Shoot an apple off my head

email 2/23/09
Paysandu continues to be a beautiful place and at the same time somewhat difficult as far as missionary work goes. It is a really good thing that my companion and I get along so well because we have many street hours together. I know that the trick will be learning to work with the ward. We can keep knocking doors if we want, and we do when we see a house that looks somewhat alive. The work is slow, not many investigators but we still do have some. We can't complain. There is a 30 year old woman named Lorena with 3 kids that went to church once with us and she is interested. Her big problem is that she has told us that she knows to get baptized she would need to quit smoking and that for her that just doesn’t appear possible since she has smoked since she was 12. We will get her eventually because she is reading and praying and people that do that always progress. In the meantime we need more things to do.

It rained all this last week and so there wasn’t a lot of people in the street to talk to. The other day it started to rain all of the sudden and we weren’t ready with umbrellas or anything because it had started as a sunny day. We ran to be beneath a balcony. When it rains here it pours and we knew if we went out into the rain we would be soaked in 2 seconds flat. While under the balcony we decided, "hey, lets knock this door. Maybe they will feel bad and let us in." The guy opened the door and shook his hand "we are 7th Day Adventists" and I said "that’s fine, we just wanted to let you know we are here under your balcony waiting out the rain..." and before I could say more he shouted "Stay there then!" and slammed the door. Some people are less than pleasant. I didn’t expect that from an Adventist because they are usually super nice with us and eager to try and convert us to their faith. Be nice to people. If the Jehovah’s Witnesses knock your door, offer them a drink. If it is raining really heavy offer to let them come in for a minute to wait out the storm.

My official quote and theme of the month is "Pray as if everything depended upon God. Work as if everything depended upon you." I believe that is true. As far as prayer goes I still struggle to understand the effects of prayer. Because in the end we are all familiar with those famous words "Thy will be done". For a while I wondered what the point of prayer was if God already knew everything and it is His will to be done. Will my prayer for a sick person really help that sick person get better unless God already wills it to be so? It was a complex question. In the first place, yes I do believe a prayer for a sick person does help and that miracles have occurred because of faithful prayers. But I think more generally prayer is about us showing our dependence upon God. When Jesus taught us to ask for our daily bread, He did so knowing we were going to receive the daily bread. Here is the kicker, I bet that whether or not I pray I will be given the daily bread. But when I do pray and give thanks for the bread and ask that He bless me, I am showing my dependence upon the Maker and I am humbling myself before Him recognizing that everything we have is part of His creation. Let us remember our true purpose in life, which is to progress. I grow as I place my trust in Him and recognize His hand in my life. Prayer sometimes is nothing more than a parent-teacher conference, a check up, so that we can tell Him how we think we are doing and He can help us to know what we can do better.

Anyway, I hope that all is well back home. Keep praying for me and I always do for you. Prayer is a very real power in our lives. I know that He is listening. If we are heavy laden or tired, He can give us rest. Those are the words of the Master and they compose a very real promise. He hears us and gives us rest. I testify of that. Take care of yourselves!! I love you!

Andy