In the 1980's Karen and I thought we would use my triathlon and endurance bicycling experience to run a bicycle touring company, travel the country leading tours and have a home on the road and make a living at it, to boot. Ours plans didn't materialize. God wasn't part of our plan.
In 2013, Karen and I were rutted down in Colorado without any real vision for our lives, searching for new direction after nearly 10 years of volunteer ministry at a Fort Collins mega-church followed by four years of searching anew for God's will for us, when God birthed a plan to minister to Vietnam Veterans as we traveled on the road while He provided the resources and itinerary for the journey. It was God's plan and who would ever imagine that we would, twenty-six months later, still be doing what He called us to do and still enthusiastic about it.
Every once in a while we ask each other if we are where we are supposed to be, should we be looking for other opportunities, are we just coasting through "retirement" or are we really where God wants us to be? The answer always seems to be; if God wants us to be elsewhere, He will close and open the doors necessary to get us where He wants us to be, and all we need to do is listen, pull in the slide-outs, retract the jacks, fire up the diesel and follow Him. For now we're in Madison, Georgia. And so it goes. Who'da thunk it?
Sent from my iPad
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Saturday, January 16, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
January 13, 2016. Madison, GA. News From The Front
The war continues. The opposition is amassing huge casualties, but they are far from defeated. Our bedroom seems to be the focus of their attack due to the late afternoon direct sunlight and the gaps in the areas where our slide-outs do not seal tightly enough. We have employed chemical weapons (not a violation of the Geneva Convention when used against critters) but we are not sure it is effective against all the varieties of beetles we may be fighting.
The Ortho label says it is effective against "Beetles (including Asian, Lady, Carpet, Japanese(adults)", but they may have called in mercenaries not on the list, which may necessitate additional chemical agents, Intelligence and Google searching to identify the culprits not affected by the Ortho. Karen and I, Ortho Home Defense, the whole-house vacuum and the wet-dry vac are in this for the long haul and we will persevere and defend the home front.
Over our country's history, we have fought a lot of wars and conflicts. Quite a few have involved Asian nations; Japan, North Korea, North Vietnam, our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have also been health issues; the invasion of various Asian Flu strains, MERS, malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, encephalitis, yellow fever, filariasis, leishmaniasis, Congo-Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever and plague, to name a few. And now the Asian lady beetle and its cronies are attacking many places in our country and our home in particular. At one time they were imported into the country to fight aphids and other crop-eating pests, but they are no longer imported and once in they tend to stay for long periods of time. Seems like an immigration policy for critters should be part of the Congressional agenda along with all the other immigration discussions taking place or not taking place. Ha ha.
For now, without getting politically incorrect, or arousing more critters to come to the aid of their beetle friends, we will fight on. Suggestions accepted.
Sent from my iPad
The Ortho label says it is effective against "Beetles (including Asian, Lady, Carpet, Japanese(adults)", but they may have called in mercenaries not on the list, which may necessitate additional chemical agents, Intelligence and Google searching to identify the culprits not affected by the Ortho. Karen and I, Ortho Home Defense, the whole-house vacuum and the wet-dry vac are in this for the long haul and we will persevere and defend the home front.
Over our country's history, we have fought a lot of wars and conflicts. Quite a few have involved Asian nations; Japan, North Korea, North Vietnam, our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have also been health issues; the invasion of various Asian Flu strains, MERS, malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, encephalitis, yellow fever, filariasis, leishmaniasis, Congo-Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever and plague, to name a few. And now the Asian lady beetle and its cronies are attacking many places in our country and our home in particular. At one time they were imported into the country to fight aphids and other crop-eating pests, but they are no longer imported and once in they tend to stay for long periods of time. Seems like an immigration policy for critters should be part of the Congressional agenda along with all the other immigration discussions taking place or not taking place. Ha ha.
For now, without getting politically incorrect, or arousing more critters to come to the aid of their beetle friends, we will fight on. Suggestions accepted.
Sent from my iPad
Sunday, January 10, 2016
January 10, 2016. Madison, GA. On a Spree
Yesterday, Karen and I went on separate sprees. Karen and a few of the "girls" here at Source of Light went north to Athens for shopping and Chinese food and came back with a carload of goodies and full stomachs. They had a good time together and it was nice to have a change of scenery, if only for a few hours.
Hugh and I went west to Conyers and a Men's' Ministry cat fish fry at Belmont Baptist Church. About 50 of us ate fish and hush puppies, had a time of fellowship, a real good message and a chance to also have a change of scenery for a few hours. We didn't do any shopping, so it was a cheap day for us. The girls came back with a bunch of stuff, but didn't break the bank or go into further debt, so it was a good day for everyone. Hugh and I both had a few Tums, or their equivalent, for dinner and today I skipped breakfast and lunch and just now had a few veggie chips for dinner.
This Thursday, a bunch of us will be "spreeing" again. This time we will all be going to the same place, our normal Sunday church in Rutledge. The women will start a seven week Priscilla Shirer Bible Study and the men will have a dinner, fellowship and a message. Karen has been wanting to get into a Bible Study and I need to find something beyond the work here at the Mission. We get into ruts sometimes, and it's good to have a change of routine, to find areas where God is at work and wanting us to join Him there. There are a multitude of ministry opportunities "out there" and we need to stretch ourselves from time to time to see where they are and how we can have an impact on the world around us.
We never know where we will be called to serve, touch others, and advance God's Kingdom. Thank You, Lord, for allowing us to be Your ambassadors.
Sent from my iPad
Hugh and I went west to Conyers and a Men's' Ministry cat fish fry at Belmont Baptist Church. About 50 of us ate fish and hush puppies, had a time of fellowship, a real good message and a chance to also have a change of scenery for a few hours. We didn't do any shopping, so it was a cheap day for us. The girls came back with a bunch of stuff, but didn't break the bank or go into further debt, so it was a good day for everyone. Hugh and I both had a few Tums, or their equivalent, for dinner and today I skipped breakfast and lunch and just now had a few veggie chips for dinner.
This Thursday, a bunch of us will be "spreeing" again. This time we will all be going to the same place, our normal Sunday church in Rutledge. The women will start a seven week Priscilla Shirer Bible Study and the men will have a dinner, fellowship and a message. Karen has been wanting to get into a Bible Study and I need to find something beyond the work here at the Mission. We get into ruts sometimes, and it's good to have a change of routine, to find areas where God is at work and wanting us to join Him there. There are a multitude of ministry opportunities "out there" and we need to stretch ourselves from time to time to see where they are and how we can have an impact on the world around us.
We never know where we will be called to serve, touch others, and advance God's Kingdom. Thank You, Lord, for allowing us to be Your ambassadors.
Sent from my iPad
Friday, January 8, 2016
Thursday, January 7, 2016
January 7, 2016. Madison, GA. Declaration of War
I have reached the limit of my patience with the lady bugs, Asian beetles, lady birds or whatever other aliases they go by. It's time to pull out the big guns. After a few phone calls, I settled on Ortho Home Defense which will guarantee the elimination of more than 30 critters and pests with a money back guarantee and a toll-free help line in English and Spanish. It's interesting that the ingredient label lists Bifenthrin 0.0500% and Zeta-Cypermethrin 0.0125% and Other Ingredients(not identified) 99.9375%. Those first two must be "somethin' else" or those "Others" must be on the Olympic Games banned substances list, because the first pass around the outside bins and inside cracks and crevices has yielded a major crop of "let's get out of here" bugs. Some came out with their wings in the air and I think I saw a few carrying white flags.
It' not a fair fight right now with my 1.33 gallon weapon of mass destruction, but the initial invasion wasn't fair either and it was long overdue that we took the offense and ran with the ball. Right now it's fairly quiet on the Georgia front, with a lot of casualties looking like armadillos on a Mississippi highway (belly up), and a few stragglers who are returning home to find that the ground rules for living here, or living at all, have changed. I'm not declaring a "George W" victory right now, but will hold out hope that we can get to the negotiation table in less than 6 days. We will settle for nothing less than their total surrender, and unless they want to start paying rent and do some of the chores (?), we will settle for nothing less than "bye-bye-bug".
The war is on.
Sent from my iPad
It' not a fair fight right now with my 1.33 gallon weapon of mass destruction, but the initial invasion wasn't fair either and it was long overdue that we took the offense and ran with the ball. Right now it's fairly quiet on the Georgia front, with a lot of casualties looking like armadillos on a Mississippi highway (belly up), and a few stragglers who are returning home to find that the ground rules for living here, or living at all, have changed. I'm not declaring a "George W" victory right now, but will hold out hope that we can get to the negotiation table in less than 6 days. We will settle for nothing less than their total surrender, and unless they want to start paying rent and do some of the chores (?), we will settle for nothing less than "bye-bye-bug".
The war is on.
Sent from my iPad
Monday, January 4, 2016
January 4, 2016 Madison, GA. Back to Work
It was nice to have ten days "off" for Christmas and New Years. Phil and Sharon visited for part of the time; Karen had a few days of keeping up with the correspondence in the Madison Discipleship School; it rained quite a bit and it was generally warm and un-wintery; we dressed in shorts most of the time; slept "in" almost every day; ate a bunch; played games; went to Sunday School and Church; took a few long walks; moved our motor home; and today we went back to work.
I raked some ditches, filled a small truck-load of tree limbs which had fallen from the leafless trees and then promptly fell asleep in the motor home as I sat down to write this blog entry. For the next two nights we expect the temperature to drop into the low 20's, so I did insulate the water hose in the hope we will not need to unhook, rehook, unhook and rehook or use the water pump and run a heater in the bin as we generally do in cold weather. In any event we are glad we are not having to endure the Colorado or Arkansas winter which has been almost steadily cold and wet. We have just had the wet part, and a lot of it.
It was nice to have the time "off", but it was good to have a few things to do today to get back into the routine we have committed to. Tomorrow we will have a half day of prayer for the Mission and the activities of SLMI around the world, for the missionaries, branches, associate schools and printing, discipling, and church-planting activities we support.
Again, Happy New Year, let the work continue, God's Will be done and His Kingdom expand and impact the world and each of our sphere's of influence within it. To Him be the glory.
Sent from my iPad
I raked some ditches, filled a small truck-load of tree limbs which had fallen from the leafless trees and then promptly fell asleep in the motor home as I sat down to write this blog entry. For the next two nights we expect the temperature to drop into the low 20's, so I did insulate the water hose in the hope we will not need to unhook, rehook, unhook and rehook or use the water pump and run a heater in the bin as we generally do in cold weather. In any event we are glad we are not having to endure the Colorado or Arkansas winter which has been almost steadily cold and wet. We have just had the wet part, and a lot of it.
It was nice to have the time "off", but it was good to have a few things to do today to get back into the routine we have committed to. Tomorrow we will have a half day of prayer for the Mission and the activities of SLMI around the world, for the missionaries, branches, associate schools and printing, discipling, and church-planting activities we support.
Again, Happy New Year, let the work continue, God's Will be done and His Kingdom expand and impact the world and each of our sphere's of influence within it. To Him be the glory.
Sent from my iPad
Friday, January 1, 2016
January 1, 2016. Madison, GA. Happy New Year
We spent our last night of 2015 and our first morning of 2016 in a new location for our road home. Similar to our site at the Passion Play, we are now at the end of the parking lot here at Source of Light. Our old RV site, which we were in all last winter and the past two months, was very rural: we had lots of trees, grass, leaves, quiet and because of the recent rains, a lot of mud. The plan is to improve those sites by making them more level, trimming the trees to prevent damage from falling limbs or the trees themselves and eliminate the mud situation. Hugh and LaVon, our neighbors there will be moving next to us in the next few days. Their mud situation there is far worse than ours was.
Our new location is closer to the Mission building, closer to the road and traffic noise, less scenic, but comes with more TV stations, no mud, nicer hookups and closer access to my donkey friends. Unfortunately the lady bugs came with us.
I just checked our website and saw that we have had 6099 hits so far. Wow! That's pretty good, not viral, but wonderful. Thank you to those who have been following us and for the prayers which have blessed us and have helped us in our journey. God has certainly guided us through a lot of challenges and we look forward to what is up the road. We hope you are encouraged, amused and challenged by what we post. We are praying for all our friends and family, for The Great Passion Play, Source of Light Ministries, Shiloh Christian Church and all those who are serving The Lord around the world. Let His will be our objective and His Kingdom come now and forever. Rejoice in Him. All glory to You, Lord.
Sent from my iPad
Our new location is closer to the Mission building, closer to the road and traffic noise, less scenic, but comes with more TV stations, no mud, nicer hookups and closer access to my donkey friends. Unfortunately the lady bugs came with us.
I just checked our website and saw that we have had 6099 hits so far. Wow! That's pretty good, not viral, but wonderful. Thank you to those who have been following us and for the prayers which have blessed us and have helped us in our journey. God has certainly guided us through a lot of challenges and we look forward to what is up the road. We hope you are encouraged, amused and challenged by what we post. We are praying for all our friends and family, for The Great Passion Play, Source of Light Ministries, Shiloh Christian Church and all those who are serving The Lord around the world. Let His will be our objective and His Kingdom come now and forever. Rejoice in Him. All glory to You, Lord.
Sent from my iPad
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