what if...

Jared and I attended a church course called Launching Leaders. We didn't make it to all, but those we did I absolutely loved. The teacher, a Senior missionary Elder Ritchie, is a phenomenal teacher and a funny writer. Check out his latest email:

President David Oryang of the Woodbridge Stake Presidency was our guest speaker at Launching Leaders recently. He has his roots in Uganda where he grew up as a non-member, but of some privilege.  But the story of his fathers rise to prominence is a great Life Lesson. I will not attempt to tell but one small, but very significant, piece of the story.

Father Oryang grew up in the hinterlands of Uganda where he and his brother  were the 'goatherds' (shepherds) of the family goat herd, numbering about 160 in its heyday.  Daily for many years, into his teens, they would take the goats to their feeding grounds and return in the late evening...a ritual they accomplished with 'distinction'  seven days per week, year after year.  As a teenager Senior Oryang witnessed a family tragedy when the goats all died from some unknown, but obviously serious plague, that hit the goats of Uganda.  Devastated and without other means of support he made a DECISION that changed his and his families life forever.  He gathered up his sack full of possessions and walked over 150 miles to the 'City'  where, with the help of some City folks, enrolled in his first school.  He did well, got a scholarship to College and then another one to a British School of Engineering where he excelled before returning to Uganda where he rose in the ranks of government works and raised his family.  

The Chief Goat of Uganda

David his son, our guest speaker, because of his 'privileges'  found himself in Washington (State of)  where through some miracles (divine guidance), some great mentors, lots of very hard work and a perhaps a little luck, also received his Engineering Degree, found the church and met his future bride at a service station (also with Ugandan roots), orchestrated her conversion and took her to the temple and did all of that by the  ripe old age of 35.  Today, President Oryang is a successful engineer in the DC area and a mighty servant in the Kingdom.   His oldest son just received his mission call to the land of Mozambique, where he will learn Portuguese and eventually find his way to Maramayo (Lesson for another day). 

What a great story!!!  But for today we only use it to ask one question.  WHAT IF THE GOATS HAD NOT ALL DIED?

Is that a scary question or not?  Would David Oryang, our distinguished guest speaker and now father of a missionary, still be tending the goats in the mountains of Uganda if the herd had not died but instead, prospered, and grew to a herd in excess of 200 or more...providing adequate goats milk and goat burgers to sustain his small tribe of posterity gathering daily around the campfire to hear stories of Grandpa Oryang who had created "Goats of Uganda, LLC"  back in the early 50's?  

I'm sure President Oryang's Patriarchal Blessing reveals the Lord's hand in 'assisting'  his father getting to 'the city'  and eventually his son finding himself in an American  graduate school and perhaps even prompted him to stop and fill up his petrol tank at a certain service station where a beautiful young lady from Uganda was in the middle of her second day working on American soil.  Not saying that Heavenly Father wiped out the Goat Herd - but somebody did - and looking back it needed to happen in order for this incredible story to unfold.

I'll leave this Life Lesson to your own ponderings and to ask yourself why so many times in life 'our goats all die'?   I have asked myself often why I contracted Polio which forced me to find another path to manhood rather than through the Dallas Cowboys where I might have been their famous quarterback (ok a little heavy) or what if I had not stuttered and been confronted with the thoughts that accompany that different sort of adversity? Why do our Chicken Coops burn down or we lose our shirt in Elfridea when we are full tithe payers and trying hard to be obedient?   What if I had not driven that beautiful 1957 DeSoto into the ditch and learned the lesson on Trust early in my life?  Why did we come to a Telestial Kingdom full of Tests and Trials to learn Celestial Principles? 

WHAT IF THE GOATS HAD NOT ALL DIED?   I know a young man heading for Mozambique who is sure glad they did!!!    

I don't know when another chicken coop is going to burn down but I'm looking forward to the celestial principle that I will learn when the smoke clears and the lesson is revealed.  

Meanwhile my present test is having to peel my own grapes...why can't Costco can't get their act together?

With love from the Far East, 

Bro Jim