light of God's Word to go forth and penetrate into this darkness, and that many people would come to Christ in the midst of this situation.

The story is given in more detail on their blog: http://brucekev.blogspot.com/.

"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you" (2 Thessalonians 3:1).