In His Image

Sunday morning, we were on the way to church and to pick up Aimee’s brother who cam to visit for a week.  Our boys had been ecstatic with anticipation of all the fun times with their Uncle Skyler.  However it had been almost two years since they would have seen him so I asked Japheth Jr. if he still knew what Skyler looked like.
     “Yes Papa, I know what he looks like!”
“What does he look like?” (I, who never misses a chance to learn better how to describe one’s looks
“Oh Papa, he has a round head just like Jeremiah’s!”

Oh how the laughter rolled.

Japheth was only trying to find words to describe his uncle so he compared him to someone he knew.  The thought came to me later, what do people compare me to when they try to describe my physical features, or more importantly, my spiritual features!  Truly, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”

This morning as I was traveling to Fosston to drop off some machines, I was listening to some of my favorite songs and one of them was by Michael Card entitled, Basin and the Towel.  One phrase really stood out to me this time though, “one will kneel, and one will yield.  Our Savior servant must show them how, through the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.”

It started me thinking.  A few months ago, my good friend Keith, told me, “Japheth, you are a really hard person to be a blessing too.  You almost never want to accept the gift or help from a brother.”  It made me wonder, why?  Why do I find it so hard to accept the kindness of others?  Why do I always have to be the giver and not the receiver?

This weekend we have communion again and since we still practice the Biblical ordinance of feet washing, I thought of the dialogue between our Lord and Peter.  Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter because he had been going too far in his service to the brotherhood.  No, Jesus didn’t even infer that.  Jesus simply stated that if Peter was unwilling to accept the gift of service to, Jesus said that he could have no part with him.  Then Peter went all out and wanted everything but Jesus balanced him out on that issue as well.

It just made me think that maybe I am the one in Peter’s shoes more than I thought.  I often have too much pride to “receive help from ‘that person,’” and thus I have missed a real blessing meant for me from God.  It also is a warning that once again, God cannot stand pride between His children and He even went so far as to state that if I am unwilling to humble myself in the brotherhood and accept the help that He has sent for me, my pride will keep me out of God’s kingdom.
Just some thoughts.

Otherwise, my life has been made up of too things, work and family!  When I am not at home eating or playing with the children, I am at the store working on sewing machines.  If you remember, I was so concerned when I started if I would have enough sewing machine repairs to pay for the place.  The words in Malachi ring in my ears, “see if I am able to open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it.”  I have been SWAMPED with work!!  This past week I had sewing machines sitting on the floor because my shelves were too full to hold all of them!  I was hoping for 8-10 sewing machines a week, I have been getting 12-16!

It makes a man feel pretty small to feel the trust that God places in you who has failed Him so many times!  I am grateful and humbled that so many people trust me and have given of their hard earned dough to have me work on their machines!  Truly, God does not give us what we deserve; He instead has blessed us beyond belief!!

Prov. 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Thank you for all your prayers!!!!  I am sorry for the false alarm but we would still appreciate your prayers for the child and for Aimee over the next few days.  May God’s will be done.

Ok, it’s my fault I haven’t posted in a while, but let me fill you in. We had about 600 people at the funeral and ended up feeding about 500 of them. It was a moving service with her brother Dawson leading the singing and her other brother, Nolan, giving a short synopsis of her life. A good friend of our church, Keith Yates or affectionately known as “Bear,” shared two songs. Bear is blind and was rejected by his family as a baby and grew up in a bunch of homes. It was so neat, to see the joy on his face when he came to the last verse of looking forward to heaven, even after he struggled so much with his emotions the first few verses. My father brought a message on the fact the “Precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of His saints!”

Afterwards, the pall bearers loaded the casket into the back of our van for the trip out to the cemetery. It was a drive of almost 30 miles since we had to use the largest church in the area. We had contacted the police and they blocked traffic for the processional and the line was about a mile and a half long when we were all close together. I already shared about what our grave side services are like and won’t bored you with that again, but one thing that thrilled my heart, was to sing as a group, “Lift Your Glad Voices!” To see Val with his hand raised to heaven and singing with all his might was so overwhelming.

After Krystal’s passing, we had a week of recovery and rest. Then things kicked into high gear again. I had come to the realization that I needed a little more income to continue to meet our needs and plan for the future, so I started looking for a part time job. The Lord opened one up at a local quilt shop where I can work there two days a week and do the same things I have done for the last 8 years, talk to people and sell sewing machines.

Then to speed it up some more, we got our taxes done and thanked God that there was $2000 there to get our youngest sons eye fixed. For the last two months I have been looking into options for the surgery to move the muscle back on our sons eye. Here in Bemidji, they want $6000 to do the simple, out-patient surgery. I knew we would not have that much money so what do we do? First we prayed that God would give us wisdom to know what to do, and had an anointing. We contacted various hospitals around the area and found the price all about the same, so we tried Canada. They wouldn’t even touch him because we Americans can now sue Canadian doctors for malpractice and thus it is too expensive for them to have the insurance. I stated that we would be willing to sign a paper stating that we would not hold them liable, but he stated that it is our son they worry about. He, (the doctor) would have to carry American malpractice insurance until our ten-month-old son, turned 21. He asked why we didn’t do it in our area and when I told him the cost, he was shocked, “Why so much!!!!”

So we looked elsewhere. A few years ago we had been in Thailand and knew friends there and started looking into going there. There are a bunch of hospitals all set up to work with English speaking people who come there for the same reason, cheaper medical care. These hospitals are equipped just as good as and sometimes even better than our own, and the doctors are often trained here in America. The cost, $1000 – $1800. Add a $900 round trip plane ticket and you are looking at still saving over half the price. And so, after much prayer and talking with the hospital staff and a friend who also had eye surgery done there, we decided to go have it done in Thailand.

That brings me to today, the tickets are bought, plans are made, and Wayne and I leave tomorrow with another couple in our church for the trip over. We will be gone a little over two weeks and would appreciate you prayers for both me and Aimee as she takes care of the other children here at home.

I will be taking lots of pictures and might share some when I get back.