I went for a walk with the children this morning.

Steve and Elba are in Belem for a few days getting a bit of business done there...and celebrating three years of marriage!

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it,

when it is in your power to act.

Proverbs 3:27

• We can all give compliments. We can all encourage someone. So why don't we do this more often?
• I remember as a child when my father bought my mother a guitar. He doesn't play any musical instruments, but he always paid for us to take lessons. I remember some years later overhearing him tell someone that the music teacher said we had a "good" guitar. I remember thinking at the time how Dad felt good about this compliment. It was kind of unusual.
• Several years later when I was coming home from the Yukon for Christmas, I helped Dad load some bales of hay into the back of his pickup truck. It had a white corrugated steel bed, with about two inches of wet snow in it. While throwing the heavy bales around I slipped and twisted my ankle, ripping something. I hid the limp and never mentioned this because I really wanted Dad's approval. I wanted to be considered a hard worker, and not a whiner. A lot of people around us are trying to hard to do the right thing and we don't really notice.
• Just now a ministry team got back from a seven day river trip, I heard that one of the visitting pastors told Ross, in essence, "You did a great job as a worship leader." I thought, "I don't think I have ever told Ross I thought he did a good job as a worship leader." 
• There is a lot of people around us trying very hard to do a good job. The Bible exhorts us to be encouragers. We need to be continually encouraging our children. They will hear a lot of messages in a day, and in a year, and if we don't encourage them, who will? But it is more than our families. Look around and see how many people you can encourage today. It might be someone who appears totally confidant and self-sufficient.

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it,

when it is in your power to act.

Proverbs 3:27

On the last day of a great outreach trip we took the Cleveland / Toledo team to the waterfalls behind the airport. These falls are hidden deep in the jungle. You drive for about an hour, then hike for about an hour to get here.

Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and bring glory to your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come

and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

This is my second test blog for the Writer program by Windows Live.

This looks like it will really help me to be a better blogger.

End. 

This was the young pet of the caretakers of the place we stayed at a few weeks ago.