These are the last few days of August and we are starting to
make plans for coming home in the month of October. By then a year will have
passed since we sold our house in Bismarck and got ready to move to Africa as
full time missionaries. Our perspective has changed a great deal since then, as
you would expect. We mean; it is much easier to see and respond to the
challenge of taking the Gospel to all nations in view of the certain fact that
God’s kingdom, although not come in power yet because our King is seated “at
the right hand of the Father”, is surely ever so close. Then God will bid the
Son to “rule in the midst of Thine enemies” (I am thinking in terms of Psalms
110 and what we are taught in the New Testament about its literal fulfillment).
Resistance will finally be impossible and the kingdoms of this world will
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. To most of us this is a
familiar challenge but out here, many of the distractions which afflict us at
home are absent; so we more clearly discern our Lord’s expectation that we
should be wise stewards of what He has committed to us during His absence. 
The sidewalk project financed by a generous supporter is
over half complete and the playground renovation is taking shape as the steel
framework is being erected near the children’s cottages.
Another term is nearly complete in the teacher’s training
program called RICE (Rafiki Institute of Classical Education). I am looking
forward to expanded interaction with medical students, medical officer trainees
and teacher trainees at a nearby college. For this I enjoy the partnership of
two Lutheran pastors who are helping me to expand opportunities to teach
students about the identity of our Lord and what He expects in return for His
incomprehensible love. Yesterday we had a ground breaking ceremony which
included the youngest (she shoveled dirt with a small garden spade) and the
oldest resident moving dirt as construction started on the largest building to
be erected in the village-a multipurpose facility with a gym, a stage, music
practice rooms and expanded classrooms which will serve the teacher training
program. With all this going on we have been reminded lately during our regular
Bible study in the Gospel of Luke about at least four elements of discipleship
which our Lord made very clear was His expectation (Luke 14:25-33):
1. v. 26,
discipleship means loving our Master so much that all other loves are hatred by
comparison,
2. v. 27, taking up our cross daily speaks of His absolute
lordship in our lives even as a condemned man had to carry his cross publically
to the execution site as a sign of submission to the power of Rome,
3. In the teaching about building the tower (vv. 28-30) we
are confronted with the challenge that we must plainly calculate the cost of
this kind of discipleship! and lastly
4. (vv. 31-33) this calculation should include how we can
use our resources for the maximum benefit of His kingdom.
We hope to rejoice with many of you during the time we are
in the States in October. We want to remind everyone that there are so many
opportunities for faithful service here in the lives of others even for older
people like us (I spent the morning repairing security lights which have been
out for months). Let us know if you would like us to come to your church or
home group to talk about these opportunities. There is always plenty of work to
share J.
