Remembering!

A faithful woman of God has challenged me yet again during her Memorial Box Mondays...

And although I have shared before - 

this time is different.

Why?

Because we are in the midst of a personal "storm" brewing...

and if I took my eyes off of Him
things could go

very wrong

very fast.

You see, God is teaching me through these "memorials"

-things that we put before our eyes that remind us of the faithfulness of our God

and His unwavering ability to do the impossible-

that He is still (and always will be)

Faithful

Able

Compassionate

Long-Suffering

 Miracle-Working

Head-Lifter

Healer

Almighty

Counselor

Defender

Creator

Good Shepherd

 Redeemer

Savior

Holy One!

And so much more of who He is!

And so - in the midst of my brewing worry

I take a moment to surrender it to Him

and focus on remembering His faithful deeds...

Healer

My faithful God brought my beautiful Amara into our lives

but with her she brought such saddness in her broken body...

 When we picked her up from the rehab facility all the staff loved her,

but they spoke often of all the difficulties that she would encounter-

All the things she might not be able to do-

Even now, when I go back and read her hospital reports

my eyes well with tears at all her little body had to endure.

(and all before she turned 2 months old)

They used words like "non-accidental trauma"

"failure to thrive"...

But the reality was she had 

11 fractured vertebrae

a fractured femur

a fracture on her cheekbone
healed scars from cigarette burns

and numerous old scars and bruises...

All before she was 2 months old...

And even as the doctors and nurses gave us updates on our newest treasure
we would look them straight in the eyes and let them know
"That's okay.  Our God is able!"

No wavering.
We just KNEW.

And, yes
our Faithful God has healed our princess
beyond what we could have asked or imagined!

This little, frail, treasure
has blossomed into a thriving toddler-heading-to-two!

Faithful God.
Mighty God.

Who was able to do more than we could ask or imagine.

And is still able.

I need to remind myself of that often.

He.is.still.able.
PERIOD.

She stands as a testimony to His faithfulness
to even those forgotten by most
but not her loving Father in heaven.

NEVER FORGOTTEN.

   

 

    

Unfolding Before My Eyes!

Well, I have been working on a post

but it seems to be sitting way to close

to that "holy place" within my walk...

maybe someday I will be able to share

but for now I wanted to share a sweet testimony.

This is precious because it shows so clearly

on how our Heavenly Father cares.

And that He will move heaven and Earth for His plans and purposes to unfold.

There is a slight disclaimer that comes with this testimony.

As with many areas in my life 

(and I'm guessing many of your lives as well)

the real testimonies don't read so crisp and clean

when they are happening right before us.

Rather, with hindsight, later we are able to sift through

and present pretty, cleaned-up, testimonies worth publishing.

So the disclaimer is:

I am still watching this unfold before my eyes...

(bear with the scattered nature of the events!)

Thank you.

No, really.  Thank you.

:o)

 So this story actually begins with a sweet woman of God

who found a wonderful blog...

of a beautiful Christian mama who loves God's abandoned children.

And that sweet woman of God 

shared the blog site with her friend

(another awesome young woman who has a heart for His children)

and that friend shared it with me.

So the stage is set, but several years will pass...

with me loving watching God move to bring children 

who have been 

written off...

discarded...

thrown away by society...

to a forever family of their very own!

And she has born witness time and time again

to the miracle-moving power that God can have in our lives

and in the lives of His children.

So as our story continues-

I fell in love with this precious family

who would do anything to follow God's call to help His precious ones...

even give up their secure position pastoring a church.

Wow!

During this time God had been preparing my family for ministry

to His precious children through the foster care system.

Broken, discarded, abused, brokenhearted.

Words that should NEVER be used when referring to children!

Our ministry here grew

and my dear bloggy friend's ministry grew 

and she continued to minister and share all that God was doing

for His love of the orphan.

Then one day

resting in His presence

I got BOLD...

I asked God to begin to show me His heart for the orphan.

And guess what?

He answered!

He begun revealing and unfolding such a powerful love!

These thoughts overwhelm me at times....

164,000,000 orphans worldwide

15,000 children die every day due to starvation

If I let my spirit rest on these numbers

I become very overwhelmed

very fast.

I am one person.

We are one family.

We can only make a difference to a relatively low number of these children.

(and yes I know it really matters to them- not downplaying that at all)

But what MORE could I do????

My precious, precious Father began teaching me

how to speak for Him.

How to share His heart for these children

and to not worry about making others "feel bad".

Now, I am not saying that everyone can adopt or foster

 but we can ALL do something.

SOMETHING!

Now during this time that God was showing me how to be more vocal

My pastor (love him!) preached one Sunday 

and included a story (about discouragement) and referenced

being out at a pastoral conference in Phoenix 

and the wisdom that had been shared there.

I sat in my seat thinking "I wonder if this is Linny's church?"

and then pastor mentioned the name of the church

and it was the same church!

Well, I was tickled and went home hoping to hop on the computer 

to share this sweet story about how her pastor blessed my pastor, etc.

and I opened her blog and read her post.

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

At the same time my pastor was talking about her church,

her husband (not a pastor at this church)

was PREACHING from their pulpit to 15,000 members.

I just stared at the post.

I just knew in my spirit that this wasn't a coincidence.  

God is about holy appointments.

And I just KNEW, ya know?

I didn't know what it meant, but I contacted Linny and shared the sweet

story and casually mentioned that I would love to have them come to our church.

She responded that they were planning a trip in the fall and that they would love to.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God would not let me forget those words.

I knew I had to try and bring this wonderful family to our pastor.

If God needs a voice, please let me be used!

So I swallowed my intimidation and fear

and tried to share this wonderful story in 3 minutes without rambling

(don't know if I actually accomplished it without rambling...)

But I just shared.

And asked him to pray about asking them to come.

That's it.  I left it there.

I was able to tell him to go to the link of this mega-church

and watch one of his sermons!

(something only God could orchestrate)

This was no little thing that this amazing man of God

was asked to preach a Sunday service from an altar which is normally only the 

senior pastors and the likes of Joyce Meyers...

Not one of their own 15 pastors on staff...

Dwight.

Faithful God.

Orchestrating a beautiful story!

So I left it with my senior pastor not knowing what would come of it.

Then my associate pastor (and my boss) asked me a few days later

if I knew any missionary who would be available for our Missions Banquet...

Oh boy!  Did I!

So I unfolded the story again for him and left it there.

In another week, they came to me asking to reach out and make contact 

to see if they would be available.

Now Linny had just posted the day before on how they were planning a missions trip

and that they were planning on leaving 

THE DAY BEFORE the missions banquet.

Ugh!

But I still reached out

knowing I serve a faithful God 

who was doing wonderful things behind the scenes.

Out on the other side of the county

3,000 miles away

this precious family had been praying for opportunities to open up

to go into churches!

The missions trip was having difficulties in the planning stages

and the details would not fall into place.

Dwight could come!

(and as soon as they began planning the details of the trip 

fell into place for the following week!)

 

What a faithful God...

lining up all of His children

to be in the right place

at the right time.

Using His Holy Spirit 

to orchestrate this beginning

of what prayerfully will grow

into more and more hearts opened for the orphan!

Yea God!

And yes, I am totally giddy for what is to come!

Stay tuned!

Because I have seen...

I have been approached by many people lately...

asking "why?"

Why do we take in children...

especially when we are so busy and have so many burdens of our own...

No, our situation is not "picture perfect" to the world's standards.

Nor (if we were able to choose our path) would we have chosen these circumstances either...

BUT

God is not calling us to have a perfect life before we are to be obedient.

He is not waiting (thankfully!) for us to be perfect either.

For those of you that know me and the many of you who don't...

you would know that I am a very unlikely vessel for God to use.

I see all my faults...

and my social awkwardness...

and my bluntness...

and my disorganized areas of my life...

I see all of it (and so much more)

and I know that I am not anyone that God should choose to use.

Maybe that was it - 

I am a nobody who is hopelessly in love with my Savior...

willing to follow Him, learn from Him, and serve Him in every way.

Willing to do, to go, to serve...

even if it turned my world upside down.

I (just as many of you, I am sure) always dreamed of being called to the missions field

Serving in some far-off land

reaching the lost

healing lives in His precious name!

Many of you have had the privilege of going...

but I suspect that many of you (including myself) are not called to go.

We are called to stay...

serve Him where He has planted us.

And I was content with where He had me.

Living a middle-class American life.

Serving my church,

loving my God,

reaching out to my community...

And then suddenly I KNEW that wasn't enough.

I couldn't be content just being a "soccer mom"...

and although I work

and although I homeschool

and although I run my house

and serve my church through several ministries

it was not enough.

So that is where my journey began.

Trust me, dear friends, that if you ask Jesus where He wants you.

He will tell you.

Just be prepared for the answer!

He may ask you to sacrifice something you never knew you could do without.

He may fill an already busy schedule with more than you ever thought you could do.

He may give you something you never knew you needed -

but you quickly find out that you cannot live without!

I do want to take a moment and say - 

where He has called me is not necessarily where He has called you.

I thank God that He only shares pieces of His heart with each one of us.

I think if each of us knew all that God wanted to do here 

we would go crazy trying to fix everything at once.

So he gives to each their portion.

Only if they ask...

So- how many of you have felt the Father's heart for the children?

Why is it not the right time?

Is that timing yours or His?

He has opened my eyes to His children that are lost and dying.

Who need love and nurturing and a Godly home to grow in.

They need a chance.

They can't wait.

So I have felt a tugging and burning to do more.

I cannot take every one in.

(I know that)

But He has given me a voice to share.

So here I am answering the repeated question...

I do it - because I have seen!

He has opened my eyes to see His children.

And now, I cannot look away.

 

I am earnestly praying for the opportunity

(and I believe God is doing something in the background and I am thrilled!)

to inspire and encourage others.

Lord, open doors to show Your love for the orphan 

and our role to showing them Your love!

  

Resting in Him

I feel very blessed to have had such a restful time away.

Although we have had some busy and hectic times around here - 

My God knew I needed some peaceful time of refreshment in Him.

Because it is only in Him that we can truly find rest.

REAL rest.

The kind of rest that heals, restores, and strengthens us for another day.

So there I sat looking at this wonderful creation of His

and I was actually able to steal away a few HOURS...

yes, you heard me right HOURS...

with Him.

Only Him.

My Comforter.

My Healer.

Oh, what a precious time it was!

It was during this time that He began to speak to me

He showed me some deeper truths in Him - 

some precious moments with my Savior!

~~~~~~~

It was so calm and peaceful.  Psalm 23 came to my mind...

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

I sat pondering this wonderful psalm and I began to think of it in another light.

Still waters...

what did that mean?

The amplified Bible expand "still" to mean still and restful.

Whew!  I know being "still" makes me feel rested.

But...

then He began speaking to my heart and showing me the difference

between still...

and stagnant.

Flowing water brings health, healing, life!

Stagnant water - water with no movement - brings disease, sickness, and death!

 

Could it be that it is the same with our faith?

That somehow the MOVEMENT of our faith put into action

is what keeps our spiritual heart healthy?

That we we "rest on our laurels" so-to-speak

and become lazy in our spiritual state - 

that we can become stagnant too....

A breeding ground for all things unhealthy...

gossip...

jealousy...

lustful...

discontent...

Could it be that "resting in Him" is actually a state of MOTION???

That those "still waters" that He leads us to actually move us?

That just as the physical wind impacts on the waters to keep them moving

so must the wind of His Spirit sweep through our lives.

His Spirit is always flowing

all we need to do is submit and let ourselves be moved by Him.

So He showed me those "still waters" are full of energy -

restful energy - 

but one that brings life, peace, and healing.

 Let Your Spirit flow through me!

I will never long for "still-ness" the same way again.

  

Piles!

Okay...I have a confession...

I have piles...EVERYWHERE!

Now, I know I am the only one out there

so y'all can just pray for me.  *smile*

For any of you who are with me in the pile-ness

join me in looking at them a bit differently.

 I know I am busy-

we are all "busy"-

and this crazy world that we live in 

here in America seems to come with tons of piles!

(you know I can't imagine other countries dealing with the "stuff" we deal with)

Running a house has piles of papers that come with it...

bills...

caring for children...

medical papers...

caring for foster children...

work papers....

homeschooling papers...

It just keeps piling up.

Most of the time we don't even know it is happening 

until it is out of control.  

Overwhelming.

Distracting.

SO-

as our school year begins to wind down

and as I started to try and get up the nerve to deal with my piles-

GOD SHOWED UP IN THOSE PILES!

What?  You say... there is nothing Godly about clutter.

and yes, I agree...

but it was here in my chaos that He spoke softly to my heart.

You see many times we let our heart get cluttered.

It happens very slowly

little distractions

grow into bigger distractions...

Until we find ourselves buried under activities and busy-ness

and we find ourselves doing more in our life

for ourselves, our homes, our entertainment...

and doing nothing for His kingdom.

 So here I am looking at my physical clutter

and He is showing me my spiritual clutter.

Time to clean house!

(yes, both physically and spiritually)

And just like the piles of papers and books and receipts,

it will take time to work my way through the clutter in my spirit...

I want to see Him more clearly...

 I want to see His heart

for the lost and dying...

the hungry and poor...

the lonely and hurting...

I want to see, Lord!

And I know to see with Your eyes 

I have to de-clutter mine...

Join me on my journey closer to His heart!