Africa!!!!

( Casey, Cindy, Hannah, Henry, Tammy, Jimbo and Me at the Jackson, MS airport 8-5-14)

~~~~~~~~

It's hard to believe that 4 weeks ago I was getting ready to leave the comforts of my home and head to Malawi, Africa. What's harder to believe is that it has been 2 weeks since I arrived back home. I miss that place. I miss the people. I miss the children. I miss the hunger of a people in need of a Savior.

God did a miracle in me just to get me on a plane for almost 20 hours of flying time. He called me to Malawi and I knew that I had to be obedient. And I can tell you in all honesty that even the 16 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa was not bad at all. I felt His presence every hour of that long flight. You see, when God calls you to do something, He will equip you in that moment. He will enable you and empower you to do what you can't do without Him. If you fully trust Him and are doing what He has called you to do, He works.

From the moment we landed in Malawi, I felt His presence. I felt a great need for the people there. I felt a call from God to get the gospel to them. We headed out to the Rainbow Orphanage where we would be staying with a young man from our church who is a full-time missionary there. He and his wife, who is from Malawi, just had a baby boy- little Moses. What a blessing they are!

We spent 2 days doing Bible School with the 54 children in the orphanage. They range in age from 4 to almost 20. We had such a great time with these kids. We imparted the Word, we did crafts, we played games and we just invested our time into getting to know them and showing them the love of God. These children are exposed to the Word daily but it was still important to feed them spiritually to help them in the growth process!

(Our team with the Rainbow kids and  staff of the orphanage!)

We spent 3 days in some surrounding villages doing Bible School with the children there. We were in very poor villages. One of them, the village of Sulumbwa, didn't have access to clean water. They were hauling water from a very muddy, dirty creek bed. The last few days we were in Malawi, this village receive a huge blessing from God. A team of men came to drill a water well in their village so they would have access to clean water! Praise the Lord!

We had over 240 kids one day in Bible School. It was a joy to share a bible story with them and do a craft with them. We played with bubbles, frisbees and all sorts of balls. We played games and ran around and just had a good time with them. We passed out stickers and candy right before we left. In the 3 days in the villages, we had almost 200 children accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Our hearts were heavy with the state of poverty that these people lived in. It certainly gives you a good look at the excess of our American wealth. We have so much. We have too much. And we need to begin doing something about it.

(Children praying to receive Christ)

(Beautiful faces of the children of Sulumbwa Village)

(Precious children in Chingala Village)

(Tired girls but still basking in His Presence!)

What an amazing 2 weeks we had. We spent 3 nights in one of the villages doing a revival. My husband preached each night to the light of 3 battery operated lanterns. When I tell you it was dark, it was DARK! We had the opportunity to give our testimonies each night and we had around 120 or more people in attendance each night. We also had an opportunity to minister to over 100 women on a Sunday afternoon and after speaking what God had put on our hearts to share with them, we were able to pray with each one of them individually. What a powerful time that was in the Lord! Women have some of  the same problems, the same concerns, the same needs whether you are in Africa or America. However, when you are in a third world country, you turn to God more readily and with more trust, because you don't have anything else to rely on! Oh, that we would start trusting God in that manner!

(My sweet husband relaxing)

(Lucas, Tiya and baby Moses)

(Me with Jill, a precious missionary at Rainbow -  my buddy Yami in the background!)

(The team's last picture in Malawi, right before we headed to the airport for the long journey home)

(24 hours later, we are home!)

God did a work in all of our hearts during this trip. Our prayer is that with the power of God in us, we impacted the people in Malawi spiritually and that they felt our genuine love for them.  We all left a piece of our heart there. A piece that I hope to go back and add to in the future. God is so good and He is so faithful. 

"HE who calls you is faithful, HE will surely do it"

(1 Thessalonians 5:24)

send me

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord,

saying, Whom shall I send, and

who will go for us? Then said I, 

Here am I; send me"

(Isaiah 6:8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The great commission. Even back in the days of Isaiah. God's plan has always been and will always be for us to go forth and spread the gospel of the Good News. What is the Good News? It is Jesus. It was Jesus back then and it is Jesus now.

 It is our responsibility as Christians, to tell people everywhere about His Son and about salvation. I don't understand how a people that possesses such a great Lord and Savior can be quiet about that possession. It makes no sense to me. We have tasted of the glory of God. We have encountered a glorious and good God and Savior. We have experienced the manifestation of His Presence in our lives. And yet, we keep silent. Lord, help us.

It's certainly easier not to go. It's easier to stay in our comfort zones and just kick back and live life. But that isn't what the Word tells us to do. The Word says, "go". He says it more than just one time. I know that when my God speaks, He speaks to be obeyed. He doesn't speak just to be heard.

In less than 8 hours, I will be aboard a plane that will take me on the first leg of my flight to Africa. By this time tonight, I will leave Atlanta and be flying over the ocean and headed toward Johannesburg, South Africa where I will be only a short plane ride away from our destination of Malawi.

Why am I going? Because my God told me to. Do I like to fly? That would be a huge and very loud 'No'. I hate flying. I am scared to death of flying. It makes me nauseous and it makes me anxious and I do not like it at all. But God told me to go so that is exactly what I am doing. 

We will be staying at an orphanage that houses 54 children and we will be doing several days of bible school with those children. We will also be going out into at least 3 villages to do some bible stories and games with the children there. We will have as many as 500 children in one village. That is awesome and amazing and a little overwhelming. I pray that God uses what He has put upon my heart to bring to them in a way that only He can. I pray that He takes the pitiful offering of my lips and turns it into a huge harvest for Him. He can do that, because that is who He is. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in our team and through our team.

We are all yielded to do whatever it is He leads us to do. We are surrendered to be His hands and His feet. We are ready to see God do wonders and miracles in a country that so desperately needs them. I don't want to miss anything that God has for me. So, I look up to my God and my Savior, and I utter these words, "Here I am, Lord, send me..."

Oh, how I love Jesus

Nothing brings me more delight than God's Word. My grandchildren run a very, very close second though. There is just something about grandbabies. They fill my heart with joy and love and peace that all is right with the world. They give me a pick-up when I'm down and they fill me to overflowing from the love that they bestow upon me. I am so grateful to my God that He has blessed me with these precious kiddos!

There are so many things about them that I love.

I LOVE the way that they are cousins and best friends. They always have fun when they are together and I am blessed that my girls are best friends as well. We just need Melissa to move from Boston and come home! 

I LOVE that they love their Nana so very much! 

Mercie attaches herself to me and is my constant shadow. She has always been a Nana's girl and I have a feeling that she always will be. She tells me I am her favorite person. I love that little girl so much!

Bryton thinks that Nana is the expert on bibles and bible covers. That makes me laugh but it also fills my heart with love that he knows how much the Word means to me!

Laylah Beth always wants to be right up in her Nana's lap and wants to 'spend the night with Nana' all the time!

Sawyer cries when he leaves me and tells me I look like 'Elsa' from Frozen.... He is in love with her so that is the highest form of praise from a 5 year old! Ha!

Eli tells me that he feels "safe" with me. I love that little dude so much and love that he still likes to snuggle with me even though he is now 9 years old!

Silas and Titus want to go home with me every time I go visit. Those two little fellas are so precious and they fill this Nana's heart with joy all the time! 

Mikaela loves unconditionally. She is the sweetest young lady and when she was younger she always said she was going to be a 'bible study girl' like her Nana. She still loves to read the Word and there is nothing that I love more than reading it with her. We can talk about deep spiritual things together and I love that so very much! She tells me how much she loves me all the time.

Liam mostly wants his mama right now, but he does loves his Nana and Papa. He is a sweet little boy and I know that when he is older, he will be a Nana's baby just like all the rest! I love being the favorite! LOL!

~~~~~

Silas and Titus on the trampoline with Nana.

Liam being his usual cute self.

If there is anything that I want my grandchildren to learn from me it is that the Word of God is the most important thing they will ever hold in their hands or in their hearts. I have tried to instill in them just how precious the Scriptures are and how much God loves them! I desire for them to have a deep and intimate relationship with Christ above all else. Lord, may it be so...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few months ago, we had the privilege of vacationing with 4 of our best friends! We had a great time at the beach and it was so much fun to vacation with people who love the Lord and desire to please Him!

You can have a great time and still honor the commands and teachings of the Word. We are blessed to have these 2 couples in our lives. I can't imagine life without them.

(Tammy, Mary Lea and Me)

(Marvin, Jimbo and Greg)

~~~~~~~~~

Jimbo and I had a great time in New Mexico. We were in Alamogordo to preach a revival and see some dear friends of ours in the process. I was able to share and minister to the women a few times that week and I had such a great time imparting things to them that God had been teaching me! 

We spent a a few hours at Carlsbad Caverns and at White Sands. It was fun but I wore out quickly! The last time we were there with our girls I was 35 years old! A lot happens in 16 years to a body!

The mountains in Cloudcroft are beautiful and really bring the glory of God right to the forefront. His Creation is gorgeous. Everywhere you look you can see His Hand of majestic creativity. We truly serve an amazing and powerful and mighty God! He left His fingerprints on all of Creation and we need to merely open our eyes and see...

VICTORY is coming!

"But He knoweth the way that

I take; when He hath tried me,

I shall come forth as gold"

(Job 23:10)

~~~~

The past twenty-two months have been rough. They have been a time of trial and testing. A time of wondering and waiting.  A time of feeling helpless as I watched my sister endure pain and suffering from chemo, side effects of chemo and from the dreaded disease itself that the chemo was seeking to conquer. A time that I certainly don't want to relive. The past  twenty-two months have been a time of putting feet to our faith. 

At the beginning of this journey that started July 30, 2012, God gave me a scripture for my sister. It was Job 23:10. Through His Word, He was telling her, as well as all of her family and loved ones, that He was certainly aware of what she was going through. He knew the path that she was on. It certainly didn't take Him by surprise. But He also was saying that after the time of testing was over, she would emerge as gold. I took that literally and I took that as a promise. 

Every Sunday morning at our church we have a healing service and I began standing in for my sister right after her diagnosis.  Shortly after I began to do this, God impressed upon my heart that she was to write VICTORY on the last page of her journal. I relayed this message to her right after church that day and it took her several weeks to muster up the strength of spirit to do this, but she finally did. And we have been holding on to that revelation from God with a tight grip ever since.

We have been on a roller coaster ride throughout this time. It has been a series of ups and downs. Good news and bad news. Good days and not so good days. Two steps forward and one step back. There have been times where it seemed more like one step forward and two steps back. 

I can't even begin to imagine the emotions that my sister has had to experience. My heart has been so burdened for her and I have felt so helpless much of the time. There has been nothing that I could do other than encourage her with scripture and petition my God for her healing daily. I have cried out on her behalf for almost two years and will continue to do so until the day that her VICTORY becomes reality. 

After a failed stem cell transplant back in April of 2013, my sister felt the agony of defeat. It had been a long and grueling process and we had such high hopes of its success. But ironically, on July 30, 2013 - a year to the day after her initial diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma - she got the news that the transplant was not successful. My mother, my brother-in-law, my sister and I walked out of the hospital almost in stunned silence. We were devastated on the inside, yet none of us was willing to show that devastation to the others. It's almost like we couldn't voice it because we didn't want to hear the words flow from our mouths. 

It was like a bad dream that  we didn't really want to wake up from because we weren't sure of where to go from there. But we did. And we began the next leg of the journey. My sister started a new chemo regimen and the testing and the waiting started all over again. 

The cancer that my sister has manifests itself by producing too many of the same kind of protein. So every few weeks she has specific blood work done to count the number of proteins present in her blood. The blood is sent off to Mayo Clinic and it takes a week or two to get the results back. Waiting and more waiting is the name of the game and it isn't a fun game to play. It gets old fast.

We finally saw a drop in the proteins a tenth of a point at a time. It would go from point 8 to point 7. And then we would see no change for several months. One time it was almost 4 months and no change. But during that time, I kept saying 'No change is good! It means that the chemo is holding the disease at bay!" We kept our focus on God and what He had done thus far. Even throughout all the trials and all the hard times, God had been so faithful to my sister! He had held her and He had carried her and He had strengthened her and He had been her portion and her shield! There were lots of things that could have happened that didn't. We saw His hand on her life over and over again. And I never lost hope. I was still looking to that VICTORY that was coming.

We saw several more drops in her proteins a tenth of a point at a time. The the last one several months ago was down to point 3. When the proteins are down to 0 in her bloodstream, there are still tests that have to be done to test the bone marrow. But we have to take it one step at a time.  

During the past few months, there have been many other problems that my sister has had to deal with. She has developed cataracts on both eyes due to the high doses of steroids that she takes with her chemo.  She has had joint problems in her hand and wrist from the disease itself. She has undergone many painful injections trying to give her some pain relief in her back and hip due to the tumors on her spine from the type of cancer she has. 

The good news? The last MRI showed that she is starting to get some new bone growth on her spine as the dead myeloma cells are being pushed out. That is a huge praise! We will continue to pray for more bone growth and more dead cells! She got her blood work results back today from Mayo and her protein counts are what they call "too low to quantify". What does that mean? It means that our God is working overtime on her healing! It means that if there are protein cells present, the number is so small they couldn't be counted. That, my friends, is a HUGE PRAISE!!! 

Now we watch the numbers over the next several months and then we will go from there. But for now, I am overwhelmed at the goodness of God. I am overwhelmed at the promise of His Word. I can't even being to put into words how grateful I am to my sweet Savior for the love that He has lavished on my sister and my family. He has held us, my friends. He has supported our heads when we didn't think we could hold them up. He has given us the strength to take that next step when we didn't know where to put our foot down. He has encouraged and enlightened and embraced us with the mighty and powerful Hands that created all things. 

And the tears that are falling as I type this are the tears of an unworthy servant of God who is simply a grateful recipient of His generous grace. I am astounded by His love. But I receive it hungrily and I give Him all the praise and glory that is due His Name. 

For now? I praise Him with all the breath that is in me. I continue to believe that He is working a healing in my sister. I grab onto the promise of VICTORY and take that next step forward with Him. He is faithful and He is abundant and He is true. And I love Him with all that is in me.

"I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and He heard

me out of His holy hill." 

(Psalm 3:4)

who brings us joy?

"Reverential fear of God, mixed with love and 

and astonishment and adoration,  is the 

most enjoyable state and the most purifying

emotion the human soul can know" (A.W. Tozer)

~~~~~~~

Isn't it awesome to realize that we can enjoy our God?  That is what He intends for us to do! We can enter into a state of enjoyment with Him at any given time in our lives. He desires for us to derive much joy from even the notion of who He is. Just the very mention of His name should fill us with JOY. Just the realization of who He is in the life of a Christian should fill us to overflowing with unspeakable JOY. 

"Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD...." (Isaiah 58:14)

The scriptures tell us to delight ourselves in the LORD! Because the truth is, no human being will ever be able to cause that kind of JOY in our spirits. No human being can ever be to us what God is. We absolutely can not delight in people. People will always let us down. It doesn't matter if it is your spouse or your children or your parents or even your very best friend. At some point in your life all of those will let you down at least one time. It's just the nature of who we are. We are sinful, selfish, prideful, arrogant and spiteful people. And we will disappoint people and we will let them down. 

But God will never let you down. Not one single time. Not ever. He may not always give us everything that we want, but He always supplies all of our needs. He may not answer our prayers the way we want Him to, but He always answers them according to His divine will for our lives. And when that will doesn't match up with our desire, it doesn't mean that He has let us down. It just means that He is protecting us from something that we can't see. It means that He is paving the way to take us on a different journey. A better journey. One that will cause us to delight in Him and be filled with JOY. 

True joy doesn't come from people. It doesn't come from circumstances. It doesn't come from the accumulation of things. True JOY only comes from a personal relationship with Christ. When we keep our focus on God and the things that are spiritual and eternal and kingdom-minded, we will have that inexpressible JOY that comes from walking in the will of God. That contagious JOY that impact those around us. The JOY that is only possible from being in an intimate relationship with Jesus. True JOY comes from the sweet and pure love that God lavishes on His children!

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath

 bestowed upon us, that we should be

 called the sons of God..." (1 John 3:1)

Our eyes must be gazing upon our God in sheer adoration. And astonishment. And fascination at the depth of His lavish love upon us. We must know deep down in our hearts that He is truly the only one who can satisfy us completely and love us unconditionally. When we know that and accept that then we won't be caught off guard when people fail us time after time. And because we are prepared for that to happen, it won't completely devastate our hearts and our spirits. 

Our reason for living is to do the will of God. Our purpose in life is to bring glory and honor to God in all that we say and do. Our lives are all about Jesus. The One who will always be on our side. The One who will always walk beside us. The One who will never let us down. 

And when we truly get that, the mixture of our reverential fear of God and our astonished adoration of Him,  will produce that most enjoyable state of purifying JOY and overwhelming LOVE reserved only for our Creator. Our true JOY only comes from our personal and intimate relationship with our Savior and our LORD.  

Dig deep into the scriptures. Seek His face daily. Fall on your face and cry out to Him in prayer on a regular basis. He will hear the cry of your heart and He will manifest Himself to you and become the JOY that you yearn for in your life. He will become your everything and will satisfy that deep longing in your soul.

"What's taken from us is often painful.

But God can take what is left and make

it powerful" (J. Franklin)