Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a great day of feasting, if your able to enjoy the wonderful sights, smells. I wasn't enjoying it as much as I would have liked to. Unfortunately due to a virus I was on the downside of loving all the turkey smells, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, gravy and sides. Now that isn't to say I didn't have any of the wonderful delights. No, I'm not that strong, even thought I was under the constant call of the porcelain chamber.

Today however, I am feeling so much better and am truly enjoying some sweet leftovers.

May prayer for you is that you were able to enjoy a wonderful day of fellowship and thanksgiving with family, friends and that you enjoyed good food and good health.

A laid back day.

Today I took time to enjoy one of the most "laid back days" before the craziness of the holidays. I could have done so many chores today and kept myself busy preparing for the holidays. Sometimes though you must let yourself have a day of not being pushed by a schedule and just take the day off "guilt-free". That is probably one of the most challenging things to do. Driven people operating off of schedules and to do lists often don't experience downtimes without paying with a price of guilt.

I must say I enjoyed catnapping and leisure TV watching. I hope you can enjoy a day like this from time-to-time.

Checking in

Wow, I'm finding it harder and harder to get back into "blog world". When I have time to surf or write, it's usually in facebook or on twitter. It just seems to be easier to check in and say what I'm doing quickly..and I absolutely love checking out other people's updates and looking at their photo albums.

Here's the skinny on what I'm reading and an update on book studies:
"Wild Goose Chase" continues, one more meeting. What a book, it's really awesome.
I started reading "The Power of the Rubberband" by Nancy Ortberg. Proving to be a good read.
I'm listening to a book when in transit entitled "Secret Believers" - excellent for missions
Lastly, in a book study with co-workers "Becoming a Person of Influence". I've read it before but am really gleaning a lot more through this study.

OK..so that's the easy stuff. Recently, my grand-daughter came to live with me along with her mommy, daddy is staying in Columbus until the house sales. So I have this great joy of picking up Charlotte 3-4 nights each week. My life schedule has really changed. She is so sweet though. Len (Big Papa) and I are very much enjoying her. Seeing her smile, making her laugh and comforting her (she's teething) as I dance with her, talk baby talk, be silly is not only good for her, it's good for me. The absolute best is that I get to pray over her and whisper in her ear that God made her, God loves her and Jesus wants to be her friend forever.

May God bless you. Don't forget that this truth is for you also.

Chicago

Two little girl's dream shopping trip at the American Girl store in Chicago. What a fun time.

Book Study

Len and I are doing this book study "Wild Goose Chase" written by Mark Batterson. In chapter Four titled "Eight Foot Ceilings", I came face-to-face with my regression to a childhood developmental problem. I'm pretty sure other adults face this but don't want to admit it.
Mark is talking about God instructing Abraham to go out of his tent and look up at the stars in the sky. He was having his focus, attention, perspective redirected. It was clear that God wanted Abraham to unobscure his vision. As long as Abraham held on to his obscured vision it would keep God's promises from his sight. Mark refers to this as "undeveloped psychological capacity in children known as object permanence: out of sight, out of mind. We lose perspective when we lose sight of the promises of God."

I don't know about you, but I confess that I am guilty of object permanence. Yep, sometimes I forget just how big God is. I need to go stargazing and "get a grip" on how small I am. I need to stop putting Eight Foot Ceilings on what God can do in the world around me and wants to do an amazing work in me too.

This book is excellent. Mark says he has prayed for you even before you begin to read this book.

Hey thanks Mark for responding to my note in facebook and I'm glad my word pre-prayers earned a :-) with you. It's good to know your real small-just like me.

Pick it up, I think you'll like the insights God has given to him to share with us.

Unendurable endurance

Today in my one-on-one with my boss I expressed how over the past month I realized my test may have been one of endurance. It had been a long long time since I had faced such a time of depression and turmoil in my life. Somehow, Thank God-he uses times like these to draw me close to Him.

This place was familiar to me with it's sensation of spinning and spiraling. It was a place from the past-not a place I really wanted to visit again. For over 20 years, early on in my marriage, I had suffered with the life-draining beast of depression. At times it had gotten so bad that I thought I must be losing my mind. Turning to doctors and medication I would do different programs and prescriptions but they never seemed to be the answer for me.

People often try to encourage you with wisdom of their own or using God's Word to help "bring you to your senses". You know, "What have you got to be depressed about?" "You need to count your blessings." and on and on. All valid sayings, all justifiable things to do. But perhaps one should consider an option of just being supportive with offering to remember them in prayer, to simply sit by them, walk with them or just be a friend rather than focusing on trying to fix the person or their problem. You can never ever go wrong by remembering a person in your prayers.

This place where I was residing was what I refer to as "the funnel". Imagine yourself living life outside the funnel and all of a sudden you find yourself on a slick slanted surface swirling around and downward into a spiral and as you go lower and lower it gets darker and darker.
This is a dark, lonely, unfriendly place.
It's a place filled with imaginary conversations.
Tell me, is it realistically a place someone would purposely journey to?

I have not been able to blog about this because it's been difficult to understand what the struggle was all about. I'm pretty sure I most likely was suffering burnout. My energy level was so low that I didn't even have fumes to smell. One thing I knew I had to regain margin in my life, like my life depended on it ..because it really did.

So how is it turning around...I've experience some good margin over the past few weeks, setting time to be quiet, enjoy vigorous activity in nature and depending on God's ability to cover me with His wings of protection and teach me His secret of glory-strength endurance. Currently I'm counting more good days than bad ones. It's doesn't looke like it's going to be a 20 year event. Praise God!!

Thank you God for your ability to cover me, provide shelter and your faithful promise of armor and protection.

Psalm 91:4 (New Living Translation)
4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.

Colossians 1:10-12 (The Message)
9-12Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

My prayer for you today if you are in a dark place is to allow someone to walk beside you, sit with you or pray for you. Then endure the unendurable so you will find the glory-strength that only God can give.

Thanks for reading a little bit about my recent journey.

Quick Hello

Wow-it's been a long time..sorry. Lots has happened since the birth of my lovely little "peanut" Charlotte. (She's not a peanut anymore, but becoming a giant cashew.)

I was intensely involved in helping to prepare a team to go to Egypt to organize VBS for about 2,000 children and Sunday school teacher training for about 100 leaders. That took an immense portion of my time. Actually it seemed to own my life. It was an important investment. This is something I loved to do. I had hoped to catch up a little bit and blog while in Egypt but I did not have any time or connectability. When first landing in Cairo it looked like I had a window to connect but it was soon closed and then we traveled to Suhag/Akmeem in Upper Egypt, (seven hours south of Cairo by train) there definitely was not a moment when we had availability or access to the internet.

Hey, I've hit the ground running before but this has been a marathon. Don't you usually rest after one of those?

So...here I am finally back. I'll give you glimpses of the past 2-12/ months over the next week.

Thanks to all of you who have been checking and saying something to me about getting back...you are a great encouragement to me.

Coming soon - more pictures of the team and trip to Egypt.
Here is a picture of a couple of wonderful friends from Egypt.
Pastor Raulf, me, Dr. Hany.
I miss you guys !!

A new addition to the Family

Yesterday morning my daughter, Erica, gave birth to our fourth grandchild. It was her first child and she did a marvelous job during the labor process. Her husband, Aaron, was a fantastic coach and was attentive to her every need.

Len and I were able to be in the birthing room when Charlotte arrived. We had never participated in the birthing process as spectators and it was a very special time. Dublin Methodist hospital is fantastic...it reminds you of a Hilton Hotel with it's serene atmosphere, Zen gardens with and state of the art capabilities.

Here's a couple of pictures..

"Thank you God for so many great blessings. One of which is the process of new life. We are grateful that we were able to witness the birth of our fourth grandchild and marvel at the wonder of your creation. We thank you for her health and for being with Erica during the labor process. May her life and her parents lives be lived to bring glory and honor to God. Amen."

The speed of God

I'm amazed - I shouldn't be, but I am.

At what? Well, how quickly God can bring things together. This week I watched an amazing transaction of trust and connectivity come together for this year's Impact Middle East VBS team travelling to Upper Egypt. You see, we have a very short time to prepare and become a "team". Normally this would be stressing me out - but it's not. I've given this over to God. This is definitely a God thing - WOW, I'm so glad that I've released control over to Him.

This team has some high goals - over 2,000 children in 6+ villages. In addition to modeling VBS we doing teacher training and equipping them with relevant curriculum in Arabic. Yep, it's in the process now, the translation is soon to begin.

The challenge to raise the funds with the $500 increase per ticket, the team needs to raise $17,000. This makes it even more interesting to see what God is going to do.

It's going to be an amazing ride.

I've got to pinch myself - Is there anything better than watching the hand of God move to bring about His purposes.

WATCH FOR IT - His hand moving in lives causing lifechange
EXPECT IT - His glory will be revealed through lives changed
BE A PART OF IT - Take action get engaged by serving, praying and giving
***click here NewPointe.org so you too can personally experience lifechange.

Life is way cool when engaged for His glory.

Grace

Tonight while working out at Super Fitness I got so energized by a book I am rereading and a song by Chris Tomlin that I was listening to on my ipod. The book, I've mentioned before is Captivated by Grace by Dr. David Jeremiah. I'm telling you the second time through I'm getting so much more out of it. It may be because I believe I've really grown a lot this year in my relationship with God and I'm doing a better job at listening to His "still voice".
Anyway, this book has helped increase my appreciation of grace by reminding me of the many benefits of grace that is provided through my friend and Savior Jesus Christ.
Here's what was getting my juices flowing so much until I had to start running on the treadmill....or I was going to get off of it and start dancing...that would have looked strange.
Here's what Dr. Jeremiah writes: "The grace-driven believer disciplines his passions as a military leader would discipline his troops. And what passions? Eating, sleeping, talking, playing. The Spirit of God will point you to the specific issues of your own life."
I see hope in discipline.
I'm learning that as I continue my plan with Thin & Healthy for eating and exercising. There is such a strong correlation between our spiritual journey and the discipline of taking care of our body.
The beginning of Titus 2:12 says "We should live soberly..." I always thought of that word in a negative way - Whoa, did I have that wrong...a good translation of the word would be "with self-control". Well, how do you take care of your body...yes, it must be soberly. And your relationship with God? Yes, soberly, so you can exercise sound mind and judgement in all your passions and desires.
Wow - this stuff is life changing.
Read the words of "His Grace Is Enough" by Chris Tomlin or go get it on iTunes
Great is Your faithfulness oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters and to mercy
And nothing can keep us apart
So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise Oh God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me
Great is Your love and justice
God You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along
So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise Oh God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me (x2)
So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise Oh God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me
Your grace is enough
Heaven reaching down to us
Your grace is enough for me
God i see your grace is enough
I'm covered in your love
Your grace is enough for me
For me

Provision

On May 22nd I received a call from my son-in-law telling me that Heather, my daughter, had taken ill while at a trade show in Massachusetts. He didn't know how bad it was but he was waiting to find out. Later he called me back to tell me she was very sick and had been admitted to the hospital there in Springfield. He said he was going to drive over with the kids, about a 12 hour trip. I told him, I'd like to go with you. I can help drive and help with the kids. It was a grueling trip. When we finally arrived around noon on Friday, Heather looked bad. They weren't sure when or if they were going to do surgery. They really needed to wait until her liver number wasn't so high. She was not happy and wanted to go home to have surgery. Her condition however was life threatening and she couldn't be transported home. She called and talked with her doctor back home and he advised she stay there, the condition "mild pancreatitis" can turn ugly quick and be life threatening. There we were, Greg and I and 3 kids staying in a motel visiting the hospital 2x each day and sometimes I would leave Greg there and take the kids on my own. What made the week-end even more stressful was it was Memorial Day week-end and on Sunday Heather was to host a baby shower for her sister Erica in Columbus, Ohio. Could it get anymore complicated. This was to be a big week-end for our family. We had planned to all go down together and have a great family time. Who would have guessed that something different was going to take place.
What I personally found interesting is that earlier that week our small group begun to watch a 3 part sermon series on "Joy" by Francis Chan. Yep, little did I know that I would soon be applying the scripture from Philipians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!" and Philipians 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
These verses would become all I could think about. OK, this is a tough test, standing there at my daughter's bed and seeing her in such pain and in mental anguish because she felt like she was ruining her sister's special time in not being able to host the baby shower and their mother was not going to be there either...in addition to that she realized there was no guarantee that something could possibly go wrong and she could not be there to take care of her children and husband. When you hear your daughter say "Take care of the kids mom" it does something to test that ability to "Rejoice" and yet I knew from my own personal experience that facing death when you are a child of God, a friend of Jesus...you are not in a bad place. You are in a Win-Win situation...but can you position yourself to rejoice and trust God for the outcome. Hmmm...why do we need such times to test us. I believe it's because God wants to share a secret with us. Check it out, Paul mentions it later in Chapter 4 -
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. There it is that nugget of truth, that exercise of the muscle that none of us wants to do the work to develop but that we all want to claim.
Sometimes we don't even know what we need... really need. We sometimes need to relearn the sufficiency of Christ our Savior.
This story has a happy ending, it's God putting us first....His loving us so much that He sent His Son to give us hope and to provide everything we could possibly need as His children. Whatever might come our way we would find HIS provision more than enough.

Rejoice..., again I say Rejoice

Do you remember Phillipians 4:4 ? Yea, it's the verse that goes "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice"

In our Small Group we are listening to a series of 3 messages by Francis Chan that have influenced the way I am remembering to "Rejoice always". It's producing a changed mindset, a different way of thinking. Yes, a way of having my mind renewed by the very Word of God. Once you commit this verse to memory and read and re-read the entire chapter you will begin to internalize (eat) these words and before you know it you will experience a life changing thought process.

Now do you think this process will be tested ?

You'd better count on it and do so with joy. If you don't today will be no different than yesterday and what kind of life is that when you are being lead by the Holy God of the Universe.

Missions - an everyday word

Interested in missions, unreached people...then check out Justin Long editor of Momentum Magazine.

http://www.momentum-mag.org/momentum.php

Time Flies

Man, I couldn't believe it when I realized it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged. I'M ALIVE !!

Yep, still here, kicking, learning to grow, change and accept the challenge to experience LIFE CHANGE to the fullest.

Cool things that have happened in the past 2 weeks.

• Had a retreat with leaders from our Family Life group, Velocity, KidStuf and an awesome turn out of volunteers from The ReignForest. My volunteers encourage me by their willingness to step up and out of their comfort zones. They are pushing me. It's all good !!
• Began holding weekly meetings with key leaders at Wallhouse in Sugarcreek on Thursday's. It's real good. I continue to look for ways that I can pour into their lives while they are pouring into me.
• Finished up the 50# Team weight challenge... YEA!!! I have lost 13% of my weight. Our church staff has lost 450#... DUDE...that's almost a quarter of a ton. I think that would fill up my cubicle - for sure!
• I was asked if I'd be interested in sitting on the Health & Wellness Committee and YEAH - I'm stoked because I really like to motivate people and be an encourager...it could be one of my gifts-well I hope so.
  Today we celebrated with a big luncheon and I got to plan what we were having with Jean Vacha, extraordinaire cook and food counselor, beside me. She's awesome!!! SO DUDE-here's what we had:
  Salad with lots of toppings
  Coleslaw - (Thanks Greg K. for making it for us.)
  Balsamic redskins
  Steak & Chicken Shish-ka-bobs
  Chipotle Pomagrante Pork Loin
  Veggie tray w/ Garlic Garlic dip, Spinach dip & Onion Onion dip - all fat free
  Angel Food Cake w/strawberries
  BEAUTIFUL Watermelon boat
  Chocolate Mousse (THIS WAS THE BOMB- JEAN YOU ROCK!!!)
  Apple Pear cake w/Chai Fat Free topping
  Lemon bars
  Raspberry Crumble cake
  Assorted breads
  PARTY - PARTY - PARTY !!! High high energy, great cheering each other on.
  It was soooo coool, we even got to invite our spouses. The program was sooo good - John Bunn, you are hilarious...I know "you just wann be a blessing"
  Jane Miller was Platinum winner with 16% weight loss - WAY TO GO Jane
  Anita was 2nd with 14%
  Chad Stutzman was 3rd place with 14% (this was a close race)
  I came in 4th....whoo hoo - yeah I know there was no medal - I'm still a winner

Well there, I caught up with the last 2 weeks. Lots of other stuff has been happening with God speaking through various things I'm reading and people speaking into my life. You know life is really good when you get excited about what God's going to do....He creates a lot of suspense in my life and it's never boring. IT'S ALL REEEEAL GOOOOOD !!!!

What a week-end

This past Friday through Saturday afternoon Kevin, Jessica and I hosted a 212 Retreat for leaders from our environments at NewPointe Community Church. We began preparing this event back in February and really prayed about who we were to ask to step up into the next level of leadership. Dwight kicked the retreat off with a great talk on Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. He really knocked it out of the park. The next morning we listened to Francis Chan, then Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley. It was a really neat opportunity for us to invest and pour into our leaders. We value them and hope they will "TURN UP THE HEAT" as they work through the process of going to the next level in their relationship with God.

After this event we went right to the church and got ready for NewPointe's first "All Access" event. Our very first church conference. We met a lot of terrific people. Hopefully we got to be very real and transparent with them showing them behind the scenes of a NewPointe week-end.

Sometimes words can't express ... how blessed we are in the family of God.

The Win

Tonight I got measured in my Thin & Healthy counseling session at SuperFitness. Get this, I’ve lost 45.25” since January 29th. I’m really happy about it even though I still have a long way to go.

One of the most difficult parts of this program has not only been retraining my metabolism and my food intake but also my thought process about numbers. It seems that most of us, perhaps women more so than men, looks at the number on the scale and think that’s the tell-all sign of success. I’m in the process of retraining the way I look at numbers.

There are a lot of numbers to look at when your losing weight other than the scale. There’s percent body fat, inches lost, lean mass, fat gram intake, minutes of exercise and more.

My point is this…if I only measure success by the number on the scale and yet my pants are practically falling off of me … would you say I’m failing or winning in my lifestyle change?

Recently the staff at NewPointe Community Church has talked about identifying what “the win” looks like on a Sunday morning for our volunteers. In The ReignForest, the volunteers are winning when they engage preschoolers in activities, worship or they feel like they’ve made a connection. Volunteers win when we get little ones quieted down from their crying, change them and play with them.

We win when unchurched families start attending on a regular basis because Christ has made life change desirable because they find God’s grace, faithfulness, acceptance and love from Christ-minded servants inside the church.

There’s a win in life for you each day..do you see it? No?
Perhaps you need to retrain the way you think about what “the win” looks like.

Children's Letters to God

Last night our Small Group Leader's called and asked us if we wanted to go to North Canton on Saturday night to a dinner theatre of "Children's Letters to God". What a great time we had together. This place at first appearance was "quite" small. It's the kind of place you go "uh-oh" what did we get ourselves into.

We went in and were maybe like the 3rd table of people there but they came right away and took our drink orders providing water, coffee, soft drinks, tea, any of it or all of it right away. Then they brought to us these amazing salads that at most places would be enough to fill you up. Then came the main course, Hawaiian Chicken, Beef dish or stuffed porkchops with rice double vegetables. It was an amazing meal. The service was fantastic and we felt pampered all night.

The kids that performed in this small theatre had amazing talent and their parts were very long...very very impressive. These kids could be on American Idol some day. They were anywhere from K-6th grade.

During intermission the table servers brought out dessert, all you wanted...so if you wanted pumpkin pie, pecan, cherry, apple, peanut butter pie, cheesecakes etc. you could have however many you wanted !! Really it was incredible.

Due to the lifestyle contest I'm in (counting down 2 weeks left) I was considered myself very good and only picked at my peanut butter pie which I really really wanted to eat the whole thing. It wasn't a big slice but more than I could afford to spend in fat grams.

All in all I definitely plan on going back to The Harmony Players sometime soon.

A Joy Perspective

Lately I've been reading and listening to messages about joy..(remember Phillipians 4:4 from an earlier blog)
Well here's another verse found in James 1:2-4
"2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Do you ever have moments when it's really really difficult to endure something with joy? I think most of us can relate to that. Life doesn't come stress-free or pain-free after you've accepted Christ as your personal Savior. God provides care and nurturing for his children. James reminds us that every good gift comes from our heavenly Father (James 1:17).

Here's a quote from Julie Ackerman Link: "What seems like an imperfect gift may be the means by which God perfects us."

Next time we receive something that doesn't seem so good and it causes us to restrain from a joyous or grateful attitude ...make an adjustment in your outlook by remembering the verses above. May God's words help you to be joyful in receiving life's difficult gifts because we know there is more to the gift than we can see.

Jesus
Over
You

The Smell of Coffee

Yesterday at Wallhouse Coffee, my absolutely favorite place to hangout and hold meetings, the owner was roasting coffee beans...yeah they actually roast them right there. Anyway when he took them out and emptied them into the barrel, the smell permeated the place. It was like so beautiful to my senses I found myself breathing deeply and closing my eyes and enjoying it so much that I actually felt like I was drinking a cup of coffee. What a great experience!

So here's the thought that God brought to my remembrance..I remembered a time when I actually smelled the presence of God-crazy huh! Well it was 9 years ago when I almost died from complications of a hysterectomy. My blood pressure was 40/0. Once they stabilized me they rushed me to Aultman hospital 30 minutes away. I had a pulmonary embolus, an enlarged heart and was full of blood clots. Six hours later the doctor would be standing in the doorway telling my husband there was nothing they could do for me. Everything they were going to do would most likely kill me. Over the next 10 days I would discover that the presence of God in a whole new way, one that could be accessed by all the senses.

Amazing what that smell of coffee permeating the coffee house did to my memory. So I'm back at Wallhouse today holding some meetings and there it is again - WOW.

No God doesn't smell like coffee....but it did make me want that kind of coffee experience to be the same with God permeating my very being activating all of my senses to his presence.

For a deeper intimate relationship with God I think this is a good thing.

I'm just a work in progress...but living in a win/win situation.

Revolution of Jesus Christ

As I blogged in an earlier post I'm currently reading Renovation of the Heart..I am so impressed with the truth that Dallas Willard shares. In this statement he says "the impotence of systems is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students (disciples, apprentices) out to start governments or even churches as we know them today which always strongly convey some elements of a human system. They were instead to establish beachheads of his person, word, and power in the midst of a failing and futile humanity."



Wow! When I think of beachheads I think of the soldiers who landed in Normandy. They were to establish beachheads in enemy infested territory. The enemy was strongly rooted right where they were landing. In a moment my head is filled with pictures of the preparation that had to go into preparing for the landing. The skill and pla and understanding the risk and possible loss that was going to take place.



So I'm thinking what's a beachhead look like? Where's it land?



"They were to bring the presence of the kingdom and its King into every corner of human life simply by fully living in the kingdom with him."



It's not in the future - it's the present, right now.