I finished reading the book “The Good Earth” by Pearl Buck on this trip. It was an enjoyable book to read. I came away after reading the book with two thoughts that I couldn’t shake. One was the idea of an added diligence to my own life as exemplified by the farmer Wang Lung. I try to include the use of the Hebrew definition of diligence, “a ditch already dug”, somewhere in my revivals. So I am incorporating extra effort into making my time count towards goals accomplished each day. The second idea was a picture of my wife exemplifying the Christian woman combining the qualities of O-lan and Lotus to be my better half.

Here is an interesting review of a book Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China's Peasants published in 2006 and quickly banned. I will try and get a copy myself it sounds interesting.  

            I am in Green Bay preaching for Roger Fisher. Roger had preached for us in Zambia and he made quite the impression on my wife and daughters. I am actually staying in his daughter Megan’s house. She just purchased it, furnished it, but hasn’t moved in yet. What a luxury for a traveling evangelist.

I had just preached for Perry Dominguez in Chicago. Perry had started a church in Puerto Rico and Sakhalin Island off the East Coast of Russia. He also had pastored the Rybinsk church in Russia. He, his wife Josey and son Aaron all speak Spanish and Russian as well as English. They even have a Russian convert from Sakhalin who was able to legally enter the US and is now in Chicago.

The group of people that Perry has are just on the edge of becoming a church. There is something a pioneer pastor is trying to establish that transcends the idea of just getting people to attend services. That common identity and commitment does not just happen as many a struggling pioneer has realized. We started the week with doubts but by the end of the week things were looking and feeling great.

He had scheduled the revival through Wed. so we decided to show the “James Tembo” movie Thursday night. I spent the day at the church handwriting 250 flyers inviting folks to the movie that night. I had a personal outreach that day. It has been a long time since I had personally handed out flyers to an event. I kept comparing this to my future should I pioneer again in the future. I went down Devon street a short distance from the church. Devon street holds a Jewish section, Russian, Muslim and Indian with all of the accompanying shops. It reminded me of sections of Lusaka. I found myself pining away in the church awaiting the start of the movie hoping to see someone come through my outreach. Although we had our biggest crowd at the church that night we didn’t get any visitors from my outreach efforts. I am hoping this is not some foreshadowing for my future pioneering experience.

Watching a church watch my pride and joy movie was quite the experience. I especially focused in on the pastor’s son and the other young men of the church. They seemed to be riveted on the movie making it easy afterwards to talk about the young people in the film and our need to plan and accomplish tasks as individuals and as groups. It was a great time of fellowship (food) and ministry.  

Road trips must be in the air. Joan and I went to Chico CA for my Uncle Paul’s funeral. Marriages and funerals are the times to see all of the relatives. Uncle Paul was a special man to all of us there. This entailed a lot of driving to get there on time. I was a pallbearer and arrived 20 minutes before the ceremony began. The return trip was a more leisurely. We picked up Audra at Brooke’s in Reno after a pleasant drive along the Feather River crossing the Sierra Nevada range from California to Nevada. We spent the night at my Mom’s and then started our trip home.

We drove down to Tonapah and then went East on 6. At a junction with 53 (the Extraterrestrial Highway) called  Warm Springs we made an unscheduled stop. I explained to Audra that this makes this an official “road trip”. I was first attracted by a stone corral and some stone huts built into the mountain. As I investigated these sights Audra discovered that the running stream was hot. As we followed the stream and the increasing amounts of chemical by products of a sulfur hot spring we came to a small abandoned swimming pool with changing rooms. I continued to the source as Joan and Audra took a bath in the healing waters of Warm Springs.

As we drove away down the Extraterrestrial Highway we could see the cows drinking from the flowing stream several miles from the junction. Audra got out and tested the temperature of the water to said that it was normal, not hot anymore. It was a great stop.

Crossing Nevada is tough no matter how you do it, but we made it to Utah and stopped in Cedar City to get our bearings. We were carrying tents and sleeping bags to camp out in a spot yet to be determined. We made our way South to Zion National park. We found a camping spot for $16 in the park after purchasing a year pass into our National Parks. We were exhausted but enjoyed an evening walk along the river and observing a group of French young people camped next to us. The next morning the bus took us into the canyon and we took a short hike towards the narrows an area where the canyon is so narrow that you have to walk through the water in order to continue on. Maybe another day for that.

We left the park and continued our journey south. We had a great lunch at RockingV Cafe in Kanab. We were then left with the drive to the entry to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff for coffee, Ashfork and then the final stretch to Prescott. We made it home just in time for a short rest and a sermon from Pastor Mitchell that night.  

I listened to a Pastor Mitchell sermon that linked up with a book I read. The book is: “The Missing Peace” by Dennis Ross. The book starts with the final attempt by President Clinton to establish a lasting legacy by bringing peace between the Jews and the Palestinians. In the closing hours of his presidency he had brought Barak and Arafat together. Barak had already agreed to the President’s plan. He would be turning over about 97% of the occupied West Bank and 100% of Gaza to Arafat. Israel would retain control of the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall which extends into the Arab section of Jerusalem. Arafat waffled, played word games about the name of the wall and walked away from his possible moment of destiny.

Dennis Ross then gives us a great read on the process and events that brought us to that point. His quote about how to be successful in this endeavor is: “If there is one overriding lesson from the story of the peace process, it is that truth telling is a necessity not a luxury”.

The one element that Dennis Ross cannot understand is the supernatural elements that surround the city of David, Jerusalem. As Pastor Mitchell so clearly pointed out the spiritual significance of the city is something that will endure until the very end of time as we know it. Jerusalem the city of God. Jerusalem is the city that God chose. Jerusalem is the city tied to all end time prophecies. Another book called “The Fight for Jerusalem” points out how the most radical branch of Islam does not even consider Jerusalem a Holy city. Mohammad had been transported in the night to the mosque to the north which is now considered the mosque in Jerusalem even though it had not been built when Mohammad took his trip. So what is the fight over? Why couldn’t Arafat be happy in letting the Jews control a small strip of a city that meant something to them? The answer does not lie in Arafat’s logical thinking the answer lies in the supernatural developing of the last day’s battle over Jerusalem.

What Dennis Ross cannot understand any bible reader, even an Jewish Old Testament reader can easily understand. The fight is not over the land, it is a spiritual fight over God’s city and the prophecies that surround that city. Historic hatred of the Jews is a demonic manifestation that most of us are familiar with. At this time in history our centers of media do not know how to say anything good about Israel. Watching President Carter as an old man be consumed with hatred towards the Jews is a sight to see. Why can’t they see the hand of God involved in these current happenings.

1 Cor 2:6-8

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1 Cor 2:12 now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

Looking at verse 8 you realize that most of the leaders of this world can’t handle the “hidden wisdom of God”. What about us?