All Quiet on the Western Front

We are cozy, we six, tonight in our RV.  Some are reading, some doing late-night math (they enjoy this!), one folding new sweater purchases, and one typing with great determination to finish a blog tonight.  It's raining outside, adding to our coziness.  The pitter-patters are heard all around and add to the enveloped coziness that surrounds us.

It is not, however, without event.  Shammah may be getting sick.  He had an outbreak of hives earlier this evening and his stomach continues to feel queasy.  He's being a good patient, though, going so far as to drink ginger tea. I prayed for him and now I'll tend to his physical needs as best as I can.  He's had a good day...

He met with the pastor he's been getting to know.  It sounds like they are forging a friendship that will be built on eternal things.  I dearly hope so.  And there was another man there today (I think they met over lunch) who also seemed very interested in listening to things as they ought to be.  :-)


OH RATS! RATS!! RATS!!!!  You're going to think I'm making this up but I'm not.  I just burnt the soup I was heating up for Shammah.  While I was sitting here dreamily trying to capture the beauty of our cozy moment...I burnt his soup.

Sigh.  As is often heard at Rose Creek Village, "You can look good or you can be good, but you can't do both."

AND the wind is starting to pick up.  I'm going to hurry and finish this blog because I thought the title of this post was very clever and I don't want to have to change it!

Shammah met with two men today and they talked about what church is and the route to experiencing it.  At one point the pastor said, "I need to take a week and go see the village."  He seemed "right there" as if he could totally see what Shammah was laboring to describe - which is no small feat.  It is very difficult to describe what we are talking about because the words are so the same as those used by Christianity in general.  And the application of those words is so not the same.

It is equally impressive that a pastor would even look at it, let alone like what he was hearing!  I would expect most pastors to consider the ramifications of living life as a real church too costly to seriously consider actually doing it.  This pastor is apparently not like most.  (My apologies if I am stepping on pastors' toes.  I speak solely from my own experiences and observations-though I've observed countless pastors in America...if you do not fit into my broad sweep, PLEASE let me know.  We would like to meet you!)

Shammah said God was very much in that room when they were talking today.  Things were as clear as he's ever seen them be.  It was as if God, Himself, were drawing virtual 3D models as Shammah spoke for the men to understand.  (OK, I've maybe watched a movie or two too many but you get the picture-no pun intended.  Was that a pun?)

Many, many thanks to all who actually stopped and prayed for that meeting today.  For that is how things are built in this realm, the one I affectionately call, "Our Life."  The same one that was affectionately called, "The Way" 2000 years ago.

A realm others call a cult and who knows what else -- isn't that how it was when Christ walked the earth?  Is that how it is for you?  Didn't He say they would say those same things about you?  I'm just sayin'...

So Shammah came home.  Slept a short while, got up and was immediately besieged with hives.  As they moved up to his stomach area they were particularly painful.  He took Benadryl tablets and that seemed to help.  Now he seems to be battling something else.  Do I put these together with his meeting?  Well, yes, I do.
 
Do I put the burnt soup in there too?  Well, no.  That was stupidity on my part.  (So now you can see that I'm actually quite balanced.  As opposed to a not-quite-balanced believer of some sort...you, uh, don't look convinced...)

I'm not sure when Shammah will meet with these men again.  I encouraged him to write an update for y'all and I think he'll probably do that tomorrow so watch for that.

Tomorrow night we are hopefully all getting together at David's house at 6 PM our time.  So maybe you could pray for that.  That God would meet us there.  I believe everyone will be there.  It will be the last time we're all together this trip because one couple heads for Utah for the holidays on Sunday.  And then our family will be leaving, heading back to the village on the 27th of this month.  It would be really great to see something come out of tomorrow night's meeting.  I'm not sure what.  Just something!

This officially ends this blog.  I have, however, for those interested in closure, a story and update from my first blog so I'll close this and post another real quick.  (You're not supposed to write posts that are too long...)

See ya soon.  I hope.