simply grateful

I suppose I should have ran when it started.  I sat in a class with some 150 others, listening to the speaker pontificate upon his assigned topic.  He was assigned a hard time slot, from 1-2 pm, to keep his students interested... or at least awake.  Heavy eyed from the lunch we just finished, I tried to keep focused on the topic at hand.  When I heard the rumbling I immediately thought an air-conditioner had gone bad and was creating the racket.  The ceiling began to shake and I was sure of it... one of the units on the roof was self-destructing.  I began to realize that my assessment of the situation might be off when people started taking cover under the tables in the room... a few headed towards the door that led outside.  Heather and I bolted for the door.  I heard several say it was an earthquake as we congregated in the parking lot.  Not yet convinced, I fixed my gaze skyward looking for the faulty air-conditioning unit on the roof....

 God knows your name.    God has a purpose for you today.   Those were the two “lessons” that I wanted Makayla and Elijah to take away from our “devotion” talk yesterday.  I find that if I try to share with them what I am learning in my devotional times, it makes me boil it down to one or two basic take-aways.  (and also holds me accountable for doing my devotions).  So as I walked them to school yesterday morning I told them the story that I read in my devotional time that morning.  It was the story of God calling Ananias to go to Saul, following his conversion.  In verse 10 the Lord called Ananias by name, (hence point 1).  In Acts 9:11-12 the Lord then told Ananias to “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”   (hence p...

Sorry for the long delay in blog entries.  Over the past month we have driven over 3,500 miles and visited 11 states.  We have arrived safely at our training and are learning all kinds of new things.  The kids are loving their time here!  More entries to come soon!

Recently I read Colossians 1:13-14,  “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,   in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  As I often do, I started to tweet a thought from my devotional time:  “What we are saved from is not nearly as great as what we are saved to.”  Twitter is good for it’s purpose, bumper sticker size updates on our lives and thoughts.  The problem is, sometimes what God is saying to us cannot and should not be whittled down to 140 characters for simplicities sake.  You know folks, not everything needs to be tweetable!   “What we are saved from is not nearly as great as what we are saved to.”  As I began to dwell on that thought, I began to think about what we are saved from.  I quickly remembered the point in my journey before I choose to follow the Lord.  Were there good times?  Certainly.  Friends?  Yep.  Did I attend ...

As Heather was reading Voices of the Faithful this morning as part of her devotion, she discovered today's reading was about one of the people groups we will be able to work with in Namibia.  If you would like to purchase this book you can do that by clicking HERE .  Here is today's reading: “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5 God has truly shown us that He is working among the Herero (hah-RARE-roh) people.  It was getting late in the day, and I was wondering if we really had time to make another stop in Talismannis (TAL-iss-MAN-iss) before heading back to where we were going to spend the evening.  We were deep in the bush, two hours from our destination, knowing that it was not safe to be traveling on these roads after dark due to the many animals that graze by the side of the road at night. Just out of Reitfontain (REET-fon-tain), we saw a woman and a child hitc...

I (David) just finished a book called Scandalous, The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, by D.A. Carson.  I intended to read it all over Easter weekend, but it was to heavy to read lightly.  I love books that make me process.  In the last chapter he quotes a poem written by Edward Shillito that I thought was amazing and worth a blog.  Shillito wrote this poem from the viewpoint of the maimed and suffering British soldiers returning from WWI. Jesus of the Scars If we have never sought, we seek Thee now; Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars; We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow; We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars. The heavens frighten us; they are too calm; In all the universe we have no place. Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm? Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars we claim Thy grace. If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near, Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine; We know today what wounds are; have no fear; Show us Thy...

I love Saturdays! I especially love the first Saturday of each month! A group of us from Northside Baptist Church gather together to hang out with some terrific kids from the neighborhood.  We usually have around 14 kids who walk here...although last month we only had around 6. I mean, really, how can I resist going to see these guys and gals? It is often quite a mixture of people... but we are greeted with smiles like this... and this... We play...  listen to a Bible story... learn a Bible verse and make a craft... Our prayer is that they leave having seen more of Jesus... If you are interested in starting a Good News Club in your neighborhood, go for it!  It is really easy and does not take a lot of prep time.  We found resources from Lifeway  (click for a sample lesson).  It is such a joy and the kids have continued to be so receptive.  We have had two pray to receive Christ.  Some are walking to join us at other service times and we...