“According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 drachmas of gold, 5,000 minas of silver and 100 priestly garments.”
~ Ezra 2:69
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever spent a night away from home? Are you glad when you get back to home when you have been away from home? Do you miss home when you are not at home? What is home to you? Home may be where you live. Home may be where you grew up and where your ma and dad still live. Home may be the country where you grew up and where you still have family. Do you know where your grandmaa was born and where your grandmaa grew up as a kid like you? Your grandmaa was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Your grandmaa’s dad died before your grandmaa and grandpaa were married. Your grandmaa’s ma died when your dad was six years old. Your dad was born in the same hospital where your grandmaa was born. Your grandmaa will always call Delaware home. Do you know where your grandpaa was born and where your grandpaa grew up as a kid like you? Your grandpaa was born in Volga, South Dakota. Your grandpaa’s ma and dad still live in South Dakota. Your Aunt Lynn was born in South Dakota. Your grandpaa will always call Volga home. After your grandmaa and grandpaa were married, your grandmaa and grandpaa lived for four years in Delaware. Your grandmaa and grandpaa first lived for a year in an apartment in Kynlyn Woods. Your grandmaa and grandpaa then lived for a year in an apartment in Clifton Park. Your grandmaa and grandpaa then bought a house in Claymont where they lived for two years. Since your grandmaa and grandpaa have been married, your grandmaa and grandpaa have called many places home. Going every Sunday to church is something that your grandmaa and grandpaa think that every married guy and gal should do. A church is to be home for every guy, gal and kid who has made a decision of faith to believe in Jesus Christ.
Do you know where your grandmaa and grandpaa met? Your grandmaa and grandpaa met at Dordt College. Dordt College is located in Sioux Center, Iowa. Your grandmaa and grandpaa dated during your grandmaa’s first year at Dordt College and your grandpaa’s second year at Dordt College. After his second year at Dordt College, your grandpaa spent about six months in Minneapolis to find out if he could make it on his own. Your grandpaa then traveled to Delaware to live – so that he could be close to the beautiful young gal who he wanted to marry. After being married for about four years, your grandmaa and grandpaa moved to Agawam, Massachusetts. Your grandpaa had been asked by the loan company that he was working for at the time to manage their Liberty Loan office that is in Springfield, Massachusetts. After about a year living in Agawan, your grandmaa and grandpaa decided that they wanted to relocate to South Dakota. After living for about two years in Sioux Falls, your grandpaa was asked by the loan company that he was working for to manage the Beneficial Finance office in Aberdeen. Your grandmaa and grandpaa lived for two years in Aberdeen. Aberdeen Christian and Missionary Alliance Church is where God called your grandmaa and grandpaa to be missionaries. Before your grandmaa and grandpaa left the United States – with your dad and Aunt Lynn, your grandpaa studied for three years at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Your grandmaa and grandpaa then spent about nine months in Edinburg, Texas – at the Rio Grande Language School, trying to learn to speak Spanish. Your grandmaa and grandpaa then spent twelve years as missionaries in Bolivia, South America. During the twelve years that they were missionaries in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa spent one furlough year in Volga – where your dad graduated from high school, and one furlough year in Delaware. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were then asked by South America Mission to work at their Lake Worth, Florida office. Your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Florida for nine months. Your grandmaa and grandpaa then lived for two and a half years in Guelph, Ontario where your grandpaa was the Executive Director of the South American Mission Canadian office. Your grandmaa and grandpaa over the last six years have lived most of their time in Guatemala.
Do you know where home was for God’s specially chosen guys and gals? Home for God’s specially chosen guys and gals was the Promised Land. This land was called Canaan. Do you know what happened 597 years before Jesus was born? Because God’s specially chosen guys and gals just would not be obedient to God’s laws, God had the Babylonian army take some of His specially chosen guys and gals to Babylonia as captive slaves. Babylonia is today the country of Iraq. Before God had the Babylonians enter the Promised Land to ravage it, God promised His specially chosen guys and gals through His prophets that they would return in seventy years to the land that He had promised them that they would always have to live in as their very own land. Ezra 2 says that 42,360 guys were able to go back to the land that God had given to them. The guys had spent seventy years in the Kebar River region of Babylonia. The guys took with them their families and servants back to the towns and homes where they had once lived. The guys used horses, donkeys, mules and camels to carry their possessions back to the Promised Land and to their former family homes. This Ezra chapter lists the family names and the number of guys in each family. This Ezra chapter also tells you other things such as how much money that the returning guys gave for the rebuilding of God’s home on planet Earth – which was the temple in Jerusalem, which the Babylonian army had razed. Verse 69 says “According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 drachmas of gold, 5,000 minas of silver and 100 priestly garments.” Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that their home will always be where they sense God having led them to live and to serve Him as His servants. Where do you want to have your home to be?
Ezra 2 (110)