Now the weather has improved the trip to Scotland seems even more imminent. The idea of living out of plastic boxes stored on the roof of the van for 8 weeks is a little scary but I look to the Lord to care for us.
I have started reading 'The Heavenly Man' which was given to me about a year ago. It really puts all my 'worries' into perspective. One of the good things about going away on the field trip will be to realise how little 'stuff' we really need to survive. Even then we will be far better provided for than very many believers around the world. I have, half jokingly, told the children that (following the maxim 'when in Rome do as the Romans') while in Scotland we must eat porridge (made with water) for breakfast. Personally I can't stand the stuff but if I were HUNGRY I daresay I would learn to appreciate it. Isn't that the problem? We have so much luxury to choose from that good, nutritious food, can be unattractive to us. It is humbling to read of the way in which 'The Heavenly Man' was treated and the sort of food he got - even when things were going well for him. How come we think WE deserve better than SUCH a man of God? Pastor Yun was called at the age of 16 to follow the Lord. He fasted for 100 days (eating only in the evening) and prayed that the Lord would provide for him a Bible. He dreamt one night of a couple of men coming to visit him and giving him a loaf of bread which turned out to be a Bible. Early on the morning after his dream there was a knock at the door and there were the two men - with the Bible. There was an old man who lived nearby and the Lord had told him that there was a young man praying for a Bible. The old man dug up from its hiding place his old Bible and found a couple of men to go and find Yun.
There are very many other remarkable incidences in the life of this man who desired, above all else, to be faithful to the Lord. It is unimaginable to me that just for owning a Bible you could be beaten up and imprisoned - but that is how things were in China not many years ago. I have read about situations in other asian countries where families are taken away and beaten because they were reading the Bible and praying in their own homes. Will we wake up before it is too late? Do we value the Bible as we ought to? It is worse to suffer hardship for Christ or to be comfortable? And, most scary of all, what would I do if I were in danger of being imprisoned for seeking to serve God......?