He Gives and He Takes Away....

Again, I do have to apologize for those of you keeping track of my blog and it seems like I am not writing! Part to blame was the lack of high speed internet and the other part belongs to my unwillingness to wait for dial up to load everything. BUT now, we have high speed internet via a tower and the world of communication seems to be opening up!! Finally!!

This is almost two months late - but I would like to share with you all something that happened here in the mission community back in late April. It was a Saturday afternoon and our Board members for South America Mission had just arrived - I had just finished picking them up and dropping them off at their hotel and had come home to cook lunch. The phone rang and my roommate had answered it...(its always interesting when you are listing in on an incoming call...and you know the news is not good)...then my roommate said "he's dead?" My heart sank...obvioiuslly it was someone we knew...but who? It was another missionary here in Pucallpa - Tommy Head.

He was a part of the ministry team here in Pucallpa called "Motociclistas por Cristo." He was practicing at a track here in town with another missionary from SAM. He landed from a jump wrong and broke his neck and died on the scene.

Little do you know your impact on people's lives while you are living - it is only when you pass and your void is left in people's lives that your impact is revealed. The death of Tommy Head hit us all pretty hard as he has just preached the Easter service here at Mil Palmeras and his last words were "You better be right with God and know Christ, because you do not know how many days you have left." Little did he know that 13 days later...he would be in the presence of the Lord.

Tommy's ministry was with Living Water. It is an organization dedicated to the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well as providing clean drinking water through the establishment of wells. One story I have heard about Tommy in his ministry was he had gone into a village here to speak to the chief and get permission to drill them a well. The chief and others talked it over and decided not to have this stranger come in their village (Tommy was 6'2" with long hair and about 280 lbs). He ended up returning to that village some time later and re-asked to drill the well and this time they said yes. As he and the chief were talking the chief told him a story. He said, "Remember when you were here last time and we said no we didn't want the well?" Well after you had left one of the guys in the group turned to me and said, "That is the ugliest woman I have ever seen in my life!" (Because Tommy had long hair!) I will always remember this story!

Tommy Head is no longer drilling wells - but in the presence of Jesus himself...the one whom he drilled the wells for.

See you soon Tommy....