Lessons in Jelly Donuts

It has been years since I have enjoyed a jelly donut. It's not years since I've had any kind of donut. I like the cake donut of the lightly sugared donut. Jelly donuts I treat as a different kind of thing.

I put it on a plate and then cut it in two pieces, The gooey, red filling spreads over part of the plate. I ate the first half and my fingers got all sticky. It was a wonderful sticky that made me feel about 10 again. So, I ate the second half! 

Now a child would never be so cautious as to put the donut on the plate and Cut it in half. A child would just shove as much as possible in her mouth and let the juice drip and ooze out wherever it wished. 

Kids really enjoy food they like and I can tell you watching the kids eat at camp, we see the enjoyment. We don't serve donuts but they get fresh fruit, juice drinks, pizza and grilled chicken. Hungry children don't complain, they eat and when the call comes, for seconds...they leap for joy to get more. Get a little bit more like the child you were and let the jelly filling get you sticky with delight!

Elaine Biser - Secretary of Project Lost Sheep

Love Takes Initiative

Today, I heard a wonderful, true story from one of our former tutors in Redwood City who moved to Florida. She is a single woman on very limited income who loves children. She found a very poor school in her area and was invited to tutor the students at no pay. Let's call this woman Sue. Sue has a way of listening to children's needs because she loves them. 

A little girl that was working with Sue, told her that she had asked her parents for ballet lessons, and when Sue asked her student what happened, the little girl face got sad. Her parents couldn't afford lessons.

Sue took the initiative because she loved to dance and knew a place that taught kids dance. After she went in person to the leader of the program the girl was admitted to dance classes at no charge. Beyond that Sue found some used dance clothes and dance shoes that fit her little student.

How kind God is. He can look down and reach out a loving hand to help a little girl dance! 

One of my Favourite Things

Today I got to do one of my favorite things. I talked with another woman after an exercise class about considering tutoring someone. As we talked I realized she had a heart for children and she could probably be a leader in her new city where she and her husband are moving.

She has retired from her work but still wants to do something for others. I told her about an elder in a church where we have a tutoring program and how this elder had the vision of how the six year old boy because he had gotten one to one help would make it through high school.

"There are reasons why a child falls behind," my exercise friend J. told me, "Sometimes they don't get the basics because of a bad home situation like a divorce." These children are going to be behind grade level because they couldn't or would not learn for that period of time.

Whatever the reason an adult can set in motion a chance for this person to catch up and have a life.

We know that God is merciful. In fact HIS MERCIES ARE NEW EVERY MORNING.

Were you ever in a position where you needed to learn a skill and someone took time to help you understand and perform it? I bet most of us can remember these people and name them because they cared enough to help us break through.

That is what tutoring programs can do. And because we have a church home in each city where we encourage the tutoring to take place, the church has a door to not only help the child but to plant seeds of truth and show love to the entire family.

The poor and needy know that they need help. We can learn from them as we who have been given so much reach out our hands. I hope to inspire people and especially to inspire people to help one child who is struggling.

Is giving vision and encouraging others to start a group one of my favourite things? Yes it is.

When you help a child, you have a chance to give that child a future and a hope. you only have time to give but what you impart can transform a child and his family.

Encourage hope. Fight for those who are helpless. You will be more than compensated for your efforts.

What Makes A Friend

Eloise Hardman was the first secretary of Project Lost Sheep. She came to the first meeting because I had been telling her of this group to help the children, but mainly she came because she was my friend although decades older.

In this era of instant communications I remember things about her for those who might want a real friend.

First, she had time for me. That might seem a strange thing to note but I remember sitting in her living room in Palo Alto and her sitting across from me not rushed. I had three young children and the delight of sitting with an adult who listened to me was wonderful.

Give the gift of time.

A friend will listen. I bet I bored her at times, but she never bored me because she talked about books she had read, her bonsai, some of her adventures. She also asked and followed with real interest the progress of my children.

And so in the night of question, she became the first secretary of the board. "I can take minutes," she said, "but I don't do the computer." She was about 80 years old at the time. Here she was willing to do the job for a new group and be part of something new.

At her service in that same room a number of years later, there were around 50 people. I was astonished at how many friends she had made and maintained. She gave people her time and her attention and so she grew a garden of love around her.

Just Say "Hi"

Once I heard a very successful missionary talk. In fact he had the entire sermon to speak. Well, we expected something, but not what he told us.

First he was involved in getting youth in a local college interested in Christianity. He did this by going down to college at night and listening to them. Many of them were from other countries and he was interested in what is called cross cultural ministry. To succeed he had to be in their court and know what their issues were. In time there was a breakthrough.

He had a neighbor from a foreign country and the missionary went across the street. Later the man told him "you were the only one who came over." This man was humble about all his achievements.

"Take out a pen," he said with a lift to his voice, "and I will let you know my great secret."

Those who were dozing woke up and scrambled for iPhones or paper. He let us get ready, then he said with a twinkle and a wave. "You just go across the street and say "Hi" !

There was an a bit of disquiet in the listeners. Could it be that simple? Had we ever tried it? What about the person who hadn't said a word to us? What about cultural differences? What about age/sex differences.

It is very easy to be too polite to bother anyone. One day Jesus was sitting by a well thirsty. A Samaritan woman came with her bucket. He asked her for a drink. She was shocked because Jews did not speak to Samaritans. He proceeded anyway and those of you who know the story know what happened.....she discovered living water that satisfied her.

Jesus said "hi" by asking her for water!

A recent Barnard study has just reported that 95 percent of Christians today will go to their death without telling another about Jesus, The Lord. Don't complicate things or delegate to the clergy this job. Your job is to walk across the street and say HELLO!

Greatness and Singleness of Mind

Recently, I saw an older movie on the life of JS Bach. Although I have appreciated his music for years and I am writing and listening to him, I had no idea of his very difficult life.

Orphaned young. A rather mean older brother. Various schools. Then marriage, children and the death of his young wife. Music was what he devoted himself to and especially composition. It seems to me that one of the qualities of greatness is a singleness of purpose no matter what the circumstances. 

In picking a second wife, JS was careful to choose one who loved music and also supported him. Being a genius as he is, JS needed the person to believed in, listened to, and encouraged him. Because when he had a life directing purpose, only few people will be able to understand him.

The Lord Jesus, the Christ, had one purpose. That purpose was to please the Father and go do his will. His disciples couldn't understand when that purpose led him to go to the cross. He had to go alone because he knew he had to redeem the lost world back to the Father, and that way, was going to cost him his own life and his blood shed out for many.

What I continue to be amazed by is that part, means that once we accept the cross for ourselves as the way back to God, wonderful things happen to us. We start to belong to this Heavenly Father. We start to hunger to learn more from the Bible and we want to communicate via prayer. So we have new desires. 

I trust that some of you who recently have accepted the Savior's death on the cross may be  experiencing these new holy desires. That is good news for you have something inside you that will change you into the person God intended you to be. God will work with you through the years to discard old purposes that you thought were your life. 

As you let these go and stay close to the Lord he will show you who you are and what He has planned for you to do.

Remember Easter

We can never get away from Christs death by crucifixion. It is central to true Christian belief. That Jesus willingly allowed himself to be put to death on that cruel cross in the most humiliating and horrifying death imaginable. Every breath was agony. His nail pierced hands and feet were incredibly painful. This lungs gasped for air as he fought on the cross, his scor back reacted to the rough wood of the cross. His head throbbed With the crown of thorns. His disciples deserted him. The crowds watching and mocking him.

Two criminals hung beside him. A Roman guard watched the crucifixion. Jesus at anytime could have called out and been rescued, Why didn't he? First, Jesus had prayed in the garden that this cup be taken from him, but there was no answer and the disciples fell asleep while his soul became
filled with sorrow. Jesus wanted and always obeyed.

Second, love nailed him to the cross for the duration because he knew suffering was in scripture for the messiah. As God in the flesh Jesus knew as much as he could but Jesus did not expect the moment of total desertion when he no longer felt Gods presence Jesus cried out MY GOD, MY GOD. WHY HAS THOU FORSAKEN ME?

This was the worst pain of all. In that dark but divine moment before Jesus gave up the ghost, God could not be felt because Jesus who was sinless took on ALL the sins of the world and became the only perfect sacrifice ever made

That's why THE CROSS OF CHRIST must always be lifted up. To some this may sound foolish, but to others it is the door to freedom and Communication with a holy God.