|
|
| While going through the experience of the envious doctor with a brain tumor in Portland, I was given the Pineapple story by my brother. The doctor threatened to shoot me. This doctor I was working with as I began my own business as a doctor fresh out of residency just did not seem right. No one could understand his violent behavior. He forced me to work with no pay for months. I moved out and set up my own practice. My brother came to remodel a building I was buying. |
| The story on video he brought me, I watched over and over till the tape was so worn. If only I could get another one. It has been so helpful to me. |
 The missionary told how he went into the remote area in New
Guinea and was trying to be a good missionary. Every day it seemed he was
spending all his time guarding his things from being stolen instead of
doing any mission work. The house boy came in to help and had things
rigged up so he would drop the spoons and forks on the floor. The floor
was up off the ground on stilts and the sticks were far enough apart so
the houseboy could scoot things down through the floor. Someone was
waiting under the house to receive the item. The next day, the poor
missionaries saw their spoons, clothes pins, pens, etc in the noses of the
villagers. |
| The missionary used all his time trying to stop the stealing. He was angry all the time. The villagers asked him why he was always angry, didn't he know Jesus? |
 The
villagers were hired by the missionary to plant pineapples to raise funds
for the mission. Just before they were ripe, the people who planted the pineapples
came and stole the fruit. Oh, that made him mad. He had waited 2 years for
this fruit and then it was stolen. He was so angry. |
| I doubled up with laughter hearing how this
missionary told about his anger and interaction with the people he had
gone to help. He said their noses dripped all the time and they would wipe
their noses on things. He mentioned when he scratched his head thinking
about something, they would ask if he had those bugs too. Sympathetically
they would say how miserable these things were.
When the natives would think, they would rub their noses a certain way, not scratch their heads. Funny how the different cultures use body language in different ways. |
| Then the missionary realized he needed God's help to
deal with his anger. He decided to give the whole pineapple garden to God.
He hired the
replanting of his field and gave it all to God. When the stealing began,
they were surprised he did not get angry. They began rubbing their noses.
They were thinking. Then they asked him why he did not get angry. He said
it was because it was not his garden any more. Immediately the stealing
stopped. There was a whole group of angry natives out there asking who he
had given the field to. They asked each other if he had given it to them.
They could not steal till they found out who they were stealing from. At
first he would not tell them. They were all very frightened. |
 When
he finally told them it belonged to God, the fruit appeared on his porch
that they had stolen. People started coming to hear about this God who
liked pineapples. He was finally full of love and no anger at the natives.
They responded to God's love and wanted to hear what he had to say. |
| You
can't imagine what a difference came into my life from this story! I
started giving my business to God just like the pineapple garden. If
people decided to steal from God, that was HIS business. I was as good a
steward as possible, but not the owner of these items I used to think were
mine. I gave my children to God. Big changes came to my life with this new
way of looking at things. When I travel, I am cautious, but know that God
is taking care of HIS OWN EQUIPMENT and supplies, and helps me raise my
children. |
 Try
giving your pineapples to God. Give him your computer, give him your
things, your toys, your car, your books, your friends, your family, your
education, your reputation, everything! What a relief it is not to have to
worry anymore about protecting God's things!!!
|
| I wish I could personally thank Otto
Koning for sharing what God has taught him. It has been such a remarkable
help in my missionary work around the world. I am praying that God will
give me the opportunity. He talks about being alive during WW2 and I
expect he is the age of my father who just died.
You just have to get his Pineapple series tapes. The story of the widow who gave and the story of the cripple man on the same tape are just fantastic. You can go there with this link. I recommend his entire series of tapes called pineapple stories and more. It is the only way I know to thank Otto for all he has done to help me give everything to Jesus. I gave Him my education of 27 years, my license to practice medicine, my hope to be a missionary doctor and I have never had more fun keeping in step with My Jesus since 1992. Get
this set: Pineapple
Series (Audio) |
