We as a family are getting a little to good about leaving. We are preparing yet again to leave yet another place that wasn't really ours to begin with and heading into a somewhat murky unknown.
Even more fun is that we are playing this really cool game call Take, Store, Trash or Share. Anyone can play the game ages 0-99 are appropriate. What you need is a place full of stuff and at least two destinations (we are playing the 3 destination version). Then you go through your stuff and as your packing you have a mantra going on in the back of your head which is the name of the game. The challenges are that the other game players will not agree with your decisions or worse they will be equally indecisive about the article as you are, that you cannot just quit the game, that you have to keep playing and playing and playing until its all done, that the longer the game goes on the louder the "trash" option becomes and you have to guard against giving in and that point as well, and finally that you are really not sure what you are going to really need to take.
We are really missing the helpers we had last year.
Monday Isabelle graduates from kindergarten.
Tuesday Anna and I graduate from Language School. Tuesday is the last day of school for the kids
Wednesday we leave for US
We have been blessed recently by some addition financial supporters and that is really cool to see other people come along beside and support us.
Our trip to Burlington VT went well. Thanks for all you prayed for that.
Please pray that we will have some speaking opportunities this summer and fall and that we would achieve our financial goals so we can get to the ROC this fall. We are inching towards those goals by God's grace. If you live in the KY, TN, IN,GA area and would like us to speak at your church or want to host a get together at your house to have us share what we are doing just let us know. We have a couple dates open in July still and we have most of Aug open as well.
Thanks again for your prayers
Showing posts with label speaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speaking. Show all posts
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Friday, November 23, 2007
Missionary Dangers
Thanks for everyone who is praying for us. We do really appreciate it.
The next 3 weeks we have several engagements.
This Sunday we will be in Havre (pronounced Haver) for a ten minute spot.
Next week we will be speaking at our home church in the am and then going to an outreach church in Essex MT.
The following week will be in Kalispell speaking for 10min at the early and later Sunday am service. This is a lot of driving but hopefully we will garner a lot of prayer support......
This brings me to another missionary danger that I have been reflecting on recently. In a prior post I wrote about what I will now call "pedestal talk" where people think that we are super special and become thankful that they are not so special so they will not be called. Well Gideon, Ezekiel, Matthew and others put that notion to rest but that is not what I am writing about today. The danger I speak of today is......well I can't think of a cool word for it........getting trapped into talking about me, us, etc. The changes, the doubts, the dangers, the coolness of it all. I noticed this last week at our church when I was visiting with others.
So for the rest of this blog I will talk about others.
A big thing for you to remember to pray for the following situation with the Harveys.
Dear Pray-ers,
We fought valiantly to save the life of Eliane (aka "Delores"), the young lady who suffered multiple complications related to inadequate obstetrical care before her arrival. Eliane spent 3 months in Pioneer Christian Hospital, and was doing well when she was discharged. We got word yesterday that she died soon after returning to her village.
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Though we weren't able to cure Eliane of the physical complications she experienced, she left the hospital a firm believer in Jesus Christ, and we are confident her soul is in heaven now. She was found and saved! To see her walking on her own power to our Sunday chapel service, and dancing with joy to praise music when she came for a dressing change one day, are memories I cherish. These memories are a small glimpse of what heaven will be like, where all the blind will see, all the lame walk, all the lepers are cleansed, all the deaf hear, and all the dead are raised.
In the meantime, we content ourselves with a fraction of the divine healing that is possible but for our lack of faith, and the fact that "to the poor the Gospel is preached" (Luke 7:22).
In the month of September, 169 poor in spirit patients and family members accepted Christ during chapel services at Congo's Pioneer Christian Hospital!
So why am I surprised at the row that rages on in my soul now?
We have 2 employees that decided to quit working for the hospital 8 months ago. They didn't resign, but didn't do much work either. It took us a long time to come to grips with the fact that their productivity was not going to return to acceptable levels. We decided last week to let them go. Now, according to the government work inspector's calculations, we are required to pay each of these 2 workers, a severance package equivalent to 8 months' salary, and the equivalent of 4 months' salary to the government labor office!
I am struggling to find the balance between standing up for what is right and "rendering unto Ceaser that which is Ceaser's." Let me be frank with you. This week I have come as close as I ever have to a nervous breakdown. I have been losing sleep and weight over this injustice. I know everything we have has been entrusted to us by God. I find it hard to justify using money that has been given for the Lord's work in this way. The same amount could literally treat one hundred patients who can not otherwise afford their care. How does this glorify God? Is it really His will for us to give in, or should we fight the system?
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. The powers that we've come up against now are threatening my sanity and the long-term financial viability of Pioneer Christian Hospital. That makes me angry, perplexed, depressed, desperate, torn, wounded.
Feel free to write me with advice, but what we need most right now is your prayers. Get into this battle with us, please. On our side. We are literally fighting for the lives and souls of an entire population.
For Health & Hope,
Dr. Joseph & Rebecca Harvey
Olivia, Claire, Isabelle, & Noah
Other things..... A 1st cousin of mine has a grandchild with a congenital heart defect. Doing OK etc but a big deal.
There is a teenager who attends our church who is undergoing more chemo for Acute Leukemia after receiving a bone marrow transplant......recurrence after that is bad, but her family is doing well with that.
On the reservation here, people continue to die from alcohol, motor vehicle collisions, diabetes and at the root of it all a spiritual darkness that produces hopelessness, fatalism. There are people who are fighting against this but not all of them are truly infused with the power to change.
Ok I am depressed enough....But thanks be to God for HIS indescribable gift.....I am convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.....
Happy Thanksgiving
To come.......
a word about Parole de Vie
The next 3 weeks we have several engagements.
This Sunday we will be in Havre (pronounced Haver) for a ten minute spot.
Next week we will be speaking at our home church in the am and then going to an outreach church in Essex MT.
The following week will be in Kalispell speaking for 10min at the early and later Sunday am service. This is a lot of driving but hopefully we will garner a lot of prayer support......
This brings me to another missionary danger that I have been reflecting on recently. In a prior post I wrote about what I will now call "pedestal talk" where people think that we are super special and become thankful that they are not so special so they will not be called. Well Gideon, Ezekiel, Matthew and others put that notion to rest but that is not what I am writing about today. The danger I speak of today is......well I can't think of a cool word for it........getting trapped into talking about me, us, etc. The changes, the doubts, the dangers, the coolness of it all. I noticed this last week at our church when I was visiting with others.
So for the rest of this blog I will talk about others.
A big thing for you to remember to pray for the following situation with the Harveys.
We fought valiantly to save the life of Eliane (aka "Delores"), the young lady who suffered multiple complications related to inadequate obstetrical care before her arrival. Eliane spent 3 months in Pioneer Christian Hospital, and was doing well when she was discharged. We got word yesterday that she died soon after returning to her village.
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Though we weren't able to cure Eliane of the physical complications she experienced, she left the hospital a firm believer in Jesus Christ, and we are confident her soul is in heaven now. She was found and saved! To see her walking on her own power to our Sunday chapel service, and dancing with joy to praise music when she came for a dressing change one day, are memories I cherish. These memories are a small glimpse of what heaven will be like, where all the blind will see, all the lame walk, all the lepers are cleansed, all the deaf hear, and all the dead are raised.
In the meantime, we content ourselves with a fraction of the divine healing that is possible but for our lack of faith, and the fact that "to the poor the Gospel is preached" (Luke 7:22).
In the month of September, 169 poor in spirit patients and family members accepted Christ during chapel services at Congo's Pioneer Christian Hospital!
So why am I surprised at the row that rages on in my soul now?
We have 2 employees that decided to quit working for the hospital 8 months ago. They didn't resign, but didn't do much work either. It took us a long time to come to grips with the fact that their productivity was not going to return to acceptable levels. We decided last week to let them go. Now, according to the government work inspector's calculations, we are required to pay each of these 2 workers, a severance package equivalent to 8 months' salary, and the equivalent of 4 months' salary to the government labor office!
I am struggling to find the balance between standing up for what is right and "rendering unto Ceaser that which is Ceaser's." Let me be frank with you. This week I have come as close as I ever have to a nervous breakdown. I have been losing sleep and weight over this injustice. I know everything we have has been entrusted to us by God. I find it hard to justify using money that has been given for the Lord's work in this way. The same amount could literally treat one hundred patients who can not otherwise afford their care. How does this glorify God? Is it really His will for us to give in, or should we fight the system?
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. The powers that we've come up against now are threatening my sanity and the long-term financial viability of Pioneer Christian Hospital. That makes me angry, perplexed, depressed, desperate, torn, wounded.
Feel free to write me with advice, but what we need most right now is your prayers. Get into this battle with us, please. On our side. We are literally fighting for the lives and souls of an entire population.
For Health & Hope,
Dr. Joseph & Rebecca Harvey
Olivia, Claire, Isabelle, & Noah
Other things..... A 1st cousin of mine has a grandchild with a congenital heart defect. Doing OK etc but a big deal.
There is a teenager who attends our church who is undergoing more chemo for Acute Leukemia after receiving a bone marrow transplant......recurrence after that is bad, but her family is doing well with that.
On the reservation here, people continue to die from alcohol, motor vehicle collisions, diabetes and at the root of it all a spiritual darkness that produces hopelessness, fatalism. There are people who are fighting against this but not all of them are truly infused with the power to change.
Ok I am depressed enough....But thanks be to God for HIS indescribable gift.....I am convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.....
Happy Thanksgiving
To come.......
a word about Parole de Vie
Monday, November 5, 2007
Truth in Waiting
Ok first things first. The Dr. Seuss book I mentioned was actually "Oh the places you'll go" and not "Did I tell you how lucky you are?" Both are good books though and are worth reading. I spoke recently at our home church and at an outreach church in Essex. I am finding that people are very gracious and despite our admonitions that we are really ordinary, there is the overwhelming idea of "wow I could never do that". This is dangerous in two ways: #1. Anna & I might start believing that and #2 I wonder if this becomes an excuse for others not to go.......Anyway.....The real purpose I am writing tonight is that I wanted to post a recent slide show from yesterday. I inserted some "explanation" slides to help explain some things. Note the prayer list at the end. Thanks for praying.
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