November 2003

"I have become a marvel to many, for You are my strong refuge."
Psalm 71:7

Dear Saints and Aints.

Shalom.

The squeaking of my computer chair mingles with the voices of some kids playing cricket. The noise is subdued as most of the kids have gone home or to friends on the occasion of the Divali holiday.

The sun, filtering through the gently moving leaves of the old almond tree, winks at me. A hummingbird, its beak deeply inserted in a bell-shaped flower, whips up a minor storm trying to stay in place while feeding. I never cease to wonder whether so much effort for so obviously little gain isn't counter productive. Apparently nobody told the bird because it keeps dashing from flower to flower with its wings in a tizzy. Maybe it is only the dessert and picking the odd unsuspecting bug off branch and leaf is the main course . . .
I stretch, I yawn - another beautiful day.

Watching the hummingbird I wonder if not much of my hustle and bustle "for God" is frequently, if not counter-productive then at least, unproductive? Of course we all want to think of our labor for God as "the essence of importance". Though at times I wonder, when tested by fire what will really remain? Introspection and reflection is good for the soul.

I unashamedly admit my life was fun to live and certainly interesting and challenging. Of course, like a lot of things that are fun it got pretty hairy at times. Once while kayaking in the straits between Vancouver and Vancouver Island during a small craft warning, I prayed: "Father I know you save people but do you save stupid people?" He obviously did. I had many more occasions to pray thus especially while cycling from Germany to India and finally hitchhiking back I was but nineteen.

While these adventures were great nothing is a match for my adventures with God. But they can only be had through a life lived -- not vegetated. I must confess I never had the "mountain moving faith" mine was restricted to "moving feet" - one in front of the other. At the end of every downswing I trusted God to find solid ground. But then, God never asked me to do anything great only every day the little things that needed to be doing. My faith is, so it seems, sufficient for those things.

What set me off on this train of thought is Yohan who just left my room with the dire pronouncement: "Financially we are in a mess".  My peace of mind shattered and I felt like Peter when somebody probably told him walking on water was unnatural and not possible . . . Unlike Peter, having more time to reflect, I keep on walking . . . and reflecting . . .

The "financial mess" started sometime in 1978 when I took more kids without having the money to look after those I already had. "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a debtor's prison for?"  Also, are we not promised our "daily bread"? Unbeknown to me this promise apparently stipulates having to sell old newspapers and coffee tins at times to get it. And when in 1982 a draft got lost - it included almost three months of daily praying for that same "daily bread". We got a lot more practice doing that later on.

This adventure with God included a lot of minor and - to me - major miracles of providing.  But there is one immutable law: "Don't insult me by begging!" God simply will not permit me to go to the Saints and Aints to ask, beg, plead or whatever some seem permitted to do.  When once I tried, God refused to give me the money for stamps. Then -- without me ever managing to ask -- somebody sent me $10,000 Cnd.

The glory belongs to God: "I have become a marvel to many, for You are my strong refuge."

This place, never mind what you might be led to believe, is not just a home for poor kids, not just a "feeding station", it is not just a place where we educate kids or put bandages on bruised and wounded limbs; true it is all that but much more. It is a spiritual Power House where children are introduced - in a "non-threatening" way, and not through "bribery' or "inducements" but "by sheer love" - to the Master. We cannot go beyond that.

Most of your gifts though, go in the form of food, to the "underground" - the sewage system - and there is very little I have to show for that at least nothing you really would like to see . . . Other money goes into one ear and comes out through the other - invisible - hopefully not wasted - that is the educational aspect. Other money goes into the "heart" in the form of "spiritual seeds" most of which, so it seems are the very slow "germinating" variety. People tell me farmers are patient people. What does that make me? If a farmer doesn't see anything coming out of the ground within the stipulated period of time, he digs up the field and tries something else. Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury. So, I am willing to wait and wait and wait till they "yield a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty . . ."

Our Nagpur property, 17.5 acres, is valued at $500,000US. This is just the land and does not include buildings etc. Our debt to businessmen for food is 1/5th of that. We bought the property in 1982 for $15,000US. The area in which we live, once shunned by all sensible people till we dared to come, is developing rapidly. In another two years the value of the property will have more than doubled. Our school, from Kindergarten to Junior College is the largest in the area. It has all the potential to become a premier institution.

Then there is the girl's home some 650 km west of here, on 5.5 acres of beautiful property and great buildings - most through gifts from Bernice Gerard's Sundayline. The home offers tremendous potential for growth.

Lastly, are we not still alive? Don't we have food? Don't the kids eat, and go to schools and colleges? Don't they get medical care? Did I not raise up a successor - Yohan - whose middle name should be "trust" and "faithful" - even if he is a lousy communicator? Is not the headmaster of our school one of my kids? Is not the chaplain/pastor one of my kids? What about all those who came to the Saviour?

Looking at our situation I again and again realize, whether our finances are presently in a mess or not - considering all the above - surely my trust in God is not misplaced; surely my dependence on your help is not misjudged - and neither is your trust in us. We have acquitted ourselves well in the face of incredible odds.

Reflecting on it all -- my peace of mind is restored.

A dirge turns into rejoicing -- a lament into praise!

Thank you again for your support and the love that prompts it.

In His great love --- Frank.