12/3/10 FridayRon has gone, so things can return to…well I guess that normal isn’t a word that applies well here on Westbrook Farms, so basically I can now focus on things around here. We put nearly five hundred miles on our vehicles while Ron was here and I spent every moment I could serving him. Had to take some time to meet with Ricardo and the plumber, along with the priority of teaching the inmate at the jail.
He probably will be going to prison sometime soon. Because he has no history in church, other than occasions in the Catholic church as a toddler, all of this is new to him. I so want to insure he has a good basic understanding of Jesus, a firm foundation to stand on, and thus am feeding him faster than he can absorb it. He let me know that so I understand I need to slow down some. I will write and print up some stuff for him that he can read at his leisure. When I went to the jail Tuesday, I learned that he had been reading in Genesis. Not the easiest place to start reading the bible but still a good place. A biblical principle is that the end is revealed in the beginning. I spent some time showing him how Jesus is found even in the first verses of Genesis. There is the story of Adam and Eve, of how sin first came into the world, and how that sin caused separation from God. From that I explained again why Jesus came to earth and why He chose to die, so that we can be forgiven of every wrong we ever did. It was a lot to absorb so I spent the last part of our visit letting him talk to me about his family and fears. In the process I told him that the greatest gift he could give his son, and anyone else he cared for, was eternal life. His son developed severe epilepsy as a result of the treatments that cured him of Leukemia. He also is now mentally slowed, evidently from those treatments, so I explained that when his son gets to heaven he will have a new body and mind, all of that hardship will be gone. That certainly gave him something to look forward to.
Here's the bathroom in processI won’t use Ron’s last name anymore when I write. My Statcounter program revealed that there have been some from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries who Googled his name and the name of his foundation and it led them to this blog. Ron has had several attempts on his life and now there is a poster with his picture on it at all the Liberian border crossings, saying he is not to be allowed into that country. The doors are closing for him as radical Islam’s power and influence steadily grows. It’s growing here in the U.S. too folks, creeping in like a cancer. Only this cancer is coldly intelligent and has an agenda, a clear plan on how to bring death and it’s dominance over all life, over the entire world.
I wish I could convey all the things Ron is accomplishing throughout the world. It boggles my mind, I am amazed at how God uses this man. Right now, as I write this, he is building a shelter for orphans in Mexico. I so wish I could be there with him, but I can’t leave the country, can’t get a passport due to my past and felony convictions. Ron told us about these orphans, and it reveals how the cancer of Islam is spreading to areas we don’t think about. It is a rapidly growing influence in Mexico, with mosques being built all along the border. When someone there converts to that religion and it’s found that their children had been baptized as babies into the Catholic church, they are tossed out into the street. Many of the orphans Ron’s building a shelter for are a result of this. Currently they live out in the open, sleeping under trees with blankets provided by those Ron is working with. When it rains they drag a tarp over them. Fortunately it doesn’t rain often. Ron is able to build a 30 by 80 cinder block building with a steel roof for something like $4,000. There’s no electric power with that, just the roof and walls. The biggest need is simply labor to help build. Ron has a torn shoulder and is too have surgery in January but keeps going despite it, because the need is so great. Through his foundation, which you can find if you Google the word Cubit (won’t spell it out in order to reduce the likelihood of those who oppose and wish to kill him from finding this blog) you can find his foundation and learn a little more, and perhaps help in some way.
They have built over 80 churches in Mexico and South America, distribute hundreds of thousands of liters of water every month in the garbage cities. Are also distributing thousands of pounds of food through the “Bags of Hope” program that Ron created to feed widows and others in Muslim countries, and that is not even all they do. Ron has had doors opened in India, where he is making a tremendous impact. That started through the education system, where his book, “The Search” is now used as curriculum in the colleges. The Search is a 600 page book that is the result of 33 years of research into the life of Jesus. It reveals third party records of Jesus’ life, accounts written by official Roman historians and others. These documents still exist in Vatican libraries and other places around the world. They include Roman historian’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. When Mel Gibson made the movie about Jesus this book was used and Ron called in as a consultant to help them more accurately portray the crucifixion.
There is so much more, but I don’t dare write about it, at least not here. Thousands have been saved, thousands fed, hundred healed, and Ron does it without all the fanfare and glory seeking we see with so many others. There is an idiot out there who spends his time putting Ron and his book down, without ever reading more than a couple of chapters, if that much. All the proceeds from Ron’s book go to feed the hungry and provide water to the persecuted Muslim converts to Jesus that are forced to live in the garbage dumps. They live extremely frugally, spending their time and lives helping others and serving Christ. Both Ron and his wife have suffered serious bodily harm in the process, coming close to death more than once. Paula once, after being flung from a horse, breaking 8 ribs, fracturing her hip, and having a punctured lung, refused to go to what they call a hospital in Egypt, choosing instead to continue on to deliver food. Ron told of how she, despite her great pain, loved, hugged, and kissed the children who were black with dirt, crying over them as she prayed. After that they had to make an emergency flight to Germany, where they learned the extent of her injuries and that she was probably 24 hours from death.
I remain humbled, and amazed, that I even know this man. He was my wife’s Sunday school teacher and was in our first wedding. He would take me out street witnessing at the bars and strip clubs in Toledo’s bad side, I was there as he founded and built a church, and I had no idea. Ron expects to lose his life serving the Lord, and with that sense of shortening time pushes to get as much done as he can.
So now I return to my life, return to it with different eyes, a different view of the world, what is important, and what is not. We will all face God, stand before Him and answer for the decisions we make, and don’t make. What was important to us? And what wasn’t! When all is said and done, the only thing that matters is what we do for the Lord.
Jesus said, in Mathew 6:19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Our desire for this farm, is to build a place that helps others. It has always been that and we expect difficulty, for we know we have an enemy who opposes all good and seeks to destroy and cause discord where he can. This we’ve experienced in so many ways since we moved here, and actually before we moved. But that’s ok, tells us we are doing something right. The devil knew, from the moment God raised me from the dead, that God has a plan for us so is focusing on stopping every forward step we make.
Today I will focus on the bathroom. Tomorrow Ricardo and the plumber are supposed to come. I need to cut a bigger hole in the floor so he can access the pipes and stuff. Then I need to build part of the wall and put in the support beam that’s needed. I think they want me to secure the bathtub in place but I’m not sure about that, and not sure how to do it properly. Part of my hesitancy is because we don’t have the proper drain for the tub and I suspect that needs to be in place before I lock the tub in. Sure wish there was more organized help for this project.
(Click to enlarge)I also must answer the letters I’ve received from the inmates at the prison in Fort Stockton. Been putting that off while Ron was here but it’s important, and I just got another letter yesterday. Like it says on the plaque I carved after I woke from the coma “Money and things can vanish in a flash, what has real lasting value, is the lives we touch”. These lives I’ve touched are a responsibility now and I have the ability to guide and lead them to life.
Gotta go.
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3:30 – It’s turned into a hard day. Seems like everything I try to do doesn’t happen. Just took out the compost after sorting through the green tomatoes to cull out the bad ones. Filled the bucket with water to pour on the compost as I have all the water turned off to the spigots that are out there. Remembered the oak tree we planted on Ben and Gretchen’s grave so filled the bucket again to water that tree. Now I’m having a slow down. I’m so thankful these types of seizure don’t happen much anymore, in fact they are rare. Talked to Cherie about the faucet and shower fixtures, and cleared up some miscommunication. Based on that I called Ricardo to have him tell the plumber we want to pay the extra to get the brushed nickel fixtures. He was going to call him anyway and confirm them coming tomorrow to finish the bathroom.
I’m real slow. The brain has become an old 286 computer again. Just typing this last paragraph was a chore. Head feels dizzy. It’s like being on drugs without the feel good part. Hard to believe I used to pay money to be stupid, impaired like this. Hard to understand there’s a whole world of people that would rather go through life drunk or high, even though that was me a decade ago. By the way, November 11th was my ten year anniversary of the wreck that put me in a coma. Ten years ago I was pronounced dead, and then in a coma till just before Christmas 2001. I am so grateful it happened. Had to die to learn how to live.
Haven’t gotten much done on the bathroom. Real frustrated about my lack of progress today.
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