Family Day

Today was family day, like every other Tuesday.  We have set this day aside each week just to be with our family.  BJ doesn't do anything church related.  The kids don't have school (they make it up on Saturday).  We just aren't available that day.  There was a time when our schedule simply did not permit us to take this day.  BJ was doing construction at the church and he had to be there on Tuesdays because our hired construction man was there and he needed BJ's help.  Not having that day really hurt our family.  I almost had an emotional breakdown.  After that time we have let nothing get in the way of this day.  We see it as a vital part of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.  Most days of the week our kids wake up with the question, "Is it Tuesday?" 

Sometimes we go the beach.

Sometimes we go to the zoo.

 

 

Sometimes we go to the air museum.

 

 

Sometimes we go to the park.

 

 

Sometimes we stay home and play games, eat popcorn and watch a movie.  It's always something different, but it doesn't really matter what it is because we are together and it helps our kids feel important and part of our lives. 

 

 

Eleven and a half cents

It was a miracle really, not that I should have expected anything less than that. I had 23 reais in my purse (about 12 dollars). I carefully weighed in my mind which grocery items would be the best buy, make the most meals, etc. At the register I had my two or three items I held back to the end, thinking I would have to leave them behind. She rang up one and then another and then another and then I stood blinking at the total: 22.77! Once again I was floored at how God pays attention to the smallest details in our life and I set out on the walk home praising God for his faithfulness once again in my life.

Our future ministry plans look like a blank slate to us. We are open and willing to be used how God wants to use us, but as of yet, he hasn't let us in on the details. Honestly, I have no anxious feelings or thoughts, I know WHO controls the universe. I have no doubt that he has the perfect plan in mind and that in his perfect time and will, he will show us the next step to take.

No, my problem lies in the five short hours after my grocery story miracle when the
dishes
pile
high
and four squirrely kids aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing and the eyes bulge and hair stands on end and I am begging God for help.

Is this my calling?

I feel completely and totally inadequate!

Wouldn't I be of better use ministering to the street people?

And then the phone rings and it is my mom with just the encouragement I need and the reminders I need that YES indeed this is my calling and it is a worthy one. Yes it is exhausting and I feel inadequate most moments, but HE is able to get me through, one dish at a time, one diaper at a time, one squirrely moment at a time.

Spiritual Battles

The world is poised and panting, eager to enter into Sodom and Gomorrah and fulfull every fleshly lust for a few short days. The thought process, the planning, the money that goes into such an event is astronomical. Even the very air is electric with the anticipation they are feeling.

But what of the aftermath.
 

No one talks about the virginity that is lost.
 

The diseases that are contracted.
 

The fatherless children that are conceived.
 

As with any sinful activity, only the beauty and "you must have it now" side is advertised.

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

~Jesus
 

Please pray for the believers. It is easy for us to close out the sights and sounds, we are foreigners. It is not always so easy for the new believers who may have participated in the past, but now they are on a new path.
 

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

~ Jesus
 

Our six churches and congregations have a teen retreat planned to counter attack the fiery darts of the enemy. Please pray for the pastors and wives who have put so much planning and prayer into this event, that they would have the strength and energy they need. Please pray for the teens themselves. No doubt there will be those that come who do not know Jesus Christ. No doubt those who DO know Jesus Christ will come also, but the world is whispering, enticing, tempting. Pray for recharged spiritual batteries. Pray for our speaker that God will use him in a mighty way!

Thanksgiving

"It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than resentful over what is withheld - one attitude or the other becomes a way of life." 
        ~Elisabeth Elliot

He had seen me gasping for air, for life, for something.  I myself didn't know what.  In a dinner exploded kitchen, the love of my life handed me clean white paper with crisp black letters, "I thought you would like this."  And the water balloon my head had been swimming in pops and I breathe and it is air and not water anymore. 

My mother-in-law must have sensed my gasping for air, for life, for something too ~ through the phone, through the emails thousands of miles away.  She brings me One Thousand Gifts.  Said she read it twice, thought I'd like it.  It sits by my bed for weeks before I open the first page.  Once it is open, I can't close it and I feel life again and I stop gasping. 

Eight months later I am gasping for air, for life, for something.  I see One Thousand Gifts on the shelf and grab it again, this time as I sit each morning waiting for physical therapy.  Why am I so hard headed when it is right there in front of me ~ being thankful for gifts God gives me each day.  The trip to the clinic each day is short but full of lessons.

The bus screeches to a halt and I climb on.  Stomach flutters to throat and I transport back to the fear I knew that day I was crushed on the bus, my swollen pregnant belly screaming with every crush and the driver oblivious to my call to get off at the bus stop and the yells of others to stop that bus so we could uncrush ourselves and breathe.  Fears must be faced and so I face it and get on.  Careening around corners we whiz past broken up sidewalks, graffiti covered walls.  And I hear the hiss in my ear ~ what is there to be thankful about all this? 

The ride home is slower ~ a volkswagon bus, my style of public transportation.  Now I can see the green that has pushed itself up through the crack in the cement and is a flourishing tree.  Its roots must go deep, I think, to be able to live like that.  And I need to dig my roots deep, deeper into His Word so I can live like that too.  But I see the drink too, the drink to the lips and it isn't even noon and there is the truck that brings the drink and it claims in big bold letters, "Great times are coming".  And with every drink they think the great times are coming, but they never do and so they drink on looking for them.  And the faces I pass with the drink on the lips, in the hand, at the table are innumerable on that ten minute ride home.  And I hear the hiss in my ear ~ you really think you can make a difference?

And it hits me hard, like every other time, that I am in this battle for life and I will struggle daily to keep my perspective, to stay thankful, to stop the negativity that seems to flow naturally from my lips and crush my family.  And I know the answer to the hissing in my ear, "YES, I can be thankful for all of this and YES I can make a difference but ONLY by relying on the One who called us here!

When your husband is the pastor...

it is a very special thing.  He shares his messages with you before he preaches them.  He asks you how it went after the service.  He is always there to answer any Bible question you have and give Biblical counsel day or night.  And as a man of the Word, God uses him to convict your heart right when you need it.  Like today for example...

The Sunday School study was the usual 'let's reflect on the birth of Christ' study that most every Sunday School has the Sunday before Christmas.  This time it was different.  One of the questions in his study was to put yourself in Mary and Joseph's place and think about how they felt with all the events surrounding the birth of Christ.

And it hit me like a ton of bricks!

At this time of year, we read Luke 2, look at beautiful illustrations of Mary holding the newborn Son of God and reflect on what a wonderful story it is. 

This time I looked deeper as the pastor urged us.

I looked and found a life of humiliation for Mary among her neighbors and friends as she was forever labeled as the 'the girl that got pregnant before marriage'.  I found Joseph being talked about behind his back and even accused to his face as 'the man that did it'.

I found a very uncomfortably pregnant Mary travelling to a far away city.  I saw best laid plans for a birth in the comfort of her own home traded for that of a birth in a stable most likely with animals nearby and most likely without the midwife. 

I saw a young father and mother fleeing with their young child into a foreign land, from a king so mad with power that he ordered the death of every child under the age of two.

What was that I was complaining about?  The future ministry plans that aren't seeming to go the way I was sure God wanted them to go?  That we are getting a hot and muggy Christmas instead of a cold and snowy one?  The ants I had to pick off of my freshly baked Christmas cookies?

And so over an afternoon of washing dishes I confessed my complaining heart to the Lord and when the pastor came in for a Christmas cookie, I looked him in the eye and told him thanks for the message, it was just what I needed to hear. 

And it felt like I could hear Mary say,"It was worth it all and really, it was only a moment that life I lived on earth.  Keep on keeping on!"

Merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas Tea

We had a wonderful ladies Christmas tea this month.  No, there was no snow and temperatures in the frigid zone but we made do with Christmas decor in the air conditioning and it worked quite nicely!

 

 

We had our biggest group out yet and that was so exciting to see!  We enjoyed a time of Christmas carols and then a testimony and devotional from Dawn, our co-worker who recently arrived back in Brazil with her family after their furlough.  One of the ladies brought her unsaved neighbor and she really enjoyed her time.  Please pray for Kelly that God would do a work in her heart and show her the true way to Him. 

 

 

 

As always, a dear lady in the church brought us a fun Christmas craft to do together.  Each ladies meeting she provides a fun craft that she leads us in and then sends us home with the finished craft as well as instructions and diecuts for us to make more at home on our own.  This is a special ministry gift that she has.  There is something about a group of ladies doing a craft together that creates bonds of friendship and generates conversation.

 

 

 

 

 

And of course our time would not be complete without our "lanche da tarde" (afternoon tea or snack).  Each lady brings something to share with the group and we enjoy trying each item and of course more conversation!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas or Feliz Natal as we say here in Brazil to each and every one of you.  May the Lord Jesus be our focus this Christmas and always!



Heart Cry

I rank with that group of people who organize their groceries at the checkout stand. Heavy things first, cold stuff stays together, lightweight and bread last. I was in that mode while keeping an eye on Flavia wandering around me and the grocery cart, when I heard a quiet voice call out, "Nene..."

This word is usually used when referring to babies but sometimes people use it for grown-ups too. Naturally I assumed someone was calling out to Flavia. As I saw diapers and powdered milk stretching out towards me, my brain registered that someone was talking to me. I looked up from the conveyer belt loaded down with groceries into sunken cheeks and sad eyes.

"Nene, I am out of money, could you buy these diapers and this milk for me?" Stupidly I nodded yes and then her sad eyes bored into my soul as she begged,

"Pray for me!"

I took the diapers and milk up to the front of the conveyor belt. The cashier didn't even blink an eye, just scanned the items, the emaciated woman bagged them up and then with a smile and a thank you she was gone. It happened so fast, I didn't even know it had happened.

Suddenly I came out of my organizational reverie.

Frantically I searched the store for her. She was no where to be seen. Why hadn't I offered her some food for herself. I had just let her go with only powdered milk and diapers!

I finished my purchases and began the long walk to the car. Long because Flavia was walking two year old slow motion style and I was pushing a cart groaning under the weight of the groceries.

Slowly I drove out of the parking lot looking everywhere for her.

Gone.

Slowly I drove home, searching the crowds of people for an emaciated body in a yellow tank top and jean skirt.

Gone.

So I did the only thing I could do and prayed for her, begging God to bring someone into her life to share Christ with her. Someone to help her.

I'm home now, my month's worth of groceries bulging out of my cupboards. I served lunch with enough and then some for everyone in my family. I still feel those eyes boring down into my soul..."pray for me!"...

A package of cookies yielded two per person except for one.  a daughter complained that the others had two cookies, why couldn't she. So I told her of a lady I met at the grocery store who looked like she hadn't eaten a decent meal in a long time. "I think you ate pretty good at lunch today, don't you?"  A quiet, "oh...." came out of her mouth.

And so life's clock continues to click off the minutes. Soon I will be going to cook dinner, a healthy, fulfulling meal . Still I feel those eyes boring down into my soul..."pray for me!"... And so I will pray for her. And the next time I go out I will be looking for an emaciated body in a yellow tank top and jean skirt.