So much fiction nowadays focuses on ‘reality’ - the ugliness of life, the raw pain. Ruthe’s Secret Roses is different in that it focuses on what life should be and can be like if someone has a lively relationship with God. True, there is a lot of suffering in this world, and the book doesn’t hide from that reality, but shows how one young woman deals with it in victory. Wouldn’t you like to see how she does it?
Read about the book here
As you may have guessed, I have many friends all over the world. Because I generally try to be trustworthy and keep confidences, I don’t go around talking about one friend to another. That cuts down the chances of slipping into gossip. However, sometimes it is good to tell you about certain friends because they need more friends. Those who live a life of public ministry, or business, don’t mind being talked about hoping that most of it will be positive and will further their work and success.
Hey, you and I don’t mind it either if people say nice things about us, do we?
Lately I’ve been trying to encourage three friends in other countries who are each at the head of a ministry, and they are begging for help. I don’t feel like I have a great big sphere of influence, but I do have this RoseBouquet of friends, and so I’d like to tell you about these three friends.
Pastor Gervase Masanja
He lives in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and has a wife Miriam, and two daughters. He is the head of a Pentecostal denomination of at least 13 churches, most of which are meeting in thatched huts. He has a tremendous passion to help his poor people start up small businesses so that they can have a regular income. The people of that land are some of the poorest in the world. When they have work they make on average, $1 a day. Now a dollar goes much further there than in America, but they are still very poor and limited in their resources.
Pastor Gervase would love to start a school for children and a school to train pastors, and he’d like some public address equipment, a bus to pick up those who can’t walk to church, and on and on…. He often writes to tell me of his dreams. To help him out I’ve built a website for him several years ago, and I keep adding to it as he sends me pictures or information. PMC-ministries.com
Recently he got all excited when an American couple promised to come to Tanzania and promised to start a Bible School. But they have changed their minds and picked another city further away.
Pastor Gervase is planning a conference for all his pastors in October, so they can have a few days of training and encouragement together but he needs some money to host them. Would you like to help him out?
Pastor Isaac Oyako
He is head of Revival Time Ministry in Uganda. His wife is Christine and she is a school teacher. They have several children of their own and have taken under their wing some nieces to help them get an education, because otherwise they would end up on the streets. Pastor Isaac went around teaching and training pastors and written a book to help them. When they can they help out in practical ways when they discover a village suffering from famine. However, in the last few years their financial support has dropped off dramatically, and because Christine took a different teaching job in another school, they lost the house that came with the earlier job. They’ve been building a home, but it still doesn’t have doors or windows, so is not safe to live in.
When Pastor Isaac was asked to pastor a church in Kampala he decided to drop some of his other ministry work to take the job. But yesterday he confided to me that despite all the help he has been to this up and growing church, he still feels burdened to go out into the rural areas and offer training and discipleship classes to the poorer pastors. But he can’t travel and do this on zero income.
His oldest son, Cyrus, is quite brilliant and had hoped to go on to college, but there is no money to send him this year, so he has to stay home.
Again, I built a website a couple of years ago, with the information and pictures Pastor Isaac sent me. revival-time-ministry.info but it hasn’t been getting many visitors. Mainly because I don’t have time to promote it as I should. He is waiting for financial help too.
Pastor Shahbaz Jalal
He is head of Paigaam Ministry Pakistan in Pakistan. I’ve only come to know him since about February or March of this year, but he also has become a good friend. He has a wife and two young boys, the youngest one born just weeks ago. They live with his older brother and their mother. His brother and his wife had three children, and were expecting a fourth, but Shahbaz’ sister-in-law died in child-birth about a month ago.
Paigaam means Messenger, but Shahbaz is another one who has his hand in a lot of things besides preaching. He conducts five home Bible study groups, which are like small churches. He also has a radio studio in a nook in his home, and does some recordings there. He has the ability to translate into 8 languages, and because of a lead I gave him he is able to do some translation work for pay. More than that, they have a school for poor children where they have about 70 children attending. The building is in need of repair, and they don’t have enough funds to provide a book or slate for each child, but the parents, including Muslims, are grateful that their children can have a bit of education and learn to read and write by being included in the classrooms.
When I sent Shahbaz a bit of money the first thing he did was go to buy books and slates for about 30 of the children, and he sent me pictures of when he distributed them. It is obvious in the pictures that he has a tender heart for children.
In July he was in a panic asking prayer for two villages not too far away where extremists had burned the homes of Christians. 40 in one village and about 60 in the other. This week he wrote of another village where this has happened. He did not have the details yet, but Shahbaz wrote in agony, what should he say to Believers whose homes are a charred mess?
I have managed this summer to put together a profile of his ministry and put up some pictures on my Generosity-Alive.org site. You can see it at generosity-alive.org/Worthy/Christians-in-Pakistan-attacked.shtml
How was your Labour Day weekend? Did you celebrate it by labouring, or by resting from your labours? My parents usually scheduled digging up of potatoes for the winter on Labour Day. (Oh-yes, I did dig up about three plants last night - to give my neighbour for her birthday.)
I laboured on Saturday and rested on Monday. Besides baking bread, I put up a wide blind in the south porch, and after I cleaned the front porch, I managed to get up a drapery track with old often used drapes there. I still need some loops, but I’ll find them sooner or later. I got a carload of stuff away to a second-hand shop too.
Also on Saturday morning, a man came and replaced my bathroom sink taps and spout with an expensive set. This man has done favours like this for others at our mission, and last week he heard about my leaky tap, so he came to look. He was surprised to see that I still had the very old-fashioned separate taps, but he went out shopping and came back later with a $200 kit. When I said, “Oh, afraid I can’t afford that just now,” he answered that he did NOT want recognition, but this sharing of his plumbing skills and buying parts when necessary is his way of serving the Lord.
Well! What can you say to that, but a hearty “Thank you!”
Now my shiny and elegant taps look better than my poor little sink. 
I took the holiday morning yesterday for another prayer retreat time. I sure do enjoy those! Then in the afternoon I treated myself to a relaxed period to work with some lovely photos, my goal being to add a Bible verse or quote to them, and then I plan to print them out at the office on my to-me-new color laser printer. I’m not sure yet if I’m fully satisfied with these efforts. I was just getting into it when the afternoon was done, but I’m hoping for some very nice wall-hangings for my office.
Down in my basement are some old frames that should look pretty nice once I get them sanded down and varnished or painted. If I get more done than I can prudently use, I’ll just be ahead in my Christmas gift making.
My computer must have been down over the weekend. I found some things rather fishy when I got here this morning. It looked like I needed some very over-due updates, but sometimes that has the potential to pull some other crazy tricks, so I always take time to do a backup first. So I took nearly an hour to take care of those things first.
This reminds me to remind you. - Take time to do regular backups. For the same reason that accidents happen to the innocent, even if you are super careful, it is wise to make a regular backup of all the files you have created and saved on your computer. The system files can be replaced easily enough if you have to start over from scratch, but all those photos, emails, and letters, and documents you have saved, will disappear like a fog when the sun starts shining if you don’t have a copy somewhere OFF your hard drive.
I won’t harp on this too long though, because folks just don’t learn this lesson until they have suffered serious loss through a crash. I don’t worry about viruses on my linux system like folks with a “windows” system, but attacks can happen. The best security system is foresightful backups.
Last week here at the mission we wrapped up several publication deadlines. At least my part of each process got finished. The Reflections got it’s two missing graphics. Which meant the booklet got off to the printers on Friday. There they will make 100,000 copies this week and do a mass mailing of 65,000 - 7000 for us. The rest will come here for Impact Canada usage.
The new Halloween tract I wrote is now just awaiting final proof-reading eyes and then we’ll start printing it in the 100s here at the mission.
I even have the current issue of Reflections online so you can read it there if you are not on the mailing list. Go to Reflections to see it in full colour. I will get the “Inner Peace Factor” booklet on the site too this afternoon as a PDF so that you can read it there too. Watch the main index page for the new link.
This does not mean I have nothing left to do. Believe me, I have projects lined up like a fleet of jets waiting for their turn to take off. 
On thing that became obvious with all the desktop publishing (or layouts) that I’ve done for the mission lately, is that I could stand some more training in this area. The director even said they’ll pay for me to to take a course if I find one. Well, I really didn’t have room for that in my life, so I did an online search last week, and found a site that gives away CDs on various topics. If it is your first time on their site, you get to pick two you can have for free. (Well, they don’t tell you until the next screen that you’ll have to pay for the shipping, but that’s only $2.96US).
Actually, once I got to that screen they asked for two more areas of my interest, and then I discovered that they are sending two more CDs on those topics but for a trial period of 25 days. Then I have to pay for them.
I picked Desktop Publishing Studio first, because it teaches Scribus, a program I have already on my computer, but don’t understand yet. When they offered the second choice, I picked 1001 Greatest Fonts.
For my extra areas of interest I marked Graphic Design Studio and one on editing videos. Furthermore, they will send me another CD every 7 weeks unless I cancel.
It bothers me some that they didn’t tell me all this right at the beginning, but at least I can keep my first two CDs and then back out if I like. Do you think you’d like to check this out too? Even if not exactly the same topics?
They have 6 categories; Home & Office, Children, Games, Family, Graphics and Creative. Under the Family category they have CDs like, 10,001 recipes, Study the Bible, Bible reference library, and a Family Tree maker.
All right, here’s the link; CDearth.com.
A verse in Proverbs says that “A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” (Prov. 12:26)
There is a reason to be careful in choosing friends, and there are some ways to be more discerning in that choice of people we will allow our hearts to knit into the fabric of our lives.
Why would you want to be selective in your friendships? Aren’t we suppose to be kind and thoughtful to everyone and show no discrimination?
Here’s why. Though we are to treat everyone kindly and with respect, the fact remains that some folks are rebels and downright bad in their choices and activities. Because of the way friends draw closer and become like one another, a friend can lead us astray into a lifestyle and set of values that are not good for us. It is important to be selective with our closest friends. The rest can be acquaintances. We are polite to them when we meet them, but we don’t do a lot with them.
Just think a moment. Don’t you know someone who became different after they started to associate or hangout with a certain person?
I can think of several, but the first person that pops into my mind now is the daughter of my cousin in Europe. They have been missionaries since before this girl was born, but when she went to university she met another girl who persuaded her that her parents were bad and she must reject them. She has taken on a whole new way of thinking, and it is not healthy. This has caused so much heartache and disappointment.
It reminds me that parents should not only love and keep their children safe, but teach them to think intelligently and rightly, so they are not mislead by someone who is a smooth-talker.
The Bible has some sound advice for how to choose the best friends. Here’s a short list which may be handy if you are starting out in a new school or college, or at a new job. (September is such a month of new beginnings - more than January, isn’t it?)
Pick Jesus for your first and Best Friend! He never disappoints and is always ready to hear you out.
Pick a godly and spiritually mature person in your early years - exactly because you are malleable.
Pick a cheerful, contented friend over an angry, rebellious one. The first will save you so much tension and heartache.
Pick a diligent worker friend over a lazy, self-indulgent one. The diligent one will inspire you, and is more likely to help you out.
No doubt you can add to this list. Please do!
Finally, there may be times when you see a friend going the wrong way, and you must warn her/him. If that friend continues, you need to turn away and leave that friend - for your own sake, if not that friend’s. It takes much grace and wisdom from Your Best Friend, Jesus, to know if/when to do that.
Decide right now to make Jesus your very BEST Friend and to be discerning and thoughtful about other choices in friends and relationships. Resolve to let bad friends go; find new better ones. They are out there, but if they are content they may not be agressively seeking you out.
Which reminds me - what kind of friend are you? Should I be advising others to avoid getting close to you? In that case you may need to spend more quality time with Jesus in prayer and Bible reading, so that you become a better friend - more like Him!
Okay! I’ve just finished a super-duper long photo story of my gardens. I think that will do for my whole blog today!
You can have the in-depth tour here; September Tour of Garden - Harvest Begins (There are 25 photos there).
And yes, I did use up all my adrenalin again on Saturday but I got a big painting job done.
I had a car adventure, or mis-adventure on the weekend, but I’ll save that for another day.
I’m still blessed left and right - every which way, but also quite busy with these publication deadlines at the mission.
We had an Appreciation Tea on Sunday afternoon, and I received a framed Scripture Sign for my ten years with the mission. Wow, it’s really been that long since I began on the website, has it? I’ve learned so very much since then.
But now I’m running out of time, so I’m going to make this one very brief.
Besides, I bet you are very busy gearing up for the fall agendas that are starting up. New school? New job? If not for yourself, probably a family member.
I come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses,
and the voice I hear, falling on my ear….
Ruthe’s Secret Roses, my novel, illustrates that dear song!