God Bless America!

I love America!  As many problems as we have in this country, especially right now, it is still the best place to live.  Our trip to Africa was amazing and God did some awesome things but I would not want to live there. After one week in the country I was ready to come home.  Everything is so difficult there.  Just making a simple meal is a monumental task.  One afternoon we had grilled cheese and BLT sandwiches with fries and it took an hour an a half to make the meal.  Everything is done from scratch and a trip to the market is quite an experience.  Teresa has to walk to the corner and get a taxi to ride to the market.  She has to put everything she buys in a rice bag and carry it back home in the taxi.  That means you can only purchase a few items at a time, which means more frequent trips to the market.  

The electricity is a problem over there.  We lost power almost daily and when we did have electricity there were constant surges.  Something is always breaking down and Kenny spends alot of time just on upkeep for the house and guest house.  They have many interruptions from people just stopping by the house.  I guess that is mostly a good thing since they are trying to reach the people for Christ.  

It was so hot it was draining.  I felt exhausted the entire time I was there.  I did not sleep through the night once the entire trip.  I had stomach issues the entire last week there and still do now.  I hope to get back to normal very soon!

Even with all the difficulties, it was well worth the trip over there.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  God really gave me a heart for the ladies while I was there.  They were so friendly to us and showed such hospitality.  It really puts us to shame here in America.  We are all so wrapped up in our own lives that we don’t even have time for each other, much less people in our neighborhood and community.  It was a challenge to me to try to reach out more to people in my neighborhood to build bridges for relationships and sharing Christ.

We had the awesome privilege of being part of seeing a lady come into a relationship with Christ while we were there.  We had a great follow up visit to her home and it was so awesome to see her excitement and joy about the Lord.  God also gave her a physical healing from asthma in response to our specific prayers over her.  

We had great opportunities there through teaching English, hosting a cooking class, english club, prayer walks and visits in 5 different ladies homes.  It was a great experience and God is definitely at work there in Chad.  My respect and admiration for Teresa and her family has grown tremendously.  They are true warriors for the Lord.  Keep them in your prayers as they continue to serve there.  Pray also for the Chadians that God will pursue them relentlessly and they will give in to His offer of eternal life.

I hope to be putting photos of our trip on picasa within the next day or so.  I will post the link when they are up and ready to view.

I wish I could tell you every detail of our trip and all that God did but it would be impossible.  I was so blessed to be a part of it all and hope to be able to go back again soon.

Conference Highlights

Trusty Driver, Kendra

Fun with Friends

Well, I’m finally getting time to write about the conference I went to last weekend.  What a busy week it’s been!  We started our journey out in the church van with our trusty Chesapeake school bus driver, Kendra, and before we even got out of the parking lot she tried to give us whiplash!  (I had to write about that because I told her I was going to) We only got honked at by one tractor trailer driver who was a little annoyed that we were a bit in his lane.  Just bustin’ on Kendra a little but she did a great job keeping us safe and sound all the way there and back and I sure appreciated not having to drive!

The conference itself was great.  We started the night off on Friday with some great worship led by Charles Billingsly.  Chonda Pierce was the speaker for the evening and she was hilarious as usual.  It was good to just laugh a little.  We had a full blown concert by Richie McDonald, who used to be lead singer for the country group, Lonestar.  Saturday was just as great with more awesome worship and inspiring messages by Angela Thomas, Carol Kent, Karen Kingsbury and Thelma Wells.  I am amazed at the strength and faith of Carol Kent as she deals with the difficult reality that her only son is in prison for the rest of his life.  If she can go on with faith, joy and service to God, then there’s no reason I can’t have that same attitude in my life!  It was great getting to meet my favorite fiction author, Karen Kingsbury.  I was able to tell her how inspirational her books have been for me and my daughter, Sheleena, and how much they have encouraged us to love family no matter what.  One of the highlights of the weekend was a mini-concert by Mandisa. What an incredible voice she has!  I hope I sing like that when I get to heaven.  I also thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out with the ladies from church and having some conversation about deep, spiritual issues.  I love that!  

Can’t wait for the next getaway!  It’s so good to take these opportunities for spiritual renewal and refreshing.  It helps get geared up for the next bump in the road, which by the way, came the day after I got home!  Oh well….back to real life.

Conference Bound

In about an hour I am heading out with about 9 other ladies from my church to attend the “Extraordinary Women” conference in Lynchburg, VA.  I can’t wait to get away and just relax and take time for worship, fellowship and spiritual refreshing.  I have been so stressed out the past couple of weeks with all that is going on.  I’ve been working late almost every day and have had some kind of meeting or event most weeknights and every weekend seems to be filled with something to do.  On top of that, I’m trying to prepare for my trip to Chad Africa, which is only about 4 weeks away and getting ready to have another baby in the house soon! I’m exhausted just writing about it all.  I’m sure I will have some great things to share about the conference so be sure to check back soon!

The “P” Word

For the past few weeks, or maybe even months, I’ve been kind of in a poor me mode full of self-pity and self-absorption.  I’ve questioned why God doesn’t answer my prayers the way I pray them and even wondered why I should pray at all.  I feel like I’ve been treading water, spiritually speaking, and not really filled up with the Holy Spirit and living from the overflow.  A couple of days ago I was doing my regular complaining to a friend of mine through email about how terrible life is right now and she wrote back and gave me the kick in the pants I needed. 

She actually had the courage to boldly use the P word and set me straight.  She told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to repent of the sin of PRIDE!  When I first read her words I was taken back a little and could have easily let myself be offended.  The bible says in Proverbs 27:5-6, “An open rebuke is better than hidden love!  Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.”  While I was contemplating my reply to her I received more emails from her with some pages from a book she was reading about pride and humility and as I read them, I realized that she was right on the money.  How could I deny that I had the sin of pride when I read this definition:  “Pride is when someone is focused on self.  Those who are caught up in self-pity, who are self-absorbed with a sense of failure are full of pride.  They are not concerned with the glory of God and with being thankful for what good gifts and talents the Lord has given them, but instead are focused on how they think they have gotten a ‘raw deal.’”  Ouch.  Then I had to go on reading about the manifestations of pride.  I will list just a few of the 30 that I had the joy of reading!  1. A lack of biblical prayer (proud people who do pray usually center their prayers on themselves and their desires, rather than God and others) 2.  Voicing preferences or opinions when not asked 3.  Being impatient or irritable with others (being often inflexible on preference issues) 4.  Being jealous or envious (like those who have amazing children walking with God!) 5.  Complaining against or passing judgment on God (look what God has done to me or allowed to happen to me)  6.  A lack of gratitude in general (Proud people usually think they deserve what is good.  They tend to be critical, complaining and discontent) 

Well, you get the idea.  Don’t you wish you had a friend like mine?!  Seriously, I’m thankful to have friends who will be honest and willing to “wound me” to help me grow in my relationship with the Lord and not allow me to just wallow in self-pity and question God’s faithfulness.  I’ve made a conscious decision to lay down pride as best I know how, with God’s help, and keep my eyes on Him and not my circumstances.  Let’s face it…life is hard sometimes and if we look at our circumstances long enough we might as well crawl in a hole and just give up.  We must all keep our eyes on Jesus and live knowing without a doubt that God is sovereign and in control.  No, His ways are not our ways.  No, His timing is not our timing.  But I do believe that in His amazing love and grace He is going to teach me so much through all of this if I will keep my heart and mind open and receive it.  I don’t want to miss it because I believe He is going to help me come out on the other side a better person and more in love with Him than I ever thought possible.

What about you?  Maybe you see yourself in a few of the descriptions listed above.  If we are all honest with ourselves we have to admit that we have pride in our hearts to some degree.  I personally believe that pride is the root of every sin so I know that pride will not be banished from our hearts completely until Jesus comes to take us home.  I also believe that God would still have us work toward lessening that pride problem so we can shine the light of Jesus as brightly as possible to this dark world around us.  Maybe then the greatest P word in my life won’t be pride but will be PRAISE!

Garage Band

Tonight I attended our Sonlight worship team practice in our leader’s garage.  I guess now I can say I’ve been in a garage band!  It was great to meet with other like-minded believers and praise the Lord together.  The drummer at practice tonight was our drummer a couple of years back but fell away from the Lord for a while.  It was so awesome tonight to hear him talk about his journey back to God.  He spoke of the lonliness he felt when he wasn’t walking with God after knowing the pleasure of walking by His side.  He spoke of God being with him all the time but how his stubbornness, pride and the chip on his shoulder kept him away.  He has been in my prayers throughout his journey away from God and what a joy to see him back on track with God!  Words can’t express it. 

God is there for you too if you’ve wandered away.  He loves you just like you are but loves you too much to leave you that way.  He has much greater plans for your life than you could imagine.  I pray that you will reach out to Him and allow Him to heal any broken places in your life.  If you live in the Chesapeake area, I urge you to come to Sonlight Church this Sunday to hear a message on this very subject.  God can redeem a broken past and bring beauty from ashes.  Come find out how to live your life to the beat of a different drummer!

The Mind of God

I wonder if anyone can ever really understand the mind of God.  We try so hard by reading His word, praying and asking Him to reveal it, talking with others about it and just about any other way we can think of.  I don’t think my human mind can ever comprehend His ways and maybe I’m not meant to.  Afterall, He is God!  If I could understand everything about Him then He wouldn’t really be that big, but deep down inside me I feel I must try. 

My mind contemplates these things when prayers are not answered that I’ve prayed faithfully for years.  I have to ask, “Why didn’t God answer?”  “What am I doing wrong?”  I think it will take a lifetime to know how to truly pray in God’s will with no selfish ulterior motives behind my asking.  We all want things in our lives to turn out a certain way for various reasons.  As American’s I think it’s just in us to want to live the perfect, white picket fence life but because we live in a sinful, fallen world, that dream is not really a reality so our hopes are dashed and we can become disillusioned.  How do we accept the fact that pain, heartache and suffering will come to us at some point in life and that those we love will disappoint us, without losing all hope for good things in life?  I must constantly fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.  It is for Him that I live and not for my own pleasure.  I must hold on to the knowlege that all things work together for good to those who love Him and continue to believe no matter what comes.

Just some thoughts going on in my mind today that I thought I’d jot down for you to ponder as well.  Any thoughts?  I’d love to hear your perspective on knowing the mind of God. I guess I’m still on the quest!

Gnats Unleashed!

Today I had the privilege of traveling with 32 other ladies down to Edenton, NC to attend a play at the Rocky Hock Playhouse.  As we pulled up and got out of our vehicles we were swarmed by gnats!  They were relentless and there was no escaping them until we got inside the theater.  They were even in the lobby area.  If they were not involved in any of the 10 plagues that God used to change Pharoah’s heart, they should have been! 

Once we got past the attack, we were settled in our seats and spent the next 2 hours watching the story of Ruth and Boaz unfold through some great actors and singers.  It’s kind of weird to see some of the talent they had on stage in a “middle of nowhere” little place.  As the play wrapped up, they brought to our attention the fact that Jesus is our kinsman redeemer, just as Boaz was for Ruth.  Christ paid the price to purchase us and take away our sin debt.  There’s no better news than that and today was a great reminder of what Jesus did for us.  We enjoyed great fellowship with each other, some o.k. food and alot of laughter and inspiration from watching God’s word acted out on stage.  I would say that in the end it was well worth fighting the army of gnats!

Africa, Here I Come!

Today I made the final decision to go on the Chad Africa trip in October with our church.  I struggled with whether or not I should go since our daughter, Jenna, is due to deliver her baby just 3 weeks after our return. The doctor has told her she will more than likely have pre-eclampsia again with this pregnancy and as soon as they discover it, they will deliver the baby.  I so want to be here for the delivery but have such a desire to go on the trip too.

Dinner with the Basses in Paris

As I got alone with God this past Saturday to ask for direction I felt that He said the only time I really seek intimacy with Him is when I want an answer to something and the rest of the time I take our relationship for granted.  He led me to stop asking and just spend time worshiping Him. When we are praising and worshiping God as a way of life, then we will be able to hear Him more clearly.  I let go of the desperation for an answer and just began to give Him praise and worship.  As I’ve prayed about the trip I have sensed God telling me to go but didn’t have the confidence that I was really hearing from God.  I was concerned that maybe it was just my sub-conscious telling me to go because I want to so much.  Today Vickie Birch confirmed what I have been feeling in my heart because she has been praying for me over this past week and felt God telling her that I was to go on the trip.  I took that as God’s confirmation for me to take the trip.  I’m so excited to be heading in this direction because I will not only get to go on mission for God, but will get to see our best friends, Kenny and Teresa, at the same time!  What a blessing. I can’t wait!