Listening to the Call

With  the weekend over, I sat down this afternoon to catch up on my GirlfriendIt podcast. I needed a Patty and Lisa fix and my friend Sheila Jones was being interviewed this week. 

It is amazing to me how God works in my life. Lisa and Patty started out the show talking about something that ties right in with what I've been writing about on the unique, funny, curious ways God is calling me to prayer for people in the past  few months.  They were talking about how Muslims have a call to prayer. If you ever visit a Muslim city, you will hear this call to prayer several times a day over speakers that loudly penetrate into every home or building in the city. And no matter where they are, the faithful followers of that religion kneel and pray.

I challenge you to look for ways that God is calling you to prayer in your daily life. He's gotten my attention lately. I have tried to explain it in a few blog posts, but I wonder if people get how meaningful it is to have God snag your attention with something, show you what it means and then give you a unique, just for you way to keep connected with His heart, to see the people He is seeing and preparing and longing for.

Something Lisa said today really summed it up for me, "God does miraculous things in ordinary moments." And what is more ordinary for a busy mom to be driving all over town? Not only does God want to do miraculous things through our prayers for people we encounter during our day, but He's really done something very miraculous in my life.... getting me to listen to His leading, recognize His plan and that He uses me in this process. All it takes an attentive mind and a willingness to pray for those miraculous things.

Here is my journey

It's 4:44
Crazy or cool?
Game On

I hope it inspires you to pay attention more closely to what God is showing you each day.....because He is showing you.

Lightening Up Life

Life is hard sometimes. Lori Regneir's story of ministry to families of child sex trade victims was hard to listen to today on GirlfriendIt radio. It's a subject so heavy and dark, but it is so prevalent that it has to be addressed, it has to be STOPPED. And Lori couldn't do anything else but jump in and help stop it. To find out more about this organization, go to Starbright Foundation. God bless her for using the gifts God gave her in serving these hurting families.

What has God given you that is a gift to hurting people?

The next guest on this show, Jessica Pierce, talked about not knowing where she was gifted or what her mission in life should be. Now a career finder and life coach with Career Connectors, she is passionate about helping people see their gifts and helping them focus on where they should be headed in life.

When I took the Myers-Briggs personality sorter, it even confirmed my suspicions that I am basically put here to entertain, as comic relief. And while that is a tongue in cheek statement, it is true to a big extent. If I get carried away, my children even look at me with serious eyes and say, "Mom, focus....really." But God has been so kind and generous to me, to use my silliness as a way to minister to people who are hurting. Time and time again, I am drawn to people in pain, trying to move through healing and find myself making them double over with laughter. It's kind of shocking sometimes, I don't even try to do it, but I let God use it when it comes out. (What else can you do?) I feel like it comes from a deep place of compassion for them though, so it's somehow appropriate.

Two years ago, another ministry family, David and Diana Johnson, had a tragedy happen with their son on the other side of the world. They got a call from Africa to inform them their son had been killed in a motorbike accident while traveling to a village to teach. He was 21 and a semester missionary in Mozambique, Africa.

Four months later, I found myself traveling to Africa with them and my husband to visit the places Jeremiah had worked and meet the people he ministered to. It was a match made in Heaven, because they needed comfort and help to walk through those places and to hear the testimonies of how their son touched so many people. I have never appreciated my gift of humor more than this trip. I didn't go thinking that would be my offering, but it was and I thanked God for letting me have something to offer. My journaling on that trip is here if you would like to read about how one young man touched the world and our visit to those places. In the end, it was an honor to be able to go on that trip and share that hard experience with my dear friend and add some comfort...in my own way.

As Patty Wyatt asked on the show, "What had God put in your hand?" What is God already using in your life to help people? I found humor was not shameful and immature (most of the time) but was quite healing and freeing when used appropriately.

Just remember to handle humor with care or you get in trouble...a lot of trouble. As a pastor's wife, I know this to be true. *ahem*

When healing is a long process

Cute little saying, but isn't it the truth! The world is crazy scary these days and it's hard to keep from dwelling on fearful things. I saw this on the internet this morning and laughed. But as God often does, He showed me later on in the day how He is a God of bringing all things together to teach us things and catch our attention.

Today I listened to a podcast of GirlfriendIt radio and it was this very principle (not feeding your fears but putting on a brave face) that led Sandy Tremp into a  total mental breakdown. She had emotionally and mentally distanced herself from some horrible childhood traumas. She locked it away, not knowing how to process it as a child. Then one day the repressed memories came flooding back. She collapsed and had to be hospitalized, incapacitated by fear and shame.  Through years of counseling and support, she says that she not only survived childhood abuse, but has finally learned to  thrive in God's healing and victory. She and her husband Scott wrote a book about actively pushing through Sandy's healing process instead of repressing it. It's called Surviving Life.

I encourage you to listen to this GirlfriendIt session and then ......maybe listen to it again to catch what you missed. If you have discovered repressed trauma or have trauma that haunts you every day; if you have friends or loved ones who are going through this or want to know how to respond in case anyone ever confides this kind of thing to you, I really hope you'll listen and gain more understanding about how to be sensitive to people with this issue.

As a minister's wife, I see a glimpse of the damage childhood abuse does to a person's life and I think it's something that really needs more attention, response and action from the church.

I have a young friend who asked if she could talk to me one day about 4 years ago. She was exhibiting some outward signs of inward troubles. Cutting herself was becoming a habit that she could no longer control and she was afraid. After many meetings to talk about the cutting, and encouraging her to tell her parents, she told me one day that she needed to tell me something. We sat down and talked about a few things and then she began to cry. I told her to take her time. I had no idea what the words were that she needed to release from her mind. Then she took a piece of paper and wrote on it, then she handed it to me and turned away weeping. "I was raped," the paper read.

She had carried this secret in her head for 7 years, from the time she was 10 years old. It was her shame and her curse. I was the first person she ever told. After we cried and hugged, I asked her how she felt. She said she was glad she told me, glad it was out there.....glad to have someone to share the burden and help her. There is freedom in confession, even though it wasn't her sin (not at all!), it was her burden. But that isn't the end.

A friend's sympathetic listening ear is a great gift to someone who is processing a trauma, but they usually need to find professional help as well. Often times after they confess the event out loud, they go through even more turmoil and outward self-defeating behaviors as their mind tries to understand and process it. That is what happened to my friend, and in late January we said goodbye to her for a year as she goes to an in house treatment and counseling center. She was excited to go though. She was ready to push through and begin really healing and getting the help she needs. I am so proud of her.

Allen McCray also gave some great tips on developing a healthy and positive self identity while you face the traumas in your own life. One of those is to be more "self compassionate".  Extend to yourself the compassion that you would to a friend who also had past issues to deal with. That way we are not sliding into self condemnation as we process our past, but letting God work powerfully in our lives to give overcoming victory and healing. Wouldn't that be something.....if we could help each other, give each other the permission to not have it all together, and go from trying to put  a brave face on top of our mess, into truly abundant life and freedom in Christ?

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3: 12-14

Falalalala...lalalalaaaa

Things we see in a city on a daily basis become invisible to us for most people. Our focus is on other things and our brain becomes a selective filtering device tailored to our own interests and causes.

Our church is large. It sits right on a very busy city street on a large, uncrowded lot. A huge sanctuary with a large swooping A frame roof and two large two story buildings behind and beside it. Yet people who travel that street daily do not know it's there. It doesn't interest them....it is not their "cause".

We are always trying to think of ideas to let our neighborhood know we care about them as a church. The desire at the core of our church is to reach our neighborhood with Christ's love. So last night my husband (our pastor) organized a Christmas caroling outreach for our neighbors. He chose the streets right across the busy street from our church. The people who live on that street must look directly at our building as they drive west every day, out to the main road.

We went to each house on three streets, rang the doorbell and left a professional looking flier and candy cane on their porch while the group sang from the street. So as they took the prepared flier, wishing them a Merry Christmas and inviting them to our Christmas services, I wondered if they recognized the name of the church or had ever looked our direction.

Only a handful of people peeked out from darkened windows, not wanting to be seen or talked to. At most of the houses, the people came out onto the porch, smiling, enjoying the songs and the "spirit of Christmas". Young couples, older retired people, single adults and families with little children gathered at their open doors to smile and thank us as we sang. One woman couldn't get over the fact that we were caroling. She hadn't seen carolers in years and years and she was thrilled! She spent several minutes with a few of our people after we'd moved on to the next house asking about our group and church and thanking them.

I think it was so well received that we'll probably make it a yearly event. Mission accomplished with a very old fashioned holiday tradition.....we made personal contact with our neighbors in a loving, fun way and did something to show them we care.

And we do. And we're praying they will find out God cares deeply about them too.

Our finest gifts we bring pah rum pah pum pum

While you are making your list, include one for Jesus.
(It's His birthday)

Bring Him your best gift....something just for Him.....
and bless Him, make Him smile. 

 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
(1 Cor 10:31)

I saw this video this morning
and was smiling all the way through!
So joyful. 

Scrambling up the holidays

We have moved and settled into a new house! Some friends of ours bought this house as an investment and they wanted us to rent it from them (for a great deal) so they'd have renters they knew and trusted. Having never lived in such a large, beautiful home before, we are loving it! Gradually we moved our things over during the last half of November. Then the last load came over the day before Thanksgiving. And we hosted Thanksgiving dinner here. My sisters helped me organize and put up my home decor, so it was well worth it.

I didn't realize how it would put my brain in a scramble to move during the holidays though. People cringed when I said we were doing this just before Thanksgiving, but I couldn't see it til it was upon me, scrambling my thoughts and natural rhythm of living. (not sure how to word that, but that is what I ended up with) So life right now is about catching up on all that lost time, when I should have been decorating my house for Christmas and making cookies and thinking of things to buy or make. eek!

To mess with my head just a little more, Maggie is in the Christmas play at school, which is now farther away from us. Yesterday I made the drive there and back four times...that makes 2 full hours I was driving in the car. TRAFFICKY ....that was what my theme word for yesterday. (also herds of white cars....I never realized they travel in packs but I kept seeing it) And this year I was going to really try to make the holidays more simplified....when will I learn how to do that?

pfft!

Well, plays do end (this weekend), decorations eventually make it to their destinations and shopping makes me grouchy anyway. As I was typing this up, I just remembered that I spent a good portion of the past year studying a book inspired by the story of Mary and Martha with some fellow pastors' wives.....

Luke 10  ³⁸ As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
 ⁴¹ But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! ⁴² There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus is so smart, isn't He? "Only one thing is worth being concerned about." I wish He followed me around and reminded me of things like that.....

...oh yeah! He does! (you can consider this your reminder too)

Conspiracy 2011

We joined up with a conspiracy a couple of years ago. It's a conspiracy to take back the True Spirit of Christmas. Bring back a heart of worship, simplicity, generosity, love.



You are SO blessed. Even those who live in poverty in the United States have so much more than the people living in third world or developing countries. Most of those people do not even have clean water to drink.

So know you are blessed, recognize it! Then do something to bless someone else....every day!

So maybe don't spend so much on yourselves this Christmas. Then help someone else with that money. Here is just one idea on how to do that....this is what being a blessing looks like! Please watch.....


Advent Conspiracy 2010-2011 Thank You from Living Water International on Vimeo.

-->Military Mom<--

While channel surfing this afternoon, I landed on a PBS show about women in the military. They are not supposed to be put into combat situations, but it is happening all the time. Independent Lens did a segment on the Lioness warriors. This is an unofficial name because officially they are not actually allowed to be in combat. I was drawn in to this documentary, which followed some of the women who had been involved in war in Iraq and other places. I watched with eyes wide open because we have a daughter who is finishing up boot camp right now.

She is with the National Guard, which is a reserve type branch mainly. Emma will have one weekend a month to be on duty, then 2 weeks training every summer.....unless their unit is deployed. Then they are regular Army soldiers. It makes my heart feel thump-ish and my palms clammy to think about that. Watching the documentary was not helping me feel better, but I definitely feel more educated and in a way, better prepared for what may come.

Then while I was watching it, Emma called. They get a once a week call to home. It lasts about 2 minutes. We wait all week to tell her various things we think of and then when we hear her voice, we forget all the things that seemed important and just listen to her and keep telling her how much we love and miss her.

She said this week was a very hard week for her platoon. They had a 3 day training event out in the woods during a storm with 50-60mph winds, rain, hail and a lot of mud. One of the drill sergeant's said on their facebook page that it would be something similar to what you'd see on scenes from Saving Private Ryan. Lots of GI Joe crawling around under barbed wire while machine guns and grenades are going off all around you. She said today that at times the mud became deep and she had to swim through it. Their clothes were saturated with water, sand and sweat.....then they had to sleep in tents, wet and cold. Next was a 12 mile march in full gear, which is around 40 pounds piled on your back.

She said it was the hardest thing she's ever done.

I hope that she will still be able to say that in 6 years when her enlistment is done. I pray that is the hardest thing she will ever have to do....

Unity Like Soup \o/

This morning the air was different in my house. The windows had been open all night and the cool front that came through last night has cooled the temperatures down by about 15 degrees. I love fresh air in the house. It feels and smells different.

I wanted to make soup tonight not just because of the fall weather but also because my oldest daughter now has mono. She can barely tolerate swallowing things that are solid. Leftover broccoli and grated cheese in the fridge got my attention. I haven't made broccoli cheddar soup in years! But we love it, so I carefully followed a recipe from the internet and got a very nice soup. Maybe the reason I don't make it often is because I've had several bad experiences just winging it with broccoli soup. It seems so easy, yet if you don't do it right, it turns out lumpy with separated cheese and thin broth.

The recipe I used is supposed to mimic Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup. The only difference I made in the process was to stir the grated cheese in after I added the milk to the roue, before adding the broth and vegetables. I think it blends better if you add it then, instead of trying to add it to the broth full of broccoli.

After one bowl I had to go change from long sleeves into short. It really warmed me up. Oh, and everyone agreed on the warming affect...it's not just because of my hormones this time!

As I was enjoying my soup, I thought of this weekend. I love it when God shows me something in a word picture. I'll be joining some ladies from church for a women's ministry leadership retreat. I am hoping the blending and process of our retreat produces a really comforting and unified blend of leadership for our church. Even though we have great ladies on the team, I think it's still something to pray towards. 

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Philippians 2:1-2 (The Message)

Love and Prayer

About a year ago, life got very hard for three of my close friends. Hard as in, barely able to cope. Hard as in losing your spouse (2 of them through divorce and one is now a widow). Hard like recurring anxiety, health problems, depression and financial difficulties. Oh, and just throw in adult children getting married (planning weddings), having brain surgery, cancer scares, and one who is moving to another country for two years.

How do you help one friend, much less three, go through that kind of year? You just can't. It is too much. There is only one Friend who can help. And He does.

I have been praying for these friends and I have a group of online friends praying for them too. Just lately we have all been in the same small group that meets at my house. Totally unplanned, but absolutely by Divine arrangement, there are two women who are also in our group who have gone through divorce earlier in life and are a testimony of God's care and faithfulness. Even when things in our lives don't go as planned, He is faithful to take care of us and love us.

Lately I have been noticing just how much God has done in the past year in these friends' lives. Despair is starting to lift and joy is slowly returning to each of them. There are still a lot of hard days, but the despair seems to have faded. God has graciously taken care of them and answered prayers for jobs, children, health and finances. He is amazing. He has amazing love for His people.

Last week after small group one of these dear friends asked me how I was doing with a recent health issue. Then she said, "Oh I've been praying for you....wait a minute, let's pray NOW. Come on!" So she and another one of these friends joined hands and prayed with such faith and understanding that when they finished, the other woman holding hands with us just said, "Woah...oh wow," and then continued on with her prayer.

It was such a gift.

The friends I have been walking through their own valleys with this year were lifting ME up (and doing a great job of it). Besides feeling God's power and care, I felt their love for me while they prayed. It was overwhelming. I definitely think there is greater power in prayer when it comes from a place of sincere love and not obligation....love for God and also for the person you are praying for. Love and understanding. These ladies have seen the power of prayer this past year and were pouring the faith they have gained into ministering to me.

Colossians 4:2 says, Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

....a mind alert to what the Spirit is telling you to pray for and a thankful heart because you remember what He's done for you.

Coming Together

We had a meeting after church yesterday on starting a contemporary service, going to two services on Sunday mornings. Hearing of this kind of meeting is enough to strike havoc into the guts of any church leaders. Very volatile feelings have been known to rise and bubble....even explode...to the surface in these kinds of meetings. It was such a wonderfully understanding and considerate meeting though. I was so pleased.

It was just a "what do you think about this" meeting, not a vote or any concrete decisions or plans. So our youth and young adults came to help explain the need for a more contemporary worship. Some of our newer youth, brand new Christians, were so mature and diplomatic. I cried. They talked about how they loved this church for the family feeling and that all the ages communicate and intermingle. They want the higher energy worship music that is relevant to their generation. It is how they express themselves. But don't want to segregate from the older people.

That made the older people feel so appreciated, including me! I'm telling you, it was so cool. Whatever happens with the services, it is so wonderful to know that our church people feel this way about God's family and want to be considerate of each other.

There was no talk of whether this kind of music style was good or bad. None.

The talk focused on not being divisive by having two services and wanting to make sure we would all still fellowship together and see each other regularly. We're a family and when some parts of a family are missing, it's not the same. I totally agree!

What began as a meeting about different styles of worship became a consensus on the unity of the Body of Christ. And how cool is it that we have been going through Ephesians at such a time as this? I love it.

...lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

...we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Ephesians 4:1-4, 15-16 NLT

What does it mean to be blessed?

There is such a great article over at Living Proof Ministries Blog today. It is exactly the life lesson I had when I visited Mozambique a year ago. You will be blessed to read it!

What does it really mean to be blessed? What does it mean to have enough? Can I really trust myself to answer this former question?

The image is one I took in Mozambique, an offering from one of the church's we visited to bless us. (that is a live chicken in the basket)



Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the LORD?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:7-9

Finding Beauty

A young adult friend of mine has had a few years of turmoil as she's entered adulthood. It's hard to process all that your life has been about and to see what God has done in your life unless you really take the time to look back over the years and remember. For many young women, the bad memories scream so loudly that the good memories and experiences get lost and forgotten. And no one has a perfect journey....we all have a broken road.

She now...as a part of her healing process....has a heart for other young women with self-image deficit. I think that needs to be a syndrome recognized by American society because it affects a majority of young women as they grow into being their own person as young adults. (we'll just call is SD for Self-image Deficit) Taylor is now challenging young women to see the beauty in themselves and in their lives. She is keeping a journal and sharing once a week what kinds of project and theme she is working on. It is inspiring and comforting to me to see how she has changed and grown. And she is now passing that experience on. It's so cool.

Here is her project for this month at You are Beautifully and Wonderfully Made. It is a recreation of the good memories in her life as a road she's traveled. If you click on the picture on her sight, you can see it better. Great job Taylor!

I'm feeling the birthday love

The President and I turned 50 today.

I don't know how he feels about it, but so far it's been okay for me. ;) For some reason though, when you turn another decade older, people think it's alright to broadcast it for you and embarrass the heck out of you. But I do love how the birthday turns into a birthweek celebration when everyone knows it's your big birthday.

Friends and family have taken me to lunch and gone shopping with me this week. Nice, bright yellow mums are sitting on my dining room table from my sweet husband. Last week my family all got together and celebrated my birthday as well as my sister Jodi's birthday and my brother being home for a visit.

Last night at small group my friend Edith made me a wonderful cake with pineapple and cream cheese and whipped cream. It looked great....well, except for the huge number 50 in the middle. I told her she was mean, but she just laughed. My small group blessed me so much last night with a huge houseplant, a card signed by all of them and some news of a new baby on the way for one of them. (I will let you wonder, but thankfully it is not me!) They really blew me away when they gathered around me and prayed blessings over me and thanked God for me. I don't even have words for that.

Then this morning and put on my birthday suit and noticed it needs starch or something. Two of my sisters called to scream "Happy birthday!" to me before they fly out to Ireland. I'm glad people are enjoying my birthday to the fullest.

I check my email to find 70+ birthday messages from Facebook friends. It made me cry. I really appreciate Facebook for more closely connecting me with friends, past and present. I like the birthday greetings on Facebook, but there is a reason I did not include my birthyear, Mom! Thanks for outing me. >:( ;)

Later today all of my four daughters and my husband will gather with me and grill steaks, play games and there may be guitar playing/singing if I'm lucky.

Feeling appreciated and loved is a great blessing. And today I am really, really blessed.

Thank you!

I'd rather have salsa

I planted a garden this summer.

There hasn't been a vegetable garden for me to tend in years. Our last home had no space in the yard and the home before that was in a more harsh climate. And I am not an attentive enough gardener to keep up with constant moisture zapping wind and frost coming at random times even in June. So really I have not gardened much in about 15 years.

So this year I began slowly. Just 3 tomato plants, a zucchini, an eggplant (do you say eggplant plant or just eggplant?) and a bunch of herbs. And I started with store bought plants because seeds take way too much tending and patience for fruit to bear. I should have gotten them in the ground in March but I am not on the ball much of the time so they went into the ground in late April.

By mid May, I had tomatoes and by late June, I had tomatoes lining the window sills of our house and piled into bowls on the kitchen table. Salsa was made and brushetta, until people would eat no more and stores ran out of tortilla chips for the high demand. Then they were randomly used for slicing into sandwiches or on top of tacos and finally they just sat there making me feel guilty and overwhelmed. Well....I am ashamed to say that soon I began dumping the bowls of mushy red balls into the trash when no one was looking. I began leaving bowls of little yellow cherry tomatoes at people's houses when they were out of town.

After the 118 degree heat and a few weeks of over 110, the huge, overgrown, ambitious bushes of tomatoes began to wilt, turn brown, lose fruit before it was ready and dry up from lack of water. Yeah, who wants to go water tomatoes in 110 degree heat? Not me. Besides, they begin to taste...weird.... when it's that hot.

Last week my husband pulled up the plants for me. My heart secretly rejoiced....no more tomatoes!

While I was quietly w00ting in my heart about no tomatoes to tend this morning, God (harshly, I thought) reminded me that we have a way more important harvest to tend to. As I finished writing a heart-felt article for our state denominational magazine about our recent boatload of people coming to Christ through the church's prayerful preparation, going out to sow the seed and then seeing the harvest come pouring in, the work is not done. Who wants piles of rotten, mushy harvest?

We need to get out there and make the salsa now! What is a harvest for anyway?

Ministry of the small

Twenty three years ago, while church planting in New Jersey, we started a home Bible study that later grew into a church. Nineteen years ago when Charles was a youth pastor in a larger New Jersey church, we joined a home 'cell group'. Seven years ago, we began small groups in our church in northern Arizona. In each of these settings, regular church members and some visitors started meeting together each week in homes to fellowship, study together, pray for each other and minister to each other. I can still remember each person who was in each group...their names, but also their stories and their journey. The small group atmosphere with its trust and comfort brings it out of you and draws you together. Each group I've been a part of has bonded in a deep way.

Two weeks ago our church here began small groups on Wednesday nights.

Small group tonight was the perfect combination of breaking bread together, sweet time of sharing and  drawing in some new people who have not been coming long.  I can see that the fellowship and small group dynamic is already at work. I could almost cry with joy and anticipation that this bonding and feeling of community could be starting here in this urban, spread out church, full of busy busy people. God bless us....every one.....with the true and deeper fellowship that brings real ministering and love in The Church.

If you are not in a small group at your church.....join one! If your church doesn't have small groups, start one.

Africa and Phoenix need the Lord

This morning we sent our missionaries back to Mozambique, Africa, something we are doing a lot in the past few years. Jim and Susan Oetter and Jessica Riemersma are IMB missionaries, but they are really ours. They are all three members of our church and have gone to spend a few years of their lives in Africa (Jim and Susan for 3 years, Jessica for 2), helping our full time missionary, another man, John Dina (who grew up in our church) and his wife, Wanne (a native of Brazil).

Let me back up. John and Wanne went to Mozambique, Africa over 15 years ago as full time missionaries. Their main job is raising up indigenous pastors in the various villages and groups of people around Quelimane, Mozambique. He has been talking to our church and others about coming to do mission trips to help him get some special things started for years. And finally a few years ago, my husband answered the call to help. He and 5 other men from our church went to see the work and to lead services in various places there. The next year a group of our women went to lead a women's conference. And finally a group of our youth and college aged members went to lead True Love Waits meetings and abstinence education classes. (which is nearly unheard of in Mozambique, where marriage is not the traditional way, and where AIDS is rampant)

Part of this last group were two young people who went to serve in Africa again. Jessica Riemersma has served as a semester missionary in Niger and is now in the middle of a two year term to Mozambique, where she and a partner are working with young women from the universities there....young women training to be nurses or teachers in their villages.

The other was Jeremiah Johnson, who went to Mozambique in January of 2010 and was killed in a motorcycle accident there in April 2010. His death threw not only our church and his family into deep grief but also the people he had ministered to in Mozambique. The posts I wrote about his work there are here. Compelled to go to the grieving Dina family and also to see the places where their son ministered, David and Diana Johnson, as well as my husband Charles and I, went to Mozambique in July 2010. The stories of our trip as well as the amazing influence Jeremiah had in his brief time there are also on that link.

This past June 2011 Charles and David went back again to teach seminary classes to the group of pastors John is helping to get better trained. They had 28 men, who for the first time in their lives heard the stories of the Old Testament and further training in pastoral care and personal growth as leaders in their churches. They each received a full study Bible in Portuguese and part of their training was in how to use the study Bibles for their own study. Up until this time, they mainly had been trained in the New Testament. Some of the pastors there had come to know Christ after Jeremiah had gone to their villages.

It all comes around. God works all things for good. He's got a purpose in life and we are blessed to be in on a little of it.

As we sent them off this morning, we had to hurry back to our church, where a group of people waited for my husband, Charles. We are having a special week of evangelism and outreach events in the neighborhoods of Phoenix. The Southern Baptist Convention is having their annual meeting in Phoenix this year. And wherever they meet each year, they also plan a lot of evangelistic events to help that host city reach out to their communities.

We've been busy prayer walking and asking God to bless our neighbors with open hearts and minds to the gospel as it is presented to them and that He would draw people in to fellowship in churches and build His Kingdom up in our area. We want to reach them and this is a huge week. Please pray for Phoenix. There are events happening all over this metro area. SBC members from all over the United States are coming to help in our hot, hot city. That alone makes it hard, but the real hardness is the human heart. That is why we're asking God to make people open, cause them to be thinking on spiritual matters, so that when people come to their door or meet them on the street or in a restaurant or at a block party, that they would already be searching. And that they will make a response to follow Christ.

The group is resting and some have seminary classes this afternoon, but already this morning God has opened the doors to two apartment complexes, where they got permission to knock on doors. And 2 people in those apartments have decided to follow Christ. They will go out again this evening for a few hours, as they will do each day this week.

On the way home from the church at lunch, Charles 'just so happened' along our next door neighbors, who were walking home from the store in the heat and he offered them a ride home. We've been praying for them and there they were, with an opportunity to serve them and get to know them better. He invited them to our block party this Saturday and she said she would bring her daughter.

Prayer opens the doors! Keep praying for our community and for God's love to draw them to Him.

God loves Mozambique and when our church members obeyed the call to go there, He blessed it.

God loves Phoenix too. Our members are jumping in there, answering the call and God's already blessing it.

Come Lord Jesus, bless this land....

You can be free indeed...

Saturday night my husband had a preaching gig at a downtown mission. We used to do this regularly in seminary in the mid 80's...he or some other seminary student would preach to a bunch of drunk guys and then we would hang around and talk to people and go home feeling a bit drained but good about ourselves.

This was a little different though.

It is a rescue mission, but it's not the usually sort of drop in after a long day of binge drinking sort of place. It's a live in discipleship place where men are recovering from alcohol or drug addiction, lives of crime and homelessness and they are finding Life. They come in as a mess (aren't we all?) and after detoxing, they are immediately required to be a part of the Bible study programs, Scripture memory, and community service. Every day they are kept busy doing good things. They spend so much time together and have come from the same desperate backgrounds that they bond very tightly. They go through so much healing and life learning together that they Love each other deeply.

All of this was so obvious as we went in to the worship service. The rough looking exteriors were softened by God's love pouring through the more seasoned men who have been in the program for a while. The new ones who were still in the detox phase or maybe had just arrived 'fresh' from the back alleys sat alone and held back while the regulars put an arm around them, went to sit beside them or motioned for them to come sit with them. Everyone was welcome, loved and respected.

Pastor Jack, who came to the mission as one of these men needing help years ago, told us that so many of the men go back to the streets after a while. He doesn't pressure them. He tells them that they are welcome to come back when they decide they are done with it. They will be welcomed back in.

Everything that happened was a whole blog post in itself. There was a dog roaming freely around, getting pats and hugs from the men who were themselves desperate to be loved and desperate to have someone, even a little dog, to show love to.

There was a recognition part of the service for men who had completed 4 months in the program and one for a man who had completed 8 months. They each spoke words of thanks, mostly to God, but also to the men who had walked alongside them through the process. One of them read a paper that was full of words. It was a page full of Bible verses he'd clung to during his time there. All different places in the Bible, but strung together to show what he'd learned....

...my rod and my staff will lead you and comfort you....you were called to greatness....I will give back what was taken...I will restore honor to you....

Those are just a few I jotted down, but the words of strength went on for a good 3 or 4 minutes.

Then Pastor Jack showed the congregation an award the city had given to the mission. It was in recognition of all the community service those men had done. They go out into the neighborhoods they took from and used to destroy and they clean them up and give back. They take the men back to try to help restore what they took. How cool would that be if we all practiced that?

The worship band was made up of various men, all but one had been through the program, who were professional musicians before ending up in lives of addiction. So it was some good music. My ears had that hissing sound in them for a while after it was over because it was loud, but we loved it. As the band played, sang and led the people in worship to Audio Adreneline, Switchfoot and Skillet songs of worship, the people danced, sang, smiled huge smiles, and tears ran freely. Beautiful, sincere, unencumbered and free worship.

Charles and I both said they need to come do a service for our church sometime. It would not be the same because people who don't have problems are not as free.

Think about that....I am lately...

Of course we all have problems and sin issues....we just hide them so well (even though we're full of it) and pretend it's not there so well (even though it's obvious), that we are not as free.

Contradictory... because Jesus came to make us free (indeed....remember?). But in order to be free, you've got to be real, you have to be vulnerable and humbled. There has to be Truth. And did I mention the name of the mission?

It's Set Free.

Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. John 8:34-36 (The Message)

Point me...in the direction of Albuquerque...

Left Phoenix about 1:15pm.

Places along the road we've traveled so many times zip by as we sit in silence for a while. The red rock ridge of Sedona looked like it was freshly painted and the San Francisco Peaks rose up like Kilimanjaro behind it. Lovely day for driving.

The lowering sun in the west made the rock formations along the border at Window Rock and Gallup look really dramatic as we talk of current events. The world events that are shaking up the world are coinciding with shaking personal lives of so many people we know! What is the deal? We listened on Klove radio to people discussing an appropriate (or honest?) reaction to Osama Bin Laden's death. Yeah, it feels conflicting, weirdly relieving as well as sad beyond all reason.

Then later we listened to NPR reporting on lives affected by the tornadoes in Alabama. Nearly 400 people have been found dead and about that many are still missing and presumed dead. A woman was being interviewed by an NPR reporter. The reporter (deadpan voice, as is NPR's style) said the woman, "like many of the people here in the Bible Belt of the South" credited God as saving her life through the storm. As the woman looked through the ruble of what used to be her apartment for any kind of proof of residency so that she could apply for aid, the noticeable smell of death was in the air, as many people from her apartments have not been recovered yet and are there beneath the ruble still. (I cannot imagine this kind of horror) Then she found a piece of paper, a letter from her grandchild's teacher and there was her name and address on the envelope. "Thank you, Lord!" she said. She said it like the Lord was standing there with them. And He is, thankfully. The NPR reporter just closed with that woman's jubilant exclamation of thanks and "this is yada yada, reporting from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for NPR".

In just the same way, as we see some of our friends and church members going through really tough times, there is always some ray of hope a message or gift from God that comes up in their lives, like a gleaming white envelope among that woman's collapsed home, and they give thanks in the middle of their storm too. Sometimes you just have to grab hold of the Hope among the ruble, and the stench of wrecked lives, and give credit to the One who is the revealer of Hope.

We have arrived in Albuquerque now (someone is already rumbling and poofing beside me) and tomorrow we'll head to Oklahoma City to visit with family before driving down to Plainview to fetch our college girl, who we've missed dearly, and bring her back home with us. In a month Hannah will move home too and we will all live together under the same roof again for the first time in almost 6 years.....for the summer at least. And there will be great rejoicing under that roof by some proud parents, who I know...of. ;)

Distractingly Perfect morning

While trying to read my Bible on the back porch today, I was driven away by the huge, black, jumbo jet bumble bee that lives in the hollow tree by my wicker chair. My Bible literally became my shield and then my sword. God can be so funny with the word pictures sometimes.

It is just one bee that hovers around that tree. I am wondering...do they live alone? Are there more bees in there? It was warm out there this morning and the sun was shining right on that tree. It seemed like he was not in a good frame of mind, so I came in. I gave up easily and retreated. Will he remember this tomorrow and buzz me again, knowing how easily I am driven away by distraction and fear? Insert life application lesson here.....and it's so true for me.

Settling back on the couch inside, away from anything unexpected, I open my computer to read the first chapter of Colossians in safer territory. But before I read, I notice my dog looking at me.

Ummm, my dog is holding a grudge against me. Dogs do that. I won't let her get up on my new couches in the living room. Yesterday we were in there all day setting everything up, reloading shelves and hanging pictures. Every time I sat on the couch she would jump up with me. At first I would pet her, then it would instantly dawn on me that this was my new beige couch and I would push her down and call her bad. She wasn't getting the idea, so I gave her a small swat, which was the final straw for her. Confused, she just sat on the floor giving me "sidelong glances that were vague but somehow threatening". She is part French poodle after all. (Don't worry if you don't understand that last part...my kids will. Google for explanation....this post is already A.D.D. enough.)

So here I am on the couch, and she is over on the floor glancing at me with a grudge in her heart. So distracting....I can't stand it when people are mad at me. (especially when the person is my dog)

Focus now, I can do this, I finally got to reading Colossians 1. It is perfect Truth for Good Friday. (What else would I expect from God's Word?)

For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.

He made peace with everything
in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Colossians 1:19-20

Earlier this morning as I drove Maggie to school, the morning radio show host was talking about the famous sermon, "It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'" by Tony Campolo, since today is Good Friday. They were comparing, as we humans so inadequately do, Jesus' suffering on Friday and resurrection on Sunday to our suffering in life and how some Day Jesus is coming back to end all suffering.

Our lives do include suffering here on earth. I've heard of so much suffering lately in people's lives....so much.

...but Sunday's coming. Jesus is coming....and it's not so far away.

Don't let yourself be distracted. Latch on to perfect Truth and God's peace today as you remember. I am trying to also. I need to go snuggle my dog now.