#2. Jan. 12, 2015

2015 Devotional. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith.  All Passages are from the NIV.

Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”.

This is a Psalm of thanksgiving and of praise to God. Further, it is a profile of God’s love and salvation for his people. It is one of the Messianic Psalms as expressed in verse 22, but I think verses 23 and 24 should also be included, although not referring to Jesus directly, it is the cause, “The Lord has done this” and the effect, extreme rejoicing and gladness in God in the day He makes.

What is the story behind Ps. 118? The Ps. begins and ends with: “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and his love endures forever”. Something big has happened! Could it be a God given victory over an exceedingly large enemy force?  Perhaps the finishing of the first or second temple overcoming overwhelming odds? Perhaps the finishing of the wall by Nehemiah? All those have been suggested but we really do not know.  They cried out to the Lord in trust and faith!  Nations surrounded them, they were cut off, they were swarmed like bees but in the name of the Lord they prevailed.  They are pushed back and falling but “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” This is a personal story. He “shouts of joy and of victory”, he is chastised of God but he is alive and enters the gates of righteousness. “You (O, God) have become my salvation”.

This is a personal story that anticipates our story and thus becomes our own story of salvation. We all have experienced Satan’s oppression; we are surrounded on every side, and sometimes are pushed back and fall.  We are not overwhelmed and are picked up; “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things”. We enter the gates  “where the righteous may enter”.  “The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes”.  Jesus, showing the religious leaders of His day the depth and the result of their unbelief quotes Ps. 118: 22,23 in Matt. 21:41-43.  A warning for today as well! By the grace of God we believe in Jesus and every day the Lord God has made is a time for service, for rejoicing and for gladness in Him.  Praise be to God!

#1. Jan. 5, 2015

2015 Devotional. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know”

by Freeman-Smith.  All Passages are from the NIV.

John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

These are the words of Jesus as he taught Nicodemus about the Kingdom of God.  Nicodemus was confused and he came to Jesus to try to understand His purpose. His confusion is understandable because Jesus is at odds with the religious establishment of the day. If Jesus came today as He did the first time He would associate with the down and outers: people addicted, the homeless, ex convicts, ladies on the wrong side of the law and society, like Nicodemus many religious people would be confused. Jesus’ and God’s plan for salvation is much more radical than some people are comfortable with.  Looking at God’s plan in John 3:16 shows us how radical it is.

Salvation comes from God! He promises it in Gen. 3:15. He is bringing it about in history, Gen. 18:17-19, and salvation comes to completion in this week’s passage.  It is all about God’s love (Rom. 5:8) for the world, it is not only about mankind.  The word “world” in Greek means the world, the universe, and mankind. God is redeeming His creation but here He concentrates on His creatures, men and woman.  God sacrifices Himself in Jesus Christ, not his “only Son” but “only begotten Son”. (The Greek: “only, unique”: but from early Christian history commentators thought that John uses this word as “the only begotten”). God’s Son, Jesus is the only worthy and perfect sacrifice that is acceptable to God.  Jesus is the last and ultimate sacrifice that is exemplified in the Old Testament and now once and for all is superseded by Jesus on the cross. Jesus is God’s gift to mankind (Isa.9: 6). We cannot contribute to our own salvation, not by church attendance, not by some perceived goodness; we have nothing to offer God. We simply believe in Christ, that is our response to God’s love. What is so radical is that salvation is extended to “whoever”! No one is excluded here, certainly not sinners because that includes all of us (Rom. 5:8). We simply must believe. Our believing is the work of God (Jn.6: 28-40)! We believe by the power of the Holy Spirit and in doing so we will not perish (the spiritual death of unbelievers) but have eternal life. Think about the men crucified with Jesus. One rejected Him, the other said “Lord remember me”. Jesus’ response, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:39-43) Praise be to God!

What does this passage mean for Christians?

1. We have assurance of salvation. There is nothing we can do to earn it nor is there anything we can do to lose it (Jn 10:28,29).

2. We have a message for the lost: God loves you and we love you!

3. Once you accept Jesus and believe in Him, nothing will be able to come between you and your Savior (Rom 8: 31-38). Amen and Amen!

We want to thank the staff of CRWM and we thank God for all our supporting churches!  What a blessing it is to have people praying for our safety and for God’s power in the work given us to do in and around the Bible School. Since our return the question is often asked: “Are you safe?” Well we feel safe in our place of service. We did not feel threatened at any time at the Bible School or in the surrounding area, or on our two trips to Jos and Abuja. Yet, violence is indiscriminate, and one could be at the wrong place at the wrong time. For us at the school there is no place to hide, there are no walls, no razor wire and no guards. A friend in the area wanted to get me a weapon for protection. I said no! I told him I don’t need a weapon, I am trusting in Jesus, there is no other place for us to go but to Jesus. I have spent one year in Vietnam, 25 years in Nigeria, and 70 years in life, we think God wants us to continue working but Satan wants to stop us with fear. 2 Timothy 1: 7 “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” and “love drives out fear” We continue to trust God but we must listen to the people we work with. The school has had two days of fasting and prayer to address the situation in another state and for the deteriorating security situation in the country. So far we do feel safe but we do not travel very much.

God has blessed our work, I taught from 8:00 am to 1:00 or 2:00 pm on the days I taught computer four days a week and one day was set aside for a TLT course for continuing education for Pastors, Evangelists and Gremar taught their wives. We also did a lot of work around the school. I installed two solar systems for the two staff houses and we planted around thirty trees at the school. The following was my schedule this year:

Term 2: Evangelism Methods, in Hausa and English

Old Test. Exegesis in Hausa and English

Pastoral Care in English,

Computer, Hausa and English classes together.

Term 3: The Heidelberg Cat. in Hausa and English

Christian Worship in Hausa and English

Bible Translation in English

Computer, Hausa and English classes together.

Gremar continued training the schools 3 health care workers, treating student families and neighboring families for malaria, dysentery, various infections and parasites, these being the main problems except this year many children suffered from whooping cough.  She encouraged prenatal care for the women in the area since many deliver at home alone. She also was called for one difficult delivery at a neighboring compound, but all turned out well, we thank God.

Gremar taught prenatal care and home delivery to the student wives for the two semesters, which the women found very helpful. She also expanded her work to include 3 Christian health care workers at three different locations with one still in training, to reach out to women’s health including prenatal care and deliveries, but also to emphasize our Christian witness. The response has been great.

This year we had 12 converts in compounds around the Bible School. They have been attending the chapel services at the school but no one asked them if they wanted to take the next step of baptism, 12 are now in the course to prepare for baptism. Converts face opposition: one typical story is about a friend of one of our students. We have been praying for him since his wife has taken their two children back to her father’s house, her father is a Muslim. She has little choice in the matter! The only way to get his wife and his children back, he must become Muslim. In the end that is what he did, but he says it is only temporary and is waiting for an opportunity to bring his wife back to Christianity. We continue to pray for him. Please continue to pray for the Bible School, for the staff and the students, classes begin next month. Pray for the church, for new converts, for the many Christians living in danger. Pray for peace in the country. Pray the ebola outbreak will be controlled and pray for our national missionaries stuck in Serra Leone due to the outbreak there. Thank you for shining God’s light, for joining with us by the power of His Spirit to light up many dark places.

The following are some of our most recent experiences, Gremar mostly. Some weeks are that kind of a week and what a week it was!

School is going well, students are getting anxious for the rains to start, we have had several good rains, and lots of wind and thunder and lightening storms, but everyone is looking forward to the big rain meaning about 4 inches of rain at once. Then students have one week off to plant their farms, return for the last few weeks before the school year ends.

We had our last TLTI session with all the pastors and evangelists and their wives, so now Thursdays will be a day off for both of us, more or less, probably less!

Maryamu, as you know from former conversations, has continued with school, even though her husband has dropped out. She lives at the school dorm during the week and is at home for the weekends. Well she has a son who is looking to marry this very young girl, about 15 if that, well she got pregnant and has been coming to me regularly for prenatal care along with another family member who is also pregnant, along with the young widow, Ester who lost her husband last year. We wrote about him, a new convert among traditional family members living near us. (Grief and Joy 1-10-13) Anyway this man’s brother married this widow, he already has a wife but traditionally there is a leveret marriage system. Ester has little choice if she wants to keep her two children. She is a new Christian and has been coming to church with her new husband and his wife and this young girl, and us ladies have had great talks about accepting Jesus as Lord of their lives! To make a long story short I was always worried about this young girl, could she deliver? Or in the middle of the night would we be driving to the hospital for a C/S? So I checked her pelvis and thought if she had a small baby we’d be OK, the Lord willing. She is very short, reaches up to my shoulder and has tiny feet! You may laugh but its true, small feet and small pelvis go hand in hand. Sorry you guys, this is girl talk. Anyway Thursday night 9 o’clock, sure enough, could I come? She is in labor! Others who come for antenatal care I tell them I do not do deliveries. But in this case, what could I do? Except of course go. It’s about a mile down a little path, past the dorms, past two other compounds, past sleeping cattle, sure enough all the women of the compound at the doorway of a little round grass roof house sitting, chatting, and inside alone this young girl in labor. I checked her; the head was nicely down, but only 3 cm, a long ways to go. Poor girl! So I told them it would probably be 5 or 6 in the morning before she’d deliver, and to call me at 5. Did I sleep? Of course not, might just as well stayed there for all the worry I did, anyway at 5 AM Maryamu called and away we went. Maryamu is the mother in law to be so there is a lot of “shame” for the young girl to see her so she couldn’t help me. Uma was now complete and pushed well, the mother of the young girl was there to hold my flashlight, and was very helpful. I explained everything I did and she let me do whatever I had to do, I broke the bag of water just before delivery, no meconium. The little baby girl delivered, but did not breath, was limp and blue. Prayers and mouth to mouth and after about 30 seconds, finally started to pink up and make feeble cries. I could have cried with thankfulness! I did when I got home, poor Case! He kept saying aren’t you happy, the baby lived! Yes of course, but emotions just get a hold of me too. Anyway, we all were very thankful, and we all prayed together. I went straight to bed when Case went to school to teach and I slept till noon. Then walked back to the compound to see how mom and baby were doing. I found the baby all nicely washed, powdered up and eye shadow and eyebrow liner on, lying all by herself on the mat on some cloth, bare naked and mother not in sight. The baby was cold but had nursed well, so Maryamu and I talked about how to keep newborns covered and warm, had some of the women of the compound feel her cold feet and hands! I gave them some soap and some outfits that I and Tina and Becky bought in California along with a little hat.

Gremar, Ester, Uma(new mom) and Uma’s mother.

So while marriage preparations may last up to a year or so, the young girl will stay in her parent’s compound but Maryamu is responsible for the little baby, and if for some reason they do not marry, then after the child is weaned the baby is hers to look after. Wow!

Then at 3PM a former student who graduated from the Hausa class, but knows English very well, who did not continue in the English sessions but moved on to Ibi and is enrolled in a health course there, came over. He recently returned here for his practical next month in the hospital about an hours drive from here. So in order to help him we are going through the “Where there is no Doctor ” book and we will see patients together. So there’s always something to keep us busy.

This AM I found a big dead scorpion on the front porch, Case was on the phone outside and killed a snake. Not only that we have these great big spiders, tan in color that are sooooo fast they must be about 3 inches long with long legs, (and I’m not exaggerating!) and every night we kill at least 3 or 4 of them as were are sitting relaxing, I tend to keep my feet up, I wonder why???? Anyway, this morning Case is putting a solar system in the Principals house so they can at least turn on a light at night. Hezron and Christy sure enjoy theirs!

Oh by the way, after we found good flour, the bread is great, but my cookies tasted terrible and whether I made peanut butter cookies or sugar cookies or oatmeal cookies they all tasted the same and I couldn’t figure out why. So I vowed to buy the cookies in the market, at least they taste better. Case finally said, there is a certain ingredient that you put in the cookies but not in the bread, what is it????? Well about a month ago I put my “old” baking soda in the fridge and opened a new one that we had brought out with us. Well, I looked and saw that it was baking soda for refrigerator deodorizer, and the package said “not to be used for baking”, well…no wonder the cookies tasted funny. So out came my B/S from the fridge and in went my new B/S so I hope the old still works since we don’t have any more! That will teach me to read the labels more carefully! We ate them anyway, you don’t throw away good food and we didn’t have any side effects.

News in Nigeria is not encouraging; please keep Nigeria and all of us here at the school in your prayers as you are in ours. Blessing to you all, love to you all, Case and Gremar