Burunche’s Blog

Matthew 2:12 – 14 “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route.

The Flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1-7) 13When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.” 14So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”  

The Wise Men had come and gone, avoiding Herod after God warned them in a dream. Mary and Joseph were probably still stunned by that amazing visit! But there wasn’t much time to bask in the glow left behind by the glittering cavalcade from the East, for danger was threatening. An angel appeared in a dream and warned Joseph to get out of the country quickly before Herod could kill the baby Jesus. By this point, Joseph had already lived with the miraculous so much that one more angelic visitation probably seemed normal. And Herod had a terrible reputation! By the time Herod was pursuing the Baby Jesus, he had already murdered numerous members of his own family, including his favorite wife. Herod was spiraling deeper and deeper into paranoia and madness. When the angel warned Joseph to pack up his family and leave the country, Joseph didn’t need any urging! Even though moving to Egypt meant leaving everything that was familiar, it was far better to move than to die! So, the little family plunged into the unknown just ahead of Herod’s soldiers.

Sometimes transitions are easy. And sometimes transitions are really rough! When I was fifteen years old, my family had to move from the farm they had farmed for 19 years to another farm. My dad made all the arrangements for friends from the church to come help us move from the huge farmhouse we had occupied to a far smaller one. But Dad just neglected to inform my mother or the three of us kids! When we went to school that morning, we had no idea that we would be in a different house by nightfall! Someone else packed up all of our books, toys, clothes, etc. When we got off the school bus, my grandfather picked us up and took us to our new house. It was months before we found some of our things, and when a tornado hit the garage where much of our stuff was stored two years later, we lost everything in that building. And the “new” house was not new at all! The house to which we moved consisted of two old houses that had been put together, neither of which was worth saving! (One morning, a large truck went by on the road outside and the noise caused all the plaster to fall from my bedroom ceiling onto me while I was still in bed!) My mother struggled for weeks to find her pots and pans, the dishes, etc.

We like to talk about God doing “new things” in our lives, but sometimes like Mary and Joseph, we can find ourselves running for shelter. But no matter what happens, the one thing we CAN count on in the midst of upheaval is the fact that God will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)

PRAYER Father God, today we are scared! The things we counted on have disappeared and we find ourselves facing new challenges. But Lord, you have promised that you will be with us and that you will never leave us. Help us to find the new paths you want us to take. And help us to remember that just as you protected Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus, you will also protect us. In your mighty and precious Name. Amen.

Matthew 2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[b]”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Finally, after months or maybe even years of traveling, the wise men find the king they have been searching. We can have all kinds of arguments about who the wise men were or why they were searching the stars. But let’s please remember that God has an infinite variety of ways to reach people. If God used stars to cause these men to travel to find the baby Jesus, why not? The question is not who these men were but why were they willing to travel so far and to suffer so much to reach this baby? No matter where they came from, the magi were men of faith who were hungry for a real experience with God. And they were so committed to finding God that they were willing to leave their comfortable homes and take incredible risks to travel to an obscure country.

Today you may be facing the unknown. Perhaps you’ve been downsized – you were the one with the most seniority and therefore the most expensive. Now you must find new work, and your worries are multiplying. Perhaps you have a job but you must relocate across the country and you are struggling with the problems of housing, schools, etc. Perhaps your health has taken a sudden downturn. Thirteen years ago, we sat in a doctor’s office numbly trying to absorb the news that my husband had prostate cancer and he needed treatment for it quickly. Being a health worker in such a situation is no help because you know all the horrible things that can go wrong.

No matter what you are going through, be encouraged! The same God who guided the wise men for thousands of miles through dangerous conditions wants to lead you into new paths. This is the same God who guided the Children of Israel through deserts for forty years. You may not know what lies ahead, but God is already there waiting for you. Trust Him!

PRAYER: Father God, today we are confused. We thought we had everything worked out and now our plans are meaningless. We are at our wits’ end and don’t know which way to go. But you are the God who guides and who provides. Please help us to trust you and to follow your leading. We thank you that you will give us peace as to what to do. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 2: 3  “You have been wandering around this hill country long enough; turn to the north.”

Moses and the Israelites had been wandering in the desert close to Mount Sinai for years. But now God wanted them to change direction and take a new path. You can imagine the reaction when Moses came back to his people after this conversation with God. “Moses! God said what???  Look, it’s been bad enough that we’ve been wandering around this mountain, but at least we know where we are going and we know where the water holes are. We’ve finally gotten used to being out here. Now you want to take us someplace we’ve never been, just because GOD TOLD YOU???? ARE YOU CRAZY???

Forget that this was Moses, whose face would shine so brightly after he spoke with God that he had to put a veil over his face. Forget that this was Moses, who had brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain. Forget that “…the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”  (Exodus 33:11) All these people could think of was that they were going to go off someplace new and they were afraid of the unfamiliar.

We are at the beginning of a new year, and it’s time for new beginnings. While we still have time, we need to take stock of ourselves and look at our prejudices, our opinions, our beliefs. What is worthwhile keeping and what needs to be gotten rid of? Life is too short to refuse to forgive and to hate. Unforgiveness doesn’t hurt the people who have hurt you; it only eats holes in your heart.

And what does God want to do with our situations? Perhaps we are comfortable with our jobs, but are we fulfilling God’s perfect will for our lives? God has a way of disturbing things. We love to quote verses about God doing new things, but we fail to realize that for the new to come in, the old must go. As you start this year, ask God to help you quit “circling a mountain” and give Him permission to take you in a new direction.

PRAYER: Father God, today we give you permission to change our hearts and our lives. Help us to cling to your Hand so that when you begin to shake up our situation, we will realize you are taking us in new directions and we will be willing to follow hard after you. In the Mighty and Precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 41:17 “The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.

I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water,

and the dry land into flowing springs.”

I first accepted Jesus as my Savior at the age of 15. Unfortunately, I lost my faith while in college and was more or less away from the Lord – although not away from church – for ten years. I regained my faith and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit simultaneously on April 15, 1978. Shortly after that re-dedication, I began having nightmares in which I was in a fiery barren landscape surrounded by rocks. I was being hunted by an evil being and had no place to hide. I quickly learned to call on Jesus in my dreams, and when I did so, suddenly the landscape changed. The fire disappeared, as did the evil Being who was hunting me. And I was left with a quiet starlit night with a refreshing wind blowing and no trace of the sulfurous gases that had previously choked me. Had someone else narrated such a dream to me, I might not have believed it, but the experience was completely real.

Perhaps today you feel as I did in my nightmares. You feel trapped with nowhere to go. Evil is pursuing you and you see no way out of your situation. Call on Jesus! He is our Savior. He is Immanuel, “God with us.” “But I don’t know Jesus,” you say. “I have spent my whole life trying to be the Captain of my soul, master of my own fate.” O.K., fine. And how is that working for you? Life has a way of inevitably bringing us to the end of ourselves. We can try to be our own gods, but we will always fail eventually. “But I have always scorned Jesus,” someone else might say. But here’s the thing about Jesus: you might scorn Him, but He died for your sins.

Tired of that desert with the scorching dry winds? Tired of trying to be your own providence? Come to Jesus, who never turns away, no matter how ugly and wretched we are and who never throws our sins back into our faces. He’s waiting for you. So, which will it be, scorched rocks and sulfurous air, or clean flowing streams and delight? Your choice.

PRAYER Jesus, I have spent a large part of my life trying to ignore you and running away from you. Today, I am tired of running. Please heal my situation. Please send your streams of living water into my situation and into my soul. I give you my heart, Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 43:18 “Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to the things of old. 19 Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.”

One of the biggest mistakes any of us can ever make is assuming that God will act in the same way every time. That assumption tells more about us than it does about God. God is the Creator of the Universe; he is doing new things all the time. Every moment of every day there are new leaves appearing on trees, new insects, new baby animals, new baby humans. And although one baby human might look like another, if you check finger prints or retinal prints, each one is unique. Even when God sends snow, no two snow flakes are exactly alike.

When you’ve been struggling with the same problems for a long time, it’s natural to assume that nothing is ever going to change. Unfortunately, dragging that mind set into a new year is a lot like dragging a sack of garbage around behind you; not only will it not help, but the garbage just gets stinkier and stinkier! God wants you to dump the garbage. As long as you are dragging a garbage bag with both hands, you can’t open your hands to receive anything new from God.

“Making a way in the wilderness” is not simple. The land of Israel is full of hills and rocks; in the Israeli wilderness, there are a few well – beaten paths because the landscape is so rugged. But God assures us that He can make a way in the wilderness, that “He can make a way where there seems to be no way.” Throughout the Israeli desert, there are dry stream beds. Only at certain times of the year will these streams run bank to bank with water. But God assures us that he can send His healing water – His grace, His love, His joy into places that have never even seen such things. God can send grace, love, joy, and peace into every corner of our lives, if we will only let Him. Today, drop the garbage! Give the garbage to God and allow Him to make new paths for you and give you overflowing grace and mercy.

PRAYER Father God, please help us to leave the garbage of our old lives behind so that we can receive everything new that you have for us. Help us to see that you are making new paths for our feet and that you are going to give us streams in the driest places of our lives. In the Mighty and Precious Name of Jesus, Amen.

Isaiah 43:1-2 “But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. ² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

We are walking into a new year. For many people, 2019 was brutal! Lots of hurt, lots of loss, and crushing disappointments tormented many people. Some faced continual financial hardships and the frustrations that resulted. And now we are entering a new year, wondering if anything is ever going to improve. Above everything else, we need hope.

When Isaiah was writing the words quoted above, he was writing to believers who were watching their country deteriorate. Good King Hezekiah was in power for much of Isaiah’s ministry; however, later Hezekiah’s wicked son King Manasseh killed Isaiah. Even during the time of Hezekiah, all was not well in Judah. People had begun to take God’s blessings for granted, as though they deserved them; meanwhile, it was only because of God’s love and mercy that He did not reject them. But God always has a remnant and Isaiah was called to encourage those who remained faithful.

Today, allow God to speak these words into your heart! Memorize them. Print these words up and post them on your mirror, on your refrigerator, wherever you might see them during the day. Look at these verses: God commands us not to fear or be afraid. God is our Creator, God formed us in the womb. God knows everything about us. No, God is not promising to carry us around on a silken pillow! We are going to go through floods and fires. But God promises that He WILL be there with us and that we will not be overwhelmed or burned.

PRAYER:  Father God, thank you for your sure promises! Thank you that you are going to be with us, no matter what we have to go through. And thank you that you are going to bring us out of our troubles. We thank you and praise you and bless you, now and forever. Amen.

Matthew 4: 1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’

Jesus had it made! Baptized by John and acknowledged as the Messiah, singled out for heavenly attention – now to start a successful ministry, right? A few miracles, a few crusades, and Jesus would be ready for the big time….right? Not exactly! Immediately after a scene at the Jordan River that could have come from a Hallmark movie, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Why wouldn’t God let Jesus just charge off into the work He was calling Jesus to do?

It’s interesting that Satan thought he was tempting Jesus while all the time God was using Satan to emphasize to Jesus how His ministry would have to function. And the first test was a highly practical one. Jesus had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and was hungry. Satan’s first challenge to Jesus works on several levels: “IF you are the Son of God” – tempting Jesus to prove to Satan and himself that He really was God made man. Both Satan and Jesus knew that Jesus certainly could change the stones to bread, if he so desired. But had Jesus yielded to that temptation, his ministry would have been controlled by earthly appetites and not by the Word of God. Jesus not only knew who he was but he also knew why he had come and it wasn’t for cheap magic shows. And Jesus, hungry as he was, was willing to trust that at the right time God the Father would give him food. Jesus didn’t need to be his own providence.

Another thing to learn from Jesus: he did not answer Satan on His own; he quoted the Scripture accurately and used the Scripture as his defense. The Bible tells us that we are to trust in God’s word. Psalm 130:5 says “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.” Bible memorization is critically important if we are to be successful in spiritual warfare. Only the word of God can turn away Satan. Psalm 119:11 says “In my heart I store up your words, so that I might not sin against you.” Jesus grew up memorizing scripture and when he needed that knowledge, it was readily available.

Yet another thing to notice is the timing of the temptations. Many times, we may have a wonderful success, only to fail shortly thereafter because we are not being careful enough. This is another reason we need to study the temptations of Jesus. Satan loves to attack us when we feel sure of ourselves and confident that we can’t possibly fail. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” As we go about our work, let us be careful to remember that Satan is waiting to tempt us to prove our power, to be our own providence, to take short cuts, and to become overconfident.

PRAYER: Father, today help us to remember the way Jesus faced temptation and help us to copy him. Thank you that you are always with us to help us, to guide us, to protect us, and to provide for us. Help us to trust you as Jesus did. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

The call came at 8 PM. A lady in her 30’s had drunk DDT in a suicide attempt and was admitted on the female ward. By the time I reached the hospital, the efficient hospital staff had already washed out the lady’s stomach. But why did a middle – aged lady do such a drastic thing? Normally, the women who attempt suicide by drinking DDT are teenagers who have had fights with their families, their boyfriends, etc. So what was going on?

This poor lady had given birth to twins about a year ago. Unfortunately, one of the twins was developmentally delayed – possibly due to a bout of cerebral malaria. At any rate, the lady’s husband was neglecting her and recently took a young cute second wife. Now this woman was so poor that she only had one cloth in which to wrap both twins and she scarcely had any clothing herself. Feeling that she was at the end of her resources, the woman had attempted suicide.

When our Mental Health Nurses and Sister Paschalina, who handles welfare problems, investigated further, the situation turned out to be far more complicated than we had first anticipated. All of us were concerned that if we sent the woman back into an abusive situation, she might either starve or be killed, and the babies might also suffer. But advising the woman to leave the husband would raise lots of problems. Traditionally, the Konkombas had a practice of exchanging girls for brides between families. In the old days, baby girls would be betrothed at birth to someone 15-20 years older, who would then work and pay the family bride price waiting for the girl to mature. The girls had no say in the matter whatsoever and many girls committed suicide rather than be trapped in a loveless marriage. Even now families still exchange girls for brides, and this woman was caught up in such a situation. When she was promised by her family to her husband, one of her brothers gained a wife. Were she to leave her husband, her brother might lose his wife, because the wife’s family would demand that he return the woman.

SIster Paschalina and the Mental Health Nurses counseled with the woman and her husband, and we examined the twin with developmental delay. For now the lady has gone back to her husband, and the husband has agreed to support her.

Recently, there were numerous demonstrations in support of International Women’s Day. Some women marched, while others demonstrated in other fashions. But here in Northern Ghana, women and girls still have very low status. Girls are forced to leave school and to work at home or to get married. Two days ago, I did a C/section on a 25 year old lady who was delivering her 8th baby!  Here women and girls fetch firewood and carry water for long distances, in addition to working very hard in the villages.

Had we not had a Mental Health Unit at the Assemblies of God Hospital, Saboba, this lady’s plight might have been far worse. As it is, the Mental Health Nurses will now be following up and monitoring the situation. Please pray for this lady and her family, and continue to pray for us here at the Assemblies of God Hospital, Saboba, that we will be God’s hands and feet in making a difference in the lives of all of our patients.

Thanks for loving, caring, praying, and giving! Remember, there’s always “Victory in Jesus!”

BOB AND JEAN YOUNG – SERVING AT ASSEMBLIES OF GOD HOSPITAL, SABOBA, PO BOX 29, SABOBA, N/R, GHANA, WEST AFRICA
Birthdays: Bob-Feb 11^th, Jean- Feb 12^th   Anniversary: April 14^th
Emails: 1) youngs@healthservicecorps.org, 2) servantgh@yahoo.com,  or bushdoctor.young@gmail.com
Web Sites: www.healthservicecorps.org ; www.facebook.com/jean.a.young
www.flickr.com/photos/member/servant24-7; www.sabobamedicalcentre.net
Mission: Evangel Bible Translators, PO Box 669, Rockwall, TX 75087 – 0669; http://evangelbible.org/donate/

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Christian Health Service Corps, PO Box 132, Fruitvale, TX 75127

You can donate on-line at https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=1def0f  or by snail mail. Make checks payable to Christian Health Service Corps and indicate that the donation is for Bob and Jean Young support.

Ghana #’s: Bob-233-244-996692;233-27-3481533;233-20-5746206
Jean-233-244-444387; 233-55-4426460; 233-20-4934208
JEAN’S WHATSAPP: +233 244 444387

On the afternoon of December 31, 2016, several families from the village of Bukob went out to winnow and bag their rice. By the time the afternoon was over, two women would be dead and another injured. This is their story.
This is Harmattan season, the dry season and the time when many people set fire to the bush in hopes of catching various animals as they flee from the fire. These days the animals involved are generally bush rats or smaller game. Since everything in the bush is supposed to be for everyone, nobody watches these fires to contain them and they can burn for vast distances before going out. Each year crops and even houses are lost to these fires, and those losses can be devastating. But sometimes the cost is higher; sometimes these fires cost lives as well.
When the Bukob people went to winnow their rice, they could see a bush fire in the distance, but it was moving slowly and they thought they had plenty of time. If the fire consumed their rice, families might go hungry. But at some point the wind picked up and may have even shifted directions. Before anyone realized it, the fire was nearly upon them and now it was a race for life. Most of the people ran away at right angles to the fire and successfully escaped. One heroic man even scooped up several children, carried them to safety and then returned to carry his aged mother to safety as well. By the time he reached his mother, she had fallen and the skin on the back of her neck and arms was beginning to blister. For a little while it seemed that everyone was safe, but then the Bukob people realized that two ladies were missing. Perhaps these ladies delayed an extra – long time, intent on saving the last of the rice. We will never know. All we know is that they chose to run through the fire instead of away from it, and that choice cost them their lives.

When the two women were found, the younger one, who was pregnant and nearly ready to deliver, was already dead, her skin charred. The older woman, although hideously burned, lived to make the ambulance ride to our hospital, only to die within a few minutes of reaching us.

If this was all there were to the story, it would be tragic enough, but this is not the end, nor even the very worst part. For these women were not Christians, and unless they had an experience with Jesus in their last few moments, they may have run not only to their deaths, but also to a Christ-less eternity.

The Saboba area is a difficult one in which to work. Our villages are remote, and many of them, including Bukob, lack electricity or good drinking water. There are few churches outside the larger towns in our district, and staffing those churches can be a problem. Most Bible School graduates these days want to go to big rich areas in the South where they can live comfortably and get good schools for their children. Unfortunately, many local churches demand that each congregation should support its pastor without outside assistance. For pastors in these areas the situation is simple: go to farm or starve, because small congregations in deprived rural areas cannot properly support a pastor. Unfortunately also, pastors in these denominations suffer disdain from their fellow pastors in more prosperous areas, who seem to feel that these men and women are not following the call of God but are merely too stupid to go somewhere else.

So the problems persist. And meanwhile the village people continue to risk their lives to feed their families and also continue to sacrifice to fetishes and other demons in the hopes of appeasing them. And the questions remain: who will go to the villages such as Bukob? Jesus died for these people just as much as He did for people in suburban churches in the U.S. Who will go? Who will serve? For if nobody goes, these people will go to hell, never having heard the Gospel.
CHRISTIANS, WHAT SHALL WE DO? WHAT EXCUSES CAN WE POSSIBLY GIVE TO JESUS?

In case you ever want a humbling experience, try running a bush hospital in a remote location. No matter how excellent your qualifications are, there will be people who are certain that if you were REALLY good, you wouldn’t be working in their area! These same people are also the ones who discourage their children who are doctors and nurses from returning to serve their own people. On the other hand, they demand good care and expect strangers from somewhere else will somehow materialize to serve them. Their name is legion!

Bush hospitals by their very nature are not lucrative; subsistence farmers don’t have large amounts of money. Weather conditions can be extremely harsh. Right now we are in the hot season. How hot is it? Well, it is 1:30 AM and my metal desk feels warm to the touch, as does the cement floor beneath my feet. In the heat of the day today it must have been more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In such circumstances it is wise to work when it is cool.

Last Sunday we visited a congregation belonging to a major denomination here in Ghana, and it was a revelation, although not a pleasant one. There was closed circuit television. There was a light show display playing all during the sermon. It was a slick production, with the singing group in business suits with shirts and blouses of one color and the ministerial group with business suits and shirts and blouses of another color. There was polite enthusiasm for the worship music, but the biggest shouts of praise came when the head pastor began prophesying over the congregation that they would receive cars and money – not just any money but foreign currency – Euros and dollars. The audience went crazy, screaming and jumping up and down. We too were ready to jump…..out the nearest open window! (We actually were standing next to an open window and we seriously considered stepping outside and escaping.) Why?

Despite a lovely little meditation about the Great Commission, it was obvious that the god that was being served wasn’t the one true living God before whom we should bow in awe, nor yet was it Jesus the Savior who died a shameful death on a cross so that we could die to sin and live to righteousness. The object of worship here was a vending machine god – put in a few praise songs and some prayer requests and claim enough things enough times and success and prosperity would be yours. Yet supposedly this is the same God for whom believers in southern Sudan are being martyred.

This is the Lenten season. We are supposed to be focusing on Jesus and His sufferings on the cross for our sakes. The lie that under – girded that Sunday service was that Jesus exists to give us things. In fact, Jesus has already purchased the greatest gift of all for us – eternal life. No amount of earthly success can earn us a single nanosecond in heaven. The Son of God humbled himself and became a limited man in a failing human body to endure unspeakable suffering for crimes He had never committed. And in so doing, Jesus defeated death and the grave and rose triumphantly on Easter. Jesus is worthy of worship but there is nothing else should matter as an object of our desire and our praise.

Sunday we weren’t in three piece suits. A series of unexpected commitments had left us stranded in Tamale without any fancy clothes. We were dressed nicely, but we wouldn’t have won any contests, unlike most of the rest of the congregation. And we wondered what would happen if an unbeliever stumbled in from the farm to join that service. Would he or she have been welcomed or shunned? Let’s remember that Jesus only had one set of clothes and He walked everywhere, except for one donkey ride on Palm Sunday.

We are haunted by the words of an old hymn:

1. Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
   And all the world go free?
   No, there’s a cross for everyone,
   And there’s a cross for me.
2. The consecrated cross I’ll bear
   Till death shall set me free;
   And then go home my crown to wear,
   For there’s a crown for me.

Sunday it was very difficult to visualize anyone in that congregation who was actually prepared to bear a cross. A message on suffering for Jesus’ sake wouldn’t have gotten shouts of joy and screams of enthusiasm.  And as we continue on our journey toward Easter, let each one of us examine our heart – are we serving Jesus, or are we expecting Jesus to serve us?

Thanks for loving, caring, praying,and giving. Remember, there’s always “Victory in Jesus!”
Dr. Jean for the Youngs

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"For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His Life a Ransom for many." Matthew 20:28