I have been invited to work on evangelism with Pastor Jesse Colburn, Pantano Christian ChurchSierra Vista Campus Pastor, Sierra Vista Arizona.  Staten Island is not going to be home for me.  I will be sad because there are many that I will truly miss.  Staten Island has been an education in many ways and though we have been a part of many wonderful things, my time, our mission time has come to an end. 

I ended up with a stroke and a broken back.  Hospitalized, I am being repaired and will get teeth and help with 35 years of physical abuse on my body through international mission work.

On the way out the door, I am asking you to bless The Movement Church SI here for their relief work and efforts.  We (my church and the mission) would like to bless them for their service and dedication to helping people.  If you have time, encourage them and join them.  They have done miracles for people and their work for the Lord deserves recognition and reward though it will have to come through the body of Christ.  The local news and international news as well think they talk about Jesus too much and they do.  They have Jesus on their minds. 

Right now the Movement church is rebuilding a worship center and offices.  Their Disaster Relief deserves kudos and there should be rewards from the state of New York and city of Staten Island for their relief work in the New Dorp area.  The Grace of God through them to our mission and efforts here will not go unrewarded.

Since my daughter / partner / secretary is in Sierra Vista, the mission work will keep going and the girls we help will continue to receive help  (phew…) I am happy to go back to Sierra Vista.  Of course, it is the invitation to work on a team that tipped the scale.

Please pray for the many organizations we have had the blessing to work with but especially Christian Pentecostal Church and the Pastors, John, Jeremias, Rufina and, of course, Sandy Carlo.  Then there was Pastor Joseph Chevere, his right hand, Rudy Ortega and the tremendous help they were with Aaron from China.

Then there is Pastor Steve and his wife Pastor Melissa of the Movement Church, Staten Island.  Pastor Al and the office manager, Stephanie, were of great help as were Zara and the other members of The Movement Church SI.  There are many fond memories.

Working here with a disk out of alignment in my neck and a broken back was certainly a challenge but it was a great way to meet people and find out what they were really like.  Fortunately, my stay in the hospital repaired both and I will get new teeth as well as get the insurance and SSI as well as the VA benefits I have finally applied for.

The pain of working in and through Hurricane Sandy is almost over.  I may get a knew knee and, sigh…, so many problems over the years, corrected but we will see what God is going to do.

Thanks God, thanks Staten Island, turn the page on the book of life.

The end.

The work.
Tell me if you have written a synopses of the work you have done, the work that Do and you have done. Unfortunately as an elder of some sort, Do sees me as an income rather than a source of knowledge and though I would have loved to been more of an income than I have, I tend to spend what I get on the lost, rather than maintenance of relationships or family or …

I have far too many shortcomings to talk about as they would simply be longer editions of Romans 7 and I think of little value.

I worked for a bit on military awards and it is often the perception of the leader that determines what happened during intense times of conflict that gets recorded and not actually the facts in themselves.

Financially, God provided an abundance of funds for a while which turned into seeds that people grew and saw the way they wanted. One telling the same story of the same time and place saw things much differently than others. Fair enough. However, I think the scale that Christ Jesus used has allways been obedience and persistence.

I would love to read your story, that of Do’s as well. Having Ruth divorce me always shocked me when reading her side of the story because I am / was too stupid to think that there was an opinion other than my own.

Paul’s story reads differently than the Roman soldiers or Luke and they seem to often be at odds with Jesus story of what happened.

I study antiquities and there are cylendars that betray stories of times that ended up in the Bible in a much different light.

Your story? Do’s story? Aaron, Rudy, Luke, Mark? I would love to find out what happened.

The accident that I was in, or caused, or participated in, looks different from the viewpoint of the 1,000 others that were there.

The doctor who destroyed the disk in my back, brutally cutting and scraping it from my body with much violence was loving me by removing disease and the past two weeks of unending trauma and pain, are worth his viscious attack. I appreciate the force, trauma and violence he used to remove the bone and cushion, replacing it with foreign materials and an unending onslaught of drugs.

I do not ooze love, nor acceptance, nor forgiveness but must mechanically check to see if they are there. So, I ask if I love you. Did I love you or was I even conscious of your feelings or thoughts. I often find myself mindlessly going through my day oblivious of the fact that others have feelings or thoughts or opinions. I believe it is called cranial rectitus. However, God often brings to mind that others are there and do think, act and participate in my blind world.

So, again, the story of Ray, Do, others, do you have them?

Bless you. I know that if I talk to Do, she is the same little girl who knew no English but no and that I would love to give her money because she smiles very big when receiving. I love to give to her because she reminds me of a little girl who I knew who had nothing and yet gave all she had to everyone. Giving her 5.00 was sure to bless everyone around her as she would say, “Look what we just got.”

Why do we like successful people? There the best. They want something, they go for it, they give it their all. That is why the Olympics is exciting.

Jesus knew this. He sent his disciples out by twos and told them to change the world. Our heroes are Football players, Tennis players, those folks who gave it their all. Sorry, no Jesus there. Sadly, helping the poor and denying yourself is just not heroic. Or is it?

Every religion believes that in the end, it is self denial and service to those in need that will win the race, the award, the prize. However, we spend our day talking about everything else.

What did Jesus say that pleased God. Do you know? Do you take verses from the Bible and make role models of people that look nothing like Jesus.

Jesus came to …. buy his own airplane? I know it sounds ridiculous but then why do we honor, worship, esteem those that do? Stepping over the poor, needy and hungry, we do what Jesus told us not to do? Help me. Something is wrong.

When you are sick and in need, send 1000.00 to someone with a Rolls Royce, Rolex and a private airplane. They must be closer to God, look at what they have.

Do not look at Jesus, he was a failure and not a good example of God’s goodness on earth. He was a looser bound for prison and hell and he told everyone he was. For you. Yes, he did it for you.

So go ahead, make this life the best you can. Ignore God and the commands of Christ. Everybody does it, don’t they?

I am a missionary.  I have been called to bring the Kingdom of God to those that need it.

What is the Kingdom of God?  Love for one another.  Righteousness based on this love and considering others in need a priority for my life.  The Kingdom of God is the knowledge that you have something to give to others and that you will be held responsible for what you have been given.

Lets say that your family received a large donation.  Dad decided that you needed a 60 inch TV in the den to watch football games.  Mom decided you needed a new set of electronic kitchen appliances.  Sis, a newer car and baby brother, a motorcycle.  Now, that is the way things usually go, but the Kingdom of God requires us to look around and see what others need.  Our Neighbors.  The folks in Jesus time were in trouble when they asked who their neighbor was because they didn’t like him because… or her because… and they had valid reasons for hating and ignoring and not helping them.  Good religious reasons.

Jesus slammed the people of his time and pointed to the people they hated.  Jesus went into and lived with the ones his chosen people hated, ignored and spoke evil of in every manner.

There are many parables.  Matthew 25:31-46 is not a parable.  It parallels God’s plan from the very beginning of the earth through this day, today.

I am a mile away from hell and my hands are tied.  Hell is when you expect something and cannot get it.  Here in Staten Island, it is called the American Scream.  Many people throughout the history of the USA, planned, worked, saved and believed the lie that things are important.  They bought houses, partied and bought … well, things.  Then God, in his infinite wisdom sent Hurricane Sandy and then the first snow storm and then another.  Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked.  Whatever you plan to do, God will do to you.

Right down the road, literally, there are thousands of people who live the American Scream.  Taxes, Insurance and payments for this and that government project have left them squeezed till they have nothing left.  Yet, on the hill, there is electricity, water and every comfort of God.  The American dream is for the rich, secluded and wealthy.  They get to eat what they made with their own hands.  Well, actually… bread made from the sweat of people that are poor, services provided by the poor and the workers of their factories.  No I am not a socialist, just a realist.  God bless us so we can be a blessing to others.

I visit the homes of the fabulously wealthy.  Fabulously wealthy according to the folks that have houses made of stacked mud that washes away every rainy season.  Fabulously wealthy according to the grandest proportion of people on earth.  Refrigerators that are full, pantries that have food and houses that are warm.  When I look around I often see … well, literally a million dollars worth of…  Stuff.  Stuff they are certain they need.  Stuff that helps them make money so that at the end of the year, they might have 1% to give to someone through their church who ends up giving .1% to someone in need.

Ok, I came here to help the poor and found that though some gave their lives to help the poor, now that it is time to wind down, people are too busy to care about those that tonight, sit in houses without heat and electricity and scream … scream and cry in to the darkness.  Why…  Job’s friends came to help him understand God.  Too bad they did not come with gifts and medicine and help and hope and an offer to assist Job in rebuilding.  Nope…  They brought the word of God as they understood it and in the end, Job had to pray for them so God would not just kill them and send them to hell.  Not what you read?  Maybe you should read again.  I see a man, chosen as an example for God, deserted by his friends and left on a trash dump.  I see a man who was not surrounded by the many that he helped or the many that were religions, bearing gifts and blessings but the law.  The very law they ignored coming to Job in the first place.  They could have been helpful, offering to do something but no, they decided Job got what he deserved.  Then, sigh… Job had to ask God not to give them what the deserved.

I am a mile away from the American Scream and what I hear is, “It’s not my problem, I got my own problems.”   “Don’t help them, they will just get used to being fed.  Make them go to work.”  It all basically comes down to “I got mine, nya nya nya, ask God to help you.”  You know, it doesn’t even make me sick any more.

Perhaps you might give some thought to what it would be like to be homeless, helpless and living on the streets.  Funny, God left his home and family and got pretty angry at the church they built him when he was Jesus.  Why didn’t Jesus build big buildings.  He could have.  Why didn’t he honor the educated and wealthy but constantly hung out with … them.  Perhaps they are important?

I need, not so I can build, but so I can go to Job and say, “Dunno why God did this but here, lemee do something to help.”  I need to help others.  Sigh…

So, I came from Arizona without a banjo on my knee.  I am watching people get sick and die because of Hurricane Sandy.  Cold, constant and penetrating is turning mighty men of labor here in Staten Island into sickly cold and frustrated individuals who have lost hope.  I traveled the Island when I got here, slept in my truck for a month, not taking invitations to be warm and well fed.  I am not happy that I am finding that the government has abandoned the people on the beaches of the East Coast.

The rich sold the plots to themselves and to the others, the poor followed.  Of course, living on the shore of the North East United States is dangerous, but when they could have stopped it, they used it to make money.  When they could have required a sea wall or upgrades and helped people move, they didn’t.  They simply took the taxes and the money from the poor and ran. 

Then, God, in his anger, smited those who laughed at him and ignored him and threw him out of their schools and lives.  I know you don’t like that part.  It is easier to imagine a great fuzzy God that is always soft and kind.  I don’t know that one.  35 years in mission work have introduced me to a Father that knows what he is doing, that doesn’t share what he is doing and asks for obedience.

I laugh as I see people charge God in prayer and shout at him commanding him to do things.  Grace keeps them alive.  He is my daddy, but talking loud to him is certainly not necessary and demanding he do what he asked me to pray for seems ridiculous.

So, an October hurricane Sandy means, punch after punch after kick in the hearts and minds of those on the beach.  Listen, I heard a local church pastor say, “Give them the wet ones, they can dry them out, save the dry ones for an emergency.”  My God, please help the pastor understand that this is an emergency.  Sending wet blankets to cold and hungry people in the name of a loving and kind God?  Please…

I know you don’t care.  God knows you don’t care.  Pray?  Sure.  Shout and sing and dance?  Certainly.  Bark like a dog and slobber like some insane man, that’s all easy but God knows how well you care.  He looks at your check book and your credit card and sees ….  Aahhhh, you bought electronics, shoes, food, movies, ….. stop.

And whatever you have done for the least of these … whatever you have done for the hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick and imprisoned, …  then he said, “Go to hell.”

If that doesn’t scare you, don’t worry, when you face the father, daddy, the loving kind and sole savior of the world will send you to hell because that is where you will be comfortable.

You sing, dance, hold conferences and do what you gotta do.  The Bible sez, deny yourself.  Don’t know what you don’t understand about deny yourself, look it up.  Deny self and help others. 

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