A deal is struck!

Read about the agreement which Kibaki and Odinga came to today, with Annan presiding over them.

Strangers in Kenya

Sweet flowers

Watch constantly against those things which are thought to be no temptations. The most poisonous serpents are found where the sweetest flowers grow. Cleopatra was poisoned by an asp that was brought to her in a basket of fair flowers.

Charles Spurgeon

U2 and my book

The song “Walk On” by U2 contains the lyrics “All that you can’t leave behind,” which, of course, is where their album title came from.  And which, of course, is where I got the title for my book about my first year in Africa.  But my inspiration wasn’t limited to that.  The cover art was loosely based off of lyrics earlier in the song.

“We’re packing a suitcase for a place, none of us has been/It’s a place that has to be believed in to be seen”

Suitcases are an integral part of the missionary life–from Paul’s day right up until present time–so it seemed fitting to have a packed suitcase on the cover.

Another from C.T. Studd

“Nail the colours to the mast! That is the right thing to do, and, therefore, that is what we must do, and do it now. What colours? The colours of Christ, the work He has given us to do — the evangelization of all the unevangelized. Christ wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible, by faith in the omnipotence, fidelity, and wisdom of the Almighty Saviour Who gave the command. Is there a wall in our path? By our God we will leap over it! Are there lions and scorpions in our way? We will trample them under our feet! Does a mountain bar our progress? Saying, ‘Be thou cast into the sea,’ we will march on. Soldiers of Jesus! Never surrender! Nail the colours to the mast!”

 Nibblers of the impossible…I like that.

I don’t want a day off

Keep your heart in time of prosperity. Oftentimes the more
full a man is of the world—the further his heart is from God.
It is hard to abound in prosperity—and not abound in sin.

Pride, idleness, and luxury are the three daughters which
are bred by prosperity.

This quote by Thomas Watson is why I’m so leery of “down time.”  I seem to always use my down time to be idle, self-centered, and self-indulgent.

Spending my time

“Some wish to live within the sound
of Church or Chapel bell;
I want to run a Rescue Shop
within a yard of hell.”

 This great quote by C.T Studd summarizes my desires so well.  It’s the reason I wanted to teach at a public school and not a Christian school in San Diego.  I want to be where the lost are.  But now that I teach at a school for MK’s, my focus has had to change.  Sure, there are unsaved kids in our midst, but most of our kids are seeking God.  Now my focus has to be on deeper discipleship and vision casting–to make sure that these kids don’t miss the Great Commission message. 

I want my students to want to set up Rescue Shops of their own one day.

Two kinds of missionaries

 ”There are two kinds of missionaries: those who know they have a parasite and those who don’t know they have a parasite.” 

I don’t know who originally coined this quote, but I officially lump myself into the second group.  But the last few days have got me thinking that I might need to see a doctor and join the first group.

I have no common sense

“But I go out as a missionary not that I may follow the dictates of common sense, but that I may obey that command of Christ, ‘Go into all the world and preach.’ He who said ‘preach,’ said also, ‘Go ye into and preach,’ and what Christ hath joined together let not man put asunder.”

James Gilmour, a British missionary to China

I sacrificed nothing today. How about you?

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?” — David Livingstone

 Lord, forgive me for ever taking the martyr’s pose.

Situation in Chad

As I thought of our brothers and sisters in Chad–those who are fleeing and in danger of both rebels and military– I prayed two things: that God would protect his people and that God would be glorified.  But as I thought of that prayer, I considered this illustration from Ambrose. 

He said we are like little children who run into the garden to gather flowers to please their father—but we are so ignorant and childish that we pluck as many weeds as flowers, and some of them are very noxious. We carry this strange mixture in our hands, thinking that it is acceptable to him. The mother meets the child at the door and says, “Little one, you don’t know what you have gathered.” She unbinds the mixture and takes from it all the weeds, leaving only the sweet flowers; and then she takes other flowers, sweeter than those the child plucked—and inserts them instead of the weeds. Then she puts the perfect posy in the child’s hand, and he runs with it to his father. 

I pray that God will make my bouquet sweeter every day.