What can I do?
Whenever I hear this question “What can I do?” I remember a story I heard several years ago about a bird hunter who wanted to buy a hunting dog. He called a friend who supposedly had a dog who could count how many birds were in a field. With a great amount of doubt the man approached his friend about the dog. After some discussion they decided to send the dog out into a field. They watched as the dog ran back and forth and finally came back to the truck where the men were waiting. Jumping up on the bed of the truck the dog began to slap at the truck with his paws,”. . . 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,” the owner picked up the count.
“What does that mean?” His friend asked.
The owner replied, “Why, the dog is telling us there are 11 birds out in that field!”
Once again with some doubt the friend walked through the field and sure enough scared up 11 birds. He excitedly gave the man the money he was asking for the dog and returned home. The next morning, he parked his truck at one of his favorite hunting places and turned the dog loose. Watching the dog run back and forth until finally losing sight of him, the man waited, and waited, until almost dark. Finally the dog, exhausted, and panting heavily, limped wearily to the truck clutching a stick in his mouth. Disappointed and angry the new owner loaded the dog back in the truck and returned to his friend’s home.
“The dog is no good” he complained after greeting his friend in the drive way. “All he is good for is to play “fetch” with a stick!”
“Wait a minute”, his friend pleaded. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Well, I sent him out to the field just like we did yesterday. He stayed out all day and late in the evening just brought an old stick back with him, like we were playing “fetch”, the new owner explained with some amount of anger and sarcasm.
Laughing so hard, he had to hold his belly, the friend and previous owner of the dog replied “This ole dog wasn’t playing fetch, he was trying to tell you there are more birds in that field than you can shake a stick at!”
As I look at the ministry of the Church of God in Western Europe and hear reports from other parts of the world, I think of that old hunting dog and the stick. Immigrants and refugees from Eastern Europe and Africa are presenting us with some of the greatest and most exciting opportunities in the history of the Church. For missionaries, national pastors and evangelists there is truly more work out there today than a person “could shake a stick at”!
