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Talking Donkey International

Country Wisdom Season 2

Jim Ayer

Janice Nelson

Doing it Myself

Welcome everyone, we're excited to share some country wisdom with you.

King Solomon had a thing or 2 to say about the path to wisdom.

In Proverbs 4 he wrote, Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.

Keep straight the path of your feet and all your ways will be sure.

This is going to be a little more for you, but just dig in.

Don't tell me I didn't dig my toe in enough.

No, I dug my toe in just the way you said.

Okay, look, you gotta go up to this spot and dig in really hard.

I don't like asking for help, which is, I think, a virtue, although I suppose under certain circumstances it might be a fault.

But you know in the Christian realm it probably is a negative a lot of time because we think we can do it all on our own, right?

I have to admit you're right there because I know there are times where I've had a problem or I've recognized an issue in my life.

And finally, I've gotten to the point where I can't kick this certain habit or whatever.

And I realized that, you know, Pretty much when I'm faced with chocolate cake, I have no self-control.

I don't know that many people would consider that a real problem, but, you know, it's true.

You think about so many, including myself many times, I want to lift myself up.

God, okay, you said in the Bible, I'll go do it.

I've unfortunately found that out many times.

And like you and snowshoeing here once in a while, you take a little more direction.

There are parts of it I was doing very well.

Well we better get up to the up to the campsite.

Yeah you promised there was not any snow on the other side.

I'm waiting to see if you're right about that.

Yeah it's pretty steep so remember just keep digging in with your toes.

Good thing, because I was so ready to take these off.

Yeah I'm really happy that everybody got the camp set up for us too.

Now we just got to get a little bit of wood for the fire.

All right, on the way here, about the third or fourth time that I fell and insisted on getting up by myself, I did, If you caught it, I grudgingly admitted that sometimes my wanting to do it my way isn't always the best way.

No, that is as close as you will ever get to an apology for my attitude.

But it reminded me, we have evidence of that in the Bible.

I can actually think of several, but 1 that comes to mind of someone who do it my way was Saul on more than 1 occasion.

But do you remember the time when he had been told to wait for Samuel?

Well, he had, even before that, he had been told exactly to destroy everything in the city that he was trying to, that they were taking.

It was, hey, I can improve on God's plan.

He thought, no, we'll keep all the best for a sacrifice to God.

An Executive Decision

We're excited to share some country wisdom with you.

In Proverbs 4, he wrote, Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.

Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

¦ ¦ Gee, it's really good to be with you today.

Thank you for allowing us here at your restaurant.

It smelled so good when I walked in, and I went straight to the case where you have the goodies laid out and was pretty sure I was gaining weight just standing there.

Tell us the name of your restaurant so all the viewers can know.

A lot of people are a little confused about the word melange.

It means a mixture or a variety which is basically what we represent.

My chef hubby and I, you know, come from different parts of the world and we integrate different flavors and spices in our food, but it's all plant-based.

And I'll tell you folks, they're located in Medford, Oregon.

It's definitely not what I've always done.

In fact, You know, most of my friends, at least at some point or another, bus tables or waitress somewhere, worked in a coffee shop.

Right, through high school and college, and I never did.

I guess I was kind of intimidated by the whole thing.

I always thought I was a little bit clumsy or maybe it was my pride, who knows.

But I just never worked in a restaurant, so it was a steep learning curve.

I needed to learn everything from how to set up a POS system to how to get accounts.

The system that actually keeps track of your sales and you know all the stuff that the accountant wants to know and IRS.

But you weren't too intimidated in early life because you ended up in the corporate world.

Right, so I was, when I was told the scholarship came through for me I was living in Switzerland and...

It was a very lovely place and that led to living in Southeast Asia for quite a long time.

It wasn't meant to be something that lasted year after year for almost 16 years is how long I ended up being there.

It was just supposed to be a two-year stint.

And after I finished my degree, 3 others and myself, we co-founded a consulting business.

Some would call it a law firm because a lot of lawyers were in it.

But we did lots of work, land due diligence projects and memorandums of understandings for different corporate clients and things that, you know, law firms typically do.

You spoke, I understand, many languages too, huh?

Well, you know, languages are 1 of those things that if you don't use it, you lose it.

And there are some I won't lose because they're just hardwired in my head.

Like, I was born in Romania, so my birth language, Romanian, I'll probably never forget, which is a good thing.

And French was my second language, and I used it extensively throughout the time I lived in Southeast Asia.

I also went back to France, I was in France as part of my, 1 of my years in college.

So it's another 1 I can rely on and I won't lose it even though it's probably at times a little bit less used than other times.

And along the way of course I learned German because I was in a immigration camp in Austria.

I studied German for 4 years in school but again you don't use it.

There aren't that many German speakers that live in this area.

And, you know, I could probably still read a little, but to have it come up where I could answer a question.

But it's in a dusty drawer at the very back of your mind, I'm quite sure of it.

So I learned Thai and Khmer because I lived there as well.

Well, you know, different people have different things in life and you've done a lot of things in your life.

You're doing pretty good in the corporate world.

Well, you know, I've always been a go-getter.

My brother, my oldest brother, says that even as a little girl, so I was probably 5, 6 years younger than him, I would walk around pointing with 2 fingers, not just 1, and telling everyone how they needed to...

So I guess bossy is what he was trying to say.

I like to think of it as, you know, I knew where I wanted to go and I wanted to get there quickly.

So I was always ready to instruct and make sure everybody was clear on what it is they needed to do to get there.

So corporate world, yes, I can say that from the world's perspective, we did really well.

A lot of our friends thought we were crazy.

You were with the movers and shakers in the corporate world and you knew a lot of maybe big people, quote unquote.

Yeah, by the world standards, certainly rubbed shoulders with people who are powerful, wealthy, the fit and fabulous, the pretty, the, you know, all those kinds of people were part of the picture, got invited to the right parties, went to a lot of diplomatic circle type functions, went to actually 1 of the royal family weddings when I was in Cambodia, probably actually more than 1, but 1 that was truly 1 of those unforgettable types of events.

I mean, you know, really, they're just people like you and I.

But so you have the nice cars, you have the nice house.

In fact, because things are so much more affordable in places like Southeast Asia, you know, we had the life that had help in the home and chauffeurs and, you know, all the 9 yards, everything.

So you were apparently really happy because you had everything.

There were a lot of moments where I was really not very happy.

But From an outside perspective, very successful woman.

Absolutely, I could go where I wanted to go, dressed as I wanted to be dressed, anytime, travel to whatever part of the world, et cetera, et cetera.

Spiritual Optimism

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Just couldn't wait to bring you out here and show the incredible views of this place here in Oregon.

Have I told you that I'm allergic to every grass known to mankind?

I haven't been hearing you sneeze, though.

Well, I loaded up on my allergy meds, and we'll hope for the best here.

There's a major Nesmith, and I want to tell you, he was a good golfer, probably better than you.

And that's, you know, You go out there and you miss a putt or something every hole.

But that's still a decent weekend golfer.

Now he basically, here's this situation that's so unique.

He laid down his clubs and he didn't golf for 7 years.

He came back after 7 years, he went on a course, 18 holes, and he shot a 74.

After not playing, picking up a club for 7 years.

Now the key is, they said he didn't pick up a club.

He actually, he was thrown into the Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam.

Now, he was thrown into a cage that was about 5 feet long and 4 feet high, and he never got out of that cage.

He played every golf course he'd ever been on.

He was out there, he dressed in his clothes, in his golf clothes, and I don't know, probably at that time they were pretty wild looking, you know, a lot of the clothes were.

And he smelled the grass like we are now, although you and I aren't trying to breathe in too deep.

Yeah, but he smelled the grass, and he looked at the views, and he smelled the trees, and he watched the birds on the pond.

Every single, he lined up every shot, every single day.

And he got better and better and better and better.

The beatings, the starvation, no matter what it was, they couldn't take any of that from him.

Imagining every course, imagining every hole.

Even the ones he saw on television, as he'd followed them on television, he remembered those and he played every course he'd actually never been on, but he played those.

And so in his mind, he was on those courses too.

Now the News media ran up to him, everybody sticking mics in his face because they knew this story.

It hadn't been that long since he'd been back.

He's missing teeth because, you know, half the teeth in his head had rotted out.

But somebody tipped off the media that he was back on the golf course?

It was a special kind of invitational, and they invited him.

And he got out there, and it was wonderful.

And like I say, 20 strokes off, but when he'd gone into prison 7 years earlier.

And what they found, and I'm going to be sharing a little bit more later, 1 psychologist, Dr.

Dennis Waitley, had done a lot of studies.

It's amazing what the human mind perceives as real.

I have been told that there, well, of course, some human minds can't tell the difference between real and imagination.

You know, that saying, everybody knows that saying, mind over matter.

What you're thinking about, how positive or negative you are, actually affects your body.

Matter of fact, I had somebody 1 time that I remember reading.

They said, if you think you're going to get a cold, you probably will.

Now, I'm not promoting that, but it's an interesting thought.

If you think something's going to happen in your life, it may, because you may actually facilitate that.

Now, here's, you know, an interesting text here.

Book of Philippians, the last chapter says, finally, brethren, he's summing up this whole thing about looking up to God, about lifting your thoughts in your mind and training for the heavenly kingdom.

Well, you know, even though not in this world, I think maybe it's just because the older I get, the more you're looking forward to something better.

Because we know there's better things and what's going on in this life.

Anyway, he went on, he says, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good report, If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.

Mentally train in your mind on these things and what's going to happen.

Well, there's got to be a reason why God told us to keep those thoughts in your head.

From Pain to Happiness

¦ ¦ in the book of John, chapter 1, speaking of Jesus, He was in the world and The world was made by him.

He came into his own, and his own received him not.

Oh yes, so I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I'm the youngest of 8 children and I have 6 brothers and 1 sister and the only girl is right above me in age.

So growing up we were very close And I grew up in a typical inner city neighborhood, predominantly black neighborhood.

And we had good times growing up, you know, we play, we invent things.

But on the other end, the neighborhood had its troubles.

And so for me, a way of escape was sports.

And at a very young age, I played basketball and fell in love with the game.

I played since about second grade up into college.

You were obviously built for basketball because you're how tall?

But that's why we're out here at the park today, right?

With the basketball court and the weed eater going in the background.

But yeah, I was actually the smallest of the siblings.

And so around high school, when I was playing basketball, I began to see that, although I grew up in this big family, a lot of my brothers were not present during my games, and it affected me a great deal.

The reason being is many of them were in and out of the system, the prison system, and unfortunately could not be there.

So I'm in this big family, and I felt kind of alone in a sense.

And so as basketball was my way of escape, it slowly was escaping me and my heart because I began to lose the love of basketball.

And so I'm floating through high school, I graduate, I get recruited to go to college and I played 2 years in college basketball.

So you were good enough that you were recruited.

So I wasn't good enough, but I didn't have that confidence or that edge to excel me further than that.

And I think as a result, it was my depression, fell into a deep depression.

And so 2 years into playing basketball in college, I began to feel this sense of need or longing for a relationship with my brothers, you know, us brothers, you know, family.

And at the same time, my parents, financially, there was a burden that I wanted them to prosper, you know, be financially stable in that relationship with my brothers.

So after college, I began to lose sight on what I wanted, and all I wanted was for my family to be close and for them to have that financial stability.

Now that I'm a young man, many of my brothers are out of prison, they're home.

And so I go back home from college and I start building that relationship that I wanted.

And fortunately, some of the values that I had, I began to lose.

And I began to associate with some of their ideas.

And of course, well, my brothers are criminal minded.

And as a result of wanting money and that relationship, I began to drink heavily.

My health was deteriorating at a young age.

I'm about- Drinking does not help depression.

That would make that condition even worse.

I'm about 22 at the time and not playing basketball anymore and And my brothers, I began to get involved more with them.

And I got into the street life, began to sell drugs and do drugs.

And at this time, 1 of my brothers who I was with named Michael, we were heading to a bar and a typical night we're drinking and I'm drinking heavily.

I don't even know all I drunk, but I left this place in the worst shape in my life.

And as we're getting in the vehicle, there was a car next to mine as they were leaving exchanged some words to me and So they're looking for a fight, I don't know they're looking for a fight.

I don't know if it was I Don't know what their their mind didn't know them didn't see them in the bar but they said something and it bothered me.

And so I was like, you know, what did you say?

And they're driving off, still talking as they're driving away.

So I go into my vehicle in my drunken state, I'm looking for my firearm.

I grabbed my firearm and I walk around my vehicle as they're leaving out.

I get some to the grass and I was saying, what did you say?

And at that time I pointed the gun and in my drunken state as I'm pointing the gun at the car, something happened where my arm went up in the air.

And when my arm went up in the air, I shot twice.

You were saying that you weren't planning on necessarily raising your arm?

I thought I was gonna scare them, or I'm just in this drunk mess, I'm angry, I'm angry at my life.

And I guess I wanted to take it out on something.

And when I shot in the air, I immediately regretted it.

And in my drunken state I'm going back to my vehicle and I'm trying to leave.

Series

Country Wisdom Season 2

The Fragrance of Christ

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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Country Wisdom Season 2

From Pain to Happiness

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The Arch-Villain of Prophecy, Part 2

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04-Mercy and Justice in Psalms and Proverbs

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07-Closer Than a Brother

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Sabbath School 4th Quarter 2024: Themes in the Gospel of John

02 Signs of Divinity

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Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

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Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

04 Incredible Sex

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InVerse, 4th Quarter 2022: Beyond Death

07 The Rich Man and Lazarus

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Inverse, 3rd Quarter 2021: Sexuality

11 When Things Go Wrong

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Happy Home

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Staying Wide Awake

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Sound Doctrine