Monday, June 11, 2018

Was It Worth It? Would We Do It Again? (Tweener Years #4)



“Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves” (Rom. 15:1). 

Hey Gang:  I have just reread the last three blogs and feel the need to add a period to what I shared in these epistles.   I love Nehemiah.  If I have a model that I have tried to follow in my years of serving the King of kings and Lord of lords, it is Nehemiah.

 He was given the nearly impossible task of restoring the walls to Jerusalem.  But now the restoration of the walls had been completed, the only thing remaining was the restoration of the gates (Neh. 6:1), when he received an invitation to meet with his enemies.   His answer to them, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.  Why should the work stop while I leave and come down to you?” (Neh. 6:3). His prayer, “But now, O God, strengthen my hands”.

When God called, it was a call to my entire family - for they would sacrifice in the same measure that their parents did.  And how did they respond?  They have picked up the vision of their parents and have also made the vow ‘not come down from the wall’ as long as God give direction and strength and there is a child out there who needs their help.

From the moment we left California to pick up the gauntlet, throw out a life line to youth who had needs, we have experienced crisis, heart ache, sacrifice and daily challenges as a way of life.  I tell you this, not to say that my family and I are anything special, but rather for the faithfulness of God for in every crisis, heartache and sacrifice -His provision was there. 

From a freeze plug in the middle of the night in Reno, Nevada, to a generator in a tiny cross road shop in Elko, Nevada, that had been out of business for years but just happened to have a generator for a fifteen-year-old Econo van, God’s provision was always there. 

June 2018, we will celebrate fifty years of throwing out life-lines to hurting kids and families. We have been blessed to hear from many of our past kids and staff.  One, who has been very successful recently came and spoke to our kids in chapel. He told the story of when and how he turned his life around.  

He said, “One day I was having an especially tough day, and my house parent sent me to work at the barn.  There I ran into a kid just two years older than I.  He handed me a pitch fork and told me to clean the dung from the horse pens.  Later, he added, “While you are cleaning out the horse dung, you might want to see where the dung in your life has taken you.”  He also said, “With each pitch fork of dung you pitch, you might consider adding a chunk out of your own life.”  I learned that day, from a kid by the name of David Hainley, that action is needed to make a change in your life! Words often just do not fit.”



Our challenge to you from the Hainley family: “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?  And how will they hear without a preacher” (Rom. 10:14).  Do you realize you are the only Bible and witness of God that many will see?  Are you prepared to hand someone who is hurting a pitch fork?

Yes, For us it was worth it!, Yes, we would do it again!

Blessings,

Gramps

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