Aquil and Priscilla #3

 

Would you lik a puppy? We have 10 of them!
Would you lik a puppy? We have 10 of them!

There are 3 teams at Casa totaling 96 visitors. Fayette 1st Baptist as well as Fellowship of  Springdale/ Fayetteville Ar and FUMC of Dothan, Al.

Dottie & I had our annual dental check-up; packed & visited with our son, Chad, and his family. The EKG on Antony was good & he need not return for a check-up for one year.

Dottie is exhausted from the trip so I tried to get her to rest all day. She is concerned about my back condition. I am approaching 71 years of age and have NEVER been in a hospital bed except for my tonsils removed as a child. God has blessed my health all of these years. I m slowing down and at the board meeting we spoke of succession should anything happen to me. I will die in Guatemala so I will be able to be there assisting until the end which I hope is years away. My desire is that Casa will someday be administered by children who have been raised there and have a heart for ministry. God told Moses to write everything down that God had done and teach Joshua. For 25 years I have tried to be faithful to teach the children at Casa what God has done.

Another great disappointment as my most favorite Christian bookstore in the world went out of business. I feel violated. Computers and I-Pads are killing paper communication.

My examination by Dr. Nanda and attended by Dr Hines was more positive than negative. He says that as long as I can tolerate the pain we can hold off on surgery. The spurs against the spinal cord are not critical. He wants me to do a series of exercises & I know that I need to lose eight, not pick up anything & manage stress better. So keep praying for a miracle.

 

Yesterday I shared about Hospitality being a love for strangers. Aquila and Priscilla opened their open to those they did not know. Jesus spoke of hospitality in Luke 14:12-13 when he said “Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:  14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

Notice that the key thought is “for they cannot pay you back”. Too often we think only in terms of helping to the extent of what we can gain by doing something for someone else. Jesus made it clear that when we open our homes to those who cannot do anything for us we are truly being hospitable.

Years ago Dottie wrote a small pamphlet on mental retardation. She dedicated it to “Those who love asking nothing in return”. That is true Christian love and hospitality. I Peter 4:9 says “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling”. Attitude has so much to do with whether we are being truly hospitable or just being placed in a position to help someone but our heart is not in it.

My mostest favoritist (Bunkie language) story of all the multitudes of stories I have told is of the hydrocephalic (water on the brain ) shild who changed my life when I worked at Pinecrest. He was blind, deaf and mute yet he was the instrument God used to get me into full time ministry. When he died and Dottie and I buried him in a pauper’s grave I kissed the coffin and told him that this was the first time he could see me. This was the first time that he could hear me. And when I got to heaven I wanted to see Jesus first and after that I would get his palatial home address from an angel so I could visit him.

Why? God tells us in Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to entertain strangers for we have entertained angels unaware”. That word unaware means unknowingly. Without a doubt when we open our home in hospitality we are doing God’s work.

If your home is only a “show” room you need to consider making it a guest house,