Neh 4:10 Then Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall."

 

I don’t want to make a poor comparison here, but a big weight has been removed from my head today. We are setting up house. We have been awaiting our personal effects from Zambia. We shipped them mid-August and they arrived at Long Beach on Oct. 20. After chasing paperwork here and there and then back again we had a truck arrive yesterday with our container. My evangelist compatriots helped me unload it about an hour and now we are starting to put together the house.

 

This is a big deal for my family and myself. The focus shifted this week to containers, brokers, security checks, dispatchers and finally a Spanish speaking driver who was able to be guided right to the house by my Spanish speaking wife and our evangelist friend Johnnie. Now it is time to shift back to calling and purpose while doing the “work of an evangelist”.

 

I will be starting a revival for Doug Kuehneman in Phoenix tomorrow. I will try and use this blog to interview some people in the area of the church during the revival. Let’s see what God will do.

 

Just a short breakfast note. Pastor Mitchell had referred to a book, “The Sociopath Next Door” which my wife has checked out from the library. Pastor Mitchell mentioned the book at breakfast and I mentioned how my wife is quizzing me as she reads the book to some laughter. The real laughter came when one of the evangelists didn’t catch the name of the book and he asked if the title was: “The Associate Pastor Next Door”.

Had a good service tonight, dealing with moving on when people close to you don’t continue on. Preached lightly with enough humor to deal with a serious issue. My own family began to bother me a little bit as they were obviously laughing under their breaths during the sermon. It was effecting the family in front of us also so I eventually had to communicate to my wife and daughter that I thought their behaviour was inappropriate.

 

After church I was told the rest of the story. The little girl sitting in front of us was drawing a picture of the stars and stripes. At the top she had especially large letters spelling Fag.

The directions of politics and international relations will always flow in the direction established by bible prophecy. I use an illustration in my sermons about talking with a Muslim patriarch before I left Zambia. He asked me what I thought about the action in Lebanon. I turned it around to ask him what he thought. He concluded that Israel was never going away and would eventually colonize most of the area. I asked him why he thought that would happen. He answered that it would happen because the Arabs are always fighting among themselves. He described two bible prophecies: Amos 9:14-15 and Gen 16:12.

 

Looking at the theatrics of North Korea I see a unifying international reaction. Given the amount of weaponry aimed at South Korea it would be bad for South Korea for any war to erupt. Because of our ties to South Korea we are not willing to go and attack the North Korean nuclear facilities. The new pressure being applied brings China and the US closer together. North Korean actions give legs to a stronger and more assertive Japan, something China and South Korea had hoped to avoid. This forces China and South Korea to be more aggressive in their relationship with North Korea.

 

I am reading “Guanxi” by Buderi and Huang. It is the story of the Microsoft research effort in China. “Guanxi” is the art of relationships. Are we moving towards one world economy, one world government and one world religion? The bible says yes and the work that is being done in China will certainly speed up this unavoidable reality. My point is that China is enjoying the new relationship with the corporate world. The thought of a regional nuclear war does not attend well to the idea of continuing their prosperous relationship with the corporate world.

 

So the world will do its best to reign in North Korea in. Should the world fail or more specifically should South Korea and China fail to keep North Korea from exporting nuclear weapons or technology that results in an attack on America or Japan they would know that the resulting response from America and Japan would unleash North Korean weaponry upon South Korea and set back the whole region economically. They really are the two players that have the most to lose by not handling North Korea properly.

 

Iran is another subject. But be sure Iran, Israel will not be driven into the sea.

Leaving Safford I met Joan and Audra in Casa Grande. We were gathering together to see Ryan Cunningham play football. We remember Ryan and Audra playing guns around our houses in Zambia. No more guns as we know what every parent knows: they grow up fast. Ryan's team was playing Yuma. Casa Grande has not beaten them in some 26 attempts. We arrived early and watched the social drama of High School football unfold. One standout was the Casa Grande band. They carried themselves with poise as they sat down before the game. There was a stirring rendition of the national anthem to a Marine color guard with proper respect shown by young and old. And the football game....

 

Ryan has grown into a 250 lb lineman playing both offense and defense. When I had preached here 3 weeks ago we all went out and played some basketball after the last night of the revival. He is not only big but quite agile with an excellent outside shot. I say this to illustrate his level of development as a junior lineman on 5A team. Tom and Marjean are the obvious proud parents as Ryan graciously acknowledges the family in the stands. The game plan was simple: Casa Grande was to pound away with a running game. They did just that as their Kenyan born running back gained over 260 yards in the 21 - 10 Casa Grande victory. The tempo of the game was established on the second play from scrimage. The Yuma quarterback faded for a pass. Ryan had let us know that they had trained for this very play. When the offensive line let Ryan through without blocking him he knew it was a screen play. One player chased the quarterback. His screen pass was tipped and fell into Ryan's hands and he ran it into the end zone for a 46 yard touchdown being escorted in by a squadron of linemen celebrating the lineman's dream.  

I just finished a revival in Safford AZ for Pastor Tommy Seals and his wife Clara. I had a great time. Last night I preached a ministry sermon and things were going well until I began to challenge people to expand out of the ruts they have gotten into. I unwittingly pointed to the man running the sound equipment in his cubicle at the back of the church, challenging him to break out of his cubicle of ministry to do something more for God. These words were met with some loud feedback that continued to escalate until I was forced to shutdown my lapel mike. I announced to the church not to mess with the sound man as we all had a great time laughing at the coincidence of the timing of the sound mishap. The Safford church was very easy to preach to and I hope God will continue to bless them and their pastor.

Sorry, I will have to wait on photos until I am able to download the new tool. Turned all security off, but still unable to download.

 

I had a wonderful drive to Safford AZ. Beautiful scenery climbing out of Phoenix to Globe. Bought some pinyon nuts from an Indian couple as I entered the Apache reservation. The scenery combined with the clouds moving overhead were breathtaking. I will have to investigate getting permission to move around the reservation. Some handmade signs made it very clear that you needed to have permits to drive down certain roads.

 

I am preaching here in Safford and this morning I was enjoying a bowl of cereal at the local hotel when a young toddler came up to me all excited because his grandpa was here. It turned out I was grandpa. I heard the mother telling him that I was not his grandpa. Nonetheless, as I was leaving he followed me to the door and said “goodbye grandpa”. It was actually enjoyable as I returned his goodbye.

 

I must have dating on my mind because I included my dating experience with Joan last night in my sermon. I attended a bible conference as a new convert staying with a young couple who had dated and been married for a month when I stayed with them for the week. They shared their dating testimony with me, gave me a sermon tape on dating and encouraged me in the direction of dating and marriage.

 

I returned to Wickenburg set on asking Joan out. At the time Joan had been assured by one of her friends that I would not ask her out. That Saturday as I drove her music group down to Phoenix I was determined to get close enough to her to ask her out. After the music scene the restaurant was crowded so we had to wait to be seated. Joan was sitting all alone away from the rest of us, so I thought I would go sit next to her. As I approached she got up and moved further away. Next it was time to sit at the table to share a meal. We were like to boxers measuring each other’s reach. She waiting to see where I sat so she could sit away from me and me waiting for her to sit so I could sit close to her. She won that round, but the good news is that I eventually tackled her and asked her out.

 

We had a special outreach in Mazabuka on dating with Pastor and Dianne Robinson. We advertised an HIV film, seminar and a handout on the 10 rules of dating. We had over 500 young people attend. The 10 rules are: Rule #1 Do Not Fornicate. Rules #2-10 are: Refer to Rule #1. It is and always has been the best advise to follow.

Wickenburg is the town in which I got saved. I was traveling through Arizona on my way to New Mexico to sell a house semi-owned by my traveling companion and go to Europe. We ran out of money in Augila and so I took a bus into Wickenburg and got a job working for Joe Nimitz of Squash Blossom Nursery. I planned on working for a week, getting a paycheck and getting back on the road. Instead, I was confronted by a young man who began to preach to me in front of his house looking out over the desert. As he talked about the things of God I knew this was my time. I prayed with him on a Wed. and the next night I was at an international conference realizing that what I was experiencing was taking place all over the world. That was 23 years ago.

 

I spent 5 wonderful years in Wickenburg. I had a ministry of driving a van. This was how I was able to get close enough to Joan to ask her out. She was the bass player in an excellent gospel band. I make it sound easy, but on the night I decided to ask her out I had to play musical chairs at a restaurant. She won, I wasn’t able to get close enough. Dating stories will have to wait. It was in Wickenburg that I got saved, got married, had our first two children and responded to the call to preach.

 

While preaching in Wickenburg last week I discovered another interesting fact about the town. It is the only town in America where you cannot buy a tie. I forgot my ties and went to every conceivable store without luck. The only store that had ties was the local Soroptomist shop and it was closed on the Monday I was searching the town. The other interesting event was having a young black man come out to our services in Wickenburg. The town is very white still. 23 years ago we were challenged by an evangelist to bring somebody to church, even buy them some pizza. Well I went back to the manager of the hole in the wall where we stayed in Augila before getting saved. She came to church with me and got saved. This young black man was the second black person to visit the church that I know of. This young man has a powerful future in front of him.

 

I also spent 5 great years working with Joe. It is nice to visit some of the jobs we did way back when. These shots are from a downtown job in which the old men of the town would set on benches across the street and tell everyone who would listen that we were the hardest working crew they had ever seen. We were a machine.

We have been back in America for 1 month now. I want to start keeping up the blog properly. “I want” will hopefully translate out as “I will”. I am losing my status as an overseas pastor which gave me some insights that I felt were unique and readable. Now I am a traveling evangelist. I had my first meeting in Casa Grande last week and this week I am in Wickenburg AZ.

 

American first impressions. People are much friendlier than I remember. People are much more acceptable of my Christianity than I remember from times past. I wonder if this is a side effect from 9/11. Vehicles are moving very fast on the highways. There seems to be more overweight people than I remember. Eating out is much more expensive than I remember. Advertising seems to concentrate on  investments and health. People have more money as they are getting older, and they realize they are getting older. Of course since I am also getting older I am not sure how well my memory is serving me.

 

This observation is based on my few encounters with young people and my daughter’s recounts of her encounters in her new high school. Young people seem to have some universal talking points about why they must reject Christianity. They are in no particular order: sex and homosexuality, total rejection of any “truth” and the idea that all roads lead somewhere and the issue is not where you are going, but that you are on a road.

 

What a great time to be a gospel preacher.