In Good Company

"The least of His works it is refreshing to look at... 

A dried leaf or a straw makes me feel myself in good company."

Autumn leaf photos taken in 2012

Quote from The Life of Rev. Henry Martyn, chapter 11

O Lord, Why??

We all know and love many people who could be, and often are, asking this question:

"O Lord, why?"

This month we had two funerals at our little church - exactly a week apart. One followed the tragic death of a husband and father the age of my sister. He leaves behind a grieving wife who has dealt with far too many tragic deaths in her family recently. They also have four young, hurting children.

This week I spoke and cried and prayed on the phone with another deeply hurting friend. Her decades of chronic illness and pain have escalated to eleven weeks of extra misery which would cause any less faithful soul to give up. And yet she keeps pointing me to Christ.

As I ache and pray for friends, for my family, and for myself the question sometimes surfaces. "Why, Lord?!"

Amy Carmichael deals with this with such personal understanding in her book Rose from Brier.

I have read many answers, but none satisfy me. One often given is our Lord's to St. Peter: "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." And yet it is not an answer. He is speaking there of something which He Himself is doing; He is not doing this. He went about undoing it. "Ought not this woman whom Satan hath bound be loosed?" That was always His attitude to suffering, and so that blessed word is not an answer to this question, and was not meant to be.

There are many poetical answers; one of these satisfied me for a time...
But, though, indeed, we know that pain nobly borne strengthens the soul, knits hearts together, leads to unselfish sacrifice (and we could not spare from our lives the Christ on the Cross), yet when the raw nerve in our own flesh is touched, we know, with a knowledge that penetrates to a place which these words cannot reach, that our question is not answered. It is only pushed farther back, for why should that be the way of strength, and why need hearts be knit together by such sharp knitting needles, and who would not willingly choose relief rather than the pity of the pitiful?

No, beautiful words do not satisfy the soul that is confined in the cell whose very substance is pain....

What, then, is the answer? I do not know.

I believe that it is one of the secret things of the Lord, which will not be opened to us till we see Him who endured the Cross, see the scars in His hands and feet and side, see Him, our Beloved, face to face. I believe that in that revelation of love, which is far past our understanding now, we shall "understand even as all along we have been understood."

And till then? What does a child do whose mother or father allows something to be done which it cannot understand? There is only one way of peace. It is the child's way. The loving child trusts.

I believe that we who know our God, and have proved Him good past telling, will find rest there. The faith of the child rests on the character it knows. So may ours; so shall ours.

There is only one place where we can receive, not an answer to our question, but peace - that place is Calvary. An hour at the foot of the Cross steadies the soul as nothing else can. "O Christ beloved, Thy Calvary stills all our questions." 
Love that loves like that can be trusted in this.

Autumn Apples 2018

Like our early apples that were earlier than usual this year, a string of heavy frosts also came early with a couple of light snows. That meant it was time to pick the late summer and autumn apples.

Though still very small, the newest trees in Dad's orchard are beginning to bear some delicious fruit.

Our oldest tree, a Haralred, has seen better days. Years of overproduction have broken off most of its branches. But with strong bracing for the past couple months, Mom and Dad still got many boxes of baking apples picked.

Now it is time to enjoy apple crumbles!

Making dessert around here means making three deserts. One for Mom and Dad with dairy and nuts, one for me without, and a Keto dessert for Elsa - requiring berries rather than too-sweet apples.

Answers to Prayer - with Edith Schaeffer

Hour-long sessions sweating out toxins in the sauna pass much more swiftly when you have a good book.

The Tapestry by Edith Schaeffer with its 650 large pages will last me many more hours. But I don't mind! Every time I read it I am encouraged in my faith and inspired to trust God more as He weaves together all the seemingly random or ugly threads of my life with those that even I can recognize as beautiful.

In my last reading, Edith talked about God answering a specific prayer of her husband, Francis Schaeffer [Fran] on behalf of a pressing need in their family. This example was one of only two times so far in his life that he had been answered with an audible voice. She interrupted that story with this bit of encouragement:

I myself have never heard a voice [answering my prayer audibly.] I have had many amazing answers to prayer in a diversity of instances... Is there any "more spiritual" or "less spiritual" kind of answer to prayer? I think not. Fran thinks not. 

God is a personal God, a very personal Father dealing with us as individual children. When He answers by not healing a tragic illness, by not providing some material thing, by not giving the diploma or the job, and instead gives "grace sufficient" and special courage and strength to continue in the midst of disappointment... Then the "victory" of that answer is just as "spiritual" as the provision of whatever has been prayed for, no matter what form that provision took.

Free Audio Books

If you have ever enjoyed an audiobook, you may be surprised to know how much work goes into the production before you can listen. Even the free audiobooks on LibriVox.org require much teamwork to get off the written page. The lively lyrics of this year's anniversary song (below) give more idea of all the jobs involved - and all done by volunteers.

These pictures of my computer screen show more of what is involved for each of us who record. We put in two to three hours for each hour of finished product. Why? Well, if you try reading aloud, you will no doubt make some mistakes. Every mistake needs to be edited out.

To make sure I can catch each mistake on the waveform without having to listen through the whole file (that is done by a proof-listener before publishing), I make a sharp noise before repeating. This shows up as the vertical lines reaching to the top and bottom of the editing screen.

The left part of the photo above shows the section of the file I had already cleaned up. Below is a zoomed-in view I use to make sure I cut out the right parts - to the precise fraction of a second.

Then follows a process of amplifying and saving the audio into a specific file type, uploading it to the LibriVox server and marking it as ready for your project's dedicated proof-listener, fixing any more problems they may find, and uploading again for a spot-check. 

When all is recorded and proofed, the reader (or book coordinator of group projects) finalizes the book summary and keywords and lets their meta-coordinator know it is ready to catalogue. At that point the book is published for free downloads and listening!

Once more we gather together in song
To celebrate LibriVox still going strong.
Our LibriVox mission we proudly proclaim –
We will read every book in the public domain.

We shout out a thank-you to all volunteers
Who’ve kept LibriVox lively for 13 great years.
Their many and various talents combine
To help us keep growing, one book at a time.

Here’s to our readers! Their voices they give
To lift words from pages, and make those words live.
For each hour you hear, they have spent two or three,
To edit and polish and be blooper-free.

Here’s to our proof-listeners! They give an ear
Alert and attentive to all that they hear,
They find sneezes, and dog barks, and the teakettle’s hiss,
And they catch all the edits that we somehow miss.

Here’s to our BC’s, as busy as bees,
They juggle group projects with style and with ease.
Of assignments and sections they never lose track,
For resolving confusion they have quite the knack.

Here’s to our Admins, their talents we prize.
With a wave of their hand, Magic Windows arise.
Finished projects they catalog, errors they fix,
Pesky technical glitches they know how to lick.

Here’s to our researchers hunting to find
The links that we need to the info on line.
They find authors and dates, they locate PD texts,
And they post great suggestions of what to read next.

Here’s to our artists! Their skills they apply
Designing book covers that catch someone’s eye.
Using photos and pixels and fonts as their tools,
For layouts as clear and as lovely as jewels.

Here’s to our well-seasoned veterans who share
Advice and good guidance with humor and care.
And here’s to our newbies who’ve answered the call;
They’re the future of LibriVox -- Welcome them all!

We record every book in the public domain.
Twelve thousand books done – many more yet remain.
It takes many hands to help LibriVox run,
As we keep reading books – and what’s more – having fun!
Many books beckon yet! And a lot of good fun!

Maria Kasper (commonsparrow3) composed this year's celebratory song.

Audiobook: The Life of Rev. Henry Martyn

While learning from a literature curriculum workshop online (yes, still a home-schooler at heart!) I was introduced to an old biography called The Life of Rev. Henry Martyn by John Hall. This came just when I was looking for a new project to record for LibriVox.

Written for the American Sunday School Union in 1831, this small biography is packed with a powerful testimony. As I wrote for the book summary:

Henry Martyn (1781-1812), a brilliant and ambitious young student in Cambridge, England, was led by God to be a missionary to India and Persia. While pastoring, starting schools, and teaching the locals as well as Europeans through his role as chaplain for the East India Company, he worked on several far-reaching Bible translations. All this despite much weakness and illness due to harsh climates and difficult travels. This short life of 31 years is a testament to the power of God to work through one life fully dedicated to Him.

The audio book is free HERE.
The e-book is free HERE.

Autumn Bouquets 2018