My Subtitute

My son, Tony, took Dottie out for dinner for her 71st birthday (not 51st) and for Mother’s day.I was totally exhausted after preaching yesterday morning but stayed outside and visited with some kids. I walked and it looked like an Elvis Presly’ entourage as I had kids surrounding me so that I would not fall on my face. But I did rest all afternoon and read in the evening.

Tony went and did the banking for the general account at Casa. So with all other staff so grounded in their responsibilities all is well at Casa.

Another precious little girl came today. She is Esmeralda, age 8. just a few minutes ago the courts called and an 11 year old boy is on his way to Casa right now. The judge called an hour later and there is another 11 year old boy also.

There are times that I wish I could rip open my chest and let people read my heart. I am not the most loved & adored person. My personality and whatever does not make me a favorite of many people. But I am suffering! Ever since I learned that the government has decided that they will no longer provide medicine for children with kidney disease,    diabetes or AIDS–a total of 2700 children–I have struggled. How many of you can believe God for a small offering? Now many of you can believe God for one child’s life? I have two empty dorms of which we can convert into small clinics for 25 children. Adjacent to our property are 2 acres for sale for $100,000. If 150 American laborers were to come I know that once we get the foundation down we can have a clinic for over 100 children.

Dottie and I do not have a retirement fund so we have tried to put a little something aside each month and therefore we have about $50,000. We will match the first gift of $50,000. My God is large! There is no reason at all that we cannot raise $1,000,000. How much is a child worth? What if it was your baby and you were told that you needed $300 per month  (ONLY) and that was more money than you had ever seen? What if for a lack of  a few hundred dollars a month you had to watch your baby die?

I think we are better than that? You who have helped us and put up with my lousy personality for years must be special people. I know that you will say immediately “I do not have a million or a thousand or even one hundred dollars extra”.  But God knows who does and what he needs is us to do our part and He will see that others will do theirs.

“I have a dream” shouted out Martin Luther King over 50 years ago. It was a sermon that resonated world wide. His dream was for all men bending equal. But God had a dream before the year of initials: JFK, LBJ, MLJ, RFK and the list goes on. The dream of MLK was primarily for minorities but God’s dream is for everyone.

For me to fulfill His dream for me I must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Without that relationship I will never be free whether I am black, white, brown, yellow or all colors of the the rainbow. John 8:36 says :that if the Son of God make you free you are free indeed”.  Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:17 that “when a person becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person. No longer is he the same. We have been given a new life to live”.

Mary Magdeline is another example of someone who needed “to dream”. She was a prostitute and the lowest part of human society. But Christ had a dream for her also just as He did for me. Her life was made new and so was mine.

History is filled with lives of the oppressed, the slave, the unwanted and any other undesirable person unloved, unwanted, unworthy in the eyes of others who oppress them.

But Jesus and His Father had a dream and that dream was our salvation–our new life–our release from slavery and death. Don’t you love Jesus?