LAST LESSONS #178 — LAST LESSONS — PROMISES 1

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

I can’t remember when I first tried to live by the promises of God, but I am still trying to do so. If God promises something, he will make good on that promise. In the little book I wrote forever ago called LIVING THE WORDS OF JESUS I wrote “principles,” “promises,” and “commands.” I found that what God commands me to do, I have great difficulty doing. I also found that trying to live by applying God’s principles is mostly impossible for me because it depends on me. BUT God’s promises depend on God—not me! What a relief!

This morning, I decided to live the promise of blessedness as found in the Beatitudes. We can substitute the word “happy” for “blessedness.” That means I can be happy today. I’ll start with just a few promises. “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:7-9). If I am merciful, pure in heart, and make peace I will be happy. But I don’t even get past “merciful” in this place where I live because everybody here needs to receive mercy.

When it comes to being “pure in heart,” I totally fail, don’t you?

I might be able to be a peacemaker today if I ask God to help me. There are complaints about the food here and sometimes the residents are not at all kind to the servers who really do try to please everybody. But it’s really hard to make peace with old people.

Do you want to be happy or blessed today? Maybe you could ask God to help you make peace when your kids start to argue. You could make peace with your own siblings when you sense division. You could be more patient with your spouse. Will you confess your sins and thus make peace with God?

Let’s do it together. Let’s be happy today.

P.S. to Susie: You sent me orchids and they are beautiful! I want to thank you, but I do not have your email or mailing address. Can you send me your email address? That’s easiest for me. Thanks. 

LAST LESSONS #177 — LAST LESSONS — REMEMBER 3

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered…….” 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Matthew 19:30 states that “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” This week my first daughter is the last to tell you about. Her name is Annie, and she was not born in Africa. She was born in Fort Meade Army Hospital, Maryland, in 1955. And she was two years old when we sailed out of New York harbor past the Statue of Liberty on our way to London. Why London before Africa? Because Bob wanted to take a course in London in tropical medicine and hygiene. We lived in London from August 1957 to April 1958. It was a great experience for Annie and me to learn how to manage the TUBE if we wanted to go anywhere.

When we got to Tanzania, Annie wanted a monkey and we let her have one. I laugh every time I think of the monkey riding on Annie’s back and peeking out through her long hair.

Annie was 7 years old when we moved to Moshi for Bob to work on the hospital he wanted to build there. I was told that Moshi had no school for Annie. I really struggled with the Lord on that. Where most missionaries sent their children was to the mission school (Kiamboi) ten hours drive away. Sad, but obediently I sewed name tags on everything Annie needed in boarding school. I could hardly stand the thought of sending a seven-year-old little girl so far away where we would see her only three times a year. Enter a compassionate God! Two days before she was to go, a friend found out that I was a teacher and asked me if I would fill the vacancy in the International School in Moshi. Would I ever!! At just the right moment God provided a school for my children and a job for me!

I taught Annie for three years in that school. Knowing that children learn to read by reading, I wrote to as many publishers in the US I could think of and asked for damaged or mis-printed books they could send me. Publishers were generous with their help, and I soon had a library of several hundred books. Annie read them all. She not only learned to read, she loved to read. Often I would find her in the bathroom with a flashlight reading when she was supposed to be in bed. She reads fast and she remembers everything she reads. When she was about ten, I asked her if she wanted to read Pilgrims Progress and she said that she had already read it 5 times!

Her carefulness with detail and her artistic ability helps her design houses and make them beautiful. That’s what she does now. Furthermore, she helped Rafiki when we were building the Home Office. She suggested that we make the floors from painted concrete, she painted and decorated the walls in the Exchange building, and she made the buildings (all 14 of them) beautiful.

Annie lives in Saint Augustine with her husband and makes sure she gets over to see me in Mount Dora at least once a month.

There is something special about a first child. What is extra-special about my first child Annie is that she led my third child Tova to the Lord when they were both teenagers.

I daily thank the Lord for my three daughters. Do you thank the Lord daily for the children he gave you? 

LAST LESSONS #176 — LAST LESSONS — REMEMBER 2

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered…….” 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

I love writing about my children. There are so many good things I could say. This week I will tell you about God’s wondrous work in my middle daughter, Kathy.

She was born in Bumbuli, Tanzania in 1958. Then we moved to Moshi so that Bob could establish a hospital on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but Kathy did not seem to thrive physically. When she was five years old, she weighed only 25 pounds. When she complained of pain in her lower abdomen, we took her to the missionary doctor in Machame. We were sure she had appendicitis. Surgery however, proved something different. She had mesenteric tuberculosis. By God’s grace we caught it in time and she was treated.

We came back to the US when Kathy was eight years old, and she did well in school. Art was her favorite subject. I remember her drawing postage stamp size pictures, and to this day she likes little things.

Kathy came to faith in Jesus Christ when she was a teenager, and it made a difference in her life. When she was ready to go to college she tested positive for tuberculosis again. So, instead of going away to college we sent her to Texas Lutheran College. It was close enough to San Antonio that Bob could treat her TB. God made that possible out of his love and care for his own. We all learned something of God’s wondrous works for his children.

Kathy met her husband at Texas Lutheran College, and they were married while DC was in medical school.

If I could use one word to describe Kathy, it would be “creative.” Not only is she a professional artist, but she learned to sew and made clothes without needing patterns. She even made a 4 ft X 5 ft playhouse out of cloth for her children. She was always making thing more beautiful—her house, her garden, her art studio, her church, herself. She is beautiful to this day.

Because Kathy loves the Lord, many of her paintings are religious in nature. Paintings of bread and wine, angels, Genesis 1:1, Noah looking out the window of the ark. Her goal is to glorify God with the talent he has given to her.

Kathy still loves Africa and is working toward taking her artist friends to Rafiki villages to give workshops to teachers and local artists. We are all excited about that!

I am grateful that Kathy daily seeks God’s strength and his presence. I want to do that too, don’t you? 

LAST LESSONS #175 — LAST LESSONS — REMEMBER

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered…” 1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Over our lifetimes we remember many things—the good things and the bad things, the funny things and the somber things, the amazing things and the trivial things. We believe that the next generation should hear these things in order to learn from us, but we do not know how to get the next generation to listen. I think I will put a few of my memories that tell of “the wondrous works” that God did for me and my family in the past and pray that my children listen.

One wondrous thing God did for our family was when our third baby was born. We were in Bumbuli, Tanzania. There was a mud brick hospital there where Bob worked. When it was time for the baby (Tova) to be born, Bob picked me up in his arms and carried me to the hospital emergency room. Several missionary nurses were alerted that they should come help with the delivery, but Bob wanted to deliver the baby himself. He did. Then one of the nurses came to my side and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry—it’s a girl.”

The problem she foresaw was that I already had two girls! You can be sure that I set her straight! I love girls and Tova was not only a satisfactory baby, but she has been a remarkable female to this day.

One incident with Tova makes me smile. Still in Tanzania, when Tova was three years old, someone accidentally slammed the door on two of Tova’s fingers nearly cutting them off. We took Tova to the hospital in Machame (the closest mission hospital). On the way there with Tova sitting in my lap with her hand resting on a pillow she said, “It’s good it’s only two!”

That’s Tova—always looking on the bright side. To this day, she has always been a happy practical daughter. She now lives with her husband in Miami where she founded and operates a non-profit called “Wellspring Counseling.” It is a wonderful ministry that has helped many people. She has also helped Rafiki when we have had problems with some of our orphans in Africa. I am so proud of her and grateful to God that he gave me such a satisfactory and loving daughter.

P.S. Do you remember the good things that God did for your children so that you (and they) can tell them to the next generation? Are you documenting those things so that you do not forget?