Nemeth Notes

...tell Him what you want...

That's how the old song goes; don't forget the heavy twang. Yes, we twang a lot here in Alberta. It's not the only way to sing, but sometimes it's right.

This is the story of someone who got a call from God. Literally.

Monica was a single mom of a sweet little girl, and they had just moved back to her home state. She didn't have support. She had transportation trouble. She had financial trouble. She had lots of trouble. She had cried out to God in desperation one night, "God, if you're there, please help me!" Nothing happened, then.

But she did have a friend who called, and they were chatting and her friend was telling her about this special program they were going to have at her church. She wasn't sure she was interested, and to make matters worse, there was a little person who kept interrupting... her daughter was at her play kitchen, holding her play phone, and saying, "Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY!" Finally Monica said goodbye to her friend, and in exasperation said to her daughter, "WHAT?!" Mikaela said, with complete and sincere urgency, "The phone's for you. It's God."

Monica froze. She cried. Why would God want to talk to her?

Then her friend called back. "I just found out they're having a special service, but we have to leave in 10 minutes."

"We're going!" Monica said.

That night she heard Good News like she had never heard before. She accepted Jesus, and 10 years later she still cries as she tells the story.

I lived in an apartment, next door to a witch. She was a normal young mom, about my age, and she lived a normal life, except that she hosted séances in her home occasionally. She didn’t know I was a Christian, because she didn’t know me much, but our exchanges had always been pleasant; I liked her as a person and it seemed she also liked me. One day, after her witch friends had left, I was over. She was very upset about something, even though she was trying not to show it (some friends were still there). I asked her if something was wrong, and if I could seek out “spiritual assistance” in my way on her behalf. She said ok, so I bowed my head and began to pray. “My loving Father in heaven, I thank you for giving your only Son Jesus for us. I thank you for the cruel death He died, simply because of His love. I thank you for … (and from here I began, for some reason, to go into detail about the physical aspects of Christ’s crucifixion). Then she interrupted, “Yeah, yeah, heard that before.” And when I spoke a sentence that was somewhat predictable about the gospel (still in my prayer), she would pipe in, as if she knew the whole story by heart. But she was annoyed at me, and though she didn’t stop me, she started talking over me and ignoring me. Somehow I knew that she had been burned by Christians, and had buried that pain until now. So I asked her about her story. She talked to me, and though I distinctly remember thinking “she may not come to Christ today, but she will come closer”, it was amazing and beautiful to see Christ drawing her to Himself through me.

As I awoke from this dream this morning, all I could feel was the love He has for people like this, who are so lost without Him, and I also felt the joy in sharing His love, and in seeing another new life beginning to form.

Even if she had been a witch. “As such were some of you, before you knew Christ.”

My Jesus, I love you so much and am so thankful for the work you have done, both on the cross and in my life. Wow! You are still working to bring the lost to yourself; give us all a renewed passion for sharing your truth with this lost world. Give us a heart full of love for the most needy among us, such as those caught up in the occult. May we be full of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not full of fear, for your perfect love casts out fear. Thank you!

A couple weeks ago I got an unnerving call. A grizzly had been spotted across the road from Gladstone’s entrance, swinging a deer around in its mouth to prepare it for breakfast. Earlier a black bear had taken a llama from the llama farm (also across the street from Gladstone). The part I didn’t like was that Jeff was already out there, working alone that day, and there was no way to contact him to be on the alert. Fortunately, a couple hours later I learned that the neighbor went down to warn him.

I’ve been mugged at gunpoint before, and that’s no fun, but at least a robber usually only wants money, not muscle. It’s hard to reason with a bear. Well, it’s one of those workplace hazards that come with the territory.

I’ve seen 2 in the last 2 weeks. One was a black bear cub on the way to Gladstone (look out for those mama bears!). And yesterday we went for a drive about 30 minutes from here, and just as I was seeing wild raspberry leaves to harvest (makes a very healthy tea), we saw a grizzly cub cross the road, right in front of us. Needless to say, we kept on driving for about 10 more minutes until we stopped to get leaves.

Of course, whether it’s guns or grizzlies, we have the same Creator of all and Protector: our Lord Jesus. It is an awesome God that we serve.

The other day I had a run-in with a greater power than grizzlies: the power of the Good News. Now, of course as a missionary all of our work is dedicated to the spread of the gospel. But sometimes that involves so much mundane, and so little excitement (yeah, I know, that’s life everywhere!). Well, sometimes you get such a beautiful chance to share good news that it charges you for weeks…

My friend appeared at my door one afternoon without calling (perfectly acceptable protocol on the rez). She is white, but more Native in her thinking than any white person I’ve ever known. Her daughters are Native on their dad’s side, and her life is much like mine, living on the fence between Native and white cultures. I knew I’d like her right away when not long after she met she said she is really angry still at the hideous evil done to Natives in God’s name. She was unsure I’d want to be her friend, though, with strong opinions like those. Ah contraire! If she didn’t get angry at false Christianity, I wouldn’t be as drawn to this friendship.

Yet when she showed up saying she needed tea and a slice of my homemade bread, I actually winced inside. I still had a lot of cleaning to do before having company that evening. But the Holy Spirit said “talk”, so talk I did.

My friend is still learning the difference between false and true Christianity. She has been coming to church, but she is loaded to the max with questions. She says, “I’ve tried Christianity, and it doesn’t work for me.” So we get to talking about what she’s heard about what Christianity is. Folks, I really think ol’ Satan has 2 jobs: either prevent people from hearing the good news, or TWIST anything they hear (whether it’s because they don’t understand or because the messenger is wrong). How it must break the Father’s heart to see people trapped in false concepts of who He is! How joyous it is to speak His good news and see someone amazed!

Sometimes giving the Good News is telling someone the Passion and the Romans Road. Sometimes it’s telling them that the Bad News is a lie.

Our friendly neighborhood website developer asked us yesterday, “So, just when are you going to launch your site?” Well, perhaps perfectionistic and procrastinating tendencies go hand in hand. We didn’t (don’t) have quite everything ready. However, we really really need to get the word out! So if you’re reading this, we’re praising the Lord!

It’s been a long haul since last October when the Lord answered our prayers to have someone build a site for us. Tristan has patiently and professionally worked with us over the “quieter” (ha ha) winter months.

I just finished reading another ministry blog that was so wonderful. Here’s hoping my muddled momma brain can somehow let you, the world, know what an awesome privilege it is to serve our awesome God here in this corner of Alberta.

Now…

Blastoff! Yeehaw!

Filed under: Uncategorized — June 5, 2006 @ 2:06 am Edit This
The birdie comes home to roost. Americans are on both sides of the immigration issue, both making good points, and both completely forgetting one little teensy detail:

America was founded by people who felt it their God-given right to come here and displace the previous occupants.

Of course this didn’t happen overnight. But the ideology crept in, one greedful step at a time. God had certainly given them this land….their only duty was to be obedient and seize Canaan from the wicked inhabitants!

C’mon, folks. Welcome to the Age of Grace. Jesus’ style wasn’t necessarily “I will give you as much land and power as you like as long as you have the courage to discover it and conquer its inhabitants.” Yes, I know what happened in Canaan. Yes, I believe the Israelites did the right thing…back then. They were obeying God. Says so in my Bible.

Was Christopher Columbus obeying God? George Washington? Andrew Jackson when he said that he believed all Indians should be pushed to the other side of the Mississippi river (back when that was seen as a desolate place)?

The more I read on the illegal immigration issue these days, the more passionate I become for one thing: wisdom. Neither side seems to have grasped the full picture, yet.

And every single treaty that the US Government has made with the Nations who were here previously, they have broken.

What is legal? What is illegal?

Ahpistutuki, spumukinan. (Creator God, help us.)