Marsha's Blog

I remember back in 1985 I was having a hard day.  I remember now because this week, I came across a handwritten note that I have kept all these years. It said, (in Japanese, if that matters),  “Marsha Sensei, I have loved what you have been teaching me about Jesus. My husband was transferred and we’re moving away today. I will never forget you, Mariko.” That’s all it said.  I found it in my letterbox, no return address, nothing. The reason I was feeling down was because I had no way of contacting her. I almost felt that she’d orchestrated it that way for a reason and it made me sad. Japanese, as a whole, are very non-confrontational, even concerning their own destinies, and it hurt to see her go.  I couldn’t chase her down and realizing time was short, cram the Gospel into her. But while I was musing, the doorbell rang and I had a package. It was from a friend back in the States. Let me tell you about her.  We grew up together in a small Colorado town.  She...

Thank you all for your kind comments on last week’s blog.  I promised you this week a “non-maudlin” post. My sister looked up the word, “maudlin”, and took great delight in reminding me that it describes a kind of “drunken self-pity”. That’s not exactly what MY dictionary said, but I’ll do my best to cheer up anyway.  Somewhere in one of our “memory boxes” in the garage, I believe we still have a cassette tape (remember those?) labelled “Angles”. We laughed about the person who couldn’t spell “Angels”, but the laughing always turned to awe when we listened to it. And we listened to it often. Apparently, it was taped when 4 or 5 missionary men got together to pray.  This particular time, they were especially low, as missionaries sometimes get when there’s no visible harvest. Finally they decided, after much prayer, that perhaps singing would lift their spirits.  Someone pushed ‘record’ on the player, and they began to sing. Later, they discovered that what was recorde...

 It’s been one of those weeks, busy and happy, but yet another funeral.  That makes two in the last week.  Godly men, age appropriate but still leaving you thinking, “Hey! What’s going on??”   While these things were going on, another dear friend miscarried, and a school acquaintance of my teenaged grandchild was killed on his e-bike. All this just reminds me again of the hope of Heaven, and wondering how anyone could bear them without that assurance.  I wanted to share a memory of Tony’s dad’s home going.  It was many years ago now, 2012.  A lot of you remember him.  He loved the Lord, he loved his wife, Jody,  and every day he made an effort to love living, and keep serving. We were in Europe when the call came that he was having bypass surgery.  We were due to be home in a couple of weeks anyway, but we changed plans and flew home to be by his side as he ‘recovered’. The operation seemed to go well, although we were not aware tha...