WEEPING AT THE WALL

Is it the pain of losing her parents that makes her sit quietly weeping facing the wall?

Did something happen to her that she knows will probably happen again--and again?

Will the missionaries and local staff that run this Children's Cup CarePoint be able to protect her and guard her health and get past the pain?

She's one of 14 million in Africa.

SSSSNAKE!

Even the word snake has a kind of sybilant hiss of hell sound to it.

This snake was killed at our house in Swaziland. It is shown here beside a ruler that is about 18 inches long.

Is there such a thing as a non-deadly snake in Africa? Part of me is always sure they are deadly. I hate 'em!

For many Africans the symbolism is deadlier than the snake may be. One of our staff killed this snake. Her frightened friends and family told her that now she was cursed.

They said the witchdoctor that lived across the street from us had sent the snake to get us. They believed that by killing it she became cursed.

This sweet, God-fearing lady resigned and left our home never to come back.

That's how deep the hold of culture and superstition and fear of the satanic is in Africa.

Here's the antidote for that fear, "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."
I John 4:4

GOSSIP

Don't be fooled.

If people will gossip to you about others, they will gossip to others about you.

HAVE YOU BEEN BETRAYED?

Yesterday was an awesome day for the Body of Christ.

The new Healing Place Church we just started in Mbabane, Swaziland, had a profound sweep of God's Spirit--every life was changed!

I have a sense that churches all over the world had a singular move of God yesterday.

Back here in America Jean and I were at Celebration Church, Georgetown, Texas--one of our favorites.

Pastor Joe Champion preached about dealing with betrayal--something each of us have faced or will face. One of the powerful points he made was the need to understand that when we are betrayed we, indeed, enter into one of the deepest relationships we can have with Jesus. He knows what betrayal is.

The "Fellowship of His suffering" becomes more than a phrase in a scripture. It is a closer level of intimacy with the Son of God.

And Christ's words and actions demand that we forgive the betrayer.

WHAT TIME WILL DO

Time will do for you what you make it do.
It will do to you what you allow it to.

TAKE UP YOUR CROSS

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24

Too often we get it wrong. We think of our cross only as an onerous, bitter burden.

The cross is what Jesus was sent to earth to do. Our cross is what He has put us on earth to do--which is the ultimate privilege.

Jesus carried His cross looking toward the joy that was set before Him.

We should, too.

A DOG'S PARTING SHOT

It may be funny now, but it wasn't then.

Several of us were at a grass landing strip near Chipinge, Zimbabwe, waiting for Pastor Dino Rizzo, his wife and a Zimbabwe official to arrive by Cessna. We had placed our travel bags in group at the end of the runway (off to the left outside the photo).

A mangy bush dog came near. It's never smart to trust a bush dog and I didn't trust him.

The dog locked eyes with me. He could tell I didn't want him there. He walked over to the bags, sniffed around until he found mine. He looked me in the eye again, lifted up his leg, peed on my bag, and walked off.

I'm still not sure it's funny.

"THAT'S WHEN THE FIGHTS START"

The refugee camp was growing daily--eventually to 65,000 people.

We started providing food and medical care, but we knew it was important to bring the Good News of the Gospel to these hurting people. So we asked the officials if we could set up a church in the camp.

"Not possible," they responed. "When you have a church that is when the fights start."

Their words took my breath away. Partly because they were so final and partly because I knew they were true.

I knew we'd have to prove we were different. The opportunity arose out of the need for crowd control. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of people would crowd in to get our help.

We asked a pastor to come help us by leading the waiting crowds in singing--Africans love to sing and their sound stirs one's soul.. He taught them to sing songs with the message of salvation and healing.

A wonderful thing happened--as the refugees sang the words of Jesus into their own hearts the squabbles and fights in the camp were greatly reduced.

Months passed and the officials came to us asking if we could start a church in a building they would provide--and they would give us a place for the pastor to live in the camp.

So many people accepted Christ that when the Mozambique war ended and the refugees were repatriated, there were enough believers that they started 16 churches and ministry points in their home neighborhoods.

"SOMEPLACE WHERE YOU'VE NEVER BEEN BEFORE"

"Launch out. Let your faith take you someplace you've never been before!"

My heart is stirred

I'm watching Alvin Slaughter sing these words right now. Alvin is a friend to Children's Cup and one of my favorite ministers.

Thank you, Alvin, for once again challengeing my heart with your singing.

A BAD TRADE

Is there anything the devil could offer you for which you would trade your soul?

HARD QUESTION

Is there anything God could ask you for you wouldn't give Him?

A MISSIONARY PILOT'S LAST FLIGHT

Yesterday missionary pilot George Davis has took his last flight—not in a Cessna or a King Air this time, but in a chariot to heaven.

Age and a mean disease took his life.

George played a major role in my life. In 1969 he preached the sermon that fanned the embers of a call to missions in my life into a blaze.

Later he asked me to climb into his Cessna airplane and do a speaking tour around the Caribbean and South America for a month. He taught me how to navigate and fly. This picture of George, his wife Billie, and La Gloria was taken just before George and I climbed in and took off.

That trip set the course for the rest of my life.

George urged Jean and me to contact Delmar Guynes of the Assemblies of God Foreign Missions Department to begin the process that led to our missionary appointment.

Later in our careers we served together on the board of International Correspondence Institute in Brussels, Belgium. There we began a one-on-one chess tournament that lasted for years. I seldom won.

He was a man of honor and humor and I’m sorry to lose him.

…sorry for me but not for him.

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER

It still remains to be seen what God could do through one individual who totally, absolutely surrenders his life to Him.

JESUS' TOUCH

Damp tear trails streaked down the faces of Bethlehem's orphaned children. A hand that would soon know the nails reached down and wiped the tears away.

Africa's orphans still feel that tender touch of His hands as our missionaries reach out and touch thousands of hurting little ones. Tears dry up as the hands of the lady, the man, the child from way across the sea reach out in love.

Children whose first instinct is to shrink back in fear from a stranger's touch soon reach back accepting the love and message the missionary brings.

Jesus' touch changed the little one's lives--and it still does as we reach out in His Name.

...as you enable us.

EXPERIENCING THE MIRACULOUS

Some have said it makes the hair on the back of their neck stand up.

Others get goose-bumps (sometimes called “glory-bumps”).

For some, tears well up in their eyes.

I’m talking about encountering an undeniable miracle of God in your life—real time.

For all of us these are moments never to be forgotten.

The first reaction may be excitement bordering on being giddy as the pulse quickens and the mind races.

Sometimes there’s an insidious voice of the enemy in the back of your mind that keeps nagging you to reaffirm that you still truly believe and, if you do, to prove what you believe.

In these miracle moments that voice retreats yelping like a kicked dog.

As the awe and glow in your mind and spirit linger you have a growing awareness of how unworthy you are of such an experience. On that cue the yelping dogs turn and snarl back reminding you of your weaknesses and how you do not deserve God’s favor.

Quickly your spirit senses the voice of the Presence of God in you saying, “It’s not about you, it’s about what My Son did for you and purchased for you on the cross. There is not one that deserves this—Jesus gave it to you.”

Then you begin to ask yourself, “Why? What does this mean? God does not waste His power in random display—it is always for a purpose. What does He want me to do?”

Jean and I have had several close encounters with the immediate display of God’s sovereign power in recent days. The awe remains but the giddiness is fading and is being replaced by one of the heaviest of all questions, “What does God want me to do next?”

We feel a stirring expectation deep in our souls. I sometimes sense Him asking me if I trust Him enough to expect to see His healing power sweep through a generation of innocent children infected with AIDS.

Do I believe enough to ask Him to stun the world with how He heals the precious, hurting little ones?

Children’s Cup takes care of as many as 8,000 hurting children daily. What keeps us from doing what Peter did at the Gate Beautiful? He told the lame man, “Silver and gold have I none but such as I have I give you.” And the lame man walked.

Can I truly, or maybe the question should be, “will I” move forward in the expectation we will see this happen?

God help me—like the man said, “Lord, I do believe, help Thou mine unbelief.”

THE SUPERNATURAL

I believe we are approaching a time when, for committed believers, it will be natural to walk in the supernatural and visible demonstration of God's power.

UNDENIABLE MIRACLE

Yesterday, Jean and I were having lunch in Louisiana. She read me an email from Ben in Swaziland off of her i-Phone. Ben had sent copies of two letters written to a lifelong friend of ours by two Swazi girls she sponsers.

We know these girls and we know how dramatically our friend's help has changed their lives. Both Jean and I teared up as she read the letters. No, teared up isn't strong enough. We wept and thanked God for our friend.

I spoke up, "Our friend needs to know this. We need to call her and read the letters to her."

Absolutely, the next thing that happened was Jean's phone rang--it was our friend who sponsors the girls callng from Iowa. She had no idea we had received the letters and wanted to call her.

Our friend rejoiced with us and then said, "The reason I've called is to add another child to my monthly support and to inquire about other needs."

There is another level of awe for me in this story. Three hours before the phone call I had read the Old Testament account of God providing the daily manna for the children of Israel. He told them to gather only one day's worth, to trust Him to keep the provision coming.

We are in a time of challenge in our Children's Cup budget and I sensed God telling me to quit my worry--He will continue to provide.

LEO OUR LEOPARD

We miss old Leo. He is our leopard pelt that we must leave in Swaziland. US laws won't allow us to import him.

Friends in Zimbabwe were given permission to kill the leaopard because he was killing their domestic farm livestock.

Leopards are part of the fabled "Big Five" group of game animals in Africa.

Even as a bed cover, the leopard is a very dramatic animal.

Pleasant dreams...

MY DAD, FRED OHLERKING

I've been thinking about my father a lot lately.

Shortly before he died at 93 years old he said, "Son, life is so short!"

Dad traveled the world. Wherever he went he led people to know Jesus as Savior.

Quite a heritage...