Scenic Stop

We always enjoy stopping at the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia.  I think this was the first time the kids enjoyed the view with us.

On Safari

The Damon family gives an A+ to Hidden Valley Animal Adventures for an engaging and interactive “field trip”.  Go early when the animals are still enticed by the sound of your plastic feed cup, and you’ll be sure to get face to face with all kinds of unusual creatures (from the safety of your trolley, of course).  Then take the kids to the petting zoo to meet the smaller critters and a real, live zonkey.  Just a word of caution:  Don’t wear white—especially if the water buffalo are still in the mood for a snack.  Your nose will soon tell you, that isn’t just mud on his tail!

The Ol’ Homestead

One of the best parts of visiting New York, is spending time on the Damon family homestead.  The old 2-story farm house where Grandpa grew up is gone now. Just the grown-in remains of a basement still testify to its previous existence.  But the acres upon acres of hills and trees just beg to be explored.  Jon nurses many a fond memory of when his family used to camp out there for days on end.  Real camping—the kind where you build your own shelter, cook over an open fire, drink water from the spring and bathe in the pond.  (That is if you bother bathing at all….)

But now that Grandpa is getting up there in years <said with a big grin and the expectation of retribution>, his homemade camping shelter is getting a little more elaborate.  Plans for a 20’ x 20’ log cabin are underway, and we all got to help a little bit on its progress.  (Well, I think my only input was in the area of morale support.)  We didn’t get to see it finished, but if nothing more happens at least Grandpa will have the finest tent platform in all of Western NY.  <smile>

I’ll Be a Donkey’s Owner…

“As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives.  Jesus sent two of them on ahead.  “Go into the village over there, “ he said  “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt beside it.  Untie them and bring them to me.  If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.”  --Matthew 21:1-3 NLT

I’ve seen various representations of this Scripture portion and most seem to portray this mysterious donkey owner as either a lackey or excessively naive.  I like Dr. Joel R Beeke’s description however.

“On the outskirt of the city, Jesus sends two disciples to a nearby village to fetch a female donkey and her colt.  The owner of these animals, although unknown to the disciples, is on close terms with Christ, believing in His mission.  Merely hearing ‘the Lord hath need of them’ (Matt. 21:3 KJV) is enough for the man to permit his animals to be led away.”  Tabletalk, September 2008.

While visiting the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte recently, I caught a glimpse of why Rev. Graham been called “the world’s best-loved evangelist”.  Few people today have had such opportunities to preach the Truth to presidents, kings, and world leaders--not to mention the millions upon millions of “common” men.  If God was still writing the book of Acts, I’ve little doubt Billy Graham’s name would show up frequently.

Which left me wondering….  Would my name appear anywhere?  Likely not, and to tell the truth, I’m not sure I’d want it too.  I can’t say I’m ready to accept all the trials and tribulations of Paul, or endure martyrdom like Peter and James.  I don’t think I’d even like the fame and public life of a preacher like Billy Graham.

But I do long for the day when I hear my Father say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  So if I was in the Bible, I’d like it to be like that anonymous donkey owner.  Not someone in the limelight, just someone close to Jesus that can be trusted to come through for him when given a task.  And in short…that’s why we keep plodding down this road that we hope will bring us to Papua New Guinea.

Prescription: Popsicles

Our son had surgery last week to remove an extra tooth growing in his upper gum.  If it hadn’t been causing trouble with its neighbors, I might have suggested we leave it in there just in case.  Isaiah might fall in that 30% of children that knock out, fracture or otherwise injure their hard-working chompers.  Always nice to have a spare, right?

Anyway, after the procedure, the surgeon sent him home with a prescription for a pain killer and lots of popsicles.  Fortunately, I was well prepared because our family consumes ice pops like a Ford Excursion guzzles petrol.  <That’s for you, Anthony>  And although, these frozen treats are great on a hot day, the store-bought kind consist mostly of sugar, food dyes and scary ingredients I don’t know how to pronounce.  Granted…I’m talking about the store-bought kind in my price range.

So we started making our own, and found out that if you have a blender, they’re really fun to make and eat.  You can freeze the pops in special molds, small plastic cups and sticks, or even ice cube trays and toothpicks.  Here are some of our favorite experiments…

“You Can’t Eat Strawberries Without Bananas”

(must say with a Swedish accent)

• 3 cups chopped strawberries
• 3 bananas
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 to 2 tablespoons honey or raw agave nectar (to taste)

Blend strawberries and bananas together until smooth.  Add lemon juice and honey and blend for a few more seconds.  Pour into pop molds.

 

Peaches N’ Cream

• 3 cups chopped, peeled peaches
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk

Blend ingredients until smooth and pour into pop molds.

 

Chocolate Banana

• 3 bananas
• 2 cups dark chocolate almond milk

Blend ingredients until smooth and pour into pop molds.

 

Mango Mint

• 2 very ripe mangos chopped (or squished)
• 4 chopped, peeled peaches or nectarines (use that disappointing fruit you bought on sale at the grocery store)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves

Blend ingredients until smooth and pour into pop molds.

 

Summertime

• 2 cups chopped strawberries
• juice of 2-3 limes
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup ice

Blend ingredients until smooth and pour into pop molds.

This last recipe is our family’s favorite and is based on Anni Daulter’s “Pure Sunshine” recipe in her book, Ice Pop Joy.  I just like the lime juice better than the lemon she suggests.  Anni has lots of other great popsicle recipes.  I highly recommend, “Happiness”, “Heavenly”, and “Blackberry Swirl”.  Oh, and “Peanut Butter & Chocolate Classic” and….

Tok Sori

During 2010, the Ukarumpa center (where we live in Papua New Guinea) and neighboring village were under significant criminal activity—house break-ins and invasions on an almost nightly basis. Of course, it was a very stressful time for the local people and our colleagues alike, but God was at work nonetheless.

Over Easter 2011, one of the village pastors conducted an evangelistic crusade. As a result, the criminals wanted to apologize to the director of our organization in PNG. The village pastors recognized, however, that the young men would still need to make a public apology to all the people who were impacted by their former criminal activities. Praise God that public apology took place on July 2, 2011.

On that Saturday a number of our colleagues went to the neighboring village. The local pastors prayed and preached from God’s Word. The former criminals presented a drama that demonstrated how they had turned their lives over to Jesus, and they closed with a song that spoke of Jesus as being their only friend. Then each young man publicly apologized for his crimes and the hurt that he had caused. A few made a point to apologize directly to the owners of the houses they had broken into.

The village community then gave a tremendous gift of garden food—their traditional demonstration of love. It took two vehicles to bring the gift back to Ukarumpa center where it was presented to all our colleagues during the Sunday morning meeting.

The worship service that morning overflowed with testimonies of how God was at work in their own hearts! Some of our colleagues recognized and repented of their lack of faith and belief in how God works through prayer. Some commented on a lack of balance between justice and grace and forgiveness by the missionaries at the Ukarumpa center.

But as the director stated in his report of the recent events in PNG—”We are all on a journey” of spiritual growth—those serving in PNG, the Papua New Guineans themselves, and even those here at home who support the work of Bible translation through gifts, prayers and encouragement. Our prayer is that this story of revival in PNG will be an encouragement to you as you make that journey.

*Adapted story and photos taken from a report by Tim Lithgow, director of SIL-PNG.  The pidgin term “tok sori” means repentance, or an apology—literally “talk sorry”.

Cherishing the Ordinary

Thursday was just one of those days where I had to stop and thank God for making it ordinary.  Ordinary doesn’t happen often in our family.  We really don’t do normal around here much.  Probably because “here” changes so often.  Nothing very special happened yesterday….

In the morning Claire and Isaiah participated in the summer activities held for the missionary kids here at JAARS.  They meet with other kids to play games, do crafts, learn Bible verses and swim.  Now that Isaiah is riding a two-wheeler without training wheels, they go by bike.  I think that’s one of those “rites of passage” for a boy isn’t it?  Some pretty Big Stuff parked his bike in front of the activity building that morning!

Jon also went very eagerly off to play work at the aviation hangar.  A spankin’ brand-new Kodiak airplane sits in its shade while “Mr. Project Coordinator” happily oversees its preparations for Papua New Guinea.  It’s even got that “new car” smell.  I know.  I checked.  And we know what that smell does to the male species—suddenly the whole world is a much brighter place.  <grin>

Mommy meanwhile enjoyed the quiet alone with the Bible and a cup of Scottish Breakfast Tea.  Time for reflection on a chapter in Matthew turned out to be very helpful when a friend called later to chat.  (I love it when God arranges real life application of something I just read in his Word.)

I washed dishes, wrote e-mails, and fetched children.  We all ate lunch together.  The kids and I played games.  I refereed bickering matches, picked up dirty laundry, looked for missing toys, helped Claire make chocolate chip cookies, and ate too many.  We apologized to the neighbor boy, washed four very dirty feet, watched PBS Kids, read bedtime stories and listened to the thunder.

At the end of the day, (after kissing two watermelon-scented foreheads goodnight), I determined to record this day and save it under “Days I Want to Cherish”.  It wasn’t perfect.  It wasn’t all fun, and it definitely wasn’t spectacular.  It was, however, blissfully ordinary and for that I find I’m very thankful.