Steadfast

I think that one of the most underrated things in life is faithfulness and steadfastness.  So much talk of change, reform and the rhetoric of the two but where is the faithfulness?  Where is the steadfast commitment to dance with the one who brought us so to speak?  I grow weary of speeches that are nothing more than a flash in the pan that have no substance even while they are being spoken.  I’d like to see someone stand for the principles that are so much under assault these days.  You cannot have morality apart from God nor can you wring your hands about how the Constitution is out of date while it’s straying from its principles that has put us in the mess that we are in now.  I have been reading an excellent book called:  “The Real George Washington” that talks about all the things that brought us to and through the Revolutionary war.  It seems that George Washington has been brought low by many today who suggest or openly say he was just some lousy slave owning polytheistic despot.  Reading his true history and writings you quickly find that none of these things are true…but this is all in the book so I digress.  The one thing that caught my eye recently in my reading was where the book mentioned the two foundational pillars in the Constitution which were 1) The existence of God and His naturally established order in this earth and 2) The citizens of a republican nations must be virtuous and moral.  Benjamin Franklin said:  “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.  As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”  I believe this is not only true of nations but of people on a personal level.  We cannot have morality without God nor God without morality.  Thus the conundrum that our nation and so many others find themselves in today.  We forsake basic morals and try to appease this mistake by saying all things are equal and thus become more and more corrupt which in the end leads to chaos.  I don’t care if you’re talking personally or nationally:  this is a recipe for disaster.  All of these things being said I stand on the principles of our founders…I believe in them and will endeavor to do my best to follow their lead.  On a ministry level I’ve never found a ministry more true to Godly principle than Eagle Ministries International.  We have always done our best to listen to the voice of God and follow that through good times and bad to see its fulfillment.  It is important to surround ourselves with such people and to remain steadfast.  Africa is a shining example of hearing something from God and following it through even twenty years after our last trip there!

 

Our last trip to Africa led us to another church.  This one is the church of Pastor Christopher Kuma.  They were having some traditional African singing going on before we started ministering for the day.  The male vocalist was particularly strong.  Often men and women alike twirl hankies as they move to the rhythm of the music.  Pastor Christopher gave some edification before the service moved on…note the poster on the back wall showing my big African brother being the speaker of coming meetings.  Travel too and from where we needed to go often found us in heavy traffic with intense heat beating down on the bus.  I seldom got pictures because not everyone likes to have their picture taken but I did get this to give an idea of the road we traveled on.  Coming home from long journeys like this was a precious thing especially when a snake of fried plantain awaited us!  I particularly like sprinkling Johnny Salt on it that I brought from America for a sweet/spicy treat!  Plantain looks a lot like large bananas and is often served with African dishes.  We have been hard pressed to find it here though Walmart does carry it on occasion…lately it’s been awful though.  I’m still not over my obsession with tropical plants.  They have a unique look especially to those of us that live in the cold so much of the year here in Montana!  Just look at the hand of God’s artistry here!  Some blossoms had such huge petals that they seemed like a pink pile of rags!  Others were more delicate like the wildflowers I’m used to seeing in the mountains here.  Sometimes the sun beat down so intensely that flowers looked like little suns themselves…now I miss that heat.  How I wish I could have shown these pictures to my grandparents while they were still alive…perhaps they would have known what these plants wereThis tree would bleed white syrupy liquid if it was even barely scratched.  I was particularly surprised to see cactus here…the thorns look vicious but were actually very soft and rubbery.  I told the kids that I thought this looked like “Mickey Mouse Cactus”.  The lizards loved to hide in the cactus to avoid the attention we were giving them.  These are some of the peppers that give so many Ghanaian dishes a lively bite!  I hope your day has a lively bite to it as well!