As an evangelistic Christian I am always amazed at people’s reaction to truth in any form, since most people never come into contact with it in their daily lives. “The rest of the story” is very seldom in the news. Watch this video as an anti-war administrator of a bus tour financed by Sorros is confronted by two well spoken vets.

I remember a preacher from my past named Harry Hills who was actually the first pastor of this church here in Sparta. Pastor Hills would share a story of sitting in a restaurant listening to a man describe the evil and corrupt character of the pastor of this church, Harry Hills. Finally, Harry got up and introduced himself to the man and the man was forced to hear the other side of the story.

In a society that has become expert at avoiding real discussion of anything other than politically correct pandering, it is nice to see the action in the video mentioned above.

I listened to the speeches tonight from the Democratic convention. Seemed like politics as usual. Vote for Obama and he will fix all of our problems. He is a good orator. When his speech was over I came and played a little bible roulette. Opened up to Acts and read about Apollos in Acts 18. The bible describes him as an “eloquent” man able to “vigorously refute…”.

I should read Obama’s book, maybe he talks about it in his book. I wonder if his Christian experience included a calling to preach the gospel.

One speaker had the crowd shouting the gospel phrase: “Mountain Move”. I am always amazed at how much bible is included at these events without acknowledging the author. President Clinton’s speeches were always liberally laced with scripture references.

Obama might be running from God but he is running with a company of God haters. His strident defense of abortion sets him apart from the flow of a bible believing Christian. Tough to vote for someone who is pro-abortion when you know the bible. What would Jesus do? Vote for the man who enables the abortionist? I don’t think so.

I called Mazabuka to congratulate Pastor Tembo on his preaching at the African conference. He ended our conversation with some bad news. Grace Matingaluka had passed away the day before. My last special face to face time with her was when we were in Zambia in March. She had asked for some time to talk. Just like the old days I was receiving guests at our guest house under the tree instead of on our screened in porch of our old house. She showed up dressed in her traditional clothing. I got us a coke and we sat down together. She had no agenda, she just seemed to enjoy being there. Other people would come by, and I would excuse myself, go and greet them, and return to Grace’s time beneath the tree. We had a history. She and her family were the fruit of our first street preaching in Mazabuka. She had just been divorced by a man because she had refused to farm out her children to relatives to save the man money. Grace and her daughters from different men came into the church. Grace had had a wonderful salvation experience and a changed life, when her Christian marriage failed it reaffirmed her and her daughters projections about men. It would be two years later that Grace’s oldest daughter Petronella, would testify at church how God had changed her attitudes about men. She had not liked hearing what the pastor would preach about men and women, but as time had passed by she surrendered to the truth of the gospel and found a sense of freedom and security in Jesus Christ’s words about relationship between the sexes. I could go on, but Grace accepted her place in the church and thrived upon our proper relationship. She had a woman’s meeting where she invited all of the women that she did business with that she knew survived because they had an extra married man taking care of their bills. This was her life, she ministered, they got saved. Now I sit here remembering my time of sitting with her.

This news was followed up with news from Seattle about Barbara Grantham. Barbara had bounced into our church in Seattle and proved to be a point of strength for the people in the church. She would come with her big wooden cross and I had reached that place where I wasn’t going to war over the cross. I remember she went to Israel with Pastor Mitchell and had a wonderful time of fellowship with Mrs. Mitchell. They didn’t go to war over the cross either. The last time I saw Barbara, I was preaching in Everett, and Barbara and a friend of hers were going to miss the last service as they got ready to leave for Israel one more time with Pastor Mitchell. Her husband had passed away and it was good to see her have a friend in church to do things with. This last month she lost 15 lbs. and began to be nauseous. Her daughter took her to the hospital where they discovered cancer in different parts of her body, including a cancerous mass at the base of her scull that could end her life at any minute. She undergoes radical radiation treatment right away but that is just a stop gap measure. We talked to her today on the phone and she is still sounds like the upbeat Barbara we have always known. Getting ready for another trip.

I started asking guys about doing “Pastor’s Email” with me. Jack Gaeta emailed back to let me know that he has an infection in his body that has been bothering him for two years only to have it diagnosed differently now. The drugs he is having to take are requiring all of his attention to take care of the minimum needs of the church while enduring the pain and the side affects.

A request for prayer, certainly. Even as I write this and you read this we are reminded of our own mortality. And when it is all said and done, the only thing that will matter is whether you believe that Jesus died for your sins or not.

I preached “The Love of God: Can I Believe it?”; last night. Touched on personality disorders, the providence of God, the love of God specifically, and putting on the mind of Christ to do His will. It preached well. I haven’t adjusted to the change from preaching familiar sermons over and over to writing one out and then preaching it. I fell back into a habit from my younger days as a pastor, Amen and can you say amen to give me time to organize my words as I am preaching. A terrible habit for a preacher. Well God still blessed us with a salvation response and two prophecies from the church at the close of the service. It was a great night.

I made some calls confirming the cancellations of my scheduled revivals. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the calls and the conversations that went with it. I am kicking around an idea in my head to start a pastor’s email list just to have some pastoral contact. I think every pastor could write the book called “The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner”. Overseas, I understood it, here I am not sure I want to understand it.

Our Audra Lea will be leaving us again tomorrow. She made the trip out with us and has helped us as we adjusted to our new surroundings. She made friends in church and told me my sermons have helped her. Today we took off to Chester and then across the Mississippi River looking for a country café that Chuck Haynes had taken me to way back when. We found it right across from a popcorn factory, it is called Al's. We had a good lunch and then drove through the foothills of Missouri before crossing back into Illinois to visit the Kaskaskia national landmark. We then drove the back roads into Sparta. She is out with Ebony from church and we put her on a plane tomorrow.

Here are a couple of pictures of Audra enjoying Sparta and our trip to Cousin Alec’s in Chicago.

I was getting a sermon together to prepare our young people for the start of school. I thought about using an illustration of a young man who stopped the student gunman years ago in Kentucky. The idea was that we are not expecting our kids to be heroes at school in the spiritual sense, but we do want them to make it through the experience walking with Christ.

I decided I better do some googooling to refresh my memory with names and details. His name was Ben Strong. I found an article describing the details I remember that touched on Ben Strong’s church and the prayers he received the night before Michael Carneal began his shooting spree, killing 3 girls and wounding others, as they finished a prayer time they held before school started. I remember preaching about Ben’s heroics in taking the gun from Michael while in Seattle in 1997.

Time has not been friendly to the original story as reported in this New York Times article. The parents of the murdered girls brought civil suits against the media, the school and even Ben Strong (he was given a message from Michael the night before to be watching for something big to happen). The details that came out in court showed us that Michael had stopped shooting and had dropped the gun when Ben came up and grabbed him. The principal showed up at the same time and by the time the media circus was through Ben Strong was a hero.

In retrospect the article acknowledged that Ben was struggling with the details of the event in the national interviews that followed. In one interview after the court appearances his answers were said to be terse (good word to look up). I can imagine the unsettled feeling that followed Ben from speaking engagement to speaking engagement knowing that the story was not quite as good as it was believed to be. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts about the matter now some 10 years later.

I liked the heroic Ben then and I like the Ben who has had to struggle through these issues keeping his relationship with Jesus in tact even better.

Actually, these new facts will make the sermon that much better for our young people and we older saints who sometimes expect them to conquer the anti-christ when we send them off to school. I just want them to maintain their walk with Jesus, knowing that God will open up doors for them to be real heroes in the eyes of God.

Life is beginning to regain some of the normal rhythms. The house is together enough for us to have the church over for dinner tomorrow night. Audra has been a wonderful companion during this transition. She heads back to Las Vegas next Tuesday, via Wickenburg where she will pick up our other car. She is making a cake now after making a sorbet for Joan’s birthday. The church was very gracious to Joan on her birthday.

One of the mysteries of Sparta revealed itself to us this last week. We were all amused by a convenient store that advertised cheap cigarettes by the name of “Hookers”. Joan and I were walking home after morning prayer when we ran into a man who started talking with us. He introduced himself as the owner of Hooker’s Men’s Store. What kind of “Men’s” store is “Hooker’s”? See photos below for answer.

Getting ready to go down to the church and pray after a day of fasting. Came across this article which talks about the other side of General Petraeus’s impact upon the American military. It took a President Bush to give General Petraeus the opportunity to turn things around in Iraq. Now a General Petraeus is giving other like minded soldiers the opportunities to get into leadership positions.

I thought this was an appropriate Spurgeon devotional from my PC Study Bible to start my new task of ministering the word and reaching the community of Sparta.

"So she gleaned in the field until even."

— Ruth 2:17

Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of corn, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances, and hearing the word to gather spiritual food. The gleaner gathers her portion ear by ear; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to search for single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation. The gleaner keeps her eyes open: if she stumbled among the stubble in a dream, she would have no load to carry home rejoicingly at eventide. I must be watchful in religious exercises lest they become unprofitable to me; I fear I have lost much already—O that I may rightly estimate my opportunities, and glean with greater diligence. The gleaner stoops for all she finds, and so must I. High spirits criticize and object, but lowly minds glean and receive benefit. A humble heart is a great help towards profitably hearing the gospel. The engrafted soul-saving word is not received except with meekness. A stiff back makes a bad gleaner; down, master pride, thou art a vile robber, not to be endured for a moment. What the gleaner gathers she holds: if she dropped one ear to find another, the result of her day's work would be but scant; she is as careful to retain as to obtain, and so at last her gains are great. How often do I forget all that I hear; the second truth pushes the first out of my head, and so my reading and hearing end in much ado about nothing! Do I feel duly the importance of storing up the truth? A hungry belly makes the gleaner wise; if there be no corn in her hand, there will be no bread on her table; she labours under the sense of necessity, and hence her tread is nimble and her grasp is firm; I have even a greater necessity, Lord, help me to feel it, that it may urge me onward to glean in fields which yield so plenteous a reward to diligence.

(from Spurgeon's Morning & Evening, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 1999, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The pastor’s job of putting together 3 sermons and a Sunday school each week combined with the work of winning people to Christ is aptly summed up in the above quote.

We safely made the move from Arizona to Sparta, Illinois. We arrived last Thursday to about 20 people who helped us unload, followed by a pot luck. The next day we attended a funeral that was followed by a pot luck. We then had our first services that Sunday, and you guessed it, followed by a pot luck. If the cooking is any indication of the health of the congregation then this is one healthy congregation. Trying to not appear as a glutton became a daily cross I was bearing since we have come to Sparta.

We are getting to know people and our daughter, Audra, has been propositioned for marriage several times since arriving by the younger and older men who have spotted her walking around town. We met the local music dealer who sold us an amp so Joan can resume her music that she has not touched for the last two years. All the utilities have been put in our name and we have internet service now. We discovered the local park and were able to play a little basketball while the young men of the town played at the other end. I had to keep reminding myself that I am 53 and probably would just hurt myself if I tried to join them, yet the pull was real and even as I write this I would like to try and mix it up a bit.

We went for a walk last night with some folks from church. During that walk I experience one of the greatest disappointments of my life. I have been really building up small town living in my mind. One of the joys of my life has been when I have been able to walk down a street verses being confined to the sidewalk. I know it might be connected to a youthful rebellious streak that still haunts me, but none the less I have been enjoying walking down the street to the church for prayer each morning and our evening walks. So here we were walking with Cory and Ebony, their children and Cory’s sister April and I insisting that we walk down the street. Cory hesitated, but joined in. We passed the house that Pastor Harry Hills use to live in along with several other houses that housed the illustrious names of the pastors that have preceded me. This church goes back over 30 years so it has a history with our young fellowship. That is when it happened. A car pulled up in front of us responding to a domestic quarrel in the house as we passed by walking down the street. Although preoccupied, the officer took the time to inform us that there was a city ordinance against walking in the street. We moved onto the sidewalk. Corry let me know that that is why he hesitated to walk in the street. He explained that the officer was a new officer and that normally they don’t enforce the rule but Sparta is busting out with young people that have nothing to do and they sometimes walk down the streets intimidating people.

Well so much for my personal tragedy. I keep seeing the picture of Andy of Mayberry walking down the street with his son, I guess it’s a road leading to the lake; maybe the whole walking around a small town was just an illusion of my mind. Am I accountable to stay on the sidewalks now?