Hurricanes, Heathen, and Harvest

Life in South FL is full steam ahead. We have literally been falling into bed every night in exaustion. It was unquestionable that Hurricane Dean could affect the Carribean without affecting Harold Dean. We were awakened by a phone call from Samaritan's Purse last Sat. morning, Jamaica was expected to recieve a direct hit and they wanted MFI to be ready to fly relief supplies in as soon as the storm passed. Harold has been on the go since then coordinating relief flights to Jamaica and to Mexico, which was actually hit harder. This is a really big job since it includes getting clearance to fly over Cuba, lots of loading and unloading, and making sure all the right connections are made. Please pray for him as he helps to "give cups of colds water in this way.
Ethan and Collin started back to school last week, as you can see them standing so proudly in their little uniforms. Collin got up about five times the night before just to look at his uniform. This is his first year at the academy after doing preschool at the public school. So far, so good, but please keep his teacher in your prayers. I'm so glad to have some help in their spiritual guidance, because the conversation lately has me wondering if anything I say is getting through. I told Harold tonight that I feel like I've already been "given the heathen as my inheritance". At supper tonight Ethan was preaching Collin a sermon about only listening to the "good voices". Suddenly Collin covers one ear and says "I'm only going to listen to the voices on this side". He then starts a conversation that I can only hear one side of (probably the only side). "Hi Jesus, How are you? YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT? Build an ark like Noah. I don't know. Oh, I can wait until I grow up. Okay I'll do it." I'm so thankful that we have the rainbow as a promise that this will not be a requirement for him. If we do end up having to purchase gopher wood, we will call on Julia and her boys for help with the measurements.
We are also having prayer issues. During devotions last night I asked who wanted to pray. Landon readily volunteered, so we all bowed our heads only to hear. " Dear Jesus, thank you for this beautiful chickens. Thank you for helping me be a good chicken. Please help us to have a good chicken of sleep." You get the picture. I don't know what this obsession with chickens is about. I will say that the prayer was egged on by the convulsive, uncontrollable giggles of his two older brothers, but he uses the word chicken about fifty times a day. Of course Aunt Kimmy helped by giving him a tape of Texas Swing Music, the first song was "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens". These are the things, along with many more that I won't subject you to, that I am dealing with on a regular basis, so please forgive me if I don't keep my blog up to date. This is a picture we took in Idaho of a field ready for harvest. Having never lived near wheat fields before, I was enthralled with the beauty. It is no wonder that Jesus used it in so many of his parables. A few nights later in OK, Harold spotted the video The Harvest laying on Brian's table. He saw it a few years ago at a missions conference in TN where he was representing Moody. He had told me about it many times, and wanted to get a copy. We watched it that night and I was deeply moved. We actually bought our own copy since we got back. It is one of the most powerful videos on missions that I have seen. I highly recommend that if you haven't seen it that you try to find it. It has definitely motivated me to make more of an effort to reach out to the lost around me, and to pray for more workers to hear the call.