Light of Togo

Because this is such a long story, I decided to do two versions of it.  Feel free to read the longer one if you’d like , but I wrote it more for ourselves as a memory and for our family who may be interested in the added details.  This is the abbreviated “journal version.”

Friday early afternoon: I get a phone call.  It’s a missionary friend asking for our help for their coworkers who’ve just had a car accident 3-4 hours North of us.

Two hours later: Tiffany and I take two vehicles up to the accident site.  We meet Glen (who was driving) and his wife, Karen.  Rick is the owner of the truck.  He was in the backseat with no seatbelt, so he’s in the hospital with some possible broken ribs.  Broken ribs and busted truck, poor guy.  Glen and Karen are fine, but their stuff isn’t.  They were moving from Togo to Mali, so all their personal belongings went through the wreck too.  We load all their things into the two trucks and head to the Dapaong hospital.

Five hours later: It’s been decided that Rick’s in too much pain to go anywhere by vehicle.  I coordinate with Randy Alderman to have him fly up the following morning to get Rick and Karen and bring them to Lomé.  Rick has a great attitude about the whole thing - amazing.

One hour later: Tiffany and I are settling into our hotel room after deciding it’s way too late to attempt the drive back home to Kara.

45 minutes later: Tiffany and I have just finished a successful preemptive strike against the flock of terrorist mosquitoes living in our hotel room.  We go to bed not realizing they have called for reinforcements.

30 minutes later: I have become the target of the mosquitoes’ counter attack.  I decide these must be some kind of specially-trained covert ops mosquitoes, since they’ve somehow figured out how to bite me through the sheet! I get up and exterminate another 20 or so of their forces when I realize that this could go on all night.

10 minutes later (now 1:30 in the morning): Changing rooms.  Check…double check…ok, clear.  No evil, winged phantoms of death in this one.

2 hours later: “Why am I awake?  Why do I feel like I haven’t slept at all even though I’m exhausted?  Why am I itching…again?”  The hunt begins…again.  Found out that one mosquito can ruin your sleep just like 500 can.  Thankfully he was fat and slow due to sucking half the blood out of my body, which inevitably ended up smeared on the wall and my palm.

5 minutes later: Aaaah, sleep!

90 minutes later: Randy calls letting me know the weather is good and he’s clear to fly.

Around 8 o’clock: We discover the hospital’s sole ambulance is broken down.  I’m the new ambulance.  Rick laid in the back seat as I drove slowly, like 2 mph slowly, down the 15km bumpy road to the airstrip.

5 minutes later: Bump.  Rick, “ouch!”

3 minutes later: Bump.  Rick, “Are we there yet?”  Me, “Sorry, it’s gonna be a while.”

50 feet later: Bump.  Rick, “Can anybody see the plane yet?”  Poor guy.  He asked “are we there yet” more times than a 7 year old kid on a road trip to Disney World.  I don’t blame him, the back seat of a pickup truck is the last place I’d want to be with broken ribs!

Around 9:30: Saying a prayer for Rick, Karen, and Randy as they take off headed to Lomé.

30 minutes later: Picked up some sandwiches at our hotel’s restaurant for our trip back to Kara.  More on the sandwiches later.

Two hours later: Took Glen to the gendarmerie (local government office) so he can sort out the formalities of the accident.

Three hours later: Home at last!  Glen is sorting through all his things in our living room, picking out what’s damaged or broken.

27 hours later: I’m feeling unusually tired, my back aches, and I feel chilled.  Guess what?  It’s malaria time!

Two days later: Malaria’s gone.  Wasn’t nearly as bad as the first two times I had it.  But remember the sandwiches?  Tiffany and I think the chicken was bad.  For three days she couldn’t wander more than a stone’s throw from a bathroom, and I’m still fighting it.

Summary: Thankful.  Thankful we could help people in need.  Thankful to see God work even in bad circumstances.  Thankful for the new friends.

Oh, and as for the truck, it was rolled twice and looked to me like it was only good for scraps.  The mechanics, however, managed to do a couple temporary fixes, drive it all the way to Kara (2 hours), and they say they’ll have it looking and running like new.  I’m beginning to believe the missionary myth that Landcruisers are indestructible.

This is a very detailed version of the story that is meant to keep a memory for our family that we can read in the future, but if you like all the details of a story go ahead, but you’ve been warned…

This time last week I was having a pretty normal Friday afternoon when I received a phone call from some missionary friends of ours in Lomé.  They explained that some of their coworkers had been in a terrible car accident near Dapaong, and asked if we would be willing to drive up and help them out if necessary.  They didn’t know many details at the time, but we told them we’d of course do whatever we could to help.

Two hours later Tiffany and I were headed North with our SUV and our coworker’s truck, still not really knowing what exactly what the situation was, what we needed to do, or how long we’d be gone.  What we did know is that one guy, Rick, was in the hospital in Dapaong and that the guy who was driving, Glen, and his wife, Karen, were not hurt but had all their personal belongings sitting on the side of the road next to the accident.  They were in the process of moving from Lomé up to Mali, so the vehicle was packed to the brim with all their household things.  In case you’re wondering, it’s generally not a good idea for all your possessions to sit on a roadside in Africa.  On top of that, it had been raining all day.

When we arrived we met Glen and immediately started loading all their things into the two trucks.  One of the many miracles of this whole situation was that the accident happened not even one mile away from one of their mission’s Bible schools, so the first people to show up on the scene were the pastor of the local church and some of the members!

While we did this, Tiffany talked with Karen to make sure she was alright.  She was visibly shook up what happened, but not hurt in any way.  Once they explained the accident we understood why she was so shook up.  They were traveling through a rural area when they came up on a village, going about 60 miles per hour.  Coming up on their right side were three large cows and a small boy “leading” them.  At the very last moment one of the cows stepped into the road directly in front of the truck.  Glen quickly swerved to the left and managed to miss it, but because of their top and rear-heavy load the inertia caused them to spin out, bringing them to the right side of the road where the truck went down an embankment and rolled two times.  When it finally stopped, Glen’s window was flat against the ground, Karen was suspended in air by her seatbelt, and Rick had been bounced all around the back because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt (kids, take note!).

Then it was off to the hospital to check on Rick.  Because of the poor quality x-ray machine, we did not know at the time what the extent of his injuries were other than some possible fractured or broken ribs.  It turns out that he broke four ribs on his left side, one on his right, and the membrane from his lungs separated from the ribs.  I’m no doctor, but that just doesn’t sound good!  He was amazingly in great spirits though.  By the end of our four hours at the hospital it was decided that he was in too much pain to drive, so we arranged for Randy Alderman to come up the next morning in his airplane to pick him up and bring him to Lomé.

By this time it was too late for Tiffany and I to head back down to Kara for the night so we ended up staying the night in a local hotel.  We learned an important lesson that day: always come prepared to stay the night!  In typical only-in-Africa fashion, our hotel room evidently was the local breeding ground for mosquitoes.  I killed 30 or so, was satisfied that I had got them all, and went to bed only to be bitten through the sheets from head to toe.  After killing another 20, I figured there had to be a hole in the window screens where they were flooding into the room.  After changing rooms (it’s now 1:30 in the morning) I discovered that there was one, yes only one, mosquito in our new room.  How do I know this?  Because at 3:30 I awoke from a very restless and itchy sleep to kill the accursed blood-filled agent of death.  Then I went to bed for a very restful hour and a half when Randy called letting me know he was clear to fly that morning.

This is the part of the story that gets very painful for Rick.  Because the hospital’s sole ambulance was broken down, we had to load him into the truck I was driving, bring him 15 kilometers to the airstrip, and load him onto the airplane.  Even though I drove a maximum of 2 mph down the bumpy road to the airstrip, he often winced in pain and asked at least 10 times, “Are we there yet?”

As he and Karen took off in that tiny airplane, I remember thinking how thankful I was that the situation worked out as it did.  After seeing the vehicle, I was amazed that the worst that happened was a few broken ribs.

The next few hours were spent taking Glen where he needed to go in order to take care of the legalities regarding the accident, then we finally headed home.  I had a really great time talking and getting to know Glen while we drove and Tiffany, well, she followed behind us.  I felt bad that she had nobody to talk to, but I think she probably enjoyed the peace and quiet.

That night we emptied both vehicles’ loads into our living room where Glen sorted through all the broken and damaged luggage.  Surprisingly, there was not a lot that was broken, even from the two trucks that were strapped to the roof and therefore had been crushed, twice.  The trunks have seen better days, but the only major losses were Glen’s Kindle (he’s an avid reader) and their coffee maker (a great tragedy!).

The next morning some of Glen’s coworkers came and picked him up along with all his things to bring them back to Lomé, which is ironically where their journey started.

That night (Sunday), I started to feel unusually tired, achy, and chilled.  Guess what that means?  It’s malaria time! Thankfully after having it twice I know what it feels like at the beginning so I was able to begin treating it right away and by Wednesday morning it was completely gone.  Unfortunately, Tiffany and I both picked up some kind of illness, probably from Dapaong, which has caused all kinds of stomach issues including not being able to wander too far from a bathroom.  Thankfully Tiffany got over this pretty quickly, but I’m still having major problems with it a week later.

We are incredibly thankful that God allowed us to help out these people in need and to make three new friends in the process.  It was a very unfortunate circumstance but we’re glad to see that everyone came out of it with their lives.

Oh, and the truck?  It’s a Toyota Landcruiser, which are evidently indestructible because the mechanics simply changed the tires on one side and drove it three hours South to Kara!  I didn’t think it was good for anything but scraps, but the mechanic says he’ll getting running like new!  Only in Africa.

Since we moved to Togo, we have been looking for ways to befriend our neighbors and to show them love and generosity.  We’ve done several things, like providing water to a family whose well temporarily dried up, and helping out financially during medical emergencies.

Just a few weeks ago, however, we realized another way that we could be a huge blessing to our neighbors next door.  As with most homes here, ours is surrounded by high walls on all sides.  On the other side of one of our walls is a housing area where at least 5 families live.  Because they don’t have electricity, the woman usually do most of their cooking on the ground outside in the dark, which can lead to serious accidents because of all the kids running around outside.  In addition to that, most of the children have lots of homework each night, meaning that they have to study by candlelight.

So, we decided to install a florescent light just over the top of our wall, which will cost us only pennies per month but will help them out so much every evening.  We’re thankful that God has enabled us to be a blessing to people around us in many different ways.

What do you get when you combine a broken bridge, 200 semi trucks, angry taxi drivers, and four tired missionaries?  A big adventure!

After a few days in Lomé, Jim and I started heading back for Kara around 11 am, which normally means arriving home around 5 pm.  Around the half way point, however, things started to get interesting.  We came up on a 4 mile-long line of semi trucks that had been building up since at least Monday.  It was at this point that we just “happened” to run into a couple other missionary friends from Kara who were only two cars ahead of us.  They had a map, and we had no clue, so we decided to follow them.

We got turned around, drove back to the last village, and asked about a road on the map that could have brought us out north of the bridge.  The locals, however, told us that the road is impassable.  So at this point we had two options: sit in traffic, going nowhere; or sit on the side of the road drinking Coke, going nowhere.  The decision was unanimous.

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Once we started seeing vehicles coming from towards the bridge, we figured it was time to move out.  Our progress was stopped short, though, by all the traffic trying to go north. After two hours of stop and go, we were diverted off the main road and onto a narrow dirt road.  This road wasn’t at all a problem for our 4×4 vehicles, but there were all kinds of small cars, overloaded taxi vans, and huge semi trucks trying to make one lane into two.  As night fell we slowly crept along, hopping out of the vehicles from time to time in order to direct traffic, push vehicles out of the mud, or just to find out why we weren’t moving.

A couple hours later, we were past all the traffic and on our way to wherever that road would take us.  Five and a half hours after starting into the traffic jam, we came out a whopping 7 miles north of where we started!

Now it’s late, we’re tired, we’re hungry, but at least we’re past all that mess…right?  Let me interrupt my own story here and explain something.  I have learned two things about frustrating circumstances in Africa: first, that you don’t get too excited about a bad situation getting better because it’s usually not over; and second, that you don’t get too worked up about it because it just makes everything worse.  Just take a deep breath, say “WAWA” (West Africa Wins Again), and go with the flow.

So, not even an hour of driving on the main road brought us to the toll booth where we would normally pay 300 francs and pass right through.  But not tonight!  A line of taxi vans was blocking up both lanes of the road, making it impossible to pass.  Walking up to the booths, we saw a group of about 150 people standing around, some talking, some arguing, and some shouting loudly at nobody in particular, and some just watching the whole scene like a movie that you don’t want to be in.

We eventually found out that several taxi van drivers wanted to protest the bridge situation by blocking the road and refusing to pay their toll.  We soon realized that there was nothing we were going to do or say to fix the problem.  They wanted to voice their complaint to the local authorities, so until they showed up nothing was going to change.  We had the idea of just jumping the curb with our vehicles, and going around everyone, but we seriously felt like it wouldn’t have been the smartest move at that point.

We felt like the best place to be at this time was back at our vehicles, which is where we stayed until everything settled down.  Once the local “préfet” arrived, they came to an agreement that those who wanted to pay their toll and leave could do so, and those who didn’t could stay as long as they wanted.  The only problem is that the people blocking the road were the ones staying and they had no desire to move so that everyone else could leave.

With the situation having settled down a bit, and us getting more tired by the minute, we went back to the curb-jumping idea.  We moved several small concrete barricades out of the way, payed our toll, jumped the curb, and drove off into the sunset.  Well, the sunset part isn’t exactly true since we missed it by several hours.

In all, the 6 hour trip took 12.  A 12 hour trip doesn’t sound that bad, but I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before: “You just had to be there.”  Honestly though, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything!  It was a great adventure and something that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.  I can imagine us missionaries sitting around 20 years from now laughing about the “good ‘ole days.”  Just do me a favor and please tell me if 20 years from now I’m repeating this story over and over again as if it’s the first time you’ve heard it.

I’d like to ask you to pray for my trip to Lomé today.  I’m taking the Huffs down so they can pick up their vehicle from the port, while Jim and I will do some shopping and other errands.  Please pray for our safety there and back on Thursday or Friday.

Asking for prayer for safety on a trip sometimes seems like such a “catch phrase” kind of thing to say, but after taking a couple long distance trips here in Togo, I take it very seriously now!  During the pastors’ conference, we were coming down a mountain around a curve when all of a sudden a guy on a motorcycle was in the middle of our lane coming straight at us.  To make matters worse there was a large semi in the other lane, which gave the motorcycle guy no place to go.  But, he was completely unaware of all this because he had his head turned almost completely backwards talking to somebody behind him!  With only a split second to react, I honked and swerved as far off the steep road as I could, which gave him barely enough room to squeeze between me and the truck, just inches away from hitting our bumper.

This is just one of the many “incidences” we’ve had already in the short time we’ve been here.  So, when I ask you to pray for our safety, it’s because we really do need it!  Thanks very much!

In one corner, the unsuspecting missionary.  In the other corner, the heavyweight champion of African sicknesses.   In the first of many bouts to come, Malaria threw the first punch and knocked me flat on my back for 48 hours, but thankfully due to a very effective treatment we found I am now back on my feet again and recovering from it.  Tiffany had posted on Facebook that I was sick, so thanks to all who were praying for me.  I’m sure it will not be the last time that we meet this opponent, but we sure do hope that it’s very infrequently!

What I’m very thankful for (other than the obvious, which is of course that I’m not dead) is that I did not have many pressing obligations this week, so the sickness did not set me back too much in that respect.  I am also thankful for a wonderful and as-close-to-perfect-as-possible wife who took great care of me while I was stuck in bed for two days.  Thanks Tiff, you’re the best!

Ever since we arrived in Togo six weeks ago, we have been experiencing the hot and dusty Harmattan. We’ve been told about this thing that would happen soon called rain, which we vaguely remember from Oregon, but we were starting to doubt whether or not it was possible here. Then yesterday, during the hottest part of the day, a huge wind started blowing and did not stop all afternoon. With it came a huge black blanket of clouds which brought great joy to us webbed-feet Oregonians! We all went outside and enjoyed the great relief from the heat. Joshua stayed out so long running around the yard that he was soaked down to his underwear. After coming inside, it felt SO nice to actually be cold! I know that this probably isn’t even worth a blog post, but it was quite an exciting event for us!

What’s interesting is that this rain has two purposes. It will ripen the mangoes which grow everywhere here, and it will get rid of the dust in the air from the Harmattan. That can be good and bad. Good because it’s not so dusty all the time, but bad because the dusty air serves as a filter for the harsh sunlight. So, we’ve been told that in the next several weeks it will start to get even hotter before the rainy season starts in May.

We are always amazed to see the unique ways that God provides things as we’re headed to Togo.  Last night we saw this happen again.

In my last blog post I mentioned the problem we are having with getting our appliances for Togo.  What I failed to mention is that it’s going to cost a lot more than we were first expecting.  We mentioned the whole situation as a prayer request in our Sunday School class yesterday morning.  What we didn’t know is that God had already been preparing to provide for the financial part of this need.

Last night at church, some good friends of ours pulled us aside and told us how they had been thinking for a couple months about doing something out of the ordinary to be a blessing to some missionaries.  They really didn’t know the who or how or what yet, but they just knew that God wanted them to do something. One day, the wife really prayed and asked God to show them what they should do.  The very next day, they were notified by their insurance company that they had been over charged a long time ago for some medical bills and that they would be receiving a $300 reimbursement.  Then yesterday when we mentioned the appliances, they knew that this was where God wanted them to direct their blessing.

They were such an encouragement to us as they told us that we were the first missionary family that they have known personally, and that it was a great example for their kids to see that we are just a normal family like them who God chose to go to the mission field.  Now, I don’t know that I would define myself as “normal,” but I think I know what he means.  Many people have the idea that missionaries are some kind of mutant species from another planet and God only calls them to serve Him, but the fact is that we are real people and God has just happened to choose and call us to be a part of His work in another part of the world.  It’s not because we are any more special or different than any other family at church, it’s just that God told us to go and we said yes.

OK, sorry for the rabbit trail.  Anyhow, they were such a blessing to us and we thank God for their friendship, their generosity, and for their willingness to follow God’s leading in their lives.

We just can’t help but give all the glory to God for His goodness to us.  We don’t deserve a bit of what He does in our lives, but we know that He does it because we are His children and He loves us.  It’s our responsibility to simply be content with whatever God gives us, whether poverty or riches, health or sickness, trials or victories, because we know that through all of it He is seeking to bring glory to Jesus Christ through our lives!

WARNING: Do not read any farther unless you want your GeekFactor to be raised by approximately 17.82 percent!

Ever since coming to Quebec, I’ve been wanting to help out the church here by redoing their website, which the pastor has been wanting to do for quite some time as well.  A few weeks ago, I found out that the pastor’s son, Jonathan, and another guy, Benoit, both have done website development (webdev) before.  Between the two of them, they have a working knowledge of html, css, and php, and I have a bit of experience in Wordpress, which is the platform we used for the site.  So, on Saturday they came over to our house where we set up our “Webdev Workstation,” which slightly resembled something that one might see at a NASAcontrol room.  We started at 10:00am and began working on a completely new design and functionality for the site so there can be a regular public area and a “members only” section which contains a blog, church member photo directory, and other helpful stuff.

It was really neat to see how the three of us worked together with Jonathan doing a lot of the technical coding and problem solving, Benoit doing the page setups, transferring information, and translating things into French, and me doing the visual design and work within Wordpress.

By the time the public section was done, it was 2:00 in the morning!  But, we got it done.  Yesterday, we worked got almost the whole members section finished, and it should be entirely done by Thursday evening.

It was a lot of fun and I learned a ton of things about webdev in the process, but I am glad that it’s almost done.  Below is a screenshot of what it looks like (click the image to enlarge it) and a link to it if you’d like to check it out.

There is a long-running story about missionaries and used tea bags.  It comes from many years ago when people had the mentality of “well, we can’t use this junk, so let’s give it to a missionary!”  Occasionally, missionaries would actually receive tea bags that had already been used.  Thankfully that mentality is long gone…well, almost.  A couple weeks ago, we received a package from the States with a few goodies in it, and to our surprise some used tea bags as well.  Yes, that’s right, used tea bags.  What made it even worse is that it came from our home church! However, if you knew the people who sent it to us, you would immediately know, as we did, that it was completely a joke.  It was from our great friends Mark and Tami Norwood.  We have told them that story and they have often joked around with us that when we are gone they will send us some.  I never thought that they would really do it though!  Just in case you’re wondering, they did send some other, more useful things too!

Today we met at a restaurant with our tutor, Suzanne, and all of her students, who all happen to be friends of ours. There were five missionary couples, plus my friend Dmitry and my conversation partner for a grand total of 16 people. We had quite a good time, and a good meal. Tiffany and I both had Greek salads with tons of fresh veggies - yum! - and Joshua had the longest chicken strips I’d even seen. They must have come from some kind of super hybrid turkeychicken.

I spent most of the time talking to Dmitry, which was nice since I haven’t seen him for a while. He told us about an event going on next weekend at the city port, where 8 battleships from all around the world will be docked for three days and open for tours. Then on Sunday afternoon as they are leaving they will fire off 20 rounds each from their canons. We are planning to go together with Dmitry, so we’re really looking forward to that. I’m just hoping that the guy in charge of loading the canons remembers to put the blanks in rather than the real rounds.

Well, yesterday was my final day of studying French at Laval University.  It feels very nice to be done, but I realize that there is a LOT that I still need to learn.  On Monday, I begin my theological course with Tiff’s tutor, which I’m very excited about.  I’ll be working most of today on my first French sermon which must be ready for the beginning of this course.  It’s amazing how slow the process is when doing this in a second language!  I’m looking forward to the day when French is nearly as familiar to me as English.

Tiffany, in the mean time, will be continuing her tutoring through the end of May, then we will both have three months to study on our own before the tutoring begins again in September.

We’re excited about seeing the light at the end of a long French tunnel, and we know that we’ll be finished before we can say “French toast,” so pray with us that God will guide us in learning all that is necessary before heading to Togo.

I’d like to ask for your prayer in the coming week.  I am going to have a very full week with six exams in four different classes.  On top of that, I’ll be preparing my first sermon in French which needs to be completed by the following Monday for the start of my theological course.  I’m definitely not trying to complain, but I’m simply asking you to pray for Tiffany, Joshua, and me in the next 10 days or so.  Thank you!

If you’ve read our updates over the past several months, you probably already know that Quebec passed a new law that raises tuition rates…no, let me rephrase that…skyrockets tuition rates for non-Canadian students.  We were told that because we started school before this new law was passed that we would not be affected by it as long as we enrolled in a “certificate program.”  Since doing this we have completed the fall and winter sessions and I was looking forward to going back in the summer.  Just to be on the safe side, I emailed the program administrator to see if I would still be charged the normal rate during the summer.  To my (not-so)surprise, she said that the exemption from the new law is only during the regular school sessions.  This is about the 827th time that we have been told something different!

Well this might sound like bad news, and I suppose it could be, but over the past several weeks I had been having an overwhelming urge to study more on my own rather than in the classroom setting.  I have progressed through the university’s French program fairly quickly, and I really feel like because of this there are some grammatical areas that I either have not fully grasped or have missed altogether along the way; not because I didn’t learn it by the way, but because I have skipped some levels in the program.  Unfortunately, in a class of 20 people I can’t stop the teacher and ask him to cover something that I should have learned as a beginner.

So the plan now is to study with Tiffany’s tutor and individually until the end of June, which is when the tutor begins her summer break, then on my own for July and August, and then with the tutor again until we leave at the end of October.

We know that this is God’s clear direction in our lives at this point, and I am actually very excited about studying on my own once this semester ends on the 25th.  I guess that I’m having a relapse of my old “home-schooled syndrome!”  Just please pray for us that we will continue to make the progress necessary for us to communicate effectively in Togo.

First of all, if you’ve never read “My Utmost for His Highest,” by Oswald Chambers, you really should. It’s a daily reading kind of book, just one page per day. It is basically a collection of writings and sermon/lecture excerpts from Chambers’ life.

Thanks to pastor Bill Anker in Spokane, Washington, I have now not only read from Oswald Chambers but about him too. He gave me Chambers’ biography a couple years ago, but I just got around to reading it lately. In case you’re interested the title is “Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God.” It’s not the most entertaining read, but it is very challenging to see Chambers’ approach to life, ministry, and Christianity in general. I’m astounded at his simple but deep faith in God. He was not a man that was striving for or worried about results, success, or popularity even among Christians. His sole desire was to abide in Christ and draw closer to Him, leaving all the results up to His plan. Wow, if we could just learn how to do that! Aren’t we so often guilty of manipulating circumstances and people so we can get our results, our success, or popularity?

It’s always encouraging to read about the men who followed Christ wholeheartedly in the past, but let’s not forget that God works the same way today! He can use anyone in any culture at any time. Some people talk as if God is done using people in great ways, but that is the farthest thing from the truth. God is still working in and through people who have abandoned to Him the directing of their own lives. This is really what it comes down to, isn’t it? Who’s going to be God? Is He, or are we going to pathetically attempt to rule our own life, setting ourself up as a little demigod of our ugly little kingdom? The issue here is worship. God deserves and desires worship, and He gets it when we acknowledge His divine right to BE GOD in our lives.