My mom - transition to heaven

Around 4 am, 24 December 2015, my mom passed from this life to the next. Fortunately she was alert to see all her children, my other two brothers, grandchildren - 6 and 13 great grandchildren. By chance my son from Germany planned to come for Christmas and arrived the night she went to the hospital on the 19th. His wife and hilden arrived a few days later to complete the family. she was in pain but suffered little before passing that next early morning.
     We had a memorial dinner and it was a good occasion to clebrate her influence on our lives. As far as I know everyone in this circle  is a believer in Jesus and she was the one who inluncedme to find Christ. I also owe my call to missions to her. And finally she encouraged me to ask Svetlana out. And I have found my true love in Sveta. There is no way I could repay her for her influene in my life.

Adopting a blind Russian child

I heard a testimonial on a recorded message. Lisa McConnel and her husband took in 12 foster children.   He is in the medical field and she is a nurse. They had taken in   special needs children. With 7 children already, they were praying for a child that no one wanted. Somehow they found a child available in New York. The child was born blind. Alex was born of a Russian family and abandoned to an institution. Lisa and her husband adopted him. He had a number of surgies and is still blind. They  have taken on the challenge to help special needs children. I admire them for their heart and calling to take in such children. She also mentioned the need of families needing a support group. She mentioned needing  break like a couple of days of care and prayer. We may not be able to adopt or take in a foster child, but we can help out. 

My mom-sugery

I talked to my mom last night, and she will either have surgery in her leg or the doctor will have to amputate the leg. As people age, we know events will happen. Yet I am very downcast over this situation. Watching a loved one got worse is harder than I thought it would be. Even though you know it will eventually happen, the impact is greater than I imagined. I wish all the orphans could have a mother like mine. I owe my salvation to my mother. Even though we had stopped going to church, just before my senor year in high school we decided to go church shopping. I landed in a church in which Pastor Ray spoke the truth. I heard the good news of Jesus and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. When I was at a decision point about going to the mission field or college, she encouraged me to go overseas. That direction dramatically changed my life. My mom was the catalyst for my Sveta. How differnet the world would be if all mothers cared for their children.

Pointing people in the right direction

Sveta has been going to the Orthodox church with a friend on Wednesday nights. They have a Russian group that meets afterwords for a spiritual study. We went to the service. One of the aspects of the orthodox church is how they really bring out the beauty and majesty of God in their services. You do have to focus on God (or daydream about other topics if you are not engaged). It is too bad the global church cannot see the strengths of each group. I had a vision several years ago of the church. It was a picture like you hang on the wall with four army groups in foxholes in each corner. Everyone had helmets and guns that were firing at each other. Perhaps we spend too much time "shooting" at each other and not finding common ground. Believe me, I could visit an orthodox or other church but would not necessarily find it the best choice for me for the long run. That is a personal choice. The priest read a story about Daniel. It was interesting, but one aspect that many spiritual leaders do not include is how does it apply to our lives. That approach is seen across the boards in the church. We read the Word of God and expect people to apply it, they do not get it unless the teacher covers it or there is dialog between the teacher and followers.
     That brings me to what I really appreciated in the follow on study. We watched a video in Russian about Moses and the children of Israel from their time in Egypt up to the Jordan river. The speaker presented much content and commentary. He did explain some of the traditions of the orthodox faith. For example, he covered the issue of work; the Israelite typically worked 7 days a week and when God gave the law, he allowed one day for rest. With the resurrection we added Sunday. His point was that we should be working 6 days a week and resting one day.
     Father Anthony came in after the video and asked what the group learned. I have heard him a few times before in other meetings about 9 years ago. He is very good at encouraging people and applying biblical principles. He gave the analogy of a vehicle traveling on the earth will eventually stop. Once a moving rocket in space is pointed in the right direction will continue to its destination. We must find the right direction and continue the journey. Time is the question that we wrestle with. We are on the journey and do not know when we will reach the destination. Some are moving faster and some slower, but the point is to move towards God-that is the right direction. Now I am challenged to point people in the right direction. There is so much interference in this world. As I grow spiritually, it is in my heart; now how do I apply it?

Strange dream

I have dreams alot, but pretty dull these days. Last night I had a dream about people in a swamp. They were eating small snakes and getting very pale. They were trapped in this swamp. Suddenly a huge snake came out of the water and devoured a person. It  startled me so much that I woke up trying to shake it off. I focused on the blood of Jesus. I went back to sleep or back into the dream and I saw Jesus as pure white. He appeared as pure light and walked up to the huge snake. He calmly grabbed the snake by the neck and held it tight. My thought was that we need to get these people out of here. The snake is Satan and he uses smaller snakes to poison people. Jesus can hold the snake and  prevent it from devouring people. Other than that I have no interpretation for  now.

Cats and orphans

I realize cats are different than humans, just as humans are different than God. However, this analogy came to mind. I always considered cats as independent and not trainable. Lately, I ponder on how we trained two 5 year old cats to certain behaviors. Sveta frequently had the cats come in from inside. She clapped and called them and it worked about 80% of the time. In our new house, we had a concern about the cats roaming around the neighborhood. So we set an objective to keep them inside the yard-the area is big enough for them to get out of the house. We monitored them and kept them away from the fence. When we called and they came inside, we told them, "Good girls".  They basically stay with in the yard now.
   Sveta had a wish that the cats to sleep in the bedroom with us. One cat typically sleeps next to Sveta or in her arm. The other one would sleep in various places in the house. We set up a chair as a special place for her. I would bring her in and only pet her when she was in her special bed. Supposedly cats spend 70% of their time sleeping; now our cat spends 90% of sleep time in her spot.
     The point is how to encourage orphans. The negative stigma is a challenge. It is easy to look at the statistics and expect orphans to behave in ways that are hurtful to themselves and others. Or could we take a different approach and encourage them. Like my cats it is not a one time event; it takes dozens of repetition to make a break through. Expecting orphans to do well and reinforcing their lives with encouragement would be a good approach to take.

Sveta's Citizenship Ceremony and God

As I reflect on Sveta's citizenship ceremony, the reference to God by a federal institution has me thinking. There were 48 new citizens in the ceremony from 29 countries. When they said the oath, the final words were "...so help me God." Participants were briefed that they could leave this section out and they had a substitute phrase. When I looked down Sveta's line with 8 folks, I noticed they all repeated "so help me God." Just an observation, but perhaps me make a bigger deal about secularism in the US.
Secondly, they said the pledge of allegiance and the words "one nation under God" came up.
Thirdly, the President gave a nice speech (on video) to welcome the new citizens. He ended his speech with "God bless you" and "God bless the United States."
Fourthly, the final part was a video with a woman singing America- "God shed his grace on thee."

It is interesting that a federal institution - the Department of Homeland Security, US Citizenship and Immigration Center would bring up God four times.

Nearing the finish of the house remodel

With our move to a new house last year, the remodel is near completion. We are on the final "punch list." The punch list contains the last tasks remaining. Lord willing we will be done this week.

I had hoped to have the basement used for orphans, but first I need to recoup the investment and pay off the remodel, the move and other unexpected debts. For the time being, the plan is to have international students stay with us. As an introvert, I like the tranquility of our house, far be it for me to have such a large house and not use it for some divine purpose. My heart would really like to have a bible study and fellowship at the house.

We have three rooms, a kitchenette, bathroom, washer and dryer, and access to our family room. I find it humorous that due to codes, the plans referred to the kitchen as a wet bar. Due to the regulations, I could not put in a stove, but I have a one and two burner table top "stove" on the counter...

We probably saved about 70% in the do-it-yourself model. I did defer work to a "bone fide" electrician and plumber. My son, Greg, came back from Seattle for a visit that ended up longer than planned. He was a big help to me to complete this project.  He did most of the heavy work for the external outside entrance-basement.The digging required taking out over 12,000 pounds of sand by shovel, mixing by hand and pouring about 9,000 lbs of concrete, and building a 30 foot enclosure over the stairs and entrance.

Hopefully, we will have some students by the first of the year. 

Citizenship for Sveta

I am sitting in the waiting room of the US Immigration building. Svetlana is interviewing for her US citizenship. I expected a larger number of Hispanic, but the distribution seems more mixed. I heard a name from the Baltic states, one from Africa, a couple of folks from Asia, and someone from one of the former Soviet "Stans". Just heard a Russian name. With Sveta that makes 4 for the former Soviet Union. Sveta practiced the questions and I would expect she will score a 9 or 10. We got here at the 7 am opening in Denver. Now I have another reminder for a blessing-I do not have to drive to Denver to work. What a flow of traffic at 6am!
     As I reflect on Sveta's journey, she was quite brave for a Russian to leave her family and job to come to the US. One of her patients planted the seed to  leave Russia. She had a good family and good career. She looked for opportunity for her two sons. She had the chance to go to Italy, Germany, or several places in the US. How did she end up in Colorado Springs?
     And the final word -  Svetalana is now officially a citizen of the United States!

Orphan home for adults

I picked this up from George Steiner's facebook.
A New Home? Yes! We are constructing a new home for our Ivanovo Ministry Center serving at-risk Russian orphans. It will house a large kitchen for daily meals, a multi-purpose room for seminars, events and activities, a computer lab, a small gym and staff offices. On this ‪#‎GivingTuesday‬, through the generosity of one of our donors, your gift will be doubled as part of our $250,000 campaign!To donate, go to www.orphanstree.org.
I went to an Ivanovo orphanage - I am thinking 2006. Nice place, but they closed it. Of all the places I have visited in Russia, Ivanovo seemed more like an industrial city. 

Riptide

     Do you ever wonder how you wake up in the morning and recall an event from the past? This topic I had not thought about for years and years. I am trying to pull the details from my memosphere, but it is that place in your brain that you try to access and seems to be out of your reach. Anyway I took some friends to the Oregon beach. It was somewhere around the end of my senior year of high school into my first year in college; that was when my car actually worked. I think everyone was sunning themselves in the dunes and I went out to the beach. Walking alone along the beach, I decided to take a swim. In hindsight, my thinking was dumber than a box of rocks, but at the time seemed like a good idea. I was challenged by swimming past the oncoming waves into the ocean so I kept swimming further out into the sea. Perhaps my fearlessness exceeded my common sense.  I suspect I was slightly autistic; they call it Asperger’s. I took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory a few years ago and one of the supposed negative traits was a lack of fear. I tried to research if I had Asperger’s. A psychologist told me there is no way to determine it at my age, because people tend to compensate and adjust by their 30s. That’s another story; somebody keep me focused…Swimming on my back, I felt a force pull me. By the time I turned over, I realized the force was dragging me out to sea. I was in the riptide.

     Fortunately, I knew what to do. Work with me people. This was Oregon; this subject does not come up in Colorado-more on the lines of hailstorms any month of the year, flash floods, and avalanches. Our natural instinct is to swim against the tide to shore. This is meaningless and will only end up exhausting the swimmer and you will eventually drown. I began to swim at an angle away from shore and into the ocean. A couple of times I looked back at the diminishing shoreline; it was an eerie feeling, but I was not afraid. Eventually a riptide will fan out and dissipate. Then I looked back to shore and went “whoa”. I have never been that far out in an ocean without a mode of transportation. Fortunately, I was a good swimmer so I made my way back to shore. When I stood up on the beach, it was so reassuring to be on solid ground and the warmth was great. Stay with me folks, the water is cold in Oregon, not like Louisiana or Texas where I preferred staying in the water for hours and turning into a prune. I had goosebumps all over my body. I was safe.

Now let’s see if I can draw this analogy. There seemed like a direction so right. Naturally I should try to fight the force of the riptide and swim back to shore. What seemed so right was so wrong. That thinking would lead to death. I had to turn around and take a different direction. The path involved a detour, but the end was a solid foundation and warmth. In this scenario the ocean represents life with potential dangers. Eventually something could happen to end your way of life. Think about your own life. Are you on a path that seems so right, but is so wrong? You have to turn and go a different direction. For me the riptide represents the force of evil that pulls us in a direction we really do not want to go. I had to turn around and by faith take a different action than my natural instincts. For me, the beach represents the solid ground of faith in Christ and the sun’s warmth is the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

     The moral of the story: Examine your life and stay away from something that can pull you into a riptide. If you find yourself in a riptide, turn another direction and swim away by faith and you will reach the safety of the shore.