What Do You Hold in Your Hands?

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by Nancy Tally with Vikki Williams

For several years, we walked through bright, golden autumn mornings together. Our routine was set: We would pile the twins into the red wagon, one twin so strong and robust that she would support her weaker sibling by wrapping her arms about her sister’s chest. Their eldest brother would pull the wagon while the other brother pushed from behind. Our procession would clatter over the quiet sidewalks, sunlight pouring down on us through a lacework of leaves.

Our destination--the yard of an elderly neighbor, where a harvest of apples awaited us. There were far too many for her to deal with, but by the time we were done, her yard would be apple-free. The good apples went in the wagon, and the bad ones in the trash can. Even little children know the good apple from the bad apple. You would know right away, too, if you smelled one of the bad ones. You'd know if you saw an apple with spots so soft that a finger could squish right into, not to mention the worms wiggling their little heads out of their very round holes.

When we got home, we’d process the apples. I would make some of them into pies and freeze others. All afternoon the apple aroma would fill our house and our souls. The best part came when we would have supper. Sometimes we’d pretend we had gone to visit Heidi at her grandfather’s chalet. We would gorge ourselves on apple slices with cheese, crackers and milk. A bulk-purchased barrel of crunchy cheese balls was a regular staple in our house. We would start eating those bits of fluff and pretty soon we would be competing, throwing them high in the air to see who could catch the most in a row without a miss. In later years, the game expanded to include throwing cheese balls across the table to the kids and having them catch them in their mouths. There was tons of laughter and never a clear winner.

I still love to see and smell the apples as flood the produce section every fall. It takes me back to these good memories from when I was still nurturing those living (human) plants God had given to me to harvest. My prayer for my children was always that they would come out of my home spiritually healthy so God could use them. I did not want them so messed up that it would take years of God working on them before they could function for his glory. The results have been mixed--both with regards to the amount of time before they were ready to do what God wills, and with regards to their apparent effectiveness.

The eldest brother still leads the way, not only in teaching his own three to love the Lord, but in leading his church in worship each week. The second brother always had to find out where the boundaries were for himself. While he spent years trying to push the wagon of his life, he eventually found out he could not steer very well from that position. Now he is pulling his family together from a leading position. The strong and robust twin is still supporting others from her role as an Air Force instructor. Wondering about the weaker twin? She keeps drawing the best out of people, giving those around her a chance to give to Jesus. How? Well, for "whatever you have done to the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me.”

A Last Minute Post Script

Two days ago I thought I was done writing this entry. Then, I listened to Pastor Moody’s sermon, "Fullness of Riches," and was struck by verses 7, 11 and 12 in Romans 11. Was I really reading that God had hardened the hearts of the religious rulers of Jesus’ day? That God himself caused their inability to see and understand who Jesus was? That he did it because his plan called for his Son to be our sacrifice and as there had to be a Judas, there had to be hardhearted rulers to bring about the Crucifixion?

Romans 11:11-12 reads, "So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!"

For the first time the verses started to make sense. Seeing part of the plan behind it all made my heart leap with hope as I read the last phrase: "how much more will their full inclusion mean!" Do I understand it? No, not intellectually, but it resonates so strongly with my spirit. Inclusion may not be something most people think about often. As a mom of a handicapped daughter, lack of inclusion is something I live with every day.

I am constantly aware of it. I long for my daughter to be included. I long to be included into the lives of those surrounding me in the church, but I stand there, silent, not knowing what to say. I do not possess my husband’s easy way, his gift for gab or his memory that allows him to follow up on things others have previously told him. All those those traits that tell another person that you care about them. So I stand off to the side and know what it is like to be jealous for inclusion.

Although Romans 11:12 spoke about the value of the inclusion of Israel, it stirred up other, half-formed thoughts about the value of souls. Those thoughts followed me through my day. Soon I sat down to check this post for revisions. Suddenly, those half-formed thoughts leaped on me and pried the scales from my eyes. Shame on me!

I recalled all those years, I would cringe when I had to fill out a form that asked, "What can Becca do?" I never knew how to answer it! Like so many others, I did not see her value. I could not see that she had, and has, a real ministry and work God has prepared for her to do. Becca confesses that Jesus is Lord, and years ago sought out baptism to make her decision public, it would logically follow that God has prepared good works for her to do. When I wrote, "She keeps drawing the best out of people, giving those around her a chance to give to Jesus”" I only saw how others who interacted with her were given a chance to minister.

Today, however, I realized that harvesting fruit is the work and ministry prepared for Becca. Not only does her presence in a room allow us to give back to Jesus as we interact with her, but it allows Becca to harvest. She harvests some marvelous fruit: love, joy, sometimes peace, definitely patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control from those around her. Her presence is like sprinkling the fertilizer that causes us to produce more fruit. Finally understanding that God has included Becca in the work that he has prepared for us to do is worth more than all the inclusion programs in this world. Pain from her lack of inclusion based on her earthly limitations dims as I realize God includes her in his plans for his people’s growth every day.

We, here, at College Church are blessed. We have 60 people like Becca, many of whom know the Lord personally, all of whom can be harvesters, the catalysts for our growth into spiritual maturity and Christ-likeness. And if they are not enough, we can look around at the bumper crop of children born in this church every year.

So on the days when our blessings have us ready to pull out our hair or just sit and cry, let's view those precious people through a new frame. A frame that reminds us that not only has God put them here for us to help them mature into the knowledge of salvation but also that they have a ministry to harvest fruit in us, to help perfect us. Perhaps today their job is harvesting patience or endurance as we learn to rely on God’s grace.

Our blessings are masters at improving and strengthening our self-control and patient endurance. Those qualities which seem to bridge a life of moral excellence and a life of godliness and love. (Check out 2 Peter 1:5-8.)

Keep bearing fruit that even the least of these can harvest, that benefits their daily lives, and acknowledges that though they may be weak or tiny, they are fellow harvesters.

Bounty of Brothers and Sisters

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By Vikki Williams

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)

"She came out of the womb looking for people. And not just mom! She had to locate dad in the room and siblings!” The mother laughed as she recalled her daughter's birth, adding that it was still true to this day when her now teenage daughter among friends.  As I listened to the story, I thought, “That sounds like someone even more extroverted than I!”

I can imagine a tiny newborn baby girl craning her head around to see all the people in the room, and II think, “Just like me.” You see, I am crazy about my brothers and sisters--my brothers and sisters in Christ. Some Sundays, I crane my head around to see who is sitting in the other pews and the balconies. And I think, “Wow, a lot of these people are Christians. Why should I be allowed to have so many brothers and sisters?” So many.

And then there are more brothers and sisters from tribes and tongues and nations. So many.

Sometimes I laugh to myself that God decided to save so many people just so I can have soooo many brothers and sisters. But of course, that’s not true. First, they are for Jesus Christ. Yet if believers “give themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us,” (2 Corinthians 8:5), we gain an even greater portion of these friends' hearts than otherwise possible.

And not only does he give me a larger portion of the hearts of Christians I know, but also the many, many souls “who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8) whom I will not meet before that Day, and as a great throng we will worship God together, unhindered, endlessly. 

I crave the harmony and affection of those many brothers and sisters in that Day.

This is the harvest I yearn for.

Harvesting Hope in a Refugee Camp

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By Curt Miller

On September 20, Camp Moria was partially destroyed by fire. The fire was likely started after a day of peaceful protests escalated into ethnic rioting. College Church ministry partners and other relief workers are working hard on clean up and resettlement of the refugees. Curt Miller, interim missions pastor, reflects on his firsthand experience at the camp this summer.

Hopelessness flows like a river through that camp. After 25 days, refugees can exit the camp, but where would they go? Who would accept and welcome them? Considering the difficulty of camp life, riots are not surprising, but the burning of about a third of the camp deeply saddens me.  

I remember the morning of July 4, when the STAMP Greece team walked through the tall, barbed wire crested fences of Camp Moria on the Island of Lesbos. Now a detention center, this former prison center has one dominate color--grey, a stark contrast with the rolling hills filled with green olive trees. Cement off-white temporary housing covered the camp’s hilly landscape, with only a few colorful three- to five-person tents speckling the hillside. We thought little of independence that day.

Despite the heroic efforts of NGO volunteers to find housing for these asylum seekers, there was no such thing as “appropriate housing.” Some of our teammates helped new friends scrounge around for cardboard to soften their narrow beds on the small jagged rocks. Others patched tents or gave out tea. Some visited friends in their “homes” to see if they needed a second or perhaps third pair of clothes, even though the clothes were never a good fit.

And it was hot. I grew up under a South Carolina sun that could melt you like butter in a frying pan. It was hot like that. And dusty.

Things get worse--imagine all of your choices eliminated. You get a purple shirt. You get warm milk. You take a shower there. I looked into the faces of a woman and a young child and thought, “This could have been my wife. This could have been my child. What if I was here and could provide absolutely nothing for my family.” Humiliating.

From some news reports you might think that refugees are only from one country (there were refugees from more than twenty countries) and only spoke one language (there were many languages spoken) and had only one intent—to do harm. Not all of the refugees were angels, but the majority were incredibly peaceful, kind and hospitable.

I was shocked to learn that many of these folks were professionals. Attorneys, doctors, journalists. One friend was a medical student who fled to avoid being recruited by enemy forces. But the narrative of these individuals didn’t shock me nearly as much as one other condition: the power of God through the gospel.

Now, I’m a pastor. As the interim missions pastor at a church with over two hundred individuals on the field (100+ units), I get to hear moving stories every single day. I talk with couples about miscarriages and faithful individuals about singleness. I witness people moving from depression to joy. We talk about the gospel. I hear good news every weekend.

But in Camp Moria, I saw it. I saw the power of God at work in the lives of individuals who professed belief in the gospel. The testimony of some new friends was like watching the long arm of God reach down deep into a bottomless pit of filth, grab the bent, broken and tainted lives, resurrect them through the cleansing power and righteousness of Christ, and then set them down into a valley where all they had was their Shepherd.  

One hot afternoon I sat beside a new friend on a cot, listening to his story. At some point he said to me, “I became like a new baby.” With a slight grin, he asked, “Do you know what I am trying to say?” I affirmed that I did, and asked how that happened. He told me his journey to faith in a camp like this one. He confessed, “Even though it is difficult, I know God has sent me here for a reason.” Another friend said, “God will take care of me. I am not afraid of what they can do to me.” When I asked what he needed, he replied without hesitation, “What we need most is someone to listen.”

Then it hit me again. The good news has become a steady hand to hold my friends during times of trouble. They ran from violence and persecution. They fled for lack of security. They have been stripped of dignity. But then, God did an amazing thing. He made the gospel become real. He became their refuge. They sought citizenship and safety and he gave it to them in Jesus Christ.

And God has also done one other thing; He has entrusted these beleaguered believers to the global church.

God is doing an amazing thing among our asylum seeking friends in these refugee camps. They may be stateless or internally displaced, but one thing is sure for our brothers and sisters in Christ—they share the same citizenship that we have in heaven. We all are citizens for that eternal country that will never pass away.

Followers of Jesus Christ ought to be astounded at the power of God working through the gospel in this global crisis. This moment in time is an opportunity for us to pray for and to listen to the stories of our suffering brothers and sisters. This moment is an opportunity for many to rise up in order to joyfully go down into the pit to share the good news to those who need to know that true independence, true freedom and true refuge are found in Jesus Christ alone. 

Old Enough for Roses

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by Virginia Hughes

Mrs. Coffelt was an angry bird long before the game was known. She attended church which my father pastored. When she didn’t make it to church she would say, “My bursitis and hemo-goblins been acting up.” When she came to church, she liked to stand during testimony time and complain about what was wrong with the world, the weather and worse. None of us were glad she had read and memorized, The Late, Great, Planet Earth, to round out her testimony with the doom of Armageddon. She asked my brother Richard to come help in her garden; she would pay for his help. I came along hoping some nickels would fall into my pocket if I helped weed too.   

When she said garden, we thought she’d have a few perennial borders like Mom had. We were instantly moved by the beauty of Mrs. Coffelt’s entire yard, a lovely masterpiece bursting with bloom.  I thought Mrs. Coffelt’s garden the antithesis of herself. The word “antithesis” had been a spelling word in sixth grade that week, and I found the word to be so interesting, I sought examples in the world around me. I had walked into a living example of antithesis as I compared everything I knew and could see about Mrs. Coffelt with the magnificent garden we beheld. She was gloomy, grizzly and grumpy, while the garden looked bright, beautiful and blissful. “Don’t stand there gawking while the weeds bury us!” She snapped, jumping us out of our wide-mouthed reverie. She quickly cussed at a weed she called “rose moss,” and after swallowing our surprise at her strong language, we set to work removing it from between her prized dahlias.  

Back then I thought “rose moss” a type of rose; so I took some home to Mother. She told me it wasn’t in the rose family, but it wasn't a weed either. It was a succulent, Portulaca grandiflora, common name: moss rose. We found a droughtishy place to plant it in the edge of Mom’s border where it thrived in shades of yellow, pink, and orange.

Over the summer, Mrs. Coffelt sent divisions of aster, columbine, delphinium, dianthus, foxglove, hibiscus, hollyhock, hosta, peony and other plants home with us to Mother’s garden, and Mother's garden grew into a lush space with the generous gifts.

Once when I was admiring Mrs. Coffelt’s roses, she nearly bit my head off. “Stand clear. You keep away from those, girl. You are too young for roses!” I turned away and Richard kindly whispered that it was probably the thorns. She didn’t want me to get hurt by them. Richard was often doing something for the roses. Pruning, watering, spraying with a mixture of water and milk, a home-brew to deter blackspot, or pouring smelly fertilizer around their bases. I shrugged and dug out a dandelion. 

At home, Dad had trained us to dig deeply when digging out dandelions. Pennies matched the length of the dandelion’s root we dug up. I hoped Mrs. Coffelt had a similar reward system respectful to a weed’s root size, and enthusiastically held up the long root exclaiming it was worth at least a nickel. She scolded me for carelessly letting the downy seeds escape and fly away to plant a thousand more dandelions where that ONE had been. I could not please her.

My faith was tested in the beautiful garden, I was weak and in my heart I fell. Back home, I insisted I would not return to suffer Mrs. Coffelt.  “Aren’t you going to help your brother?” Mom asked. “Do I have to go back there? She is so mean,” I answered. “She is a lonely, unhappy woman, dear. She has lost both her son and her husband. She needs a smile in her life. It would be real nice if you could show her the love of Jesus by helping her.” I stated that Mrs. Coffelt was impossible. “But Jesus loves her and this is a way to show his love. She telephoned today and said how pleased she was. How you two work well together and help her so much. She almost had happiness in her voice when she asked that you both please be sure to be there tomorrow.” I retorted that it wasn't fair; how she didn’t pay us! Not one penny. She said she would, but she hadn't.  Mother said that Mrs. Coffelt may not have money to pay. I lamented how we sweated in the hot sun, got covered in soil and itched all day. She didn’t even say thank you, but always, “See you early in the morning,” as if she owned us.

Many years later when I started to garden in my own yard, I planted easy blooming shrubs like hydrangea, lilac and magnolia. Dependable Perennials. I avoided roses. The attention they require. They are too fussy. The pruning. The thorns. The bugs and every terrible disease that plague roses. No thanks.

Then a rose company sent me its colorful catalog last winter. My heart melted while the snow was piled high. I learned there is a whole world of roses I knew nothing about. There are disease resistant roses, a winter hardy collection with no need of protection. Roses that grow in the shade, and even few with no thorns. I planned all winter, and then ordered roses in the spring. When they finally arrived, I followed all the directions: Dig a hole two feet by two feet. Mix bone meal with peat moss, regular soil and humus, put aged manure in the bottom of the hole. Water with Alaskan fish fertilizer. A banquet of bones, blood and stench. So often beauty rises from ashes; death and sacrifice lead to something new and beautiful. So macabre. Like the sacrifice for our salvation. Lessons from the garden never cease.

The next morning, my rose garden was ransacked. The small rose plants lay tossed beside large holes dug even deeper than my original ones. There wasn’t much space between holes. Who did this? A starving mother coyote nursing her pups? Raccoon? Skunk? It could have been an alien encounter where a spaceship landed. Jack and the Beanstalk’s giant had “Fee-fi-fo-fummed,” and stomped around. Something smelled the bone meal and thought it a carcass.

I gently pushed all the roses back into place. I raided the garage for lawn chairs and screens. I built a mighty fortress around the roses and it looked hideous. I felt like Mr. MacGregor yelling, “Stop thief!” to Peter Rabbit as I wielded my shovel and declared war on all critters who entered here. These are my roses. Stay out of my garden. I fell into the abyss with murder in my heart. I was an angry bird. I unwittingly paraphrased mankind’s fall in Genesis. All that work and planning, and some undeserving creature just waltzed in and messed up my beautiful creation in one night. No regard for my back breaking work at all. I couldn't take it. I was too young for roses. I may always be too young for roses.

I threatened to never return to the first angry bird’s garden, but I went back to Mrs. Coffelt’s garden with my brother that next day. We shared an old army canteen of Dad’s that we had filled with cold water. Mrs. Coffelt hadn’t shown herself in the garden that day, but we figured she was watching us from the house. We tried not to rest too long when we took a drink from the trusty canteen.

Mrs. Coffelt finally came into the garden and told us to wash up in the hose. I was relieved. I hoped she was sending us home for good. We sat at her patio table, and she brought out homemade cookies and cold lemonade. She had coins jingling in her apron pocket, and explained how she had been looking for the jar of chore coins for weeks. It was under the kitchen sink way in the back. “I must’ve put it back under that old sink years ago to hide it from my son. I used to pay him for the tougher chores out of the jar.”

She put several quarters in front of Richard. She put a whole handful of nickels in front of me. She carefully wrapped our coins in a clean handkerchief as she warned me to save my money. How did she know I was already calculating how many vanilla phosphates I could buy? How many afternoons of admission to the local pool without scrounging pop bottles for their return at the local store? Then she told us we could have the rest of the day off, but to be back bright and early tomorrow morning. Most shocking of all, she said, “Thank you children.”  

We raced home and Mom smiled brightly at our report, “I’m so glad you went back. You two are helping Mrs. Coffelt with a lot more than her gardens you know.”

Back in my own garden of the present, after a week of tripping over my own fortress to keep the digging critters OUT of my roses, I calmed down. I put the chairs and screens away. I didn't want to remain angry in the middle of my beautiful garden. While I was already losing at the very beginning, there were lessons to be learned. I had been foolish using bone meal so liberally in springtime. It called out to the hungry critters from the ground. I could not give up so easily or I wasn't a gardener at all. The original gardener had a plan for redemption when we fell back there in Eden. Where punishment rained down, there was a cloak of mercy. There were rivers of grace. Reflecting on truth fills one’s mind in the garden.

I didn't have angels with flaming swords to guard the roses, so instead, I spread a stealthy circle of Sriracha sauce around the perimeter of the garden, and around the base of each rose. The roses would be protected by hot pepper’s fire until they grew taller. They all bloomed and thrived this summer. The next test is surviving their first  winter. Since I planted the tough, hardy kind, I’m not going to worry when I can pray. Time has passed and I may finally be old enough for roses. 

Summer-to-Fall

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Ponderings and Poetry by Dan Haase

Katydid

Say a name and you sing a song.  

sunlight-

all that blooms

in my garden

 

 

Pumpkin Flower

lattice-

in the father's hand

his grandchild

 

Bounty

You wake. Maybe the night was long — dreams caused a shortness of breath or there were no dreams at all. You wander and wonder: how long? But as the clouds pass and the sun continues to rise, you decide to follow suit.

garden harvest 

a simple pleasure 

that yellow finch 

The Word Shared

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The Word shared by Jacob Kimathi is bringing families together in Nairobi. Jacob first told his story to Overseas Council, one of College Church's missions partners.

I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home. I spent most of my high school years heavily involved in ministry and loved every minute. One day at my mentor’s house, I heard a clear and distinct voice asking me to serve the Lord in the ministry. I was 17 years old, but it wasn’t until I was 31 that I quit my job and went to Bible school. After my schooling, I became a full-time pastor in my local church.

Three years ago, I felt called to continue my studies. I applied to AIU’s PhD program and was accepted. I have appreciated my professors and the applicable knowledge I am acquiring.

Africa International University (AIU) is a private Christian institution. The university is located on 53 acres of land in Karen, a suburb on the outskirts of Nairobi. AIU was founded in 1983 and was formerly known as Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST).

In addition to teaching part-time at AIU, I work to develop discipleship materials and programs for churches in my area. I also do a lot of pastoral counseling.

Recently, I counseled a young couple who had been married for six years. Many bad decisions were working to destroy their marriage. I worked with them for a long time, and praise be to God, they have reconciled! In fact, they are referring other couples who are struggling in their marriages. My work is not always easy, but it has been greatly rewarding!

The calling of God on our lives is an individual as each one of us. Jacob's faithful service and diligent studies touch lives and change hearts--thanks be to God. Sometimes it's easier to see God's hand in the lives of people. How is God using you to help other people? Consider that question this Labor Day weekend. Look for God's hand at work. Sometimes we see it clearly, other times it's harder. But it's always there. He is always there.