Good Wednesday morning!
Well, we finally arrived home yesterday (Tuesday) about mid-morning. With a slight flight delay and problems with severe weather which we had to fly around, it was later than expected when we arrived in Tulsa Monday night. After a long day (we had awakened about 4 a.m.), we decided it would be good to overnight in Tulsa and drive home when we were fresher. The night didn’t last long, but the Comfort Inn breakfast was quite good for complimentary, Continental breakfasts, and we were on our way a little before the most intense rush hour traffic.
It was good to be home after more than two weeks away. Of course, that meant most of the day spent in catching up–washing, mowing and trimming the yard (which had become a mini-maple tree plantation with hundreds of 2-3″ ‘trees’ arising from the buried ‘whirly-bird’ seeds, catching up on the bill-paying, financial records, expenses, mail…. Unfortunately, Jan came home with the allergy, nasal problem that I had had more most of my time in Honduras. It appears that my respiratory problem is just about cleared up, but that hers is just beginning. Last night was a little tense with the severe weather around the state of Oklahoma, and some of it not far away, but we escaped with only a severe thunderstorm about 9 P.M., and the intensities were definitely subsiding by that time. We were able to hit the sack a little earlier than normal, for which we were grateful.
Today we will resume a more normal schedule in earnest. Over the next two weeks I will record another New Life Behavior video study series for NLB of Oklahoma. These 13 lessons are part of the “Seeker” series, and are among the most evangelistic of theentire NLB series. I am looking forward to doing them, but it takes a significant amount of time. NLB of Oklahoma makes 300-500 copies of each lesson (depending on funding available), and almost all of the lessons are distributed to prison cells where there are two prisoners who share the lesson, which is distributed with two answer sheets. This means 600-1000 studies (times 13 lessons) for each series, something near 10000 individual Bible studies. Also, the materials and videos are used in internal Bible classes in multiple prisons, and can be broadcast on the prison TV systems in many of the prisons where NLB-Oklahoma works.
Pray for the outreach efforts that continue in the prison systems. I received an email yesterday from Anne Coleman mentioning the desire for baptism of three inmates in the Latimer County jail. We must not be afraid to encourage people to obey the gospel–it is wonderful to be involved in benevolent, caring efforts, but not at the price of being hesitant to share with people the one thing that has the greatest potential both for helping resolve their deepest problems. Faithfully walking with the Lord is the answer to many of the most difficult problems of this life, and is the only way to eternal life.
In addition to getting ready for my next mission trip in mid-June (this one with the Main and Oklahoma church group–Jan is not going), I hope to spend some useful time over the next 2-3 weeks in pursuing my work with the evangelism materials I have previously mentioned and described here (Quest for Truth–En Busca de la Verdad). Also, I have been invited to participate in a Latin American Leadership Training Series in Houston near the end of June, and will begin preparing materials for presentation at that event. Always it seems there are lots of things to do for the work of the Association Amicus–both at Baxter and at the JMA Clinic.
God is opening doors–pray that we might have the wisdom to know which doors to walk through, and how to effective use our time and efforts to his glory, and for the maximum benefit of the churches that so much need encouragement, strength, and effective leadership.