Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks. 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his [a] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I thank you Lord that I didn't wake up to a tragedy today
I thank you for protecting me, for my job, for my family, for protecting my children, that I didn't have a stroke or a heart attack, that I'm not in pain, that we have a generator and money for gas to put in it, that we have running water, that we have no enemies trying to do evil to us (that we know of :)) that my husband is still with me after 24 years, that I can walk and talk, that I have a church to go to, that I have friends, that I have family (extended) who love me, that my Mom is OK and taken care of, that there is no political crisis in this country or my home country right now, that my children have food to eat today, that I have food to eat and coffee to drink :), that

Wow!

After reading verses this morning about Satan and about his lying. I went into Chapel today and this is one of the first verses that was read:


"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a MURDERERfrom the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he LIES, he speaks his native language, for he is a LIARand the father of LIES." (Jesus said this)
John 8:43-45

Death and Lies.

I just have to record that what got me started thinking about this is that a friend shared about how the mother of his child said that she'd rather see the child dead than with him and he is a basically good father trying to protect and help his child. She can't be bothered to bathe the child let alone protect him. I really think this mother has been deceived by Satan in many ways (like thinking it's OK for him to be at adult parties late at night hearing all kinds of language) and now he's taking her down that well worn path that includes nothing but death and destruction.

I don't dwell on Satan or this stuff usually, but it seems to be being brought to my attention.

It is good....to proclaim Your love in the morning....

thinking.....in love there is life and the opposite is death.

Because of some situations I'm aware of, I've been thinking about Satan, which I don't do that much. Two things stand out about Satan....death and deception. People are so deceived by fun, comfort, etc. and where does Satan always lead them? to death, sometimes toward killing or just wishing the death of someone else's and their own too.

Psalm 91

Here we go with "dwell" again. :)

I'm thinking about how a dwelling place means rest. "will rest in the shadow of the Almighty"
It also means protection "My fortress"
And so many don't have a physical dwelling place in Haiti....praying for them...
God be their dwelling place.

Tough to understand though....because just reading through this psalm, it sounds like if you love God he will protect you from all harm. But it seems that Job loved God and yet God did not keep him from all harm and disaster.

Maybe this is directly to David.
Something to think about today.

God's Punctuation

I'm always hesitant to claim "God gave me this verse" or that He's speaking through one because I suspect some people say stuf f like that too easily. But... After posting on Sunday morning about Psalm 90 v. 1 which I had been reading & praying back to God, I got up, got dressed, went to church, sat down and what was the very first thing read? You guessed it, Psalm 90! I think God was saying "yes, I did say that" and was putting the exclamation mark on that for me.

Dwelling...and...waiting

Here are some verses God has given me : 1. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations." Ps. 90:1 2. "Wait for the Lord, Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Ps. 27:14 Here's what it seems the significance of each of the verses is: 1. The first could be God talking to me about an office for AIS. The office we've shared has not worked out very well. It's where we had the cybercafe and we were sharing with another ministry. (and it was not very big). We're not renewing after this month, so that's ending. We don't have another place and there really isn't money at this time to rent one. Richard mainly uses Joy's room since she's at college, but it's not really adequate for many of the needs. Our house is pretty small, not accessible by public transportation (people have to walk about a 1/4 mile and part of it is up a big hill), etc. But yesterday we had two meetings out on our porch, where we've had most AIS meetings. Our colleagues in AIS never complain about the walk to our house. Sometimes we go drive out to the "main road" in our neighborhood to pick them up or drop them off, or even out to the main road of this area. The point is God is in control of this and all other needs of the ministry. 2. I know the one about wait for the Lord is ALWAYS applicable, but for me now it's very much applicable to having to wait and take things slowly with the soccer & business ministries. A few weeks ago we mentioned that our good friend Ronald lost his job as soccer coach at a high school. He has worked a lot for the soccer ministry, but aren't able to pay him for his work. We help him out as we can. But it makes me anxious for us to get a business or businessES started that can support the ministry, so that we can eventually have a couple people supported to focus on the ministry. We do want to promote the idea of volunteer work in ministry, but it's hard when people have such dire needs. In his case, here he is jobless, no income, but people see him busy with activity in AIS and they assume he gets money for it. He has to tell them 'No, I don't. This is volunteer work.' But those who know that it's run by an American probably have a hard time explaining that. Please pray for Ronald. His beautiful attitude and faith through frustrating the conditions of his termination for that job are a huge inspiration to us.

"The mark of a Christian is that he experiences deeper and greater joy in being dishonored with Christ than he does in being honored by men." John Piper 1984

I was reading John Piper's sermon given in 1984 that mentioned the killing of Chet Bitterman ( a linguist & missionary in Colombia) in 1981. I came across this online because Ricky was looking for a biography to read and I suggested that Ricky disregard the dorky picture on the front and read it anyway because he'd probably find it interesting (He did). Anyway, it got me thinking about the story of Chet Bitterman and I couldn't remember a whole lot of details, so I googled it.

It's good. And it brings up that theme again of being willing to die but not being willing to put up with normal problems in life. And that theme was brought up in a paper that Joy wrote for school that she sent me to look at...today! God is amazing--the way He brings things together like that. AND the same verses keep coming up everywhere (the retreat last weekend, this sermon, etc)
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15) But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; 16) yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but under that name let him glorify God. 17) For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18) And
"If the righteous man is scarcely saved,where will the impious and sinner appear?"
19) Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.

I've thought that I might as well adopt these as my life verse, because it's such a recurring theme for me--that I don't want to suffer for sinning, if I'm going to suffer (and I will) I want it to be as one 'reproached for the name of Christ.' this motivates me to resist sinning (often, I know...not always) and it helps me accept whatever suffering God allows in my life. And now I'm noticing the words at the end (not sure which version was used here) and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator." -- I like that.

Care group

Today I read something on CARE groups at Reality Carpenteria. I'm praying about the group that we are hoping to start in a week or so. We have similar ideas to what was shared there. They use CARE to stand for Care, Accountability, Relationship and Equipping. Just praying about these things...the group.

Being an anoint-ling

I'm sitting in a tropical paradise on a beautiful terrace with a hummingbird right in front of me on retreat at the beach in Moulin sur Mer with the QCS staff. Thank you God for your beautiful creation. And I have the blessing of listening to uplifting praise music on my laptop while I write.

I have so much to think about after yesterday's presentation by Corrigan Clay. There are several points that I want to think more about. I think I'll write about them in different blog entries.

He talked about us being 'anoint-lings'. That is, Christian means followers of Christ and Christ means 'anointed one.' He was emphasizing that Christ was anointed with God's power. He thinks that we should be seeing greater things happening through us because we are annointed as well.

Related to this, he talked about how the expressions "making disciples" and "teaching them all that I have commanded you." refers to the way disciples of rabbis at the time of Jesus tried to do everything exactly like their rabbis. That is what we should be like -- disciples of our rabbi, Jesus, trying to do everything exactly like he does. So...I'm going back again to that struggle over whether I'm allowing God to display his power through anywhere near the way He would like to. Well, time to go....more later

Mark 1 - first verses

The first thing that struck me as I was reading the first chapter of Mark was the quote from Isaiah about preparing the way of the Lord. I was thinking about how people prepare the roads here in Haiti. Most of the roads here are in very bad shape, but Aristide was president, the roads leading to his hometown were nice. (I don't know if he did that, or if others did that as a way of honoring him, but....) Also when Jacmel, in the south, is about to have a big "Carnaval" celebration, the roads are made smooth to make it easy for people to approach the city.

I wonder how we today are supposed to prepare the way for the Lord today. I wonder if we should take the message of John's ministry in general, which was one of calling people to repentance, to be a sort of definition of preparing the way.

But I notice too that God says He will even do the preparing, in the sense that He said he would send his messenger ahead to prepare the way. But his message (John's message) was that everyone should "prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him."

I found this through google on a yahoo question forum.
This is just what I was wondering......
"At the point that an individual of a new species actually evolves,how does it find a mate to reproduce the new species? By definition, species cannot interbreed. But wouldn't the odds be prohibitively great that two or more individuals of a new species, both male and female, would simultaneosly evolve at the same time and in the sameplace?

$1000 prize offered for essay saying that Jesus did not exist

American Atheists has joined forces with a group of New Testament scholars known as "The Mythicists' Forum" to sponsor a prize of one thousand dollars for the essay that best sheds light on the origins of Christianity while simultaneously supporting the proposition that "Jesus of Nazareth" did not exist as an historical figure.

Organic Church

I'm reading Organic Church by Neil Cole and found some interesting thoughts.

"If you want to win this world to Christ, you have to sit in the smoking section."

He tells about a church whose choir went to the mall to sing Christmas Carols as an outreach. There were no conversations with people, no relationships started, just the singing. Cole says "Like a flight attendant at the start of every flight, the choir was announcing important information of life-and-death significance to people who took no time to listen becuase they'd been innoculated to it."

Praises #170 -

#170 - $2,500 worth of soccer equipment and $1,100 was raised by a college student to help our ministry!
#171 -
Talking to one of our supporters, Richard explained that expenses for the ministry were high this summer and there was a real need for extra support. The next day this family sent $2000 to our mission! That was more than 2/3 of the amount needed.
A few days after the $2,000, Richard was talking to another supporter and he said he could send $1000! Along with the other gift, that covered 3/5 of the need!

Praises #158 - #169

#168- our friend and supporter, Chip, got a job! He says "I have been 100% restored to my position/title I hadat [my old job ] -- God certainly engineered circumstance after circumstance to protect me to be in a position to receive the offer and accept the position. (If the other bank had not delayed, I'd be there now.) Again, I was down to hours before Iwould have had to accept a lesser position if I had not received thewritten offer from [name of bank] Tuesday afternoon."

#167 - Got a positive answer to an important request.
#166 - We had a really nice overnight with Joy & Ricky at the beach. We had wanted to go one more time with them (just us) before she graduates and there was barely a weekend available from now until graduation (May 30th)! The weather was perfect and we had no problems traveling.
#165 - We had a good meeting of AIS-Haiti. We received 6 proposals from regional groups for their ministry plans for the year.
#164- Richard and Ronald William (coach at Maranatha & on our board) went to Leogane to meet with the regional committee' there. They even have a woman on their committee. They had a done a good job on their plan for the year and together they made a plan to raise 50% of the funds needed.
# 163- Cheri Kay got passports & visas for her adopted children.
#162 We found out who the mysterious donation was from--a very generous friend of our co-workers whom we met when she came here to Haiti last year to volunteer her time at our CrossWorld retreat. We're so humbled that she and her husband would remember us and our ministry and give so generously.
#161 For the past three months we have received record amounts in donations in spite of the financial difficulties in the US!
#160 - We were praying for direction for Joy as far as colleges and we got a "no" on Wheaton, even though they haven't accepted or denied her yet. She went to visit and it was obvious it was not for her. Noes are answers too. :)
#159 - Joy had a good trip to Chicago and got back safely.
#158 We received a $1000 donation from a "mystery" donor! (The record shows the company name, but we don't recognize it)

Meditation for today from Eccl. 5 & inspired from students' questions

I had told the kids what a great kid Josh is and how Joy was just saying (right before the accident) that she appreciated how she can count on him for worship time and that he has such a great attitude. So when I share what happened, one student asked "Then why did God let this happen to him?" I didn't have a good answer then, but I kind of wish I had said "because we're not in heaven yet." since I didn't have time for a long answer. From that and other responses I've had I was thinking it might be good to mention some things like:

-bcs we're on earth, not in heaven, God is still allowing sin to affect us. This is because he is still allowing us free will. One day that will end and those who have trusted in him will go to be with Him in heaven

God is still sovereign over all that happens, he has the power to intervene and prevent bad things from happening and he loves us all so much that he wants to bless us. His love and desire to bless us do not depend on our good actions or good attitude or strong faith.

challenges

Being sick has been a real challenge to my lent goals.

Proverbs

Pr. 22: 6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.


A couple of times in my life I've had arguments over this verse...in my head. I was too chicken to say it out loud. And a couple times I have discussed with friends the question of whether or not it's right to say "if the child doesn't come out well, the parents didn't train him/raise him right." Some would say, of course that is too simplistic, there are other factors involved, but others would say that a literal interpretation of the Bible is


It seems that if we take everything
According to Prov 21:9 if your wife is quarrelsome you should move out. (Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. )


17 He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich.
prov 21:17, has been provedn wrong hasn't it? There are ppl who love pleasure and wine and oil and are rich, not poor.
Pr. 22:4 Humility and the fear of the Lord
bring wealth and honor and life.
Does this mean that someone who has very little wealth or very little honor has very little humility or fears the Lord only a little?


Pr. 22:5 In the paths of the wicked lie thorns and snares, but he who guards his soul stays far from them.
- I think one young friend I talked to this week has been led to believe that this verse should be taken as a promise to bank on, because of his reaction to this news. Our friends' son, Josh, fell off the roof of a 22 foot high building and we were praying, even fasting for a day, for his recovery, at first afraid that he would die, then worried about brain damage and handicaps. So on Friday when I told this friend how excited and amazed we were that God healed Josh and we had seen him up walking, talking and using the computer, his reaction surprised me. I had told him that Josh was a faithful Christian, so the young man said, “Oh, well, he belongs to God, so God wouldn't have let anything happen to him.” In response, I told him about how one of my students at school had asked as soon as he heard about the fall. “If Josh is such a good Christian, why did God let him fall?”

Praises #154- 158

Still trying to "catch up" on recording the praises/answers to prayer from recent weeks...

#158 We were praying for a place to stay in the Newtown, PA area for our summer Home Ministry and our friends offered us their nice brand new (getting) finished basement AND Davisville Church offered us the missionary house in Southampton for August.

#157 - My sisters, brothers & their wives & husbands are taking good care of my mother--taking her to the doctors, visiting with her, making sure she has everything she needs. I really appreciate them.

#156 - 30 faithful supporters and 4 faithful supporting churches all gave generously this month so that we could be here. We are very thankful to God and all these faithful people...if you're reading this..."thank you!"

#155 There has been reconciliation between a daughter & her parents, something I've been praying for

If you don't know what this "50,000 praises" is about, see my April 13, 2008 blog entry on it.

Praises #141 - #154

#154 - I recovered from the stomach virus.
#153 - Our friends' son, Josh Brumley, survived a fall from 22 feet with no serious injuries!
#152 -My sister Beth called me to say "hi" and it was while I was sick, so it really cheered me up.
#151 -Richard got over the stomach virus he had at the end of his trip.
#150 - Richard was able to see doctors he needed to see in Pennsylvania.
#149 - Another friend has helped us out a lot managing one of our townhouses.
#148 -A friend did work for free on one of the townhouses we own.
#147 -Almost all the money has come in for Joy's Student Council trip to the LEAD conference in Chicago.
#146 - Richard got back safely from his trip to South Africa & Pennsylvania.
#145 - 2 college students are interested in doing internships with us here this year.

#144 - One of the participants in the medical missions trip Joy went on, to Ile A Vache, sent a note to our Pastor here about how impressed he and the others were with Joy. "She personifies all that is right with young people."

#143 - Cheri Kay's adoption of Geryce & Ecrissa was completed! (after about 2 1/2 years of prayer)
#142 - Joy and Ricky participated in the Youth Sunday service at church and it went very well. When Joy led the worship it seemed like confirmation that God would want her to cotinue to use this gift and not just focus on medical missions alone. People were amazed at how comfortable she was in front of the church, how well she can communicate and lead people to worship. One of the songs that really meant a lot was "God of This City" by Chris Tomlin. It seemed like everyone was really drawn in to worship God and pray for Port-au-Prince.

#141 - Joy got accepted to Widener's Honors College and was offered excellent scholarships from Widener U and Eastern U (both in Philadelphia)

Praises # 117- #140

Continuing with my "50,000 praises"....

It's been a long time, but as a nice way to start out the new year, I'm going to try to think back on some of the praises that I can remember from 2008 and add them to my list.

January '09

#140 Joy got to go on a medical missions trip to Ile A Vache
#139 My sister, Beth, and her daughters are planning a project to ship clothing to ALL the children at House of Hope!
#138 Joy got accepted to Taylor U and Widener U
#137 a college student who found out about our ministry via internet and wants to raise funds for our ministry. 'for a course in his college, he has to raise $1,000. He plans to collect equipment for us and bring it!
#136 TREC training went well--better than last year.
#135 At the last minute during TREC, we got 5 big bags (like ski equipment bags) of equipment from "Right to Play"

December '08

#134 We were able to go to Cayes-Jacmel for 2 nights as a family
#133One of our supporters who lost his job this year still gave a large donation, just about what he has given in the past. No doubt, an act of faith.
# 132 Grace brought a bunch of stuff for Christmas--food that's hard to get in Haiti, etc.
#131 Grace was able to get to the doctor and get help for pain she was having, and found out that the fatigue was due to low iron.
#130 I got an amazing Christmas bonus from QCS!
#129 My Mom was releasesd from the hospital quickly after being taken there with a stomach virus.
#128 God gave Richard relief from his troubles of not being able to sleep well for several weeks.

November '08
#127 God moved Elysee back to Port-au-Prince by providing a transfer in his job -- we're excited because it means he can be a part of the AIS-Haiti Board.
#126AIS Haiti raised about $12,000 for TREC training this year!
#125 God provided for Richard to be able to go to South Africa for the AIS International Leaders' Conference!
#124 God provided a flight for Grace to come for Christmas for about 60% of the price we were seeing for weeks.


October '08

#123 Ricky played his electric guitar in chapel at school, doing a cool intro for one of the songs
#122 I wanted to know how I should be involved in youth group and God led me to help by leading a small group and helping with event planning

September '08
#121 God provided a new friend for me--a very encouraging, cheerful science teacher, Katarina LaFortune and we are prayer partners.
# 120 Bible Fellowship Church gave Ricky an electric guitar! (one of his dreams come true)
#119 We had a great visit with Bob Spicer and Jim Compton from Bible Fellowship Church to plan their short term trip in the Spring.
#118 Grace had a good friend for a roommate for this year.
#117 I got my own classroom where I teach all my classes!
#116 We were able to get tickets for Joy, Ricky and I to go to PA for a few weeks in the summer.