Confessions of a Blog Writer; Episode 1

Excuses, Calling, and Saying Yes to God

Excuses, Calling, and Saying Yes to God

I was recently asked to participate in writing a monthly Blog for EKB.World. In truth, I was asked many months ago to contribute but writing is not a skill I have much confidence in. Lately I’ve procrastinated and found every excuse not to write. I don’t have time, I’m tired, I’m supposed to be retired, I can’t figure out the new technology, and on and on I go, so many excuses.

When I find myself lost in excuses that are keeping me from what I know the Lord wants me to do, I need to go directly to the source, the Word. In the Bible, Luke 14 - 24, in the parable of the great banquet, the Lord Jesus warns about making excuses. In verse 24, thenLord says, “I tell you, not one of those who were invited (who gave excuses) will taste of my banquet. So here I am Lord. Forgive my procrastination. Put Your Words in my mouth and on this page.

Journey Into Missions

My name is Janice Porter. I grew up in a Christian family. My father had been a pianist and organist for our church all my life. My husband, Jon Porter and I have been married for 40 years, we have six children, 19 grandchildren and now 2 great grandchildren. We were a blended family of his, hers, and ours. Both of us had experienced divorce, which we thought disqualified us from any extensive ministry but we did attend church regularly and contributed where we could. Our journey into missionary work began when we started reading and studying the Bible with the help of small groups. It was during this time that my husband experienced his first heart attack. During recovery, over a period of six months he began walking for exercise and listening to the Bible audibly. He went through the old and new testament fully several times, focusing particularly on the New Testament. It was during this time that he started having dreams and visions of teaching kids Christian music using ukulele. Jon shared this vision with our home fellowship group who prayed with us. The group had a friend serving as a missionary in Malawi Africa who would be returning to give her testimony and invited us to hear her presentation. It was exciting to both of us, and Jon wanted to go to Malawi Africa to start a ukulele outreach ministry there. I was still not feeling a prompting from the Lord concerning this and said, “let's pray about it.” Lord please open this door to Malawi or close it. Make it very clear if this is where you want us to go, and then the Lord shut that door. After that, Jon continued to have the dreams and visions for Christian ukulele outreach but was not sure where in the world this would happen.

A few months later, Jon and I were taking a driving vacation from our home in Medford, Oregon to Sandpoint, Idaho where we had previously lived for 14 years. We had three daughters and their families all living there. We were listening to the Bible as we were driving over the Cascade Range near the summit close to Crater Lake, when the Lord clearly spoke to me, not audibly, but to my spirit. The Lord was saying that a door was going to open on this trip and that we were to walk through it. The Lord said this three times to my spirit. I turned to my husband and told him what the Lord had spoken to me. We were anxious to understand the message but the answer did not come until the last night before our return. I told Jon that I was a little disappointed that the Lord hadn’t opened the door but the Lord wasn’t finished. That night Jon started having severe chest pain and I took him to the hospital emergency department. Jon had another heart attack requiring a quadruple bypass surgery.

While in the hospital, the day before surgery, a dear friend, Dr. Mike Durnin visited us. Unbeknowest to us, Mike and his wife Deb had recently made a trip to the Philippines and Mike wanted to share his experiences with me over dinner. He shared pictures and videos of their trip and wonderful plans for building a home and ministry center on Tablas Island in the Philippines. He said that he was looking for someone who could oversee their building projects while he focused on selling his dental practice in preparation for retirement. The Lord said to me, “This is the door, walk through it.” I explained to Mike the messages that Jon and I had been getting from the Lord and this was a door opening that He wanted us to walk through. He said, “really”? I said, “YES”, with no procrastination and no excuses. I told Mike, there is one other thing. Jon has been called to do missions work. Jon keeps having this recurring dream/vision of teaching young people to play the ukulele with Christian music and prayer.

Mike and I talked, made plans and then went to Jon’s hospital room to share. We could hardly get into the room because everyone was gathered around Jon. Despite his condition he joyfully played “How Great thou Art” on his ukulele. Mike simply said, “I GET IT!” I leaned over the bed and told Jon that in six months we’d go to the Philippines with Mike and Deb to start his ukulele ministry and he excitedly agreed to.

Jon’s recovery wasn't easy and I forgot to mention that he also had bladder and prostate issues. At the time he left for the Philippines, Jon was still very weak from bypass surgery and was self catheterising twice a day because of urine retention. Jon packed one suitcase with clothes and literally the other large roller bag with boxes of catheters. Many in the world might have thought we were crazy but at this point, the message from the Lord was so clear to both of us that this was what He wanted us to do.

So the ukulele outreach ministry begins at the Lord’s leading. Stay tuned for the next episode.

• Jan Porter