Happy Monday.

First things first: Bruce here. Gaylene is working on a paper for her Ethics class so I get to write instead of just editing.

Report from Happening: some 20 staff members and 8 participants from Texas and Louisiana gathered at the Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in McGregor. Both Geni and Travis said it was the best weekend of any they had been on. What I have noticed about any of the weekend events I have been on is that they are in God’s control. We are His hands and feet and voices, but His agenda is always what comes out in the end. Hopefully, what these young people have taken with them to their home churches and families is a sense of the love of God and the awareness that He works every day in their lives. If the message got through, they will become conveyers of His word to others who don’t know Him.

Isa 2:5 let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Last year my Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) studied Moses and the exodus from Egypt. You know what? The Israelites grumbled a lot. After being in the desert for a short time, they wanted to go back to Egypt. God provided them manna – they wanted meat, so God provided them so much meat they got sick of it! They had a physical sign that the Lord was with them in the form of the cloud of fire, taking them from place to place, day by day, and they grumbled! Even though they could see evidence that God was with them, they were so wrapped up in their own lives that they couldn’t take comfort in His presence.

My Sunday School class recently studied Isaiah. There are 66 Chapters in the Book of Isaiah. It took us over a year to get through with our study. What I learned was that the Israelites grumbled a lot then, too, and were always trying to do things on their own without God’s help. Isaiah tried to get them to understand that God loved them, but it wasn’t enough for them.

I have worked with Kairos Prison Ministry for 15 years. When I first began the ministry, I was telling a ministerial candidate what I was doing. He said, “I think they (the judges) should lock them (the offenders) all up and throw away the keys”. My response was, “we aren’t trying to get anyone out, we are just taking the Word of God in to them”.

The message I have gotten out of those two studies and my experience with the prison ministry is that God is here, now, with us. He loves us. We can show Him how much we love him by loving others. He provides opportunities every day for each of us to respond to His love by loving others. We just have to open our eyes and ears to see and hear those opportunities. They may be someone who needs an encouraging word, a boost in confidence, a shoulder to cry on or a chance to prove themselves.

I am scheduled to go into the prison on Thursday to help take the message in to 42 of the inmates that God is there with them. My message to them will be that God loves them where they are. When they can accept His love, they just have to open their eyes and ears to see and hear God working around them. God works mighty works inside prisons. There is light in that darkness, and He is God!

I challenge you to let that light reflect in your life. Keep your eyes and ears open today. Maybe you will have a chance to love someone else and thereby serve God.

Take joy in your journey and keep your eyes open!

Ps. Gaylene will be back in the saddle on Wednesday. Peace. Bruce