By the Light of the Lamp
By the Light of the Lamp March 2005 JOY, JOY, JOY We love taking care of people! This has been evident since the early days of our marriage. Some people are famous for bringing home stray dogs and cats. In our case, Dan quickly became known for bringing home stray people. As an airline employee, he frequently walked into the house after work with a stranded traveler in tow. One evening he appeared with a family of four. We quickly made up beds in our camper trailer and helped them get settled until they were able to make arrangements to leave town a few days later. When Dan completed his career with Northwest Airlines in Grand Forks, North Dakota, his fellow employees thoughtfully honored him with a certificate for his “Instant Hotel-Motel Service.”
In our previous role as Mission Coordinator for the Guatemala field, we had many opportunities to satisfy our need for taking care of people. We made arrangements for Lutheran Bible Translator’s Crossroads groups and other work project groups. We provided a home-away-from-home for a single missionary as she became familiar with her new role. We welcomed Spanish students from around the world into our home. And we loved every minute of it! When we returned to Guatemala last summer, we returned to a new capacity. As Vernacular Media Specialists, assigned to help the Guatemala Scripture Use teams provide God’s Word in an audio form, we still serve God and his people, just in a different way. However, with our change in responsibilities, there have been fewer opportunities for us to help people with simple day-to-day problems. And we have missed that very much. For the past few days, a Lutheran mission group had a retreat here at the Lutheran Center in Antigua for their missionaries in Latin America. Once again we found an opportunity to serve people by taking care of them. We opened up our office and made a computer with internet connection available to the participants. We made an extra laptop computer available for use by one of the leaders whose own laptop was stolen from a hotel room. We ran errands to get copies made jewelry repaired. Dan’s calmness and experience in crisis kicked into high gear. As the group left this morning, one woman complimented us by saying that we exemplified the gift of hospitality. She said that their group had seen the joy we experience in serving others. It was then that we realized that while opportunities to serve have changed focus with our new assignment, nothing can take away the desire to serve and the joy in the servant’s heart. For this we thank God! God Bless! Dan and Kay “For the Joy of the Lord is my strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 REMEMBER: Several years ago we became aware that some of our faithful donors occasionally forget to write Finely Ministry or Finely/Guatemala on the memo line of their check. if the check is placed in a regular envelope or a donor envelope that accompanies and LB. general mailing, the women in the Gift Records department do not know that the gift is intended to support our ministry, so it is placed in the LB. General Fun and used for general mission expenses. Recently we encountered a similar mix-up. You can do two things to help us avoid this situation: 1) Please remember to indicate that the fight is for the support of our ministry either by writing Finely Ministry on the check memo line or by attaching a note to the check. 2) We send a personal thank you letter to each donor for every gift to the Finley Ministry. If you do not receive a personal letter from us thanking you for your fight the month after you send it to LB., please contact LB. to verify that the gift was received and designated to the Finely Ministry. It is important to LB. and to us to be good stewards of your gifts. However, if it is not credited to our ministry, it will not be available for use in our projects. FACT: In 2004 we received 756 gifts from 185 different people. We want to express our sincere gratitude to each one of you. Without your prayers and financial gifts we could not be here. Together we can make a difference in the lives of the people of Guatemala. God bless you! Contributions: Lutheran Bible Translators P.O. Box 2050 Aurora, IL 60507-2050 Designate: Finley/Guatemala Correspondence: Dan and Kay Finley Apartado Postal 408 Antigua, Guatemala 03001 Telephone: 011-502-7-832-5200 E-mail: dkfinley@conexion.com.gt (Dan) kfinley@conexion.com.gt (Kay)