Live Well and Prosper

Watching "Clash of the Titans" gave me a bit of humour in my wife's very fluent, yet not so perfect English. Thinking she was quoting the movie she exclaimed in an ominous voice 'Release the Cracker' and had a perplexed look when I just about fell over laughing. I had mental images of Harriet Beecher Stowe scripting "Clash of the Titans" for the Deep South.

On a more serious note, one of the things I noticed about the movie was how backwards it was to my personal theology. The gods gained their power from the worship of their adherents. I get this mental image of a series of generators distributing their energy to the gods. The more energy a god receives, the more powerful the god becomes. The gods in turn spend time sabotaging each other, forming alliances and manipulating the "energy providers".

This type of theology is a bit insidious. It's so easy for us to think that the worship we direct for God is for His benefit. We have encouragements all through the scriptures to worship God in many different forms, but God 'needs' this worship about as much as the sun needs a solar cell.

My opinion is that we put our energy into directing our worship to God much the way a solar cell when more oriented to the sun produces more energy. God's instruction for us to worship Him is not for His benefit, but for ours. Like a sun flower, orient your solar cell to the Son then live well and prosper.

Parable of the Monkey and the Fish

I love this little parable. We use it a lot at Vision for Chile, but I had a chance to share it to others today as well.

A typhoon had temporarily stranded a monkey on an island. In a secure, protected place on the shore, while waiting for the raging waters to recede, he spotted a fish swimming against the current. It seemed obvious to the monkey that the fish was struggling and in need of assistance. Being of kind heart, the monkey resolved to help the fish.

A tree precariously dangled over the spot where the fish seemed to be struggling. At considerable risk to himself, the monkey moved far out on a limb, reached down and snatched the fish from the threatening waters. Immediately scurrying back to the safety of his shelter, he carefully laid the fish on dry ground. For a few moments the fish showed excitement, but soon settled into a peaceful rest.

Joy and satisfaction swelled inside the monkey. He had successfully helped another creature.

--Duane Elmer, in "Cross-Cultural Servanthood"

My Visit to Puerto Octay, Chile

This past weekend I was able to travel to a Christian missionary community in Puerto Octay. I was very blessed with the contact with other Anabaptists, and was quite enamered with their church for various reasons. Overall it was like trying on a pair of well fitting shoes; I felt very at home.

I arrived Friday evening and Davids', just in time for supper. Wendells were over for supper as it happened and I was able to get to know them right away. Later, one of the local Pentecostal ministers, Luis (with whom David and Guillermo work) and we had a Spanish singing.

Wendells are newly come down to the community from the States, and are still getting their "sea-legs". I showed Wendell how to spell his name phonetically in Spanish: Hüendl, since the English W sound is so difficult for Spanish speakers to grasp.

Most of Saturday, I helped David with a flat bottomed boat he's working on. They are so close to the lake that I really thought how wonderful it would be to have one of my kayaks close by.

That evening I had supper over at Breneman's. They expressed a lot of interest in Vision for Chile's ministry and it turns out that they themselves are very involved with the local girls home in Osorno. We discussed the need of many of the girls to have a stepping stone from their government supported living arrangements in the orphanages to finding jobs and living arrangements; the government cuts off support when they turn 18. Vision for Chile is working on an arrangement in Santiago for the La Granja girls orphange, via House of Hopw and it seems that some arrangement maybe could be made for the Osorno girls orphanage, by the Puerto Octay colony. This is something to pray about.

Yesterday morning Konrad S led Sunday School and Conrad Goodwin brought the message. The service is held entirely in Spanish including hymn singing. After church, Martins invited me, Kondrad S, Bertha & Guillermo and Radford and Abigail over for dinner. I really enjoyed this time of fellowship. All the food there was good home style "Dutch" cooking which I haven't ever seen down in Chile before. Marla served strawberry pie which was quite a treat.

When I returned to Davids, they were planning a trip out to the beach on Centinela Peninsula. The day was capped by an English singing and supper over at Wendells. Radford and Abigail needed to leave for Santiago and I accompanied them as far as Osorno to catch their bus.

The One That Got Away?

Matt 4:19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

I don't pretend to be any better at this than anyone else. In fact, I think I spend most of my time cutting bait, -I work in the administrative side of missionary work.
[img]http://naturalpatriot.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/trout-fishing-in-tasmania.jpg[/img]
I observed in the back trail of a forum thread, something like this: A fish swam into a certain part of the stream that we all felt pretty familiar with. This fish was looking for something. Instead of taking the oportunity to try to lure this fish in, someone began hitting the water surface with fishing poles saying "Bad fish, bad fish!" When somebody objected to this technique of hitting the surface of the water with fishig poles, we commensed on hitting each other with our poles. I'm sure the fish was very impressed with that. :roll:
[img]http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Hdgs_Fishing.gif[/img]
I don't know if the fish was really interesting in nibbling any serious lures, however, I have to wonder how long before she will show interest again, if ever. I think she's made up her mind this is a crazy part of the river. She might nibble again at some lure; who knows maybe someday a Buddist lure or Wicca? Maybe after she's been beat around the rougher parts of the river for lets say 20 more years, she may even return to a similar part of the river.
[img]http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/idaho/images/s/idaho-fly-fishing.jpg[/img]
I'm just wondering, Jesus was the master fisherman; I know it's a cliché, but WWJD?

Temuco, Chile

This week has been extremely cold with one´s breath hanging in the air, even indoors. Mornings can be a quick scramble from bed to the kitchen to stand by the wood cookstove to warm up. In class, my students tend to like to hover near the gas space heaters or wood stoves, while my hands can become almost too cold to write on the board.

I was asked to come translate last Sunday for some visiting missionaries from the States. This kind of translating is full of all of the same sort of anxieties one has speaking in front of a group and delivering a Bible topic, but also requires thought as to the best words to use. I think it´s easier to deliver a devotional topic! By God´s grace I got through 3 topics and translations for a youth activity in the evening. By the end of the day I felt my brain was turning to mush! All of this took place in the nearby community of Villarica.

At just about sunset, the clouds cleared and we got a wonderful view of the Villarica Volcano. The volcano has been hidden by clouds every time I´ve been there in the past month. Our visiting missionaries hadn´t realized how large it is, nor how close! Though my family was once from this area, on account of my American accent the locals are always anxious to have me see all the sights. Because of the cloudy weather, we hadn´t been able to see much. I´ve been joking with the Chileans "They say there´re supposed to be volcanoes around here!" They just look at me and roll their eyes and chuckle. On a clear day you can see 3 very large ones.

We are gearing up for our building projects for the girl´s orphanage in Santiago this October and November. Volunteers are in short supply this year due to economic strains. This project, though sponsored by the Christian & Missionary Alliance welcomes any volunteers from other churches that wish help disadvantaged children here in Chile. The only requirements are being willing to work hard, express the love of Christ and be flexible. More information can be obtained by calling "Vision for Chile" in the US, (615) 973-9837, or visiting the website: www.visionforchile.org