Santa Is Not In The Moi Village

 

Trust me,Santa has  not visited the village of the Moe people tucked deep in the heart of West Papua.  And even if he could he would not bring them the gift that keeps on giving.  This gift was put together in  heaven, came to earth, nailed to an old rugged cross, put in a toomb, rose three days later  and returned to heaven where He send the  Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of all those who believe.    If you have listened to the clip and I pray you have for it will put Christmas in a different light.  There will be no trees lite with beautiful light in the Moi village this Christmas.  No stocking will be hung on their open fires, no sugar plums dancing in their dreams.  Yet if you listened you will hear joy in their voices and see light in their eyes over the gift of eternal life.  They will still plant gardens, birth their children, hunt wild pigs, wash their clothes in the river, live in very primative conditions but without fear of where they will go after they die.   

 

How precious is the gift to us?  Are we moved to tears that there are people all over the world who need to hear of the blessed gift that was born in a stable, preached when He was twelves, trained men to take the gift to others and gave them power to do the task.  He even left us an instruction book to  tell us how to unwrap the gift.   

 

Little children are taught that Santa will bring them gifts if they are good.  Missionaries teach people all over the world their righteousness is as filthy rags.  But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall have eternal LIFE.  Maybe this sounds like it should be an Easter post.  But one has to believe it was same Son of God lying in the cradle of hay as well as hanging on the old rugged cross.  

 

Ok, how to end this post.  My heart is not to make you feel guilty so you will not buy presents and send  money to missionaries.  My intent is lift up the gift of Jesus Christ.  Everytime I watch a clip such as this I just want to fall on my face and thank Him for saving my soul.  It encourages me to be on alert for that one God will bring my way to share the gift with.   

 

What were your thoughts as you watched the Moi people share their joy of their gift of salvation?  

 

 

 

Wishful Thinking

Last  week I got to visit my mother who is in a nursing home for a whole week.   Everyday I  ate with her and others ladies who live there.  Every day I  sang with mother as a different church does a sing along.  Three times a week there is bingo, a favorite of Mom's, I did not win a thing.  All in all the nursing home staff does a great job and deserve to be thanked more often.  It's a low paying job with a lot of hard work dealing with the difficulty that comes with aging. 

One day we were singing the song, "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be", when God highlighting part of a verse to my heart, in heaven there be "no wishing for else where to be".  What perfect song for those dear folks who long to be back in their homes, cooking their own meals, driving, raking their yards, washing their own clothes, taking a bath when they want too. If my mother said it once she said it 20 times or more each time I was with her.  Oh I wish I could go back and live in my little apartment and cook you a dinner.    I wish with all my heart she could too but her  medical needs require round the clock nursing. 


Mom sits at table with four other women and one day they were complaining about the dressing that went with the turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, pie they had for  lunch.  I said, Mom just be thankful for the things you did like, she said well Jo, nobody else  liked it either.  A little frustrated I said, well Mom, you don't have to be like everyone else.  Easy for me to say, I can come and go as I please, go out to eat every day if I want to.  The Holy Spirit said, soften your tone Betty.  Gently I said, Mom what did you like about your meal, which  I should have said in the first place. She was able to tell me she liked it all EXCEPT  the dressing.   I begin to go around to each lady and asking them, what did you like about your meal?   One even like everything on her plate. 

There is always something to be thankful for.  But you know life here on earth can be so hard it  blinds us  sometimes to what we can be thankful for.  Wishful thinking can lead to a downward spiral where depression lives.  I seen it in the eyes of those women sitting at the table, I have seen it in myself. 
Wishful thinking does not change anything, thankfulness for what we have changes us.  We see out of new eyes, hear out of new ears, feel out of a new heart.   

I flew back a couple days, sadness flew right along with me.  Sad cause I was wishing I was rich enough to provide a home and full time nurses for my Mom.  Wishful thinking  invaded me as I deal with the grief I feel everytime I leave my mother.   It will stay with me till I make the choice to be thankful I got to see her every day for a week.  Giving thanks for a brother and sister in law that visited her every day too helps.   Gratefulness there is nursing care for my Mom will drive out the wishful thinking.  Above all I am grateful my mother will live someday in heaven where there is no "wishful thinking."  Faith and hope will become sight. 

                                  Ever found yourself down in the wishful thinking pit?  
                          Give thanks for even one thing and you will slowly climb out. 

Thankfulness in divorce...

Several years have passed since my son and I made this little clip.  He had not even been married a year or given us any grandchildren yet.  Life brings us lots of things to not be thankful for and when it does you have to look deep for something or you will  drown in your sorrow.   This last year has been one of those deep years for since that clip our son is a divorced father with two children.  God has moved us to live very close to Jared, we actually share a condo in order for us to help him put his life back together and he  helps us financially  to afford California living.   I am sure there are people who would say, you are just helping him be divorced...I would have been one of those people at one time.   And if I don't go deep I could  still be one.  I hate divorce for it destroys lives but so does homes where hatred, bitterness, anger, adultery, indifference, selfishness and all other sin  reigns.  

When we first knew trouble was brewing in the marriage we of course prayed, used the Bible as a means to get him to get it together, sent books, DVD, gave advice, cried more tears then I like to remember.   I enlisted tons of others to pray,  sought advice from others who hurt for their son or daughter and especially the grandchildren involved in divorce.  One thing we learned is we all go through the divorce, it's not just the husband and wife, the ripple affects are wide.

Another thing we learned was don't take sides.  I failed miserably on that one at times...I wanted our son to act like a man, stick with the marriage for the sake of the children even though I understood perfectly why he wanted a divorce.  My plea was for the children sake...so I was deeply angry at our son for...well for not being stronger I guess.  Of course this affected our relationship and made me hard to live with at times.  Now I believe in the  process of forgiveness and I started putting it into action, being thankful for the good that was still there and the good coming out of a hurtful situation. The more I gave thanks the more good I saw which only made me more thankful. 

To watch our son love on his children when he has them is priceless, he is a good Dad, a loving Dad, a careful Dad, an encouraging Dad.   Listening to his plans to get out of debt and then actually see him take sacrificial step to get there is very encouraging...he is almost there.  Hearing our son speak words of gratefulness to us for being here for him, for being here for his kids has erased all anger I had.  Living together has been both a help and a good learning time for all of us.  In fact I get a little sad knowing he will soon get his own place yet I am proud   his good work ethic will pay off.  We have spend years working all over the world and  in the states to help others and it was wonderful knowing God considered Jared part of the others.

  Another thing I have learned is when I begin to thank God,  my hope level begin to rise and as it rose I found I could rest in the little things God was doing to draw our son back to Him.  It's God job to draw Jared back to Him, not my husband and I. Our part is to show grace, love, patience and acceptance.

 One more thing I learned, I needed to accept this divorce for rejecting it would only keep me angry.  It is what it is, a hurtful thing but never so hurtful that God can't heal that hurt. 

As I re-read what I wrote I realized I have been very personal and put our actions out there to be judge.  Go ahead and judge if you must...if a divorce happens to someone you love and I pray God it doesn't, you will find your own way to deal with it.  My husband and I have chosen to love all parties involved in this divorce.  I have not changed my mind on divorce but my mind has been broaden as a result of it.  My heart has been enlarged by it too...there is more room to forgive, more room to accept, more room to love abundantly and more room for Jesus to live in. 

I have on purpose chosen not to post scriptures on the subject of divorce because it happens to the saved and unsaved.   What  I hope happens if you read this post is you see the grace that has covered us during this time of our life. 

Maybe you are going through  something hard like a divorce or have been through one. I would love to hear how you got through it.  What pearls of thankfulness can you share, what gems of wisdom hasGod taught you?  What brought you hope?
                                         
                                         One more note...Jared has approved this post.
 

Thankfulness

Praising God in the hallways has always been hard for  me.  My lack of patience has kept me from enjoying a lot "doing time" in them.   Just the fact I have to go through one irritates me to no end.  About a year ago I was in a long hallway stumbling around, knocking into things, grumbling because it was taking so long to get through it.  I could see the open door at the end but it seem we were stalled in the hallway.  Ugg...more waiting.

God got my attention  one day in a friends hallway.  Her walls were decorated with great pictures of her family, a beautiful picture of a tree.  Ever so sweetly the Holy Spirit said, Betty you are missing what I have for you in the hallways.  My heart said yes I know, but my hallway is not filled with pretty things such as I see in my friends.  Hers was warmly lite with shiny hardwood floors, a opening at one end leading into a beautiful family room, with a huge fireplace, double french door leading out onto a wrap around porch overlooking the green hills of Kentucky. 
Now how can one be discontent with a hallway leading into an open door like that? 

Finally my hallway came to an end, when we packed our car and drove through the open door to start a new ministry with our mission is California. I think I have told  this too in another post, my first few months were terrible. The progression went like this, hallway, open door, pity pit and discontentment spilled out on everyone who came around me.  

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

Epicurus quotes (Greek philosopher, BC 341-270)

  This philosopher beliefs certainly do not line up with the Word of God, he was not a believer in the coming Redeemer.   Yet the one quote ring true.  We do spoil what we have by desiring what we have not...we do it all the time.  Guilty, guilty, guilty. 

Discontentment is as old as creation, God first creatures, Lucifer, the brightest star of the heavens was not satisfied with his position which caused him to lead a rebellion.  It was discontentment that made him do it.  Then he sowed seeds of discontentment in Eve's heart and the bitter harvest was the loss of paradise and the beginning of an unhappy race.  Thousands of years have passed and we are still always wanting  something different.

        If we’re young, we want to be older. If we’re old, we wish we were younger.
        If it’s old, we want something new. If it’s new, we want something newer.
        If it’s small, we want something bigger. If it’s big, we want something really big.
        If we have a hundred dollars, we want two hundred. If we have two hundred we want    five  hundred.
        If we have an apartment, we want a condo. If we have a condo, we want a house.  If we have a house, we want a bigger house. Or a new house. Or a nicer house.
        If we have a job, we dream of a better job, a bigger job, a closer job, with a bigger office, a  better boss, better benefits, more challenge, bigger opportunity, nicer people to work for,
        and more vacation time.
        If we’re single, we dream of being married. If we’re married, … (you can finish that sentence yourself.).

We Were Born Discontented...but we do not have to stay that way.  Our pastor use to say, you can't keep the birds from flying over your head but you can sure keep them from making a nest. 

Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:

 

 

I am always  and I mean always amazed how a steady diet of being thankful even if I don't feel like it will bring me out of a discontented state.  Being thankful is one of the ways to praise God. As we head into this thanksgiving season what are you thankful for...

This post is link to:    "http://letmetelluastory.blogspot.com/"

Fourty Eight Years

 

 

At 17 how could we know 48 years would pass so quickly. Oct. 20th, today, this young looking man and I got married in the oldest church in Illinoios. I am sure lots of advice was given to us since we were only 17 but for life of me I can't remember what it was. Oh yeah I do remember they said it would not last.  God was at work even then.  

Ten years into our marriage we still did not have children. Ace had a massive heart attack at age 27 which was quite a wake up call on our lives. God would use this to bring his prodigal son around along with the birth of our first child after 12 years of marriage, a little girl, Tara Jo. Four more years passed so quickly and along came our son Jared.  

God was working in our lives to bring us to him and through an agressive soul winning church we got invited to pay them a visit.   It was exactly what we needed, 16 years after our wedding Ace came back to the Lord and I got saved. 

Of all the change since getting married this was the biggest one...God always has a plan for His children.

We became active in our church, growing, learning how to walk as a child of God should.  The church we attended was known as the getting saved church so we learned early how to take our Bible and lead someone to the Lord.  Twenty two years into our marriage Ace left his job with TWA and we went full time in the ministry.  Life was taking on some drastic changes but God was not through with us.

Missions was something our church kept before us and there was nothing we like better then having  what ever missionary  was visiting our church over for a meal.  It was exciting to hear their stories and pray for them, never thinking God was going to ask us to do that.  I mean we were doing our part right there in good old Kentucky for the kingdom of God. 

Somewhere in our 27th year of marriage God was going to send us on a different path.  I remember Ace telling our Tara he was going to show her the world.   True to his word August 1991 we left for Bolivia, South America to serve with New Tribes Missions.  Those were great years, our kids were with us, we were serving over seas, life was good. 

There are too many details to list of our 48 years together.  God has allowed us to serve in two countries and just this past year, Sept. 2011 we returned home to serve in a stateside ministry with New Tribes.  Which brings us back to this Oct. 20th, 2012...anniversary time.   As you can tell from the picture we did not have a big wedding...simple...and we have remain simple people. God delight in using simple people to tell His story.

The question always comes up,  would you do it again?  Yes is alway my answer but not at 17.  No one is mature enough to take on a marriage at that age.   There is some value in allowing yourself a few years to go to college or just work and learn a little about yourself before taking on the responsibility of marriage.  Some of those years were hard ones, still not sure how we made it through them.  But here we stand...48 years later and the only advice I would give anyone getting married is to get to know the Savior first, learn to walk with Him first, learn to follow His lead, learn about His love for you first. 

In two years we will celebrate our 50th and I want a party, a big one and you all are invited.  So put the date on your calendar in bold print and Lord willing I will see you there.

                                             

 

Hope

(I posted this sometime in 2011. Then I accidently deleated it but recently found a rough draft tucked inside a file with no title.  As I read, the memory of the day in Wal-mart came back to me instantly.  Tears once again filled my eyes as I remembered  the sobs of this woman, how they shook me clear to my soul.  The bible says in Proverbs, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, meaning I think depressed, lose of hope.  Our God  is a God of hope and delights in using us weak and frail vessels to bring hope to others. There are so many out there needing a hug or kind words and prayer.  God help me to not pass them by. )


I only stopped for a few things and  apples were not even on my list. Trying to decide whether to purchase green or red ones I couldn’t help but notice the frail woman trying to get those impossible thin plastic bags open to put her apples in.  She was dropping as many as she was putting  in.  Her hands were shaking and she was muttering to herself words I could not understand but it was clear she was troubled

 

My heart went out to her since I have a mother her age and I am fastly approaching older.   I stepped up and offered to help, then I see her tears. As I bagged her apples words begin to pour from this small slightly bent woman.

She said, I cannot drive myself anymore so my husband has to take me everywhere and he is not patient.  He was waiting for her in the car and she was worried he would be upset for it was taking her longer then usual. 

He had cancer and her  health was failing fast under the strain of the stress. To make it worst she said, he does not care about my health issues.  

Nobody understands she said, with huge tears continuing to fall.  By then I had my arms around her trying to hold her shaking body together.
 

This verse came to me as I listened to her sob and lamenting out of  a broken heart.   Matthew 14:27 Take courage , it is I, do not be afraid.

I took ahold of  courage and ask her if I could pray for her, right there in the apples, still trembling she said, yes.   I prayed for God to ease her anxiety, calm her, soften her husband, for their health issues and the God who loved her would become real to her.     

Tears was  streaming down both our faces as we hug for a long time.   She thanked me several times and before I could talk more she said, I must go, he is waiting for me.  Walking away she turned back to say  thank you one last time.

 All it took was a few minutes and God reached down from heaven and poured hope into a frail, distraut woman standing in the middle of the apples in Wal-Mart.  

"The feeling of hopefulness sometimes comes from someone helping us. Think back to a time when you had lost hope. Many times we regained our optimism because someone gave us a helping hand." Catherine Pulsifer, from Poem for Hope

I may never see this woman again but I am so glad God placed her in my life that day to remind me to reach beyond my world.   

       Can you recall a time when someone reached beyond their world to your
                 hurting world with a hug, a kind word, a word of prayer?    

This post is link to "Tell Me A Story"
 "http://letmetelluastory.blogspot.com/"

 

Servants Ministry

Ministry is:

Giving when you feel like keeping

Praying for others when you need to be prayed for

Feeding others when your own soul is hungry

Living truth before people even when you can’t see results

Hurting with other people even when your own hurt can’t be spoken

Keeping your word even when it is not convenient

Being faithful when your flesh wants to run away

 

Grasp

Go....Yesterday evening started out filled with laughter and some tears as we grasp the few hours we had with our grandchildren.  All too soon it was time to take them back to their mother house.  Emmie wanted to stay all night, Austin just wanted his mommy. 

Divorce has put my grand children out of our grasp most of the time and brought an ache in our soul that I cover up with a smile. They are too young to understand why I try to grasp them so tight when it comes time for them to go. 

That normal family unit we  wanted for those Grand children is no longer there...divorce had ended that normal and brought a new normal to their lives.   One that brings fresh tear and prayers for the grace to be there for those sweet children.  So I grasp them in a huge huge, plant a kiss on their sweet face, speak positive words of love into their life and watch them leave my grasp.  They wave goodbye Grandma and Grandpa, see you next week.  Then I run into my heavenly Father arms for Him to grasp me tightly while I weep.  In His grasp I am covered with His love that gives me strength to live this new normal life.  Stop (sorry went over a 1/2 minute.

This post islinked to Five Minute Friday

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A Modern Shipwreaked Paul Named Chad

 

Chad Earl 

Paul found himself ship wreaked on the island of Malta (Acts 27:14-44) and God's hand stayed with him and the 275 persons who survived.  . We read the account and even though Paul was in chains God was not through with him yet.  

Such as this modern day account of a missionary in Papua New Guinea, Chad Earl.  Below is parts of the account told by Chad himself and his sister who pieced together the story from Chad.  This happened on Sept 19, 2012...told you it was modern. 

 

 I’ll start this little conversation by saying that I just got off the phone with my brother, Chad, and he told me he is a little taken-aback that everyone is making such a big deal of this.
“All I really did is float in the ocean all night.  There’s not really anything too amazing about that.” I think what my brother is really saying is that he is a little embarrassed by all the hype and  attention that his story is getting. He sees himself as very ordinary; and he truly is a simple man, a man that loves God, a man that loves to work, a man that loves people – and a man that consistently puts others before himself.  Even when no one else is looking.

So I thought I would attempt to write out his story for him – as he told it to our family the night after he was found, while we were all peppering him with questions. He was on a boat with a company called SOLWARA MERI, heading out to another island to begin 21 days of island-hopping People-Group-Assessment work.  His plan was to meet up with some national believers out there who would accompany him on his travels. The ocean was fine,  the sky was bright when they shoved off from Kokopo around 1:30pm.  There were a couple boats traveling together; he was on one of them with 7 other people. The rumor was that an hour or 2 into the trip, a big storm blew up. Chad said, “It wasn’t really a big storm … just wavy, bad seas most of the time.  The sea continued to get rougher; there was a big rain ahead in front of us, and we were getting wet from the waves for most of the trip.”  Soon, massive waves started to sweep over the sides of the boat. Chad said it all happened so fast … one minute they were jerking up and down on the waves; the next, an enormous wave swept over the front of the boat, and they immediately began to sink. “I couldn’t believe how fast it happened. Literally I think it was 15 seconds and the boat was under.”  People were thrown off and cargo was floating all around in the water. He quickly surfaced; noticed his shoes floating. Note that Chad is a man of few possessions – so these were his one good pair NIKE BROOKS tennis shoes that our bro-in-law sent him. He grabbed them and tied them to a plank on a pallet of floating wood. Just then he noticed the 3 women from the boat who were screaming and frantically grabbing at the top of the sinking boat, bobbing up and down in the rough ocean. He said, “I noticed the women before getting my shoes…that’s why I felt so bad that I took the time to grab the shoes when I couldn’t see them for a minute and thought they had drowned.”  Looking over, he had a sick feeling like, “Oh shoot! Here these women are sinking and I just spent time tying my shoes onto this pallet. That was so worthless of me.” He quickly swam over to help them. All thof is time, they knew another boat had been just in front of them and saw them go down. Chad’s thoughts were that surely this boat would come back and pick them up, and this would be no big deal. The other boat was also rocking on the fierce waves, and while it did drive back and circle around them; it did not pick anyone up.  It seems they feared the same fate.  Neither did the other boat think of throwing any floatation devices over the side to the 8 folks bouncing in the waves. The boat drove away, with intention to come back and help – but they never came back.

The seas got rougher; the sky got darker, but no one came back.

The boat driver, Febi, was a very helpful, assertive guy; he and Chad began to scramble to grab the cargo that was floating in the water.  They grabbed the red plastic gas tank and a pallet of wood that had been in the bottom of the boat. Then they drained the gas out of the tank by squeezing the little black squeeze bulb that is on outboard , we just slowly squeezed the gas out by pumping the bulb, so there’d just be air left in the tank and it would float better.”  The tank had a handle, so they used the shoelaces from Chad’s shoes to tie the tank in the center of the pallet.    “We couldn’t just unscrew the lid and dump it or we could have gotten water back into the tank , it wasn’t my idea. I just helped.”  All of this was done while being pounded by the waves and treading water.

The 3 women that were with them could not swim. These women sat on, clung to, and clawed at the red floating tank, each one kind of straddling the tank and the pallet of wood.  There was also a young boy, maybe 16 years old, who could swim but was not very helpful.  Chad and Febi hung on to the pallet and tried to kick the group toward shore. “We could see the shoreline far in the distance, but it was  really far away.  The sea was rough.” 

Backtrack: when the shipwreck happened, 2 of the men on the boat drifted away and began swimming for shore. They were picked up somewhere and made it to the Bom Village on the New Ireland Island, where they told the villagers that the rest of the crew was still out at sea. Ryan; Shelbi Webb and Madonna Yates, missionaries on that island, had called in around 7:15pm reporting Chad missing since his boat never showed up.  Around 11:00pm, Ryan called again to say that these 2 men had shown up and told the story of the 6 still in the ocean, clinging to a pallet. They said there were women, a child, and a white man.  Needless to say, that rumor of a white man and 5 nationals in the ocean gave all of us a glimmer of hope.  We hoped he had something to hang onto for the long, dark night.  We held that hope while still crying out to God to spare the lives of these people and give Chad strength to tread water all night.

Chad said he watched as the sky grew darker and realized no one was coming back for them. 

It gets dark in this country between 6:30 -7:00pm, and with no watch, no light, and no end in sight, the night in the sea felt pretty long. Chad said his head continually bobbed up and down, in and out of the water. He had one arm slung over the pallet some of the time, but they treaded water and kicked most of the time, trying to stay afloat.

Chad and the others saw another boat pass by at a distance and hoped to get its attention so it would come pick them up. He took off the white shirt he was wearing and threw it into the air, yelling for help. “We all did a lot of yelling for help.” No one saw them or heard them. “We saw the boat right after we had gotten all the gas out of the tank so threw the red tank in the air a couple times for the boat to see, but they didn’t see us. Then we tied the gas jug to the pallet and so I took my shirt off to use as a signal snaker. Febi thought he saw another boat way off in the distance a little later so he asked for my shirt to throw up…he tried to stand on the tip of the sinking boat and throw it but whatever boat he saw was way too far off to see us…” Then Chad tied his white shirt to the thick rope hanging off the front of the sunken boat that was still sticking out of the water vertically. They hoped someone would see it.

“I really need to work on my breath-holding skills,” Chad told me, “because we thought if we could unhook the motor from the bottom of the boat, perhaps we could flip it over and then we could all sit in it.” The motor on the back of the boat was holding the boat down into the sea. Chad held his breath and dove under. The first time he didn’t make it to the motor and had to come up for air. Imagine the adrenaline pumping and trying to dive down 21 feet or so in the ocean to try and unfasten an outboard motor on the back of a boat. The second time he swam under the sunken boat and touched the motor. The third plunge, he was able to touch the bolts on the motor but realized they were screwed on too tight and there was no way he could release them. Up he came, gasping for air and wishing there was another way. All this time the 3 women had intermittent periods of screaming and freaking out, and the boat driver along with Chad kept trying to calm them down. The driver kept saying, “Just relax. Just relax. We will get there soon. It will all be alright. We will be there soon. Relax.” Over and over he repeated these words, and that was a real morale booster for Chad. Febi also reassured the women, saying, “Hey, just think of it like we are goin’ for a swim…it’s no big deal. We’re just goin’ for a swim. They saw little flickering lights off in the distance and wondered if they were people’s flashlights. “I did a lot of yelling to try to get help, but it didn’t seem like anyone ever heard us.” 

At one point in the night, the laces came loose and they thought they had lost them; and the raft came apart. The women of course started panicking and were grasping and groping at the men, trying to use them as flotation devices. Chad said that a woman grabbed on to him and was pulling him down a little bit.  He is not sure if it was the same woman or another one who grabbed the Gumi rubber necklace (Chad has one on in the picture) that was around his neck and was using that to hold onto.   Chad grabbed the woman’s hand off his neck right away, but he started going under from the weight of this woman trying to hold onto him to survive.  In a matter of seconds, these thoughts flashed through his mind, “I knew these ladies were pulling me down. I couldn’t let them drown, but it kept flashing through my mind how a flayling person could cause a strong swimmer to drown by frantically hanging onto them and pushing them under. I had to think of an idea pretty fast, and I didn’t want to get myself in another position where the lady would grab me and not let go.  So I threw her off me … and then quickly grabbed her shirt in a bundle from behind her and balanced her on my knee to float. That way I could hold her up, but hold her away from me so I could still swim and she couldn’t grab onto me.  I was afraid she would keep pushing me under if she kept grabbing at me.”   He held onto her until she calmed down and could grab onto the gas tank again. As Chad was telling the story he said, “I don’t think I held onto her very long at all….this part is a little blurry.  I can’t remember  if I just let her go and went and got the gas tank and had her hold on to that or if she grabbed the pallet or if I just let her go real quick to start tying the jug off… honestly I am not 100% sure what happened at that point….”  This part of the night was frantic, blurry, and dark.

At this point they also had to try to fix the raft.  Chad remembered that he had a drawstring in his board shorts and quickly pulled that out. “I was so frustrated because it broke in half when I pulled it out.  I thought it would work, but it didn't … it broke into such small sections it was useless. I told Febi that and he said he had the shoelace…I guess he found it cause I had asked if it was still there when the jug came off and thought he said it was gone.  Then we snaked the tank and the pallets together again. Even that was tricky because the women kept freaking out and we were trying to get them to hold still and not put all their weight on the wood so we could get the thing balanced again. It got a little hairy there at one point in the night when they were all screaming and we were trying to talk them through it as we fixed the raft.”  Remember that the entire night’s conversation would not have been in English, but in Melanesian Pidgin, the local language of Papua New Guinea. The string was now gone from Chad’s shorts; he lost them as they floated away; he was now down to his under-armor.  The official statement released by NTM said he was left with only his shorts … but he was actually in nothing but his grey underwear.  He had thought a couple times earlier that he was glad he still had his wallet in his pocket with his license, cards, and “700 Kina of People-Group-Assessment money. It wasn’t even my money, so I feel bad that I lost it. But I didn’t even think about it when my shorts floated away. I didn’t realize it was even gone till later. It got pretty hairy there in the middle part of the night and I wasn’t thinking about much else.”

I asked Chad if he tried to pass the time singing or talking. He said he did try to sing a little bit and at one point he tried to ask the people some questions to see if they knew their eternal destiny. “But it just was not that kind of a situation where you could even have a decent conversation. The sea was rough; the waves were rocking us; you would hold your breath, go under, and then bob back up. You had to repeat yourself again and again because the guys’ heads would be under water often. So pretty soon I realized that conversation was not going to really work.  I prayed that God would make the night shorter. I prayed that the light would come quicker. The night did feel really long.”

And so they weathered the night that way. The 16-year-old kid that was with them kept trying to sit on the front of the raft, and when he would do that it would make the raft start to sink and the ladies fall off. This would throw them into complete panic and chaos again. “I think it would at times make the raft unbalanced when he would do that but the main reason was it would push the raft too far under for me to keep my hand on it and still keep my head out of the water, and keep the raft balanced without pushing it further underwater.” Chad kept telling the boy not to sit on there, to just hang onto the pallet to float. At a few points, “He just wouldn’t listen so I had to push him off the front and tell him to stay off it and just hang on.”

“The ladies’ teeth were chattering and I knew they were cold. I never did feel cold, but I was in the water moving the whole time and they were up on the raft.” The good thing about the waters in the South Pacific is that they are quite warm.  We asked Chad if he thought about sharks or anything like that. “It did cross my mind a couple times, but I just didn’t let my mind go there.”

He kept seeing these flashing lights that he thought were coming from the shoreline way in the distance. A few times he wondered if he was dreaming or if this was really happening.  Once or twice it crossed his mind that he could swim for the shore and he would probably make it, but he never even considered this thought. He stayed with the women and the other 2 at sea.  “It was dark, pitch black, dark skies with dark clouds, raining off and on.  I tried to open my mouth and catch some of the rainwater, but I would just get a mouthful of saltwater instead.  We kept trying to kick to shore. We tried to kick to the shoreline all night long, but the current was strong and we did not get anywhere.  The night did feel really long.”

The head of the Marine Pacific command on the phone with 100 marines ready to be mobilized.  All night long, so many folks worked and planned towards getting Chad and the others help.  The NTM doctor, nurse, pilot, and a search team formed in the middle of the night at our mission center and rallied at 4:00am so they could leave at daybreak.

At daybreak, boats launched … and you know the rest of the story. He was picked up by local villagers and they headed toward an aidpost on another island.  The guys in the rescue boat had to pull them all out of the water. Chad tried to get into the boat but couldn’t, so they pulled him in.  The boat driver, women, and other boy just c

All the while, there were hundreds of people that soon became thousands of people, who began rallying to pray. It started with calling our immediate family. There are 6 of us siblings currently spread across America and PNG and we, along with my mom and dad, and lots of friends, began rallying people to pray. Within hours the news was all over Facebook and the internet. Churches gathered to pray, school classes stopped to pray, little bands of believers all over the world came together to pray. We knew Chad and others were out at sea. We knew there was no rescue attempt being made until dawn. We knew that he would have to keep swimming for another 10 hours or so until daybreak. Missionaries, Ryan & Shelbi Webb and Madonna, at Bom Village, tried to rally the villagers to send out a search party that night, but a large squall wind had blown up and was gusting strongly toward shore. No one had good lights or equipment and the reality was that they probably feared for their lives as well with going out at night. Shelbi Webb reported, “We just kept going and never got any sleep that night; we just didn't want to leave him out there for the night; we wanted to do all that we could so that he knew we were doing absolutely everything. Ryan kept going village to village offering anything to get Chad that night; no boat drivers would go, so we knew we had to wait till daylight”. Ryan was able to set up a boat and gas and planned to leave at daybreak along with the villagers, to try to find Chad and the others.

Not too many people slept that night; everyone called upon the God who made the wind and the seas and those people, to please save them. Many, many phone calls were made; many people were awakened in the night including the US Embassy, the PNG Maritime service, ANY helicopter company within a decent range of the ocean in which they were lost; we even called a couple resorts on the coast and talked to the night manager to see if they had any search boats they could send out. Our bro-in-law & brothers contacted our cousin Nathaniel Brock, who is a US Marine.  
 Chad said they were all limp and could not think straight. They couldn’t walk.     The boat took them all to the shore of another island, and the people gave them coke and crackers.  They offloaded the national survivors to head to a nearby medical aidpost.  Chad told them he needed to go the village where the missionaries lived, and they took off that direction.  Missionary Ryan Webb came on the scene very shortly and put Chad into his boat, taking him back to his home on the Bom village island. As soon as Ryan got Chad into his boat, he placed a call to the NTM director, Keith Copley. We were standing in Keith’s house as he got this call.  There was a lot of background noise, but Ryan was yelling, “I have him! I have Chad in my boat! I can’t hear you because of the outboard motor, but he is here in my boat! We’re going to land!”  Let me tell you that rejoicing and tears took place in a big way.  We quickly began calling the family to let them know that Chad was alive. Bless Ryan & Shelbi Webb, Madonna Yates, and all those wonderful villagers at Bom & the surrounding villages!  So many people rallied to help. 

 

The NTM helicopter, with doctor onboard, picked Chad up at the Bom Village and took him to the mainland.  Chad doesn’t have any big injuries. He has chaffing on the insides of his arms from where he hung onto the pallet and the wood and saltwater rubbed at his arms. His legs are extremely stiff and sore from treading and kicking for so long. His eyes were red and bloodshot for a couple days and he has some bruises, but otherwise he is just fine.  The others that were lost, Febi, Cris, Rose, Olivia, and Grace are also okay.

 

I asked Chad what he was thinking during those hours in the sea. Was he afraid of dying? Did he think this would be the end? He said the thought went through his mind a few times.  “It did cross my mind. I thought, ‘Oh, maybe this will be how I go. Maybe this will be it for me.’  But I was content. I didn’t question why we were out there. We just were. You know, all my life I have struggled with doubt. But in those moments in the sea I didn’t have lots of questions. I knew my eternal destiny. I knew I was spending my life exactly the way I wanted to be spending it, doing something that mattered in God’s kingdom.  I didn’t have any regrets or wish that I was somewhere else, doing something else.”

(God is not through with Chad, there are more villages to survey, more missionaries to help move into a tribe without the gospel.  I (Betty) pray this has encouraged you to continue on with your walk with the Lord even if you find your self in your own sea of problems.   Reach out to  your lifeline, He will be there for you. )

 

 

 

 

Parasites and Krispy Kreme Donuts

The Anopheles mosquito (picture) abdomen is full of blood that will nourish her eggs, the female takes to the air.  Her next landing may be a dangerous one...for the human who receives her bite.  The female Anopheles mosquito is the only insect capable of carrying the human malaria parasite.  The parasite then travels to the liver---where they can lay dormant for as long as a year or up to even five years.   When the parasite mature, they leave the liver and infect your red blood cells. This is when the person typically develops malaria symptoms.  If an uninfected mosquito bites you at this point in the cycle, it will become infected with your malaria parasites and can be spread to the next person it bites. It's such a tiny little insect...but it carries a deadly disease if not treated.

 

Sometimes before Sept 2011 an Anopheles mosquito  bit my husband so not only did  we pack our few belongings and head back to the US but unbeknown  to Ace his liver was packing this parasites just waiting to release in his blood stream.  The last week of August 2012, one year later he begin to get sick, thinking he was just run down.. Very soon he was so weak he could not stay awake,  having shakes and  fevers  till  it spiked dangerously high so to the  emergency room we went.  We  both thought this might be malaria but the medical staff did not think so even though his spleen was enlarged and white and red blood cell way down.  They admitted him thinking he might have West Nile virus.  Test after test was ran, strong antibiotic were given but still his fever and chills were becoming worst and worst to the  point he shook the hospital bed till they could hear it in the hall.   After three days the blood work came back positive for malaria.  Finally they started treating him with an eradication treatment to kill the parasites in his liver and spleen.  He now is home resting, still on medication for another 7 days. 

 

I had lots of time to pray and think about how is God going to get glory out of this.  We both got to witness to a lot of curious nurses and doctors who took care of him who wanted to know  where he had lived to get malaria and why would we live there?  Once again we realized these are temporary bodies we walk around it.   Makes one want to enjoy every moment God gives us.

A friend wrote this to me during this latest trial. " During a test" the Teacher is always silent".  So if you are going through a stretch of time and you feel God is silent maybe it is a test you have to pass.   We have had those trials when we thought we were not hearing from God but this one was different.  God calmed my anxious heart as I sit in that isolation room praying my husband would get well.   

 

The calmness helped me as I  search the Internet for information which brought this thought. Sin was like a parasite.   It starts as a thought, which we put aside thinking it is dormant till something, another thought, something we see, read or touch and then it explodes, taking over our senses and renders us helpless and we can even infect others when sin is reigning in us.   An alcoholic never thought they would become one with the first drink or even the second nor third one.  Sin grows as it get fed like a parasite does on our blood.  Parasites can kill unless treated. 

   

James 1:13-15
13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

 How grateful I am that God has put the prescription for our sin in I John 1:8-9 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all un righteousness.

Here comes the Krispy Kreme donut part.  Daily I would get some breakfast in the hospital cafe.  The first day I seen these wonderful looking chocolate covered donuts, tried one, it was so good I had another before I left.  Next morning, another donut and next morning one again.  The lady who checked me out commenting that she was glad I found their donuts good, she said they are Krispy Kreme,  my absolute favorite.   Those donuts were not from the Lord, He would not tempt me.  They were my parasite (food) which is what I usually turn to during times of stress.   I could eat them every morning, probably more then one.  Through the years I have given up lots of different food items that are not healthy for me but this lesson was how easily I was enticed back into gobbling a few donuts down.  To me they were like strong drink is to an alcoholic.  
I even said to Ace when he got to where he could eat, honey they have donuts in the cafe, you want one?  Thank God he said no, and finished eating his healthy heart breakfast.  I felt a little like Eve in the garden, come on honey, just a bite!!!!!! 

I don't know what your parasite is but I know one of mine is foods that is not healthy for me.  The enemy of my soul wants me weak, malnourished with a cloudy mind so he can continue to tempt me over and over.  The only way I have found that works good for me is to flee from the sin if possible.  It was possible, I did not go to the cafe again for breakfast.  I was tempted but the thought of that donut being a parasite helped me to resist.   

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

                                        DO YOU HAVE A PARASITE?????