posted by James on 02/28/11

Under the Sun

Have you ever considered that all your wonderful camera equipment is not much more than this: weeds? Both will eventually break down. One more quickly than the other, of course, but neither of them will last . . .

2 Comments » | posted in Photography

posted by Esther on 02/26/11

Michael and I both had joyous celebrations this month and are thanking the Lord for another year to serve Him! Praise the Lord for his  goodness and the wonderful works he has done to us. We plan to make this a year of thanking Him and declaring His works with rejoicing! (See Psalm 107:21-22)

7 Comments » | posted in Family News

posted by Donald on 02/22/11

Monday!

For years we’ve always worked together to clean house early on Monday morning. Last Monday was no exception—but it seemed there was a host of “other things” to do and we wondered where to start.

Many things begin on Monday. It links the rest, fellowship and vision of Sunday to the everyday work of the weekdays. As always, prioritizing is important, but how to prioritize!? Following is a summary of what happened when we followed a certain verse in Exodus 20, one of the Ten Commandments–repeated by Jesus, and proven true in  many households like ours every week. See if you can guess which one it was by the time you look through all the pictures–from just one day!

“Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long
upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee”

(Exodus 20:12).

12 Comments » | posted in Family News

posted by Daniel on 02/14/11

Last Friday the single staff here at Headquarters hosted an elaborate and truly spectacular Valentine Banquet to honor the training center directors and other special guests. I was asked to help organize the servers for the banquet, and this position allowed me to see firsthand the exhaustive attention to detail, flawless teamwork, and Christ-like character which made it possible to pull off this monumental undertaking with stress-free efficiency and expertise!

It was so neat to see God put together all the details. That very morning I happened to read Matthew 20:27 which talks about being a “servant” of all. The Lord also brought my attention to the section a couple verses earlier in the chapter, where the sons of Zebedee with their mother approached Jesus and asked for “special seating arrangements.” What was his answer? This “is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” (Matt. 20:23).

HQ Valentines Banquet 2011 from Chad … on Vimeo.

The night before we had been rearranging the tables to accommodate the new number of guests that were expected for the banquet, but we came up one chair too short – and we had already packed the seats in as tight as possible! At that very moment we received a call from one of the couples saying the wife would not be able to attend. How often do problems get solved that easily?

Then, during the evening of the banquet, soon after we had begun seating each couple, one couple came up to us with a special request to be seated at one of the far tables. Scrambling through our charts, we worked out a last-second switch to accommodate them. In the middle of getting this all worked out, two other guests asked to be seated early. I thought all our careful plans to seat the guests table by table were being totally thrown off, but the Lord gave me a peace that this had all been “prepared of my Father.” It was then that I suddenly realized where these two guests were supposed to sit: directly across from the first couple at the far table! Everything could not have worked out more perfectly.

This was just one of the many ways that we saw the Lord pour out his blessing on the entire event. There is joy in serving Jesus!

4 Comments » | posted in Ministry Reports

posted by Donald on 02/14/11

A word of refreshing reminder to our spirits from the inventor of moveable type, the foundation for today’s “untiring” printing presses. . . .

“God suffers in the multitude of souls whom His word can not reach. Religious truth is imprisoned in a small number of manuscript books which confine instead of spread the public treasure. Let us break the seal  which seals up holy things and give wings to Truth in order that she may win every soul that comes into the world by her word no longer written at great expense by hands easily palsied, but multiplied like the wind by an untiring machine.”

"It is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvelous liquor [liquid] that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of men. Through it, God will spread His word; a spring of truth shall flow from it; like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men." 

- Johannes Gutenberg

2 Comments » | posted in Tidbits