Earthquake!

Yesterday when I was in the kitchen we had an earthquake here in Colombia. I was making Noah a sandwich when I heard the refrigerator and what was inside rattling. We have had problems with mice and rats coming up from downstairs where they store grain, so I thought that I was hearing a rat. Then I heard Mommy say something about, "It's an earthquake." Mommy tells more about the earthquake on her blog here. - post by Sarah

When the earthquake happened I was standing up watching the china cabinet shake; I thought that it was neat. -- post by Noah

I was downtown half running trying to get somewhere by a deadline so I didn't feel anything. But I noticed a bunch of people gathered outside of a tall building with shouting and a lot of commotion. I crossed the street to pass on the other side, thinking that it was a fight or an arrest (common here downtown) and I didn't want to be caught in the "crossfire." Later I found out that the news said that downtown people were yelling and fleeing the buildings. It was a 5.4 in magnitude. Heather describes more on her post in Heather's Highlights. -- post by Phillip

From what we are reading along with family altar in the morning

Our children beg for me to continue reading in this book, Thirty-three Years A Live Wire. In the morning when we have family altar I often also read 2 or 3 pages from John T. Hatfield or another exciting holiness book. Tomorrow we should finish the last chapter. If you find a copy to read, your children will be impacted and you will be left unsatisfied with the norm if you have a hungering after God's holiness.

"This is one of the Historic places of the Civil War. It was one of the strong fortifications of the Confederate army. Some of the old cannons are still there yet and they are just as good as ever, but they have no explosives about them. They are not in war now. How many old church professors are like those old cannons, sitting around on the breastworks of an old battlefield telling about what they did fifty years ago, but nor they are powerless, and the devil is no more afraid of their old brass cannons than a yearling bull would be of a popgun. One little sleepy devil could lay in the belfry and keep charge over a whole church full of such fellows.
". . . I had read of these battles in my boyhood days, at the time when the fight was on. I was not a soldier then, but I am now, I am in the war against sin and the devil, and it takes more backbone, grit and grace in these days to stand straight for God and declare against sin, than to shoulder a musket and go to war. There are men living to-day who were in those battles and fought bravely, who are now members of church and make a profession of religion and yet they are so cowardly they are afraid to let their wives and children hear them pray."

-pp293-294, Thirty-three Years A Live Wire: Life Of John T. Hatfield, By Himself, God’s Revivalist Office, Cincinnati, Ohio, no date.
John T. Hatfield was born in 1851 in Charlottesville, IN and was a personal friend of Uncle Bud Robinson who said of him, “He is always full of juice and freshness and fire and glory. Brother John never runs a meeting by a program; he is as liable to call mourners at the opening of his service as to call them at the close of his service. He is one of the greatest puzzles to the devil that is now living; the devil never knows what he is going to do next; he is about as liable to preach in one end of the church as the other – no strings on that man! He is a cyclone of grace turned loose on the hills of the earth to do just as the blessed Holy Ghost suggest to him.”
- post by Phillip

From what we are reading at night to our children.

The second baby was a girl. They named her Bertha Viola. She was a beautiful child, a bundle of sunshine and the picture of sparkling health.

One night when Bertha was about three years old, she suddenly became desperately sick. She had laughed and jabbered and romped all day as usual. She and Jacob Leander had skipped and tumbled and played all over the yard, through the house, and on the porch steps. Through the open door Villie could hear them singing the dear little songs that they had learned in Sunday school. How beautifully their voices blended in heavenly childish chorus!

And now what could be wrong with little Bertha? One crumpled hand lay under her hot cheek, and her tangled blond curls hung over the pillow edge.

“Dannie,” whispered Villie, “I believe she’s very sick. See how she rolls her eyes up into her head. ….

The doctor came at midnight.

“I know you folks want to know the truth about this case,” he said after he had sat by the child’s bedside for fifteen minutes, “but as yet I’m puzzled. I’ll leave this medicine and come back tomorrow. It acts a little like brain fever, but I wouldn’t say yet.”

“Oh!” Villie’s hand went to her throat, and she tried to control her emotion and stifle the spasm of sudden fear that gathered around her heart.

“You and Dannie go on to bed and get your rest,” Mother said. “Jake and I will stay here and take care of Bertha.” ….

Not joy, not ease, not sunshine but trials and difficulties, heartaches and troubles make great experiences, and great experiences make great lives. To struggle and battle and rise above troubles and discouragements develops strength of character and courage for greater trials farther on. Out of kindness and tenderest love, God ordained it that we could not look ahead, not even for an hour. It’s a moment by moment life to live.

For three weeks little Bertha Viola lay unconscious, hanging between life and death. The doctor charged seventy-five cents for his daily calls. Dannie stayed as close to the house as possible, and Villie hugged Jacob Leander close in her arms and cried over his head.

The day came when Bertha Viola was well once more; so the family went to town on a shopping tour.

-- Dannie of Cedar Cliffs by Christmas Carol Kauffman, 1950 (an excellent and beautiful true story of Dannie Roth, 1865?-1950, and his dear wife Villie, a dear Christian couple and faithful laymen in the early Mennonite church.) We have been reading from this book many nights before praying and putting our children to bed. -post by Phillip

*I LOVE coffee*

As you can already see I do love coffee. Here in Colombia people start drinking coffee when they are Elijah's age and I wish that the people in the USA did that because I love it. Now I don't drink a 4 gallon thing of ice coffee every day. I limit myself to about two times a week. Here is a little acrostic I wrote about coffee.

C =contentment

O =on occasion

F =fabulous

F =fantastic

E =enjoyment

E =extraordinary


I LOVE COFFEE!!!



post by Kimberly*

*Kooking in the Kitchen with Kimberly*

"Blueberry Kiss"
1 cup fresh or frozen blue berries (thawed)
1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream
1 Tablespoon sugar or other sweetener, to taste
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup ice cubes
Throw all the ingredients into the blender and blend up good!! (from VITA MIX RECIPE book)
ENJOY!!!

I've made this recipe at least two times. Mine is different though because we can't find blueberries here so we use a berry named agras. We think agras is black currant.

posted by Kimberly

Advice to Christian Workers

All ministers should be revival ministers, and all preaching should be revival preaching; that is, it should be calculated to promote holiness. People say, “It is very well to have some men in the church who are revival preachers and who can go about and promote revivals, but then you much have others to indoctrinate the church.” Strange! Do they not know that a revival indoctrinates the church faster than anything else?

-- Charles G. Finney quoted by E. E. Shelhamer in Heart Talks to Ministers and Christian Workers, 3^rd Edition, printed by God’s Bible School, pg. 107

Scouting trip into Argentina

After an all night flight I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on a Tuesday. What a huge metropolis -- around 13 million souls!

One site ranks Buenos Aires as the 10th most populated urban area in the world, another site at 15th. I didn't return home until a week later, so I had plenty of time to walk the streets, pray, and to try to learn about this mission field. I had the honor of sharing in one church and preaching in another on my only Sunday there. I was able to pass out tracts, witness, and make some good contacts. God let me meet a dear preacher and his family who are trying to plant a church in a poor neighborhood of Buenos Aires. They want to study in the classes that we have been offering to those here in Colombia and plan to offer in Argentina. I also made the three and a half hour trip into Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. In both countries I saw a dearth of good churches and as far as I know there is an absence of any holiness churches who would be happy to identify with our preaching of heart holiness.