2013 Sanctuary Report #5: Sunday, June 2 from Yakima, WA
Dear Family and Friends:
No time lately for writing without sacrificing sleep or food or something else important. We leave again in an hour so I’ll try to get a few things down before then.
Today is our last tour day and afterward we will be preparing for take down of the Exhibit. Tomorrow it must all be down and packed into the truck because we leave early Tuesday morning for Seattle to catch the plane to Chicago that enables Austin and me to fly to Peru on Wednesday. The seven girls helping with Sanctuary will also be flying there and on to Atlanta.
The weather yesterday and today is great and it is supposed to be good on Monday for taking down the Sanctuary and packing the truck. Otherwise we have had a lot of rain and cold. Some local people tell us that they had more rain this year than in any year since 60 years ago. In spite of it all the Sanctuary went up and many people came through—about 1350 to date. We trust there will be also a strong response today.
We have seen various people that brought special memories. Yesterday we saw Patti (Sanders) Milliken who was in Gentry many years ago. It was good to meet her new husband, Lloyd. She had been alone for eight years before the Lord brought them together and they share wonderful love and fellowship now. It is richly deserved.
One of the Bible Workers here named Nathanial married Patti’s daughter, April, and they have a cute little boy named Caleb. Nathaniel, loaned me a book to read about the Sanctuary and Psychology—the mechanics of how we grow in Christian grace. It is interesting that the author, Pastor Vis works in Chicago not far from our son Glenn Paul. Just after we left Gentry on this trip, Pastor Vis was to present a weekend series in our Decatur church. We missed that but got his research in the book.
We are also missing Doug Batchelor at the Gentry Camp Meeting, but hope to catch up on the topics via DVDs when we get back home. There are many good things happening here too in spite of the weather.
On one of my tours there was a family that I learned have a music program on Purely Music via Safe Television. He, Hans Woelk, wanted me to send special greetings to Carlos Pardeiro. So, Carlos, I hope you are reading this now. Hans is expert at whistling the Gospel.
Everywhere we go we meet people with connections to us earlier in life or to people we have known and shared experiences with. It is the great Advent Movement with rich social overtones. One of the great blessings from Christian Education is the formation of friendships that last a lifetime. Just a foretaste of what Heaven will bring to us.
Mary Alice has taken pictures of Mt. Adam near here with a snowy summit. Maybe you will see it in our annual year-end letter if we get to do one this year again.
The severe tornadoes that hit Oklahoma so hard and passed over Gentry are reminders that we are not safe anywhere on this planet and how important it is to trust the Lord fully with our lives and our property. We must be sure it is all under His care because it has been surrendered to Him long years ago with renewals along the way.
There is still no sign of Dr. Jay Sloop who has been missing for more than two weeks now in his visit to Ukraine. The family has now returned home. I visited by phone with Sharlene, the wife, twice now and plan to visit briefly when she is ready for it. We tried twice but she was leaving home for other important duties just then. She wants us to come and the Messiah’s Mansion has offered for us to use their van to go see her. We hope it can happen.
One of my tours had just two people—a local pastor who does a lot of work in the community to help people in various ways, and his member that is also deeply involved. They were so very interested and just seemed to relish the Bible inspiration from the Sanctuary. We hope it enriches their ministry and leads them to further study. That is the goal of the Sanctuary Exhibits—to get people digging deeper into their Bibles to find what else the Lord may have for them (and us).
Mary Alice has been doing a lot of greeting at the first tent and that is her special talent. She learns a lot about each of them and builds a good rapport. She also leads tours and has had very positive feedback from many who are in the tour.
Yesterday I was asked to go through with another tour leader who was having challenges from one man who must have been mentally ill. He kept shouting out his views and disturbing the tour. So I sat beside him and tried to calm him down and distract him from distracting others. I learned from him that “God is dead—murdered by the angels” and that Jesus is dead and buried in Egypt. It is so pitiful to see what Satan can lead some minds to dream up. He had two beautiful and sweet little daughters who seemed very normal. I hope they can escape somehow the negatives in their home life.
Must close now and get this ready to send before we leave and are away from Internet opportunities. I’ll add a bit more when we get the final tally from today’s adventures.
PS on Monday Morning at 5: Yesterday the weather was sunny but WINDY. It blew the front curtain of the Sanctuary in the Holy Place inward and knocked out three of the lamps on the Lampstand. It also chipped some of the “gold” ornaments on the lamps. We were able to secure the curtain better with more ropes tied to the foundation metal and two stakes.
That wind made it more difficult to communicate with the people who came through the tours yesterday. Their hair (and mine) was blowing everywhere. (“Bad hair day”) However, they stayed by and seemed to get a lot out of what was shared.
There were 335 visitors yesterday and that makes the total nearly 1700 for the Exhibit in Yakima.
We will have breakfast at 6 this morning and be at the site by 7:30 to get going on dismantling the Exhibit. We got a head start last night after the last tour through by taking down the Welcome Center tent, packing up the books and DVDs from the Resource Center and safely storing the items in the two Arks (Tables of the Law, Aaron’s Rod that budded and produced ripe almonds overnight, and the two bowls of Manna). We pulled as many stakes as possible and put away the ropes of the walkways. So that was work that won’t have to be done today. We are hoping for several church members to come and help with the heavy lifting.
Mary Alice and I each conducted two tours yesterday. We have new insights into just how much work it takes to get the Sanctuary Exhibit around the USA, Canada, and other places like Jamaica, Bermuda, Honduras etc. Now there are three sets used to cover USA and Canada. The logistics are considerable.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)