JULY / AUGUST 2005 Backyard Evangelism
How can I
witness to my neighbor, when I am a sinner, he is a sinner, and we both know
it? Perhaps he has seen me when I was angry, or heard me say something I should
not have said. Won't he interpret my witness actions and words as hypocritical,
as pietistic, or even as interfering? Perhaps my witness will strain our
relationship. I wouldn't know what to say or where to begin. Maybe I won't be
able to answer the questions or objections he could raise. Such are the excuses
and reasons we could offer for our inability to witness to our neighbors and
others.
But, the fact is, for better or for worse, I am a witness to my
Christian faith to all who know me or perceive me as a Christian. I witness
every day to what I am as a Christian by what I do and say. For this reason the
question is not, can I be a witness, but how can I be a better witness to my
neighbor? Perhaps these suggestions and approaches will offer some help.
Be A
Friend
Jesus was a friend to people. He was approachable. He was
compassionate. He became their helper and friend, especially through His
healing miracles. In this way He drew many people to Himself, and they became
willing to hear His message. Be a friend to people - a kind, compassionate,
helping friend. In this way we develop rapport with people. In
this way we can "earn the right" to speak to our neighbor about
something as important, and personal as eternal salvation. Friendship
can make our neighbors receptive to our message - the Gospel of Christ.
Be A
Good Listener
One demonstration of our friendship is our
willingness to "lend an ear” to our neighbor, not to hear gossip, but to
listen to his concerns, whatever they may be - his job, society, morality, and
even life itself. By listening, we get to know him, especially his spiritual
thoughts and understanding. This will enable us to learn "where he is at
spiritually", and so be in position to bring him God's Word of truth and
life.
Be An
Example
In an age when
Biblical morality and piety are being disdained, we have an obligation, as well
as the opportunity, to witness by portraying a Christ-like character. We would
do well to take to heart what Paul once wrote to the Philippians, "Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus". The world, and this
includes our neighbors, needs to "see" in us a morality and piety
befitting Christian faith and life. Christians are "peculiar"
(different) people in this world, and that ought to be so evident in our daily
life - and so wonderfully different - that people would say, "That's the
way I want my life to be."
Be A
Gospel Witness
It is common for people to "talk religion" over the
back fence, and every other place. People like to talk religion. People like to
argue religion. It is easy for people to be sidetracked into discussing
religious pet peeves, peripheral matters, anything and everything but what
really counts, the answer to the question: What will happen to me after I die?
For this reason we want to let our Gospel witness be
first and foremost in our religious discussions. I would say to my neighbor,
who has raised a religious pet peeve, "That’s an interesting point, but
would you mind if we first reviewed what the Bible has to say about our salvation?
For it is only when we understand God's plan of salvation, that we can
understand other religious questions and concerns." Be a Gospel witness
-first and foremost!
Be Ready With An Answer
Nevertheless, we do want to give answer to our neighbor's religious
questions and concerns. In so doing, we must be careful never to "bluff”
an answer. If we are uncertain how to give answer to his concern, objection, or question, it is preferable to ask
permission to return with an answer. It might even be possible to ask
permission for your pastor to come and give answer. This would be appropriate
if your neighbor were unchurched. It could "open
the door" for your pastor to that home and make possible further
instruction in the Word of God. We should also remember that our pastor can be
a good resource person to help us construct the answer to people's questions
and objections. Yes, we can, as Peter says, "Be prepared to give an answer
to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have." A witness to my neighbor? Yes I am! God, let me be the best
witness I can be, to the glory of Christ.
Robert C.
Hartman
Attempting to Hear The Ocean In A Seashell
A tourist stood for long periods of time upon the beach, facing
away from the ocean, pressing a seashell against his ear. The water lapped at
his feet, the sun beamed down upon his head and shoulders, and the waves
crashed just behind him. Firmly, he pressed the seashell against his ear. He
wanted to hear the powerful surge of the ocean as it heaved and rolled. See the
picture in your mind's eye: a man standing with his back to the ocean,
attempting to hear the ocean in a seashell. Although in the presence of the
very thing he was seeking, he was oblivious to the actuality.
Some people have
difficulty in recognizing that they have caught up to what they have been
chasing, or are in the presence of the object of their desire. Such persons, in
their extreme forms, are always running but never arriving, always searching
but never discovering, always looking but never seeing, always measuring but
the numbers are forever wrong.
Larry Powell
Taking The Time To Care
Douglas Maurer, 15,
of
The doctors told him
in frank terms about his disease. They said that for the next three years, he
would have to undergo chemotherapy. They didn’t sugarcoat the side effects.
They told
His aunt called a
floral shop to send
His face lit up.
"Oh wow!" he said.
It’s interesting:
Douglas Maurer was in a hospital filled with millions of dollars of the most
sophisticated technological equipment. He was being treated by expert doctors
and nurses with competent medical training. But it was a sales clerk in a
flower shop, a young woman making $170 a week, who - by taking the time to
care, and by being willing to go with what her heart told her to do - gave
John M. Braaten
Waves Of Worry
Several years ago a submarine was being tested and had to
remain submerged for many hours. When it returned to the harbor, the captain
was asked, "How did the terrible storm last night affect you?" The
officer looked at him in surprise and exclaimed, "Storm? We didn't even
know there was one!"
The sub had been so
far beneath the surface that it had reached the area known to sailors as
"the cushion of the sea." Although the ocean may be whipped into huge
waves by high winds, the waters below are never stirred.
This, I believe, is
a perfect picture of the peace that comes from trusting Jesus. The waves of
worry, of fear, of heartbreak, cannot touch those resting in Christ. Sheltered
by His grace and encouraged by His Spirit, the believer is given the perfect
tranquility that only Christ can provide.
Adrian Dieleman
It Is No Longer I
Soon after Augustine's conversion, he was walking down
the street in
"Augustine,"
she called again. "It is I!"
Without missing a
beat and with the assurance of Christ in his heart, he replied, "Yes, but
it is no longer I."
Because of Christ
and His Spirit, Augustine was a changed man. He was born again, a brand new
creation.
Adrian Dieleman
What is a Policeman?
By Paul Harvey
A policeman is a composite of what all men are I guess, a mingling
of saint and sinner, dust and deity. Culled statistics wave the banners over
stinkers, underscore instances of dishonesty and brutality because they are
news. What that really means is that they are exceptional, they are unusual,
they are not commonplace. Buried under the froth are the facts and the fact is
les that one-half of one percent misfit that uniform and that is a better
percentage than what you'd find among clergymen.
What is a policeman? He of all men is at once
the most needed and the most wanted; a strangely nameless creature who is
"Sir" to his face, "pig" or worse behind his back. He must
be such a diplomat that he can settle differences among individuals so that
each will think he won. If a policeman is neat, he's conceited. If he's careless,
he's a bum. If he's pleasant, he's a flirt. If he's not, he's a grouch. He must
make instant decisions that would require months for a lawyer. But if he
hurries, he's careless -if he's deliberate, he's lazy. He must be first to an
accident and infallible with a diagnosis. He must be able to start breathing,
stop bleeding, tie splints and, above all, be sure the victim goes home without
a limp. Or, he must expect to be sued. The police officer must know every gun,
draw on the run and hit where it doesn't hurt.
He must be able to whip two men twice his
size and half his age without soiling his uniform and without being
"brutal". If you hit him, he's a coward - if he hits you, he's a
bully. A policeman must know everything and not tell. He must know where all
the sin is and not partake. The policeman must, from a single human hair, be
able to describe the crime, the weapon, the criminal, and tell you where the
criminal is hiding. But if he catches the criminal, he's lucky; if he doesn't,
he's a dunce.
If he gets promoted, he has political pull.
If he doesn't, he's a dullard. The policeman must chase bum leads to dead ends,
stakeout 10 nights to tag one witness who saw it happen but refuses to
remember. He runs files and writes reports until his eyes ache to build a case
against some felon who'd get dealed out by a
shameless shamus or an honorable who isn't honorable. The policeman must be a
minister, a social worker, a diplomat, a tough guy, and, of course, a genius,
for he has to feed a family on a policeman's salary.
(Paul Harvey's own father was a policeman,
who was killed by a bootlegger on Christmas Eve when Paul was a little boy.)
Immune
To Religion
Sir Alexander Fleming, upon
introducing his newly discovered drug, penicillin, warned against taking too
little of it. An underdose, he said would permit
germs to remain in the system thereby allowing one to build up an immunity to
the drug. These immune germs could be "passed on to other individuals so
that the thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatments may be
responsible for the death of another" if not himself as well.
Something
similar to this carelessness takes place in the spiritual realm where masses of
people seem to be playing with religion - taking in just enough of it to become
immune to the real thing. Many people attend just enough religious services to
temporarily quiet their conscience; they attend just enough weddings, funerals,
and special observances to keep them from longing for a genuine and thorough
encounter with God who is so absent from their commitment. They have just
enough religion to make them immune to the real thing.
Army
Of The Lord
A friend of mine was in front of me
coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door as he always
is to shake hands. He grabbed my friend by the hand and pulled him aside.
He
said, 'You need to join the Army of the Lord!'
My friend said, 'I'm already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.'
The pastor said, 'How come I don't see you except at Christmas and
Easter?'
He whispered back, 'I'm in the secret service.'
Grandma Don't Like Our Church
A young couple from the hills of
“You should have seen it,” the young man said to Grandma. “The
Holy Spirit was really there!”
Grandma kept rocking and didn't say a word.
“And, Grandma,” said the young woman, “you should have seen the
preacher. He really got with it. He was screaming at the top of his voice and
the people were popping up like popcorn to praise the Lord. It was
unbelievable!”
Again, Grandma kept right on rocking. Finally, the young man
said, “Grandma, don't you like our church? You never seem to say.”
Grandma finally spoke: “Honey, let me just put it this way. I
don't care how loud they shout, and I don't care how high they jump. It's what
they do when they come back down that counts.”
A father wanted to read a magazine but was being bothered by his
little girl, Shelby. She wanted to know what the
After a few minutes,
When A
Glass Of Water Is Too Heavy To Hold
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience,
raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of
water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied,
"The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to
hold it."
"If I hold it
for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache
in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In
each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it
becomes."
And that, folks, is
what happens if we don’t turn our problems over to Jesus and then leave them
there. “What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!”
Friends
In Low Places
Several years ago the country-western
singer Garth Brooks had a hit song titled "I've Got Friends In Low
Places." It's the story of a young man whose girlfriend has dumped him to
marry an older and wealthier man. The young man shows up at her wedding, but he
doesn't have the right clothes or behavior and so he stomps off in anger to
join his hard-living friends, telling her, "I've got friends in low
places, where the whiskey flows and the beer chases the blues away."
Raucous words, but set to a powerful melody.
I've often thought as I've listened to the song on the radio
that with a slight change these words could apply to God-in-Christ: "He's
got friends in low places." Perhaps even, "He's got friends in low
places, where the mercy flows and the free grace is for you and me."
The
Special Olympic Race
John Beck used to be a football star
for the
As he watched these young men and women train for the events in
which they competed, he decided that this was a picture of what Christianity
really ought to be. Here were people who were sincere and fervent and dedicated
to the task before them. They were willing to pay any price, regardless of how
much suffering or pain they had to endure. They were willing to pay any price
to be number one, to win.
Then one day John Beck was invited to visit the Special
Olympics. Special Olympics, as you know, are made up of special athletes. All
of them suffer from some kind of mental or physical impair-ment. He watched them as eight runners lined up for
the 100-yard dash. They all took off when the starting gun fired, and he was
amazed at how good they actually were. But as they reached halfway in the race,
one of the boys fell down, skinned his knee on the track, and started to cry.
He said that what happened next was both beautiful and amazing.
All seven of the other runners stopped, and all seven of them turned around and
went to the boy who had fallen. Together they helped him to his feet. And the
eight walked to the finish line together.
Beck said that he then realized that he had seen the true
meaning of Christianity, not in the Olympics, but in the Special Olympics.
Our highly competitive world seems always to be saying that the
only thing that counts is “Number One.” I under-stand and appreciate the need
for excellence, to be number one. But I know a better way. Will you pay the
price to pick up the fallen?
1.
The garden of Eden was in
2.
Mesopotamia, which is now
3.
Noah built the ark in
4.
The
5.
Abraham was from
6.
Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in
7.
Jacob met Rachel in
8.
Jonah preached in
9.
Assyria, which is in
10.
Amos cried out in
11.
12.
Daniel was in the lion's den in
13.
The three Hebrew children were in the fire in
14.
Belshazzar, the King of
Babylon saw the "writing on the wall" in
15.
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into
16.
Ezekiel preached in
17.
The wisemen were from
18.
Peter preached in
(Received
via email. Interesting study, although
not all of the above is Biblically conclusive.)
Jungle Journal
Missionary Terry Schultz, Lima Peru
Last month, we were enormously blessed to finally make a trip to
the Amazon
We pulled out of Yurimagas around 6:00 AM in our rented, canopy-topped
aluminum boat. - (Think of those
As always, it was a
thrill to finally be on the river, cutting through the morning fog. Ronal
even spotted a couple of river dolphins. Four and a half hours later, we
picked up our native church leader from Parinari, Maravid, to complete our Evangelism team. A half hour
later, we were passing the turnoff to Nueva Barranquita. We were now heading deeper in the jungle
than we normally went.
The river was now
becoming progressively narrower and shallower. There had been a huge
downpour the day and night before, loosening the soil which caused many
thin-trunk trees to fall into the river. The horizontally-lying tree
trunks sat several feet above the water blocking our boat-with-canopy-roof from
passing under. Jose and Maravid needed to hack
through the trunks with their machetes so our boat could pass through.
This was tricky business. For while standing in the front of the boat
trying to chop away, you need to hang onto the trunk with your other hand to
keep the trunk steady. However, the entire tree trunk is coated with
hundreds and hundreds of tiny, biting, agitated ants who immediately start
climbing onto your hand and then down your arm! Maravid
and Jose had to take turns. Each chopped a little while till they couldn’t take
any more ants streaming down their arm and over their bodies. Then they would
trade off, one chopping, the other slapping ants, till the job was finally
done.
Now six hours later,
(having hacked our way through nearly half a dozen trees) we finally reached
the mestizo
Deep in the jungle,
it became so incredibly dense and dark it was almost like something out of Lord
of the Rings! The jungle path was the worst I have ever been on in over 5 years
of Amazon work. The path was so strewn with large tree roots and thick
vines that one often stumbled around and even fell down. Dozens of bridges over
deep gorges needed to be passed. Usually the bridge consisted of a
rotting tree trunk that had been laid high above a stream, or sometimes the
trunk was laid half-submerged down below in the black waters themselves.
These countless little streams, often only a couple yards wide, can be
amazingly deceptive. Stick an 8-foot pole in the water to test the depth
and the pole disappears! The tree trunks-for-bridges were often covered with
slippery green moss or had grass or plants growing on them! On more than one
occasion Jose and Maravid insisted on each taking one
of my hands as we inched across the gorge. This was all of course great
fun.
However, as is often
said, the Amazon jungle can be an unforgiving place. You have to always
keep alert. Our group carefully climbed down one 12-foot mud slope to a
quiet stream below. Crossing the 10 foot wide stream was relatively easy,
inching across a small but dry tree trunk that lie only half covered in the
water. Upon reaching the other side, everyone carefully tried to get a
foothold to scramble up the other pure-mud slope. Having successfully
inched across the tree trunk bridge myself, a small error was made: Instead
of taking that first step from bridge right onto the muddy slope, I placed one
foot in the sandy mud beside the tree trunk. Big mistake: For I’d
stepped right into… quicksand!!
Talk about one of
the most eerie feelings!! Your foot keeps desperately reaching for, feeling
for “solid” underneath it, but instead it just keeps slowly drifting down into
the sandy muck, deeper and deeper! One leg was disappearing fast as I
yelled out to Elvis up on the top of the slope He instantly saw what was
happening and began a quick, controlled slide down the slippery mud slope,
trying to dig in enough to keep from falling into the water. He stopped
his skid, reached out one hand, and (just like in that Batman movie) we grasped
forearms. He began to yank me out. I had the presence of mind to
think, don’t pull to hard on Elvis, or you’ll yank him into the quicksand! Even
so, as he first began to try and pull me out, he started skidding a few more
feet down the slope!! I was still sinking!! A heart-stopping moment
later, and he’d dug his heels in sufficiently to stop his skid and pull me
out. Up on the bank, we were both bent over, catching our breaths. I
caught Elvis’ eye and nodded my appreciation thinking, how do you thank someone
for pulling you out of quicksand?!
After two hours, we
finally arrived at the Chayahuita
We were therefore
thrilled at the warm reception we received. (Before I write any further,
Mary makes me promise not to trot out that old story again about the first time
we tried entering a Chayhuita village 5 years ago,
when the women who first spotted us fled in sheer panic, scooping up their
children on the run before darting into the nearest thatch-roof dwelling while
the men of the village gathered with machetes at their sides.)
Today, we entered
My simple Gospel
presentation included references to the native’s natural knowledge of some type
of God, as evidenced by the wonderful jungle he had created for them. I
spoke of our broken relationship with God because of sin. And I spoke of
everyone’s awareness that there is something more beyond this earthly
life. Maravid translated into the Chayahuita language as we went along and to my great
relief, many heads were nodding in agreement with our message. Praise the
Lord!!
Early on, I made a
respectful reference to the natives awareness of evil spirits in their
midst. This naturally led to a discussion of the God-man Jesus, sent by
the Father into the world to defeat the dark powers of the devil and the
spirits. Only through faith in the redemptive work of Jesus could we be
saved from the devil and become the very children of God.
The natives listened
intently. Sadly, only a couple hands went up when I asked if anyone had
even heard of the name of Jesus before. I was extremely relieved when
Manuel the Apu spontaneously invited us to return to
his village to tell them more about the true God! That is exactly what we
had hoped for! By the power of the Holy Spirit, we now had a foothold
into
I carefully
concluded our visit with an explanation of God’s sacred act of Baptism, and
asked the Apu if there were any seriously ill babies
or children in the village that should be baptized right away. Manuel
immediately replied that his own one-month old baby had been born blind and was
in very bad health. The baby was brought forward as I carefully explained
God’s saving act of baptism a second time to everyone. Then, with Jose holding
a half-coconut shell filled with water, tiny Manuel Chanchari
Juanzi was baptized into the family of God!!
By late afternoon,
it was time to head back down the jungle trail to our boat in Santa
Sophia. We bid a warm goodbye to the community with the promise to make
contact again as soon as possible.
As difficult as the
two-hour jungle walk had been coming in, it was now even harder going
out. For while we were elated by the work of the Holy Spirit we had just
witnessed, we were also physically and emotionally exhausted. There was
even more stumbling around on the way back. Our three guides however,
claimed that they knew every step on the path so well, every last root and
vine, that they regularly walked down the path even in the middle of a
pitch-black night!
So just how really
bad is this jungle path? It’s so bad that it is regularly used as a trail
by the drug traffickers for carrying their kilos of processed coca to the
river. Out here various mestizos and natives
constantly raise a few hectares of coca plants. (How sophisticated is the
whole operation around here? The growers have even strategically planted
coffee and banana trees which grow up to cover over the coca plants. This makes
it virtually impossible for aerial reconnaissance to spot the coca plants
hidden underneath the trees.) One of our three guides, not afraid to casually
admit to his own involvement in drug production, said the national army hadn’t
sent a platoon of soldiers down this tangled jungle path since 1995! No
wonder production was going on unabated. With this bizarre bit of news in
hand, I marveled that the villagers of Santa Sophia and
We got back to Santa
Sophia just as dark was closing in, and made a quick decision on where to spend
the night. The air was a veritable blizzard of insects, among the worst
I’d ever seen. Unless you kept moving, you were eaten alive. I made
a rather novel suggestion which was immediately accepted by the team. Why
not sleep in the middle of the nearby lagoon?! For, as everyone knew,
there are essentially no insects in the middle of a large body of water.
We paid and left our three part-time jungle guide / drug smugglers (hoping we would
never do business with them again) and started up the outboard. Soon we
were slowly creeping back down the small river. Jose used a powerful,
handheld spotlight powered by a car battery, to constantly scan the black river
for trees and debris as we slowly motored down the dark river in search of the
lagoon.
Now to get to the
lagoon required going down extremely narrow rivers full of vegetation, with
tree branches and plants draped completely across the water! At times it
was more like burrowing through, which created a new problem. For as the
lush tree branches hit the aluminum poles that supported the boat’s canopy
roof, they would bend back. The branches would then whip into the boat
against the passengers who were ducking and weaving to get out of the
way. For some of the branches were covered with thorns! A couple of
us were bleeding from minor cuts and scrapes. Worse yet, as the tree
branches got bent back and then whipped into the boat, hundreds of ants,
spiders, and other insects would fall from the branches onto the passengers or
into the boat! The inside of our boat was virtually crawling with
insects! They were crawling all over us! Talk about a sudden,
horrific experience: While quietly sitting on my bench slapping away at
the biting ants, suddenly a huge spider walked right onto the left lens of my
eyeglasses!! It stopped on the lens, its 8 huge perfectly outlined furry
legs draping over the lens onto my face!! I nearly lost the glasses to
the river as I flung them off as fast as I could! Unbelievable!!
It was getting late
and we were exhausted, when things got even edgier as unexpectedly, a small
fish jumped right into the boat! The fish fell through the wood grating
on the bottom of the boat and swam away in the two inches of water down there.
A few moments later and another fish jumped in! We had heard earlier that
the area was famous for piranhas!! The boat pilot assured me the two fish
were not piranha, but how would he know? My mind flashed back to that day
at the Air Force Jungle Survival School, when we were cutting up a bird at the
end of a boat dock. A piranha had actually jumped out of the water onto
the dock, killing itself to get at the blood! This boat trip was getting
more eerie by the minute!
It took about an
hour, but the small river finally, unexpectedly, opened up into an enormous
lagoon. (No wonder there was a thriving drug trade around here.
Pontoon planes from
Sitting on that
lagoon in the middle of the night was simply one of the most beautiful places I
have ever been. It did not seem real. For in the cloudless night,
millions of stars shone with varying degrees of intensity. This had an
odd effect on the still, black water of the lagoon: The stars were all
reflected with dazzling brilliance on the surface of the water. But since
the stars shone with such varying intensity, it created the illusion that there
were stars actually suspended deep in the water. In fact it no longer
looked like water at all, but like some thick gel-like substance with glitter
suspended in it! You felt like the boat was sitting on a sea of thick
sparkling gel! It was absolutely surreal!
However, we were
snapped back to reality about an hour later. The 6 of us, trying to lie
down either on too-short benches or right on the floor of the boat, were
finally starting to doze off. Suddenly, a shaft of light from a powerful
flashlight coming from somewhere out in the lagoon, flitted across the
boat. Then the light was gone. What was that?!!
Jose, as always the
security guard, was immediately suspicious. Peering intently into the
moonlit night, we could barely make out the outline of another boat being
quietly paddled with several men on board. This wasn’t a boatload of
midnight fishermen. No greeting was raised to us. The boat was
silently, under cover of dark, coming straight towards us! Jose knew just
what to do. He reached down and grabbed his loaded shotgun. He then
stood up as straight as possible in order to be clearly visible against the
moonlight. Jose raised the gun to his shoulder.
No words were ever
exchanged. Immediately the approaching boat turned around, and disappeared
back into the darkness. Now I’m not saying it was the Black Pearl mates,
but there was no doubt in anyone’s minds what that boat was about. Jose
settled down to spending the night sitting up on a bench, his back propped up
against a thin metal canopy pole, his shotgun resting in his lap. As he
always tells Ronal on these trips, “my job is to protect Pastor Terry.”
That he does.
During the night, I
woke up several times, to the sound of Jose softly paddling the boat back to
the middle of the lagoon. (River boats like ours do not carry an anchor.)
Silhouetted against the starlit sky, hunched over, Jose looked all the world
like the solitary oarsman silently crossing the river
What more could one
expect from one exploratory mission trip: Bringing the saving name of
Jesus Christ where many had never heard it… open hearts… our plea to the Holy
Spirit that we be invited to return to the village answered… Maravid ready to take the lead in follow up work… the
witness of the chief’s baby boy being baptized… All unbelievable!!
Then, there was the adventure of it all shared with a band of brothers-in-
the-faith: Deep jungle, tree trunk bridges cracking as you crossed them,
quick sand, shotguns, drug runners, pirates…
I do love working
out here.
Terry
Missionary
Schultz To Preach At
Missionary Terry Schultz will preach
here at
Following the Worship Service, he and Mary will share a Power
Point presentation of the Lord’s blessings upon this last year’s jungle
ministry. All welcome!
Terry and Mary will have limited time
to spend in the Twin Cities this year, so we are planning a potluck dinner on
Sunday, July 17th, so they have a chance to see everyone. We will
hold the potluck at church. Mark your calendars for Sunday, July 17th. (Since we
anticipate a number of guests, we kindly ask that you bring a larger dish to
share, or possibly two different dishes. Ham will be furnished, along
with rolls and butter.)
See you there!
On The
Lighter Side
·
Always keep your words soft and sweet,
just in case you have to eat them.
·
Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by
their maker.
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It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a
warning to others.
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Never buy a car you can't push.
·
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then
you won't have a leg to stand on.
·
Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep
late.
·
The second mouse gets the cheese.
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When everything's coming
your way, you're in the wrong lane.
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Birthdays are good for you. The more
you have, the longer you live.
·
You may be only one person in the
world, but you may also be the world to one person.
·
A truly happy person is one who can
enjoy the scenery on a detour.
·
There's always a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look
for it. For example, I am sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles
don't hurt.
·
The easiest way to find something lost
around the house is to buy a replacement.
·
The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by
then your body and your fat are really good' friends.
·
The purpose of a child's middle name is so he can tell when he's
really in trouble.
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If ignorance is bliss, why aren't a lot more people happy?
·
Happiness sometimes comes
through doors you didn't even know you left open.
·
Once over the hill, you pick up speed.
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I know God won't give me more than I can handle. I just wish He
didn't trust me so much.
A Few Reasons Why English Is Tough
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The bandage was
wound around the wound.
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The farm was used to produce produce.
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The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
·
We must polish the Polish furniture.
·
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
·
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
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Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time
to present the present.
·
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
·
When shot at, the dove dove into the
bushes.
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I did not object to the object.
·
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
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There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
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They were too close to the door to close it.
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The buck does funny things when the does are present.
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A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
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To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.