The God of the Cattle on a Thousand Hills

Our First Year of Retirement

When Carol and I had decided to retire she made a declaration, “We must not take on any ministries or make any permanent decisions for the first year, we just need to take everything as it comes, evaluate ideas and requests and then pray throughout the year as we expect some ebb and flows to emotions washing over us during this critical life transition, if an opportunity is in front of us after the year then we would make our decision together fasting and prayer.”

In a one year period of time after our retirement (October will be the end of the year for us) we will have gone to Kona, Hawaii to serve for two months on the Youth With A Mission school base, will have entertained Zhenya, his mother, his sister, Heather and Ryan for a month or so, we also will have gone through three months of Prehab physical prepping for my double knee replacement surgery, then the surgery, followed by three months of Rehab, which, with God’s blessings, will have prepared us for our two week visit to Heather and Zhenya in St. Petersburg, Russia in August, before we head down to Lausanne, Switzerland to work on a Swiss Youth With A Mission base for two months, the Swiss ministry work will put us squarely at the end of our decision making year.

The surgery has proven to be wildly successful as both knees were bone to bone, causing painful mobility over the past four years but especially while serving in Hawaii.  Working and helping YWAM bases around the world is a major blessing for us.  We would love to find bases around the world to serve and experience.  But only if I could work, without the surgery we could not have served in Switzerland with Lausanne’s severe steep hills, nor enjoyed any hikes or walks in the Alps, but now it looks like we will have no limitations for any physical work.  God has been so great.

The Swiss base has been in contact with us and are very, very excited for us to come and help, this makes us feel so special to be needed for God’s work for this wonderful spiritual school. We are praying that, like Hawaii, Switzerland will be filled with new friends and new unique ways to serve God. We have been spending our time studying up on Lausanne, the base and surrounding Switzerland, we have been reading books, viewing DVDs and reading any magazine articles on Switzerland.

It is quite remarkable to think that we won’t be as much tourists as residents in Switzerland, thinking of the massive privileges of staying in one location for months as we work and interact with the people is mind boggling, only under God’s watch care can two poor people travel with meager skills to live, experience, and help God’s people around the world. He is truly remarkable in His loving care for His servants. One of my life dreams was to one day visit Switzerland, and when Carol and I added up how we could financially retire, one of the things not on the docket was traveling, we would have enough money to live O.K. in Mission Viejo, but we would not be able to travel, which was very sad to me as I wanted to experience God’s earth before He called me home, now within just one year of retirement we will have stayed in Hawaii for two months, Russia for three weeks, and Switzerland for two months, wow!

When we get back from Switzerland in October we will sit down and evaluate what God is saying, how He is leading and where we are to fit in for our next thirty year ministry. But even now we have planned to serve a YWAM base in Spain in 2012 and double that with a 500 mile, five week walking pilgrimage across upper Spain, we will be camping and staying in youth hostels as we carry our backpacks on this very famous Christian pilgrimage route that’s a thousand years old, Walking the Camino de Santiago if we time it right we will be in Pamplona for the “Running of the Bulls,” we are already preparing for this trip, it is supposed to be easy, here’s a lead from a website “It's easy to walk across Spain on the Camino Francés. You just follow the yellow arrows, the scallop shells, and the modern road signs of the Camino de Santiago. They might be painted on the road or on a pile of rocks or mounted on a metal post, and they'll lead you 770 or so kilometers (478 miles) from the town of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, at the foot of the Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela near the west coast of Spain.”Cool huh?

But right now our service dedication is to our church and YWAM, other than that we will wait on the Lord.

A Senior Moment

Norman P. Murray Senior Community Center

The name is offensive, not Murray, Senior. It’s a new grand building built on acres of land with streams, water fountains, and outdoor seating areas that could accommodate a thousand people, the grounds are filled with appointed flowers, trees and shrubbery that adds to the modern Craftsman style of both acreage and edifice, but playgrounds and outdoor exercise equipment can’t stop the offensiveness. The places smells of ointment and is filled with the barely mobile convalescent.

It’s a new place I’m thinking about using for writing, the accoutrements are magnificent, even breathe-taking, but the seniors may prove to be too distracting. I apparently can’t write when I’m depressed, and the seniors that fill the crevices’ of the Murray center are depressing.

Four of them (three men and a woman, all unconnected) have been playing bridge next to me, every once in a while one of them would have to stand to stretch his calf’s, he was disheveled, unkempt and quite, his playing partners were not quite, they started fighting, one held court has an important person, one of the men became quite upset at the woman, apparently her folly was bridge stupidity which cost the man the game. The important person started yelling at him for making a big thing out of nothing, but the loser begged that winning was important and the woman caused him to lose because she didn’t have the sense (twice) to lie down.

I wanted to lay all four of them down.

To my right a heard of seniors arrived for a used clothes sale (20% off everything but jewelry and underwear) which was being held in a way to small room, I don’t know if they were pushing each other to get to the items, or just stumbling, but there was too much body friction for my taste.  I also realized that the Murray center is not a library, old people are loud, young people are too, but for very different reasons.

I had to go out and take a nap on one of the outdoor sofas by a rolling stream, it was warm and peaceful and empty, my eyesight is not that good anymore but I didn’t see any walkers or walkies, so the potential for an unhindered rest was high. My only fear is that someone would see me lying down and assume the wrong thing.

Rested,  I got up and went inside to write something, anything, this was it, I haven’t written anything for two months due the surgery (drugs and pain don’t help writing focus).

The writing is brief, stunted and rambling, but I hope it’s not offensive, but at least it’s a writing restart.