Nehemiah 8:10

In Nehemiah 8:10 we read the phrase "the joy of the Lord is my strength" a phrase made popular in several praise songs and by a recording from Twila Paris. Certainly the joy of the Lord is far better than this world's joys, a lesson I learned a long time ago, but strangely enough, must keep learning as life goes on.

It was to be the best toy ever, the mother of all toys, the toy to end all toys. There were 75 pieces, according to the advertisement in the back of my comic book, all in the greatest of detail. Two opposing armies with tanks, artillery, airpower and even ships. The whole thing, costing a princely sum of $3.75 back in 1969, came with a "handsome" ( I remember the specific use of that word) carrying case. I sent of my money and waited very impatiently the necessary 4 to 6 weeks, running to the mailbox several times a day.

Finally, the big day arrived and a box was in the mail with my name on it. Hmmm, it is a small box, maybe this is just the artillery. The rest will come tomorrow. Not to worry, I thought, as I tore into the wrapper to reveal the whole kit, all 75 less than detailed pieces enclosed in a "handsome" carrying case that was 5 inches long by 3 inches wide and 2 inches deep. What?! There must be some mistake! I mean, you could not even really see what each blob of plastic was. Is that a man with a bazooka or is that an armored car?

Needless to say, I was crushed. How could this reliable company cheat me? After all, they took out a large color ad on the back of a famous comic book. I looked more closely at the ad an in very fine print were the dimensions of the "handsome" carrying case: 5X3X2.

Through the years, I have learned that people, companies, and things may disappoint you (not all people, companies and things, just some) but when you trust in God's plan for your life. There is peace. Not to say that things will not be hard. Sometimes, to bring glory to His name, there may be trials in our lives, but even in the darkest times, when we remember God's promises of eternal life with Him, there is still peace. This is a hard teaching, one that God sees fit to remind me of a various times. Every time I tell Him, "OK God. I get the message." But then I forget the message and need a little reminder. It is those times that I try to think back to the "best" toy ever and the "handsome" carrying case.

Blessings

Mark

Isaiah 41:10

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

There are many amazing critters running around Africa. We typically think of elephants, lions, giraffes, and hippos. Hippos, highly territorial animals cause more loss of human life than any other creature in the area. I thought that these large animals did not have any natural predators but that is not the case. Take the giraffe which can be easily killed at an exposed moment by a lion.

The giraffe is fast and is able to deliver strong kicks, even out to the side, that will kill an attacker. But the lion knows the weakness in the giraffe. When the giraffe drinks, it must spread its front legs and lower its head to water. When this happens, valves within the giraffe's circulatory system shut down the flow of blood to the brain. This is fine for the amount of time it takes to get a drink but if the lion crouches nearby and grabs onto the giraffe's neck while the head is down, the lion can keep the head down and the giraffe will die fairly quickly creating quite the feast for the whole pride.

Satan is like this. He crouches in hiding waiting for our weak times and then he attacks. When we rely on our own strength we are vulnerable but when we do as Isaiah says, God will strengthen and uphold us. And that is very comforting.

I can't resist this useless piece of African trivia. The first naval battle of WWI actually took place on Lake Malawi with a British gun boat attacking and sinking a German fishing trawler. Of course, the Germans did not know that war had been declared so the battle was over quickly.

Blessings

Mark

Mark 9:36-37

Mark 9:36-37 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

Malawi is called the "Warm Heart of Africa" and for a very good reason. In all of my travels around the world I have not found as friendly a country as Malawi. Everywhere we traveled, people (both young and old) would run to the roadside to wave. Part of that is the small number of cars and trucks makes the passing of one a big event, the main reason people came to see what was going on. Then when they saw that the truck had "Azungus" or white people, it really made things special. It got to the point that your arm was tired from waving but the look on the children's faces when you waved or made eye contact was almost magical.

When we arrived in Malawi, 50 members of our sister church had traveled to greet us at the airport. Now we think of travel as a half hour drive on nice roads but this was 5 to 6 hours out of their day to see us for 30 minutes. They traveled over dusty, bumpy roads crossing bridges that look like they should have collapsed years ago, just to say hello. We were greeted with songs, hugs and of course, a very formal introduction time. They helped us with our luggage and then went back home, 50 people crammed into the back of two small pick up trucks.

Frankly it was very humbling. I think of how many times I hear of housing needs in my own church when conferences or seminars are in town. Sometimes it is difficult to find homes for the participants as we are just too busy to be bothered. When our sister denomination sends folks over, it is hard to get people to greet them at the airport, a small couple hour commitment.

I learned the true meaning of hospitality during my visit. We were warned not to comment about people's possessions because if they saw you admiring something, you are going home with it. I made that mistake. Our hosts had a 6 foot tall giraffe carving in their living room which I was looking at one morning. My hostess saw this and tried very hard to get me to commit to taking it with me but thank goodness it was too large and heavy. But I did leave with two smaller giraffe carvings and a traditional African outfit (as did my wife and daughter) because we are now members of their village. One of the members of our group saw a sign for a nearby lake and her casual comment led to a day long excursion to see the lake as nearby is a vague term in Malawi. The lake was only 30 kilometers away but poor road conditions and lack of roads in some cases makes 30 km quite a distance.

Any need we had they attempted to meet even if it meant great inconvenience or expense. And of course, there was no compensating them for their hospitality. When I spoke of this with the Clerk of Session, he said they take very seriously the commands that Jesus gave to his followers in the Gospel of Mark chapter 9. I even discovered that guards had been hired to watch over each house we were in during the night and while we were out during the day. Malawi is no more dangerous than most places but they did not want to take the chance that having Azungus in the village might tempt some village folks to see what they might steal. Recently 16 bags of corn (meant for the orphans that our sister church cares for) were stolen. Within two days, members of the village found who had stolen the corn, turned the individual over to the authorities and returned the corn.

My challenge to you would be to assess your "hospitality factor". Do you go out of your way to help those in need? Do you offer hospitality to neighbors and friends? Next time the pastor asks for volunteers to host a dinner for a visiting group, what will your response be? What did Jesus say to do?

Blessings

Mark

Mark 12:30-31

Mark 12:30-31 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.

In this text we find Jesus being asked by a teacher of the law what commandment is the most important. Of course we read that God must be first in all aspects of our lives. As we know from personal experience, this is very easy to say but sometimes quite hard to do.

The second thing that Jesus says is to love our neighbors as ourselves. In light of our trip to Africa, I want to expand upon this idea some more.

Just how do we love others as ourselves? When we think of personal relationships, it is easy to come up with ways to value other people but what about the folks on the other side of the world, our neighbors? One of the main ways we accomplish this is through giving money to various organizations and I learned some interesting things while actually seeing the "finished product" if you will.

The first thing to learn is that as Americans, we do not have all of the answers on how to best help other countries. Our ways of doing things might not match up with the local culture. For instance, in Malawi, things just take a long time to get done. All meetings start with very formal introductions, greetings and polite applause. Then you discuss all of the members of your family and how they are doing. Finally you get down to business but few people take notes and eventually you will cover the same topics several times before it actually gets done.

A member of our Presbytery has been working in Malawi for the last year and he relates a story of a worker for an NGO (Non-governmental agency - Example is the Red Cross) he met in the capital city of Malawi. This lady was very excited about the funding they had received to put computers and internet access in every classroom in Malawi. It was quickly evident that this woman had never set foot outside of the capital city. We saw several schools during our trip and there are many obstacles to overcome before the world wide web is available in classrooms in Malawi. First, they need electricity and phone lines which do not exist in most places in this country. Then they need teachers. The one school we were at had 1537 students and 6 teachers. How is a computer going to really make any impact here? Most schools are covered patios so how does one protect the computer from theft and the elements as this is a very dusty place.

As you can see, this group is going to waste a huge amount of money when those very same dollars could go towards meaningful help. The Malawians are not asking for computers. They want teachers. They need irrigation equipment so families can grow their own food.

The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) program has done some great work in Malawi saving the lives of an estimated quarter of a million children through some very simple programs. Every family is given 5kg of seed corn which should yield a harvest of 15 50kg bags of corn. The family returns one bag (to be stored for the community leaders to hand out in times of need) and can do what they want with the other 14 bags.

This country receives its rain all in three months yet there is lots of water underground. Locals have learned that huge termite mounds mean the presence of a large water source underground. Just dig a large hole near a mound and it will fill with water. Then the PDA supplies low tech foot operated pumps which siphon the water through hoses and will allow a farmer to hand irrigate 3 or 4 acres of farm land even in the driest of times. The weather allows for 2 to 3 harvests per year. This makes much more sense than internet access.

I guess my main point is be careful how you spend your money overseas. Spend some time investigating the tactics and techniques an organization uses. Too often funds are spent unwisely, focused too much on administrative costs or just plain old stolen by those in charge. Some of the most effective tsunami relief done earlier this year was through church to church efforts. Your church partners with a church in an affected area and they see that relief gets to those who need it most.

An interesting side note. When we attended worship at our sister church, the offering was counted in the open during the service and the amount announced to the congregation for accountability purposes. Also, if not enough was given, they have everyone come back up a second time.

Blessings

Mark

Philippians 4:4

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

My family had the great privilege this summer to visit our sister congregation in Malawi, Africa. This south central nation, known as the "Warm Heart of Africa", was our home for two weeks as we shared fellowship, helped in the building a new church, visited various projects funded by our church/denomination, and planned for further expansion of the partnership between the Migowi CCAP (Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian) and Beulah Presbyterian Church.

My family has spent time in the past in third world nations so we were fairly well prepared for the poverty that we would encounter. But this time things were somewhat different. Our past God led adventures had been in non-Christian environments, sometimes full of hopelessness. This trip surrounded us with brothers and sisters in faith which resulted in an overall atmosphere of hope. Malawi, the fourth poorest country in the world is a place of great physical needs. Most of the things we take for granted are not available. If we were to become seriously ill or injured, adequate care was in South Africa, several hours by plane.

But yet even though the folks in Migowi (a small village that does not even appear on most maps) have little according to our standards, they are happy. Now you have to work hard to live in this type of remote environment. Water is drawn at public wells. Toilets are, well you can imagine. As the area is very dusty, people bathe twice a day. But that is done with buckets of water heated over fires. Meals are simple but take hours to prepare and once you are done, it is time to start the next meal. Clothes are washed in streams and generally speaking, it takes most of the hours of daylight to just keep your household running.

One of the main things that I have learned from this visit is that Paul's message to the Philippians was also written for the people of Malawi and the USA. In many ways, I think some of the folks we met in our African adventure are better focused than many I know in the states, having a clearer idea of what God desires and how to bring glory to His name. I will share some of that as the week progresses. Lest you think of this place as some sort of utopia, when I asked the pastor of our sister church what was the greatest issue in the church, it was materialism. There really is little difference between people around the world, in both the good things and the bad.

Mark