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Prayer Request
December 28, 2009
This coming New Years Eve, I will be traveling alone to Belize.
There are several reasons for this trip, but the issue in which your prayer
is requested concerns the acquisition of land for Living Tree Academy.
After our October trip, the LTA Board of Directors voted
to place LTA in Ambergris Caye, Belize. Since that time, I have been working over the Internet with a Realtor in Ambergris Caye to carry out the LTA BOD's decision. I will be looking at a three acre tract. My mission is to determine if this parcel is worthy of further consideration.
So please pray for this endeavour and for me.
Thanks for your heart of love,
Anthony
PS. A very influential aspect of training young people is the environment in which they are subjected. Many of you viewed the Rev. Pat Malone DVD which covered the October 2009 trip. If you recall, some of the conditions were deplorable. Therefore, the right location is critical for us to have the Godly impact desired.
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While living in Indiana, many years ago, I drove about an hour each direction to do volunteer work in Ohio. Along this two lane road, I spent time in prayer and reflection for most of the trip. However, I would always take note of the surroundings
along one particular section. This was partially due to the grave site of Annie Oakely
http://www.cowgirls.com/dream/cowgals/oakley.htm
which is next to the highway. Not far from her grave site, a house that was probably on an acre of ground seemed to capture my attention. The house set to the left of a small man-made pond. The pond was just a little larger than a backyard swimming pool and not as deep. The grass was very green around this area and had the appearance of a manicured park setting.
The trip was generally one of little external expectation or excitement. The Ohio countryside seemed to be in no hurry for change from growth or development but content to quiet days occasionally broken up by a plow tractor moving along from one field to another with the tractor-driver waving a friendly hand for others to pass. It was as if the Western Ohio area was posing for a Norman Rockwell painting.
This was some what of break in my many duties in life and therefore a refreshing time with The Father (God). Then one day I noticed a short (maybe 4 ft high) chain link fence that went up around this pond area next to the one story ranch style house. I also noticed two fawn (baby deer) living in this fenced area (about 1/2 acre). So I logically deducted the mother deer was probably killed and these sincere kind people
came to the aid of these tender helpless young ones.
As the days, weeks and months flew by, like sitting in a movie theatre, I watched the fawns grow. With their natural growth and development, other changes were unfolding as well.
To those who daily observed this change, the reflective encounter was not as stark and unsettling as it was for the infrequent viewers like myself. This beautiful park-like setting was also being transformed. Many changes were going on in this small area. The grass was slowly turning to mud and the pond was simply filth. As the spring rains did their duty for the farm land, this area changed from beauty to tragedy.
After about a year, I moved closer to my work, and I lost track of this developing image. My one hour trip was eliminated. (By God's grace and an answer to prayer: I was relieved of the
necessity to travel this road.) For me, the Western Ohio movie was ended.
Then one day, I happened down this road again. What I saw was deplorable. As I was driving slowly in this stretch of highway to rejuvenate an old friendship with these fawn, my heart sank to a low ebb of sadness. These two deer were fully grown. These beautiful animals had mud all over them, they looked sickly, discouraged and lifeless. The area they lived in looked like a pig pen.
As I slowly drove down the road, many thoughts from the Word of God came to mind. My mind was racing through scripture on what we have been given so freely. How God rescued us out of this dark and perverse nation and has given us the freedom to live.
I was also struck that right behind this fenced area was beautiful pasture of many acres, (maybe 50). On the opposite side of this open pasture was a wooded area (probably the area in which they were born). I was also struck that these deer could easily just jump a four foot chain link fence. (Without even trying!)
BUT, THEY DID NOT KNOW THAT FREEDOM WAS just ONE THOUGHT AWAY!
Many children are born into circumstances not much different from these two deer. They are imprisoned by their circumstance and unless someone comes along and shows them the THE WAY (Jesus Christ) and how to rise above the muck and mire of the world, they are destined to a life without the freedom that God has made available.
Love,
Anthony
II Corinthians 10:5
Literal: Demolish your human logic from the high position to which you have lifted it vertically against the knowledge of God [which you have known by experience]. Be wise, lead captive every thought to Christ, which you have attentively listened to and heard.
KJV: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
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