Praise the Lord for this new day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. . I am enclosing a note from Sunita, that we received just this morning. A few years ago I spent a couple weeks in Alaska. I recall reading one of the road signs which read, “Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next 200 miles.” Many people are in ruts, but they do not even know it. Most of us tend to settle for predictable and comfortable lives.
In Acts 4 we have a record of the witness of the early Christians, whose lives were transformed from blandness and boredom to boldness. In fact, it was "Holy Boldness". As we plan to go to India, some of my friends are praying for that "Holy Boldness" for us. Very few of us dare to be bold with our lives and seize every day as a fresh gift from God. Psalm 118:24 states, "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." In Ecclesiastes 11, Solomon repeated this concept, “Don’t play it safe!” We are not to let fear, pessimism, and paranoia rule our lives. How much more we can enjoy life if we decide to invest life instead of just enduring it.
Solomon spent the two previous chapters teaching that unpredictable things happen in our lives and the only way to live life is under God’s providential hand. It is the only way that life is fulfilling. However, living life under God’s providential hand involves some risk, but when we risk according to God’s purpose, we are greatly rewarded. We are called and propelled to live life generously.
Ecclesiastes 11:1 – "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again." For many in our current society, this verse carries little meaningful, but in biblical times, the most profitable business was the import and export business. You had to trust your “bread” on the “waters”. Your product made more money when shipped by sea than by land because it arrived more quickly at its destination. Thus, the returns would be quicker. There were, however, some risks involved: pirates, storms, and disreputable “middle men” who might steal your profit.
However, there were much greater risks that take place when you didn’t send out your bread. If you just store the bread, it molds, and so you lose your investment as well. The idea is that it’s better to get it to market and have a chance to make some profit as opposed to just letting it sit and rot.
I am reminded of the parable of the talents, in which the servant buried his money in the ground. He got nothing out of it – not even what he could have earned by just depositing it with a banker.
Solomon speaks of generosity. Don’t hold back! Whatever you have, invest it in people. Don’t let what God has given you, treasure, time, talent, and testimony, just sit and do nothing. Too many people live a philosophy of getting: Get all you can. Can all you get. Then sit on the can. This is the philosophy of life “lived under the sun.”
Solomon’s advice is that life will produce nothing of significance without faith. The key to living by faith is acting without being able to see exactly how things will turn out. 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us that, “We live by faith, not by sight.”
I read the story of Larry Walters some time ago. Larry lived in a little suburb outside of Los Angeles just south of the L.A. Airport. A truck driver, he used to spend his weekends in his backyard sitting in his favorite lawn chair with a six-pack and some peanut butter sandwiches. Several years ago, when Larry was sitting around looking at all the fences around him in the subdivision where he lived, he got an idea. He decided he would go and buy some weather balloons, fill them with helium, and tie them to his lawn chair. He figured they would allow him to float 100 or so feet up in the air so that he could visit with all his neighbors, who lived behind all those fences, while he floated along.
He obtained 30-40 weather balloons and filled them with helium. He tied them to his lawn chair. He went in the house and got another six-pack and a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and his BB gun. He took his supplies outside, sat down in the lawn chair that his friends were holding down, and said, “Let ‘er go!”
He didn’t go to only 100 feet in the air. He went to 11,000 feet. He shot straight up in the air. He couldn’t shoot out the balloons because he was afraid he would cause the chair to get off balance and he would fall out.
It happened that he floated straight up into the landing pattern of the L.A. Airport. A pilot of a DC-10 reported seeing a lawn chair float by. You can only imagine the control tower wanting to know how many six-packs the pilot had consumed.
Larry was holding on for dear life. Eventually, they sent helicopters up. They stopped all takeoffs and landings at the airport while they got this truck driver and his lawn chair down from 11,000 feet. When he was finally back on the ground, he was surrounded by a huge crowd. The police were there, the helicopter crew, the television crews, and all kinds of reporters.
One reporter stuck a microphone in his face and said, “Were you scared?” Larry said, “What kind of question is that? Wouldn’t you be scared if you were floating around in a lawn chair at 11,000 feet?”
Then the reporter asked, “Would you do it again?” Larry’s answer was a very strong, “NO!!!”
Finally the reporter asked him, “What in the world made you do it the first time?” And to that Larry Walters replied, “Well, you can’t just sit there.”
We are called to live life generously and boldly.
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/twuLr5rQmp0
Dear Friends,
Our time in Romania was a bit like being in overdrive. The staff here packed our days full of home visits, meetings with community leaders and times of planning and debriefing with staff. A typical day involved being picked up from our hotel before 9am and returning after 10pm to our rooms at night, our minds and hearts full to overflowing from what we’ve seen and experienced each day. We initially felt some heaviness when we came to Bucharest last week. You could still see the visible evidence of Ceacescu’s dictatorship all over, in the old communist buildings, and in the huge issue of child neglect and abandonment, despite tremendous progress that has been made over the past 20 years. We saw things every day that made us want to weep; sometimes with joy, but mostly with heartbreak for the neglect so many children and youth have suffered in this nation. On a personal level, it confirmed for Andy & I a conviction we have long felt to be part of caring for neglected kids, and has caused us to start looking more seriously and imminently at foster care or adoption. We had a TREMENDOUS time in Romania and have a rolodex of images replaying through our minds as we look back over the packed hours of our packed days. We’ll share a few of them here:
• Our first day in Romania, we visited several projects in Bucharest working with deinstitutionalized children, trying to get them out of state run orphanages into transitional housing—a 2 bedroom apartment with 8 kids and a dorm mom where they can get more individualized care, and be taught basic lifeskills that are absent in the orphanages, where everything (bathing, choosing clothes to wear, brushing teeth, etc) is done for them. The World Vision staff in Romania do outstanding work training government workers on better models of care for orphans in this country. It was fantastic to see how many laws, measures and models implemented by World Vision had been adopted by the government and local organizations here over the past 20 years. Our staff are passionate about protecting children and I felt very proud to work for World Vision in seeing their passion and professionalism.
• Robert is a beautiful 10 year old boy who lives with his grandma in a *tiny* apartment, not more than 150 square feet in size. Robert has very weak legs and is considered disabled here, so was abandoned by his mom, though she occasionally visits him. They live in one of the filthiest buildings I’ve ever been in, but their tiny apartment is tidy and clean and a little oasis. But with Robert’s disability and his grandma’s age, he sometimes has to drag himself up 3 or 4 flights of filthy stairs. You can tell Robert’s grandmother loves him and is proud of him. He’s a winsome, adorable boy that I can’t imagine not being proud of. But his grandma has diabetes and it is hard for me not to think of what will happen to Robert if his grandma’s health fails. We had a chance to pray for them both and I am continuing to pray.
• In Iasi, a city in the northeast of the country, we met an American volunteering for 2 months for the World Vision office there. Her name is Rebecca and it turns out that she is pursuing her Master’s at George Mason University and lives about a half mile from us (4th and Evarts, NE, for Eckington friends)! It was so “random” and of course not random at all. J We only had a day together, visiting projects, but Andy had a great conversation with Rebecca during which she opened up about her mother dying when she was 12 and her father then abandoning her. She has a lot of anger and hurt towards God from this. We’re planning to get together when we all are back in DC so appreciate your prayer with us that Jesus would wrap Rebecca in His arms of love and begin His work of healing.
• We visited a number of families living in the rural countryside with conditions comparable to many developing nations’ contexts: 7-10 family members squeezed into 1-2 room homes built from by hand; poor ventilation with ripe conditions for tuberculosis and other communicable diseases (we had a staff member contract TB recently and have to get surgery on her lungs); no running water or well (having to port water from the village pump) so infrequent bathing and poor hygiene, especially in the winter; no electricity, healthcare, etc.
• One of our joys in Romania was how frequently we were able to pray with families as we visited them in their homes. We saw so many hardships and difficult things, and while we know that there is much that is needed in terms of action, only Jesus can fully provide and move in these situations. Though almost all, if not all, of the families we visited were Orthodox Christians, I think they were a little surprised, but grateful, to have people take time to pray with them.
• In both Albania and Romania, but especially Romania, one of the main populations World Vision works with are Roma (a derogatory name often used in the past is ‘Gypsies’). The Roma actually began migrating towards Europe from India almost 1000 years ago, many believe to escape Muslim raids. They quickly became enslaved and have suffered intense discrimination (and even genocide under Hitler) ever since. It has been fascinating to make this connection with India, and even more so to see the connections that the Roma feel with India so many centuries later, mainly because of the blatant racism and prejudice they continue to experience I think. Yesterday (Tuesday) we visited a Roma community where World Vision works and it was fun to see how excited they were to learn that my dad is from India. They immediately extended an invitation for him to come and preach in their church. An American missionary helped start a church in their village a few years ago and 38 people have been baptized so far. One of our staff marveled at the change he’s seen in that community since the church began. They currently have a pastor come into the community on Sundays, for a few hours, to preach, but they really need someone who is full-time and who can walk with them through daily life.
• This brings me to another joy and affirmation on this trip, which is a deeper conviction than ever for us that the Church is the key to transformation of in a community. We know the Church is critical to spiritual transformation in a community, but I think both of us have been reaffirmed at the pivotal role that the Church, the believers present in a community, are the key to lasting economic, social AND spiritual change. We’ll look forward to sharing more thoughts and stories when we are back J
• Sunita and Andy
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