At Home On Piety Hill

Our brother from Uganda was told by the Lord to deliver a message to our church and he obeyed. It was a very costly undertaking for someone living in a country with an annual per capita income of $280. He has preached five times now from this passage:

2 Chronicles 7:14 …if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

He has spoken of humility, prayer, seeking God’s face and repentance. Today, the exhortation was to obey… to take the word delivered and act upon it. Pastor Steve related a dream… a vision he had the first day he was here, as well as the interpretation of the dream: Our church has suffered hurts and disappointments in the past, resulting in a wall being raised up… a wall that hardened into pride. Instead of remaining ingrown, behind the wall, we must humble ourselves, pray and seek the Lord. Then, we will fulfill our mission, our assignment in the universal Body of Christ and be part of God’s work in healing our land… taking the Good News to our community, our nation and the world.

We had friends and family representing four continents at our home for Thanksgiving this year. The only missing member was the representative from NYC, Sam. Let’s see now, there were Sadie and my favorite son-in-law, Sean, hailing from the UK. Mauricio and Joanna were the esteemed guests from Colombia. Pastor Steve has been visiting from Uganda for the entire month of November. We had an array of dishes and everything was perfect (kudos to Denise). Camille’s chocolate cake and apple pie were standouts. Steve exclaimed with delight, “Mama Denise — this is my favorite!” as he pointed with his fork to his pumpkin pie. I still like dressing and gravy the best. After supper, I gathered everyone around and gave them the background of the American version of Thanksgiving Day.

Pastor Steve has been busy here in Nevada County. We’ve been to prayer meetings, a youth meeting and even a Reformation Bible Conference, where Pastor Steve met Dr. Henry Krabbendam. Pastor Steve attended a pastors prayer meeting and spoke at a sports awards banquet for William Jessup University. He’s taught us some African praise songs. And, he’s working on a mission for Bo to come to Uganda. The indications so far point to May 2007, if the Lord wills.

Our friend, Pastor Steve from Uganda, is full of surprises. He sings beautifully around the house in the morning, he is a gifted preacher and he is also a real good soccer player. As he puts it, “when I was in school, I was a sports-man” (an athelete). He said that he hadn’t played soccer in 10 years, but you’d never know it to watch him. He played in running shoes and even when he fell down or slid, his recovery was graceful and showed amazing skill!

Our friend Pastor Steve arrived from Uganda, while our good friend Dolly was visiting. So, politics and the election will have to wait. I am pressed for time, so all I can tell you so far is that we’ve had an incredible week… God has blessed us in unimaginable ways.

Boy, this is an intense election season and there’s so much to blog about. But, I’m off to SF International to pick up our friend from Uganda. Before I go, I need to share two things — one I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time.

I just listened to an excellent interview by Terry Gross on Fresh Air (National Public Radio). Usually, I can’t get beyond her bigotry and predictable questions, but this time she did a great job and, if you are one of those people hoping that the UN will solve any international problem of any size or scope… well, in New Jersese fuhgeddaboudit! She interviews James Traub about his new book, The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power. Stream the interview and pay attention to the author’s eyewitness discussion of the Darfur situation with the the Sudanese officials, who view the meeting as an opportunity to humiliate the world, mock the UN and provide ample proof that people like George Clooney are naive, deluded and dangerous to the serious business of dealing with evil regimes.

Then, I wanted to point out the fact that my party, the Democrats, will show us in this mid-year election where we are headed. Historically, the out-of-power party (in this case, the Democrats) in a second term President’s mid-term elections will gain 37-45 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate. If the Dems pick up 30 or more, they are still a viable political party. If they pick up 15 - 30, they are in trouble and lack vision and direction — there’s still hope. If they do not take both the House and the Senate, the party is in freefall and it’s time for progressives and liberals to look elsewhere. As I say, I really wanted to go into detail and have no time, but Ann Coulter beat me to it and offers a much more in-depth and provocative analysis than I ever could. You need to read this, if you’re interested in the future of the Democrat Party.

Yes, Levi, I did see it but I was at work, so I had to wait until I got home to get it up. Is that a great response to northeastern, progressive elitism? Denise and I have experienced it first-hand and it is so real… they really do hold such contempt for anyone from fly-over country, especially an uppity National Guard unit, like this clever bunch from Minnesoooooota.