A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope,
encouragement and exhortation.
Daily
Encouragement on
Thursday, March 7,
2019
Saturday
afternoon I passed by the Donegal Mills Plantation
Gristmill along Donegal Creek on Trout Run Road. The
property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
and for years attempts have been made at restoration and
using it as a tourist attraction but presently the stately
white mansion is occupied by an Amish
family.
(Click on photo to enlarge)
(Click on photo to enlarge)
"Our
Great Restorer"
Message
summary: The atoning
death of Christ on the
cross is the supreme
demonstration of God's
love resulting in:
This week we have examined each of these three "r's".
Listen to our message on your audio player.
"He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6).
•
Our redemption from
sin (Tuesday's
message)
• Our reconciliation to God (yesterday's message)
• Our restoration to wholeness (today's message)
• Our reconciliation to God (yesterday's message)
• Our restoration to wholeness (today's message)
This week we have examined each of these three "r's".
Listen to our message on your audio player.
"He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6).
Galen
and Nancy Martin, are
our longest term local
friends here in
Lancaster County. We had
dinner after church with
them the first Sunday
after we moved to this
area in February 2001.
We enjoyed that meal and
the fellowship in their
country farmhouse.On Saturday we saw Galen in the JB Hostetter Hardware Store after making our bi-monthly blood donation on the Bloodmobile there at Hostetter's. He told us he was restoring a 1949 Minneapolis-Moline tractor which his father had purchased the same year Galen was born. So, of course, we went over to his place to have a look!
He had the tractor in the equipment barn partially reassembled after a thorough cleaning and paint job. Other parts were on the floor awaiting reassembly. He was working on the wheels.
Tractor restoration is a popular hobby among farmers. We enjoy walking through the collection of restored tractors at our local fair.
I suppose it brings back sentimental memories of their childhood on the farm. It is also a great activity to get the grandchildren involved as Galen did. But watching Galen also provides an illustration for a spiritual truth concerning another type of restoration.
God's nature is to redeem, reconcile and restore. The greatest restoration is our relationship with Him. But then we can experience restoration with others. One of the greatest faith builders are personal testimonies. We enjoy reading of how the Lord is working in the lives of others.
Some stories
take a long time to work
out and these can be of
special encouragement to
others who are also in a
long wait. We enjoy
experiencing, observing
and hearing about these
stories and today we
will share one. One summer we
stopped by our
chaplaincy office in
Springfield, Missouri
where I hold my official
endorsement as a
chaplain. We had lunch
and visited for awhile
with Al Worthley, my
chaplaincy supervisor at
the time. Al has been a
tremendous blessing and
source of encouragement
to us in our chaplaincy
ministry, both to
companies and over the
internet through Daily
Encouragement.
We also visited for a moment with Valla Martin and had her photo taken with Brooksyne. I see Valla's name in my inbox practically every day with prayer requests from chaplains from all over the country.
Valla has a wonderful testimony. She spent most of her life not knowing her biological father. She knew his name, but very little else was known about him – good or bad. She always longed to know more about him. What was he like? Was she like him at all? Did he wonder the same things about her? Fear of negative answers kept her from pursuing her dream of one day finding him.
Eventually she thought, "Enough wondering is enough". If she found him for no other reason than to learn family history, that was okay. She had been very happily married for 33 years, had two children and three grandchildren, so her life was full. Well, almost full. If he didn’t reciprocate her feelings, she could go on. She had made it this far just fine. But, what if???
On August 12, 2010, she threw caution to the wind, sat down at the computer, and asked a simple private question on Facebook to the man she thought must be her long-lost dad: At 2:56 pm she wrote: "Are you the Dean from Kansas who has a sister named Barb?"
She shut the computer down and didn’t look at it again until the next morning. Little did she know that later that day at 6:48pm, he had responded: "Yes I am. My heart gave a little jump when I saw this on my email. I've not used Facebook much, so I don't know much about using it. You are beautiful by the way. This is a lot more answer than you asked for, hope you don't mind. Please let me know all about you and your family. I'm thrilled to hear from you."
From there phone numbers were exchanged, and the first phone call happened the next day. An hour passed by in a flash. So much to know! Where to start?! It didn’t matter! Valla had found her daddy! And guess what? He only lived about an hour away! He could have lived anywhere, for all she knew!
He had grown up and was deeply repentant of his previous behavior. He wasn’t the irresponsible young man who had abandoned her and her mom so many years ago. He had thought of her often and always thought of her on her birthday – Valentine’s Day, and hence the name "Valla". He LOVED her! He had become a Christian, and they shared the same conservative values and outlook on life. They processed information remarkably the same. They had the same type of personality and sense of humor. They "got" each other.
A week after
the first interaction,
they were able to meet
face-to-face. So much
communication had
happened in that first
week that it was a very
comfortable meeting.
Since then, they have
seen each other almost
every week. Phone calls
happen several times a
day – sometimes very
short calls, sometimes
they solve the world’s
problems, sometimes just
plain silliness, but
always just because they
CAN!
It wasn’t long before Valla learned that her dad was experiencing health problems – SERIOUS health problems. He only had one working kidney, and its function had begun to decline. With no hesitation, Valla offered one of her kidneys IF she was a match. (Of COURSE, she would be a match!) The question was never: "SHOULD she do it?" It was always: "Why SHOULDN’T she?"
In the fall of 2012, Valla went through all the testing to confirm that she was indeed her dad’s match. She passed the tests with flying colors. On January 22, 2013, the kidney transplant occurred. Both donor and recipient recovered very nicely. On April 8, 2013, her dad was told that his health following the transplant is far better than many other kidney recipients.
Valla had looked for maybe just medical history. Turns out she became part of his medical history. She found her identity and a sense of belonging that was totally unexpected! That's the blessing of restoration and a tremendous example of our daily text. "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6).
Today's Bible text has an interesting distinction. Before scrolling down for the answer do you know what it is?
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Father, we rejoice
with Valla in the
restored relationship
she has with her birth
father. How wonderful
that they share the same
faith and same values
enabling them to build a
loving bond as father
and daughter in their
later adult years. There
are millions of
fatherless children who
don't know their birth
fathers and feel
unloved, unimportant and
unwanted. We pray for
responsible parenting
and Biblical morality to
be restored in our land.
How desperately we need
a revival where people
will be saved,
delivered, and
reconciled to You, and
seek to reconcile
themselves to those they
have cast aside. We pray
for those who are still
in the waiting period
for a miracle such as
Valla's. May they find
their sense of belonging
and acceptance through
You, our loving Father,
and as joint heirs with
Christ who gave His all
that we might be adopted
into Your eternal
family. Amen.
Note: The message is already long but let me share a burden of ministry. We see so many broken marriages and families typical of the age we live in. We are heartened by single fathers seeking to be good dads for their children. But we also see a growing, inevitable phenomenon. Fathers and mothers who really just walk away from any sense of connection and responsibility and in some cases have no shame.
We also visited for a moment with Valla Martin and had her photo taken with Brooksyne. I see Valla's name in my inbox practically every day with prayer requests from chaplains from all over the country.
Valla has a wonderful testimony. She spent most of her life not knowing her biological father. She knew his name, but very little else was known about him – good or bad. She always longed to know more about him. What was he like? Was she like him at all? Did he wonder the same things about her? Fear of negative answers kept her from pursuing her dream of one day finding him.
Eventually she thought, "Enough wondering is enough". If she found him for no other reason than to learn family history, that was okay. She had been very happily married for 33 years, had two children and three grandchildren, so her life was full. Well, almost full. If he didn’t reciprocate her feelings, she could go on. She had made it this far just fine. But, what if???
On August 12, 2010, she threw caution to the wind, sat down at the computer, and asked a simple private question on Facebook to the man she thought must be her long-lost dad: At 2:56 pm she wrote: "Are you the Dean from Kansas who has a sister named Barb?"
She shut the computer down and didn’t look at it again until the next morning. Little did she know that later that day at 6:48pm, he had responded: "Yes I am. My heart gave a little jump when I saw this on my email. I've not used Facebook much, so I don't know much about using it. You are beautiful by the way. This is a lot more answer than you asked for, hope you don't mind. Please let me know all about you and your family. I'm thrilled to hear from you."
From there phone numbers were exchanged, and the first phone call happened the next day. An hour passed by in a flash. So much to know! Where to start?! It didn’t matter! Valla had found her daddy! And guess what? He only lived about an hour away! He could have lived anywhere, for all she knew!
He had grown up and was deeply repentant of his previous behavior. He wasn’t the irresponsible young man who had abandoned her and her mom so many years ago. He had thought of her often and always thought of her on her birthday – Valentine’s Day, and hence the name "Valla". He LOVED her! He had become a Christian, and they shared the same conservative values and outlook on life. They processed information remarkably the same. They had the same type of personality and sense of humor. They "got" each other.
A week after
the first interaction,
they were able to meet
face-to-face. So much
communication had
happened in that first
week that it was a very
comfortable meeting.
Since then, they have
seen each other almost
every week. Phone calls
happen several times a
day – sometimes very
short calls, sometimes
they solve the world’s
problems, sometimes just
plain silliness, but
always just because they
CAN!It wasn’t long before Valla learned that her dad was experiencing health problems – SERIOUS health problems. He only had one working kidney, and its function had begun to decline. With no hesitation, Valla offered one of her kidneys IF she was a match. (Of COURSE, she would be a match!) The question was never: "SHOULD she do it?" It was always: "Why SHOULDN’T she?"
In the fall of 2012, Valla went through all the testing to confirm that she was indeed her dad’s match. She passed the tests with flying colors. On January 22, 2013, the kidney transplant occurred. Both donor and recipient recovered very nicely. On April 8, 2013, her dad was told that his health following the transplant is far better than many other kidney recipients.
Valla had looked for maybe just medical history. Turns out she became part of his medical history. She found her identity and a sense of belonging that was totally unexpected! That's the blessing of restoration and a tremendous example of our daily text. "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6).
Today's Bible text has an interesting distinction. Before scrolling down for the answer do you know what it is?
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Father, we rejoice
with Valla in the
restored relationship
she has with her birth
father. How wonderful
that they share the same
faith and same values
enabling them to build a
loving bond as father
and daughter in their
later adult years. There
are millions of
fatherless children who
don't know their birth
fathers and feel
unloved, unimportant and
unwanted. We pray for
responsible parenting
and Biblical morality to
be restored in our land.
How desperately we need
a revival where people
will be saved,
delivered, and
reconciled to You, and
seek to reconcile
themselves to those they
have cast aside. We pray
for those who are still
in the waiting period
for a miracle such as
Valla's. May they find
their sense of belonging
and acceptance through
You, our loving Father,
and as joint heirs with
Christ who gave His all
that we might be adopted
into Your eternal
family. Amen.Note: The message is already long but let me share a burden of ministry. We see so many broken marriages and families typical of the age we live in. We are heartened by single fathers seeking to be good dads for their children. But we also see a growing, inevitable phenomenon. Fathers and mothers who really just walk away from any sense of connection and responsibility and in some cases have no shame.
Galen,
along with two
of his
grandchildren,
standing
beside his
tractor
restoration
project.
(Click
on photo to
enlarge)
We
have a tractor
suet feeder
right outside
our office
window and
were pleased
to have a
female
bluebird
during the
preparation of
this message!
We
were looking
out into the
bright sun so
the colors
aren't that
vibrant but
Brooksyne is
thrilled to
have
bluebirds. At
one point the
bird was right
on top of the
steering wheel
giving the
illusion of a
bird driving
the tractor. I
guess in this
case the
tractor's
source of
power comes
from the suet
instead of an
engine. We
think he might
have been
singing the
tractor song!
(Video)
We
passed these
horses out in
the snow after
last Friday's
snow along
Gibble Road.
(Click on photo to enlarge)
(Click on photo to enlarge)
Today's
Suggested
Music and Supplemental Resources
Today's Bible text is
the last verse in the Old
Testament!
Send a message to Stephen & Brooksyne
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Personal Mission Statement: "I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I have been redeemed and make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
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