Freshly Squeezed Orange juice with Grandpa!! Part 2

Meet My Grandfather, Wilbert E. Little! This is a photo of my Grandpa Little!! Grandpa served in the Navy before he answered God's call to serve in Medical missions. Sadly, when I was just 6 yrs. old, on August 28th, 1985, my Grandpa Little died of a massive heart attack! Grandpa??? I really wish you were still here with me, but I know that you are in a much better place! Freshly Squeezed and overflowing with yummy orange juice, my Grandpa was a beautiful, California orange. Lord, thank you for giving me a Grandpa like that!! In freshly squeezed orange juice part 2, we will look at the missions call through my grandpa's eyes. In so doing, we will see and hear what Jennifer heard at 19 that opened up her heart through the Holy Spirit to listen to God's call. In part three, we will hear how God first called Jennifer to go serve in missions and how Jennifer responded. Just to warn you, you might want to wear your rain boots and put on a rain slicker for we are going to dance in the rain to the tune of God's voice in part 3. For now, I would like to talk to my Grandpa and I invite you to hear the words!

Grandpa?? I miss you!! Also Grandpa, there have been sooo many questions over the years that I've wanted to ask you, and so many things I've wanted to tell you!! For instance, Grandpa?? Did you know that pistachios are still my favorite! Do you remember eating those in front of me when I came over to play at your house?? Remember how you asked me if I wanted to try them when I asked you what in the world they were?? I remember! Even though I was scared off a bit by the icky yucky coloring, my apprehension was no match for your persuasion! Remember how you told me that I simply had to try at least one because otherwise I might miss out on something great? Well, I sat up on your knee and tried it! Behold, Jennifer had just eaten the best thing she would ever eat; pistachios are to this day my favorite food! Yes, Grandpa, even then you were teaching me how to take chances for something worth while. Moreover, I know that you knew how much it's worth it all to get out of our boats for God's call and will. Remember how you would turn down the radio in your car and ask me to sing all the songs I'd learned in church?? Thank you Grandpa! Thanks ever so much for wanting to hear me sing! Did you know, Grandpa, that I love to sing those same songs today?? "He's the great shepherd, the rock of all ages and almighty God is He" and remember singing, "This is the day, this is the day that the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made...and I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it..." Those songs flood my mind along with many others and I love singing them to our Saviour! Did you know that I still remember dancing with you?? I remember!! Remember the wedding our family went to when I was 5 and my sister Christy was the little flower girl?? Remember how everyone was dancing at the reception and I was sitting at the table without a partner?? Remember Grandpa?? Do you remember taking the time to ask me to dance with you?? I find it so amusing and tragic at the same time when Nazarenes and other denominations make fun of the fact that the special rules section of the Nazarene Manual suggests that Nazarenes not dance! Truly, the idea of suggesting that Christians stay away from dancing halls and environments that do not please the Lord is totally wise! Yes, the intent of the special rules was not legalistic at all, but rather very much a measure of grace to the Church! Well, I get it Grandpa and I know that you did too! I know you got it because you understood that dancing wasn't bad, but rather the dancing that dishonors the Lord is not good! Thank you Grandpa!! Thank you for the dance! Thank you for knowing that it was special indeed to ask your little Granddaughter to dance that night; a night I'll never forget! Below is a photo of Grandpa and me dancing and I have no doubt that we'll dance together once again in heaven.

As well Grandpa, your book, Scalpel Please, answered some important questions for me!! In so many ways you answered for me how God's love is displayed through the lives and testimony of our missionaries. Moreover, your testimony about our missionaries showed me so much about the call that all Christians have to act as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. No, as you explain in the book, we are not all missionaries, called and sent to take the gospel to the ends of the earth! However, a resounding yes, to the fact that the sacrifice most missionaries make ought to move us all to act with more joy and more spring in our steps in our own families and neighborhoods. Yes, the call about which you have written, Grandpa, the call that beckons some to literally go to lands unknown, cultures strange and new, to conditions that test the soul's strength and demand complete reliance on the master, ought to beg the question in all of us: Are we sold out for the sake of His Love for this world? Are you?? Are we aware of the rich blessings we have in Christ and excited to share them  through faith-sharing locally and giving to the global faith-sharing effort?? Are we?? Are you?? Perhaps God's love has grown cold in some of you? Perhaps we have forgotten how great it was what our Saviour has done upon that cross?? Perhaps those serving today in lands far away might inspire you to remember that the love is great...!! The Love is so great in fact, that humankind will leave all family and all comfort behind to follow God's call to the ends of earth so that others will know of His great love!! My Grandpa used to well up with tears every time, "And Can it Be?" was played in Church!! Do you know why I think Grandpa lost it during that hymn?? Grandpa Little knew something that Christians tend to forget, something so special that when we are reminded of it, we are just brought to our knees: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"!! Furthermore, without His great, Amazing Love, the Love that sought us first, we would be goners for sure..!!  Yet, because He lives and conquered death, my chains are gone..!! Was my Grandpa perfect?? No!! Yet Grandpa grasped the fact that Christ was perfect and that Christ wanted Grandpa and you and me anyways! Praise His name!!  My heart, though once in sin's chains, is actually free to Love, Free to Give, and Free to tell others of the grace that amazes and confounds the world into submission. Friends, if ever the love of God has lost a bit of the Marvelous, indescribable quality for you..or perhaps the word, "amazing" fell off of the Love of God for you, then play this Hymn pictured below! Yes, meditate on its words and ask God to revive some of Love's 5 dimensional fire in your spirit..!! Pray for the Holy Spirit to ignite Love's full truth and Amazing reality to your heart! Still not feeling it perhaps?? Then, I beseech you to pray longer and with more fervor till God's amazing love and redemption touches your heart to action. Then, go Tell the World the greatest Story ever told: He lives and He saves and Because He lives, we are no longer in chains for our hearts can be set free. As you listen to this Hymn, bask in God's glorious, amazing, freeing, Love...!!

Well,  I love you, Grandpa!! I'm so glad God's love moved you to go serve His kingdom...!! I'm so glad that God made a genuine orange out of you and I know that I'll be seeing ya...for sure and for certain...!!! Yes, because of Jesus..I know I'll see you again! Even though I'm brought right to tears while writing this because I still miss you, and even though I'd love to just be able to climb up into your lap and tell you so many things or ask you so many questions, I trust that because of God, our connection will be an eternal one!

Truly, I know that I've mentioned before that Grandpa served as a Nazarene in Volunteer Service in Swaziland, Africa! However, that fact still moves me and I'm just so thankful that Grandpa said, "Yes"!! Thank you Grandpa for answering the call to serve, no matter the cost..!! Not only was going to serve during the time Grandpa did a very inconvenient time, but it was costly and risky! Yet, when Grandpa Little was asked why he went he responded with "I simply couldn't say no! The Holy Spirit called me to go and I had to say, yes!" I wonder sometimes if the Holy Spirit nudged us today, even now, would we hear Him?? Well, that's a topic we'll discuss many blogs from now...!! As for Grandpa, he did hear and he did say, "Here I am Lord, I'm listening!"  I thank you, Grandpa, for writing down your journey so that years later your granddaughter, Jennifer, would have the chance to read and listen to God's call on her life, the call to follow God to the ends of the earth...!! To the readers, I want you to understand that we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us and a heavenly host of angels cheering us all to answer God's call in our lives! Are you listening?? Well, obviously, when I read Grandpa's book, the words really aided me in hearing God's voice to go serve in Cross-cultural ministry! Funny, but when I found his book, I really felt connected to him.  There I was, 19 yrs old, 13 yrs. after he died, and I was really missing him, and finding myself more connected to him than ever before..connected in Christ! In fact, I had only a few memories of my Grandpa, and even those few memories were mixed with stories about him that others had told me. Sadly, I really lacked a whole lot of connection with him. Well, I had little connection with him until that night!

So, the good looking doctor in the picture is my Grandpa Little, and this doctor has something to say to all of us about God's call to serve! Here are some of my Grandfather's words that spoke to me so long ago! First of all, it's important to know the setting of my Grandpa's words that we will read together! My Grandfather had been attending a layman's retreat in Los Angeles in 1961, when God began to speak to him personally! Grandpa writes,



As impeccable as they are mysterious are the ways of the Lord. I saw this in the manner in which He molded the Retreat, placed me in it, and presented to me a man, a message, and a call.  I began to squirm a little as I heard of the pressing need for the relief of our greatly understaffed missionary doctors in Swaziland. A soft voice began to call; I tried to drown it out. "I'm too busy in my own work. Think of how much good I'm doing right here in Los Angeles. My family needs me, and ..."  But the Holy Spirit gently prodded me and spoke a little louder. This time it was to remind me of an altar of prayer where I had knelt years ago, where the Lord, through His sanctifying power, had given me peace that truly passes understanding. There I had made many promises, but the one of which I was now reminded was the promise that my life was completely God's and His will my command. During seconds that seemed to fill an eternity I thought with shame of our reluctance to take God's hand and let Him lead us. We would put our lives in the hands of a skilled human guide, or even in the instinct of a trained animal, and yet we are hesitant to trust the Creator of all things, the One who will never fail us, the Father who would not allow harm to fall His children any more than we would have harm come to ours, the Master who knows the way because He makes the way.  God grant us the courage to follow in His way without reservation, the wisdom to see the folly of selfish ambition, and the eagerness to get a glimpse of His great love for us.  I hushed my argument and listened. When the Holy Spirit called again, this time I answered ( Scalpel Please, p. 11-12).

Moments later, I would read the following Scripture found in Romans 8:28,

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."


Yes, Grandpa, I was soon to learn the truth of that Scripture as well. The truth is that no matter the tragedy, God's good!! Yes, you can trust no thing but God and His plans..!! Yes, you can count on nothing in this life, but that God's eternal awaits you and is willing to pick you up out of the temporal muck to usher you into the eternal peace of His plan. God has a purpose and will make every dark shadow a beautiful rainbow of new promise and every dark moment a brighter, better, blessing, pressed down and shaken in His hands. Incidentally, Grandpa recalled that Scripture as "precious" to him right after he had returned from Africa, and after he had to bury his son, Gary! Grandpa recalled rejoicing with the hymn, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" and specifically, the verse, "The things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace"!! Finally, Grandpa remembers the plan of God with such a warm glow as he concluded his book, "His loving arms have continually encircled us and, when we walked down through the valley seemed to physically be around us. Finally, we are persuaded along with Paul "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). 


So, tonight or whenever...If you hear His voice..do not harden your hearts....No matter the cost...would you entrust your life into his hands and enter into His rest...You who are weary and heavy laden...His burden is light...!!

Well, I began to squirm myself as I finished Grandpa's book. Furthermore, I began to read portions of Fairy Chism's book and bits about my great grandfather's influence upon her life. Finally, my eyes read the words of Roger Udorian's unfinished poem about God's call and that's where we will end this blog...and we will be ready to jump into missions in part three! May we all say to the Lord, as my Grandfather and many others have said, "Here I am, Lord! Send me!!