Greetings from Honduras,
So I had to go home to the United States at the end of April to attend a board meeting, finalize some personal business, that I learned recently, that cannot be attended to if you are out of the country. Even after 24 years on the field, I am still learning about that old adage my 94 year old Aunt Bess used to quote" It is hard to keep a fire burning in two different houses." Can it be done? Yes. Is it hard? Yes and amen.
I am thankful that I live in an age of the Apps, that I can see my kids grandchildren on Facebook, Marco Polo, Family Album. I can Text, Facetime, and Messenger. (I refuse snapchat, because it disappears. I have a hard enough time remembering where I saw or heard something)
I am a missionary, mom in-law, grandmother, friend, co-worker, director, associate, affiliate, cook, and a lot of other titles. With these apps on my computer, I can keep a tab on all of the above, but there still is a cost. With all these "Apportunities", you miss out on the intimacy of just hearing hearts.
Which brings me to the other thing God wanted to show me during my up and jumped trip. "Apparently", I work hard. I stay busy. I am on the go all the time. I am hurried, sometime hassled, and a lot of time frazzled because of all of the above. I do my devotions, that aren't that deep, and I pray when situations arise. However, my prayers are like dry season around here. We rake a lot of pine straw that falls on our mission as a precaution to fires. If a fire breaks out, we are on it. So when it is rainy season, I don't worry about it. God showed me a precautionary seasonal devotional doesn't fly with a total devotion to hearing from God and maintaining an intimacy with Him.
My Bible App isn't cutting it, even though it will read the Bible to me as I drive down the road, I feel totally justified that I am getting my Word in for the day, but my mind is divided. (I am driving after all) I can hear some of you saying now, that this explains my driving.
My prayer app was a total disaster, because you have to take time to type something in there. My prayer journal consisted of snippets of prayers, before I would fall into a deep sleep. I know this because of my Fitbit app tells me so. Then having the World Wide WEB available when you can't sleep was so much more interesting than having insomnia. I could at least find out what was going on in the rest of the world. Where I used to grab my Bible with a tiny pen light and pray when I couldn't rest, I would rest in my apps.
I am thankful to the Lord for making me come aside during my hurried life to show me that in my blessed "appsurance" Jesus was not mine. During, one of my sleepless midnight forays on the WWW I ran across an very old video tape of Leonard Ravenhill. His whole message was, Be focused on God, Pray, and Obey and leave the other distractions alone. He said a lot of other things, that cut straight through my bad "apptitudes" that I had adopted for my high tech devotional style. I am back again !!!!!
Please pray with me for our girls to finish their school year strong. Pray for the faithful teachers God is calling to a different area of work. Pray for me to trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. - old hymn.
Blessings from the on the move HOBO (Hearing, Obeying, Believing, Otra vez) Honduran MOM.
otra vez means "Again"
