3 Kinds of People

There are 3 kinds of people in the world--
those who can count and those who can't.

the ordinary

Living oveseas is not a glamorous as people often make it out to be. Life can be very ordinary anywhere on the globe. We've learned that.

This really helps a person to learn that importance is not the same as prominence.

Freedom

Most people would define "freedom" in some way like this: being able to do what you want.
What a scary thing. There's nothing naturally in me that "wants" to serve others. From birth, we've wanted only to benefit ourselves foremost. We're always a slave to something--to whatever we "want" most. What is really good news is that miraculously, what we "ought to do and be" can become what we "want to do and be". That's amazing. Until that point, we remain slaves of the worst kind. I find that the problem is not ability, but want-to. What do I want most today?

Means and Ends

       We so often confuse means and ends. Looking at our lives, I see a lot of goals and tasks. I want to have good character, we want to provided for the family, we want to have community, we want to have a good influence of others.... but why? these are all means to other ends. Not that they are not valuable and good, but that which is ultimately satisfying will have with it pleasing and joy producing means. We sometimes think that to live for an ultimate purpose will be miserable. But I read the diary of a king who lived a long time ago who had attained a great number of things, many good things, but he said "meaningless, meaningless!" to it all. Those words challenge us.
      What means are we pursuing assuming that simply to attain the means IS to attain the right goal? Just a thought. We never want to live in vain. Lewis once wrote that if we finally get whatever it is that we've been striving for and we then find that it wasn't really as satisfying as we hoped, we can be assurred that that thing wasn't really what we were striving for. How true.

pictures?

TO SEE PICTURES GO TO:

www.goibac.com/vaughn

Malachi

For those of you who don't know, Malachi has battled weight issues thissummer. It threatened our ability to leave to China. He was losing a lot of weight and we could not get enough food in him. We'd tried every technique for 3 months to get him bottle fed, but he refused it sooo much. He would tighten his lips and thrash around making sure we wouldn't get the bottle in his mouth.

Well, after finally asking so many people to think about him, he was miraculously healed. He took a bottle and has been drinking b/t 45-50 ounces a day when kids normally his age drink 28-32 oz. !!

He gained a pound in 1 week!

Thank you for keeping him in you thoughts. Our Dad is so good.