Traveling to Sri Lanka - March, 27, 2009

Marlo and I flew out of Prince George on Tuesday, March 3 at 4:50 pm, arriving in Vancouver at 6 pm. It was a lengthy wait in Vancouver, in that we didn't fly out until 2 am on Cathay Pacific for Hong Kong. En route to Hong Kong, apart from a few hours of sleep on the 13 hours and 40 minutes of flying time, I read 100 pages from a book that I just picked up in Prince George. The book is "The Power to Prevail" by David Foster who founded and pastors a congregation in Nashville, TN. Let me share some of the pointed remarks that he makes in the book: Speaking of the church in North America, he said: "In an attempt to attract men and women back to God and make Jesus more appealing, every Sunday of the year fast-moving discourses focus more on our happiness than our holiness." "Adversity is not an option; it is a fact of life. The fact of adversity is not our real problem, but rather the attitudes we adopt and the choices we make in the face of it. Those choices and attitudes separate those who prevail from those who don't." Throughout the book, he speaks repeatedly of three approaches Christians make to the Christian life; climbing, crawling and coasting. I think that these three words speak volumes to us, without even reading the book! David Foster spoke of his first born daughter and once she learned to crawl, she began climbing up on everything in sight. So in our immaturity, there is a time when it is necessary for us to crawl, but once we conquer crawling, there is something within us that longs to move to higher heights, so we climb! Coasting is probably a trait for those entering the senior phase of life, so those of you who are approaching my age in life, need to check that desire to coast! Then he writes: "God gave us a climbing gear and an ascending spirit in order to prepare us to prevail over adversity." So why should we settle for the prairie plain when there are mountains to be climbed? Again he writes: "Why not look out at life from the summit of a great peak rather than up from a mud hole?" "Both crawlers and coasters waste their lives looking for favorable winds and perfect circumstances. But as George Bernard Shaw said, 'The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, they make them.'" "Climbers prevail because they never lose heart. When pushed, they push back - they refuse to relent, retreat, or resign themselves to the way things are. They don't lean on emotions, because they know emotions are fickle and unpredicatable. In contrast, crawlers and coasters live out of their emotions. They see adversity as an unfair hardship. They play victim. They feel sure that the mountain is impassable and its conditions are unbearable, not because they have ever visited the mountain, but because they listen to others who stopped climbing a long time ago. Crawlers look for someone to blame for the way things are. By contrast, climbers accept reality, adjust their attitude, and align their energies to begin taking action based on what is---they don't waste their time blaming God, defaming others, or shaming themselves." "Today is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God and to the world around you! Today is the day to begin turning your adversities into your advantage! The moment you see life as a gift from God and trust his plan for your life, things begin to change. The bible makes this promise: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of live and of self-discipline (2 Tim.1:7 niv)."

Well, as I stop, we are sitting in the Hong Kong Airport waiting for 6:20 pm to arrive so we can make our departure for Colombo. It is 8:45 pm Prince George time as I write, but it is 16 hours later here - 12:15 noon on Wednesday, March 4. We finally arrived in Colombo Airport at 11:50 pm on March 5, 2009. After we completed our 21 days of ministry in Sri Lanka, we were back in the Airport again on Friday, March 26 at 11 pm, and we flew out to Bankok at 1:50 am on Saturday, March 27, 2009. We didn't get off the plane in Bankok, after we continued on to Hong Kong, arriving there about noon (HK time), after about 4 or 5 hours, we boarded our plane for Vancouver, arriving there about 2 pm. We continued on to Prince George, arriving just before 9 pm. It was so good to be able to stand up or lay down after traveling so many hours on different planes! Our deep heart felt thanks is extended to all who made our time in Sri Lanka so special.