Miracle on Christmas Day

Sunday Chronicles #278. 12/26/21

(This story, which I wrote from information in the Assemblies of God Foreign Missions files, and posted Nov. 14, 2015, has been the most read of all the blogs. There is rarely a day that one or more readers doesn’t log on to it. It is truly a testament to our God who is not willing that any of His creation would be without the knowledge of His love.)

Jasper Toe stood on the beach at Garraway Bay, Liberia, looking out at the mighty Atlantic Ocean. At the direction of an inner voice, he had walked seven days from his inland village to get to this point.

Back in his home village, Jasper had faithfully followed the tribal animistic religious rituals, but something was lacking. At night he stood outside his hut and looked up into the star-studded sky. Surely, he thought, there must be a creator, but how could he know him? One night in December, as Jasper looked at the sky, his heart hunger reached a point of desperation and he cried out, “If there is a creator God, help me find you.”

Vivid instructions came to him: Go to Garraway Beach. You will see a big box on the water, with smoke coming out of it. (Jasper had never seen a steamship and didn’t know what one was.) A little box will come out of the big box, and the people in the little box will tell you who I am.

Jasper had followed those directions, and now he waited on the beach, scanning the horizon. He had never heard the name of Jesus, and he had no idea that day—Christmas Day, 1908—was a time of celebrating the birth of God’s Son on earth.

God had started preparing the answer to Jasper’s prayer about 10 years earlier when He called a young man named John Perkins, son of a devout Methodist lay minister, to go to Liberia as a missionary. In 1900 John and his young bride, along with a party of eight other missionaries, arrived in Liberia. However, the party was ill-fated. In the first three months malaria and tropical fevers reduced their number to two. John Perkins survived, but his young wife died.

Under difficult circumstances, John stayed in Liberia. In time he married Jessie Arms, a missionary serving with the Methodist Episcopal Church. While home on furlough in 1906, the Perkinses attended a Pentecostal meeting in Toronto, Canada, and were baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking tongues.

When the Perkinses were ready to return to Liberia, their missions board disapproved of their Pentecostal experience and withdrew their support. Believing that God would direct them, they went back to Liberia as faith missionaries in 1908, without the support of any missions society. Several other Pentecostal believers accompanied them to help in evangelizing Liberia.

While crossing the ocean, the group spent time in prayer seeking God’s guidance. John Perkins felt they should disembark at the coastal town of Garraway. However, Garraway was not a usual port of call, and the captain argued that going ashore there was too dangerous. The large ship could not get close to shore, and anyone going ashore would have to be transferred to a small boat. Also, the captain feared for their safety. “It’s cannibal country. People go in there and disappear,” he said.

However, the Holy Spirit’s direction to John was urgent: You must get off the ship here. This is where I want you to go. John told the captain, “We’ve been praying, and God has told us to get off here.”

Finally, the captain relented. He put the missionaries and their belongings in a small surf boat and sent them ashore, where Jasper waited to greet them with great joy. Using hand signals and a few words of tribal languages and broken English, Jasper communicated that the missionaries should follow him. Perkins’ earlier service in Liberia included language study that helped him communicate with Jasper.

Jasper led them back through the jungle to his village, where the missionaries learned his language and shared the Gospel. Jasper was their first convert. The Perkinses settled in Newaka, built a mission station, and opened a school. In a few months an outpouring of the Holy Spirit brought revival. Miraculous salvations and healings occurred. Young people, called to the ministry and trained by John Perkins, went to other villages to share the Gospel. Liberia was being evangelized.

In 1918, the Perkinses joined the newly-formed Assemblies of God. Jasper Toe became a leader in the Liberian Assemblies of God. H. B. Garlock, missionary and regional director for Africa at that time, described Jasper Toe as the godliest man he ever met.

The Perkinses ministered in Liberia until 1935, when age and health made it necessary for them to return to the United States. They shared their missionary vision in churches and homes until Mrs. Perkins’ death in 1941 and John’s in 1949.

On Christmas Day 2008, the Liberian Assemblies of God celebrated their 100th anniversary. They date their establishment from the day Jasper Toe waited on Garraway Beach to welcome missionaries from the floating box.

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Personal Notes: Today we stand on the brink of another year: 2022. We can say with the Prophet Samuel, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Sam. 7:12). Knowing God’s faithfulness to His promises, I know He will not desert us now. We must continue to pray for His will to be done in our lives as we face this year’s challenges. Let us not forget to pray daily for those Christians who are suffering for their faith…some in prison; others hiding in caves until they can find a way to escape to safety. As for me personally, I still struggle to gain strength. I appreciate your prayers. Please pray especially for strength in my knees to help me get up and down. If you have prayer needs, you can send requests for prayer to me via Facebook or e-mail. Peace, jwb

Through Jesus, God Brought the Light of Love into Human Darkness

Fourth Sunday of Advent: LOVE
Sunday Chronicles #277 Dec. 19, 2021

The candles that make up the Christmas wreath used by many faith communities during the four Sundays leading up to Dec. 25 designate various aspects of the Christmas story such as expectation, anticipation, joy, hope, peace, and love. Some have a white candle in the middle of the wreath representing Christ.

Often “love” is the fourth candle lit, but in my thinking, it should be the first because the love of God for His creation is where Christmas began: “God so loved the world…”(John 3:16).

Adam and Eve’s disobeying God’s command in the Garden of Eden brought sin into God’s perfect creation. Yet as early as Gen. 3:15, we have the implicit promise of a Savior. That promise was expanded upon in the Old Testament and brought to completion by Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. Like Eve, we have a choice: we can choose life with Jesus or reject His love and be eternally separated from God. Jesus came as a human baby, lived in a broken world, was condemned as a criminal, and experienced the most painful death men could inflict. But the story doesn’t end there: He arose from the grave to return to His heavenly glory and open heaven to those who accept His love.

Our world is filled with problems, many of them fueled by hatred.

Our Lord’s command is to love one another, including those who don’t love us. Our daily news constantly reports more mass shootings, racial hatred, mammoth thefts, and gang warfare in our cities. Even nature seems to be in convulsions: huge forest fires on one side of our nation and extreme flooding on the other with terrible tornadoes in the center. All this, and another rise in COVID cases.

The world that Jesus was born into had its share of problems: the Jewish nation was under the rule of Rome and forced to pay heavy taxes. Some Jews were willing to become tax collectors for the Romans because they could collect more money than required and keep it for themselves. (See story of Zaccheus, Luke 19:1-10, and how meeting Jesus changed him.) Roman soldiers on horseback patrolled the highways and, while they kept order, they also took anything they wanted.

Into this world of darkness, Jesus came. This Christmas season, let us light the candle of Love and also the larger “Christ” candle.

The Babe in Bethlehem’s manager is still the Light of the World and it’s our joy to let Him shine through us in daily life. As more darkness gathers, even small lights make a difference! You may not see it, but others will!

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Personal Notes: Overnight temps dropping into the ‘20s in Springfield, MO, this last week in December. Bright sun today and a cloudless sky make the cold easier to bear. On a personal level, I’m still struggling to gain back strength lost in the Nov.18th fall and three weeks of REHAB. I continue to do multiply exercises each day, but progress is extremely slow. Current wisdom is that when a person is old, it takes longer to make a comeback. I’m not sure I will ever get there! If I do, it will be an answer to prayers from so many of you and encouraging cards and e-mails.

Thanks so much for keeping them coming!

I started sending Christmas cards, but lack of energy made me unable to keep up, so I’ve quit. I continue to pray for those who have requested prayer; that I can do. Peace, jwb

Third Sunday of Advent–Jesus, The Bread of Life

Sunday Chronicles # 276

 ^“ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day” (John 6 35-40).

This is from the third of the seven discourses recorded in John’s gospel. Jesus is speaking to a crowd of followers whom He has fed from a boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fish.

Can you imagine what it was like that day on a hillside near the Sea of Galilee? People had been healed of physical illnesses, and others delivered from spiritual oppression. As the day drew to a close, Jesus addressed their physical need for food. They were in an area with no villages nearby where the people could buy food. Jesus had His disciples take the boy’s lunch and move among the crowd, handing out bread and fish. When everyone had eaten, the disciples gathered up 12 baskets of leftover barley loaves, each loaf about the size of a small hamburger bun

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The crowd of at least 5,000 men, plus women and children, were astonished at Jesus’ teaching and miracles. There was talk among the crowd of wanting to launch a movement to make Him king. Why should they work if He provided food and health care? Jesus, understanding their thoughts and knowing that some of His disciples would join such an endeavor, dismissed the crowd and sent the disciples back to the boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. He slipped away alone to pray.

Bread is often called “the staff of life,” because it satisfies our physical hunger. In the mid-1930’s when the Great Depression griped our land, my parents were pioneering a church in Nuyaka, a little village in Oklahoma. To add to our diet of mainly vegetables in the summer, we had lots of cornbread. Breakfast was often cornbread and gravy, sometimes made with milk, and sometimes with water. Cornbread was the staple of our diet because many people in the community raised corn and took some to a grist mill to be made into cornmeal. They shared with us, and it saved the cost of flour. To put this in prospective a loaf of “bought” bread sold for 8 cents, and sometimes day-old bread for 6 cents. What little money my parents could earn from day labor or received from church offerings, had to go for things we couldn’t make, such as gas for the car, patching for the inner tubes, and to keep the electric lights burning in the church on church nights. During those years, cornbread was our “staff of life.” We ate it with honey if Dad found a bee tree, or with dried apples that my mother dried on screen wire during hot fall days.

So what did Jesus mean when He said, “I am the bread of life”? I think He is saying that as bread satisfies our bodily hunger, His presence in our lives satisfies our spiritual hunger. In our world today, spiritual hunger is rampant. Our media promotes various

substitutes: “getting high” on drugs, inviting demonic presence, or seeking to fill the heart hunger with dedication to activities that only make the void greater.

That day on the Judean hillside, if Jesus had allowed the crowd to make Him an earthly king, the plan for Him to be our Saviour would have been void. Instead He followed the plan laid out by His Father, which took Him to the cross and then the glorious resurrection, so He could become our “Bread” that satisfies soul-hunger. Now it’s our turn to offer that bread to those who haven’t found it.

Personal Notes: A sunny day in Springfield, MO with not a cloud in the sky! Recent winds have stripped the leaves from the Bradford Pear trees that line the front of this building. I was released from Rehab and returned to my apartment Thursday afternoon. “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home,” is a true saying.  Son Jon stayed with me Thursday and Friday nights to make sure I could function on my own. He returned to his home in Olathe, KS Saturday, and I have been on my own since then.  Melinda will come to check on me later today, and Becky will be back to help tomorrow afternoon. The fall and three weeks in Rehab have left me weaker than I realized and taken a toll especially on my knees and ability to get up and down. Please pray that I can gain strength and not have another fall.

Thanks so much for your prayers, the cards, and encouraging notes. I started sending a few Christmas cards, but don’t think I’ll be able to continue. I pray God will give each of you HIs peace and joy at this season when we remember the Babe in the manger who came to be our Savior. Peace, jwb

Advent: Emmanuel “God With Us”

Sunday Chronicles #275 December 5, 2021

Thanksgiving Day has come and gone, but for those of us who know Jesus, thanksgiving is ongoing because He “daily loads us with benefits!” The shopping frenzy of Black Friday has been extended into Cyber Monday, and much of our world hurries toward Christmas with almost no thought to its real meaning. It’s easy to get caught up in the hurry-scurry and, because we know the story so well, give little attention to the Babe in the manger. Some faith communities mark the Advent season with four Sundays dedicated to prayer and remembering. The root meaning of Advent is “arrival” with an added sense of “coming.” A wreath with four candles is placed on the altar to represent major facets of Christmas: Hope, Comfort, Peace, and Joy. Each Sunday in December, one candle will be lit; until on Dec. 24 all four will be shining. It’s a visual representation of Emmanuel, “God with us,” the Light of the world. In a time when our world seems to be growing darker in sin and violence, how comforting to remember the promise in John 1:5: “The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness will never put it out!” When darkness of any kind threatens to engulf you, quote that promise and praise God that He is Light.

Recently in my reading, I came across the story of an agnostic who wanted to believe that Jesus came in human form but his intellect couldn’t accept that. He lived in a cold climate and during a tremendous winter storm with strong wind, snow, and ice, a flock of birds were blown off course. Buffeted by the wind, they landed in his front yard. He saw that the birds were in danger of freezing, so he took bread crumbs out to scatter on the snow. However, the wind was so harsh that the birds could eat very little before the food was either blown away or covered with snow. Some of the weaker birds were already dying. The man had a huge barn, and he decided to get the birds into it for shelter. He opened the big doors, scattered crumbs toward the door and tried to get the birds to follow him. A few made it to the door but were afraid to go inside. The man was troubled because the birds would not go in. Then he had the thought, “If I could only become a bird, I could lead them inside to safety.” Suddenly he understood why Jesus had to come in human form!

While thinking on the verse “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14), I remembered the first time that Scripture poleaxed me about 25 years ago when we were living on Grant Street in Springfield.

I was lying in bed reading John in a translation of the New Testament called “The Message.” The kids were asleep, but Nelson was still up when gunshots, sirens, and then a bullhorn blaring a message for a man holed up in a house across the street to “Come out,” shattered the quiet. Nelson, being a curious soul, went outside to see what was going on. Policemen with drawn guns were hiding behind rose bushes in our yard. They commanded Nelson to get back inside lest he be shot! (Excellent cure for curiosity!)

Police action in our neighborhood was not new. Drugs, alcoholism, and domestic violence plagued the area. Friends asked me if I were not afraid to live there. I laughed at their fears and told them that the police were never more than 3 minutes away! After Nelson told me what was happening outside that night, I went back to my Bible reading. Suddenly John1:14: “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood ” started a conversation between me and God. My first reaction was “Not in this neighborhood!” God immediately whispered back, “That’s why you and your family are here. You are to be Jesus in this neighborhood!” I was so startled that I replied,. “Huh? How can we do that?” I was about to tell God how bad the neighborhood was when I laughed at my foolishness. Certainly God knew the people and their problems more intimately than I did!

So how do you “be Jesus” in your neighborhood? You love more and judge less. Some people respond and God turns their lives around; others reject His help and break your heart, just as people in Jesus’ day broke His (Matthew 19:21-22). Now in this Advent season when we think of Jesus’ coming in the flesh, will you be Jesus in your neighborhood? It may be a place of lovely homes and fine cars, but sin and heartache aren’t limited to the down-and-outer. Behind those closed doors are often cold hearts who need the warmth of Jesus’ love. As God brings people into your “neighborhood,” let Him love them through you. Only God knows the heart and only He can change it, but you can bring His heart to those around you.

Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
His name is called Emmanuel.
God with us, revealed in us,
 His name is called Emmanuel

Thanks for all your prayers. I’m improving slowly. The pain in my lower back and legs is still quite severe at times. I hope to be released from Rehab December 9 or 10 and get back to my apartment. Pray especially for no more falls. Peace, jwb