There was a gathering at the ranch in Baker City

all the googly-eyed neighbors came out to gawk

What in the heck

was going on over

THERE?

Boyz were tossing washers

&

the girls were playing football —

in their prettiest dresses

There were prayers

And laughter

Plenty of that

Because laughter comes easy

in a family

that

Celebrates

&

honors

&

loves

Mr. Gene

The Missionary

She died in his arms. Whenever he turns on the television and hears another slick-haired preacher pontificating about wealth, the Missionary thinks of that day he carried the nine-year old from her jungle home to the air strip. Internal parasites had infested her tiny brown body and were eating her up from the inside out.   He prayed as he carried her. Prayed he could get her to the plane in time. Prayed the plane would get her to the hospital in Quito in time, but she died in his arms before he reached that plane.

It was an antibiotic, not a miracle, she needed. The medicine that could have healed her would have cost a few pennies a dose …

(an excerpt from The Missionary chapter in  Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide?)

# # #

I’m thankful for the men & women who have made untold sacrifices,
to go where God has called them, to serve a people they do not know
in a land of the unfamiliar. And I’m thankful my children have the richest of all heritages. They are the grandchildren of two people who have served God with unwavering abandon.