I Am Still Alive

Several people have sent me an email asking if I was ok since I have not been writing blog entries. When I first arrived home I felt that I had left my heart and God in China. Without being around people on a regular basis I found loneliness and some depression was dragging me down and draining me of energy. I had also taken on a design project for a nephew of mine which was taking a lot of time, but was very enjoyable and rewarding. I love to design and build things as my faithful readers know from past projects I have done and written about. In addition to that project I needed to develop materials for a class in Ruth I wanted to teach when I returned to China in the spring. I also have a group of Chinese students I correspond with on a regular basis and then there are maintenance problems around my home to deal with. Putting all of this together I simply didn’t have time or energy left to write blog entries.

I am currently in western New York working on finalizing the design project. I will write about this later. I have outlined the course in Ruth and have finished preparing Power Point slides of Chapter one. I have between 400 and 500 more slides to develop to finish, which will be a big job to get done by the first of April, considering other things I have to do also. I will write more about this course later.

Health is becoming more of an issue also. It seems that my heart is my weak link, which will probably be what will take my life in the end. The challenge is to keep down the blood pressure so that the heart walls do not thicken any more. If they continue to thicken the heart will become less efficient and will eventually fail to do its job and life on earth will end. This is what happened to my mother. God is in control of all of this so I do not need to worry; as if worry would help. He has determined my departure time, but for some reason he is not telling me. I enjoy traveling with Father on each of my earthly flights and I am sure this last one will be the best of all.

Your prayers would be appreciated as together we labor, doing the work God prepared for us long ago to do. God the Father chose us in Jesus Christ long ago and caused us to be born again that we would obey him (1 Peter 1:1 – 3). Let us not forget that we are a purchased possession of his. Let us be careful to live with that in mind. I think many American Christians have forgotten that by the way they live.