Welcome Home!
An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and was
returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was
broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they
were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning
from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.
No one paid any attention to him or her. They watched the fanfare that
accompanied the President's entourage, with passengers trying to catch a
glimpse of the great man. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old
missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong."
"Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa
all these many years and have no one care a thing about us?
Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and
everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."
"Dear, you shouldn't feel that way", his wife said.
He replied "I can't help it; it doesn't seem right."
When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President.
The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the
President's arrival. No one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off
the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see
what they could do to make a living
in the city.
That night the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this;
God is not treating us fairly". His wife replied, "Why don't you go in the
bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"
A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was
completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"
"The Lord settled it with me", he said. "I told Him how bitter I was that
the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us
as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as
though the Lord put His hand on my shoulder and simply said;
"But you're not home yet."
God bless you and yours.
On behalf of this generation,
Your friends in the service of Christ,
Tony and Marge Abram
Abundant Life Crusades
www.tonyabram.com or
www.abundantlifecrusades.com
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