A Little Bit at a Time
Jan 31
I can’t say that house-cleaning is my favourite activity. How can so much dust accumulate in a month with only two people living in our home? However, my philosophy all through my life has been if you are facing an overwhelming task conquer it by working on it a little bit at a time. Our guest room needed some paint touch-up on its ceiling and wall cracking fix up in one corner so after Christmas over about a week Gary and I took on the challenge of those repairs plus major cleaning of the whole room. It looks lovely. Time for you to pop in for an overnight visit.
That’s one room done for now. We only have seven other areas to go before spring when spring cleaning actually kicks in! But wait! Maybe we should just hire Scott and Chrissy Lockhart’s cleaning business (healthyhomescleaningcompany.com) for a little bit to get us over the hump. It seems the older we get the more we look for the “easy” which is actually understandable.
Our friend Thomas and his family in Myanmar have been renting his neighbour’s land to grow vegetables and flowers in the local market for sustainable income. His neighbour has decided to sell the property which Thomas has wanted to purchase. A couple of months ago it seemed impossible, however, since then our Kainos International Ministries charity has been able to raise about half the funds required to be used as a down payment. That money was sent last week, and this deal will be partially closed tomorrow with the remaining money given in installments over the next ten months if it can be raised. Each installment will be about $500 CDN. Please pray that our charity can meet that need (send to: kainos@kainos.org). We were excited to receive Thomas’ description of the property. “The property is almost two acres 200 feet wide and 400 long. Two sides of the land is slope and there is plain area in the middle. There are more than twenty avocado trees in the slope area. There is already a pig barn, so we don’t need to build, just repair. And we need to build a tent for the keeper or storeroom (very simple one). I and my son David can build this. The sales of the vegetables and flowers can provide enough income. But we need to redig the water well so that we can plant vegetables every season.” As Thomas’ orphans get older and older, they can learn a little bit at a time over the years how to manage the use of this property. Isn’t that a great investment?
It is interesting to note that Jesus, when training his twelve disciples, dispersed information regarding the plans he had for their futures only a little bit at a time. I’m sure it would have been very overwhelming for them if he had told them everything in the early days of their friendship. The apostle Paul understood that young followers of Jesus require “milk” rather than “solid food” as he stated in I Corinthians 3:2 “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it…” In the long run, the disciples certainly got the picture because of the very far away places many travelled to spreading the good news about Jesus’ life on earth and then his death, burial and resurrection which we can now know about today.
We would really appreciate your prayers for the growth of Hillside Church this year. We must work on various ways as to how to reach our Milton residents for our church. In Milton’s society and elsewhere very few have any spiritual background that we can build upon a little bit at a time so that they can understand what it means to fully become a follower of Jesus. M & M our two Punjabi students have been attending our church quite regularly since last summer and still don’t know even though we have been providing information a little bit each time they come out. The Lockharts and us have become their dependable Canadian families.
Are you facing a troublesome task? Why not break it down into manageable chunks to get it done which will make you very relieved and happy. In the meantime, I will wish you an early Valentine’s Day. I wonder if Wiarton Willie will predict an early spring this coming Sunday morning. Let’s hope so.
Wendy