Saturday, December 29, 2012

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS LIGHT WENT OUT


Wednesday night, after our activity, little ten year old Mida came to me with her cute smile and presented me with a copy of her school grades. All A's and B's! I give the kids that do well in school a little reward, so I pulled out a few dollars and handed her the reward, her smile widened; she said "thank you" and rushed out in the darkness to her home to show her mom. It was just a part of the cold nights activity and I didn't think much about it, but that was the last time I would ever see Mida again.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve night, I met with the family around her little table top memorial.

Friday night the family and Kevin their cousin and his mother jumped into their old beat up car and headed south for Christmas with their relatives. About an hour into the trip the front tire blew out and the car ended up rolling down the canyon. Miraculously no one was hurt bad, but where was little Mida? The accident had taken her life.

When a child dies it's so sad. When a child dies near Christmas it makes the picture even darker. Family devastated.

All we could do is express our condolences.

We found the family hadn't eaten for a while, they were tired and were just going to go to bed. I had enough in my pocket to buy them all a chicken dinner, which they were happy to have.

Every Christmas Eve we cruse the cold black night through Tijuana's back country simply looking for opportunities to share, sometimes candy, sometimes blankets, in some places toys and in other places ... well, chicken dinner!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

I'M JUST A LOSER


For the past few weeks, people by the thousands walked through the little forests of trees that suddenly appeared December. Everyone looking for that special tree that would do justice to the families Christmas. The special tree selected would be taken home, placed in the proper spot and adorned with shiny ornaments of color and love. Indeed, for a short time, an exalted part of the family.

But look at the difference a day makes.

On Christmas day I stopped by several of these little forests and looked at the remaining trees. A lonely spot indeed. I stood there giving it some thought.

These were the misfits, the rejected! These are the trees that stood there day after day hoping to be chosen. They tried but somehow they didn't make the grade. Didn't sell. There will be no burst of colorful glory for them. They lay unneeded and unloved.

Even though I'm far from a 'treehugger' and trees have no emotion; I couldn't help but feel sorry for the losers.

Trees are one thing; people quite another! God feels for the losers and rejected ... that's where His people enter the picture.

We might wrap that lesson into a New Years resolution.

Monday, December 17, 2012

THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS INCOGNITO


I drove to the market so that I could quickly pick up a few things for my missionary friends in Venezuela. They love tortillas, sauce and magazines. I was leaving for Venezuela the next day. I also had to speak to some teachers in Mexico that afternoon. (My subject was God's Love (I Cor 13) So I had a lot on my plate and time was ticking.

I pulled into the parking lot, parked, and quickly entered the market; in no time I was back out walking across the lot back to my car ... on a collision course with an older man on his walker. He was short, balding and had a sweet face.

The stranger stopped me. Looking up at me with a smile, "Pardon me, he said ... I'm a little tired and wondered if you could give me a ride to my house; it's just a couple of blocks down the street." He turned and pointed toward his house; the opposite direction that I was going.

Oh boy! How inconvenient! I looked at my watch and then ...

Looking at him, I did my best to explain that I really would like to help him out but that I was in hurry and going the opposite direction. I'm sorry I replied ... He interrupted and said "No problem, I'll just wait here and someone will help me out." He smiled.

I turned to head toward my car when suddenly, like a slap on the face, I got the message!

"VON! What are you doing?"

I turned again to the stranger and smiled telling him it would be "no problem; I'll take you." Of course he hesitated and said he understood I was in a hurry and didn't want to be a bother.

Well, we began walking to my car, ever so slowly! I opened the car door and got him in the seat, folded his walker up and placed that in the car.

As we drove through the parking lot he directed me to his house a short distance away. I pulled over, parked and helped him out and helped place him on his walker facing him toward his home.

He started walking, then stopped, turned around and said "Thank you so much! God Bless you" ... and gave me a wink!

I'll never forget his thanks and even more the wink he gave me! I feel to this day it was a Divine moment."

"In that you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me." Matt 25:40

Jesus Incognito.

Friday, December 14, 2012

MY OH MY, WHAT'S WRONG?


The pundits, like chickens, are cackling again. The school shooting in Connecticut this morning seems to puzzle them! Why do these things happen? Why does it seem violence is increasing? What oh what should we do?

The questions themselves tend to prove how dumb these intellectuals are ... they cant see the forest for the trees.

These media pundits might take a look at the most popular movies, most popular games, and hot Internet subjects. With too many male teens today ... prison dress is lauded, bad is good, evil is hot, skull and cross-bones a popular symbol! Killing, murder, robbing, gang rape ... just simple perverted fun! Ah, Gangdom, that's where the real men hang.

Guns? Remember, weapons are male, guns are macho! Guns kill, and killing is male.

Fantasies tend to develop into reality; evil fantasies are no different.

Isn't it apparent that the increasing evil we are ingesting will play out real-time in our society? "Apparently" not!

Fueling young disoriented minds with evil will bring evil ... (Simple logic!) and deeper than that, is the fact that most of our young people have no real purpose or honorable goal.

Speaking of evil goals. I'll bet somewhere in America there are several perverted teens making plans to top today's shootings and make a name for themselves.

God left the stage long ago ... we pretty well deserve the show we have! Pull the curtain ... next act to follow!

Friday, December 07, 2012

HEAD FIRST


We all knew Francisco. A neat little kid who always came to our big shower days and regularly attended our Bible Club. A tragic thing happened a few months ago. An accident threw him into a telephone pole head first, crushing his skull. His father took him to the Red Cross more dead than alive, where they quickly started surgery.

The Doctors told his family that while they were operating on him, he actually died twice on the table. As a result of his accident he has lost an eye, the full movement of his right arm and has a large ugly dent (depression) in his skull, where only thin skin covers his brain. Thank God for a real miracle, his mind is O.K.

Francisco is now a twenty year old. When I first saw him I couldn't recognize him until I asked him to turn his head.

His family contacted us few weeks ago to ask for help in getting a plate put into Francisco's skull. We know them to be honest and very poor. (Father goes to the cemeteries and sings for funerals getting a little money from tips.) The estimated cost of the operation at the General Hospital would run over $1,000 dollars. Very inexpensive by our standards but an impossible cost for them. Tijuana's General Hospital is inexpensive, but for years has a very bad reputation

We said we would help if they could come up with most of the money. They begged and borrowed all the money they could from friends and relatives and came up with about $600.

Today we assured them that we would help make it happen. Francisco gave me an especially tight hug for his "Christmas present."

He wants to be normal so bad.

He's a little afraid of the coming surgery and for good reason. Recently Tijuana's General Hospital has been rocked by a scandal. They have been accused of letting some of their patients die then selling their body parts to more affluent Hospitals in Mexico.

Francisco and his family would appreciate your prayers.

Monday, December 03, 2012

LATE NIGHT TIJUANA CIRCUS


Sunday night I was in Tijuana teaching the little kids at an orphanage by the beach, the teens were into a major soccer game on T.V.

Sunday was to be a long night getting back home; Alas, I never made it!

You see Sunday night, the XOLOS, a popular Tijuana football team, won the country's Championship and I was blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

The XOLOS won and the TOLUCAS lost, so what?

Well, here’s what!

Upon the XOLOS winning; every Mexican in Tijuana that had a car that ran, got in his car, rolled down the windows, packed his car with friends and beer, and headed out to the road with flags flowing ... driving nowhere, just honking horns, waving flags. People standing on the sides of the cars, on the hood and on the roof! Screaming and exchanging beers. Colorful. Noisy. (Some people were in Pajamas.)

Tijuana’s four lane roads quickly became five lane roads ... stoplights were optional ... all the cars forming a giant and real long parking lot. A cop at every corner sending everyone back around. Not only are cops crooked here but they are also incompetent.

Thousands who didn't have a car were on the streets waving their flags. And me, I just wanted to get across the border.

No one knew where they were going or apparently cared. After about an hour of this craziness and noise, I slowly cut in and worked my way to the right and close to a hotel, then darted in their driveway.

Free!

I got out of my car; tired, "old", in my dirty work clothes and wearing flip-flops, and ever so slightly "pissed-off" ... and to make matters worse, it was a classy four-star Marriott Hotel. Well, $115.00 later my car was safely parked and I was in a quiet room for the night.

I returned home this morning with a light pocketbook, better attitude and in a somewhat sane environment.

Home-alone! Ahhh ...