“Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.”
~ Jeremiah 45:5
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you have a Baruch in your life? Do you want to have a Baruch in your life? Do you know who a Baruch is? A Baruch can be a faithful friend. A Baruch can be a loyal secretary. A Baruch can be a true companion. A Baruch is a confidant. A Baruch goes where you go. A Baruch prays with and for you. How easy do you think that it is to have a Baruch in your lives? Are you a Baruch? A Baruch is a guy, gal or kid who wants to be mentored. A Baruch is a guy, gal or kid who readily accepts counsel. A Baruch is a guy, gal or kid who feels the pain that another guy, gal or kid is feeling. A Baruch will identify with guys, gals and kids who are on the life track that God has for them. A Baruch wants to serve instead of being served. A Baruch is not driven by personal ambitions. Jeremiah had a Baruch in his life. Baruch was Jeremiah’s personal secretary. Jeremiah scribed a short five verse note to Baruch. Jeremiah 45 is the note. Jeremiah wrote this note to his faithful secretary over 2608 years ago. At the time when Jeremiah scribed this short note to his loyal confidant, Jehoiakim for about four years had ruled as king over God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who were living in the land of Judah. Jeremiah’s personalized memorandum to Baruch chronologically fits a little earlier into the Jeremiah Book than where it is found. There is a sense that Baruch shared Jeremiah’s anguish about what was ahead for God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids because of their disdainful attitude towards God. Jeremiah wanted to assure Baruch that in spite of everything that was about to happen, that God had promised him that in the end that He would have him survive.
Your grandpaa has known several Baruchs. The guys who your grandpaa has known – who were like a Baruch to your grandpaa, spent time with your grandpaa. The guys who your grandpaa has known – who were like a Baruch to your grandpaa, wanted to be with your grandpaa. The guys who your grandpaa has known – who were like a Baruch to your grandpaa, traveled with your grandpaa. About a year or so after your grandpaa arrived in Bolivia with your grandmaa, dad and Aunt Lynn, your grandpaa was asked by James Davids – who was the Field Director for the Bolivian South America Mission field missionaries, to take on a minor allocation as one of his ministry responsibilities. The minor allocation that James Davids asked your grandpaa to do was to visit every six weeks or so a community called Chochís. When your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia with your dad and Aunt Lynn in 1978, your grandmaa and grandpaa were assigned to a church planting team. There were on this church planting team – besides the church planting team leader, three other guys, James Davids asked each of the four guys who were on the church planting team to take on minor allocations. For your grandpaa to get to Chochís, your grandpaa had to take a train. Chochís is located on the railroad line that goes from Santa Cruz, Bolivia through Chochís and on to the Brazilian boarder. Your grandpaa usually took a train called the ‘rápido’ to get to Chochís. It would take the ‘rápido’ at least eighteen hours to get from Santa Cruz to Chochís. Your grandpaa liked making the long, tiring train trip to Chochís. Your grandpaa would spend three to five days in Chochís each time that he went there. Each time that your grandpaa went to Chochís, your grandpaa would take another guy with him. Your grandpaa had different Bolivian guys – Jesús García, Bonifácio García, Aurelio Cabrera or Raúl Pedraza, go with him on different trips to Chochís. Jesús and Raúl became AIEO (Asociación de Iglesias El Oriente) Presidents. AIEO is the name of the association of churches that are affiliated with South American Mission (SAM). Every President of AIEO at least once each year visited all the rural churches that were members of AIEO. Your grandpaa went with Jesús and Raúl on several of these trips. These long trips – which involved flying at times into isolated rural Bolivian communities, would sometimes take over several weeks to complete. During their three terms that your grandmaa and grandpaa were in Bolivia, they administrated six times the seven weeks of summer team activities. Each summer that your grandmaa and grandpaa were the ones who were responsible for all the summer team activities, your grandpaa would have a host country church leader – like Raúl or Samuel Tosubé, travel with the summer team to do all the evangelistic preaching.
When your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Guatemala City in 1996 to begin their field assignments with Equipo SEPAL as OC International field team missionaries, Héctor Pivaral was already a host country missionary on the Equipo SEPAL field missionary team. Your grandpaa joined Héctor to answer the felt need of enabling rural guys and gals to be Christ-follower leaders in their communities and churches. When Héctor got it what your grandmaa and grandpaa had done at the rural resident training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia, Héctor was very willing and ready to design a similar Bible education training program that would fit contextually in the communities where the Guatemalan guys lived who would study in the program. Jesús, Bonifácio, Aurelio, Raúl, Samuel and Héctor were each a Baruch to your grandpaa. A message that your grandpaa always wanted to communicate to these guys through his life and that your grandpaa hopes that you will adapt to your lives is what verse 5 says, “Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’ ”” Being a Baruch would be a great goal for how to live your lives. A Baruch always values the life of another guy and gal more than his or her own life.
Jeremiah 45 (445)