Week One, Weak One

We have just finished our first full week of canvassing for the spring break. $36,000 worth of books have been sold since we started. And for visual persons, that is about 170 boxes.

Heidi and I were driving east to visit the program in Kentucky when we broke down in Nashville. In view of that we secured lodging at my mother's home nearby while getting the van fixed. Yesterday I was taking a walk from her home and met a lady that invited me to preach at her church tomorrow. It turns out that her daughter was my student five years ago and even sang in Heidi and my wedding. I just got off the phone with that daughter and think that our break-down may have been for her benefit. Wonderful are the ways of God.

Personally, I am thinking that the revival in my own life needs to be more significantly paralleled by a reformation in the same. For one thing, I think I will have to swallow my nervousness and find a kind and honest way to share with several persons (that appear confident of their favor in God's sight) that they are in danger of losing their souls. I have put it off for too long.

For another, I will need to spend more time praying in a kneeling position. I frequently talk to my Father in Heaven as I go about my business, but am persuaded that more truly focussed worship time is in order.

And for another, I will want to find the best way to apply the following statement:

     Every true child of God will be sifted as wheat, and in the sifting process every cherished pleasure which diverts the mind from God must be sacrificed. In many families the mantel shelves, stands, and tables are filled with ornaments and pictures. Albums filled with photographs of the family and their friends are placed where they will attract the attention of visitors. Thus the thoughts, which should be upon God and heavenly interests, are brought down to common things. Is not this a species of idolatry? Should not the money thus spent have been used to bless humanity, to relieve the suffering, to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry? Should it not be placed in the Lord's treasury to advance His cause and build up His kingdom in the earth?  {2SM 317.1} 

Finally, I talked to Heidi today about spicing up our conversation with more heavenly items and less temporal ones. But that will, methinks, require doing more personal evangelism so that we will have more to talk about.

But enough for now. More from the programs soon. We appreciate you all.

Beautiful experiences, bad math, spring timing

Yesterday was a powerful day for the group working out of Ola, Arkansas. The six man team had out 142 magabooks. (Six? I hear some saying. Yes, Aimee and Lorina were sick and not able to go out.) I was working in the afternoon, leading with Beth Johns, and that was convenient in that I had a witness of the kind of daily miracles that gladden my life.

For example, six or seven homes on a certain street were not going to be done. That was OK with me since there were lots and lots of homes that we wouldn't get done and these were low more inconvenient than most (across the street from the Watchtower, on a road that only had houses on one side, etc.)

But as I was driving to check on a certain student, I made a wrong turn that put me on that street. And at that moment a vehicle turned onto the street also and parked in one of those driveways. I had the thought "you can't skip these homes." And as I came to the end of the block (read, 14 seconds later...) Heidi Hunt appeared at the intersection at the perfect time for me to roll down my window and ask her to briefly ignore my directions and to do those homes. The result: three of the homes bought magabooks and the one where that car pulled in...bought six of them.

Two separate families that we have met already here have been invited to church and Lorina and Helen expect at least one (maybe both) to show up tomorrow.

One of the young ladies (I won't share her name) had another kind of miracle yesterday. She badly needed to use a restroom and I wasn't available to get her to one. She kept hoping to find a friendly home where she could ask...but at one door, when it opened, she realized she couldn't hold it any longer. She handed the books in her hand to the confused homeowner and confessed that she badly needed to use the restroom immediately. Thankfully, the lady of the home pointed her to the hallway. When the relieved canvasser returned to apologize for the odd introduction, the lady with the books asked how much they cost...and she hadn't even been canvassed yet! She bought several.

On the other fronts, the group in Pennsylvania started working yesterday. I invited them to quit early since they arrived at 3:00 AM after a 1200 mile trip. Georgia and Kentucky both had their first full day and all was and is well.

Today I will head home to get more books for the Arkansas group...and will try to do my taxes in two hours or less while I am there...and return to the group in the evening time.

One high point of our program here in AR has been that we had Michael Wolford working with us for two days. He is the pastor of our church plant in Arkadelphia, but is a stipend pastor there. And he will be canvassing part-time to supplement the stipend he receives for pastoring.  I am convinced that this will be a great boon to our ministry in Arkadelphia.

The house sale is moving along smoothly, though today I will probably have to explain how I can be a college teacher and have pay stubbs that show that I earn $1,000 per month.

Sabbath comes this evening...wonderful news. Be faithful,

Eugene

Changes to my email habbits and etc.

The Prewitts have sold a lot of things in the last three weeks, and what a relief to have less stuff!

Also, we have had comments from recipients of our email notifications. These have indicated that we were sending too many emails. So if you are on the email list, expect the next email to give you a chance to choose whether you would like an email once or twice a month (plan A), an email once a quarter (plan B), or a physical snail-mail letter once a year (plan C) or very frequent updates (plan D...which will mean "subscribe to the blog.").

Today we are booking tickets for the round-the-world trip that will allow us to help this establish and support these mission-training centers in England, Ukraine, India, and at Weimar. Here is the incredible blessing: The total cost for this circumnavigation of the globe is $2200 per person. Praise God for butlertravel.com, a travel agency that specializes in missionary and humanitarian discounts. 

Heard from Adam Ramdin this morning. He is the head of the England center. While Heidi and I are there the whole class of students will take a trip to Iona in Scotland and I will be able to share some truth in that place so illustrious in history as a source of evangelical missions to the then-pagan continent of Europe. Wonderful.

The school in India will be about 30 miles southeast of Hyderabad. I am praying often and earnestly about how to help this nation of victims of pagan superstition and corruption. (I do not mean to sound demeaning. We in the west are victims of post-Christian materialism.)

Time for breakfast....