NA ESCASSEZ E NA PROSPERIDADE

Você, alguma vez, já mandou uma carta para Papai Noel? Outro dia, vi uma reportagem sobre a campanha dos correios, incentivando pessoas a doar presentes a crianças carentes as quais escrevem cartas ao “bom velhinho”, fazendo os seus pedidos. Os correios se encarregam de levar os presentes para alegrar a vida das crianças. Além de pedidos clássicos de boneca, carrinho, um brinquedo bem legal, um conjunto de roupas e sapatos, bicicleta etc., muitas cartinhas indicam carências mais profundas: material escolar, “comida aqui para casa porque meu pai foi embora e minha mãe não sabe como vai fazer”. Enquanto isso, nos shoppings, crianças pedem celular da hora, videogames importados e notebooks personalizados junto a listas cada vez mais sofisticadas de mais, mais, mais. Jovens e adultos elaboram listas de roupas de grife, sapatos, bolsas e acessórios, jóias e eletrônicos que seus pais não imaginavam existir, e muito mais, porque você merece. EU MEREÇO! O décimo terceiro salário (quando trabalhamos sob o regime da CLT) já foi gasto antes de ser depositada a primeira parcela. E se estamos desempregados e não temos nada no banco ou no bolso, ainda assim queremos comprar, comprar, e ganhar, ganhar. Temos de ter! 

Devoramos sem dó, e somos devorados pelo consumismo natalino o qual se esquece do maior presente dado aos seres humanos de todas as idades, em todo o universo – o Cordeiro em manjedoura num estábulo, Deus Conosco, habitando conosco, com o propósito de viver e morrer para redimir inimigos injustos pecadores. 

Aponta na cabeça de todo mundo: O que é que vou ganhar? enquanto alguns nos preocupamos com o que é que posso dar? Quanto vou gastar? Como é que vou pagar? Ah! se eu tivesse... 
O frenesi pré-natalino traz inquietações junto aos sonhos realizáveis, impossíveis ou frustrados — mil léguas longe de responder a pergunta: “Que darei ao Senhor por todos os benefícios que tem para comigo?” Lembro alguns tesouros com suas aplicações práticas da Palavra de Deus para a vida.

Na escassez: generosidade e gratidão

Um conto clássico de O. Henry narra a história de um casal empobrecido desejoso de presentear um ao outro, no Natal. Ela tinha longos e belos cabelos, e ele quis comprar uma linda fivela de ouro para enfeitá-los. Ele possuía um relógio herdado do pai, mas não tinha uma corrente adequada para usá-lo. Ela cortou os cabelos e vendeu-os para comprar o presente perfeito para o marido: uma espessa corrente de prata. Ele, por sua vez, vendeu o relógio para comprar a jóia da belíssima fivela. Tantas vezes se repete a doce ironia dessa história, quando alguém abre mão de um bem precioso para dar a alguém amado — e esse alguém abriu mão de um bem a fim de trazer alegria ao outro!

Generosidade não é ter muito para dar muito. É dar abundantemente do que temos — mesmo quando é pouco. Paulo disse aos Filipenses: 

no início do evangelho, quando parti da Macedônia, nenhuma igreja se associou comigo no tocante a dar e receber, senão unicamente vós outros; porque até para Tessalônica mandastes não somente uma vez, mas duas, o bastante para as minhas necessidades. Não que eu procure o donativo, mas o que realmente me interessa é o fruto que aumente o vosso crédito. Recebi tudo e tenho abundância; estou suprido, desde que Epafrodito me passou às mãos o que me veio de vossa parte como aroma suave, como sacrifício aceitável e aprazível a Deus (Filipenses 4.15-18).

A generosidade deles foi atuante e marcante—quando os próprios crentes de Filipos passavam por necessidades, tendo o apóstolo necessidade de animá-los, dizendo:

Não andeis ansiosos de coisa alguma; em tudo, porém, sejam conhecidas, diante de Deus, as  vossas petições, pela oração e pela súplica, com ações de graças. E a paz de Deus, que excede todo o entendimento, guardará o vosso coração e a vossa mente em Cristo Jesus (Filipenses 4.6 e 7).

Concluiu com a promessa: “O meu Deus, segundo a sua riqueza em glória, há de suprir, em Cristo Jesus, cada uma de vossas necessidades”(v. 19). Falando aos Coríntios — igreja cheia de problemas — Paulo não deixou de mencionar uma qualidade importante: 

no meio de muita prova de tribulação, manifestaram abundância de alegria, e a profunda pobreza deles superabundou em grande riqueza da sua generosidade. Porque eles, testemunho eu, na medida de suas posses e mesmo acima delas, se mostraram voluntários, pedindo-nos, com muitos rogos, a graça de participarem da assistência aos santos (2 Coríntios 8.2-4).

Esses donativos foram planejados e preparados de antemão “como expressão de generosidade e não de avareza” (2 Coríuntios 9.5). Sendo assim, o apóstolo instrui:

Cada um contribua segundo tiver proposto no coração, não com tristeza ou por necessidade; porque Deus ama a quem dá com alegria. Deus pode fazer-vos abundar em toda graça, a fim de que, tendo sempre, em tudo, ampla suficiência, superabundeis em toda boa obra, como está escrito: Distribuiu, deu aos pobres, a sua justiça permanece para sempre. Ora, aquele que dá semente ao que semeia e pão para alimento também suprirá e aumentará a vossa sementeira e multiplicará os frutos da vossa justiça, enriquecendo-vos, em tudo, para toda generosidade, a qual faz que, por nosso intermédio, sejam tributadas graças a Deus (2 Coríntios 9.7-11).

Isso é totalmente contrário ao que, hoje em dia, propõem os pregadores da prosperidade, os quais torcem o ensino bíblico, dizendo que nossas ofertas são “sementes” para nos garantir riquezas. Na verdade, a meta da generosidade é que sejam tributadas graças a Deus! 

Achei que fosse falar de presentes de Natal, e lá vai você falar de contribuições para a igreja! O que tem a ver caridade com a necessidade de presentear minha família e amigos? Na verdade, os princípios da generosidade são os mesmos, quer estejamos planejando presentes adequados para aqueles que amamos quer estejamos considerando o que contribuímos para quem já nos doou todas as coisas. Alguns lembretes:

1. Não podemos esperar presentes por merecê-los. Diante de Deus, na verdade não merecemos nada por termos sido “bons meninos” durante o ano que passou! Toda nossa bondade é “trapo de imundície”(Isaías 64.6) e nossos esforços todos não passam de tentativas vãs diante de um Deus santo. O que Deus nos dá abundantemente é somente por graça. Aplicando essa verdade espiritual ao dia a dia, não damos nem recebemos presentes porque merecemos ou deixamos de merecer. (Aliás, a vida não consiste no que é secular versus espiritual. Se somos nascidos de novo, toda a vida, prática e secular, é espiritual!). Presenteamos pais, filhos, irmãos, amigos, porque os amamos e queremos compartilhar de maneira tangível a lembrança. Não podemos exigir que outros nos deem nem indicar o que eles deverão dar. Claro que se eles perguntarem do que precisamos ou o que desejamos, podemos indicar – sem exigências, sem esperar que façam o que nós queremos.
2. Não podemos dar visando o que vamos receber em troca. Já dei muitos livros a uma pessoa rica, na esperança que ela quisesse comprar mais para presentear a outros! Às vezes damos um presente caro esperando que “eles” nos deem na mesma medida. Ledo engano! 
3. Generosidade nem sempre implica presente caro; muitas vezes custa-nos muito além de dinheiro, embora seja pouco dispendioso. Tempo, atenção, carinho, sensibilidade são presentes de grande valor.
4. Nossos presentes jamais devem ser para afirmar ou demonstrar agendas secretas (quanto nós somos bons, ou estamos bem de vida, ou merecemos ganhar com valor igual ou superior).
5. Não podemos dar o que não temos, embora devamos sempre dar além do que achamos que podemos fazer! Da mesma forma, não podemos “contar com” presentes prometidos, antes que sejam dados nem ficar decepcionados quando não se materializam. Uma amiga que contava com um presente em dinheiro gastou de antemão o prometido — que não veio — e lhe restaram apenas dívidas pesadas e sentimentos feridos.
6. Use de criatividade em vez de gastar o que não tem para impressionar! Não podemos deixar que uma lista de Natal nos escravize a pagamentos de prestações. Devemos diminuir a ostentação e aumentar o carinho!

Jesus curou dez leprosos, mas só um voltou para agradecer. Muitas vezes, nós recebemos, de Deus e das pessoas, presentes de infinito valor e não demonstramos gratidão. Somos indesculpáveis diante de Deus quando não o reconhecemos, não o honramos nem damos graças (Romanos 1.20, 21). Nossa gratidão às pessoas que nos presenteiam deve ser análoga à gratidão devida a Deus. O casal idoso que me deu três ovos da sua poedeira, a criança que compartilhou o chocolate da mãozinha melada, o menino que deu os lápis de cor para eu preparar o cartaz da escola bíblica — presentes humildes — os colocam no rol de gente preciosa por quem eu sempre serei grata.

Não precisamos repetir as razões para gratidão, mas em todo tempo temos de ser gratos por pequenas e grandes coisas que nos deram e fizeram. Um casal nos deu uma viagem inesquecível a Israel — não eram ricos nem estavam muito próximos — mas quando Deus lhes deu os meios, presentearam-nos com algo que amigos abastados jamais imaginariam. Outra vez, um próspero médico deu a um pastor carente o dízimo dos proventos de uma cirurgia que fez: um carro. Quando fui operada, uma irmã que ganha a vida limpando casas, fez a faxina de minha casa e ainda trouxe almoço completo para a família. Quando nos preparávamos para um evento em O Refúgio, uma amiga veio de surpresa com uma “equipe de limpeza” para nos ajudar a por o local em ordem. Um presente de preciosas horas de labor. Somos gratos por todas essas ocasiões inesquecíveis de generosidade demonstrada. Somos gratos também pelos “pequenos mimos” — um queijo ou doce trazido de longe, um conjunto de sabonetes perfumados, uma toalha de mão bordada.

Não se pode exibir pobreza como medalha nem esperar que outros tenham de ajudar. Ninguém é responsável pelo que não temos nem mesmo pelo que poderíamos ter. Por outro lado, somos responsáveis por gerenciar bem o pouco ou muito que Deus nos deu, e nisso sermos generosos! Somos mordomos porque nada que temos é realmente nosso. Temos de cuidar bem, mas manter a mão leve e aberta. Se você recebeu um presente, por menor que seja, seja grato — foi de graça, por graça, graciosamente dado. Assim, também ensinamos a filhos, netos, amigos que nos cercam a demonstrar a mesma gratidão.

Na prosperidade: generosidade e gratidão

Todos já imaginamos o que faríamos se, de repente, recebêssemos uma fortuna inesperada, dinheiro ou bens muito além do que hoje possuímos. Junto com a compra de casa, carro, viagens, muitas coisas que apenas sonhamos, também imaginamos ter dinheiro para doar a um hospital de câncer, uma escola que faça diferença na vida da comunidade, qualquer que seja o seu sonho filantrópico. Se eu tivesse um milhão, eu... (complete a frase com mil sonhos!). 
Lembro-me de que, quando criança, em nossa classe na igreja, achávamos importante depositar no ofertório as nossas moedas e notas surradas, centavos ou um cruzeiro. Certa vez, uma amiguinha veio com uma nota de dez cruzeiros, novinha em folha, e mostrou-nos o quanto ela iria dar, deixando-nos verdes de inveja. Ela mereceria sentar bem na frente, quando chamada a apresentar o versículo decorado? Tiago era irmão de Jesus e com certeza sabia o que era ter um parente famoso e benquisto, e escreveu: 

As vossas riquezas estão corruptas, e as vossas roupagens, comidas de traça; o vosso ouro e a vossa prata foram gastos de ferrugens, e a sua ferrugem há de ser por testemunho contra vós mesmos e há de devorar, como fogo, as vossas carnes. Tesouros acumulastes nos últimos dias. Eis que o salário dos trabalhadores que ceifaram os vossos campos e que por vós foi retido com fraude está clamando; e os clamores dos ceifeiros penetraram até aos ouvidos do Senhor dos Exércitos. Tendes vivido regaladamente sobre a terra; tendes vivido nos prazeres; tendes engordado o vosso coração, em dia de matança; tendes condenado e matado o justo, sem que ele vos faça resistência (Tg 4.2-6).

E Paulo lembrou a seu filho na fé, Timóteo:

Exorta aos ricos do presente século que não sejam orgulhosos, nem depositem a sua esperança na instabilidade da riqueza, mas em Deus, que tudo nos proporciona ricamente para nosso aprazimento; que pratiquem o bem, sejam ricos de boas obras, generosos em dar e prontos a repartir; que acumulem para si mesmos tesouros, sólido fundamento para o futuro, a fim de se apoderarem da verdadeira vida (1 Timóteo 6.17-19).

Na galeria da fé, há menção de gente muito rica, como Abraão, José (da cova, escravatura, falsas acusações e prisão, a governador do Egito), Salomão, bem como outros, extremamente pobres. A condição financeira dos servos de Deus jamais indicou maior ou menor bênção e proximidade de Deus. 

No cotidiano cristão, temos contato com gente de posses que tem ajudado a muitos, especialmente na igreja, e gente paupérrima igualmente importantíssima no Reino de Deus. E quando pensamos em presentear ou receber presentes por ocasião do Natal, aniversários, casamentos, qualquer que seja a data, temos de entender a abundante riqueza e a imensa pobreza, nossa e a nossa volta. Deus permite que tenhamos bens, mas proíbe que sejamos orgulhosos ou que coloquemos esperança na instabilidade da riqueza. Deus permite que estejamos pobres, mas lembra-nos que somos “ricos em fé e herdeiros do reino que ele prometeu aos que o amam” (Tiago 2.5). Conhecemos “a graça de nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, que, sendo rico, se fez pobre por amor de nós, para que, pela sua pobreza, nos tornássemos ricos” (2 Coríntios 8.9).

A geração de meus pais e avós era econômica, às vezes muquinha, por medo de sofrer de novo as carências da Grande Depressão ou da 2a. Guerra que lhes tirou tudo. Uma amiga conta que o avô não admitia a qualquer membro da família que guardasse dinheiro separado dele, o qual tudo controlava, guardando no banco “para garantir a sobrevivência da família”. Temos todos lendas familiares sobre dinheiro guardado, fortuna desperdiçada, tesouros escondidos e privações reveladas. As gerações atuais, muitas vezes, são perdulárias, pródigas, sem pensar em economia; vivem gastos acima dos ganhos, ostentam, como “essenciais” à própria vida, coisas que nossos antepassados mais ricos sequer imaginavam. 

Nesse clima de comprar “porque mereço”, de consumir sempre mais e melhor do que o próximo, é que tentamos conviver com a ética protestante em que fomos educados. Somos levados na enchente pelos mesmos três aspectos em que grandes servos de Deus naufragaram na fé: “a concupiscência da carne, a concupiscência dos olhos e a soberba da vida” (1 João 2.16) – e em matéria de presentear e receber, no Natal ou em outra data, esses três aspectos geralmente estão presentes!

Uma pessoa que enricou, disse: “Tenho medo de contar o quanto eu ganho, porque, aí, todo mundo vai chover em cima de mim pedindo ajuda ou empréstimos”. Meu avô dizia que decidiu emprestar apenas o que não o prejudicasse nem magoasse caso não fosse ressarcido. Outra pessoa, que vive com uma grande legado, é extremamente solitária, temendo dar e receber, temendo amizades interesseiras.

É difícil, à pessoa que “tem tudo”, viver num clima de gratidão constante — mas somos conclamados a fazer exatamente isso: “Em tudo dai graças” a Deus. Na humilhação e na exaltação. Na carência e na prosperidade. No “nada tendo” e no “possuindo tudo”. Quando aprendemos a viver contentes em toda situação não perguntamos: “O que é que vou ganhar?” nem mesmo “O que é que vou ter de dar?” mas: 

Que darei ao Senhor por todos os seus benefícios para comigo? Tomarei o cálice da salvação e invocarei o nome do Senhor.Cumprirei os meus votos ao Senhor, na presença de todo o seu povo...Oferecer-te-ei sacrifícios de ações de graças e invocarei o nome do Senhor.Cumprirei os meus votos ao Senhor, na presença de todo o seu povo,nos átrios da Casa do Senhor, no meio de ti, ó Jerusalém. Aleluia! (Salmos 116.12-19.)

STICKING YOUR FEET IN YOUR MOUTH

After baby has discovered her hands by sight, taste, observation of movement and grace, one fine day, she finds her feet. Not only can she reach and lift her feet, separately or even together, but she can bring those chubby wiggling toes to her mouth to taste their sweetness. The pleasure and surprise of feet in a little one`s mouth is almost as good as a mother`s taut nipple dripping milk on lips and tongue, or a good pacifier when she was upset and sleepy. A foot in one`s mouth can be something wonderful to munch on, since one doesn`t have sharp teeth and that foot has not been hardened by walking the ground.

But once we lose the nimbleness of a baby`s body and acquire the ability to firm our feet on the floor and, more than toddling first sweet steps, get them walking to where we want to go, our feet lose their sweetness. As they get older, they even gain dirt and calluses! That is where sticking one`s foot in one`s mouth becomes a serious disorder. Not only has the mouth developed teeth and taste for beef and potatoes as well as mother`s milk and pablum, but the feet have become nimble at getting into trouble going to and from destinations near and far. Speech is another detail we have developed and will continue to use in all our life of communication and miscommunication. So when, instead of sane and pleasant speech, we say something that gets us or someone around us into trouble, we say we stuck our foot into our mouth. It isn`t just an infantile habit – it is a grossly inappropriate use of an appendage to a limb in a clumsy, unacceptable manner. Blessed are the feet, that stand fast in adversity, that bring glad tidings, that keep us walking or running the race. Blessed is the mouth that salivates, that tastes good food, that tastes and sees that the Lord is good, the mouth that chews well, the mouth that kisses and caresses his or her beloved. But feet don`t do well in one`s mouth, nor does a mouth do well full of stinky feet!

Growing children sometimes still stick their feet in their mouths, like when I was nine and learning more facts of life, and asked a friend`s obese grandmother when her baby was due. Adolescents are notorious for sticking their feet in their mouths and thinking they are oh! So awesome! But when you or I are reasonable adults, we must take care with our words lest they do less or more than communicate grace and love.

Some “foot in mouth” blunders people close to me (or even I myself!) have committed:

• Saying “we look forward to your presents” (in lieu of presence) when inviting someone to their wedding
• Mentioning “your father’s first wife” to someone whose parents have been together for more than fifty years
• How are you dealing with your Inability to hold down a job? Alcoholism? Drug dependency? Dementia? Depression? Or name it – whatever problem, although firmly denied, looms greatly over their lives 
• Asking how the lovers’ family is getting along, to someone who doesn`t know (or refuses to admit) the other person’s infidelity?
• Questioning someone’s spiritual (sexual, financial, academic) life
• Mentioning uncomfortable situations or “giving advice” when not asked for 

Foot and mouth disease is a physical ailment that can be treated with antibiotics. But the displeasure of sticking one’s foot into one’s mouth hurts the body that attempts it, the body that hears or sees the effects of the feat, and everybody around, both near and far. Jesus said that our mouths speak what fills our hearts (“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” – Mat 12:34). His brother James affirmed: “… the tongue is a fire” (cf. James 3:5-18). His disciple born out of season, Paul, vividly described the situation: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (cf. Romans 7:24-25.) 

Hope to not have to learn through the school of hard knocks (another cliché worth dissecting in a future blog) how to guard my mouth and through it commend knowledge and with gentle tongue be a tree of life (cf. Prov 15:2-4). 

Elizabeth Gomes

HANDS AND NAILS

After a week full of hands-on activities, I had my nails done for the first time in ages. My hands are somewhat calloused and always aching, and I do not have the delicate pianist fingers of my daughter Deborah or my daughter-in-law Adriana. I had finished a translation and decided to get some major yard work  done: weeding and re-planting my vegetable garden and planting flowers all over our Eden. Have two pairs of garden gloves sent by my son from Japan, but I am a hands-on, get the dirt under your nails kind of  gardener, no matter how much I know it won`t be a neat job to get them clean.  That sort explains the callouses. The aching is due to constant arthrosis, and when these hands don`t ache, they tingle, reminding me that I`d better see an angiologist soon – can`t ignore bad circulation forever!

The other activity I enjoy to get my hands working well is making bread. Kneading is very good exercise, they say, and last Saturday`s batch of rolls didn`t make it to the table for our community Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone who came into my kitchen to help get stuff ready came out of with a hot roll or two. Four baking sheets of rolls disappeared, and my husband didn`t even have a chance to try one! So today I baked for him alone: one baking sheet of rolls, one loaf, and one sheet of esfihas (bread stuffed with lemon and mint-flavored meat) though I am freezing half the esfihas for another day. Since I was in the kitchen and the ideas were boiling over, I made stuffed peppers to freeze for later, beef parmegiana for lunch and to freeze for another occasion, doce de abóbora (squash), sagu de vinho (red wine tapioca pudding), started on tomorrow`s feijoada and cleaned my fridge in the middle of the mess. I have to admit I am not a very organized cook, and am glad that tomorrow my cleaning lady will be here to finish off what I didn`t get done.

Back to my hands. Adriana was going to town and asked if I wanted to go with her. Besides being tired, my feet were a mess and I thought it would be relaxing to have long overdue podologist see (i.e., treat) those tired feet. They could do my feet at one o`clock (forty-five minutes from the time I called, and would I like to do my (hand) nails too?) Why not – I could use a little pampering – so I rushed Lau through lunch, ran in and out of the shower, and was off with my daughter-in-law to an hour or so of luxury. While waiting to be attended, I checked out the colors. Never in my sixty-nine years of life have I chosen anything more daring than pink, nude or an occasional red for nails – but a luminous royal blue nail polish beckoned and I heard its exaggerated siren`s call. Nothing (short of long treatment with a dermatologist) can be done for my speckled skin on hands and arms, but the terminals sure look pretty and are a perfect match for the blouse I plan to wear to church on Sunday. 

After a long winter without posting in my Garland blog, I am writing something apparently superficial and certainly not life-changing about getting my nails done in royal blue. On a day celebrating theologians, instead of writing on deep issues of life applied to daily living (Bible is definitely practical theology and I love it!) I decided to pamper my feet and color the tips of my hands royally. 

Of course that made me think of the many Biblical metaphors on hands. First, God`s hands – a God who made the world by His hands, who has the tiny little baby and our personal universe as well as aeons of prehistorical, distant past, present chaos and apocalyptical times all in the hollow of His hands. He is a personal God who made me a person and put me in a community of millions of unique individuals, and promised to guide me to the end of my days and beyond. He takes me by the hand and leads me through valleys and higher places (Psalms 31:15; 119:73; 139:10;  Isaiah 42:6 ).  Jesus said that He gives everlasting life and “no one will pluck us out of His hands” (John 10:28). We rejoice because God holds us in His hands -- though everything around us is shattered, torn asunder and ground to smithereens – I shall not be moved. Yet I am moved, because He gave us hands.

My own hands are not metaphors – they are mini-analogies to the greatness of a creative, ever acting God who does not slumber and is mighty to save. Wisdom says that the righteous “open their hands to the afflicted” (Proverbs 31:10) and whatever we have to do has to be done “with all our might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). “Whatever we do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” Colossians 3:17). God has put His signet ring on our clumsy fingers and makes it possible for us to do His work on our weeping planet! For this reason, men and women lift holy hands in prayer and godliness with good works (1 Tim 2:8, 10). 

God incarnate was the Word from the beginning of time and spoke the world into existence. He came into a world that did not welcome him, and gave himself so we might become His body. Head and hands are always joined, because analogously, we do with our hands that which first comes from our heart and head – and our Lord gave up His throne to have his body broken and hands pierced by rough nails:

See from his head, his hands, his feetSorrow and blood flow mingled down.Did e’er such love and sorrow meetOr thorns compose so rich a crown?

Our hands are not vital organs like heart and lungs, nor do they go long distances by themselves – they have to be connected to the rest of the body. But we would be severely handicapped without them. Though we use hundreds of word-figures for our hands (handyman, ask for one’s hand, give me a hand, hands-on, handmaid, hands off) they all work in connection with the head. Our lives are changed by things that are nailed: 

–  Christ nailed to the cross for our sins, resurrected from the grave for our justification, lifted high as He ascended to heaven where He sits at the right hand of God the Father – the words of the wise (like goads and like nails firmly fixed given by one Shepherd, Ecclesiastes 12:11)– historical events like the nailing of 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg cathedral in 1517.

But the color or shape or even physical condition of my insignificant nails has nothing to do with all of this. Sllly things like what they did to my nails do raise significant details on life and being, making me ponder on more than the condition of my hands and feet. So yeah to my royal blue fingertips, because they are just a tip of the iceberg of life as it is and as it should be coram deo.

Elizabeth Gomes

HYLA DOC -- I-lu p’ing-an

           Yesterday two books arrived for me at the post office. I think my aunt Cindy has been sharing books with me since I, first-born niece of the youngest daughter of the Stowell family, went with my parents to Brazil, was born. These books are biographies of a legendary great-aunt, Hyla Doc, who was medical missionary in China until Americans were expelled in 1949, and then went to Liberia in 1950 until the mission board forced her retirement at age 67 and she crossed Africa and Egypt into Israel, to “retire” in Tupper Lake, New York, where she practiced medicine and gave speeches almost until age 87, when she was urged to consider her age and the hazards of remaining in practice as lawsuits became more popular. This moment coincided with the easing of restrictions on travel to China, so she sold her car and used the money to go once more to China to renew old friendships and lecture to students at the new medical college connected to WuHu hospital. She was a born storyteller, and when the friend who collected and compiled her story commented with the ancient medical missionary that hers was an impressive story, she retorted, “What impresses me is that it is the story of the goodness of God”. Through all the griefs and hardships and challenges of her life, Hyla Doc voiced a constant thanks to God for the loveliness of the world.
I knew “great grandcousin Hyla” became a doctor in an age when most women, if they went to college, were denied such a strenuous education. She earned her MD from Cornell University in 1921 (the year my mother was born!), one o six women in the class of thirty-six, and interned at  Belleview Hospital in New York City, and then Morristown, New Jersey, before going to London to specialize in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene  by the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Physicians of England. While at Belleview she wrote:
          I stand by the side of a current
          That’s deeper by far than the sea.
          And storm-beaten craft of every drought
          Come in to be healed by me.
          But some have more sins than fever,
          And some have more grief than pain.
          God help me make whole both body and soul
          Before they go out again.
“The years of Hyla Doc’s career in China all fell within this turbulent transitional period between the downfall of the Ch’ing dynasty in 1912, and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949” . She was chief surgeon at the then new Wuhu General Hospital, which stands on the banks of the Yangtze. Damaged almost to destruction  by occupying Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945) and again during the Cultural Revolution after  1966, Wuhu I-chi-shan Hospital has now (1991) grown to seven hundred beds. It is the teaching hospital for Women’s Medical College, the leading Anwhei province medical school.
          On one of her visits to New England around 1933, Cousin Hyla gave my mother, Carolyn Stowell, then a twelve year old, a cotton Chinese dress which is in my closet. Today, over 85 years later, my youngest son and his family are missionaries in Japan, and he gave me two Japanese kimonos (quite different from that Chinese tunic) which remind us of a continuum in world missions  in our family, but also in God’s people over the centuries. I discovered in reading Hyla’s story – that my grandfather’s family of Puritan and Huguenot stock, “were strict, law-abiding people, but in one thing they broke the law of the land. Their farm was one of the stations on the underground railway, and all but the youngest children took part in helping slaves escape up to Canada.”  And Franklin and Louise Stowell’s home was open to a young stowaway Jo Nishima (1843-1890) who came to spend vacations at their farm and told the Stowells that his great dream was to go back to Japan to set up schools like those in America. Long after, in Japan, Ada Stowell (Hyla’s mother) was honored as a friend of the founder of a school in Kyoto: Doshisha University (Dr. Niishima Jo was a celebrated Japanese educator who received his B.S. from Amherst and was ordained a Congregational minister).
           So Hyla’s grandparents (my great-grandparents) also gave haven to a Japanese samurai and stowaway, who became one of the greatest educators and founder of the Doshisha University in Japan, where today in the 21st century, my Brazilian son Daniel Charles Gomes, a missionary to Japan, is pursuing his PhD!
Among hundreds of births,  Doctor Hyla delivered Helen Priscilla Stam, daughter of John and Betty, missionaries with the China Inland Mission (known today as Overseas Missionary Fellowship), in Tsingteh. “In December 1934 a Red Army swooped down on Tsingteh where they killed most of the officials and well-to-do citizens… including John and Betty. They debated sparing the life of the baby, when a townsman stepped out of the crowd and offered his life for hers. For a day and a half, Helen Priscilla cried alone in a deserted house, unfed, uncared for, unharmed, but no one dared go near. A colporteur named Lo had also been taken, then released… [he and his wife] gathered the broken bodies and the baby, and made their anxious  way to Wuhu. We found Helen Priscila healthy and unharmed, and buried her parents in our small cemetery.” 
         On a lighter vein: “One afternoon a patient appeared with outstanding ears. They really stood out like the ears of a dear. He asked, ‘Are you Hua I-sheng?’  I said ‘Yes,’ and he said ‘I’ve come to see if you would operate on my ears and lay them flat on my head.’ “I said, ‘Yes, we can do that. There’s not much going on today; I’ll operate on one this afternoon.’ ’How did you know to come here to have it done?’.... ‘I went to the clinic and registered, and they gave me a stick with a number and told me to sit down and wait until my number was called I went into another room and Jesus was standing there. He  was a tall man (Dr.Loren Morgan), a foreigner, but he had a mouthful of Chinese words, so I  asked him if he could operate my ears and lay them flat. He said, ‘You go up to I-chi-san Hospital Hua I-sheng and she’ll make them flat for you.’…‘So I sent for the Bible-woman and said, ‘Mrs Chao, I am operating on this man, and he wants to know about Jesus… After a week, I took out the stitches and started on the other ear, and he said, ‘Please make this one much flatter than the other one, so I did… He came back often, and one day her brought his wife with him, and their nine-year-old son. I had heard him speak of his son and knew he thought a great deal of him. He said to me, ‘My wife and I are very grateful to you, and we have brought our boy to be your boy. Where you live he will live. Where you go he will go’. I tried to think how I would get along with a nine-year-old boy to look, ‘You know, I work in the hospital every day, and how would I ever be able to take care of a boy? Besides, there is a proverb you have that says a child should grow up before the face of his father and mother. I think the proverb is right, and the bet thing for him is to stay with you. I appreciate the honor, but truly think you had better keep the boy youselves.’ They were pleased and went off with broad smiles, taking the boy with them. Someone suggested that the Bible Woman may have told them the  story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac.” 
          They are fascinating tales of exotic adventure, but it is obvious that the stories of sacrifice and suffering are much more that good story-telling. The blending of lives given in love for the Lord Jesus and for His people permeate every page. today give great importance to “right doctrine” or what today is known as “political correctness”,  (and I agree with the emphasis), missionaries such as cousin Hyla Doc did not enter any battle to impose their way of thinking, but served with intense and matter-of-fact love. I am amazed at the weaving in and out of numerous lives of valiant servants who preceded our lives with grace and truth, and touched our being with their being. The battles were all wrought in heavenly places for the furthering of the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace. This tradition comes though many centuries – Saint Thomas, Jesus’ doubting disciple, went on to minister in India, and the Chinese say he evangelized China in the first century AD!”
          Reading old missionary stories, one remembers that the mission did not belong to this or that group, nor was it founded, implemented or enhanced by human merit – it is the mission of God through human lives, toward other human beings who, whatever their nation or color or culture, are part of the same world God loved, and invites us to learn to love.
         Hyla died at age 94 and on her stone are carved in Chinese characters the words with which she always said farewell to her friends: I-lu p’ing-an (May you have a peacefull journey all the way).

Elizabeth Gomes

LIFE IN JAPAN,

By Ruth Gomes, age 13.

Ruth is our granddaughter who lives in Japan

with her pastor missionary dad and family.

Depression is something "common" in Japan. Due to the difficulty in learning the Japanese language, many Brazilians have been here a long time and still don`t know how to communicate. Many people feel abandoned... this happens, not only with Brazilians, but also with the Japanese. Japan is such a sophisticated country, but many people do not know God and do not have real joy that is found only in Jesus Christ.  Many Brazilians who are here are factory workers; few finish middle school and they end up losing a good notion of things, to the point that many of those Brazilians who study in Japanese schools are illiterate in both languages.

Many Brazilians living here do not care about religion and such things. Once, talking to a Brazilian kid in school, I mentioned that I go to church every Sunday, and he said that that is a waste of time. How can someone say that worshipping God is a waste of our time?! Today, in Japan, less than 1% of the population is Christian, and that It is quite normal for a person to be born a Shintoist because that is beautiful, grow as a Buddhist because it`s good for you, get married in a “Christian” church because the wedding ceremony is pompous, and die in Shintoism. Often we see buildings in the form of Christian churches,  made just for weddings. The number of Shintoist and Buddhist temples in town is incredible; temples are on the streets and altars in every home.

Japanese are very supersticious. The number 4 in Japanese is shi, which also means death. So, in many buildings there are no apartments with the number 4, nor is there a fourth floor. Japanese legends are quite peculiar, and in almost all of them these is an onique. Onique is the Japanese demon; according to the legend, usually he arrives and tries to drag the person into the underworld. Therefore, one of the rituals in festivals is to chase this demon away. For this, they hang the koinobori, which is a fish made of cloth hung outside the house. The number of koinoboris hanging outdoors varies according to the number of people who live indoors in the house.

The Japanese language has three different alphabets: hiragana,  katakana and kanji. O Hiragana is used to write normal Japanese words; Katakana is used for foreign words, and Kanji is like drawings of the words. There are many words in Japanese that have many meanings, so the kanjis serve as drawing that explain what those words are. In school, I am learning lots of Kanjis. After you get the gist of it, they help our reading a lot and are not as difficult as they seemed to be at first.

Shougakku graduation, April 17, 2017

The Japanese School system consists of three different schools, the first goes from First to Sixth grade: (shougakku). After you graduate from that, you go to another school from 7th to 9th grade (shyugakkou). After that, there is another graduation and they go to middle school (high school) from First through Third Grade (koukou). After that, few people go on to university (daigakkou). In Japanese school there are many subjects we do no have in Brazil, as, for example, home economics, which teaches how to sew, clean and arrange the home, and cook. From first grade on, the school lunch is prepared in separate buildings and then distributed to the regional school, given out from classroom to classroom with traycarts, dishes and silverware. Usually lunch is rice, a soup or curry, salad and some kind of meat, many times fish, and sometimes they give you fruit or gelatine, and 250ml boxes of milk for each student. Meals are made one per student, and we are not allowed to throw anything away – if you got it, you eat it. Usually the food is very good, but some days I have to drink a sip of milk at each bite of food for it to get down. On days when some classmate misses school, we play “stone, paper our scissors”, and the winner gets the milk or whatever he or she wants from menu. There is also a class about how to make Japanese tea, and how to serve and drink it. From 7th to 9th grade students must participate in extracurricular activities in school, such as kendô, judô or other sports, music, computer science, and several others. These activities exist to improve working in groups and so students can get to know each other better.

I stay in school from 8:00 AM until about 6:00 PM. When I get home, I need to rest a little, take a bath and do my homework. It is a very is busy day. I am still having a little trouble because there are many words I still haven’t learned, and so sometimes I don’t understand the teachers’ explanations well. I also have trouble with some rules the school requires of the students, like having to tie your hair up at a certain height, you can’t pain your nails r use any kind of makeup, and no earrings. Girls donot have pierced ears and are surprised when I tell them that in Brazil  my age mothers Pierce their daughters’ ears when they are still babies. For them, pierced ears are a sign of rebellion. One day I went to school wearing nail polish (I had used a really light pink polish over the weekend and forgot to take it off!). They took me to a different room and gave me acetone polish remover and told me clean my nails, and watched while I did it. The uniform is exactly alike for every girl, and the teachers measure the length of our skirts, that have to be below our knees, almost reaching the white socks that we have to wear.

I like in living in Japan, but miss my relatives and my home in Brazil. Sometimes I even cry from nostalgia. It is difficult to make friends with Japanese girls because I am so different from them in my appearance and way of being. Many classmates think I AM furiô (a rebellious person) because they think I dye my hair (which I do not do), I have pierced ears, and like to talk a lot. Besides, everyone know that I am a Christian, because I can’t stand to be quiet when they are teaching stuff like evolution or about many gods.

 I want everyone at school to know that there is only one God and only one way for salvation and fredom from depression and worry. May God help me giving me patience to do this!

PURIM! PURIM!

Recently, Jews all over the world celebrated Purim. My memories of Purim are a photo of my Israeli friend Orah Breitbart in Japanese costume, when I was about fourteen, and my receiving a generous gift of hamentaschen from a Jewish library patron when I worked at the Elkins Park Library in Pennsylvania in my forties. But the biblical story of Esther has always intrigued me, and I considered writing a book that blended the 483 b.C. history of Xerxes’ (Ahasarus) Persia and its Jewish immigrants with the Twentieth Century stories of Iran that once was a modern shahdom before being engulfed in dominion of Muslim ayatollahs’. Persepolis (both the idea and the touchingly narrated and illustrated story of a Persian childhood by Marjare Sartori) impressed me with the idea of women living under the threat of annhillation, and drove me back to the biblical narrative.

I have a British-American friend, daughter of a Muslim Iranian businessman, who lived in Iran until the Islamic coup that ousted the Shah and put their land eight hundred years back in time. She is totally an American citizen and evangelical pastor’s wife, with whom I share life’s tidbits and the workings of God’s grace in our pilgrim lives. A lover of history, I always have sought links between Biblical facts and current events. So, for me, the book of Esther is not disassociated from things that still happen in the world that impact and change history as well as God’s saving His people in the chiaro-scuro days of Diaspora.

The Megilla depicts God’s grace and intervention without once mentioning His holy name. Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Zechariah, Haggiai and Malachi all cover the 70 years captivity (as well as parts of Isaiah and Jeremiah), and the story of Esther happened in Shushan while Ezra was leading the return of Jews to rebuild the temple. We don’t know what took the lives of Hadassah’s parents, but we do know she was an orphan, raised by her cousin Mordechai, who was of Benjamite royal lineage from Judah (say, like Saul, Jonathan, and Mephiboseth long before Jair, and may have been brought to land of Medes and Persians by the Babylonian Nebucchodnezzar.

The festival which celebrates the outcome of the story has several customs — the sending of gifts to family and friends, celebration and merrymaking, wearing of costumes. This is a way of emulating God who "disguised" his presence behind the natural events described in the Purim story, and has remained concealed —yet ever-present — in Jewish history since the times of the destruction of the first Temple. Charity is a central feature of the day, when givers and recipients disguise themselves this allows greater anonymity thus preserving the dignity of the recipient. The Persian Exile alludes to hidden aspects of the miracle of Purim which was "disguised" by natural events. The story begins in with Ahasurus’ banquet in Shushan to show off the riches and glory of his kingdom that reached from India to Ethiopia. Queen Vashti (according to some Talmudic scholars, daughter of Belshazar and granddaughter of Nebocodnezar,) hosted a banquet for the noble women of the land. Some Bible teachers use the fact that she refused to display her beauty before the drunken king and his guests is a teaching on modesty, while others use the fact that she defied the king’s order as an affirmation of fifth-century feminism—I prefer to think of it in terms of the facts: she refused to obey her wine-imbibed show off husband and, and like the wife of any tyrant, consequently was deposed. It then became law: every woman shall honor her husband  and every man is lord of his own household, and had the right to speak his own language (Esther 1:20-22).

When the king’s rage was spent, a new proclamation went throughout the land: a beauty pageant was planned and all the most beautiful virgins were now candidates to the queen’s position. If anyone thinks this is the ideal way to find a husband, confound him or her—it’s an ancient pagan method of choice, with no thought for integrity. But God was working in the shadows, and there was a Jewish man of character in the palace, Mordecai, who suggested his adopted lovely daughter be candidate. After a year of intense preparation under the auspices of Hegai, the chief guard and beauty advisor, Esther was presented to the king and immediately chosen as wife and crowned as queen. Her cousin told her to keep her Jewish identity secret. Tradition has it that she ate only fruits and nuts because kosher food was unavailable in the palace (maybe like Daniel and his friends (Dn 1.5-16).

Graceful Esther was given a banquet in her honor for princes and their servants and the other virgins who had participated at her installation in the royal house. Genorosity and gifts were the order of the day, and once again, Mordecai sat at the king’s gate. While there, he discovered a plot to murder the king, and told Esther, who revealed it to the king. The incident resulted in the hanging of Bigdan and Teres, and was recorded in the historical chronicles of the Persian kingdom. Nothing more was said about it.

Meanwhile, enter the villain prime minister Haman, to whom all but Mordecai bowed down. Haman took his irritation at the personal slight to a national level, and decided to do something to end not only Mordecai but all the Jews of the land. Anti-semitism resurges over the centuries and is always never discreet, but virulent, comparable to Nazi Germany’s plans to eliminate the Jews in the 20th century. A great sum of money was promised to the king, the document was written, signed with Ahasarus’ seal, translated into every language of the kingdom and distributed by couriers throughout the country.

Mordecai heard of the edict and received documentation, and so did Esther. Jews throughout the land mourned, fasted and prayed, wearing sackcloth and ashes. Mordecai reminded Esther, “Don’t think you will escape just because you live in the palace. If you are silent, help and relief for the Jews will come from somewhere else, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13,14). Esther sent word to her protector asking that he convoke all Jews in Shusan to fast and pray for her; meanwhile, she will do the same and go to the king. “If I perish, I perish.”  After three days, she put on her royal robes and went to the inner patio in front of the king’s room. Delighted with her presence, the king stretched out his royal scepter asked her what she wanted, promising he would give up to half his kingdom if she so wished.

“No, just give me the pleasure of coming to a banquet I have prepared for you. Bring Haman with you.” It was done, and after the banquet, Haman bragged to his family how the queen had honored him inviting him to accompany the king. “But I won’t be satisfied while Mordecai is still at the king’s gate”, to which Zeres suggested, “Then prepare a scaffold to hang him!”— which he did.

Meanwhile, the King’s insomnia suggested a sure sleep-provoker—having them read to him the boring chronicles of the history of his kingdom. “What honor was given to Mordecai for uncovering the plot against my life?” he asked. “Nothing happened.” Next morning Haman was in his patio and he turned to him and asked, “What should be done to the man the king wishes to honor?” Conceited, self-involved Haman thought surely he would be the man, and counseled the king to have him clothed with kingly garb and crown, riding the king’s horse, with someone going before him and proclaiming, “Thus shall be honored the man the king wishes to honor!” “Then go do it — don’t omit a single detail — to Mordecai!” Crestfallen, the prime minister obeyed and paraded and honored his arch-enemy, then ran home to tell his family. While they were thinking of these things, the king’s emissaries can to fetch Haman to the queen’s second banquet.

This time, while they were wined and dined, the king insisted on asking what was on Esther’s mind, and she told him that she and her people were to be destroyed and killed. “Who would do such a thing?” asked the king without a clue. She begged for her life, revealing, “This man, this oppressor, this enemy is the evil Haman!”

Power was stripped from Haman and given to Mordecai; Haman’s property was given to Esther, but the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be revoked, so a new law, giving the Jews permission to defend themselves and kill their attackers was proclaimed. Purim was made a day of banqueting and joy, of sending gifts and finding respite, and giving generously to the poor.

 For such a time as this, an orphan Jewess became queen of Persia and saved her people from extermination. It was all written in a book. Mordecai became second after king Ahasarus, and great among the Jews, esteemed by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the well-being of his people, and proclaiming prosperity for all his descendants (Esther 9:32; 10:3).

Elizabeth Gomes

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

The last few days, Brazil has seen moments of suffering and pain on several fronts. On the way to the South American championship, the rising Chapecoense team, along with journalists and others who accompanied them, was wiped out in an airplane crash. While Brazilians were reeling with grief over the death of their idols, in the silence of the night, Congress passed laws with tremendous consequences for the future: one curtailing the action of justices in investigating and judging dishonest politicians, thus guaranteeing that the attitude and actions of “I`ll do as I pleases” continue in this Wild West; and the other, permitting, “no questions asked” abortions until end of first three months of gestation.

In Ohio, USA, once again gunshots felled college students, spreading terror and confirming that no one is safe anywhere! All over the world we hear of tragedies—some refugees drowning, dumped at sea, situations so terrible that they are unthinkable, on their way to “freedom”—and we would rather not hear any more about it. We also hear of people who, in compassion, take in refugees and are permanently hurt by them, as has happened repeatedly in Germany and other European countries, by Muslim “refugees” who rape and kill their benefactors whom they deem “infidels”.

The Cuban dictator’s ashes are being carried around the beautiful island country that he ruled with terror and deprivation since he ousted Batista (another dictator) in 1959. I remember as a fifth grader, my classmate telling me that her father, an officer in the US Army, was hopeful that the new revolutionaries would make Cuba paradise on earth—but he got suspicious of their intentions when seeing evidences of their Godlessness.

Recently I watched three historical movies, and though I realize that fiction permeates the stories we read or watch, have to admit that history moves my present, giving both hope and confirming some despair at prospects of future grief. Over the past year, several of God’s servants whom we knew and loved were “promoted” to heaven, and their families and churches still feel pain, though they know the Lord and trust in Him. Recently a beloved pastor-teacher who taught me and Lau since the beginning of our ministry, Dr. Russell Shedd, died.

Also recently, I heard a person I love express hope in the midst of a hopeless situation in which I can do nothing but pray for her, and remembered the many times in the history of the world, in the history of God`s people, and in my personal history, in which God intervened in direct answer to prayer. A sovereign God always knows what is, what was and what shall be—YWEH is the I AM from beginning to end, even if without a beginning and in ever in eternity. Both in historical past and more recently, we have witnessed God’s presence in midst of trials. One must return to the Word of God whenever always and recently perturb our present time. Jeremiah had his fill of persecution, suffering and affliction. He said:

My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is,

So I say, “My endurance has perished;

So has my hope from the Lord.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!”

My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down within me.

BUT this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end,

They are new every morning;

Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, says my soul,

Therefore I will hope in Him.”

                                   (Lamentations 3:17-24)

God is sovereign in time and eternity, but whether in recent or distant past, or soon or someday future, we have opportunities to do, for our own good, and the good of our fellow human, what is required of us: fear and love God, walk in His way s, serve him with all our heart and soul, keep His commandments and statutes (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). That is why, over the ages, heroes rise. I was thinking of two women heroes, one a prophetess-judge,  the other a foreign princess married to a heathen despot king. Both dared change history even if it killed them. Read the narrative of the situation after Deborah had been judging Israel under her palm tree for twenty years:

Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron ad he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time… “Up! For this is the day which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the Lord go out before you?”(Judges 4:14)

When Mordecai informed his niece of the political situation in Persia, he challenged her to act:

For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? ... “if I perish, I perish.” 

                                                      (Esther 4:14-16.)

The beloved story of Purim follows, where a beautiful woman, immersed and guided by the prayers of her people, dares enter the king`s quarters and puts herself at his mercy. The God of history had placed her in a strategic place at a strategic time, and she was willing to change the situation even if it killed her. It was for such a time as that!

We are spectators in this wonderful, wicked, willful world, but we live in it, we breathe here and are part of what we watch, what we hear, what we see. There are many things in which our hands are tied and we are merely weak witnesses. But if there is something we can do to change situations where we are, none of us is immune, none can say, “there is nothing I can do!” 

What is required of us, God`s servants? Only “that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). To a Great and faithful God, we are small and our abilities are few and weak. Where have you been recently? Where are you now? Where will you be ten years from now? Francis Schaeffer reminded us that there are no little people. The Koheleth wrote: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)—for the Christian, it is not a question of “no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol”, but “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”. So: “Arise and be doing, the Lord shall be with ye!” We are in this world for times such as this!

                                                                                                                                                Elizabeth Gomes