Ten Years and Counting ...

This blog, “Let’s Talk …” isn’t the only communication medium the Weresch’s use to further the spread of the Good News. Recently a website “Paul Weresch Online” has been launched. Also, a newsletter has been going to a mailing list that includes supporters in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Ten years ago this month, after returning from a four day visit with the Weresch’s in Germany, I designed and published the first newsletter showcasing how God has used them through the last several decades. They took me on a whirlwind visit through the territory they had ministered in during the cold war … delivering Bibles, money and medicine behind the Iron Curtain to believers in Eastern Europe ... laboring obediently with a price on their heads. At that time, the mentoring that had begun six years before in Tacoma, Washington came to full bloom and I was sold out to this couple, who through every obstacle had been obedient to the Lord.

Between the periods … Spring 1999 and Spring 2009, Paul’s supporters have received 21 issues of “Der Bote” which loosely translated means “The Messenger” in German.

The Spring 1999 issue was the first time the Weresch’s had more than a single typewritten page for their newsletter, so they provided material for one page … the front … and kindly let me ramble on for three more about our travels during my visit along with a few of the hundreds of pictures taken.

It has been a delight to put together these missals for ten years … a labor of love … love for our Lord and love for Paul and Betty Weresch. After much prodding, we have found a way to link them to this blog and they are available by touching any of the dates in the column to the upper right. You will have access to the very first issue as well as the last three. Possibly, if they are enjoyed by you, the frequent reader, we will prepare and upload all 21.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Larry Abele … Editorial Team

Words, Words, Words

Litte children have been heard on the playground chanting, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me!" It is usually quite the opposite ... the school yard bully has used words to hurt them badly.

Words are the currency of our society. The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use. The Bible contains 774,746 words ... 593,493 in the Old Testament and 181,253 in the New.

Blind and deaf from the age of 19 months, Helen Keller could neither hear nor see a word but used them to great effect writing a total of 12 published books and several articles. With the help of her profound faith, she transformed her life into one lived in service of the Good.

"The Bible gives me a deep, comforting sense that things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal," she said.

It was God, Himself, who used His Word to the greatest effect. If you take time to read the first chapter of Genesis, you will find that it was with His WORD that He created everything!

David penned these words in Psalm 33:6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made ..." Again in verse 9: "For He spoke, and it was done ..."

Isaiah stated: "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our god stands forever." (40:8)

John starts his book with these words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

In the book of Proverbs, there are 35 statements that admonish the use of the mouth, from whence pours out words. God realized the power of words when He inspired Solomon to write: "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked." (Proverbs 10:11).

But, it is John who gives us the understanding of the greatest power of the word when he quotes Jesus in John 5:24-25: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from life to death."

That is the ultimate power of words!

The little children may have been wrong in their chant ... words can hurt us. However, the good news is that words, the wonderfully inspired Words of the Bible can also give us life, in its fullest and everlasting.

That is the Good Word!

Larry Abele - Editorial Team