As many of you have been reading on this web site, Satan has been attacking our family through the choices that some of our students have been making. While I was gone on this last visa run two students decided that they did not have to obey the rules. Apparently they have thought that they only have to obey if I am watching. They have not allowed the rules to be written on their hearts as God wants them to be. We do not desire to run a school where the students are just complying because they have to. We want the students to obey because they desire a walk with God. For us to walk with God, his laws must be written on our hearts.

A crisis can be what tears a family apart,or it can be the very thing that moves them closer to God and to one another. It is how things are handled that determines which it will be. I was only gone for 5 days. When I arrived home there was so much joy, peace and unity that I felt I must share it with you.

When I had left there was a spirit of rebellion simmering under the surface. When I would ask for something to be done there would be reluctant cooperation by two of the boys. All the students are a part of our family. When there is something wrong it affects the whole family. One of the boys did not want to be at our home and so he was doing whatever he could to undermine.

After I left two boys decided they didn’t have to obey Lisa. So she disciplined them. Then they did what she had forbidden them to do. That is when I found out that there was a problem. I told her that she had to tell them to leave,and she did! Of course there was quite a process of telling them what they were doing wrong and why it was their choice to leave. After they left the students became cheerful and happy. Where there had been tensions there was now peace and unity.

When I arrived home about 1 ½ hours before Sabbath on Friday evening, it was like coming home to heaven. Hannah our 1 ½ year old was waiting at the gate jumping up and down trying to tell me all the new words that she had learned while I was gone. Meme was excited that daddy was home. There was joy on everyone’s face. I have never seen Paukamooedee so exuberant. She was literally jumping up and down saying “I am so happy. I am so happy”. It is hard to describe the joy that was on that 13 year old girls face. This is the girl who was an animist when she came here but her desire now is to be a nurse and a missionary. Then there is our twenty-one year old Pearl. She said “I am very happy.” Thamee our 18 year old student is excitedly building an addition onto our home overlooking the waterfall.  There was not a single cloud in this family as we entered the Sabbath hours. What a joy and a blessing to be a part of a family that is all desiring to walk with God.

Sunday we celebrated Paukamooedee’s 14th birthday. I don’t believe I have ever seen a happier young lady. She wanted to hug and kiss mother and father [me]. I have yet to witness that in Asia! These people just don’t do that. The families don’t even sit together at church. I have been here 5 months and I still don’t know which husbands and which wives go together. When a child asks to stay with us I have to ask who the parents are.

Later on Sunday Pastor Arther wanted to talk with the two boys and us. We had an hour and a half of tension while dealing with that. Pastor listened and nodded in agreement with what we had to say, but he never said a word. After sharing with the boys that it was their own rebellion that caused them to have to leave, we talked about what the rules are and why we have to have rules. We then asked if they desired to be here. One boy said “no, I never desired to be here in the first place.” It was his parents that wanted him to be here. That explained where the problem was. So we had to tell him that he must leave. The other young man said that he wanted to be here but he was afraid he might make a mistake. We began to see sorrow for what he had done. We are all sinners. We shared with him that 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins God will forgive us, but he loves us too much to not help us to be over-comers. If someone makes a mistake we must forgive as God has forgiven us. If we don’t forgive we are not walking with God. If we are not walking with God how can we show others how they can walk with God? That is our whole reason for being here. It is to direct them to God, who alone can give them the power to be over-comers. I asked him again if he wanted to be here and he said “yes.” Then we said that he is part of the family just as if he had not rebelled.

We then dismissed the topic and the meeting. There has been peace and joy since.

This will not be the last thing we have problems with, but if we deal with problems as God has directed we will see many more victories than defeats.