Marsha's Blog

 We interrupt this program today to bring a word about that 16thcentury German monk who changed the church from the inside out, Martin Luther.  Some of your calendars may include mention about the 505th anniversary of the Protestant Revolution, but did you know that on or about this day 500 years ago, Martin Luther completed his translation of the New Testament into German? This was one of the first steps toward placing the Bible into the hands of the common man and into the hearts of a whole new wave of Christian believers who would demonstrate over the next several years a willingness to die while proclaiming their message, “Sola fide! Faith alone! It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we can know peace with God.” The problem Luther had with the church was that as a monk, he was able to actually read the Bible in an authorized Latin version. In reading, he came to understand that the New Testament writers were talking about a different salvation than what the church was teaching. 

 Yesterday we visited the Vatican.  I remember from 20+ years ago being impressed with the heat, the grandeur, and the reverence we felt.  This time around, we saw the same scenery from a different perspective. A few years ago, Tony did his doctoral study, which included a section on the Protestant Reformation, so we thought it would be great to take part in a “Reformation Tour” through Germany, with a follow-up visit to Rome. What a difference this time around! There had to be at least 50,000 people lined up at the entrance to the Vatican.  The pope had just that morning suggested to a live audience, that he was thinking of retiring. As a Protestant, I didn’t know popes had that option, but the public turned out in droves to hear him speak that afternoon, as we were making our way through his place that morning. Turns out, he just said he was still “thinking about it”. Anyway, we could barely see the Vatican for the people and finally had to opt for a tour. Miraculously, the price ros

 Good Morning all, As I promised last week, we're in an area of dubious internet this Sunday, so my daughter will send you this blog from Jordan from about 5 years ago. I think it's interesting because it could be last week that I wrote it.  My stomach still hurts, mainly because I can't pass up 'interesting' food.  Taxi drivers still have personalities, and God is still magnificent, doing things that surprise and delight us every day.  Please enjoy! Previously from Jordan: Some of you have been following our adventures in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan this last week.  I’ve posted more pictures than anyone wants on Facebook, so I’ll spare you more of the same this morning.  The capital city of Amman, where we’ve been for 5 days, is made up of geographical ‘zones’.  Beyond that, I have no idea where I am most of the time because it all (sorry) looks alike. As you read this, we’ll be on our way to the ancient ruins of Petra, but today our travels took us to ano

 We'll, we've had an interesting week, as usual, but I have to start with an apology, especially before I don't have any followers. You remember last week when I mentioned that I needed to "throw off" all of these things, especially regarding the burdens of everyone else,  and just run the race? Wouldn't you know that only 2 days after I posted, Tony and I were  reading Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) and whammy, there it was.  Not Paul, who was inspired by God, but alongside of Paul, came a little wisdom from Oswald. Here's what he says:  "October 9.  Romans 6:19. Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." And he goes on: "If I construct my faith on my experience, I produce the most isolated life, my own whiteness.  Beware of the piety that has no preposition in the Atonement of the Lord, It is of no use for anything but a sequestered life: it is useless to God and nuisance to man." I don't want to be

 This last week we've decided to take the rail passes and put ourselves on a self-guided tour of some of Paul's missionary journeys.  Looking back, I realise that, even without rail passes, tour buses and Lufthansa, Paul really got around over here. And he got around with a zeal that only a man who had been struck blind, met Jesus, had his vision restored and his life’s career track laid out before him could do.  I also realised that he took YEARS to accomplish these journeys, while Tony and I are trying to retrace his steps in just a few weeks. After "Doing" Athens”, as the Americans say, we headed south in search of ancient Corinth.  On the platform in the Athens train station, we spotted a couple.  She was wearing a prayer covering, and I had to rein myself in from approaching her with my standard line, "I went to a Mennonite High School, so therefore I must know all about you and be your friend". But I didn't have to wait long, because when we were d

 Greetings from Greece,   Well, as of this morning, we finished about three weeks of rather cold Germany and were ready for some warmth, so we headed south. In spite of the cold and rainy weather, our German pilgrimage left us with two particular images of Jesus. Let me share them with you.  If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know we’ve been on a ‘Martin Luther Reformation tour”.  It was great!  I think we visited every town, hamlet, church and school where he left his mark. Let me say again how much we appreciate Tony’s Bible study group that gifted him with enough to organize a tour that started in Berlin and ended up yesterday in the city of Augsburg. One of the highlights of the tour was not directly connected to Brother Martin, but was instead a demonstration of what he always advocated: a clear and concise presentation of the Gospel. The event is called “The Passion Play”, and I expect most of you have heard of it, and even some have attended it. I’ve talked to several friends

 Hello Everyone, Tony here. Marsha kindly relinquished the keyboard this week so I could say a few words about the amazing Hand of God at work in all our lives. And especially now.Where to begin? We left Spain a couple of weeks ago and flew over to London. Everything was perfect, from the blue skies to the experience of attending Evensong at Westminster Abbey and sitting in the choir loft where just a few days later, as we watched TV with the rest of the world, a portly gentleman would occupy the seat I had been in while he attended the Queen’s funeral. Never could figure out who he was, but I could sympathize with him as I watched him squirm in the hard straight-backed pew. From London, Marsha and I decided to use our Eurail passes for a trip up to Edinburgh, Scotland. Just a few minutes outside the city, it seems, there’s a small village called “Penicuick”. Since my son-in-law goes by the same name, we thought it would be interesting to check out his ancestral heritage.  We weren’t d

  Recently in Wales, we took TWO £200 tours. Luckily we've budgeted for this, so even though that's expensive (about $300 each), we were OK Both were very enlightening.  The first one took us around to several castles and into the national park of the mountains of Snowdonia.  One of the castles, called Carnarvon, is where Prince Charles became the "Prince of Wales" a few years ago (now he's the King).  I'm pretty sure C.S. Lewis must have seen this castle and used it as inspiration for “Cair Paravel”, the legendary gathering place for Aslan (read “Jesus”) in his “Lion, Witch and Wardrobe” series. We also found out that the town of Llandudno (in the Welsh language and pronounced something like “Clendendno or something) was one of the selected cities where thousands of English children were sent to be safe in WWII.  Again, right out of the C.S. Lewis series, although in his book, Lewis didn’t mention that it was only children of royal and very wealthy families w

 The other night in London, Tony and I were enjoying a lovely walk, looking at all the people and sights.  It was a beautiful evening, but I’ll have to admit I was still feeling a bit down about our recent theft and how it continues to complicate things. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that things were not coming together as we had hoped. Our publisher was telling us all the right words, but so far had not come up with a single opportunity to promote our new book. He tossed the word, “Covid” around as some kind of answer to all his plans, but I can’t help but read “reluctance”. Then there was the whole “please come volunteer to work with Ukrainian refugees” invitation. The needs are still there but the timing’s not right. It’s looking like we may not be able to do anything after all. I’m coming to realize that it’s getting harder and harder to justify our existence. I sat down on an outdoor bench to wait for Tony to order some sushi.  (Yes, this is a very cosmopolitan city) The sushi

(Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!)  I met a couple of interesting people this week. The first one had just had her very first ride in an air-conditioned bus in order to come and speak to a group of us ladies in Bangkok. Speaking through an interpreter, she introduced herself as ‘Mam’. She’s a second-year seminary student at a mission school in northern Thailand. She’s about four and a half feet tall, 90 pounds soaking wet, with long dark hair and a beautiful smile. She comes from a hill tribe called “H’Tin” and there are a very few of them, scattered through Laos, Thailand and Burma. She has a proper Thai name for the registry, as well as her H’Tin one, but either are probably 14 or 15 letters long, so even her family calls her ‘Mam” She began by telling us of her life in a refugee camp where she was born. I’m not sure we westerners can really appreciate how terribly desperate a displaced peo

We'll, we have almost successfully crossed the Atlantic.  By the time you read this, we'll have arrived in Europe, but as I write this, the only land we’ve seen has been the Azores. I'll have to say, it has to this point been the perfect crossing.  Our waiter at dinner said he's never had so many days at sea without even a ripple and we told him half the world was praying for us!  Our dinner mates (who are also Christians) piped up and said the other half was praying for them! Aren't we egotistical, with so much going on in the world, to feel so blessed?  Seriously, I may have become a fan of these smaller, but more elegant-feeling boats. The Queen Elizabeth is not a Cruise Ship but one of the last true "Ocean Liners", made for smaller numbers, exquisite comfort and speed. The crossing is taking only 13 days. The 'entertainment' consists of High Teas, symphony orchestras and lecturers brought along to teach us things about astronomy, geology and th

(Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!) Today I’d like to give you a little geography lesson. We live in an area of Bangkok that is absolutely full of Japanese businessmen and their families. This is a good thing, because we work mostly with Japanese, and Japanese businessmen are not poor. Our little duplex pre-dates their arrival and sits humbly in amongst all the fancy high rises. To illustrate this point, I must say that I did some hand-to-hand combat with a GIANT cockroach last night. Actually, I went into battle gripping some kind of can with a picture of a lemon on it that shot out yellow goo. I’m not sure who won the battle because after I had trashed the kitchen, I ran upstairs to hide. Anyway, we have been interested and amused to watch a new little outdoor mall being built at the end of our street. It’s called “Japan Town” and now that it’s opening up, we find that it sports several upsc

 Good morning, As you are reading this, we’ll be two days away from leaving the USA. With over 3000 miles and 14 states clocked up (including Hawaii), enough barbecue, grits and TexMex to feed a small village, it’s been a great 7 months!We’re in Florida now, working our way to the docks in Fort Lauderdale, and decided to have a treat and go to Perkins Pancake restaurant, known for their great breakfasts. With all the distractions, I wasn’t prepared to be blindsided by grief.As we were ushered to our seats, I noticed that the waitress had on a t-shirt uniform that said, “We are happy to support ‘Make a Wish’ kids”. As I tried to place my order, I got all choked up, explaining that 30 years ago, ‘Make a Wish’ gave us our last week with our son Trevor, and it was, to use a Disney cliché’, “Magic”.   It had been a heart-wrenching 8 months, watching him deteriorate in spite of all that could be done.But God was good, giving him the stamina to have a happy outlook as we were treated to a ‘Ma

 We’re still in Changmai this week, heading up the Japanese church here while the pastor takes a much-needed break back in Japan. We were buying food yesterday, vaguely aware that we needed to ‘stock up’ in case the threatening revolution got worse.  Suddenly there was a loud announcement and we could  understand just enough Thai to realise they were saying we  had ten minutes to exit the store. What we didn’t realise  was that in light of the events in Bangkok, there was now a 7PM curfew on all the country. As we drove home, we could see the smoke from fires burning throughout the city of Changmai. Not Bangkok, but the city in the far north where   we thought we were safe. This has been a week to remember. As an American, I’m   not used to being truly frightened by the government, but this week gave me a taste of what it’s like to literally not know what will  happen next to the place you call home or the people you love.  Although we had, as we mentioned last week, safely moved to th

 Last week Tony preached in what has been our “home away from home” church for the last couple of decades, Holly Brook Baptist, near Tyler, Texas. Tony’s parents called it home, and then after Mom passed away it was for Dad a real family place for the next 16 years until he joined her.  A good many of the folks we’ve known there over the years have moved on to Glory, leaving widows, widowers and kids, but all are comforted by the assurance that one of these days we’ll see a reunion like never before. We've been all over Texas for almost a month now, and regret that we still didn't get to see all of you.  It seems all those “Texas is sooo big…” stories are true! Many family members and friends made sacrifices to see us, taking time off from their busy schedules, driving long distances to meet us halfway, etc. One couple even invited us to come stay in their house for a week …… while they were away for a conference! To all of you: we just can’t thank you enough. If we missed you,

 (Note to Reader: This is another in our series of“River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!)  I   think I’m flattered. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that if you wanted to know more about this kidnap drama we’ve been chronicling, you could Google this certain name and see what the bad guys were saying about our friend’s parents. Well, to my surprise, several hours later, a friend in Australia messaged us to say that OUR blog was in the number two place on Google's list of 8 pages.That means (I think) that our blog had been deluged with hits,  placing it in the number  one slot of interest. Normally, I would say that was a good thing, but since that particular blog was mostly our opinions about those “other guys” who were out to kidnap our friend,  I began to think that  maybe it was time to back off awhile. As my mother used to say to my dad when they needed to talk privately, “There are too many ears in the cornfield here”.After looking at our op

  Hello Everybody, Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July and are ready for another great Sunday. I also hope you're enjoying my weekly blog, which at the moment is a collection of excerpts from the book, "River Crossings".  Today I wanted to send along a personal insert with a video clip from the church service we went to a couple of Sundays ago.  The pastor is Dr. Jonathan Hayashi, one of three full time Christian ministers who call a lady named Yukiko  "Mom". You may remember that Yukiko was the very first person we led to the Lord, baptised and performed her wedding in Japan, all around  40 years ago. By a chance meeting with Jonathan, he asked us to come to his church and share a bit of her story.  Clicking on the link below will take you to the Facebook page of Northern Hills Baptist Church. The whole service of June 25th was fantastic and worth watching, but if you just have time to catch a glimpse of us, push the time bar and the bottom of the screen to th

 This week, we saw something interesting while riding the train here in Bangkok. Quite often, you’ll see a teeny little sign above some of the seats on the train that say, “Please give this    seat to a monk”. Well, a monk got on the train and headed toward the middle of the car. Almost immediately, somebody JUMPED up and offered him a seat. Then the ‘dance’ began. As the monk sat down, the people on either side also exploded out of their seats up as if there were springs underneath them, now giving the monk THREE seats on a crowded train. Then at the next stop, some guy with more nerve than me (I don’t think he was Thai), sat down next to the monk, completely ignoring him but still leaving an empty seat on the other side of the holy man. At the next stop, a lady carrying a baby got on. The guy who didn’t mind sitting next to a monk got up and offered her his seat. She smiled and sat down. Now it was the monk’s turn. He SHOT up out of his seat and stood till the next stop. So you say,

I heard an interesting thing this last week. Our friend was interviewing Thai people to work in the Baptist student center where Tony and I are teaching.  A middle-aged lady came in and sat stiffly across  from him as he looked over her application. In the box marked “Religion” she had written “Buddhist”. James thought it was interesting that she would be applying to work in a Christian institution, but figured this was yet another one of those “who can understand the Thai?” issues, and continued to the next page. The question was meant to be a discussion starter for the interview, and it asked simply, “Who is Jesus Christ?” She answered, “My Lord and Saviour.”  The question was followed by, “Why do you believe that Jesus Died on the Cross?”. The lady had answered, “For my sins”.  Now James was becoming a bit confused. Laying the application down, he said, “You say you’re Buddhist but you’re answering as a Christian. What’s up?” She smiled and answered back confidently, “Of course I’m

 Dear Blog Friends, Here it is June already.  We've been 'on the road' for six months now with another six or so to go. Thank you for continuing to read my ramblings and not only that, offering comments that let me know you’re listening. And all that, in spite of the fact that this latest series of blogs are mostly excerpts from a book I wrote years ago. For myself, it’s been nice to remember those times back in Bangkok, and to see that God’s workings are not bound by time or circumstance. He really is the same, “yesterday, today and tomorrow” (Hebrews 13:8).  I’m happy to say we've recovered from Covid, and were able to enjoy our reunion of over 800 retired missionaries down in Florida.  I don't pretend to know everyone there but it was amazing how many we did!  A couple that I would have never picked out of a lineup grabbed us as we walked by their table and "reminded" us that we'd oriented them and sent them to the mission field over 40 years ago. 

 News From Camp (Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!) I’m writing today from camp. We’re up in the mountains about three hours from Bangkok with 60 enthusiastic Thai young adults and 15 very energetic Australians! The Aussies, from Brisbane’s Kenmore Baptist Church, come every year and do an English camp for the student centre kids and they just keep getting better. Anyway, it’s been a crazy couple of days, what with wild games, boisterous singing, and even a Thai rendition of an Australian bush dance (Hey you Aussies, is there really such a dance as “The Waves of Bondi, or are they making this stuff up?”). It’s also nice to be a bit cooler than usual, thanks to the camp’s location, up in the mountains. The place is beautiful, the food is... well, interesting, and the beds are reminiscent of an English torture rack, but hey, it’s camp! But I think the thing I’ll remember most are the testimonies

 A Fine and Beautiful Thing Surprise! This blog is going out a little early this week since we won't have WiFi for the next few days. We're doing great and looking forward to starting the "driving portion" of our American visit next week. Love ya! (Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!) You might remember Tony wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago about “pouring out your life for the Lord”... Well, Tony was sick this last week. I mean a sickness of biblical proportions. People worried that it was the swine flu, and it might have been, but he got better instead of worse. Albeit it said, as he was pouring out his life and losing 7 lbs, (3 kilos for the metric bunch) we were thankful to have indoor plumbing! Now he’s better and trying NOT to find the 7 lbs again, but I’m sure they’re going to find him as he is eating again... And that reminds me of a little story. Years ago, I was a yo

  Got the Bubble? (Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!) The other day as I was pouring myself a glass of water from our kitchen dispenser (you CAN drink the water in Bangkok, but only at your peril), I was startled by a loud gurgling sound, followed by silence... a sure sign that it was time to lug a new water jug into the house. The sound took me back to a faint childhood memory, sitting around the table while Mom poured Dad a cup of coffee. Suddenly a tiny burp came from the spout, and then Dad’s coffee was being filled with that muddy sediment from the bottom of the pot. “Uh oh,” she said, “Looks like you got the bubble.” And from then on, the phrase took on a whole world of applications, all related to the fact that whatever we were doing, or pouring or saying, was just about to come to an end. “Getting the bubble” meant the last dregs were being drained out, and there was no more to come. N

 Floating Our Boat (Note to Reader: Today we’re back to “River Crossings”, excerpts from our stay in Thailand a few years ago. We will intersperse these with “Real Time” reports from along the road as we make our circuitous journey back home to Australia. For today, please enjoy…) This week we experienced one of Thailand’s huge festivals known as “Loy Krathong”, which roughly translated I think means something like “Float Your Boat”. According to what we can work out with our limited Thai, it began about a thousand years ago, when someone made a “krathong”, or a basket out of banana leaves, and put in it all of their bad feelings and ‘sins’, lit a candle on it and floated it away on the river. A beautiful image, when you think about it, and one which no one in our line of work would want to miss. Of course, we didn’t go to the river to float away our sins. In fact, we didn’t even go to the river. As it turned out, there were a few hundred thousand folks who opted to go instead to our v

(Note to Reader: Today we’re back to “River Crossings”, excerpts from our stay in Thailand a few years ago. We will intersperse these with “Real Time” reports from along the road as we make our circuitous journey back home to Australia. For today, please enjoy…) The Thais must be a very clever people. We’ve been studying ‘reading and writing’ for two weeks, and our brains are about fried. Language is such an interesting thing. Last night we went to see one of our missionary kids star in the high school play, “The Miracle Worker”. Tony said he could really relate to Helen Keller, stumbling around bumping into walls, screaming and throwing tantrums because she wasn’t understood. As you can recall, she just needed to COMMUNICATE! One of the students in my class at language school laughs now that she’s realized that during the first month of school, she kept going up to strangers and saying in Thai, “Hello, what’s my name?” ...Oh how we can relate! Let me give you a little language lesson.