"Snakes Alive"

Below is today's message from LeRoy:

"Guess we need to get our 'drive the snake back' pray-ers going.  I encountered a cobra on the steps leading up to the cottage. Thankfully I had a torch or I might not have seen it. I quickly got Ding. Nezzar was there too. They both came out with sticks. It was still there. They did it in quickly.  Then he called the dogs. Not too thrilled to be finding snakes around." 

Fall of 2011, we served as relief staff at Bethany Ministries, Ltd. <www.bethanyhk.org> for almost 3 months. Hong Kong had been experiencing drought conditions and snakes were almost a daily occurrence on Cheung Chau Island. Both the Bamboo Viper and China Cobra are highly poisonous and native to Hong Kong. The one that scared me the most was a harmless one that was about 6 ft. long and decided to cross my path. Took forever for my heart rate to return normal.

Just last week I asked LeRoy if he had seen any snakes on Cheung Chau and he said no. I leave for Hong Kong next Monday and am not looking forward to the daily treks up and down the hills of the island.

Gospel in 4 Minutes

Getting Right With God

Don't work to get right with God, just GET WITH God 
and allow Him to take care of the rest.

From The Long Way Home by Laura Mullenix

Snickers in Qingdao

Today on Facebook a friend, Elizabeth Braze, posted the following:

I have to admit I let out a little scream when I saw Almond Joys at the Kunming Wal-Mart.

Oh, how that brought back a great memory. Way back in 1988, we were teaching at Qingdao University. City teammates called to say they had found Snickers, my favorite candy bar, at the little Friendship Store downtown. Oh what joy! That was unheard of back in the late 80s in China. We left immediately to head downtown.

When we arrived, our friends were there! Their teenage son said, "I told you not to call the Ramseys!"

We bought all that were left of the one box available and saved them for Christmas gifts. Back then there were slim pickings for gift items. As you can tell in the photo above, the women got aprons and Snickers. What a treat! 

We may not have had much but we had a great time rejoicing in the little things that came our way. Made me realize that it was the little things that made our early years in China bearable. Small gifts and great friendships!

Qingdao Christmas 1988: Florence Riesen, Kristen Kenagy Zetzsche, Ginni (American student), Becky Neufeld, Jane Ramsey, Sandy Harrison, Teri Woodland and Ruth Wolters.

That's My King - Take At Least Once A Week

From Bonhoeffer's book Ethics, as quoted in the book Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas

"Those who wish even to focus on the problem of Christian ethic are faced with an outrageous demand - from the outset they must give up, as inappropriate to this topic, the very two questions that led them to deal with the ethical problem: 'How can I be good?' and 'How can I do something good?' Instead they must ask the wholly other, completely different question: 'What is the will of God?'
pg 468 of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas


"All things appear as in a distorted mirror if they are not seen and recognized in God."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer
pg 469 of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

Bonhoeffer Quotes

A state which includes within itself a terrorized church has lost its most faithful servant. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
pg 154  Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer's three conclusions - that the church must question the state, help the state's victims and work against the state, if necessary - were too much for almost everyone. But for him they were inescapable. In time he would do all three.
pg 155 Bonhoeffer

German Christians were convinced that if they bent their theology a bit, it wouldn't matter - the results would be all right in the end.  Many of them honestly believed that under Hitler the opportunities for evangelism would increase.
pg 155-156 Bonhoeffer