Hand in Hand

 

I was reading an old journal last night, and I came across an entry from a year ago this week. I was studying linguistics at SIL-UND in Grand Forks at the time and sitting in chapel listening to a classmate share some things that he was grateful for and things that he had learned. They touched my heart then and they touch it now especially as I am coming closer to my departure date. Fear and doubt are pressing in, but I feel like I'm walking hand in hand with my precious Redeemer and Lord.

1. Christian home.

2. God's not out to spoil you fun. Life is fulfilling if you live in His will.

3. It's okay to learn from humbling experiences.

4. Christians can be very ugly to each other. It's easy to be prideful.

5. Let your actions display Christ.

6. Go through training.

7. Be in an accountability group.

8. Importance of Scripture.

     "If the Scripture is in you,
      it's going to come out of you.
      If it's not,
      it won't."

9. God is faithful and reliable.

I just sent out my LBT newsletter for June, so if you didn't get it and you want it, let me know by messaging or emailing your address (ruthlee86@gmail.com).  Magnify the Lord with me!

Quotes

   I was deleting my favorite quotes from my facebook page so I thought I'd share them here before I delete them forever.  Enjoy!

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"Grass shelters and armpits clearly have something in common." -Keith Allan, author of some linguistic article on classifiers

"Ooolala I spilled soup all over myself." --Pete Unseth

"We have only to keep the end in view, and have our hearts thoroughly engaged in the pursuit of it, and means will not be very difficult." -William Carey

"Over the ocean, millions I see, fettered in bondage, beckoning me. Crushed beneath sorrows too heavy to bear--gladly I answer, Lord, send me there." --E. Elliot (No Graven Image)

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." -John Wesley

"I have aggravated burps!" -My Brother

"I have a crush on every boy!" -Swash

"When I grow up, I want to be food for starving cannibals so they can have live a bit longer to hear about Jesus!" -Karen

"Tarter sauce!" -David

"You need to stop reading Elisabeth Elliot... you don't have her life." -Esther

Bro: "You hate me." Ruthie: "I love you more than any other boy in the whole world." Bro: "You hate every boy."

Even little girls named Ruthie all have teeth. All Ruths are toothy. --Dr. Seuss (The Tooth Book)

“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” --Babe Ruth

"Everything starts with prayer. Love to pray--feel the need to pray often during the day and take the trouble to pray. If you want to pray better, you must pray more. The more you pray, the easier it becomes. Perfect prayer does not consist of many words but in the fervor of the desire which raises the heart to Jesus." Mother Teresa

"Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work." --Oswald Chambers

"Never say you will pray about a thing; pray about it." --Oswald Chambers

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יהוה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יהוה אֶחָד

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. --F.M. Lehman

Thessalonians 3:1

When We Could Bear It No Longer

GOD PERMITS HARDSHIP. Chrysostom:

"Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left at Athens alone.  And Paul sent two of those who ministered to him," both to announce his coming and to make them more eager....Do you see how God permits trials, and by them stirs up and awakens the disciples and makes them more energetic?  Then let us not sink down under trials: for he himself will "also make the way of escape, that we may be able to bear them."  Nothing so makes friends and rivets them so firmly as affliction; nothing so fastens and joins the souls of believers; nothing is so timely for us teachers in order that the things said by us may be heard.  For when the hearer is living an easy life, listless and indolent, those who try to teach him only annoy him.  But when he is in affliction and distress, he longs to hear his teachers.  For when he is distressed in his soul, he seeks comfort from all directions in his affliction.  And the preaching brings no small comfort.

Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 42. (NPNF 1 13:335)

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

Top 5 for the Week

5.  I love driving a manual.  I don't think I ever want to go back to my automatic ways.

 

 

4.  Not only are lentils healthy, cheep, and easy, they are DELICIOUS!  Love them.

 

 

 

3.  I've moved out of the dorm into a house.  I don't think I can express how happy I am about this.

 

 

2.  I'm getting ready to take a health care course, and I'm usually not afraid of things that make most people queasy.  We'll see.  I love giving blood and watching stiches!  I know, I know. 

 

 

1.  I love this book.  Too bad it weighs as much as a couple bricks.  Good thing I don't need to take a canoe to Nigeria, because this is one possession that I take everywhere.

Reunion!

Once upon a time there were two missionary kids in Bangladesh, Ruthie and Everett.  They grew up spending some holidays together.  Everett gave Ruthie a fountain pen for Christmas one year, and they became great friends.  Ruthie left Bangladesh when they were nine or ten and they stopped talking, but Ruthie never forgot about Everett.  This is a true story.

 

So it has been over ten years since we saw each other or talked.  In August or September of 2007, I found Everett on facebook!  We started writing each other but that ended, and I soon found out why.  In September I got an email from Everett's Dad that broke my heart.  Everett was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma.  He has cancer in his left pelvic bone.

 

Since my knowing of Everett's condition, I have learned a lot about God and the way he works.  In the beginning, I remember crying in the bathroom and feeling physically ill thinking about it.  Was it fear, worry, concern?  I'm not sure.  I also do not know why Everett's situation so quickly became the focus of many of my thoughts and prayers.  The Lord laid him very heavily upon my heart, and I pleaded with God to spare him from his suffering.

 

I moved down to Dallas in January for school and began thinking of some way to see my dear friend who was undergoing chemotherapy in Houston.  In the meantime I continued to pray and plead.  Countless nights have been full of weeping and crying out to God for answers.  Over and over God covered me with His love and peace as He reminded me of His faithfulness.

As I thought about Abraham and his sacrificing Isaac, I felt that I had to give my friend to the Lord.  I told the Lord that He could have my friend, and I was soon responded to with, "Everett is not yours to give.  He already belongs to me.  You have no claim on him.  Think about how my Son (Jesus) has suffered for him.  I love him more than you ever will."

 

 

I had to accept the fact that I could do nothing.  But... I could pray.

 

 

 

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from Everett's mom inviting me to come down to Houston to stay with them for the weekend!  So, this last weekend I was reunited with my dear friend and his family who has been so wonderful to my own over the years.

 

After driving 5 hours on Friday, I sat down to dinner at their dining room table and joined hands with them in prayer.  We ate and visited.  The next day we talked over tea and breakfast.  Then Everett and I went to a session of chemo at the hospital.  We talked like no time had passed, and I began to see the fingerprints of God all over Everett's life.  Can cancer be a gift?  Most of the time this seems impossible, but God is definitely using Everett's cancer for His own honor and glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the hospital, we went to an Arboretum with his mom and sister, and had such a fun day of talking, laughing, and reminiscing of our Bangladesh days.  We had supper, watched a movie, and talked.

 

 

 

Yesterday (Sunday) we with his family picked up donuts and had breakfast at a park while we fed many birds and a turtle.  We then went Sunday school and church where we heard an excellent sermon.  After church Everett and I went to another session of chemo at the hospital.  We were there a long time but had a blast talking, playing some games, meeting a nurse who takes blurry pictures (as seen below), and laughing.  After the session, we went back to Everett's apartment and said our goodbyes.

I am praising the Lord for a wonderful weekend and a very dear friend.  What a blessing it was to see him and to have a better understanding of his suffering.  I am starting to understand why Everett has been so heavy on my heart and why I think about and pray for Everett so often.  God is good.   I will continue.

 

I know many of you have been praying for him.  Please continue.