Kisses From Katie: The "Beginning" of a Book Review

Katie Davis is living the life of a drink offering, being poured out completely in the service of her King. She first went to Uganda during the midpoint of her senior year in high school. She was "ruined." 


"Jesus wrecked my life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together more beautifully."


Planning initially to spend a year in Uganda after she graduated from high school, before starting college, but ended up staying there. She is now in the process of adopting 14 daughters. Being only 22 herself, she never dreamed she would be a mother of so many, so soon.


"People often ask if I think my life is dangerous, if I am afraid. I am much more afraid of remaining comfortable. Matthew 10:28 tells us not to fear things that can destroy the body but things that can destroy the soul. I am surrounded by things that can destroy the body. I interact almost daily with people who have deadly diseases, and many times I am the only person who can help them. I live in a country with one of the world's longest-running wars taking place just a few hours away. Uncertainty is everywhere. But I am living in the midst of the uncertainty and risk, amid things that can and do bring physical destruction, because I am running from things that can destroy my soul: complacency, comfort, and ignorance. I am much more terrified of living a comfortable life in a self-serving society and failing to follow Jesus than I am of any illness or tragedy."

"Jesus called His followers to be a lot of things, but I have yet to find where He warned us to be safe. We are not called to be safe, we are simply promised that when we are in danger, God is right there with us. And there is no better place to be than in His hands."

"For as long as I can remember, one of my favorite Bible verses has been Psalm 37:4: 'Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.' I used to believe it meant that if I did what the Lord asked of me, following His commandments, and was a 'good girl,' He would grant all my desires and make my dreams come true. Today, this is still one of my favorite passages of Scripture, but I have learned to interpret it in a totally different way. It is not about God making my dreams come true but about God changing my dreams into His dreams for my life."

All those quotes are from the Introduction! :)


She has a blog! Kisses From Katie

To be continued . . .

Unity Building Exercise

Just a quick post on this beautiful Monday. 


As much as the Tabernacle Experience was about the individual guest's encounters with Christ, it was also about the Unity of the Body. 


Far too often, the Body is carved into little, tiny pieces by our labels, traditions and prejudices. The "arm" that I grew up in happens to be very bad about dissecting things and labeling things as "us" and "them." 


The evil one is thrilled when the Body suffers from constant injuries caused by "friendly fire." 


As The Tabernacle Experience unfolded in our community, one of the biggest blessings we received was the unification of The Body that took place in simply seeking the Face of Jesus, not caring about any of the things that normally cause separation. And in that process, we were reminded that, with Jesus Christ as the Center, the Common Denominator, there is really nothing that separates the parts of His Body. It was a joyful surprise for many how much we all had in common as we celebrated the Truths of the Tabernacle. 


May His Body be unified through our Love for one another as we simply seek to bring Him Glory. Nothing else. 

"We Must Take Refuge From God In God"

"Since God's first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God's wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of her child.


God is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees, and this He cannot impart to His creatures. But there is a relative and contingent holiness which He shares with angels and seraphim in heaven and with redeemed men on earth as their preparation for heaven. This holiness God can and does impart to His children. He shares it with them by imputation and by impartation, and because He has made it available to them through the blood of the Lamb, He requires it of them. To Israel first and later to His Chruch God spoke, saying 'Be ye holy; for I am holy.' He did not say, 'Be ye holy as I am holy,' for that would be to demand of us absolute holiness, something that belongs to God alone. Before the uncreated fire of God's holiness angels veil their faces. Yea, the heavens are not clean, and the stars are not pure in His sight. No honest man can say 'I am holy,' but neither is any honest man willing to ignore the solemn words of the inspired writer, 'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.'


Caught in this dilemma, what are we Christians to do? We must like Moses cover ourselves with faith and humility while we steal a quick look at the God whom no man can see and live. The broken and contrite heart He will not despise. We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God. Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness."

A. W. Tozer,  The Knowledge of the Holy

Book Review: The Abolition of Man

This book exactly describes the condition in which we now find our society. In the last few years, I have often imagined myself standing in the middle of a big field, screaming at the top of my voice, "This Is Insanity!" And no one can hear me. 


When I look at how far we have slipped down that proverbial slope in our values and morals as a culture, it often seems as if the world has gone mad! 


When I hear of another judge making another immoral decision based on relative truth, I want to pull all of my hair out. 


When I hear another thing that my taxes are paying for that is morally reprehensible, I want to bang my head against a wall. 


I have asked over and over and over again how "they" could have come to believe "that?" How can evil be called good and good evil? How can Truth be exchanged for a lie? How can life have become so cheap? How can all of our most basic Values in which previous generations of this nation stood firmly now be considered optional?


According to Lewis, our Society has slowly been desensitized and reprogrammed to believe that man will only be "free" to become what he should become when he has shed his loyalty to those underlying principles on which all of society has previously stood: "General Beneficence, Special Beneficence, Duties to Parents or Elders or Ancestors, Duties to Children and Posterity, The Law of Justice, The Law of Good Faith and Veracity, The Law of Mercy, The Law of Magnanimity." These principles are common to all the major value systems in history: Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Christian, and Oriental. 

"But what is common to them all is something we cannot neglect. It is the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are."

Lewis calls this foundational belief system the Tao for the purpose of this discussion and defines people as those "inside" the Tao (belief in Absolutes, Objective Values) and those "outside" the Tao (Those who define things according to their personal motivations and desires). 


As the "powers that be" have shifted more and more to being "outside the Tao," their efforts to reprogram minds have infiltrated the most basic principles of education. 

"Hence the educational problem is wholly different according as you stand within or without the Tao. For those within, the task is to train in the pupil those responses which are in themselves appropriate, whether anyone is making them or not, and in making which the very nature of man consists. Those without, if they are logical, must regard all sentiments as equally non-rational, as mere mists between us and the real objects. As a result, they must either decide to remove all sentiments, as far as possible, from the pupil's mind: or else to encourage some sentiments for reasons that have nothing to do with their intrinsic 'justness' or 'ordinacy.' The latter course involves them in the questionable process of creating in others by 'suggestion' or incantation a mirage which their own reason has successfully dissipated."

When the ultimate "reason" behind the decisions a society makes are no longer founded on objective values, what rises to the top of the motivation behind actions is supposedly "Instinct." Here is where we see so much of the devastating results of Darwin's "theories" and the havoc they have wrought to the very underpinnings of civilization. (I would LOVE to witness a debate between Lewis and Darwin. Lewis would eat his lunch!) When the reasons behind the actions are reduced to "Instinct," as if that which is "basest" in man is best, then all bets are off. One person can claim "Instinct" when committing any crime he feels like committing because "Instinct" can be wholly defined by the individual with no dependence on or responsibility to cultural mores, laws, values, or conscience. What is right for one is "right" simply because that one says it's right, regardless of the effects of his choice on anyone else. 


So everything that is noble, honorable, self-sacrificing in the human race, everything that elevates man above beast is relegated to the cultural trash heap and what started as a quest for freedom to attain man's highest form results in the Abolition of Man.  

"If nothing is self-evident, nothing can be proved. Similarly, if nothing is obligatory for its own sake, nothing is obligatory at all."

I have not come close to doing justice to the brilliance of Lewis' arguments. He is a master logician and theologian and philosopher and can unravel any argument that roars it's lies in the face of Truth. Ultimate Truth does exist and the argument and proof lies all about us when we see the reflection of Christ in man and the Fingerprint of God in all of Creation. 


So, as from the beginning, it boils down to two sides: God, or the rejection of God as embodied in the evil one. Even though it seems that our culture has come to a "new low," it's not new. It's simply a revisiting of the original and perpetual battle that wants to reject the Authority of God over the Universe.


This is #33 in the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. 

Check Out the Challenge

Book Review: Family-Based Youth Ministry

". . . teenagers learn best when they are surrounded by those who know more than they do, namely their own parents or other adults in the church."


This is the premise on which this vision-casting book for youth ministry is based. Mark DeVries has ministered to youth for years and the principles in the book were borne out of his frustration in making a lasting impact on the students that went through his "youth group." Even the ones he thought had been radically changed during the years of his ministry rarely went on to become adults who were maturing in their Christian walk. The ones who did grow into vibrant Christian adults were almost exclusively ones on whom his ministry made little impact. He says they would have grown into mature Christians even if they hadn't gone through his program. Why? Because they each had mature Christian adults, usually their parents, who were engaged in their lives. 


Out of this revelation, DeVries decided to completely refocus his view of ministry to youth. The program that he now facilitates is one that focuses on creating and enriching cross generational relationships within the Body of Christ. 


"The Christian faith becomes real to most teenagers not because of rational arguments for Christianity or because they try like crazy to hang on to what they believe, but because real people live out the gospel in what may seem like very insignificant ways."


So much of "youth ministry" today is "program-based." One of my favorite chapters in the book was examining Christ's ministry and recognizing the differences between it and what we come up with today.


"It is startling to realize the lack of programmatic focus in Jesus' ministry. He had no organizational chart, no planning team, no curriculum, and no ten-year long-range mission statement. Jesus' first priority in calling his disciples was 'that they might be with him.'" (Mk 3:14)


We all learn best by walking alongside the one we are learning from. There's no clear-cut, neat and tidy package that can be developed to create an assembly-line that will "turn out" mature Christians. We need to "do life together." We need to focus on the mentoring aspect of relationships. That's where the deep life lessons and principles are learned that provide a framework on which maturity can grow. 


"For most Christian teenagers, Sunday school and youth group have become a substitute for spiritual training in the home. Interestingly enough, the Sunday-school movement itself began as an outreach to unchurched poor children. Its founders never intended for it to take over the role of Christian parents."  


Parents must be taught, reminded, encouraged to take up their God-given responsibilities to train up their own children. Children who belong to families where this isn't going to happen need other mature Christian adults to come alongside them and take on the role of mentor. The ministry model that DeVries proposes in this book is based on developing these deep and lasting relationships wherein teenagers learn how to live the Christian life by watching adults do it. By talking to them and asking questions, they learn Truths that can take root and grow into a mature Faith. All of that growth is the Lord's Work. Our work is to sow and water into these young lives. 


"In the final analysis, though, family-based programs provide only the context for healthy connections to be made. It is the caring attentiveness of the older generation to the younger that is likely to make the most significant difference in the lives of the teenagers we touch, an attitude that can affect our youth much more deeply than our programs."


There is so much packed into the 250 pages of this book. If you want statistics, there are statistics. If you want anecdotal examples, it's full of them. If you want specific examples of implementation, there are pages and pages and pages of ideas to begin. The book is a complete package and I think anyone who longs for youth to grow into maturity would be blessed by reading it. My sweet husband is planning to read it and we hope to share it with others.  Hmmmm . . .  I wonder if I can get bulk discounts. :)



#31 in the challenge to read 52 books in 52 weeks. 

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks

John Piper: Make War!

Psalm 91 in Real Life: Pages in Our Heritage of Faith Link-Up

Photo Credit

This is my very first ever guest post! I'm so excited to introduce you to the testimony of my brother, John. I asked him to share this incredible story of God's Faithfulness with you here. John was in the Army, stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, working with the Patriot Missile. It was a scary time for us, waiting and wondering. When he came home, he told us this story:

The day began much as the days before it had, a voice rough from a night of sleep and not yet having had his morning coffee saying, “Get up, get shaved and get ready, formation in 30 minutes.” The tent was dark and it was chilly in the mornings, just south of Riyadh, in January of 1991. Desert Shield had, in a moment, become Desert Storm just a little more than a week prior. The Scud attacks had lessened since that first night.

PATRIOT’s role in this conflict had honored us, but was also a reason for concern. The fact that a weapon the Iraqis deemed important (their SCUD missiles) had been neutralized by the PATRIOT brought home the fact that, if there were covert Iraqi forces in Saudi Arabia, a PATRIOT missile unit would be a prime target.

Please indulge me while I break from the story to clear up a few things. First, PARTIOT is Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept On Target. The phased array part means that the radar does not rotate, like most people think of a radar, it electronically shifts the beam. The entire body of the radar can turn to adjust to a primary target. When it is turning, there is a small horn just loud enough to let anyone standing near know to be aware.  PATRIOT was designed as an anti-aircraft system, and when we arrived in Saudi Arabia was not capable of shooting at targets coming at a near vertical descent. The control systems received software upgrades after we were in Saudi. Trying to bend a radar beam that much was problematic. It greatly decreased the range and stability of the beam.

The next thing I need to explain is the Scud. It is 40 feet long and the front 5 feet contains the warhead. It is a ballistic missile that, at the peak of its trajectory, is above the atmosphere. Its downward path consists of falling back into the atmosphere at speeds above mach 5. The Scud is not a weapon that allows you to select an important building and target that building.  You can, however, target a city the size of Fort Worth and expect it to land within the city limits. This means that a Scud is not a Tactical weapon but a Terrorist weapon; it is used to invoke fear in large population areas.

Finally, how effective was PATRIOT? PATRIOT was completely successful at its mission. Did we shoot down every Scud? No. Did we destroy most of the incoming warheads? No. We did hit several Scuds, which had never been done in combat. That is the equivalent of shooting a bullet with a smaller bullet. Think about it.

The Scud was a terrorist weapon, not a tactical weapon. If we had been shooting at tactical missiles, you would not have to destroy them all. You have to keep them from reaching their target. For a Scud the target is the ground. PATRIOT was being used as an antiterrorist weapon, to make the people in the cities feel safe, at which it was completely successful. So successful, in fact, that it kept the Israelis out of the conflict.

Now back to the story of that day. Shaved and ready, I headed to formation. Opening the tent flap, the first thing I noticed was that the back door to the radar was open, which is pretty much the same thing as the hood being up on a car.  It is broken. The radar had been down for three days, which was enough time to have called in Raytheon techs to come fix it. In formation, we were informed that some other troops from a different branch of the military were coming that day to help with perimeter security. Having been released from formation, Gildeon and I went to check the reload equipment and stay out of sight till lunch.

In line for lunch, one of the the troops in to help with perimeter security was behind me. I introduced myself, greeted him, and told him that he had never seen anything like a PATRIOT launch at night from only about 150 meters away. Imagine a one ton round accelerating to mach 3 in the time it took it to travel only 17 feet! 

I left the conversation there, got my lunch and continued on with my day. I remember as it got dark heading into the tent and glancing over at the radar, the back door was still open.

Our unit used a lot of electricity, and we had a TV and a Nintendo in the tent. All the visiting troops were to stay in our tent. They had settled in around the Nintendo in the front of the tent while all the PATRIOT soldiers headed to the back of the tent to their cots, to go to sleep. I know that I had fallen asleep, because I awoke with a start. The small horn on the radar was beeping little short beeps; this meant that the radar was adjusting itself to a target azimuth. As I sat up on my cot and put my boots on, all the other PATRIOT people were doing the same thing. The visiting troops were still in the front of the tent playing Mario, but had all noticed as we sat up in unison. They asked “What’s going on?”

We replied, “Scud Alert!”

No sooner had the words left our mouths than the air raid siren began to scream, and over the P.A. we heard, “Scud Alert, Scud Alert.”

We headed for the bunker, passing the "new guys" putting on their boots. One of them asked me, “How did you know?”

 I responded “I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.”

Exiting the tent, we checked to see that the door was indeed closed. We all rushed to the bunker, not really for cover but to have a good view if we launched. The bunker was built out of two six foot culverts about six feet apart with a couple of Air Force pallets spanning the gap and all of it was covered with dirt. I noticed that the PATRIOT people were all pressing to the front, while the visiting troops were filtering into the culverts.

The first warning in this scenario is, “Scud Alert, Scud Alert!” This means that a high energy burst was detected in Iraq by satellite. The next warning is, “Scud Launch, Scud Launch!” this means that AWACS has picked up the Scud on radar, normally about 2 to 3 minutes after the satellite detection. The next warning is “Inbound! Inbound!” This is given when the AWACS determines that your location is the one to engage the Scud. Our missiles launch within seconds of this warning. Finally, “Incoming, Incoming!” This is from our own radar operators. The Scud is on our radar, and before this announcement is finished PATRIOT missiles have exploded out of their transport/launch canisters. The site turns to daylight and a double sonic boom smashes into you, from each missile launched.

I was standing at the front leaning on the culvert to the right of the bunker, as you looked out of it. As the warnings progressed, I noticed the PATRIOT people pressing forward and the new guys moving further into the culverts. They didn't understand what we already knew about the PATRIOT defense system. The “Inbound!” and “Incoming!” warnings were one behind the other. The “Incoming” warning was repeated as a shout by the visiting troops as they hit the deck.

As the PATRIOT missiles streaked down range, the light began to fade and the rumble of the missiles died away, the sound of cheering echoed through the bunker as I watched high-fives and smiles break across faces.

I looked down and at my feet was the soldier who had spoken to me at lunch earlier in the day. As I reached down and offered him a hand up, I said, “You still have never seen anything like a PATRIOT launch.”

He responded, “You guys are crazy!”

Gildeon and I, as well as most of launcher platoon headed down range to replace the missiles that had been fired and returned to our cots, not without first noticing that the back door to the radar was again open.

The next morning, while we were in formation we learned that what we had only perceived as an incredible light show was, in fact, nothing short of a miracle. The PATRIOT system requires about seven minutes to power up. The techs working on repairing them had just shut the door to the radar when the Scud Alert was given. It only takes a Scud about seven minutes to go from Iraq to Riyadh. The radar screens that the operator use had not even powered up when the missiles went “down range.”

The operator ordered a printout from the computer.

It revealed that the Scud had been traveling at mach 5.4 and that there had been less than 10 seconds left to engage the Scud before impact, into an area heavily populated with U.S. soldiers and some of the top brass. The radar stayed functional just long enough to guide the PATRIOT missile to its target and then went down for another two days! During those previous 5 days, the radar was up for less than 9 minutes!

There is no way of knowing how many lives were saved that day.

My God is the God of EVERYTHING!

Psalm 91

  Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

   will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

   my God, in whom I trust.”  Surely he will save you

   from the fowler’s snare

   and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

   and under his wings you will find refuge;

   his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,

   nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

   nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side,

   ten thousand at your right hand,

   but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes

   and see the punishment of the wicked.

  If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”

   and you make the Most High your dwelling,

no harm will overtake you,

   no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

   to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

   you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

  “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;

   I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call on me, and I will answer him;

   I will be with him in trouble,

   I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him

   and show him my salvation.”

Now it's your turn! Tell us how the Lord has shown His Faithfulness to you. It may not be as dramatic as this story from the life of my brother. But even the smallest details in our lives reveal to us His Faithfulness. I am compelled to praise Him constantly for the ways He shows me a wrong motive of my heart, or how to respond exactly to a situation with words that glorify Him. 

Every moment of our lives, His Faithfulness is on view, if we are paying attention. Sometimes, it means even more when we see it in the "small things" of life because we know then that He does indeed have the hairs on our heads numbered and he notices when a single sparrow falls. 

Write down your stories! Testify to the world what He has done for you. And share them with us. Imagine, years from now, if you are faithful in this discipline to "write it down," what an incredible treasure you will have compiled! What a wonderful tool it will be to strengthen the faith of the future generations of your family!

Digging Deeper

Caleb is still processing all the Lord showed him while he was in Africa. And since we haven't had much time to just sit and talk with him since then (because we have been seriously nomadic), Kregg and I took him to dinner last night, just the three of us. Some of the things he learned came as a surprise to me. And I am still processing his words. But as the discussion continues, the Lord keeps having him dig more deeply. And to watch the process, as a mom, is so exciting. And terrifying. And lots of other "ings." During our time last night, he shared another quote from Jim Elliot (Through Gates of Splendor). 


This isn't one of those lovely quotes that makes one say, "Wow, that is wonderful!" It's one of those that causes one to say, "OUCH!" So, you have been warned. But having gotten to know many of you and seeing glimpses of your heart through your precious words to me here, I believe you will appreciate why I am sharing it. 


Here goes:


"Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of His. Consider the call from the Throne above, "Go ye," and from round about, "Come over and help us," and even the call from the damned souls below, "Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place." Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea."
— Jim Elliot


Obviously, this doesn't apply to any of us, but to all those other "people out there."


Right!


I am convicted by the passionate heart of this man who laid everything on the line for His Father. He held nothing back. Nothing. And as he lay on that beach dying from the spear that had been rammed into his body, he had nothing to regret. Sure, he would have grieved over the pain that his wife and son would feel over his death. But beyond that, he left this life in victory having finished the race gloriously because there was nothing God asked of Him that he refused to give. 


When I hold my life up to that standard? 


Ouch!


When I hold it up to the standard of Christ?


Father, help me! May I be poured out, holding nothing back, in Your Service.


May we, those called by The Name, allow Him to fit us to His Purposes, emptied of self, filled with Him until we, too, can leave this earth when the time comes with no regrets. None! 

He Knows Us Completely

"And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since he knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us."

A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

The evil one is constantly accusing us. He whispers accusations in our ears day and night, trying to get us to believe his lies. And unless we recognize the source of these messages, it can become hard to fight back the darkness they create. 

As mothers, it is so critical for us to understand this principle so we may give our children the proper training and armament to beat back the lies. 

The evil one is all about separation. The Father is all about reconciliation and restoration. Just understanding this simple difference gives us a filter through which to view and discern the guilt that tries to attach itself to our spirit. The evil one accuses us, trying to pile guilt up in our hearts so that we retreat from the Father, hide from Him like Adam and Eve in the Garden when they recognized they were naked. The guilt from him is always to isolate us from communion with Father God.

Guilt from our Loving Father is just the opposite. Its purpose is to move us to conviction and repentance so that we can have spirits that are free in His Presence. He uses guilt to tell us when we are out of alignment with His Will. It is always attached to an unrepentant heart sullied by sin.

When we recognize the difference, we can recognize the source. If the guilt is pushing us away from the Father's Heart, the accuser of the brethren is to blame. If the guilt is drawing us to Him, He is simply disciplining those He loves. 

Our children need to understand this. They need to be aware and prepared for this kind of attack. They need to be taught to discern Truth from lies. And then they will walk in freedom not fear before their Father.

"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." 

Beyond Us

"To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries:  this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for "where" has to do with matter and space, God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds His hands have made."          

A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Whisper "Mystery"

Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies. We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper "mystery."

 A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy 

The Years the Locust Have Eaten

L to R: Government Officer, me, Judge, Kregg, Orphanage Director

During the court hearing that would make them our sons, the orphanage director told a story that broke my heart. It was the first time I had heard it.

Background First:
In Magadan, Siberia the only people we saw in charge of anything were women. The judge was a woman, the government officer for the adoption was a woman. The orphanage director was a women. The court officials were women. 

The government officer, after hearing my husband recite from memory the birthdays of our five biological children, asked me if there were any other men like my husband in America. "Would you please send them to us. A good husband here is one who doesn't drink too much or beat you too much," she said through our translator. She couldn't believe this man knew so much (their birthdays?!!!) about his children.

Additionally, our boys were taken away from their biological parents because of neglect. By the time the boys were almost 4 and 5, their parents had used up their last chance. Their own family members, none of whom wanted or could care for the boys, are the ones who filed the complaints against the parents. The demon in the bottle had dried up the hearts of these young parents toward their two helpless little boys.It is only through the Lord's Mercy that they survived. Joshua, the older one, remembers them "drinking vodka and then falling down." Remember, he was only about 5 when he was taken away from them and they haven't seen them since that day.


Now to the story:
All the workers in the orphanage were women. But there was a man who worked as a janitor and groundskeeper. The orphanage director told the judge that Joshua used to follow this man around asking him if this man would be his father.


Yes, I started weeping. Joshua wanted so badly to belong to someone. He wanted so badly to be important to someone. Anyone. 


In Russia, orphans are turned out of the orphanage when they turn 16. Can you imagine how he would have tried to fill that gaping hole in his heart--looking for someone, anyone to love him? It is terrifying. 


But, because of the Lord's Faithfulness, our boys' story has a happy ending. He has brought them so far in the past 6 1/2 years. We stand in awe of what He has done. 


Yesterday, I was walking through our study where Caleb had his books and computer spread across the table. Beside his things I saw this note written in Joshua's handwriting. 

And then tonight, he handed me this:

Even if he never learns his spelling or his punctuation, I would take that heart over scholastic achievement any day. The Lord has brought him to a glorious place and the years of desolation have been replaced by a heart so filled with Love that it overflows on all of us around him.

Joel 2:25-27

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
   the great locust and the young locust,
   the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
   and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
   who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel,
   that I am the LORD your God,
   and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed. 

The Most Important Thing About Us

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like."

The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer

The Least of These

We were blessed Sunday morning to see several people we used to worship with. We have been helping with a church plant in a nearby city for the past several years, and one of the churches that helped plant us is the one we used to attend. We miss so many of our friends and mentors from that part of the Body, but we know we are where the Lord wants us. So when some of them come to worship with us, it is like a cool, refreshing drink from the Spirit. 

On Sunday, two of our very favorite came. These elderly men have served the Lord for decades and decades, and have been mentors to hundreds in His Body. Their faces shine with His Spirit. When I am in my eighties, I hope He will be so clearly reflected in me. Volumes could be written about their lives, as they have allowed Him to send them all over the world in His Name. 


One of these two, Gary Tate has been passionate about sharing the Gospel in NE India since his days there as a soldier in World War II. I will have to tell you about the other one another time.  
                    
Gary is the man in the plaid shirt in this video from a few years ago. Anyway, he and Kregg got to talking Sunday morning and Gary was so excited to learn about the things our children are passionate about. Mackenzy, in particular, has been working for several years on the issue of human trafficking. Gary became involved in this issue several years ago, and we didn't even know that. He is so adorable. He has called us several times since Sunday and is going to provide us materials and contacts for her to be able to serve more effectively. He is so passionate about this topic, and I love that this man of God didn't "retire" twenty something years ago, when most people do. He is MORE involved, more active, more passionate, if that is possible. 

He is hoping to meet with Mackenzy later this week. I think it is cute that he is so up to date with the technology that makes him more efficient. He wanted her email and cell phone number so he could set up a meeting. He has already sent Mackenzy's information to another young lady who is about to leave for a trip to that area. There are trips planned twice a year and Mackenzy is already hoping to go on one of them.

Rapha House is one of the ministries through which they do much of their work. "Rapha House exists to love, rescue, and heal children who have been rescued out of slavery and sexual exploitation. Operating as a 501(c)3, Rapha House began in 2003 to permeate cultures with love that heals and leads to restoration. Rapha House does this by providing safehomes and aftercare programs for young girls who have been rescued out of slavery and exploitative situations. All Rapha House homes are currently located in Southeast Asia, with the goal of expanding globally.

Slavery still exists in every culture. Rapha House is constantly partnering with advocates in an effort to build communities that extend unconditional love, physical rescue, and transformational healing." 

Then Gary sent me an email:

"Kregg, Anne & Mackenzy -  These are latest pics of 16
children rescued in the Nepal area by our worker in
NE India in last 4 months, ages 3 to 12, by our workers
in NE India.   They had been "abandoned" or in imminent
danger of being "trafficked".   Dimbeswar calls them
"Angels", and they have a Christian young couple as
"houseparents"... (Extreme poverty is a contributing
cause to their being abandoned or sold...)"

He attached these pictures, and my heart broke. 

They are so beautiful. Each of these precious little souls was snatched from the very clutches of the evil one, bent on their destruction. Praise God!! I cannot stop weeping over these little ones. I want to bring them all home with me!

What does He have in store for us? 

Lord, please show us what You would have us do in response to needs so great. May we not turn away. May we allow You to pour us out like a drink offering however You desire. Please wrap Your arms around each of these precious hearts. Help them to know what the Father's Love really looks like. You will never leave them or abandon them. Please be with their parents. I cannot imagine the desperation that would drive them to abandon these precious little ones. Oh Father, the need is so great. It overwhelms us. But You are Sufficient. Please raise up Your Body to meet the needs You reveal. May our hearts break with what breaks Your Heart. Help us to see how to be Your Hands and Feet to the least of these. 
Through Him Who Overcame,
Amen