Friday, December 3, 2010
Dear Family and Friends:
Yesterday Glenn thought he was “home free” from sermon preparation and could just relax the rest of the way home. Tonight we go to the Zemabawk church to present Last Day Events and will be with them Sabbath morning and afternoon and possibly Sunday morning. Those meetings will use the same sermons already in the computer from what we did at the Conference Church. But then, last night at the meeting after Glenn had said our “good byes” thinking it would be our last time together with them, Biaka announced a Sunday night meeting with Glenn preaching in the Conference church. They plan a farewell in connection with it.
So, it is back to the sermon preparation stage for that final sermon here. It is 4:30 a.m. and all is quiet. It’s a great time for preparing a final sermon. Today will be full of activity even before going to Zemabawk. Our new friends the Nussbaums in the Guest Room across from us, are back and want to copy some of our pictures to use in fund raising in the Medford, Oregon church. Ashley, the husband, also wants to take video of Glenn telling about the needs of the work at Tlangsang and of the new Adventists in the Chhimlaung Bru village. They need a church and school. Glenn reminded him that we do not do fundraising as such. We just tell the story when invited and let the Holy Spirit do the impressing if people want to and are able to give.
Yesterday we had lunch with Biaka and Nettie and it was deliciously warm and nutritious. Glenn asked Biaka to tell us his story once again about how he became SDA. This time we learned much more detail and want to put it on video. So that has to be done today. Biaka was sponsored by Dan and Marilyn Cotton of Quiet Hour to go through Spicer College at Pune, India for ministerial training. He would like for the Cottons to see that video and know how their investment turned out. We also caught a glimpse of how much our investment meant in giving him a video projector for use in his evangelism. So that must be done today. We also want a final check on our email before leaving here.
While at Biaka’s for lunch, an older member came with a bottle of soy milk she had made and a few doughnuts. They were a special gift for us. Biaka told how she is one of the most faithful of all the Mizo SDA. If someone is turned out of their home, the first place they will go is to her house. She does all she can to help others. She told Biaka (she does not know English) that when she looks into our faces she sees Jesus. We could say the same of her. We will drink some of the milk because of the love in that gift, but we want Biaka and family to use most of it. We do not have a good place to keep it in our Guest Room so it is in their refrigerator. Besides, we are not sure what kind of water she may have used in making the soy milk. Staying healthy is high priority even though we should soon be on our way back to USA.
Today also we need to give the rest of our gift for the Tlangsang School. It turns out that we do not have enough to pay for the cement roof on any of the unfinished concrete buildings they need. So we will see what lesser projects are urgent that our remaining funds can accomplish.
Yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of the Lowry School next to where we are staying. We were invited to attend the special services that would continue all day (and into the night with the aftermath). We did go in the morning at 9. Glenn had to burn midnight oil to get that time free. It was nice to be there for the unveiling of the monument. We should have left then because we were disappointed in the music and student reaction in the program that followed. It is a mission school and most of the 1260 students are not SDA. The intent to use the school to win others is good, but how it has worked out is not good. They invited some the non SDA alumni to be on the program to sing and they are very worldly it seems. Some of the music was Rock and Roll and the singers took Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson as their role model rather than Jesus. At least that is how it came across to us. We left before the program was over.
It would have been great to be there for the afternoon service because the school choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus. We had heard them practicing and that was just beautiful. We were still at Biakas when they sang it for the program. Perhaps we can get a copy somewhere of video or even just the sound. That is the memory we would like to retain of the school.
In the sermon at Last Day Events Seminar that night Glenn emphasized the importance of giving glory to God (Rev 14 etc) rather than any human including ourselves. Our world is so tuned in to hero worship and it is sickening to see it so strong in our schools and sometimes in our churches. It is an end-time worship issue. The sermon included the Three Angel’s Messages and was an opportunity to emphasize the Glory to God part. We see the results of USA exporting the filth of our TV programs and other depravities to the rest of the world and how they have accepted that as how Americans live. They think that if they are to have our wealth they must imitate our ways. And “there is death in the pot.” (2 Kings 4:40)
School uniforms are beautiful, modest, conservative, and well coordinated in the colors. We seriously considered buying some for our grandchildren but didn’t know when they would wear them back home. Nor were we certain of the sizes for all and how we would find luggage space to include them. So, the photos will have to be enough. We are determined to not have to pay extra for luggage at the airports. We need to have enough rupies to get us through but not a lot of extras. We remember one trip when we gave our last rupies to Paulson and then discovered at the airport that we had to pay an exit tax and they would not accept U.S. dollars. What a dilemma! It was a relief when we heard they would accept Visa Credit Card.
Our yesterday included a walk down the steep hill (and back up again) to buy more bottled water. It is a balancing act to have enough but not too much. When we drink, it is mostly is in the morning when the toilet is available. To find a suitable toilet away is a challenge. So schedule dictates how much water we will use. The exercise of the climb back up that hill was valuable. We bought out the last 8 bottles of water they had, but it was only the equivalent of four of the normal ones we buy in 2 liter bottles. We were just glad we didn’t have to try to go further away for supplies.
Mary Alice is also figuring out just how much more laundry she needs to do to get us home to the washing machines. There is no need to do it all here and then again when we get back to USA. So we budget everything on these trips. The food we brought with us from home is just about gone except for the soy milk. She had planned for us to have more of our breakfasts in our room than was necessary here.
She also used her Math talents (laws of probability) to figure out in Calcutta at the Guest room bathroom which configuration of the 9 knobs takes the hot water to the right place.
One of the new Division Vice Presidents was at our meeting last night. We had known him from before here in Mizoram and respect him. So Glenn discussed with him after the meeting a problem we have found. Sometimes money we have sent through the Division for special projects has not been released promptly and the projects suffer in the delay. Case in point is the church we just helped build at Tandevalassa. We had planned to help dedicate it while here and take photos back to the donors. That did not happen because of such a delay. Glenn reminded him that it dampens the desire to donate when those delays hurt the work. The new Vice President promised to work on it. We have other ways of getting the funds to the project if that normal route is blocked. He was listening.
Some of the emails we received brought the sad news of cancer issues with some of our friends back home. It is a reminder that we are still in this world and Satan has much to do with hurting people until the Lord brings it all to a close and takes His people home. We hope that what we are doing in these mission trips will help to hasten that day a little bit. And we certainly want to be ready along with our friends and loved ones to greet Jesus with joy and anticipation. Let’s not miss out in the Final Event.
With love, in His love,
Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Glenn and Mary Alice