Building and storms

My office is back to normal. The new wood floor is all finished.

 Books are back in the bookcases and I can find all the files I need, without wandering around the house trying to remember where I put stuff. (now I want you to know that is not because my mind is wandering more as I age. I have always been able to lay stuff down and totally have no idea where I put it. I think it is because I have more important philosophical matters taking up my brain power. So shut up already.)  

It was a struggle putting in the last of flooring while trying not to totally empty the office. The lazy man makes more work for himself by trying to do less work.

I definitely lived and worked in a mess for a few days. I have decided it is time to go through the book shelves and start down sizing a bit. Some of those books will never be read again. I have 2 copies of Matthew Henry Commentaries. 2 copies? 1 is probably more than I need.

I love books but when you have bookcases in the hallway and even a few in the family room and hallway in the basement, it might be time to cull the herd, so to speak. As I write this I have already marked 4 books to get rid of. At this pace I will have gotten to my goal, oh lets see, about never. I add too many every year to think 4 books every 2 weeks is going to be a net loss.

Sharon and I went to the ground breaking for the new Lake View Camp Campus. There were 100 campers there that day at the ground breaking.

We are on the CEC (Campaign Executive Committee) committee for Lake View Camp. We thought we were just showing up to lend support and praise God for the progress. Then we got called up to handle a shovel and turn some dirt. It was a privilege. God is using Lake View to change kids lives. Children are asking Jesus to be their savior. It gets your perspectives in the right place. We need to be more concerned with souls for eternity than the day to day "small" problems we have. 

 

The day after we were at Lake View the tornadoes blew through. We spent a day helping my sister and her son rebuild fences.

Our son Joshua and his wife Casey were up for the weekend. Joshua grabbed a chain saw and set to work. Cut the trees off the place where the fence used to be and we tried to put up something that would hold cattle. Came in real handy that Casey knows how to put up electric fence. It was amazing to see wires stripped off the poles and thrown into the trees. How could the wind catch barbed wires and pull them straight up off the poles? 

There were several pieces of wood caught in woven wire. A wire would be right through the middle of the board. The board had to be split and smashed to get it pulled out of the fence. How did the wire get through the middle of the board??

It took more than a chain saw to get the livestock trailer back off the fence

There was siding off Marlys' house but Micah got it all back on and replaced a couple of cracked and bent pieces from some extra stored in the garage rafters. Real handy having sons who know how to do construction. When Matthew was in Toronto working with a mission to the Somali population, he was in an apartment where a light switch was not working. "I think I have one of those in my car" he said. He got it and replaced the switch. The missionary who works there all the time asked him not to do that again. "The Somalis will expect me to be able to fix electrical issues." 

I wrote a while back about a tenant who had been in a "bad place" but it looked like she was getting her life back together. It didn't last. She is in prison now for drug possession and auto theft. 

We can put down new flooring and we can start new buildings but the storms of life can blow away all of our work and efforts. You can collect things (maybe like too many books) but the storms of life can blow down what you have built and blow away what you have. The wise man built his house upon the rock. 

Maybe the tenant who is in a bad place needs to spend some time behind bars to find a way to drive out her demons without self medication. Her life is now blown away by the storm. God rides the thunderclouds, I pray He is riding them into this woman's life. I know her mother is praying that also.