A story about my life as a missionary in Thailand.
Depricated [sic]
I decided to switch to photoblogging, but I didn’t want to abandon these articles I’ve been writing over the past three years, so I’ve preserved them here. Please note, however, that these pages are now static, and I won’t be updating them very often. If I ever do start blogging again, I will probably include these articles in the new blog, but that’s getting the cart ahead of the horse. For now, you can keep up with me by following my photos of life on the mission field.
~Jonathan
February 13th, 2008
My pickup truck is a major blessing. Before I got this vehicle I had to carpool to work and hitch rides to church. But God answered my prayers and gave me a vehicle. I’ve never liked having to rely on someone else to get me places on time. Nowadays, having your own ride is almost a necessity.
Understandably, my vehicle has become a critical support to my daily life. With everyone going in different directions at different times, there’s no way I could go back to thumbing it. So when my truck began idling rough and using a lot of gas, I knew God was going to have to intervene.
The “Check Engine” light came on months ago. More than a year ago, actually. I knew what was wrong; I didn’t need a diagnostic to tell me. An Oxygen sensor had gone bad. But I also knew that meant leaving my truck in the shop for a few days while they repair it. The cost of the repairs wasn’t the problem; it was being without my ride.
About two weeks ago I finally decided enough was enough; it was time to fix the truck. I saved up what I thought would be plenty of money to pay for the repairs, and last Thursday I went to the dealer to get them to replace all the Oxygen sensors (I figured if one was bad, they’d all eventually go, so I might as well replace them now.)
A technician happened to be standing nearby and overheard my conversation with the salesman. He was in doubt that my problem was a faulty Oxygen sensor, and he talked me into that diagnostic. Only one problem: I’ll have to leave my truck with them for two days, just to run the diagnostic. Then we can talk repairs.
I needed an answer from God about what to do. I prayed for wisdom, and I turned the whole matter over to the Lord. The next day I felt impressed to go to another dealer. They were able to run the diagnostic immediately! Thank God I was led by the Spirit; that saved me one whole session of being without my truck. But then they showed me the result of the diagnostic.
I did in fact need a new Oxygen sensor, and some other sensor, plus some kind of valve. And they also wanted to do a fuel injection cleaning. These four things, including parts and labor, came out to more than six hundred dollars. Oh yeah, and they would need to keep my vehicle for a couple days to perform the repairs. I told them I’d get back with them.
Leaving the dealership, wondering how all this would turn out, I felt in my spirit that I should go to the auto parts store. At first I didn’t recognize it as a leading; I thought it was just me wanting to hang out at the parts shop. But after a few miles of driving, the leading became more persistent and I realized it was God talking to me. I said out loud, “Oh! That’s You, isn’t it!
”
I drove straight to the Auto Zone on Ellis Avenue. That’s the store I had in my heart. The salesman pulled up the parts I needed on the computer, and they were all in stock. Combined, the parts were going to cost me about one hundred fifty dollars. I didn’t have time to do the repairs this weekend, so I asked him to print out the parts list for me and I’d be back next Saturday.
On the way to the house, I had a feeling in my spirit to go to another parts store. I stopped by the O’Reilly’s in Byram to see my friend, Jerry, who works there. I told one of the other guys my story, and that I wasn’t all too excited about crawling around in the dirt replacing Oxygen sensors. Then he pointed to the fellow beside me and said, “He’s the one you need to talk to about that. He’ll get you fixed up.
” It was Shannon from Richard’s Front End.
Shannon told me to bring the truck over to his shop so he could plug the computer into it and see what was the problem. His computer said there was only one bad sensor, and it wasn’t an Oxygen sensor. He showed me where it was located under the hood, and then said he wouldn’t replace it for me because his ten-year-old daughter could do it. It was a matter of removing two screws and unplugging the electrical connection and air hoses to change it out. He also showed me a valve on the intake manifold I should clean out with carburetor cleaner.
So I went back to O’Reilly’s to get the sensor I needed and a bottle of carburetor cleaner and a bottle of fuel injector cleaner (which I later discovered wasn’t even necessary.) All total, I spent about sixty six dollars on parts and supplies, and about twenty minutes making the repairs: ten minutes actually working, and another ten laughing back and forth with my dad about the whole situation!
I could testify about how much money God saved me (around six hundred dollars), and I could testify about how much time God saved me (nearly a work week without my truck), but the real testimony is how Holy Spirit led me. I would never have thought this is how it would turn out; I was going to replace three sensors which didn’t need replacing, and I’d still have a malfunctioning vehicle. Thank God, He knows everything, even how to fix a truck!
~Jonathan
September 30th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (3)
Just suppose.
The other day a young man died in a car wreck as he left church. He hadn’t expected to meet the Father that day, but he lived every day as though he might. Mark served in his local church. Returned the tithe of all he made. He even volunteered at the soup kitchen and supported a child in China. You could definitely say this man was a model Christian.
His death was so unexpected, but the mourners had no idea the joy he was experiencing that very moment! Passing through the gates of pearl, Mark erupted in jubilant praise, taken by the full spectrum of God’s presence. He’d never felt God like this before! Christ walked up to him, smiling, and asked Mark if he’d like to go for a walk.
Oh the beauty! The colors, the smells … all of Mark’s senses were piqued with the splendor of Heaven. Nothing on Earth could compare. As they meandered down a winding sidewalk through a quiet neighborhood, Mark told Jesus that Heaven was more than he ever expected it to be.
What a lovely cottage.
Passing by a particular house, Mark stopped and took notice. He praised the detail, the construction, the style, even the yard decorations. It was the most beautiful home he’d ever seen! “Like it?
” questioned the Lord.
“Like it?!
Mark exclaimed. “I love it! It’s perfect!
”
“Good,
” Jesus replied, “Because it’s yours.
”
Mark was ecstatic! To think, this was his house for the rest of eternity! Wow! He rushed inside, flinging open the door (which quietly came to rest against the stopper), and he gasped at the wonders to behold. There were artifacts in his new home for which there are no words. And the most amazing array of flowers lived on the left wall in the foyer. He was utterly speechless. Christ strolled in behind him, and told Mark to enjoy himself. Then He disappeared.
Back at the wreck.
The driver of the other car also died, before the ambulance driver even made it to the hospital. Her name was Latoya. Latoya was also a model Christian, singing in the choir on Sundays, and teaching in children’s church. She was always giving her time to help others. Her life echoed the heart of the Father: “Souls.
” She served people with as much vigor and passion as any person could.
Her entrance into Heaven was glorious. She sang with the angels in chorus, “How great Thou art.
” Her eyes tightly shut, tears gushing down her face as she sang, she didn’t noticed Jesus walk up. And He didn’t want to disturb her; He was enjoying her singing too much! She finally did notice her audience, and was startled at His beauty.
“Lord!
” she exclaimed, “You’re more beautiful that I ever imagined!
”
Jesus smiled, and said, “You’re as beautiful as the day I made you. Would you care to go for a walk?
”
“Of course! Anything to be with You.
”
An afternoon stroll.
Arm-in-arm with the Lord, Latoya had never felt more at peace. The beauty around her was awesome, but it was the presence of Jesus she treasured most. A Mockingbird flying above sang a tune as they walked. Toya had always dremt of what she’d ask God when she got to meet Him, but in this moment all those questions faded into the distance. All she wanted to do was look at Him.
Jesus stopped in front of a particular house, and Latoya gasped, bringing her hand in front of her mouth.
“Latoya,
” Jesus said to her, looking into her eyes, “This is your home.
”
“It’s beautiful!
” she cried. “It’s more beautiful than any house I’ve ever seen!
”
They walked toward the house together, still arm-in-arm, through the wrought iron gateway entwined with yellow and white Honey Suckle in full bloom, past the front courtyard where the smells of Lavender and Sage and Rosemary filled the air, and through an arched doorway that looked like it could have been taken from a fairy tale. Inside, Latoya began to cry, awe-struck by how wonderful her new house was.
A far-fetched reaction.
Mark was making himself well at-home. He walked upstairs to admire the view from the dormer windows which faced the street, and he opened them to let the cool breeze blow in. And that’s when he noticed “her.” Watching Latoya walk into her new home directly across the street from his, Mark said to himself, “Uh oh. They are moving in. *sigh* There goes the neighborhood. And to think, this was the perfect house. I guess I need to ask Jesus if I can move.
”
Do you think this is going to happen in Heaven? Will there be racism there? It’s absurd! It’s laughable. No one would imagine such a ridiculous scenario would actually happen. But what about here? Why is it okay here, but not there? This is a Double Standard, applying one set of morals or values to one group, and a completely different set of morals or values to another group. It’s also known as hypocrisy.
We have to quit fooling ourselves into believing it’s justifiable or acceptable or even right to dislike an entire group of people based solely on complexion. We have to end the hatred, because it’s only skin-deep. And you know what? God made our skin all the colors of the rainbow on purpose. Because He likes it that way.
~Jonathan
Related Entries
- Attaining a Peaceful Coexistence
- I Have a Dream
September 20th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (2)
Note:
I wish I hadn’t changed it. I tried making some modifications to my database, and down she went. For a month. I finally decided to delete everything and start from scratch. So, if you notice anything missing that used to be here, drop me a line. And, sorry for the extended leave.
-Jon
Prayer meetings at the church have been increasingly fun. There’s nothing like spending time with God, but lately it seems we’re making headway toward something. Monday night was especially successful, and I came out of there a changed person. I’m not trying to belittle corporate prayer to the likes of a fast-food joint; it’s just that being in God’s presence—with a sole intent to pray out some things—garners personal change as well. And this night was no exception.
Three different people had an inspired word for the group Monday night, and I was thrilled to be one of them. I’ve always loved being used by God in speaking. I don’t know what it is about the vocal gifts that so intrigues me, but I have a longing for inspired utterance more than any other spiritual gift. And I suppose that’s scriptural; Paul told the Corinthians: “…Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
” (I Corinthians 14:1 WEB)
The neat thing is that all three of us spoke what God had put in our hearts at an earlier part of the meeting, yet everything said flowed together as if it were being said by the same person. There’s lots of scripture I could put here to back this up, but no one likes drudging through all that to get to the meat of the story. :o) So, moving on…
What I had was something that fell into my heart toward the beginning of the service about the totality of true servanthood, something I’d never seen before, and something I thought was just for me. But at the end of the service I felt the gentle nudge of the Spirit to share it with the group; it just seemed right to do so. I knew that when I spoke to them what I had written down, other words would flow. So, after waiting for the right place in the service (you don’t just start blurting out when you have something to say; that’s rude), I asked if I could share what I had on my heart.
Continue Reading This Story
August 12th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (0)
What’s a confession? I’m not talking about a Catholic sitting down with his priest and telling him all he’s done wrong. Confession is anything we say with our mouth, right? Well, what God has been telling me lately has me rethinking this. And, honestly, for a long time I’ve known in part what He’s saying; I just didn’t admit it, or maybe I overlooked this aspect of it. The question God asked me is, what’s your blog saying for you?
Continue Reading This Story
August 4th, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (7)
I was just curious how many images Google had on index for my site. A simple query is all it takes. site:jonlandrum.com on Google image search. But that query returned an alarming result:
My search returned no results. What had I done? When did this start? Well, I thought I had noticed a sharp decline in visitors, and my stats showed the very moment it happened. It was an .htaccess rule I added, which was intended to thwart bandwidth stealing. There was a large number of sites hotlinking various images on my site, so I thought I’d put an end to that with this rule:
# Pwning image scrapers
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?google\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?jonlandrum\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?live\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?stumbleupon\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?yahoo\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
<FilesMatch "\.(bmp|gif|ico|jpe?g|png)">
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from env=ok
</FilesMatch>
This works to only allow image referrals from five sites: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, StumbleUpon, and my own. And it worked beautifully. Except for one thing: Even though the search engines are allowed to display the images with this .htaccess rule, they are not allowed to visit the images directly. Notice that the rule gives no occasion for browsing to the file sans referrer. Visiting the images directly is how the search engines spider them. Without that ability—in this case because they were forbidden—the images on the search results will with time simply go away. It was rather easy to fix, but I definitely had a Homer Simpson moment. Add one line to the beginning of the rule and you have it made:
# Pwning image scrapers
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^$" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?google\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?jonlandrum\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?live\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?stumbleupon\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://(.*\.)?yahoo\.com/?(.*)?" ok=1
<FilesMatch "\.(bmp|gif|ico|jpe?g|png)">
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from env=ok
</FilesMatch>
We will now return you to your normal traffic.
~Jonathan
July 31st, 2007 · Permalink · Back to Top · Comments (0)
Burn this feed.
