I was on KODL’s Coffee break program yesterday morning, talking about my book on the Rajneesh.  Teresa recorded it – thank you, Teresa – and below is the link for the first part.

Now when I first checked it I got something else, tried it again and it went through.  Just in case you are interested.

https://youtu.be/sE5znDBZUXc

Teresa:  “That's the link for Part 1.  I can only load 15 minutes of video on YouTube, and that's the easiest way for me to share it, so it's in two parts.  I'll add link to the parts in the descriptions once both videos are loaded.”

Computer has been acting up the past couple of days – ‘think’ we got it taken care of, now; we shall see.

Been watching the news media’s broadcasting of all the problems in Portland.  Vehicle accidents all over.  School buses were also involved, couldn’t get through if they weren’t the ones in the accidents.

They didn’t get some kids home until almost midnight. 

It was a mess, emergency crews, tow trucks or any other vehicle that could take care of people, or their problems were locked into the mess, also. 

Reminds me of a story – some of you have heard it before.

It was my first or second year with the City.  The streets were in bad shape, but the city crews were doing all they could to get the major arteries – especially the hospital routes – clear off and sanded.

It was o-dark-thirty in the morning and the county roads were a mess.  They were having multiple accidents on one stretch of West 10^th Street – right at the Chenoweth bridge. 

The cars were trying to go past it, but the road was on a slight incline and the cars were going too slow and sliding down onto the shoulder.

Others would try and get through, but they too, would either slide or were at least able to stop – in the middle of the road.

The sarge sent me to go out and help the single deputy try and get things sorted out.  He was fit to be tied, he had called the Road Master for clearing and sand, he told him to call the county Judge.  He called the county Judge that refused to send anyone out on overtime, after all ‘at 6:00 that night the roads were fine.’

Someone had managed to call one of the tow companies.  The son of the owner came out in their brand new truck.  It had all the whistles and bells for the time.  You just had to have confidence in that truck and driver, it was ‘pretty.’

He pulled up and tried to get his customer off the shoulder – only – as he pulled the car – his truck started to slide down and he had to stop before he hit the other cars.

Now, we were in a real quandary.  A good driver could get through but we were done, we wouldn’t let anyone coming or going onto the bridge.

After a bit, along comes Pappy Jones.  Pappy was older.  He was driving a 1940’s something truck with a single tow bar out the back.

I watched him weave in and out of the traffic until he got all the way through and they parked it on the shoulder, got out and went to his customer.

The deputy knew him, I didn’t.  His business was located just outside the city limits and the policy of the city was not to use a business that was outside the city if there was a similar one inside the city.

I didn’t know Pappy.  But as he talked to the deputy and then started pulling the tow wire off his rig and slid across the street to his customer’s car, I thought, if that driver in that state of the art machine can’t do it, how is Pappy in that old wrecker going to do it.

Shows you how much I knew.  Pappy got his customer out and then at the request of the deputy started pulling other out.

The driver of the other tow truck came up to Pappy, and meekly said, ‘Pappy, can you help me out?’  And of course he did.

I wish I could have known him better, he had a great reputation, unfortunately he was killed in an accident at his storage yard before Jones Towing was annexed into the city.

But it was a good reminder, never judge a person so quickly, see what they can do first, especially if it is an ‘old codger,’ with a piece of antiquated equipment!

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Exodus 3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

Another person I would question the wisdom of using.

Moses, a shepherd leading God’s people out of Egypt? 

What was God thinking?

I mean he was a part of the Pharaoh’s family who, obviously, was not a friend of the Hebrews.

He was a killer, having killed an Egyptian.

At 40 years of age he was ran from Egypt and found himself at a well, married a young lady and tended his father-in-law’s sheep.

He stuttered so was poor at public speaking; how can you possibly lead a small group let alone millions if you can’t talk to them? 

He had given no indication of even wanting to be a leader, let alone be coming one.

Being a shepherd he probably had little interaction with other humans.

How in the world would he be able to lead millions of people, not only out of Egypt but to a land God had prepared for them?

Now as the Pharaoh’s family he had the best education and training, but he cast it all aside, to take care of SHEEP.

All that training and he was a leader of sheep!

I wouldn’t hire him to be in such a position, would you?

But God had been preparing him; every experience Moses went through was teaching him to lead these people out of Egypt.

One of the things shepherds have that most people don’t is a lot of time to think.  It would appear Moses may have taken that time to commune with God.

We sometimes look back on our failures or our inabilities and ask ourselves, how could God possibly use me after that?

But God knows preciously what He is doing.  Every experience we have had in our life is helping us work for God, today. 

And today’s experience will help us tomorrow.

God looks at our heart, if it is open to Him He can do many things through us.

We may not lead millions of people, but we may be the one person someone is going to listen to when we talk to them about Jesus.

Later, Art (-: