Time...It's a Gift

I can't explain it, I'm just grateful for it. What is "it"....IT is the love of people.

I don't know what motivates folks to love you enough to give you a piece of their life; to give you their time.

The greatest gift anyone can give you is their time.You can always make more money. You can always take a physical gift back but time, once given, once spent...is gone forever! The millionaires in eternity will surely be those who were the givers of time. This past week we were thrice blessed with gifts of time.

In 2001, Roger & Debbie Tiffany drove several hours to find us after having seen our interview with Dr. Schuller on the Hour of Power. They brought with them over forty bottles of water. About a month later, they located us again, drove several more hours and brought us more water and a set of walkie-talkies. We hadn't seen them in nine years so we were surprised when they called to say they were driving from Daytona, Florida to Fort Valley, Georgia to spend a day with us! We spent all day Sunday with them and it was absolutely wonderful....it was as if we had known them as friends and neighbors all our lives...and of course, they brought water for old time sake. Roger said, "It's our tradition."

Sunday morning we had worshiped at Calvary Chapel Heartland where Steve & Cindie Sandoval shepherd the church. We have had the honor of speaking to this congregation on three different occasions. Lucy and I truly enjoy this couple's company and so we decided to take a day off from walking on Monday so we could have breakfast with them...we had such a good time that we made plans to have dinner together too! They share their tough moments, laugh at their mistakes, take people into their home and raise their children. They seem to take life in stride...They're real people and we like 'em!

Tuesday evening we got a call from a couple of friends from Big Bear, California. They were in Illinois, they were headed south and they wanted to connect with us. Oh my! How blessed we are! Wednesday night they caught up to us and Thursday morning "Cowboy Bob" Wallace and I walked about eight miles together. Bob was wearing his cowboy hat and he said people probably thought he was an eight foot Texan standing next to me! If you think I get a lot of strange looks....Bob & I nearly stopped traffic! Bob's wife Nancy got to see Lucy's end of this 3300 mile journey. They spent several hours together solving the world's problems. Lucy and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with this creative, yet down to earth couple.

Three couples, all as different as night and day, and all folks we don't see nearly as often we would like to and yet they all graciously gave us a piece of their lives...they gave us their time. I don't know if I can put into word how precious that is to Lucyah and I....especially right now that we are away from home; friends, familiar sights and sounds and smells. Sometimes it seems like we are always saying good-bye. That may be the toughest part of this life on the road but saying good-bye to these three couples...they filled us with such love and joy....these good-byes were a little bit tougher.

Five Minutes

It was Wednesday evening in Geneva, Georgia. I had met a gentleman on the road who said he was a pastor and that they had a service at 7:00pm. We located the church and waited until 6:55pm but no one showed up at the little blue and white chapel. So we decided to see if we could quickly locate another church. After making two wrong turns, we ended up at the right place...Geneva Baptist Church.

We went in for the Bible study and on our way out heard some children fooling around in one of the rooms. As we made our way through the sanctuary, a young girl called out to me. "Sir! Sir!" I turned to see an eleven year old girl named Molly looking me square in the eye. "You blessed me today. I was in the gray pickup truck. Do you remember?"

"Was that you, Molly?" She nodded and smiled. Her innocence touched my heart. It was refreshing to see an eleven year old be eleven. I said, "I'd like to give you something, Molly. Come with me for a moment." She glanced at her grandma and we got the okay to go. We walked out to the RV and I gave her a Zacchaeus DVD and told her to enjoy some popcorn as she watched it. She was thrilled and ran off to show her friends and I was thrilled to see her reaction.

The whole encounter took lees than five minutes and yet when I think about it....it makes me smile.

Paintbrush

How we express ourselves is important. In fact I believe, it's not what you hear or what you see but what you declare and decree...even when casually spoken...that dictates each life.

Scripture says the power of death and life is in the tongue. It tells us that we are snared by the words of our mouth and that a good man is satisfied by the fruit of his mouth.

I spoke to a man last week who was in the midst of a divorce that he did not want. He asked me what to do. I asked him if he would do anything to get his marriage back on track. He said he would. I said what I am about to tell you may sound silly. He listened. I said "Rent the movie Fireproof." He then told me some more about his problems. I said "rent the movie Fireproof." He went on to tell me how other people were poisoning his wife's mind. My counsel did not change. He told me how he wasn't from Alabama and didn't know where to rent a movie. He spoke all the things that he didn't want. He told all the reasons why he couldn't do a silly simple thing like rent a movie. In fact, everything he spoke was negative.

Today a man parked his car and started to walk toward me. He placed two hand stitched crosses in my hands and walked up the road with me for about a quarter of a mile. I asked if there was anything I could pray with him about and he said he needed a job. We talked a bit and I noticed he had a brace on his left leg. He told me how
no one was hiring a 57 year old handicapped man. I told him they might hire someone at age 57 who was dependable, honest and hard working. He assured me "they" wouldn't.

As we finished our walk together and stopped to pray. He told me to be careful because even though God placed His angels and a hedge of protection around me, "these 18 wheelers don't care about no hedge." I thought doesn't he think God is more powerful than a truck driver?

Both of these men went on at great lengths describing the opposite of what they wanted. The first man wanted his marriage to continue but only spoke about the end of his relationship with the woman he loved...as if there was no hope. There is always hope! The second man spoke only of the job "they" wouldn't give him and all the reasons why "they" wouldn't give it to him.

What would happen, if they began to change the way they spoke. Some people believe things happen to them then they speak it. What if your words were a paintbrush and you could paint your life the way you wanted it? Would you watch your words?

What if you could get what you say? What if Mark 11:22-24 were true? "Have faith in God. Whosoever says....and does not doubt but believes that what you say will come to pass. It will be done for you."

500 Miles and 5 Years

A few months ago we took our RV in for some maintainence in Baton Rouge and decided to treat ourselves to a movie. We followed the directions of the GPS and it led us directly to a cinema that had been closed for nearly a year! As we sat in the vacant parking lot and sighed, a car pulled up next to us. That's how we met Dennis.

When Dennis found out we were from IHOPland in Kansas City, he called his friend Brian who had just started attending IHOP meetings. We talked on the phone for a bit and Brian would call us from time to time until we became friends. This past week, Brian was in Baton Rouge attending the Jimmy Swaggart Camp Meetings and called to see where we were. We told him we were about thirty miles west of the Georgia state line. He said he would like to drive out to meet us. We told him that would be great but we were a long way from Louisiana. Brian said, "Oh, it's only about 500 miles. I'll be there Thursday night."

Only 500 miles! We could not believe that a guy we never met was going to drive all this way to meet us but we knew that God was doing something in this man's heart. We spent a lovely couple of days eating the wrong kind of food, talking and getting to know each other before Brian left us on Saturday afternoon.

A few hours afterward, we received a call from Matt in Ohio. He and I met on the road in Dayton in 2005 on my 2nd 3300 mile walk across America for Christ. Today Matt was cleaning his truck and found one of our old ministry cards (I can identify with a guy who cleans his truck once every five years!) He said he thought about us every now and again and just wanted to see what we were up to. He told us he was proud of us and encouraged us to keep on going.

Now Lucyah and I often wonder how God touches people through us...and the answer is we don't know how... but we are fascinated that one man would drive 500 miles and another would call a five year old phone number (and not just toss the card!) Our ego would like us to believe that they had an interest in us but the reality is that they have a sincere interest in God. They are simply seeking a spiritual connection with other people of like mind and spirit. Time and distance is no hindrance to the Body of Christ!

Hebrews 3:13 says to "...encourage one another daily as long as it is called Today..." and both of these men fulfilled that Scripture for us.

Easter in Alabama

Stopped at a campground in Montgomery on Saturday and, as is our custom, looked up churches in the area that had worship services and Sunday School. We saw that First Baptist of Montgomery was only about 1.5 miles away. Their website said that they had a service at 8:30am and 11:00am with a Sunday School in between.

Sunday morning was very foggy. I plugged in our GPS, looked up places to worship, saw that First Baptist was indeed about 1.5 miles away. We decided to go to the early service so we would could park the RV before the traffic arrived. It only took a few minutes and the GPS told us to take a left on 2nd Street. We found ourselves going down a narrow road in a residential area. The next thing we know, we passed a church on our left and found ourselves in a cul de sac! We couldn't turn around but there was a paved driveway to nowhere that we could park in. The parking lot of the church was already full. This sure didn't look like the church I saw on the web but we were here and we couldn't get out soooo....this is where we were going to spend Easter. This church was the First Baptist Church of Greater Washington and was an all black church.

During our time in Mississippi and Alabama, we have noticed there is still a little racial tension and so we wondered how we would be received.....well, it was wonderful! Everyone was dressed in their Easter best and the kids were styling! They had about 50 children do a story and some singing and then there was a wonderful service with great singing and an enthusiastic sermon!

The funny thing for us was that when we first arrived we felt like we were in the minority....because of color. We never feel we are in a minority because of size! That's the conditioning of our society and you know what?.... we've got to stop that nonsense! We're ALL different....sizes, shapes, colors, likes, dislikes, talents and temperament. You'd think after thousands of years of living on the same planet, we'd get over it. Easy to say....tough to overcome all those years of conditioning!

Lord, help us to remember your two commandments....Thou shall love & Thou shall love...in spite of our difference and because of our similarities.