The In-Betweens

The other night, I was awakened out of sleep by a loud - CRASH!

After coming fully awake, 

I realized it was just the sound of a large avocado falling off the tree 

and onto the tin roof of the shed behind my house.

It was probably the 50th one that fell that day. 

So, content on the identification of the sound, 

I rolled over to fall back asleep.

I don't know about you, 

but every time I go to fall asleep, 

I seem to kind of "take inventory".

The day had been a good one.

The week had been a good one.

God is so GOOOOD!

That got me thinking about all of the ups and downs in life.

Since arriving in Zambia,

I had gone through sickness, broken limbs, pain, 

periods of constant headaches or ear aches.

Even though there were breaks in between,

 the breaks are easy to forget when you are always 

going through some sort of thing.

Tonight, 

this night, 

I was thankful for the days that are just normal, 

no present pain or sickness, 

no unnecessary drama in my life, 

just a day, 

a good one.

In the Christian life, we go through many ups and downs.

We experience spiritual mountain tops; highs of great spirituality and victory.

Then we experience valleys; deep, dark valleys of trials, 

heartaches, and testings.

Even though we should strive for those spiritual highs, we can't always have them, otherwise they would become "normals".

We need all three present in our lives to truly grow in His grace 

and in the knowledge of who He is.

Tonight, I am just thankful for the comfort, strength 

and rest that comes in the "in-betweens"!

A True Story of How God Provided for Needs by Sending Barrels to a Missionary in Africa

Dear Friends,

     As I was busy packing barrels for Zambia, someone put this story in my mailbox.  I had to share it with you. No, we may not be like-minded with every missionary out there, but this story does show how God answers the prayer of faith. 

     If you would like to be encouraged in your faith and have a deeper, more meaningful prayer life, please take time to read this true story - click here.

Mission's Conferece - Fisher's of Men

    

Mission's Conference was always a highlight of the year for me.

It was mostly because God was bringing me to the place where I am now.

He placed that burden for souls upon me and led me to serve here in South Africa.

I never imagined that I would be part of a Mission's Conference on my mission field.

Not that people across the world should not be burdened for souls, 

but because I guess I never really thought about it.

It was so exciting, as we decorated the church in anticipation for the week ahead.

In our church library, Pastor Jeff had a bunch of Bibles in other languages.  

We placed them among flags from countries around the world to remind us to pray for those taking the Gospel around the world.

Even the Junior Church room was decorate for the theme: Fishers of Men.

(To see how the fish are made click here.)

Our Mission's Conference was Wed- Sun August 21-25th.

We met each night for a shared meal together 

and then preaching from Ron Bragg (BIMI Africa director) via Skype.

Children showing their international costumes to Bro. Bragg

We heard some great & challenging messages about sharing the Gospel

 and being involved in world wide missions.

FRIDAY NIGHT : International Dinner

Friday night, each family decorated a table for our international dinner.

We had tables representing-

Mexico,

Greece,

and

China.

We all brought food from these countries - YUM!!!

(my favorite food was from Greece!)

Mexico table

Greek Table

China table (sorry, no pics with people sitting here)
To see how I made the China Lady click here.

Mission's conference was so much fun!

We had a great time of fellowship and were fed physically, 

but the best part is the spiritual food we received!

SATURDAY: To Every Creature Visitation

This was a special Saturday visitation

and we had another church join us to take the Gospel to Hillcrest.

(To read more about this visitaion day click here.)

In the afternoon, just as we finished the last street in Hillcrest,

the whole group sat down for a meal together.

You know, we are Baptists and that is what we do!

It was a blessing to serve the Lord together 

and then to have some time of fellowship together before the group left for home.

SUNDAY: Faith Promise Sunday & Junior Church Sings

As Sunday rolled around, we understood the great need for our faith promise giving.

Envelopes were passed out and prayed over all week.

We are thankful that our people learned this important principle of giving.

~~~

While I was on deputation, I found that many churches that I went to that did not have faith promise giving, were not able to support new missionaries and were themselves struggling to support the ones they already committed to.

Faith Promise Giving is a sign of a growing church.

A church that follows this principle will be a church with people who grow in their own personal faith in God, while becoming more and more burdened for the lost around them.

So many churches that do not follow this Biblical principle

 are slowly dying in faith and in attendance.

I am thankful to be working with missionaries who are teaching others 

that the Great Commission is a command for ALL of us!

~~~

Our Faith Promise Giving this year will cover all of the missionaries we currently support,

as well as, helping a little in some "one time" gifts to others that the Lord sends our way.

Below are videos of the Junior Church singing their Mission's songs

for the congregation on Sunday morning.

"Fishers of Men" in English & Zulu

"Tell me what a Missionary is" in English

Life Lessons from Living in South Africa- Roaches: a Lesson on Faith

Before moving to South Africa,

I knew that there would me a number of strange and exotic bugs and creatures that I would come in contact with.

Now, I am a country girl.

So, seeing spiders...

...and killing snakes are not really a strange thing to me.

Speaking of strange...

When I arrived here I met a number of strange creatures.

When I bought my car,

I didn't realize that there would be a hidden surprise

 that came along with it.

I opened the trunk (or for you South Africans "boot"),

about a week after I had the car and found this ----EWWWEEEE!!!

If there is anything I the world I don't like, it is roaches.

They creep and they crawl and the only time you know they

are there is if you find one dead!

After getting over the worry of one crawling in my mouth while I was sleeping,

I realized that I just had to prepare for the possibility of roaches

 by periodically spraying all of my cupboards.

What lesson can we learn from the roaches?

Well, as I pondered the new roach problem, 

I thought about how the dead roaches are evidence of things not seen.

Sound familiar?!?

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

 the evidence of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1

Yep, the roach teaches us about faith.

We never realize how important our faith is until the "evidence" shows up.

Does your life show evidence of that unseen faith?

I have to admit that many times my faith is a bit waning.

There are times when God brings me through a trial 

and I become a surprised in how well I deal with it.  

There it is - the "evidence of things not seen"!

That's faith!