Show me a mission, then evidence

Today we had a very interesting discussion in Bible class. We have been studying through the defense of the Christian faith and have finally progressed from the defense of God and the Bible to the defense of Jesus Christ. In class, we watched several news casts about Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda and his claim to be Jesus. This spurred an excellent discussion in class about the students' reactions to his claim. After analyzing different things he said that completely contradict what we know in the Bible, several students mentioned something very interesting. When the interviewer asked Miranda why he thinks he was chosen to be Jesus on earth, he says he doesn't know. The students commented that he seems to have no purpose, no mission, no goals. In fact, he doesn't even know why he is Jesus. We compared this with Jesus of Nazareth. He made it very clear from the very start of his ministry that he had a purpose, a mission, and a goal. He knew clearly why He was on this earth--to seek and save the lost. Everything in his ministry to others was with that mission in mind. He had focus and direction.

We then discussed that this man showed no evidence of his being Jesus. The interviewer asked him if he could perform miracles, walk on water, etc. He responded, "Not exactly." This launched us into a discussion of the role of evidence in proving a claim. One student said that if he didn't perform miracles then that proved that he wasn't from God. So I countered that with, "Then if he could do miracles, does that prove that He is divine? What about all the faith healers that perform all those so called 'miracles'? Just because they can do these things, does that prove that they are from God?" Of course they said no. So then I asked them where does "evidence" come into play and how can we know when that evidence confirms the divinity of the individual.

This led us to look to Jesus' example in how he used evidence in his ministry to prove his divine nature. We looked at Jesus standing before Herod. Mrs. White states that Herod was anxious to see Christ "prove His claims by working a miracle." While Jesus had done this on many other occasions, he refused to do it now. Herod insisted, "If Thou canst work miracles for others, work them now for Thine own good, and it will serve Thee a good purpose. Again he commanded, Show us a sign that Thou hast the power with which rumor hath accredited Thee. But Christ was as one who heard and saw not.... Herod promised that if Christ would perform some miracle in his presence, He should be released...." DA 729-730.

So here we see that Jesus refused to heal because it would only satisfy idle curiosity. In addition, it would prevent Him from fulfilling his mission to seek and save the lost because Herod would have released Him. Thus, any type of evidence shown would have gone against Christ's purpose--so he refused to do it.

Then we looked at the story of the man sick with the palsy in Matt. 9. I asked the class if Jesus' main goal was to heal the man physically or spiritually. Of course it was spiritually. So instead of healing the man, Jesus forgave his sins. But when the Pharisees cried blasphemy, Jesus knew he needed to give some evidence that he could indeed forgive. So he told them, "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house." Notice why Jesus gave evidence in this circumstance and not in the one with Herod. Jesus had to emphasize his mission as one who could forgive sin. But since nobody can see whether sins are actually forgiven, Jesus then gave them proof that they could see--a healing miracle. We see this occurring over and over in Jesus' ministry: the evidence was always for one reason alone--to prove his mission, his goal, his purpose.

So that leads us back to the role of evidence. Evidence is never just for the sake of evidence--it is to prove mission. When you look at these faith healers, one must ask themselves "what is the mission? and how does this 'evidence' concur with the mission." The fact is that these healings seem to be for the sake of healings alone--not for the sake of the gospel message in healing the soul of sin.

So our class discussion concluded with one main idea that distinguishes Christ from all other so called 'Christs' and faith healers. He had a very clear-cut mission and purpose. And any evidence that he ever gave was only for the sake of proving that he could fulfill that mission.

Mrs. White sums it up beautifully in one final statement about Christ before Herod: "The mission of Christ in this world was not to gratify idle curiosity. He came to heal the brokenhearted. Could He have spoken any word to heal the bruises of sin-sick souls, He would not have kept silent. But He had no words for those who would but trample the truth under their unholy feet." DA 730

For myself, I am thankful that in the life of Jesus physical evidence was provided that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus could and did fulfill the mission that all this evidence pointed to--that He indeed can save and forgive my sin!

This Morning's Rat Race

Some people have the boring, methodical way to wake up in the morning--their alarm clock. Well for those of you boring souls out there, you just need to come live with me for awhile and you can get all kinds of interesting wake up calls. At six this morning, I was still in bed when I had a light tap on my bedroom door. One of my suite mates tiptoed in and profusely apologized for waking me up and then pleaded and begged me to come to their aid... They had a visitor that morning--a pack rat. He had climbed up the bottom bunk and crawled across one of the girls. She flung him and the covers onto the floor and then started yelling at her roommate that there was a rat in their bedroom. Her roommate thought it was a big joke until they looked in the closet and saw this big rat hiding in the corner behind the shoes. Being the expert rat hunters that we are (ya right! like we've had lots of practice!), we first called one of the assistant boy's deans to come over to help us (poor guy, he had just woken up and then he is called to help some girls catch a rat!). So Johnny came over with an ax of all things (we thought he was going to kill it in the bedroom, but he said it was only so he could corner it...). Then we barricaded all the doors and stuffed sleeping backs under the doors to prevent him from escaping to another part of the house. We set about three rat traps and one live trap and then armed with a trusty trash can, we were ready to shew him out of the closet. We finally coaxed him out and then he ran helter skelter all over the floor nearly crawling up the legs of my friends. They screamed and hollered and danced around. We finally threw the trash can over him but then weren't sure what to do. I unloaded a three ring binder and then carefully slid it under the trash can. The rat jumped when we slid it under causing one of the girls to jump too. We carefully lifted the trash can and then slid the binder just enough for the rat to fall into the live trap. As soon as we dropped him in, he raced up the sides and nearly out the top, but thankfully Johnny closed the trap door just in time. Good thing or we would have had another rat race around the room. To say the least, it was a crazy way to start the morning! (This is the second one we caught in the house in the past week. The first one was three times this big!)







Krystal and I trying to decide how we are going to lift the trash can without the rat escaping. (She's sitting on the trash can to make sure he can't get out!)








Our weapons of mass destruction






Just to show how big he is in comparison with the trap









Cute...maybe, annoying...definitely!



Oh, yes, some of my other wake up calls at night have been for the bears... Many a night since I have been here in Canada, I have been awoken by my dog barking at some unknown thing outside. Nearly every time I look outside to see what it is, it is either a bear or coyote looming in the plum trees right outside my window. A couple nights ago, my suite mates and I heard Shanuk barking so we looked outside to see a huge bear in the orchard. Grabbing the flashlight, we tromped outside to see if we could get a better look. I laughed when I thought of the childhood game I used to play where one person hides and you all go marching around yelling "no bears out tonight, Daddy shot them all last night" and then they jump out of the dark and tag you. Well, I definitely cannot sing that song here! There is a bear out nearly every night. But the bear was shy and took off before we could get close...oh, well, maybe next time. (Just kidding! I have no intention on getting close to those guys! And don't worry, we were being careful when we went out to see it!)

The Novelty of Being a Teacher

Being a teacher is a fun job. You have all kinds of crazy things happen in a day. These are just a few in the last two days.

Yesterday morning: (After a student lost his glasses and can't hardly see a thing), "Miss O, I can't find my eye (a huge magnifying glass he's been lugging with him all week). Can you read this math problem to me cause I sure can't see it!" Poor guy! He can't ever figure out if his math homework is right or not cause he can't see what he is doing. Glasses should be arriving some time next week.

Yesterday evening: Since I arrived here two weeks after all the students did, they were all anticipating my arrival and were trying to imagine what the new teacher would be like. One senior was recounting what she thought I would be like. She knew I would be teaching the first half of senior Bible (Defending Your Faith) but not the second part on Marriage and Family (for obvious reasons!). Of course she gathered that I must not be married (and thus wouldn't know much on that topic), so she started conjuring up images of what I must be like--an old spinster with her hair always tied up in a bun. She declared to me yesterday that she was pleasantly surprised that her imaginings were completely wrong... In fact, at first they wondered if I was a new student on campus and then were surprised to find out I was the new "spinster" teacher they had all been waiting for...

Today: (Helping a student on their science lesson regarding the reproductive system), "Miss O, can you help me find three similarities between the male and female reproductive systems. I'm having a hard time..." Ya, I have to admit, that's not the easiest thing to find similarities with! I must have impressed them with at least some knowledge of A&P, so when I was finished helping them, the next question came: "Miss O, are you a doctor? Like, can you treat cancer and operate on people?" Emphatically no! That would definitely not be me!

It's the type of job that keeps you on your toes, gives you lots to smile and laugh about, and always keeps you busy with tons of grading and lesson planning... speaking of which, that's what I should be working on now rather than this post.

So here I sign out,
Yours truly,
Miss O

Ps. I had the most amazing thing happen in D&R class this week! God is really working on the hearts of some of my students. I will try to share that later on.

My New Home..

Well, as most of you know, the border guards let me into Canada. In fact, the border guard I had was so nice, he was going to let me in without checking some of my crucial documents! So now that I have been here for a little over a week, I have to share with you some of the many things I have experienced so far.

Mom has been with me this whole week. That has been such a blessing! She has helped me get my room in order, my office set up, and has worked with several of my right brained students with their math skills. I will miss her so much when she leaves on Tuesday!

My classes are going well. I have great students and the staff are wonderful. It's been slightly difficult coming in 2 weeks late especially since I started teaching right when I got here... no time for a breather. But that's ok. Here are just a few pictures of my new home. The scenery is absolutely breaktaking!

The first picture is the main building on campus. Located inside is the chapel, the cafeteria, administration offices, classrooms, library, and computer lab. The mountains around it are just amazing! The second picture is the view that I have from my place. It sits up on a little ridge and looks down into the valley. All over the property are lots of fruit trees. There are apples, plums (both purple and green--which are so good, I must add), pears, apricots, cherries, grapes, and of course carrots! (They grow organic carrots for market.) It is so nice to have fresh fruit to eat every day!


















I took a trip to the thriving "metropolis" of Lillooet (20 minutes away) last Sunday (population approx. 2700). Along the way, we saw a bald eagle and a black bear! That was so awesome to see!! I couldn't get a picture of the bear because he was shy and ran away before we could get close. But here is the bald eagle.


On the way down, we ran into this thing called the "Slide." Someone had mentioned it, but didn't tell us what it was. Man was I in for a surprise...I came around a bend on the steep mountain road, and the road went from two lane down to one. The one side was straight up, the other straight down to the valley floor. They had some type of land slide some time ago and it completely messed up the road. After much repair, they finally cleared one small lane. Periodically rocks still fall off the cliff onto the road and you can see them all piled up along the edge. (Several staff members here have had rocks fall into their windows from the ledge.) Most of that section of road has concrete barriers (a recent addition, thankfully!) but one spot still opens straight down to the valley floor beneath. What makes it interesting is when you have to pass other vehicles (especially logging trucks) when you are in the slide. So from what I have heard, Highway 12 is the worst in Canada. I don't doubt it!

It doesn't look that bad from this angle, but the sides are almost vertical with the little road along the edge.












Here is the section that has no barriers.







It is all one lane with potholes and fallen rocks along the edge.

From what I understand, many people have died over the slide. But I know I have angels that are looking out for me so I have no need to fear. "The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear him and deliveth them." I am so thankful that God delivers--not just from physical harm, but if we let him, he will deliver us from spiritual harm as well by delivering us from sin! Now that's a promise!

Oh, yes, today I had another new experience... something I had never seen before. About 200 feet from my house along the trail I walk down to school, I ran across this "pile" of stuff. Anyway, since I wasn't sure what it was, I had to do a google search to identify it! Can you figure it out? (Hint: I didn't get close enough to it to see if it smelled like pepper, but I didn't see any bells in it! Mom did say it had carrots in it though!)

Joy in the Journey

Before I left Michigan, I was talking to my friend Michael about journeys and how some people are so anxious to get to their destination that they don’t enjoy the journey along the way. So I was determined that on my journey to Canada, I would try to find the little things to enjoy about the trip getting there. Wow! It has been crazy… but here is just a little recap about my journey…

Day 1:
Got off around 10am—later than planned, but I had to go to the post office and ship three large boxes to Canada that didn’t fit in my car.





Stopped near Berrien for about ½ hour. My friend Sedric met us at the interstate to say goodbye. That was a nice sendoff out of Michigan.

Minnesota has a 65 mph speed limit and is crawling with policemen. Passed maybe 20 along the road—almost all with a victim. Thankfully none were me…

Had a good travel day. Shanuk traveled well. I am pleased. She even loved her little “cave” in the backseat. She loves hiding in small places.She did freak out in the hotel, though, with all the new sounds of the TV, the toilet flushing, the blow dryer, etc. At one point, she tried to crawl into the night stand that sat in between the two beds. She’s way too big so only her head and shoulders fit in, but she would have stayed there a long time except that we finally coaxed her out. I wish I had my camera right then to catch the moment. I laughed so hard!


Day 2
Woke up with a super sore, swollen, red finger. (I cut it very deeply a week ago and then it developed a rash that spread down to my knuckle. My medical friend Albert said to just keep an eye on it and if it started to get painful and turn red, then I should probably have it checked. A bad infection could lead to a bone infection… not cool! So anyway, today it looked awful… Decided I should get it checked, but where?? Stopped at a medical clinic in Wisconsin and spoke to a nurse. She said to soak it in Epson salts. So thanks to Wendy’s and Starbucks for supplying the hot water, we had a little infirmary on the road. At night we wrapped it in charcoal.

Went through another new state—North Dakota. I had been to every state west of the Mississippi except this one, so that was fun. (My total number of states I have now seen is 47.) It is so flat though! But there are a lot of wetlands. It is neat. Speed limit—75 mph. Temperature slightly chilly at 65 degrees. The people here drive funny. I was ready to go straight through a green light and four cars turned left right in front of me as if they had the right of way. Good thing I stopped or there would have been a major accident. Later, I read the sign from the direction they came “Left turn yield on green.” I guess they don’t know how to read…


Got to the hotel and tried to start my computer. Dead… It freezes whenever I log on. Stressing out since none of my recent lesson plans have been backed up. I have a lot of files I need for school on Monday. I’ll figure it out in the morning.

Day 3
My finger looks and feels so much better. Another soak in Epson salts and another charcoal poultice. I’m turning black…

My computer was hijacked today!! Someone took it over—three times! I realized I needed to get some urgent care on my computer since there are no IT guys at the school and I really need my files for class on Monday. Besides since I can’t even log into my computer, I may be without a computer for months till I get it fixed and I just can’t afford that. So I called Microsoft tech support and spent four hours on the phone with them. The first guy helped me log back in (learned more about my systems configuration than I ever knew before!) and clean out all the spyware, adware, viruses, etc. He was so helpful. But after I finished with him, one particular virus that was logged in a windows system file was still there. So I was patched to another PC security guy who spent another two hours cleaning my computer some more. Craziness! I don’t know how I got all that junk, but I thank God that it is all off and my computer runs so well now! I am virus free!

Got off from the hotel around 2pm (had to stay at the hotel so the IT guys could access my computer through the internet, but it set us off so late in the day. Had an 11 hour drive in front of us, but dad set our reservations closer in so we didn’t have to drive so far…)

Yesterday I was telling mom how barren North Dakota and then she told me she had justs seen a commentary about a man who quit his teaching job to come back to his podunk little town in North Dakota and try to revive the dying town. He started making metal sculptures—some of the largest in the world. She couldn’t remember where in North Dakota they were. As we were traveling today, we passed on of the huge sculptures along the road and mom yelled out, “That’s one of those sculptures I was telling you about.” This man’s town was 15 miles off the interstate, so we took a side diversion to see them. They were so cool.



Got calls along the way from Adriana, Justin, and Joe. Oh, yes, and from Dr. Anonymous who called at 1:30 am his time while he was on call at the hospital. (He was paged while I was talking to him to check someone’s EKG so he had to run to see if his patient was ok. He called me back later to say the guy was fine…good thing or I would have felt terrible if someone had a heart attack while the doctor was talking to me in his on-call room!) Anyway, I am so thankful for all my friends who have called me along the way to say goodbye, see how I am doing as I travel, and wish me a great rest of the journey.

Day 4
Got off this morning in decent time. The first morning we have not had any major incidents. Good thing considering we have a thirteen hour day in front of us (because of all the craziness yesterday…) That should put us within two hours of the Canadian border. We are trying to get to the border with plenty of time tomorrow just in case I have trouble with my papers.

Traveled through the rest of North Dakota, then Montana, Idaho, and Washington. I think Shanuk really like the scenery today. She usually falls asleep in the back of the car, but today she was awake most of the day and just sat in the back seat looking around. I would have to agree it was very pretty.

Got to the hotel around 11:30. Exhausted.

To the border tomorrow…

Goin' Ridin'

Today was a first for me...Going motorcycle riding. Responding to my previous post that my car still has a drinking problem, a friend recommended a solution... get a motorcycle. He says they drink a lot less. Well, I haven't gone so far as to get a bike, but today I did go riding. It was my first experience and it was sooooo much fun! My friend Justin came down for the evening and took me riding so that I could see what it was like. I had a blast! So here are just a few photos that say I actually tried it!






























Oh, btw, for those who are wondering about my visa situation, it still hasn't come yet. So I haven't left for Canada yet like I had planned to on Monday. But I am not complaining. It gives me more time to spend with my wonderful family! I will treasure all the moments I can get!

I feel blessed...

On Wednesday of last week, I was traveling down to Berrien Springs Michigan to deliver a bag to a friend who was taking it to Canada with her. On the way down, my turn signal started smoking on me! (Whoever heard of that!) Yes, I know, I have an apostate car... it smokes and drinks. But thankfully I took it through a stop smoking program and that is fixed, but I am still struggling with its drinking problem...sigh. Anyway, while I was at the dealer, I asked them to give my car a physical (after all, I had to go through a medical exam in order to go to Canada so I figured my car may need it as well.) They came back with this list that included changing my left front wheel bearings, engine gasket, and fuel filter, and flushing the transmission fluid and coolant. They wanted to charge me an outrageous amount of money. I about choked when I saw how much they wanted me to pay. But God has blessed me with many friends in many different professions, one of them being a mechanic (he was also a professional figure skater in Russia. I guess those type make the best mechanics since they are quick on their toes and get the job done faster! :)...). So I called up my trusty friend and he said he could do it at a vastly reduced cost. I went to his shop today and he saved me almost $730! Even at 134,500 miles, he says my engine looks terrific, shows almost no signs of rust (which he says is remarkable for a Michigan car), and should last me a very long time. In addition to all the work he did, he gave me a free engine cleaning so now it looks spic and span. On the way home, my car ran great--more power and smoother shifting. It runs as well as it did 60,000 miles ago when I got it! I feel very blessed.

Here is the fine specimen of my engine and my mechanic friend Vladimir Levchenkov...






























Oh, btw, did you know that transmission fluid is pink? It is really quite beautiful. So for those of you guys who need to get in touch with your feminine side, just remember that your vehicle sports some lovely pink stuff!