“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28

Considering what horrible experiences many humans have to endure in their lifetime, I have lived a life relatively free of major pain and suffering. Certainly, it has not been without my share of heartbrake, difficulty and anxiety but mostly in the context of a safe, rich and full suburban US existence.

Next to losing a brother to suicide, one of the most painful experiences I’ve had was losing a dear friend (more like family) in a traffic accident. Though this, I do not believe, was an accident. She was run down on a well-lit, wide-open stretch of rode in the early morning hours by either a drunken, careless driver or a sadistic sociopath who pointedly gunned their car at her destruction. The thought of it, even right now, brings a dark anger upon my soul.

Poor Cici was our beloved 2.5 pound Yorkie. Just about the cutest/smartest little dog on the planet. I did not grow up with dogs but they came with my marriage to Eleni. None of our dogs over the years, however, drew out my affection like this one. She was special. But, while we were visiting my daughters’ family she disappeared.

From the guilt of negligently letting her somehow slip away, to finding her body crushed in the middle of the road, something inside of me broke. Why God? She was there, then she was gone.

Even now it sounds pathetic. The pain and depression was like nothing I had experienced before. I had to keep slapping myself to say this was not a child or a spouse or a friend or a relative or even another human being. It was just a dog.

What kept circling in my mind was Jack Nicholson’s character, Melvin Udall in the film, As Good As It Gets. Udall is forced to care for the neighbor’s dog for an extended period of time. Udall hated the dog. But, when the dog’s owner finally comes to take his dog back from Udall, the seemingly heartless and insensitive character begins to cry. Surprised by his rare emotional outburst, he chokes out, “Over a dog… over an ugly dog!”

When it happened, later that morning we had to face my 2-year-old granddaughter Stella to explain that Cici will never be back – she was there, then she was gone. It was heartbreaking. Ever since then both our Granddaughters include Cici in their prayers. We never encouraged it. They just started doing it.

The loss was particularly devastating to Eleni as Cici had become like another appendage, going everywhere she went. And, drawing crowds wherever she went. But, we chose to press in toward God and did not retreat. Still asking, “Why?” Yet, something lingered in my mind. Was this anything more than just a stupid consequence from living in a fallen world? Could God make something good from something that felt sooo bad?

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Now, 2+ years later we are back once more visiting our daughter and her family. We came to stay with the Grandkids while their parents went off on vacation. But, before the parents left we were blessed to be a part of our Granddaughters’ Dedication Ceremony at a special place called Family Church. A church not unlike our own wonderful home church. Seeing this body of believers come around our family, committing to support them in their Christian walk was awesome.

That evening, Eleni and I prayed with the kids as they were going to bed. Cici was again included in their prayers. We mentioned what a special event their Dedication was and that we hoped to see Cici again when we go to heaven. (Hey, it’s my hope and you’ll have to prove otherwise) I thought we were all done and left the room. But, Eleni stayed answering Stella’s questions about Cici and heaven.

The conversation led naturally for Eleni to pray a certain prayer with Stella. They both then marched downstairs to where I was sitting. Eleni asked her to tell me what she had just done. This precious little girl sweetly announced, “I prayed for Jesus to come into my heart.” I melted.

It took me back to the day we prayed the same prayer with Stella’s mom as a young girl. As Christians it is everything that we hope and pray for, for those we love – to enter into and enjoy a personal relationship with the living God.

Two + years ago, it was nearly impossible for me to think that any good could come from the random loss of that cherished little friend. How could I know that Cici’s life and death (a death not of God’s doing) would be used by God to trigger questions about life and death and eternity-with-God in a little girl’s heart leading to spiritual rebirth. Wow!

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 9 Jesus and the Disciples come upon a blind man and the Disciples ask a theological question – Jesus’ disciples asked, “Teacher, why was this man born blind? Was it because he or his parents sinned?”

I like the CEV translation best – “No, it wasn’t!” Jesus answered. “But because of his blindness, you will see God work a miracle for him.” John 9:2-3

In other words; Forget about what happened to make this man blind. Focus now on the goodness and power of God to restore this man.

For Cici, God was whispering in the midst of our pain, Don’t dwell on the evil in this world, but trust in my righteousness and power to make something good from it.

Thank you Jesus for your loving sacrifice to save our souls and for your masterful handiwork.

And, in memoriam I thank Cici for her sacrifice that God used to birth eternal life into our Stella.

For the love of Cici.

Until we meet again my little friend.

 

 

 

“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:23–24

I’ve been on several Short-Term Missions trips with my church and have concluded that there are 3 reasons to go (Besides the overarching call of the Great Commission) 1. To love-on and share the Good News with the people of the region, 2. To encourage and support the Missionaries in the Field and 3. To experience God while stripped of our familiar and comfortable surroundings.

I’m not sure we put as much value to the 3rd reason as we should. If we desire to see God in fresh new ways this is powerful stuff. Why?

My theory is that in the US our spiritual lives struggle to break through the layers and layers of materialism, comforts, pressures and distractions – worldly stuff. When we go off to a 3rd world-like place with our focus on God’s Kingdom much of that is stripped away leaving the spiritual realm much closer to the surface. (Just my humble opinion)

This past January, my Brother-In-Christ, Albert joined a short-term missions trip from our church. The following is his story.

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Guest Blog Post by Albert Choi

I have been on a personal journey to learn about and to experience God’s power to heal and restore.  Coming from a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) academic discipline focus, it was something that challenged me on many levels. Recently, my friend Eric approached me in church and asked if I’d join him on a mission trip to visit his daughter, Becca serving in Nigeria. I prayed about it and called him back to say “yes.” On the phone he somewhat sheepishly replied, “I hope the fact that I won’t be going won’t change your mind.” Hmm? – the old “Bait and Switch.”

Our mission team would visit Missionary Peter Fretheim to explore and support the many wonderful ministries they have serving the Nigerian people. I knew relatively little about their ministries but had developed some expectations based on the anecdotal stories I had heard as well as Peter’s own description during a visit to our church.

Our team of a dozen arrived in Nigeria. The itinerary was filled with a Vacation Bible School, visits to a prison and a number of orphanages.

We were also blessed to be there for the arrival of the new bunkbeds provided through Becca’s efforts to answer God’s call to meet this basic need. Each experience was tremendous for different reasons, but due to time constraints, we were somewhat limited in how much time we could dedicate to each visit. I felt a growing desire to more directly minister to the Nigerian people.

The last day involved another quick visit – this time to a Women’s Health Clinic. We had perhaps 30 minutes at most to observe the work there and contribute as we saw fit. I’m a bit humbled to say that I wondered, “Why are we even bothering?” There was no real plan to do anything there and what could you do in 30 minutes anyway?

We arrived at the clinic and walked through. I was told that there were typically about 100 women receiving care, but today there were only about 20 women.  Our pastor asked one of us to share a devotion through our interpreter named, Patience. When our allotted time concluded, I sensed an urge to minister individually to these women so I asked the interpreter, Patience, “Do any of the women want us to pray for them now?”

She left to ask the women and returned to me and answered, “Yes.”

I was a little confused, “Yes, what? How many want prayer?”

She shrugged, “They all do.”

Oh! So, the team agreed to break up into small groups and each group pray for a few women.

I connected with a young, energetic teammate named Chris. We walked over to the first woman and asked what was wrong. She had a headache and stomach pain. We each prayed a short prayer for healing. I then asked how she felt. She smiled and said, “I feel better and the pain is gone.” We looked at each other and grinned. Cool!

We went to the next woman. She had bad knees. We held our hands over her knees and prayed short, simple prayers for God’s healing. When we were done, I asked her to do something she couldn’t do before we prayed. She then dropped down to kneel on the concrete floor and then jumped back up. She beamed, “I could not do that before.” She was healed.

Chris and I were excited – 2 for 2!

We went to the next woman. She had bad back pain. Something I had learned from prior experience was that bad back pain may be due to a difference in leg length – one shorter than the other. I asked her to extend her legs with her back against the wall. We looked and clearly one leg was about ½ inch shorter than the other. We closed our eyes and prayed commanding that the leg would grow like I had seen other ministries do numerous times before. When I opened my eyes, her legs were now identical length. The woman declared that her back pain was gone.

Amazing!  God was really rolling. Tears began streaming down my cheeks at the reality of God’s handiwork.

The last woman was a bit resistant, but she still wanted prayer from us – we learned that she is a Muslim. She had trouble with cloudy vision and pain around her eyes. We prayed in Jesus’ name and the pain began to subside, but her vision was still cloudy.  We prayed again and she then declared that the pain was gone but her eyesight was still cloudy. We left praying and trusting that God would finish the job. (When home a week later we heard from Becca that the woman’s sight had been completely restored.)

Chris and I were in a state of wonderful shock. This was new to the both of us. We had never experienced God responding so immediately and in such a rapid-fire way to our prayers for healing. Our faith had now become evidence for our belief.

We returned home from a fruitful trip, supporting amazing missionaries and their ministry and for me to observe first hand, the wonderful power of God.

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who expect and look and long for Him!” Isaiah 30:18

Follow-up to Albert’s story:

Months later I returned to Nigeria with a medical team that has been faithfully going to Nigeria for many years. The team was to perform hundreds of medical and dental procedures bringing hope and healing in Jesus’ name to many. Another tremendous ministry!

About 20 years ago, this ministry added a Prayer Tent that required every patient to receive spiritual counselling and prayer as a part of the overall medical treatment. The tent is manned by the pastor from the largest Evangelical church in Nigeria and prayer warriors that travel upwards of 3 hours to pray for patients.  I spent a fair amount of time in that tent and witnessed deliverance and miraculous healings. Hundreds were healed over the course of several days and three people actually raised from wheelchairs that they had occupied for years (including one pastor).

I spent some time with the pastor asking him about God’s miraculous power and sharing a little about seeing God do miracles back in America. He was surprised. I was confused. I asked, “What are you surprised about?”

He replied, “I have never heard about miracles happening there. I thought that this just does not happen in America.”

Now I was the one surprised! I smiled and assured him that God uses people and places in America to move in this way.

So, this past year I have been blessed and privileged to see and participate (in a brand new and exciting journey) with God working in many ways, in different ministries, in the same country, and yes, even in America.  Ministries that are being faithful to God’s calling of how he wants them to minister right where he has planted them.

Perhaps one of the lessons about God doing the miraculous I have learned is this:

God is the same everywhere – it has almost nothing to do with the “where” we find ourselves, rather, it has everything to do with trusting in the “who” – the one who gives us authority as His children.

I learned that God doesn’t need a fancy agenda or a half day in-depth game plan.  I think he just needs us to listen and to have confidence in what we hope for and have assurance in things we don’t yet see.

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I would say that Albert’s experience was summed up well by the writer of Romans who said,

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen,”

*** ANNOUNCEMENT ***

JUST RELEASED – my newest short novel (novelette) of Historical Fiction, entitled:

The Battle of Mohegan Bluffs.

It is an account pieced together from various historical sources chronicling the fight between the Block Island (Manissean) Indians and the invading Mohegans. This battle led to the naming of the Island’s famous bluffs located at the Southeast corner of the island.

This book is Part One in a series of novelettes depicting the major events that led to the eventual founding of Block Island, RI. Many believe that Block Island was the first true Democracy in America. These pioneer settlers sought to escape Puritan oppression to establish a loving Christian community that would allow each resident to freely worship God, or not, as their conscience led.

The events in this story predate European settlement but involves the native Indian’s universal struggles over good and evil and the fight for freedom. In an earlier post, I included a Lakota Indian prayer (Nice Country, America! – July 2, 2019) that highlights what many animist tribal people groups also attest to – the evidence around them that there is a Supreme Being who is active in their lives.

If you are a Block Island lover or just interested in early American history brought to life, you may enjoy this fast-paced read. An excerpt from the book is included below. The action takes place on Block Island (Known by the Indian natives as Manisses). It features an exchange between Asesakes, a young Manissean brave and Jacquantu, the tribe’s old sachem (chief).

Available for purchase on Amazon as an E-Book or in Paperback.

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