July 2021 Conchshell chronicles
Hurricane Eta & Iota Relief
This past month, our team delivered school supplies to all our teachers in our nine school on the lower Coco River. Delivering cargo is not easy. Once it arrives in Waspam from the civilized part of Nicaragua, it must be loaded into our truck, then taken down to the landing and offloaded into our boat.
It is a hot and sweaty work.
Then there is the 6 hour boat ride downriver to our bodega in Sawa. Over the next few days trips are made to each school to distribute the notebook, pencils, pens, dry erase markers, etc.
Our team does a remarkable job moving so much cargo for our hurricane relief efforts and just running our 9 schools with 1700 students.. Please continue to pray for a new 60 hp motor for our cargo boat. We are paying a lot in repairs now. Thanks
True Treasure
I enjoy sharing meals with my friends. Eating good food with friends provides great opportunities for intimate moments. In the Bible, sharing meals is only done with friends. That’s why the Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other riff raff. He was making a statement to those deplorables that he indeed wanted to be their friend.
We decided many years ago that we wanted to share many of our meals at our home in Vero Beach with friends. Laura and my children all have the gift of hospitality, and last week we had guests for three of our evening meals. Our dining room has a table that will fit 10. In the next room we have a long teak table that we found sitting on a guy’s driveway with a for sale sign. Laura paid $300 and it included 8 chairs. We can fit 14-16 at that table. Great Meals with Great Moments!
In our dining room we have photos on the walls of us sharing meals with our friends: In Switzerland at Rideralp, in the Negev Desert in Israel, onboard the Trilogy on Maui, at RJ’s on Utila, at Tom & Nutie’s home in Waspam Nicaragua, at a coffee shop in the Old City of Jerusalem, at two cafes in Rome, at a restaurant in Longmont Colorado, an Italian place in Santa Barbara California, on a terrace overlooking ancient Corinth Greece, at Kula Bistro on Maui, at Cafe Ole in Kihei Maui, and numerous photos of friends gathered around our tables in Vero Beach.
I am truly a blessed man! Relationships are eternal.
Now we operate three cafes (two in Vero Beach and one on the western Caribbean island of Utila), were get to serve many people, and in the process we become friends. We progress from talking about coffee and food to family and life experiences.
Laura is an expert in asking meaningful questions during a meal and the process we often are invited into the “living rooms” of our new friends personal lives. We love these intimate moments.
Whoever thought that roasting coffee, washing dishes, brewing coffee, making breakfasts & lunches and delicious deserts would be a way to impact our communities?
Well, actually God thought about that, and He called us to be His representatives in our communities.
Our calling, or vocation is something very specific and important for God’s strategy to reach our world.
“Vocation” means a calling from someone to do something for him. The Bible says that our roles as family members, neighbors, workers, and citizens are “holy unto the Lord” and ordained by Him. Where many have thought that the only “holy” work would be as a pastor, priest, monk, nun, or other positions of “church work”, the opposite is true: all professions and trades can we utilized by God for his purposes. This was a significant teaching that Martin Luther and others during the Reformation realized and taught:
Psalm 145 for example says that “God feeds every living thing.”
The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Psalms 145:15-16
Luther wrote that it is through the work, the vocation of society, that God provides for all.
“When you pray for your daily bread, you are praying for everything that contributes to your having and enjoying your daily bread. You must open up and expand your thinking, so that it reaches not only as far as the flour bin and baking over but also out over the broad fields, the farmland and the entire country that produces processes and conveys to us our daily bread and all kinds of nourishment.”
I recently spoke about this at Central Assembly and have attached the link to the audio file and pdf download on the seekthelamb.com site under “Studies and Trips” Please look for “How We Cultivate The Earth.”.
How We Cultivate The Earth audio file
How We Cultivate The Earth pdf file
I encourage you to consider where God has placed you, and how your service to those around will be use for God’s purposes to reach the world. You can do missionary work in your home, your gym, your workplace, your extended family, and anywhere you find yourself.
As I sit in our dining room having meals with about 65 of our friends, I have realized the value of using our homes and sharing meals with so many over the years.
I hope our experience will inspire you to consider what a simple invitation to share a meal may mean with one who may need that fellowship more that you can imagine. Michael
Lamb Bleatings
2020 as in 20/20
Perfect VISION HAS ALWAYS eluded me ever since I was young. I was considered legally blind until I had the help of a friend, the late Dr. Cheryl Ayabe (our family optometrist). The gift was A laser procedure that minutely “shaved” off a tiny bit of the cornea in order to let light in properly which then allowed better vision.
I had prayed for many years for “healing” for my eyes and when Cheryl offered me the opportunity to take her place to operate and receive the operation for a 90% fellow doctor discount, I knew it was a gift from the Lord and I would indeed by healed back to a 20/20 status. The moment the laser clicked over my first eye, I could not believe how clearly I could see. Then, after the second one finished I was astonished and cried outloud, “No offense Dr. Ty , but Jesus has just healed my eyes!”. Ever since then, I have lived with near perfect vision. A true miracle for me because I could not even see the BIG E on the top of the chart when I would go in for check ups….not that E or a clock next to my bed. I went from coke bottle glasses and a host of different contact tearing (soft lenses), to popping out of my eyes (hard lenses) to everything in between.
The year 2020 brought with it much blurriness in our world at large…..A great deal of confusion, evil plotting, distractions, changes , fears, uncertainties, financial chaos, ruin, anger, loneliness and depression for many.
REFOCUS, RETHINKING AND REMEMBERING were antidotes for my heart, mind and soul. I brought every area of my Life before the Great Throne of the BIG E. His EXCELLENCY WAS AND IS MY MAJOR FOCUS because I if I didn’t establish and practice my focus upon my only stable FORCE in this world, I would lose the battle that was raging all around me. And rage it did and continues to do so.
I continue to stand firm in my 20/20 upon My EXCELLENCY of Life-giving Love, grace and peace. I practice with great care my Focus on the One True God who is in control and not surprised by one thing that occurs or will occur. He knows, cares and Is the only One that can do anything and everything about it. I rest in Him.
I moment by moment rethink how I am and how He desires me do be and operate in this world…seeking always to hear from Him in His Word and the quietness of my heart before him. He convicts me, teaches me and guides me through it all whether it be in my attitudes, work out plan, habits, thoughts, emotions and general life style. His direction has become so sweet in my life as I watch Him move and breathe through my steps in this world.
I remember often His Perfect and wondrous Ways through every part of my life and I find His encouragement in the midst of my remembering .
Michael and I are finding more and more who we are in Christ and all that He wants to do in us and through us and it has been a most liberating time to be energized by the God of the Universe and continue to Practice His presence in us. I would encourage you to listen to Michael’s teaching on our “How We Cultivate The Earth”. It is on the seekthelamb.com website under “Studies & Trips”. You can also download the pdf notes.
It will encourage your hearts into the place that God has for you in your life specifically.
Like Esther in the Bible, we are here “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) Laura
Seek The Lamb Giving
We welcome your gifts to our school project, our hurricane relief efforts, and to the support of our workers. God uses your gifts to help many.
Here is the link to our giving page. Its easy and secure, and at the end of the year we will give you an accounting of your gifts.
Rio Coco Beans Coffee
We are adding a new delicious blend this week to our coffee menu, to honor our spiritual heroes. Take the richness and depth of our Colombia Dark roast, add the complex flavors of our Sumatran Rain, and top it off with the bright sweet lemon tones of our Honduras Blue Mountain Light Roast. Our coffee tasting team commented "You can taste each of these coffees distinctly, and the combination creates a flavorful sensation!"
We call this blend "Ron 'N Jean". named after two of our most significant Seek The Lamb workers- Jean and Ronald Uyeda.
You may order this coffee as well as our others and have them delivered to your door.
Remember, the profits from our coffee sales support the school project in Nicaragua.
Thank you for spending time with us this month.
Laura and I travel to Hawaii at the end of July, and we hope to see many of you on Oahu and Maui during the month of August.
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