CHAD

I have looked forward to writing today's blog entry for a long time. I have dreamed about it, imagined it, and worked toward it for over a year. This blog entry begins to fulfill the original purpose for which this blog was started - to present the needs of the third world church, to ask prayer for the believers and the lost, to seek support toward projects that will advance God's kingdom work there, and to share experiences and personal stories and insights along the way. This blog entry begins to turn the content of this blog from West to the East, and from work experiences to application of mission.

Lord willing, I will be going to Chad at the end of August until the end of December with WEC (World Evangelization for Christ). WEC orientation begins August 18th in Hamilton and I hope to leave for Chad around the 26th. There is much to do before orientation begins. Above all else I covet your prayers for Gloria and I, my family, all the details that need to be worked out, and the finances needed for this trip. Specific prayers over the next month are for the many vaccinations I need to get. I will need to get this done in Alberta as I am working here until the beginning of August so pray for all the details of this to be worked out. Next will be a visa and booking flights. There are also a number of smaller details that need to be worked out before I can leave with peace that all is in place.

I remember when Gloria encouraged me to decide to make my first trip to Honduras. When I decided to go ahead someone immediately came forward with a donation toward the trip as a seed toward the remaining amount needed. Since then I have made 5 trips to Honduras and God has provided. A little less than a year ago a couple gave Gloria and I some money which we put aside as seed toward this trip to Chad (although we did not know at the time where and when but sensed the need to go East). So I am encouraged from past experience to make plans for this trip and to watch God provide.

I will be working in Abeche, Chad in the green shaded area among Muslim people. This is about a days travel from the capital, N'Djamena in the Ouaddai region (click to open link) and just next door to the Darfur region in Sudan. I will share more detail over the next few entries about the three people groups the WEC team is working with in the Ouaddai region as well as the work I will be doing there. For now please begin to pray about this new direction and all that has to be worked out to make this mission a reality.

Chad is surrounded by 6 countries, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger. Which country in Africa has the most countries surrounding it. Get your map out look for Chad and use your map to remind you to pray for the people of Chad. Then familiarize yourself with the rest of Africa. Happy counting.

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KEPT BY THE WORDS OF JESUS

This morning I am home for the second day in a row due to rain yesterday and the work sites needing to dry up today. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back to work.

I am writing to share a verse of Scripture with you which I read in my devotions this morning. In the ESV, John 16.1 says, "I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away". The NASB says, "that you may be kept from stumbling", while the KJV reads, "that you should not be offended", and NIV "that you will not fall away". The Greek verb is scandalizo from which we get our English word scandalized. It means to cause a person to fall away. In the New Testament the meaning ranges from a temporary falling away like Peter's denial of Christ (Matthew 26.33) to complete turning away from Christ (Matthew 13.21).

What struck me as I first read this verse and up to verse 4, was that Jesus keeps the disciples from falling away by the teaching he gives them and the promise of the coming Holy Spirit who will dwell in them and will testify to all that Jesus has said to them. What came to mind was the promise of John 10.28-30, how the good Shepherd will keep his sheep and no one can take them out of his hand and the Father's hand. I had considered God's keeping process as the work of His sovereign grace but had not much considered that means of His keeping until reading and meditating on this verse this morning. The process of God keeping us faithful to the end as He has promised to do involves not only His external keeping power but also the keeping power of His words mediated to us through the Holy Spirit. How vital it is for us to keep God's Word constantly before us and in our minds, especially as all the world around us seeks to scandalize us, to cause us to fall away from God's fullness in Christ.

May God enrich your day with the growing knowledge of all that He has given you in Christ. I know my day shall be full as I continue to savor the truths in these verses today.

BIG HOLE, BIG GOD

Last week I was working on a water lease. Regular leases have one or more wells drilled on them to retrieve oil from under the ground but the purpose of this lease was to pump water into the oil pool under the ground to produce more pressure to more easily pump the oil out from the surrounding oil lease wells.

Water lease

 The water to pump into the oil cavity is brought in through an underground pipeline connected to the riser on the left side of this picture. The wellhead is the red piping on the right side. Below is a picture of the water pipeline coming into the lease.

Underground water line to water lease through farmer's field

Now here is the point of this entry. At the base of the water line picture as the underground water line entered the lease, the ground was very soft and my job as a packer was to make it hard enough for a service rig to drive on it without sinking. As I worked away at this area I realized I would need more dirt to fill the soft spots. With the small blade at the front of my packer I pushed dirt into the soft area and only ended up creating more ruts and soft spots. I worked this area for quite awhile. A dozer operator who was having his equipment serviced by a mechanic was watching me. He came over and said he would get the other dozer operator to push some dirt into the soft area for me to pack. In less than five minutes I had a huge volume of dirt in this soft area and within a couple of hours was able to pack this area solid.

Tandem Dozers

Above are the same two dozer operators working in tandem. They are driving side by side in unity with their blades touching together to form one blade pushing a huge volume of dirt forward. I was impressed!

God has made provision for all we need in His Son Jesus Christ. Those big holes we try to fill with our small blades only cause greater emptiness and alienation from God. When we trust God and hand over our lives to the Lordship of Christ, he fills all those deep holes through the forgiveness of sins and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We still have a part to play in submission to Christ and obedience to His will but only God can bring us into Christ through the new birth. We find that in Christ, God gives us all the fullness of Christ and the hope of eternal life. What a Savior, what a God, what a hope. May God fill your days with joy as you see Him all around you and working in you.

FARMING WESTERN STYLE

I have been in Lloydminster Alberta for just over a week and I am starting to get into a routine. Tonight I want to show you what it is like to farm out West at least in this neck of the fields.

Farmers here have huge farms and hugomongous equipment. Fertilizing and seeding is underway. Today I saw a large and powerful John Deere tractor with 8 goliath size tires, pulling a piece of equipment about 50 feet wide which tilled, seeded, fertilized and covered the seed, all in one process. Wow

I want you to notice something in the picture below.

Typical farm in these parts

Here are beautiful fields of rich dirt ready to bring forth an abundant crop, but there is oil under that dirt and most farms in these parts have multiple oil wells on their property. Each of these self contained oil wells is called a lease. Around here many of these leases are run by Husky Oil. The farmer owns the land and the government of Alberta has most rights to the oil and leases those rights to an oil producer such as Husky Oil. In turn Husky Oil needs to rent the lease area where they will drill and any land to build an access road to the lease from the farmer. So the farmer gets paid for the leases on his land by Husky and also earns money from the crops he grows. My present work is building and refreshing leases. I am driving an 815 packer to compact the lease area for oil tanker access to retrieve the oil from the black tanks (in the picture above) and for proper drainage on the lease.

815 Packer- Never a flat tire

Both believers and unbelievers are created in the image of God and have various skills and gifts they can use for fruitfulness in their life. But the Christian has something special, which is hidden from the world but can be evident through peace, joy, patience, love, fruitfulness, and the sense of God's presence when they are near others. That something special is the indwelling Holy Spirit received at the new birth and renewed through submission and obedience to God. Like the oil hidden under the farmer's field, the Holy Spirit within is the source of the fullness of God to the believer. I think we believers need to be wowed a lot more by God's great gift to us. We need to learn to live more and minister more by the power of the Holy Spirit which works actively within us. Wow. Have a blessed time of worship on Sunday.

West (Finally)

When I returned to Welland just before Christmas (December 23rd) I fully believed I would be returning out West by the middle of January. That did not happen. Since arriving here I have spoken to a number of people and I have verified what I was hearing all along, this has been a very slow winter for work because of cut-backs. Now it looks like work is again beginning to pick up.

Tuesday morning in Welland, I was opening up a wall to remove an ant infestation at my mother-in-law's apartment. While sitting on the floor peeling out Styrofoam insulation with a screw driver my cell phone rang with an invitation to return to work with the company I was working for last year. That was unexpected good news. One problem did come up. I would not be able to hire out the truck I purchased from the company in December because of a change in company policy. All trucks on construction sites are now required to be 4x4 and mine is only a two wheel drive. The company did offer to buy my fuel tank and pump for a good price to compensate me for this change in policy and so I now have a truck here in Alberta for personal travel and am using a company 4x4 for work use.

I left Welland Tuesday evening to catch a flight out of Hamilton at 7 pm to Calgary and then Edmonton arriving at 11:30 pm Alberta time. I stayed overnight at the airport to catch a bus into Edmonton at 4:30 Wednesday morning. I was wondering if staying overnight at the Edmonton airport would be a problem. Some airports close down at night so this was an unknown factor to me before I left. I need not have worried. Instead I should have worried about finding seats to sleep on. After picking up my luggage and coming into the main terminal I saw a fellow sleeping across some leather seats with a mask over his eyes and a blanket. On the seating next to him a woman stretched out with a blanket over her. Not exactly covert sleeping. About 200 feet away a security guard was reading his book. As I walked around I was wondering if I would be able to find a place to sleep because they were all occupied but finally managed to find one empty leather seat to sleep on. I guess in such a transient city like Edmonton which leads to the oilfields sleeping in the airport is quite acceptable. At about 3 am I was asked to vacate my "bed" because workers were stripping and polishing the floor and they had to move the seats I was using. Three of us had to vacate the seats we were using and find other accommodations. Time to have a coffee at Tim's and no more sleep for me. Some people were sleeping on the floor for lack of "Edmonton airport beds".

No Vacancy at Hotel Edmonton Airport

At 4:30 am I took the bus link into Edmonton. I had made this connection to downtown Edmonton before but not this early in the morning. The link bus from the Edmonton airport stops at the first LRT terminal at the edge of Edmonton. This left me at the subway at 5:15 in the morning. When I got dropped off there were no people around. I walked into the LRT building, bought my ticket and then waited on the outdoor platform for the first train. Finally others began to show up. At my downtown subway stop I was the only person to exit the train. When I walked out I saw an abandoned newer BMX bike (remember this is two floors underground) and just about 10 feet away a nice grey purse but no one around. It was a long and lonely walk to the stairways and up those two flights of stairs to ground level at 5:45 am. I was glad that the sun had just come up. I was grateful that a few others were walking downtown in the two blocks to the Greyhound station. The Greyhound station is not an inviting place with needy street people hanging around. Got the 6:45 to Lloydminster and was able to report to the office by 10:00 am for orientation and to pick up my work truck.Yesterday I worked on an oil lease site driving a packer and today I am off as the packer is moved to a new location for work tomorrow.

 My rest during this trip back to the West and during my time at home has been in Christ. Time at home was spiritually stimulating. God dealt with a couple of important issues in my life regarding motives and trust. I was glad to have regular Sunday worship, privileged to read some encouraging books, and had my vision for the Gospel refreshed through a seminary course I was able to take through Southern Seminary. What an amazing and wonderful God we serve and what a powerful Gospel we have been given to live and share, along with the joy and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Friends a great hope lies before all of us. Let us persevere unto the end bringing Glory to God.

I want to thank you all for praying for Gloria and I and ask that you continue to pray for us. I hope to tell you about some plans for the Fall in my next blog entry.

BEHIND THE FLOOR

Over the last month I have spent many spare hours of my time, while waiting to be reemployed out West, installing a ceramic floor in the mud room of my daughter Michelle's and her husband Kris' downsized country house which they plan to move into after renovations are complete. Here is what the mud room floor looks like. (I still need to install 5 inches of ceramic trim border to fully complete the work.)

This floor looks good but upon closer inspection the flaws are evident. Also the finished surface of the floor does not reveal the many layers of polymer mortar beneath it (five 50 pound bags), the sore legs and arms, the worn cracked fingers and the aches and pains involved in installing it. The frustration of an uneven subfloor, tiles broken while cutting, and wondering if the floor would ever be finished. Cleaning the ooze of excess mortar coming up through the cracks, the head hit on the edge of the bathroom cupboard and the anger it produced, and the very frustrating task of looking for a round, flat bottomed pail to mix my mortar when my old pail cracked. Go out and try to find a round, flat bottomed (to use a mixer), straight sided plastic mop pail. People, we now live in a rectangle, elliptical, many contraptioned, bottom notched, barrel sided pail world. Soon our pails will be connected to our cell phones : )

Anyways what I have been reflecting on since I completed the floor and grouted it is all the work that God in Christ has done in us, all the unseen, unknown work that has gone into our salvation and sanctification and glorification (can't wait). The eternal workings of God, the coming of Christ to earth, the cross and resurrection, the sovereign working of God in evangelism, God's ongoing work by His Spirit in me and millions of others. What a "floor" God has made. In fact more than a floor, the whole household of God, the temple of the Spirit, the precious people of God, His workmanship.

I hear that heaven has some great floors but until I am called home to see them I will do my misguided incompetent best in this broken world to fulfill His will. Will it be through growing weakness and sickness? Is there still any adventure left for me? Will I serve in the hidden chamber or among the third world poor? Time will tell. Join me in following our Lord Jesus Christ to the end.

WAITING, WONDERING AND PRAYING

I am having a coffee at Starbuck"s on my way to a root canal at the dentist. It is -31C with the wind chill so for today my saying is "I would rather be having a root canal than be outside".

I fully expected to be back working out West by this time after a break at Christmas but there is no work to go to at the present time. How do I interpret this? ...nothing more than the reality of economic forces at work or the hand of God redirecting me? I have applied to other companies out West for work  and have applied for EI but still have to wonder if there is more to this delay in plans. Keep in mind that I purchased a used truck just before Christmas in anticipation of going back to work and hiring out my truck as part of my work. I was also assured that work was forthcoming in the new year. So all of this leads me to wondering and praying for God's guidance as I wait.

I would like to think God is advancing my plans (His plan) to serve the third world church in some capacity but there are still some debts to pay and a truck out West. Perhaps God has a completely different plan in mind. So Gloria and I wait and pray. I would like to ask that you pray for us during this time of waiting and decision making.

Thank you. May we continue to walk in the riches of Jesus Christ.