It is Sunday morning. Our last official day in Suriname and the last day of the conference. I woke up and got up even knowing that this would be a very long day with no sleep until we would arrive at home on Monday night.
It was just starting to get light and so I thought it would be great to have my last quiet time on the balcony one more time. I collected my Bible, my journal and glasses and tiptoed out of the room shutting the door quietly so as not to wake Tracey. I carefully slipped the locks on the top and bottom of the balcony door and pushed it open. At that moment, the alarm went off! Ooooppps! Didn't even think about that. Now I'm panicking because I have no idea where the shut off is and here it is before 6:00 AM and I'm waking up the whole house. I just have a knack for things like this. Tooopid me.
Luckily Peggy has the alarm panel in her bedroom and she was already up. Without ever coming out of her room (and embarassing me) she shuts off the alarm and I head on out to the balcony to try and compose myself to have some semblance of a quiet time with the Lord. On this last morning my letter from home is from my precious husband and I weep as I read his words. It just never ceases to amaze me how God intricately plans our words to say or write without us having any idea of what impact they will have when they are read. Bruce couldn't possibly have known that what he wrote that day would be exactly where my heart was that morning and what I would need to hear. He wrote: Patricia, Well here you are honey...looking into your last day...so many memories built on your trip and now your "closing ceremony". May God be with you to clear your mind to absorb all that will flash before you today as you prepare to come home. Enjoy the moment and bask in God's glory of the event." Phil 3:12-14, I Cor 6:20.
Little did he know how those words expressed my heart as I tried to prepare for this last day. I knew it would go quickly, as the week had gone, and I was not ready to let go. Though I was already excited about seeing my family again, there was this sense of being ripped away from these people in a way that I have never experienced before. I can't explain why or how meeting these people has been different from meeting people on any other trip, except that this trip was ordained by God and what I shared down here with them transcends all other....... I can't even think what word to use here. Even now all these months later at any given moment I can be right back there and see their faces as though they stand before me in the flesh.
So, once everyone else got up Ahem, we had a wonderful last breakfast with Peggy. I hated to have to get ready to leave for church. I just love talking with her.
Once at church we had our devotion time w/Tracy leading this time. She shared how the book of Revelation has played such a large role in her salvation and the impact it continues to have on her life. She and Tom both gave their testimonies, since Tom hadn't been able to give his Saturday. I knew that Tracy was very nervous about giving her testimony because she'd never done it before, but she did a great job and I was so proud of her. As we've shared our testimonies this week we've really gained insight into each other's lives and we will be forever bonded through our time on this trip.
Pastor Tom, Cody and Tom all left then to prepare for the service. That's when Rand dropped the bomb! There was a hurricane in the Carribean between us and Miami and it was due to be right in our flight path the next day when we flew home. GREAT! Not having seen a single news broadcast or any TV for that matter since Tuesday night, we'd had no idea there was a problem. Here comes that fear of flying again.... but I know that the Lord controls the skies and the winds and we would just pray and watch Him work His will for our trip home.
Gotta go..church is starting.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Gosh, it's Saturday already?
Where has the week gone? Today Tracy and I are up at 6:00 to shower and get ready to be at the church before the first session starts at 9:00. Because it's the weekend, we are able to stay at Peggy's and have breakfast with her. This is a wonderful time. She has prepared a feast for us with boiled eggs, salmon spread w/crackers, cheese, fruit, cereal, juice and her great coffee. For the first time we were able to just sit and visit like girls do. It's a shame it had to come at almost the end of our trip. She is such a dear, open and generous woman. When we had admired her house earlier in the week, she told us that Imro had encouraged her and Marlon to build the biggest house they could so they could open it up to whomever the Lord would bring for them to minister to. What a concept! Exercising the gift of hospitality. Romans 12:10-13 says: "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, procticing hospitality." The art of hospitality is a gift. The ability to make people feel comfortable in your home. Not everyone has it. My husband sure does, and I don't think it's necessarily because he's from the South. I believe it's because he genuinely cares about people and wants them to feel at home. When I wrote out my goals for 2008, one of them was to open our home more often to the people God has put in our lives. Sadly, this is a goal that I have not done a good job of achieving. But, I digress.
I loved the idea that you would build a house not for yourself and your family's needs, but to then give back to God to use however He would choose. How different my trip might have been had Peggy not been willing to open her home to us? I have been blessed, but she has too.
I need to recommit to this goal in my own life.
After our time with Peggy we head off to church for the first session. Pastor Tom spoke about technology and how it pertains to the end times. It was facinating for me because I love technology and how cool that God planned all of the technology that we have now in order to reach all those who will be called as we get closer to that day He will return. Time grows short and there are many to be reached. Technology makes that possible. The crowd was smaller but still a very avid group and it is Saturday when many need to shop for their families and do things at home that cannot be done during the week.
We break for lunch at the Smits with rice and beans, pickles and chicken, then back to Peggy's for a short nap. When we get back to the Smits we begin to make sandwiches to serve as snacks during the break in the evening session. We had a real assembly line going with Linda, Millie, Tracy and Kathy making the sandwiches and Rand and I bagging them. They were making them faster than we could bag them being four to two and would have to stop periodically to help us bag to catch up. In all we made about 300 sandwiches!
Afterwards we headed back to church for devotions and testimony. Today was Tom Smith's turn. His topic was "God is in control" Psalm 115:3 "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." His will is done whether we obey or not, Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"; We don't need to worry because God is in control. Worrying means that we don't trust God. Phil 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." This is especially relevant these days as people fret over the election, the economy and general direction our country and the world is taking. God is not surprised by any of this and can use any person and any circumstance to accomplish His purposes. He's used the most godly and the most evil throughout history to bring about His will.
He and Cody have a surprise cooked up for everyone tomorrow so we stopped after his devotion because they needed to get upstairs to meet with the praise band at 2:00. He will give his testimony tomorrow before Tracy does her devotion. (We found out later that the rest of the praise band didn't arrive till about 2:45 and when Tom asked them about it they said well there's still a 2 in the time! The schedule according to Suriname time LOL)
The evening session was so special. Imro had arranged for a re-enactment of a traditional Jewish wedding from the time the contract was first arranged until after the days of feasting were ended and then showed how each part of the wedding correlated with that time when Jesus would return to earth for His bride (us the church). It was so clear the way it was presented and I wish I had taken the time to take close notes about each part and what it symbolized. But, had I done that I would have missed the whole enactment. I would love to go back and see it again. It was very meaningful.
We ended about 9:30 after more good discussion from the crowd. Back to Peggy's. We're exhausted! I also decided that tomorrow I'll be wearing jeans to the evening session. No more of this dress stuff as everyone else is wearing jeans. I try to call Bruce before I go to bed but no answer :-( Maybe tomorrow.
I loved the idea that you would build a house not for yourself and your family's needs, but to then give back to God to use however He would choose. How different my trip might have been had Peggy not been willing to open her home to us? I have been blessed, but she has too.
I need to recommit to this goal in my own life.
After our time with Peggy we head off to church for the first session. Pastor Tom spoke about technology and how it pertains to the end times. It was facinating for me because I love technology and how cool that God planned all of the technology that we have now in order to reach all those who will be called as we get closer to that day He will return. Time grows short and there are many to be reached. Technology makes that possible. The crowd was smaller but still a very avid group and it is Saturday when many need to shop for their families and do things at home that cannot be done during the week.
We break for lunch at the Smits with rice and beans, pickles and chicken, then back to Peggy's for a short nap. When we get back to the Smits we begin to make sandwiches to serve as snacks during the break in the evening session. We had a real assembly line going with Linda, Millie, Tracy and Kathy making the sandwiches and Rand and I bagging them. They were making them faster than we could bag them being four to two and would have to stop periodically to help us bag to catch up. In all we made about 300 sandwiches!
Afterwards we headed back to church for devotions and testimony. Today was Tom Smith's turn. His topic was "God is in control" Psalm 115:3 "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." His will is done whether we obey or not, Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"; We don't need to worry because God is in control. Worrying means that we don't trust God. Phil 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." This is especially relevant these days as people fret over the election, the economy and general direction our country and the world is taking. God is not surprised by any of this and can use any person and any circumstance to accomplish His purposes. He's used the most godly and the most evil throughout history to bring about His will.
He and Cody have a surprise cooked up for everyone tomorrow so we stopped after his devotion because they needed to get upstairs to meet with the praise band at 2:00. He will give his testimony tomorrow before Tracy does her devotion. (We found out later that the rest of the praise band didn't arrive till about 2:45 and when Tom asked them about it they said well there's still a 2 in the time! The schedule according to Suriname time LOL)
The evening session was so special. Imro had arranged for a re-enactment of a traditional Jewish wedding from the time the contract was first arranged until after the days of feasting were ended and then showed how each part of the wedding correlated with that time when Jesus would return to earth for His bride (us the church). It was so clear the way it was presented and I wish I had taken the time to take close notes about each part and what it symbolized. But, had I done that I would have missed the whole enactment. I would love to go back and see it again. It was very meaningful.
We ended about 9:30 after more good discussion from the crowd. Back to Peggy's. We're exhausted! I also decided that tomorrow I'll be wearing jeans to the evening session. No more of this dress stuff as everyone else is wearing jeans. I try to call Bruce before I go to bed but no answer :-( Maybe tomorrow.
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