Bill's Message on Uncertainty and Fear

Is it possible for us to live contentedly amidst the changes that are ocurring so rapidly as we enter 2007*. The threat of war, depression and every on predicting disaster seems to be the order of the day. What is there that will help us to face the uncertainties and the fears that fill our hearts?

I believe that it would be good for us to take a look at some of the things that never change and that have never moved. The polestar that the sailors looked to for guidance has not moved. It is still in the same place and still guides the ships. Here are a few other things that have never changed and never will change.

God's Word never changes. "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will never pass away." Matt 24:25. This is the Word that was once delivered. God never has to come up with a new edition, His Word will see us through anything that may come to pass.

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." Hebrews 13:8. He has been the help of multitudes in times of greatest distress when they faced death and suffering for His Name. He was there with them each step of the way.

The Gospel has never changed. We come to know the Lord the same way as did those who walked the paths of Palestine with Jesus. Repentance and confession of sin and failure will still bring forgiveness and blessing.

There is a need for us to under stand that God is in control. God is still God and there is nothing that will ever surprise Him. No matter what may happen in 2007*, we who know Him need never fear.

The clouds hang heavy around my way

I cannot see.

But through the darkness I blieve

God leadeth me.

'Tis bliss to keep my hand in His

While all id dim,

To close my weary aching eyes

And follow him.

(From "My Heart is Tied"

by Florence Shillingsberg.)

Faith follows God in the dark.

And as I sit and write these words, the threat of war hangs heavy over our land and I am concerned for those who will be involved. We are praying daily for them that the Lord will protect and help them to be effective soldiers. So let us pray for them and for the families they represent.

For those with loved ones there, I would like to share a few things that were of special blessing to me when I was in the same situation.

1. Psalm 91. My mother sent me this Psalm just when it was most needed.
2. A little verse was also sent:

No bomb or shell may on me burst
except the Lord permit it first.
No bomb above or shell below
need cause my heart one pang of woe.
The Lord of Hosts encircles me
He is my Lord on land or sea.

Thank you very much
Bill Gibson, January 1991

*Note from Shirley: I changed the date from 1991 to 2007.

Psalm 91

Here is Psalm 91:

1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.


2. I will say of the Lord. He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.


3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.


4. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.


5. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;


6. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that waiteth at noonday.


7. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.


8. Only with thine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.


9. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;


10. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come by night to thy dwelling.


11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.


12. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.


13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.


14. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.


15. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him, and honor him.


16. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.

About Bill and Gladis

In 1949, Bill and Gladis Gibson left family and friends behind and began their lives together as missionaries to the Jivaro (Shuar) Indians in Ecuador South America.

This took an incredible amount of courage and faith because at that time, the Shuar were fierce indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest, actively engaging in feuds, vendettas, witchcraft, and violence. They were called Headhunters because the most common way to deal with enemies was to kill them, cut their heads off, shrink them, and display the shrunken heads as trophies.

There are a couple of movies currently out on DVD that dramatize the murder of several christian missionaries by the Huaroni, a nearby tribe. If you haven't seen the movies: End of the Spear or Beyond the Gates of Splendor they are both worth watching.

Gladis Gibson, was born and raised in Oklahoma. She picked cotton in the cotton fields as a little girl. When she graduated from high school, she went to nursing school in Canada, and Bible College in Kansas City. She had no plans to get married or raise a family.

Bill Gibson grew up in Michigan. He was a soldier in World War 2, and after the war, he enrolled in Bible College in Kansas City. There, he met Gladis. They fell in love while sharing a waffle at a nearby diner.

Bill is a self taught photographer. The majority of these photos were developed by hand, in a darkroom that he built. The chemicals and photo paper he used had to be flown in, presumably from Quito, the capitol city of Ecuador, and possibly from the US.

They had three children, Shirley, Grace, and Billy. Billy went to be with Jesus soon after he was born. Many personal sacrifices were made as these two brave and loving people dedicated their lives to following God’s will.

Today, Bill and Gladis are retired and living in Texas.

Map of Ecuador

Republic of Ecuador

Straddling the equator, this small nation is richly endowed with snowy Andean peaks towering over emerald-green slopes, rivers winding through tropical jungles, and beyond all this, in the Pacific, lie the Galapagos Islands.

Waiting for the clinic

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Shuar family waiting for the clinic to open.
Ecuador SA, 1953
photo by Bill Gibson

In the jungle, distance was measured by how many days it took to walk. For many families, the walk to the clinic took several days, and they arrived worn out and weary.

Mothers used a cloth sling to carry children who were too young to walk. It was either positioned with the child on her back or hip, whatever was most convenient and most comfortable at the time.

Today's Gospel Message

Some thoughts on Hope

Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians closes with these words.." and now these remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." We hear much abut faith and much about love but hope seems to be the neglected triplet.

Dr. Armand Mayo Nicoli of Harvard Medical School writes: "The word hope is used and heard little in our culture. Perhaps hope conflicts with our concept of a scientific world." Many books exist about faith and love but very few on hope. Hope is essential to sanity and a balanced outlook on life. We all need to hope, as hope will sustain us in perilous times.

Hope looks forward to something good. Faith looks to the person who has promised and hope to the thing promised. Faith is the root, hope is the fruit. Faith looks to who and hope to what. Real hope for the future is grounded in the promise of God and guaranteed in the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Hope needs to be based on reality. It is not a mere wish or strong desire.

In a world filled with fear for the future, do you have a hope? Where is your hope and on what is it based? It seems we need to examine to see if our hope is real hope or a mere dream. The hymn writer wrote these words in his song, "The Solid Rock" :

"My hope is built on nothing less,
than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus name."

Put your trust in God. His promise never fails.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
~Romans 15:13

Thank you very, very much.
Bill Gibson
Texas, October 1990

About the Shuar

“I was born to die fighting.”
Shuar saying

Although there have been many headhunting cultures throughout the world, only one group is known for practice of shrinking human heads (tsantsa). This same tribe is the only tribe of American Natives to have successfully revolted against the Spanish Empire. They withstood armies of gold-seeking Incas, defied the early conquistadores, and thwarted all subsequent attempts by the Spaniards to conquer them. They are the Shuar.

There are four Shuar tribes known to inhabit the tropical forest of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon. The Achuara, Aguaruna, Huambisa, and the Shuar. In the past, these four tribes were commonly referred to as the Jivaro (pronounced hee’-va-ro).

The Shuar are a proud people, and are known to be an intensely warlike group, tremendously protective of their freedom and unwilling to subordinate themselves to other authorities. They have a reputation for fierceness, and savageness directed toward their enemies.

Early Spanish chronicles relate that in the year 1599, the Shuar banded together and killed 25,000 white people in raids on two settlements. In particular, the massacre of the Logrono stands out as particularly ruthless. The attack was instigated over the natives being taxed in their gold-trade.

After uncovering the unscrupulous practices of the visiting governor, molten gold was later poured down his throat until his bowels burst. Following his execution, the remaining Spaniards were killed along with the older women and children. The younger useful women were taken as prisoners to join the clan. The settlement itself was raided and burned to the ground.

From this point onward, the "Jivaro Indians" remained unconquered in their forest fastness east of the Andes, despite the fact that they inhabited one of the richest regions in South America for gold deposits. Their fierce fighting reputation and head-shrinking practice continued to discourage outsiders from entering their territories.

Tales of their fierceness became part of the folklore of Latin America, and their warlike reputation spread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Jivaro “shrunken head” trophies found their way into the market places of the Western world.

In the first decades of this century, the Shuar also became known not as just a warlike group, but as an individualistic people intensely jealous of their freedom and unwilling to be subservient to authority even among themselves. In later years, the violence has subsided as they work to preserve their culture and their freedom

This informational page is a composite of two articles on the Jivaro (Shuar):

National Geographic Magazine, October 1921

“Indian Headhunters of the Interior”

by H.E. Anthony

The Jivaro:People of the Sacred Waterfalls by Michael Harner

Shaman

The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
Hebrews 13:6

Shuar (Jivaro) witchdoctor

transformed from enemy to friend through prayer.

Ecuador SA, 1953

photo by Bill Gibson

The shaman, or witchdoctor was greatly respected, feared and obeyed. Acting as the main leaders and focus of local conflicts, shamans were believed to both cure and kill through magical means.

It was very dangerous to have a shaman for an enemy, especially in the early days when heads were still being taken, and killing raids were not uncommon. Even as late as1980, group conflicts between local shamans still erupted into full scale feuds with loss of life.

Today's Gospel Message

I would like to share with you some thoughts on haste.

“He that believeth shall not make haste.”
Isaiah 28:16

Hurry, hurry is the cry of the moment. Time is money; let’s get it done as fast as we can. We seem to rush from one thing to another so that we have very little time free from the hurry of the hour. There seems to be a real lack of restfulness in our lives. The stress and push take their toll in lives every day. This is also true in churches as numbers of people and meetings fill our week nights. George Morrison used this text years ago in a sermon on “The Leisure of Faith” and he points out that where there is greater haste there is also found lesser faith.

We do not become strong mature Christians overnight. God moves slowly but surely in our lives to accomplish His will in us. It took years for Israel to learn the lessons from God. It takes us a long time to learn from God that which He wants us to learn. God is not hasty in His judgments and in his dealings with us.

The haste of which our text speaks is not the urgency and the push that is laid upon the serious Christian to get the work done. The harvest is ready and the workers are few. Every Christian should sense the urgency and the “now-ness” of the hour in which we live. Yet he will “run with patience the race that is set before him”. UN-hasting, not UN-resting should be our motto.

Our text speaks of the haste that makes waste. Haste without faith produces work without fruit. We Christians find ourselves caught up in the rush and hurry of the day. We find we are more interested in producing results in less time than we are in waiting on God with patience and with faith. This haste is the cause for many of our problems.

Hasty judgments are so easy to make and yet cause much hurt. Why is it so hard to hold back from making a hasty judgment? There seems to be nothing harder than to suspend judgment of another in our daily contact with people.

We live in haste to get enough money saved so we can retire. Many a couple have saved and worked hard for enough for the later years, only to find out at retirement that they have no more strength left. Why not a four day week if we can get the work of five days done in four? Result is poor quality and wasted time.

Hasty decisions have been the cause of failure in many instances. We need always to guard ourselves as Christians in this matter of decision. It’s the little decisions that make the difference, it takes time to know God’s will in making those decisions. God’s promise to us is:

“But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.”

It is our desire that this little message be a blessing to each of you.

Thank you very, very much..
Bill Gibson
Craig Alaska, Fall 1985

Morning Coffee

Joy comes with the morning.

~Psalms 30:5

Every morning begins with coffee, bible study, and prayer.

Ecuador SA, 1950

If each of us began our days with prayer, how different our lives, and our world would be.

On a lighter note: The way I remember it is that there were 2 brands of coffee available in Ecuador, Nescafe, and Sicafe. I can still remember the little advertising jingle. It ended with a cute little play on words:

Sicafe si es café.

Nescafe no es café.

Literal translation:

Si Café yes is coffee.

Nes Café no is coffee.

Jungle Church

This I know, that God is for me.

-Psalm 56:9

Church built by believers. Unknown location. 1950
Photograph by Bill Gibson

What I remember most about church was that the split log benches had no backs, and so it was really hard to fall asleep during the sermon.

The natives who came loved to sing, and they especially loved to learn songs in English. They sang loudly, enthusiastically, and always off key. It was wonderful! My dad played the trumpet, my mom played the accordion, and there was an old pump organ that she also played.

Dogs, chickens, children, everyone came to church. One Sunday, someone saw a wild pig, and that was the end of the service. Everyone jumped up and ran out to try to catch it.

After church, my mom would open the clinic, and we’d share homemade bread, meat, and whatever else we had with all those who wanted to stay after.

There were no roads, no cars, everyone who came to church walked through the jungle. For some the walk could be as long as a couple of hours, maybe longer. So, every effort was made to care not just for the spiritual needs of those who came, but for their physical needs as well.

Best Friends

Where you go I will go...

Ruth 1:16

Shirley Gibson, age 5,
with best friend and constant companion,
Chit Chat.
Macuma Ecuador 1956

This little monkey was traded for medicine, and we instantly fell in love with each other. He rode around on my shoulder almost every moment that I was outside. My mom wouldn’t let me bring him into the house, but he did have a nice little home of his own on our back porch.

About Me

Hello. My name is Shirley Gibson. This picture was taken by my dad, Bill Gibson, when I was 5 years old.

Yes, Bill and Gladis are my parents.

The original inspiration for the cards came when I was brainstorming what I could do for them for Christmas. They had no idea that I was creating cards from our treasured collection of photos. What a surprise! I think it was the best Christmas present ever.

This website was created because I wanted to share these awesome images with the world. Creating these cards and this website has had a profound effect on me. Love shines through them. Everything about these cards radiates love: My dad’s love for my mom is evident in the missionary nurse images, and her compassionate heart is clearly seen.

When I was five years old, I went away to boarding school. I would like to say that it was a warm and wonderful experience, but it was not. The making of these cards has healed old wounds, and given me a new perspective on the past.

I currently live in Missouri. This website is just one of my passions. I am also an artist. If you are interested, you can take a look at my online gallery at Green Dolphin Studio. I also publish a line of art cards using my own art work, and try to keep up with my grandchildren.

It is my wish that you enjoy this site, that you find yourself uplifted and inspired, and that God’s richest blessings enfold you and your loved ones.

Blessings, Shirley

About this site

The images on this website, and the images used in the cards are from photos taken by Bill Gibson. Bill and his wife, Gladis served as missionaries in Ecuador, SA, Colombia, SA, Alaska, US, and Juarez, Mexico from 1949 thru 2003.

Individually, the images and messages are inspiring and interesting. Collectively, they tell a wonderful story of faith, love, and sacrifice. I think of these cards as little missionaries, going out into the world to bless each person who receives them.


Every sunday morning, Bill's gospel message will be posted. Each wednesday a new image and corresponding message will be uploaded. This image will be available for sale as a greeting cards or on merchandise available at our Cafe Press store. Throughout the week, various tidbits of interesting and pertinent information will be posted as they come to me.

If you would like to stay current with the Gospel Missionary Message, you can it delivered directly to your email, or you can add us to your home page.

We would love to hear your comments and observations as you explore this online journal. So, feel free to post comments and questions. If you would like to purchase cards, we do use pay pal. And if that is uncomfortable for you, email me and I will forward to you my address and an order form.

We hope you find our website and our cards inspirational and interesting. It is our vision that these images, these greeting cards, and the message on this website will be shared with family and friends - and then shared again - and again.