If you could see me right now you would probably laugh / my face is red as a beet! Today was the official dedication of the Chaplains Commission Center and I spent two+ hours sitting on the platform in direct sunlight. This poor boy doesn’t get a lot of sun and I paid the price today! But it was worth it, having the privilege of being a part of history for the Romanian people.
One of my weaknesses is that I don’t take the time to pause and celebrate. I’m pretty much a bottom line/goal oriented leader who is ready to move on once one goal has been achieved. That is not a good thing, people need to pause and celebrate. Well today, I got caught up on my allotment! There were over twenty speakers at the dedication. Politicians, civic leaders, religious leaders and Church of God leaders (both Romanian and U.S.A.) one after another paraded to the pulpit and gave 15 – 20 minutes speeches. I thought it was going to take forever! (My face feels like it did!)
When it came my time to speak I tried to save little time by being short (I know, you don’t believe it!) I expressed our privilege as a young nation and denomination at being able to respect our elders in the old and honorable nation of Romania. I later learned the people really like that! 🙂 But I also expressed very firmly that the chief motivation for the reason we were there was to “Honor the Lord Jesus Christ! To Him be all the glory and honor and majesty.” I expressed this loudly and joyfully. The reason being was that all my life as a boy and young man I grew up with an “Iron Curtain” that separated much of Europe. I lived during the “cold war” when a godless system tried to stamp God out of every vestige of life. But that cruel and godless Communist system has crumble but the Church still stands. It gave me great joy to declare over that loud-speaker to those gathered today and more importantly to the evil principalities that hate God and all His people and tried to bring people and nations under bondage that Jesus Christ and His Church cannot be defeated! PTL!
I haven’t seen most of you for several days; but don’t forget – Jesus is still Lord! He is in control and you are on the winning side. Just because the other side scores a point from time to time doesn’t mean they are going to win the game. Count on it, in the end you will still be standing when all else fails if you’re building your life on Jesus Christ.
Well, that’s enough sermonizing for today.
This evening was our last evening in Oradea and so we did a little shopping and enjoyed an authentic Romania meal at a very quant restaurant. The food was good, by way too much! I will have to really get back on my health regiment when I get back home.
Well, guess I’d better close. It’s been a long week and day and I’m tired. I love you all and will miss you very much tomorrow. However, with God’s mercy I’ll be home soon.
Good evening everyone,
dlkemp
“If you want to find out what a worker is really like, don’t give him responsibilities-give him privileges.” _Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Joyful, p. 60
The ONE THING 