Overcoming!

The diagnosis was breast cancer. We all began to pray for Mom. My specific prayer was that she would overcome the cancer. I prayed it for three and a half years, everyday, many times a day. Then when I returned from a trip to Jamaica, the first of Mom’s children to leave the States and Mom did not recognize me, I knew she would not live much longer. I wept bitterly and wondered before God why He had not answered my fervent prayers.

But He had. She overcame cancer with dignity and faithfulness and courage. And I thank Him!
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The story above is posted in response to Jellen’s Writing Challenge

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The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom

I am a few days early with my report on this month's selection for the Book Club Discussion started by Marathon Bird. But that is okay, because I was a little late last month!

I don’t know why I had never read The Hiding Place, but maybe it was partly because I did not want to visit the things that went on at the hands of the Germans in WWll. When I was a kid I went with my dad to see Mein Kampf, the documentary that showed the depravity of the Holocaust. Those pictures were deeply etched in my mind. I think that is why I did not want to see Schindler’s List.

As I read of the heroism of the Ten Boom family, I was horrified again at the treatment of those considered by the Nazis as inferior. But I was buoyed by the faith of the family, especially Corrie and Betsie as they were incarcerated and mistreated. I could identify with Corrie, as she wanted to honor God but who constantly had to deal with the emotions of anger and hate for her captors. I was truly inspired by Betsie, who was more Christ-like in her dealing with the deprivation and the persecution.

I am glad I read this book, because its message was not really about creating a hiding place for Jewish refugees and an underground network to get them to safety. Its message, at least to me was that all of us need a Hiding Place as described in Psalm 32:7, “Thou art my hiding place; Thou dost preserve from trouble…”

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After A Week At Church Camp!

Teaching at church camp is one of my favorite things in life, and it is always a learning experience for me as well as the kids. Last week I again had the tenth graders, thirty eight of them. They were great! And I was tickled to have a young minister work with me this year who not so long ago he sat in my class at the same camp!



Usually at camp I am a pretty creative and active teacher. I use a lot of teaching techniques to keep the class thinking and discovering for themselves. This year our study was in the Minor Prophets, with the aim of seeing "How Great Is Our God." We have a morning class of an hour and fifteen minutes and an afternoon class of forty five minutes. I made a decision that the sophomores would read, or hear read, as much of the texts of those books as possible. Paul set the scene for each reading and then one of the guys would read the message of God through the prophet. The kids were then asked to create a MySpace bulletin that might be sent to the rest of the campers to transmit the message they had just heard.




I went to camp thinking that at least half the kids would fall asleep during the readings. I mean, it is hot and the kids are tired and the messages are, in some cases, long and a bit repetitive! I figured that for the first time in my camp experience they would find my class boring. But I wanted them to hear the Word of God so much that I was willing to take the chance.





We did have a three or four that could not keep their eyes open, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many read along with the "prophet" in their own Bibles. I was even more pleased at how much they understood the main message of the various texts, especially the traits of our great God!




It made me wonder how I could have doubted that the Bible itself would not suffice to teach those precious kids. And it reinforced my idea that we all need to actually read it more than we do!

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Why Me?

Temptations and trials are difficult to deal with rationally. When tragedy strikes we automatically think of self. If a hurricane comes and destroys the home in which I live, my first thought is, “Why me?” If someone near and dear to me is struck with a serious illness, my first question is, “How much must I bear?”

I fail o remember that Go has ordained that the sun will shine on the just and the unjust. He does not discriminate! The best answer to the question, “Why me?”, is, “Why not.”

Matthew 5:45 “For He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteousness.”

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