Why I Write and Blog?

For several decades  I have been writing letters and essays  of current matters, either of what is happening around me or what is ruminating in my mind. Writing certainly is a way of communicating matters of significance to a person. But more than that, it also helps me to think more clearly and systematically on the subject matter. Furthermore, it is a literary photograph to which one can return later and look at it again to enjoy, or experience what was felt earlier.   Writing gives me time to explore a subject in more detail than casual thinking or conversation.

But then why blog? Obviously blogging is a method of communicating for the present audience, who ever that may be. I blog with the conviction that what I have experienced in life and thought may be of interest and value to others and worth sharing. It also gives me a sense that my life will continue after I am gone. I wish my ancestors had left a clearer footprint of where they had trod physically, emotionally and intellectually.  So in these blogs, you will find items of events, feelings, inspiration, and even some paradoxes of life in humor. For most serious people need to smile and laugh more for their health and well-being. So don't read everything, just what piques your interest or catches you mental eye.

                                          The Christian and the World’s Poor

I understand that about 60% of Americans are overweight. This means they would be better off if they would eat less. It could also save them money for food, diet pills, and extra medical expenses due to their weight liability. It is also true that over a billion people are perpetually hungry and over three thousand children die each day for lack of medicine and food. 200,000,000 big Americans! What if the over-sized ones would go on a simple, down-sized diet, eating 20% less, spending 20% less for food, freeing money for some of those dying of deprivation of med and food? How far would the savings of 20% of overweight dieters go toward to feed the hungry? (20% of 200 million dieters is 40 million people, to begin with.) Many big ones would also be improving their health and save their lives as well- as well as saving the lives of 40 million people- for the betterment of all. Of course the luxurious way many of the those 60% eat in America would be on a standard of living that, finding food and med toward the billion for the kind of food they eat, would go much beyond the 40 million saved outright, perhaps saving nearly all of the billion hungry, who knows? No doubt many of the fat ones claim to be Christians. So we have fat Christians- to save their fat, are letting a billion go hungry. How weird!! With the world’s poor paraded on TV daily, who can claim ignorance of the situation? In Belize the hungry knock on our doers- or walk right in; In America they stare at you in your family room, or wherever you have your tube. Equally close, they are in the consciousness of most so-called Christians. And most nearly close their eyes, their minds and wallets to the global situation and prematurely open their coffins. While the starving poor also enter an early grave.

If I need any basis to speak out, it may just be in this, that for some years we have done something of what I am suggesting above. We have shared a good portion of our income to meet the needs of orphans, fatherless children, and others under-supplied with what they need for food, medicine, and an education. Possibly our efforts have saved a few lives and certainly raised the quality and hope for a better life for some dozens of kids and their mothers. I affirm the statement of one who said that God has given Christians the wealth needed to meet the needs of the impoverished of the world. It certainly is not God’s fault that millions are unsaved, hungry, and under-supplied for a decent life.

The above, of course, doesn’t deal with all issues that need to be addressed: the logistics of helping people in oppressive situations where help is difficult to reach, or the underlying causes of poverty, or the fact that to help people take care of themselves through job development and economic opportunity should be the ultimate goal. [Of course some over weight is genetic.] But the present crisis needs to be taken care of while long range answers are being pursued. Like Somalia has a half million displaced persons struggling to survive and many relief agencies are pulling out because of instability of the landscape. Or take Darfur. It may be stretching my pacifism a bit to suggest it, but what better use of military power than to guard convoys of needed supplies to the starving in many camps around the world! Yet if Christians cared enough, ways are open to begin to go a long way toward alleviating the desperation of the impoverished around the world. Just because there are many issues involved to be resolve, Christians could still begin to do as much as they can, which is far more than many are doing. If they really cared.

                                         CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP

                                            A Lesson for all Christians

Intro. When we become children of God, we are giving our self to God, to follow Christ and obey him. We also yield all we have to God for his the glory. God has given us many things that we appreciate: life, abilities, time, homes, money. God has given us all things to enjoy. But when we give our whole self to God, we realize that all we have belongs to God also, and we are to use it in a way that pleases him. We are stewards, or caretakers of all we have. Here we want to see what the Scriptures teach us about this subject.

1. God is the owner of all things.

Scripture: The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all who live in it; for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Psalm 24:1-2

Question: Why does the Psalmist say that everything belongs to God?

2. When God made Adam and Eve, he made them to rule over everything on earth, and placed them in the Garden to take care of things.

Scripture: The God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all creatures that move along the ground.” The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. Genesis 1:26; 2:15

Question: Who then owns the wildlife and the garden? What was Adam’s relationship to God when God put him in charge of all things? Was he owner?

3. A steward is one who is given charge over possessions.

Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30.

A. The man who went on a journey gave money to some servants for them to make use of it so that it would make more money until he returns. He expected a profit.

B. When he returned, he asked them to give account for it.

C. He rewarded the men who had prospered, whether they were given a lot, or less.

D. He was not happy with the man who had least, and did NOTHING with it.

E. Whether we have received a lot from God, or a little, we are fully responsible to God for how we use it. It BELONGS to him, he ENTRUSTED us with it. He EXPECTED us to do something with it.

4. We are stewards of God over all we have.
   1. Stewards of our wealth Compare Luke 12:16-21 with Luke 12:33-34

How does Jesus teach that we should use our wealth?

2. Stewards of our Talents and abilities

Scripture: Each one should use what ever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks he should do it as speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things, God may be praised. I Peter 4:10-11.

What other gifts and talents do we have that we can use as God desires?

3. Stewards of our time.

Scripture: Be careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (or making the most of your time) Ephesians 5:16

Question: What are some good uses of our time and what are some poor uses of our time?

4. Stewards of the Gospel

Scripture: So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who are given a trust must prove faithful. I Corinthians 4:1-2

God wants the good news of Jesus shared, not kept to ourselves.

5. Stewards of our bodies

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you have been bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.

I Corinthians 6:19-20

Question: What are some wrong uses of our body, and how should we use it rightly?

Review Questions:

What is a steward?

Why are we just stewards and not fully owners of every thing we have?

                                                  I AM A SCROUNGER*

                          [I share this essay even at the risk of being considered eccentric,

                          or having grown up in another era or country. You judge.]

All my life I have been a scrounger for bargains, free items, and cut rate prices. I got an early start when I went grocery shopping with my father, possibly even as a preschooler. He knew whether Kroger’s or Everett’s had the lowest price on sugar, even if it was only a penny difference, and the same for other items he regularly purchased. He brought home day old bread, (how many days old I don’t know) and bananas that should have been eaten several days before at the latest. We gleaned out the most edible one. He joked about feasting on those bananas: “I can recover, they can’t”, as I once heard him say quietly. He was like that with anything he bought. He had good reasons to be that way: He had come through the economic depression of the 1920’s and 30’s where they grazed cows along the road to make more land available for farming. Live hogs sold for 3 cents per pound. My mother sold eggs along residential streets house to house in town in order to get 2 cents per dozen more than we got from the egg truck that made rural pick ups. In those days a penny was worth a penny, and we understood Ben Franklin’s saying that “a penny saved is a penny earned”. Yes I was almost born a scrounger.

I remember when I was only about ten, when there was actually a 5 and 10 cent store. In fact there were several almost side by side. I would go into one of them where they had a counter with 4 sides of show window candy, each bin of candy with its own price marked on the window. I would first circle that counter as I entered, checking on the prices. On the second round of the counters, I would buy the candy, what ever kind it would be, that was reduced in price to 10 cents per pound. I rejoiced at my bargain. But later on I was fortunate to find any for even 19 cent a pound. Still I was content. But that was a lot more than we sometimes paid for candy when “Chicken Levi” would return from Chicago, or where ever he delivered chickens to, when he would return with many boxes of surplus candy, perhaps 20-30 pounds in each box, and my father bought that sweet stuff for only a dollar or so a box, And feast we did for weeks. No wonder I developed a sweet tooth, or many such teeth until they disappeared a bit prematurely. Yet I never made that connection until now. But when good stuff comes that cheap, you don’t think of everything or ask questions. You just realize you hit pay dirt, or gold.

Yes, a nickel went a long way in those days. Like for a small coke when I worked at Smokers Trailers as a youth, or a large candy bar-whoops, there is my sweet tooth showing again, for just a nickel. I remember once as I was riding along State Road 4 on my bicycle, and stopping by a big curve for some unknown reason, I found a ten dollar bill. That was so much money, I was embarrassed and afraid I might be questioned for having it. I speedily spent as much as I could immediately at the corner gas station near our home. On what? Soft drink and candy bars, or chips, I don’t remember what all. $10.00 was too much to be comfortable with in those days. Actually when I worked and enjoyed those affordable snacks in that factory, I was actually giving my father my entire check and he saved up 10% of my earnings for me for later on. I then had about $450.00 when I got married by those savings.

It was good that I appreciated the value of money when we were in voluntary service the first two years of our marriage. A thousand miles from home, we had an allowance of $10.00 per month for each of us, and then when we had a new born son, and additional $2.50 per month. Nevertheless, in those two years, I was able to purchase a gold colored self-wound watch, a reel to reel tape recorder for about $150.00, and my first 35 millimeter camera with light meter and everything. And what happened to the $450.00 in saving I had back home? It came in handy when I bought my first car for just $600.00, needing to borrow only $150.00 for it. Back in Indiana we started up with similar cut rate savings. We found a long velvety couch for just $10.00 at a sale and comparable thrift on other furniture. (My wife was not too happy with that out of style couch.) My father exemplified well the value of scrounging for the best buys. I made one mistake, however, when I bought an electric cook stove without the consent of my wife. I had to get rid of that, for a gas stove of her preference, or tolerance. I don’t remember whether it hurt to turn in the electric stove, but it was necessary to keep peace in the family. Some bargains are not cheap.

How can you attend college without savings, having two small children? By scrimping on everything and borrowing from family where we had to. True, my father-in-law was generous with house rent, and letting me buy milk off the farm for 50 cents per gallon, as well as gas at business rates from his chicken houses where we lived. I bought groceries on the way home from college, while Loretta took care of the babies, a new one each year until we had 4. I followed my father’s pattern of thrift in buying groceries. I set a mental limit in those days on what I would hope to spend for each item: 39 cents for cold cereal (mostly corn flakes and Wheaties), 30 cents for meat, (mostly chicken, hamburger and hot dogs, which we are still majoring in many years later.) Once I pondered over splurging even a little at the meat counter, gazing at a chuck roast for 43 cents a pound. Weighing everything, I stoically walked away from it. Things had to fit my price.

Not that my children ever went hungry, or undernourished for all my thrift. When I took a nutrition course under Professor Wyse, one assignment was to work out a budget of food for a week for a family, in my case of 4 people. It had to be balanced for nutrition. I came up with a grocery list that was nutritionally balanced for just about $16.00 for a week. The professor thought that would be impossible. But on checking my menu and prices, she had to concede I had done it. With her teaching and my father’s example, I can claim that my family never suffered nutritionally, although years later, our teens could look into the refrigerator and say that there was nothing there to eat. No quick, junk food, they probably meant. We were drinking 3 gallons of milk every 2 days when they were teens. And occasionally we bought soft drinks when they were on sale, like two for the price of one. When I bought ice cream bars, I let them buy them from me so they would learn the value of money and I would not have to limit their appetites. They usually had jobs in those day.

Now three decades later in Belize, my penchant for thrift still serves me well. Our food variety is limited, but nutritionally sound most of the time. Fortunately, the kids we have with us accept this fairly well but appreciate some variation from the main dishes. They have learned to eat high protein oatmeal pancakes, and banana soup(milk, bananas, and bread, sweet, of course) It still hurts to let them have free rein of cheese and peanut butter, so we hide the peanut butter in the bedroom, along with a few other semi luxury items. But perhaps I am shifting a little like my father as he got older. Bank President Sam Hoover once said that when Dad was young he was tight as the bark on a tree, but as he became older, he loosened up a bit.

Yet when it comes to buy clothes for us, we are still scrounging. Perhaps my children don’t want me to show off my “missionary” outdated Goodwill clothes when we return each summer and so they buy me some nice clothes. Likely out of their heart of love they help me hide the working out of my scrounginess. Keeps me looking more respectable as most Americans see it. Yet except for sandals, I have bought few new shoes and clothes for years. Retired people, after all, can save doubly at Goodwill every month. Yet here in Dangriga it is still rare to buy a soft drink for myself. I had to train my self to feel it is all right to buy a $2.00B fry chicken when I feel a little hungry when I am not quite satisfied with the second rice dinner for the day which I usually pass over. And the bark is loosening a bit more as I am quite willing to buy ice cream cups when Loretta and I go to town sometimes after supper. Well, last night I bought her one, but none for me. It seems this culture and standard of living wraps itself around my old ways of stinginess toward myself quite comfortably. But also following in my Dad’s footsteps: it is easier for me to spend on others than on myself. But when we are in the States, it is a little easier to spend on ourselves. This past wedding anniversary we went out to eat at a nice buffet restaurant back in the States and it hardly hurt at all to spend $17.00 on ourselves. At least I covered up any discomfort in front of Loretta. There is also a kind of reward, a good feeling, when our life long pattern of thrift enables us to help friend to a minimal standard of living, especially in medical needs and food, which they need to survive well. I have told some kids that if we would go back to the States and live for ourselves, we could easily drive an SUV. But scrounging has been a part of what brought us to where we are now. As I have told many, if you live like a poor person, you will be rich. But is you live like a rich person, you will be poor.

So I will keep on scrounging- with a purpose. But it is still a little hard in Belize to ask at the fruit and vegetable market whether the stuff under the table is to be sold, or for free. I glance around to see who might be watching me. And I still buy corn flakes, now in bulk, and other things in various stores where I can save a few pennies, or dollars now and then. Yes, I will always be a scrounger.

January, 2005, in Belize  

*This essay is from Learning to Give, a collection of some 30 "Essays in the Effort of Dealing with Prosperity and Needs". The essay following is also from this collection.

                        SEVENTY THINGS I STILL WONDER ABOUT (First half)

         “For we know in part…I think like a child…we see a poor reflection of reality…” I Corinth. 13

                          From the book, Icons of My Life, A Celebration of 70 years.

1. How evolutionists can still hold to their out-dated theory in the light of continually discovered complexities of life processes and components, e.g. DNA.

2. How Christians can go to war, potentially killing each other, or certainly people who have not yet heard the Gospel.

3. How rich Christians can pursue a standard of living many times that of 2 billion of the world’s destitute people, most who have not yet heard the Gospel either.

4. How abortionists can believe that the fetus is not sacred human life.

5. How Belizeans and perhaps other people can live in poverty without seeming to worry about their next day’s needs, and keep having babies in that situation. “Take no thought” seems to be what some remember most from the Gospels.

6. How anybody could know the love of God and not respond positively to it.

7. Whether all marriages could be saved.

8. Whether hell is really forever for those who have not heard of Christ, and will those people have some other chance after this life.

9. Whether Tim LaHaye of Left Behind fame is right about his scheme that Jesus will come twice, or three times; and whether Jesus will reign on earth while evil men are still around.

10. Whether I will live to be an old man like some of my ancestors, or go younger like the others.

11. If energy and mass in the universe are interchangeable and constant in totality as science projects, then how much energy did God exert to create the universe?

12. What is culture and what is personality when people do things strange to your way of thinking. like when up stairs neighbors chop down your beautiful plants just so they can see sand in the lawn, or a pastor signs a contract to make payments on a car, but never does even when he can.

13. What heaven is really like.

14. How God decides who should be in heaven and who should go to the other place.

15. Whether born again Republicans or any other Christians will ever learn to love the poor as much as themselves as Jesus taught to love your neighbor as your self.

16. Whether Jesus will return in this century or the next, or when?

17. Are there any marriages in which the two partners are completely satisfied with each other?

18. What would my baby sister Rhoda have been like, had she lived?

19. What would life be like for the remaining spouse when one of us dies?

20. What would my life have been like if I had been loved as much as I wanted to be from the day of my birth until this day? And would that have been good for me? Would my ministry have been better, and I a better person?

21. I still wonder why the opposite sex has to be so opposite. Couldn’t God have made sexuality a bit easier without it becoming boring?

22. Is there an end to space, or an end to the universe?

23. How did God become?

24. Was this the first world with people on it?

25. Are there other kinds of living beings not needing an atmosphere, or temperatures between freezing and boiling, perhaps black matter beings or gaseous beings with spirits and consciousness with whom God relates as he is also Spirit?

26. What was God doing before the creation of our universe? Inventing other physical/spiritual systems and relating to them? And did any other system fail morally like man in God’s creations?

27. Did it take any length of time as we measure time, for God to design DNA and other incredibly complex matters of “intelligent design”? Did he have it all figured out when he started?

28. Of course we are glad we are not moral robots, but does God ever have second thoughts about making man with free choice, and not wishing he had slanted man with inclinations a bit more toward his ways?

29. What kind of feelings does God have about the condition of the world, both the present world, or at any other time in history? Does he go by his feelings to decide when to end it all for our planet? Is he now more nearly fed up than any time since the flood? Will he end it when enough good has happened, or when too much bad stuff is going on, or when ever?

30. How can God be so patient with his children, and still not be indifferent to their sin?

Especially the sins of materialism, militarism, and indifference to the poor and sinners?

31. How can God tolerate all the suffering of the innocents in the world: children, widows, orphans, the impoverished, war victims, et.al?  

                                                       A Call to Care and Pray

Living in the United States, it is so easy to relegate to the back of our minds that Christians in the past have suffered a great deal for their faith. We can also hear the evening news about suffering in Egypt and Iran and elsewhere at times, and pass it off as news, but of little relevance for us in this country. How can this casualness of suffering of fellow Christians today sink into our consciousness as it should when many churches buildings and Christians have been attacked in Egypt in the past 6 months? Very recently, Christians in Iran have been arrested for sharing in the Lord's Supper, because they used wine, how can we be indifferent?

I suggest we listen more carefully to the news and make it a matter of concerted prayer to pray for these who suffer by the hands of those who want to eradicate the Christian faith just as much as Communism tried in the last century in the USSR and other places.

We can pray that persecuted Christian can be strong and not waver.

That they will be bold and discreet in their witness for Christ.

That God will open the eyes of these who see the faith of believers and realize that Jesus is Lord.

That God will frustrate the plans and schemes and of those hostile to Christians.

That the Gospel will flourish especially in Muslim countries even if it has to be underground.

        Praying earnestly and without ceasing for our suffering Christian friends has never been more urgent. Will we be faithful and not hear news so casually- doing what we can?

               SEVENTY THINGS I WANT TO DO IN MY REMAINING DAYS

                                              Up-Dated at 80 Years                                                                                                       
                                                    (Do, Go, Become, Learn)

       (These items were written from 2005 to 2007 and in 2017 and now- in 2018- may be updated on the progress        I have made or am making: “doing”, or “done”.)

                                 Teach us to number our days

                                 That we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Psalms 90:12

1. Spend time with my grand children and great grandchildren, learning to really know them as well, and tell them all the wonderful things I have experienced and learned in my life.

2. Write my biography for who ever might want to know what my life was all about.           (Nearly up-to-date on this.)

3. Learn to relax when I have to.(Quite well)

4. Write essays of things important to me as long as I can. (doing)

5. Cultivate a life of thought and word and relationships worthy of my eternal goal.

6. Travel to Canada again where we lived for 2 years. (Done)

7. Accept the aging process to the end and celebrate God’s goodness in it all. (Doing)

8. Revisit Belize periodically as long as I am able to see the personal growth of the persons we knew in our life there. (Done)

9. Exercise an optimistic view of life regardless what happens to me personally.(Working on it)

10. Learn from those older than me, how to grow older gracefully.

11. Dispose of as much of our wealth as I can for service in the Kingdom and to others while I live, laying up treasure in heaven.

12. Have my hands in the soil and cultivate plants, perhaps have a green house as a living room in my retirement home. (Doing first part)

13. Be more and more, a person of prayer, especially in intercession for the church, missions, and our family. (Doing, and for the world of need)

14. Be a person of interest to my posterity so that they will want to know what the basic motivations of my life have been. (Doing)

15. Live a life of good physical and mental health and function well into my later years, perhaps in the models of my Uncle Manasseh and Grandma Bender.

16. Become a writer for the public on social issues such as education in Belize and materialism and provincialism in the States.

17. Radically diminish my accumulated possessions so that my posterity will only need to sort through what remained significant and essential to my life when I am leaving. (Struggling here)

18. Rewrite my will and keep it updated about every 10-15 years. (Working on it)

19. Keep my wife happy while following the call of God in my life.

20. Help my children and grand children come to a life of meaning where they can also relax and see the lighter side of life and have a sense of humor about life in general.

21. Enjoy as many fruit trees I can in Belize and if there is time left when we get back to the States, do something of that there- maybe with miniature or dwarf trees. (Done, doing)

22. I would like to read the Bible regularly or through in one year to catch all the little details I may have been missing and as a challenge to discipline myself to daily reading in the Scriptures.

23. Keep my mind active and vigorous through reading mature stuff, writing, and relating to people with precise, creative, poetic and acute verbalization.

24. Live in Belize as long as I can, health and marital happiness permitting. (Done)

25. See my great grandchildren growing up as true children of God. (Just beginning!)

26. Grow in the image of Christ, bringing all things, mind, feelings, and heart into his likeness. (Still working at it!)

27. Learn to be more understanding of my wife even when I may not understand her.(Making Progress)

28. Learn to keep my head when all around me are losing theirs and blaming it on me; learning rather to be scapegoat when one is needed.

29. Keep my self esteem intact when others doubt its worthiness, with an open mind.

30. Refuse to stop doing something constructive just because people think I should be retiring or operating a rocking chair. 

31. Cultivate mental astuteness and alertness in every way possible- reading, writing, perhaps memorizing, and deliberate analytical thinking, keeping up with world events, and delving into subjects of new interest. (Doing)

32. Maintain conversational spontaneity and develop it more fully with all ages of persons and backgrounds. (It's not easy)

33. Staying in the mainstream of life of family, church, community, not withdrawing.

34. Learn to play several musical instruments reasonably well, like violin, guitar, or keyboard.

35. Communicate on the internet, perhaps blogging, and especially making available to the internet public, my writings about my family biography, devotional materials and other matters of interest that I write. (Doing, esp blogginssics I have never read such as Robinson Crusoe, and non classic of the Left Behind series, #15-30, and some others.

38. To constantly see new believers in the fellowship where I am as long as I live, specifically the boys who stayed at our home for a good while and all the single mothers we have helped a lot.

39. To see and enjoy fruit from the some 30 different fruit trees I have planted in Belize, and have a new orchard of considerable variety of fruit trees, should I ever be able to do so back in the States. (Also in 21 above)

40. To start looking forward to the next life with anticipation, imagination and confidence. (Doing)

41. Structure my values and activities so that I will have minimal regrets the last decade of my life. (Trying)

42. Inform and prepare my children and grandchildren about the aging process as we are all growing older at the same rate at what ever stage each of us is.

43, Develop a philosophy of aging that will serve me well as well as my posterity.

44. Clean up my past emotional baggage and the present dependencies so that I can be a stable person as much as possible in order to face diminishing capacities in the latter years.

45. Maintain a healthy sense of humor about life and myself. As well as not taking myself too seriously. (Doing)

46. Consider what I want to be said at my Transitional Celebration (Funeral) keeping my legacy goals clear.
    
    
    47. Take my time and hike up to one or more of the beautiful, high water falls in Belize, several of which are within 25 miles from here. (A lost cause!)

48. Make better use of my time than thinking up lists to exercise my memory and possibly bore other people.

49. Take a leisure trip throughout Central America.

50. Move back to Indiana while still in reasonable health and strength in order to be a blessing to my family and who ever. (Done)

51. See structures for some of the work we are doing in Belize such as a youth center, a youth home, a food supply pantry, a scholarship system.(Failed)

(Credit to IRTA Newsletter for next items, #52-60)

52. Take care of my health with reference to eating, exercising, napping, and cultivating healthy attitudes of faith and optimism, humor, and forgiveness at all times. (Doing)

53. Take deliberate care in driving and all activities, keeping focused to avoid accidents and mishaps. (Doing)

54. Learn some new skill or hobby when I need to refocus from service and labor to something more sedate.

55. Avoid getting caught up with any ailment and talking about it until family and others get bored and tired of me.(Blessed so far)

56. Recognize that every day is a gift of God to be used and lived in gratitude to its Giver.

57. Entertain my great grandchildren in our home as much as possible as long as it is possible as my grandchildren reach maturity, doing the same with them until…(6 and counting)

58. Getting professional advice on my health regularly and using good judgment in following their advice.

59. Be involved in service, hobby, or recreational organizations appropriate to my ability to contribute and receive worthwhile stimulation.

60. Use quiet times of waiting for constructive meditation, reflection, and fellowship with God.

61. Develop new friendships as the settings of living may shift from time to time.

62. Continue developing an optimal marital relationship through openness to my own personality and weaknesses, and focusing on her qualities that surpass my own, affirming her as much as I can, speaking her main languages of love including gifts, making up for lost opportunities of the past.

63. Maintain some goals in life constantly so as to keep on track going somewhere, not getting lost and sidetracked by the attractions of a secular and worldly society.

64. Go on at least one trip per year to a place I have never been before.

65. Attend the Belize Reunion in Pennsylvania every few years and visiting my brothers and families in the east as well.

66. Develop new foci in my life as situations of health and gradual retirement indicate, making use of the talents I have to the glory of God.

67. Continue in openness to God for his revelation of himself and his will for me.

68. Cultivate an open and supportive relationship with my wife as long as we both shall live.

69. Be open to the correction and help I will need from others in my waning days.

70. Prepare for the final exam.(Studying about this)

                                           Updated at Eighty Years

71. Take care of myself, my wife and my home as well as well as I can.

72 Following through with my Great grandchildren (6 now) and be as close to them.as I can hoping that as many as can will have some memories of me.

73. Be active and reaching out to people close to us outside of our family, like neighbors tenants, and our close Belizean friends to encourage them in the Christian way of life.

 74. To pray every day for many- missionaries, especially those in our families, for new believers, persecuted ones, young church leaders, for our own congregation, for our government leaders, and for God to foil the ways and plans of evil doers who cause much harm to people, as well as for God's comfort to impoverish persons, refugees, and others who suffer.

      

 75. To seek to be good stewards of our wealth and use it for the good of others as well as for ourselves.

 76. To encourage a mission interest and focus tor our grandchildren and be supportive to those sensing a call to serve in mission and church ministries.

77. Continue in a writing outreach through blogging and other writing beyond  what I have done and make use of other social media as I find ways of doing a broader writing out reach.

78. Enjoy the outdoors as a praise to God, sharing with him the joy of his creation and wonder of         beauty, growth, and the cycles of life.

79. Keep my wife as happy as I can.

80.  Keep growing in faith and knowledge of the wonders of life in a relationship with our Heavenly Father.