I've been reading...and I've been reading...and reading...and reading...!
My G'mother wants me to read a bunch of missionary books (usually books on the Congo). This one is interesting: Doctor Not Afraid, a bio of ER Kellersberger, MD by Winifred K Vass. OK the way Congo is described here actually made me miss it (and I thought I didn't wanna go back and wanted to move to some place called California?! jk) :
"The tropical forests were a surprise and delight to Eugene. He had expected impenetrable undergrowth in the understory but found instead, beneath the leafy ceiling high above, a windless, vaulted spaciousness filled with a dim, cathedral-like glow. Sunlight shining upon the spreading crowns of the emergent giants filtered down through the tangled mass of interwoven vines and branches that formed the main canopy. It finally flickered to the forest floor as tiny, elusive glints of light made momnentarily visible by the wind, sitrring the distant overhead foliage. Here and there miniature trees with large leaves and brilliant purple or scarlet flowers, graceful, rope-like stems of lianas and exotic epiphytes clinging to gray bark, added decorative touches to the starkness of soaring bole, flaring buttress and massive trunk. Five-hundred-foot-long stems of rattan vines hung in loops, suspended from the crowns of the towering trees to which they were attached by sharp, hooked tendrils. On the forest floor a moist, spongy carpet of fung-impregnated rotting vegetation silenced every footfall and gave off that deleicately pungent, woodsy fragrance peculiar to the jungle." Here is an excerpt from Eugene's diary:
"On the fourth day we passed through a magnificent belt of forest that takes six hours to traverse. In one place the trail went down into a deep ravine, following the bed of a clear stream for a long, long way. Here, truly, there were no footprints left behind to tell of your passing! here the sun is a forbidden guest. On all sides rise the giants of the rforest, reachin up to the life-giving sun. One feels totally dwarfed by their grandeur and the thought of how much longer they last than our poor human bodies. But, praise our great God and Savior! Even as all these great trees have come about by the death of one tiny seed, even so through the death of our bodies, we will enter into a life of glory!" He goes on to describe more of the beautiful parts of Congo (the ones I haven't really gotten to see), the mountains, ravines, rivers, etc.
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I hope you, dear Reader, realize that not all us Presbyterians are alike... In fact, if you've met one Presbyterian, you most certainly have NOT known them all:) When I went to my Trevecca Nazarene university, I was one of the very few Presbyterians on campus and often felt accused or attacked or asked Why in the world I was proud to call myself a calvinist. Then there were a few other nice friends who didn't blame me at all for this (my one fault..;-)) and said they wanted me to keep my faith and STAY Presbyterian, not to change for everyone around me. It's not just because "whatever dear Daddy (a Presbyterian minister/missionary) says" but I've made my beliefs more my own as I gradually came to know God and His grace. So out of sheer curiosity I picked up a book from my aunt (raised in a Presbyterian missionary family, she attends a Congregational church. I have one aunt who's a Presbyterian elder, one aunt and one uncle who attend more "non" or "inter" -denominational, even charismatic type churches)'s shelf: "The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God" by John Piper. I know & love this Reformed Baptist guy, but knew I needed to read more by him, so I am intrigued by his take on William Carey, who's "known as the father of modern missions...40 years..in India...without a furlough..." sounds pretty impressive eh?! "The vision of God that inflamed his heart for the nations was the free and sovereign God of warmhearted, evangelical Calvinism= the God of George Whitefield the evangelist...the God of Augustus Toplady [who wrote one of my fave hymns "Rock of Ages"] and the God of John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace." [go rent the movie please] Carey is often remembered for his strong opposition to the hyper-Calvinists of his day who were reputed to have told him to cool down in his enthusiasm for world missions because if God wanted to reach the heathen he would do it without Carey's help."[ridiculous if I ever heard!]...Piper inserts a good quote by Carey, but this would be even longer!..."Carey did not believe that God could be frustrated in His designs for the world, but that 'all the Lord pleases He does.'..Carey tells us of being confronted by a Brahman. Carey said that God formerly allowed all men everywhere to go their own way, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent. The Brahman responded, 'Indeed I think God ought to repent for not sending the gospel sooner to us.' Carey's answer is awesome, like the God he loved and served: 'To this I added, suppose a kingdom had been long overrun by the enemies of its true king, and he though possessed of sufficient power to conquer them, should yet suffer them to prevail, and establish themselves as much as they could desire, would not the valor and wisdom of tha tking be far more conspicuous in exterminating them, that it would have been if he had opposed them at first, and prevented their entering the country? Thus by the diffusion of gospel light, the wisdom, power, and grace of God will be more conspicuous in overcoming such deep-rooted idolatries, and in destroying all that darkness and vice which have so universally prevailed in this country, than they would have been if all had not been suffered to walk in their own ways for so many ages past.'"
I know it's long but it made me think...!
"Be ashamed to die until you have scored a victory for mankind." Dr. TP Kalogris
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