INSPIRATION

We all need it. Inspiration. When life seems too difficult to go on what we often need is a good dose of inspiration. We can get it from many sources but none better than God’s own Word. Christians are inspired by hope. (ITh 1:3 )
Another source is the lives of others who have gone before us. I have been reading the life stories of some of the great medical evangelist form the past. David Livingston and Florence Nightingale are names known to almost everyone in the world based on their achievements over 150 years ago! David Livingston was Scottish and Florence Nightingale was English. He was from an extremely poor family and she from the opposite. They both gave of themselves in extraordinary ways. She championed the training of nurses and he, a physician, dedicated his life to Africa.
Livingston, in particular, lived a fascinating life. He went to Africa to teach and physically help the natives. He soon found that his greater calling was to find a navigable water way to central Africa. He wanted more than anything else to stop the slave trade by opening up commerce. He knew that on the coast people could sell and bye freely and support themselves but not so in the interior. So he lived and ultimately died for this cause. He achieved this lofty goal and spread the Good News at the same time. Shortly before his death, a young correspondent from the New York Herald, approached him in an obscure village in the middle of nowhere. His first words were, “Doctor Livingston, I presume?”

We will be out of pocket for a few days treking to Thailand. Will write when we return.