| Good Quote of the Day |
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| "The amount of loafing practiced by the average Christian in spiritual things would ruin a concert pianist if he allowed himself to do the same thing in the field of music."
A.W. Tozer, (Tozer On Christian Leadership, October 18). |
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| Such pain for so many children...
 The boy in the red throwing the ball is living in a
newly-established semi-official orphanage that we visited today. His mother
gave birth to him when she was 14 years old. She was raped by her teacher when
she was 13 years old, but he refused to acknowledge his responsibility, so she
was left on her own to raise him, living in a tiny village deep in the mountains
of Peru. She
was not able to cope with the tremendous burden, so took the baby to the
capital to be raised by grandparents. However, as the boy grew, the
grandparents would go on drinking binges, at times lasting weeks, leaving the
growing child to fend for himself. He is now in a loving home with 10 other
kids, with some wonderful “house parents” who love them and show them the love
of God, and teach them from the Scriptures. Below is Elli Wortham, our visiting friend's daughter, after playing with the orphanage kids-- they didn't want her to leave!
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| 6,000ft in One hour"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh"
(visiting friend Mike Wortham snapping pictures of rocky, nearly lifeless desert above Nasca, Peru, with low lying clouds covering the lower altitudes. Picture taken at 8,000ft just after sunrise, after ascending from Nasca (elevation 2,000ft) in just one hour).
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| Mountain scenes near our home...
"In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him." (Psalm 95:4)
"Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the great deep." (Psalm 36:6)
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| Sifting and Harvest time in the Mountains of Peru 
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you (in the plural: "you all") as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22.31)
One commentator's thoughts on how to translate the meaning of the verse:
“Satan is seeking to shake you disciples violently
as one sifts wheat and to cause you to fall.” The use of this metaphor
(of sifting wheat) is simply intended to indicate the coming time of
testing (Stein, R. H. (2001, c1992). Vol. 24: Luke (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (552). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
Another commentator's poignant thoughts:
"This saying of Jesus is a very mysterious one; it
reveals to us something of what is going on in the unseen world. A
similar request was made by the same bitter, powerful foe in the case
of Job (1:12). Are
we to understand that these are examples of what is constantly going on
in that world so close to us, but from which no whisper ever reaches
our mortal ears? Such grave thoughts lend especial intensity to those
words in the prayer of prayers, where we ask “our Father which is in
heaven” to deliver us from evil, or the evil one..." (The Pulpit Commentary: St Luke Vol. II. 2004 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.) (201). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
And finally...
"Peter may have had this incident in mind when later he wrote vividly concerning the devil (see 1 Pet. 5:8–9).
(Willmington, H. L. (1997). Willmington's Bible handbook (594). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers).
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings" (1 Peter 5:8-9).
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| Ministry with BuddiesSo awesome to have friends visit! And to do ministry with
them!
Barry Anthony and son Nathan leading worship (in English
with the Spanish translation below…)...
Buying chairs and presenting them to pastor and church attendee
for village church (at 15,000ft—no wood there to make chairs!—too high for any
trees to grow) with funds from people in their home church in California...
In front of a different village church...
Barry and Nathan having fun on a hanging bridge!
Some precious kids...
And we had some fun on the golf course...
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