From the Helm – Saturday, July 03, 2010

11:00 AM – We all slept early last night.  The service was cancelled. It was an evening of good rest.

The morning has been quite busy.  Canoes arrived last night and early this morning, filled with neighboring clansmen in search of treatment.  Dental has been busy with both extractions and fillings.  I’m grateful to have the restorative equipment to help in this way.  Medical was steady with the same clansmen seen by the dental.  Ramona fitted several more with glasses.  VBS and the teaching sessions were well attended.  The surgeries that were scheduled for me, simply faded away…

My house is taking on a new look and added comfort.  Windows have been installed all around.  The groves that allow dirt to fall through to the bottom floor have now been sealed.  It has become even more attractive and comfortable than the day it was given us.  I love it.

Our team members are well.  All are enjoying the unfolding of the days.  Many stories have been lived out by each to share with those back home.

4:00 PM - I woke at 3 this morning with beautiful thoughts flowing through my mind in to the very debts of my soul. Thoughts of new beginnings amidst familiar surroundings.  I experienced the assurance of knowing our work here in the Valley is embarking on new ventures, in new stability.  Nothing prophetic about it.  Just the calm, soothing sense that all is well; that regardless of the degree of any particular person’s involvement, AMOR will continue to venture deeper and deeper, reaching those unattractive to the rest of the world; those my God refers to as the “meek and humble” He’s determined to make rich and wise in the Spirit – the peoples He has allowed me to fall in love with so deeply and indisputably...

- Yesterdays meeting with Foroxa and Marciano is still fresh.  God continues to reassure me of wisdom He’s given in the past.  Wisdom regarding dealings with the world around me.  I’m reassured that the primary duty of the few responsible for the many is that of seeking God’s wisdom.  Then, surrendering to what is found.  Silence is crucial when confusion arises.  Action becomes critical when clarity is revealed.  Any sustainable peace is achieved only through appropriate adherence to these simple truths.

God makes no mystery of His will in a given situation or as to a given path I should take.  All such mystery is fabricated by the introduction of my own will to the equation.  The best exercise of my will is always to surrender completely to His.  Time and again, I’ve lived in the shadows of what should or could have been.  I’ve clung to “security” so tightly that I’ve let slip away all that would have been necessary to attain the true security I’d sought.

- The element of “pride” has been at the forefront of my thoughts over the past weeks.  I’ve become aware of it’s presence in my life in a most unfamiliar form.  A form that has limited my growth in, and enjoyment of, what God has set before me. 

In the past, I’ve more often than not sought to bury and seclude myself in His care instead of exposing others to its beauty.  I’ve chosen to hold to myself the needs of the Valley as God has revealed them to me.  I’ve been selfish by not allowing all who desire to, to participate in the vision God has so graciously allowed me to see and live in.  I’ve handled the knowledge God has revealed in a possessive, exclusive manner.  This has been wrong...  Very wrong, indeed…

There are so many creeks, lakes and cutoffs in this great Valley.  Each, home to peoples abandoned by all governments, help organizations and religion.  Peoples so isolated that no one dares go to the expense and supposed discomfort required to touch them with the hope and love God so freely offers.  It is these God has entrusted to the care of AMOR.  It is the joy of our calling to grip and cuddle them wherever and whenever He may lead us to do so.  They are these who my heart is broken for.  These are the peoples God has chosen to be my own.

- Lord, over the next days, I ask that You show me the way You would have us reach more of these precious people with your love, power and way of life.  Show me how to better provide that others participate in what You’ve allow for us here.  Divorce me from all selfishness and self-seeking as I look to Your guidance through it all. 

Thank You for waking me to new beauty each day.  Thank you for the eyes you’ve joined with mine that I may see things long obscured and dimmed by my own limitations.  Thank You Lord for it all, indeed…