Category: Devotionals

Christmas is just a week away. Thanks for carving out time to join me here on this “Advent Adventure.”

We arrived in Advanced Base at the beginning of December, and Christmas was around the corner. I wanted to have some little gift ready for Linda. I found a fairly flat piece of bark, and I used some leftover twine and glue to write out in script the name of our new abode, “Lark’s Nest.” We hung our sign at the top of the path leading to our champa. For her part, Linda gave me a big chunk of pitch pine, a perfect fire-starter on damp mornings.

Other gifts came in even nicer forms. The staff finally located and butchered the runaway bull, and Linda and I spent a day processing our share of the meat, drying some and canning other pieces in Mason jars. And we ate anything leftover including two large hamburgers on fresh homemade rolls! Could anything taste better?

And one gift was not so nice. On Christmas morning, I noticed two little bumps on my right wrist. I wasn’t worried. There were plenty of bugs around and I assumed it was merely a mosquito bite. But by the next morning, I was covered with a rash. Cheching began with the sap of a plant that could be anything from a small sapling to a tree 3’ in diameter with its top hidden in the forest canopy of leaves far above our heads. The rash was similar to a case of poison ivy, only instead of staying in one place, cheching spread head to toe systemically. The itching was furious, and the deep scars I got from that episode lasted over six months.

There is so much we don’t know about Jesus. We have no record of what gifts he made for his mother or father. We don’t know if he ever got sick. We don’t even know what he looked like. Isaiah 52 tells us that “there was nothing in his appearance to attract us to him.” Yet the four gospel writers recorded all the important details: they speak of his patience, his forgiveness, his mercy.

When you give gifts this Christmas, what will people remember about you? Will they remember the gift or the giver?

Advent is a journey that takes us closer to our destination of Heaven. Thanks for staying with me on this “Advent Adventure.”

During those first weeks at Advance Base, the staff were expecting us to be able to purchase some food supplies from locals, but we were so far from the beaten path that not even the Indians knew where to find us gringos. To further complicate matters, a heavy storm, called a norte, arrived, stayed for about a week, and kept the supply planes from flying into our tiny airstrip. Then, the one bull that the staff had planned on butchering ran off into the mountains. The upshot was we had no fresh meat or eggs or vegetables. Thankfully, Linda and I had ordered a block of cheese and jars of peanut butter for our non-priority bag, so we had some protein to sustain us as we worked to build our new home.

Remembering my ability in carpentry class, I wondered how our 12’x13’ champa would turn out. Thankfully, Linda did much better than I with manual skills. We soon had the four corner posts set in the ground, built rough pole frames for our beds and a table. We dug a latrine and made a mud stove. The only mishap was when Linda managed to machete her finger. With a large sheet of vinyl for a roof, we were soon comfortable. It’s hard to believe the entire area was dense jungle just two weeks earlier!

For three years, Jesus had no place to call home as he travelled with his disciples. I’m certain the carpenter’s son would have done a far better job than Linda and I in constructing a place, but Jesus never settled in one spot long enough. In Matthew 8:20, he said, “The foxes have holes to live in. The birds have nests to live in. But the Son of Man has no place where he can rest his head.”

Yet this same Jesus has promised to go ahead of us and prepare a home for us in heaven. It won’t be made of flimsy poles and vinyl but will last forever.

Look around your home today. Take a few moments to thank God for solid walls, for a leak-proof roof, and a soft bed to lie on.

Are you exhausted as Christmas draws nearer? Thank you for pausing to join us on this “Advent Adventure.”

At last, at sundown, we arrived at Lake Ocotal. Filthy and footsore, we found our director waiting for us on the shoreline…with bad news. There were not enough trees to hang our hammocks on this side of the lake. We still needed to hack our way through overgrowth for an additional hour and half around the lake to our campsite. The thought of doing that in the dark by flashlight, avoiding snakes, and then still needing to set up those awful hammocks left me exhausted. But the hardest part was yet to come.

The family members of our campers had flown in ahead of us, and upon our arrival, the wives ran out to greet their spouses. Children hugged their fathers. The wives had already hung the hammocks for their men. They had prepared a meal. Knowing no one was waiting to greet me undid my last bit of grit and self-control. I dissolved in tears.

Ten hours of sleep put me in a better frame of mind. The next day, Linda and I picked out our site for building a champa. We began clearing the area, built a fire and cooked our first meal. Using a combination of our last names (Lauck and Parke), we christened our new home “The Lark’s Nest.”

That very first Christmas, Joseph and Mary (nine months pregnant) arrived in Bethlehem exhausted after a 70-mile walk from Nazareth. Around them, families were reuniting, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles were celebrating, but there was no room for them to stay with relatives. Luke 2 tells us that at night, they trudged through the town looking for a place to stay. Mary already had birth pangs. Did Joseph feel anxious because he couldn’t find a place for Mary to have their child?

How different things looked the next day! Jesus was born. Angels had sung. Shepherds had worshiped.

Are you exhausted with holiday shopping, baking, guests, and preparations? My prayer for you today is that you would find rest and renewal in our Savior. And joy comes in the morning!

Christmas is advancing upon us, and we are advancing to the second phase of jungle training in our “Advent Adventure.”

Hiking to Advance Base took us on foot another 35 miles farther away from civilization. Campers each had a turn riding one of the mules for an hour. Our mules were slow but sure-footed as they crossed rivers and climbed muddy mountain trails.

Knowing I had ridden horses as a child, the staff asked if I would ride the single horse in our pack. As I forded a river, the horse sank into a deep hole. Frantic, desperate, and struggling with mud up to his shoulders, the animal had to lighten his load, and the easiest way was to get rid of his rider. I flew over his head, completed a summersault, and landed shaken on the muddy riverbank. With my weight gone, the horse freed himself and dashed up the same riverbank, his hooves flying within inches of my head. And once again, I thanked God for that angel watching over me. I hope he got paid overtime that day!

Jesus walked everywhere. We only have record of one occasion when Jesus rode. During Holy Week, his disciples brought him a colt that had never been ridden. What a recipe for disaster…an inexperienced rider and an unbroken colt! Add in a crowd that was shouting and waving palm branches. Unlike my frantic horse at the riverbank, this colt calmly carried his rider through a mob. As Isaiah and Zechariah predicted, “Behold your King is coming to you, gentle and mounted upon a donkey, even upon a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” (Mt. 21:5)

Jesus could have walked into Jerusalem. There was no obvious need to borrow a colt. But a donkey was a symbol of royalty and servitude…and peace.

Are you stuck in a muddy rut, frantic to find a way out of your circumstances? Ask the Lord to touch your day with His serenity and peace.

Today we complete our second week of our “Advent Adventure.” I hope you are tracking with me as I go through my jungle training course, but I also hope you are grasping how to trust God in every circumstance.

After six weeks at the main base camp, the staff helped us plan for the second phase of training: Advance Base. During the next six weeks, my partner and I would move deeper into the jungle, and we’d construct our own champa (shelter), beds, a latrine, and a mud stove. Linda and I would also go on a survival hike.

Each of us was allowed one 88# duffle bag, 10 straw mats, one jungle hammock and a cook kit. We needed to place our food orders for those next six weeks. There would be no grocery stores nearby. We also had to divide everything we planned to take into “priority” (carried in our backpacks) and “non-priority” (carried in the duffle by a mule). Even our food supplies had to fit into these categories. After we had crammed our duffle full, Linda noticed the wood stool she had made in carpentry class. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a stool to sit on in our new place?”

We quickly unpacked the non-priority duffle and calculated how much we would need to cut off each leg in order to fit the diameter of the stool into the duffle bag. Sure enough, it fit!

When Jesus left heaven and came to earth, he had no duffle bag to sort into priority items and non-priority. He didn’t even arrive with a high priority diaper! Yet he offered us all the riches of Heaven. Luke 10:38-42 tells us that Jesus had different priorities than his friend Martha who needed help in the kitchen. “Only a few things are necessary, really only one thing; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

What are your top priorities for today? Is there room in your plan for God to interrupt your schedule and use you for His priorities?

Have you toweled off after our time in the river yesterday? Ready for another watery episode in our “Advent Adventure”?

All campers faced a tough canoe trip downstream through 22 sets of rapids. Each dugout canoe that we used weighed from 500 to 1000 pounds and held half a dozen passengers plus camping gear. Our camp director warned us, “If you lose your balance, fall out on the upstream side of the canoe. Otherwise, the current will push the canoe on top of you and you may be crushed by its weight.”

All was going well for us until we came to the very last set of rapids. The camper at the front of my canoe was directing our craft left toward deeper water, but the current was swifter than he anticipated. It pushed our vehicle sideways onto a rock shelf. Like hitting a wall, we stopped instantly, jarring Jerry and knocking him out of the canoe. With his weight gone, the canoe floated up off the rocky ledge and moved farther downstream. But it quickly hit another portion of the rock shelf, and suddenly I found myself flying through the air, but unlike Jerry, I fell out downstream. The canoe lifted a second time and raced towards me. Unbelievably, my 5’ wooden paddle was still in my hand. Acting as a wedge, the paddle interrupted the canoe charging through the raging water; it took the full force of its weight. Instead of being crushed up to my hip, all I had was a sore tailbone! As I wrote in my letter home that night, “Don’t worry about my safety here…God is taking very good care of me!”

Do you remember when Mary and Joseph lost track of Jesus in Jerusalem? Luke 2:42f tells us he was only 12 years old, still a child in their eyes. They searched everywhere looking for him. Three days went by, their anxiety mounting with each passing hour. At last, they found him with the teachers in the Temple. He looked at them. “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I was safe in my Father’s house?”

What is stressing you this holiday season? Are you afraid of things beyond your control? Or can you say, “Don’t worry about my safety here…God is taking very good care of me!”

Welcome back to Chiapas, Mexico. We are about halfway through our “Advent Adventure.”

The jungle river that swirled past our camp was a never-ending challenge in our training. We rode in huge 500-1000 pound dug-out canoes through rapids, we bathed at the river, we swam there too. One day, Judy had one foot on land and one in the canoe when the strong current pulled the canoe away from the riverbank. In a matter of moments, Judy was fully suspended above the water’s surface. Splash! One afternoon, our team came to the river only to find that our canoe was tied up on the opposite shore. Another swimmer and I jumped in, clothes and all, and swam across the current to ‘rescue’ the canoe back for the other campers. For us, it was merely one more adventure!

We don’t know if Jesus ever learned to swim, but he did far greater things than crossing a jungle river. In Matthew 14, a great storm rolled across the Sea of Galilee. Waves there could crest as high as 15 feet when shrieking winds whipped across the surface of the water. Add in the pitch darkness of nighttime and we can understand why even professional fishermen like Peter and Andrew were terrified.

But then Jesus appeared walking on the water. He came, not as a hero coming to save his disciples, but as himself, simply out for a stroll. Before rescuing the men in the boat, he called out, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Trust me, he said, before the waves ceased and before the winds calmed down.

Holidays are not immune to crises. Some people have car accidents while traveling for Christmas. Others end up in emergency rooms. Houses burn down. Loved ones die. What crisis are you facing this season? Let’s remember Jesus’ words: “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Before the crisis is over.

Thank you for returning faithfully each day to join me here for this “Advent Adventure.”

Not all the lessons God taught me at the jungle training camp were painful memories. After returning from that 50-mile hike, staff who had remained behind in camp met us as we trudged in at the gate. They handed us mugs of hot tea. When we stepped into our rooms, we found pails of warm water waiting for our bath. They had located enough dry bedding to replace our soggy sleeping bags. We had eaten one-course meals out of a 5-gallon can for four days, but the spread the staff set before us at supper that night was a feast! It included fresh roast beef, hot yeast rolls, and chocolate cream pie! And the staff wouldn’t even let us help clear the tables!

We campers knew that once we finished our training and moved on to our permanent assignments, we wouldn’t always have a friendly staff waiting to receive us and welcome us home, but that night, those who had hiked all day went to bed with full tummies and rested under warm dry blankets. We were thankful.

When Jesus came to earth, he had to learn to walk. When he was 12, he and his parents walked on foot over 70 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem. He hiked with his disciples everywhere. They were not always welcomed at the end of the day when they were hungry, tired and footsore. Yet, after Jesus died and ascended to the Father, just imagine the banquet the Father served His Son the day he finally returned to heaven!

Do you have a friend who is exhausted, stressed, or ready to give up? How can you encourage someone today? How can you make them feel welcomed?

Welcome back to another episode in our “Advent Adventure.”

Our first night at Naja was miserable. Torrents of rain poured down, soaking our sleeping bags and leaving us shivering in the cold. At last, we erected a plastic tarp where we could gather underneath and build a fire. Our local Tzeltal guides were as cold and wet as we were.

As we huddled together, I decided to elicit some new vocabulary. My notebooks were full of phrases like, “It is raining,” “He is looking at the fire,” “Are we ready to eat?” and “I am cold.” Can you tell what was on my mind?

Later in the afternoon, a local man from a different language group came by to purchase some medicine for his child. He spoke Lacandon, and our staff spoke Tzeltal so, of necessity, they communicated in Spanish. I listened as Tiburcio, one of our guides, shared the message of Christ with the visitor. It was no accident that Tiburcio used the story of the Tower of Babel to illustrate man’s rebellion against God! Tiburcio was not concerned with the rain and discomfort. He was concerned for the man who had a sick child.

What a contrast to my focus. All I had thought of was my own hunger and the numbing cold.

When Jesus was in the wilderness, he could have focused on his own hunger, thirst and discomfort. But he chose to focus on God’s Word. When Satan came calling, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

As you prepare for Christmas, where are your thoughts focused?

Have you ever been camping? Join our “Advent Adventure” today for another episode in learning to depend more fully on God.

This year, my son John and his family bought their first tent. They went camping in a state park. They hiked to a nearby waterfall. That evening, the family sat around the fire and enjoyed s’mores. My experience was a bit different in Chiapas, Mexico.

On our first overnight trek away from base camp, rain poured down the entire time. After a 25-mile hike through mud, we set up a temporary camp at Naja. We had to hang our jungle hammocks before we could call it a day. These canvas and mosquito net contraptions came rolled up in a compact bundle, but you needed to use a machete and cut branches of various sizes to slip through pockets for assembly. Once I had everything ready, I still had to tie the hammock to two strong trees, high enough to be out of the mud, low enough to climb inside. Can you imagine doing all this in the dark, in pouring rain, after an exhausting hike? And when I was done? I discovered that the zipper on my mosquito netting was stuck!

Yet, I remember that night being glad that God had brought me to that place. No experience in the States ever taught me so much about relying on God’s care as this training program. I found myself forced to lean on the Lord for strength at every turn in the road. I could recite Psalm 23 with new passion: “The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need.”

In Heaven, Jesus had no need to lean on others for help. But when he came to earth as a newborn, he was completely helpless. As an infant, he had to trust that Mary would provide food and warmth. He couldn’t even walk on his own; Joseph had to carry him from place to place. The Son of God had to rely on others daily.

Take a moment and look around your room. You have a roof over your head. You are wearing clothes. Is your tummy full? In what ways do you need to rely on the Lord today?