{"id":3406,"date":"2021-03-16T18:00:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T22:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/?p=3406"},"modified":"2021-03-16T20:30:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T00:30:51","slug":"another-sequence-of-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/2021\/03\/16\/another-sequence-of-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Another sequence of events"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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City Lake Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.<\/em><\/strong> Jeremiah 10:23b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A sequence of events:<\/strong><\/span> Have you ever had one of those days in which everything culminated in one of those God appointments? We shared one with you in January <\/a> and now we have another one for you.

I (Lance) hadn\u2019t seen a chiropractor in more than two years, so I finally decided to make a long-overdo appointment for Friday afternoon. Because I got back to the house at the end of the workday, we decided to go walk in the park. We hadn\u2019t been there in quite a while and normally wouldn\u2019t have gone at that hour.

Off we went! It was a beautiful evening! The park (see above photo) has a lake with a 1.25-mile paved pathway. We normally walk counter-clockwise, but this time we decided to go clockwise. We soon came upon a young couple and their dog. The dog was very excited to see people, so we stopped and made a fuss over her. Then we began to talk with the couple. They had been married a year and a half and are interested in adopting. (We had our adoption t-shirts <\/a>on).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We asked them, \u201cAre you from Madill?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, we\u2019re from Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo do you have family here?\u201d Of course they must! No one just comes to Madill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, we\u2019ve never been here before and didn\u2019t even know this place existed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn’t know Madill had become a tourist destination! So they had our attention, or rather God did. God orchestrated events in their lives to get them to the park, and orchestrated events in our lives to get us to take a walk. We thought about the ifs: if I hadn’t gone to the chiropractor, if I hadn’t gotten home at that hour, if that couple hadn’t had their dog with them, if we had gone the counter-clockwise…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After more conversation we asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s your relationship with God?\u201d We learned that they attend a church that teaches works righteousness<\/a>; <\/strong>they didn’t know if they would go to heaven if they died. So for the next 30 minutes, we shared from Numbers 21<\/a> and John 3<\/a> and other passages. They seemed to hang on to our every word!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Does that make sense?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it was all new to them, they said it made perfect sense. They saw how God had orchestrated events to bring us together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To simply believe – to \u201clook and live,\u201d as the Israelite community was told to do – seems too easy! And yet if it weren’t, we\u2019d all be doomed to an eternity separated from God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I prayed for them one sleepless night, the old hymn \u201cLook and Live<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u201d started going through my mind, prompting this update. I hope this encourages you to look for those God appointments in your life. When we parted ways, they promised that they would remember our conversation. Please pray for them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime:<\/span><\/strong> We shared in our last update that we probably won\u2019t be able to return to the Philippines this year. As disappointing as that is, we know God is in control. I continue working on translation while also preparing for an online SYIS course \u201cServing Others Through Listening Well.\u201d If you\u2019re interested in sharpening your interpersonal skills, you can read more at the International Training Partners’ website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you: <\/strong><\/span>We are grateful for each of you who partners with us as we minister to the Higaunon through scripture translation. This month we introduce you to Langan and Iyi. Back in the mid-1980s, Langan visited our village. He had  come to hear the message of life so he could share it with the people of his village. As a result, his village has a church that has planted other churches in that area. Please pray for their safety and for those churches to continue to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iyi with her granddaughter and Langan looking on<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you have any questions please write to us. We\u2019d love to hear from you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secure in Christ,
Lance & Laura<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. Jeremiah 10:23b A sequence of events: Have you ever had one of those days in which everything culminated in one of those God appointments? We shared one with you in January  and now we have another one for you. I (Lance) hadn\u2019t seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":3409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[112345,61839,112346,112270,112350,112351,112344,112349,734,35891,45,47583,350,112347,112348],"class_list":{"0":"post-3406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ministry","8":"tag-city-lake-park","9":"tag-higaunon","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-itpartners","12":"tag-john-3","13":"tag-look-and-live","14":"tag-madill","15":"tag-numbers-21","16":"tag-oklahoma","17":"tag-old-testament-translation","18":"tag-pray","19":"tag-syis","20":"tag-thank-you","21":"tag-tourist-destination","22":"tag-works-righteousness","23":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/lance-ostman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}