Peter’s Thoughts

http://tammyholm.blogspot.com/2008/05/until-we-meet-again-tulsa.html

This above blogg entry, written by my wife about four hours ago, speaks for both of us!

Good Bye Tulsa! Hope to see you soon!

I saw this at someone else’s blog. 
It is pastors like this guy that give me hope about a sure future.
Finally someone willing to STAND UP.

Let me know what you think
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxcyqeRc-4

Is this guy nuts or is he onto something?

Two times in the last month have we had our house and vehicle “egged.”  Someone wanted the pleasure of throwing egg on our stuff.  I spent a good hour this morning cleaning our Suburban from fried egg.  You know, if you have egg on a car and the temp rises to very hot, as it does in the sun here, then the egg will harden, it will fry.
By spraying water and vinegear on our Suburban, then cover it with a vinegear-soaked towel for fifteen minutes, I was able to clean the yuck off.  If you do not take your time to go through this process, the egg will take some of the paint off of your car.

As I removed the egg from our car just after six this morning I thought to myself what I would do with these vandals if I ever caught up with them.  And I came to think of a situation in Uppsala.  It was late one night, or early one morning, we were returning from Street Mission.  I sat in the end of the bus with only two or three more seats behind me.  Suddenly I hear the guy behind me clear his throat, I can feel his aim, I can hear him think “Locked on Target,” I can hear the explosion as his freshly acquired throat-flem shot out from his mouth.  Still to this day I can feel the impact in the back of my neck.
This guy had just spit me in the back of my head.
Without Saying anything, I wiped it off.
As this guy walks by me to get off the buss, I reach up, grab his coat/shoulder, jerk his head down to the level of my head (at this point I get scared because he was huge, I had not turned around to look at him), and I notice that he is scared, maybe more scared than me.  The only thing that comes out of my mouth is “I Forgive You for spitting at me!”
His reaction was FEAR or confusion.  He did not know what to do so he did what most people do, he blamed someone else.
A few months later I learned that my brother had become a good friend of these guys and they showed an interest of coming to faith. 

So, back to the egg story.  The only thing I could think of to do with these vandals was to talk to them, tell them that I forgive them, and hence witness to them about a loving God.

WWJD - What Would Jesus Do
or,
WWYD - What Would You Do

I was carrying my son at church one day.  He looked away for a few moments and one hand reaches towards his face.  Then he turns to me and says with a smile “Yuck! Bogger” and he expects me to take it.
No big deal, just that the bogger covers his entire finger, granted that his finger is not that big.
So what did I do…
I had learned from one of our other children….
I put it in my mouth and ate it!!! Guess what, it was yummy!

Did you really believe that?  Shame on you.  I took his bogger and kept it in my hand till I reached some paper and hand sanitizer.  The deal is that sometimes we have to deal with the messes our kids make. 
The analogy here is that God takes care of us, he carries us in his arms.  And when He expects us to do well, we sometimes turns to him and says “Yuck! Look at my mess!”  Without question God then takes our bogger/mess and washes it off our hands as good as He can.
What is the lesson, then?
Well, I told Erik to stop giving me his boggers but to keep them in his nose and then blow them out in a piece of paper.  While I am more than happy to take care of his mess, I want him to learn not to make a mess again.
God has grace but his greatest wish is for us to love HIM so much that we keep his commandments and keep away from making messes.

Local report from Tulsa: It is 50Celsius outside in our backyard. The AC is fighting hard to keep it at a decent temperature inside.  We are packing and getting ready for our move.

Love you, Miss you, Take care!