Thank you Jesus, for a leap year!!!

I’m pretty speechless at the moment. In fact this photo describes my feelings at the moment:

God is sooo good, and so real.

Thank you all for your prayers for my provision to be here in Cairo as a missionary. I know people have been praying for me, and I want to share with you how God answered these prayers!

So, this month was my “transition” month to being a full-time support-raising missionary. I still had a bout a month’s worth of savings to get by on after my last pay check this month, and I was getting down to the nitty gritty here as I was approaching the end of the month. We had set up a system here at Two Rivers as we began support raising that we would use what little grant money we had left to help cover everyone’s monthly bills as needed (unless you could raise your monthly support). So basically, going into next month I didn’t have all of my support raised, so what little support I had was going to go to paying my bills and I would receive $150 to live on for the month. I’d been praying all month for God’s leading. I didn’t feel like He wanted me to send out a million support letters, but just to trust Him to provide, basically without any of my help. I know He’s wanting to teach me about His faithfulness and so often I try and take things into my own hands, so this was a specific lesson for me.

But as the end of the month grew near and I knew things were looking bleak from my end. I didn’t know how God was going to do it, but I was really trusting that He would – that Matthew 6 is a promise, that I didn’t have to worry about what I would eat or wear, that God would provide for His children. If I was where He wanted me to be, than surely He would take care of me.

This week as I was praying, God gave me a picture. He speaks to me in pictures a lot (like a movie inside my head). So in this one, I was a little kid sitting on a cliff, and Jesus comes by in a red hot air balloon, lands and I hop in. We take off and I’m wondering what He’s going to show me. Soon we come to a landscape just covered with rolling hills and ontop of the hills are more cattle than I could ever count. He reminded me of the verse that the Lord owns the cattle on a thousands hills. As we began to float over them, we often got closer and the cattle would begin to run. I saw just rivers of cattle stampedeing the hills, like buffalo. He was showing me His resources. I remembered going to the Tillman’s family farm in Springfield last fall, and they had cattle there that they could call in from the fields with a simple “sou-cow”. Jesus looked at me in my picture and just said, “why don’t you call the cows in?” So I did. I sat in my room, in my chair and I said “soo-eee” outloud. Calling in my cattle.

Then yesterday, I sat in my chair again before I went to bed. I was praying “Okay, Lord. Tomorrow is the last day of the month, I don’t have enough support raised. I believe you are faithful. I believe you are able. I believe Matthew 6 is true. You have 24 hours, Lord.”

Which brings us to today, oh blessed leap year.

Today, our friend Harlen from a Lutheran church up in northern illinois came down to take us all out to lunch and to talk about an upcoming trip we are taking to minister at their church in April. At lunch, Harlen begins to share things God has put on his heart, his desire to give to others and find ways to help those in need. In the midst of sharing some things, he said he had a friend who raised cattle and wondered if we could use some meat if he could get some for us. We all kind of looked at each other, like – um, what? Free meat? Free steak?!! I can’t remember the last time I had steak. mmmm. And before lunch was over, he set it up to get us practically a whole cow’s worth of meat. God had also been moving on his heart to donate a significant amount of money to our ministry.

Unbeknonst to me, Sharon had talked with Harlen this morning about some checks he had sent that had been lost in the mail, and how he wanted to give to support us. Sharon had mentioned my current state of lack of funds and basically invited him to pray about whether he would want this money to go to supporting me. So all this afternoon he’s been praying about this. And after a time of praying over Harlen after lunch he asks if he can make an announcement. Sharon says, “sure”. And he shares how Sharon had been telling him how we are all raising support now and about me and how he wanted to be my sponsor!!! His face lit up as mine lit up and I told Him how this was such an answer to prayer and totally God’s timing!! Always on time, even at the 11th hour!! Harlen jokingly said I must be thankful that February had an extra day this year. I couldn’t agree more. His sponsorship helped me to cover over half a year’s salary. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

To God be all the glory, honor, and praise. Only He could have brought the cows home for me. I’m looking forward to that steak.

Thank you again for your prayers and financial support, this is such a sweet blessing from the Lord and confirmation yet again, that He will be faithful to lead me and provide for me!!!

Prayer Requests

Pray for a man who came to our Friday night worship last week. He showed up intoxicated and really was touched by the Lord. He doesn’t want to drink anymore. Pray that God would give Him the strength to do so, and that this man would come to know the Lord fully!

Pray for the children in Cairo and their upcoming ISAT test. Due to recent weather, the school has been closed for several days over the past few weeks. These kids have missed out on valuable time to prepare for these tests and much of the information they will be tested on, they haven’t learned about yet. Pray for God to pour out knowledge and wisdom and help them remember well what they do know. Pray for the teachers and faculty – this is a very stressful time for them (I know, one is my roommate!). Pray for peace, rest, and focus to do what needs to get done, but not be overwhelmed by it all.

Pray for Two Rivers and this SUMMER. We are praying and planning to do a “prayer siege” this summer covering this community in prayer 24-7 for 50 days. We are praying for people to come join us in this endeavor. Please pray for reinforcements, resources, and spiritual strategy for following God’s lead in all of this.

Pray for my new nieces/nephews affectionately called “lima bean” and “noodle”. Pray for healthy development and joyful pregnancies for their mama’s Katy and Katie.

Pray for God’s perfect provision in my life. I am officially no longer a Vista employee and have received my last paycheck. I am now walking in faith completely for my finances (see my “support me” for current status). Join me in praising the Lord for the provision He has already provided and the promise that He will provide for all my needs! Praise Him that already two of my staff mates are fully supported this year and another one is supported for about half a year! Pray that I would not worry or be discouraged, but always walk in Thanksgiving to the Lord, remembering His faithfulness!

Thank you!

keep on keepin on…

It’s nearing 11pm and I’ve about had it fighting my computer over some worship documents I’ve been working on. Now my “word” application won’t even open. sigh.

The past few weeks have been good, long, educational, stretching…all that good stuff. We’ve had a lot of weekends on the road, playing worship at different prayer meetings in the region or attending prayer meetings in the region. I really love these gatherings, actually. It’s always a diverse group of people who just love the Lord and are seeing Him move in amazing ways in their churches and ministries. I love hearing their stories and worshiping with them. I love dancing to the Lord with them, too. Good times.

Between ministry and evening sessions training for the half marathon at the gym, days feel long. I keep waiting for my schedule to start to find a rhythm, from transitioning from Vista to full-time missionary to now adapting to new prayer schedules. I guess it’s just felt like a lot going on ontop of some transition and, though I’m enjoying the ride and where God is taking us, I might be happy when my head stops spinning.

What do I find myself doing these days?
Currently spending much time praying and studying about worship. I lead the worship aspect of our team which includes actually leading worship, but also training up new worship leaders. I don’t like the thought of “leading a band” cause frankly, I don’t have the skill to do it. But I believe God has called our whole team to be a “company of worshipers” some of whom will play instruments or sing, or dance, or pray, or however God leads. So I’m learning more about how to empower our team to worship the Lord while figuring out how to allow us to move as one before Him. We’re going into a new season of worship, and it’s exciting, I’m definitely learning a lot and getting to use some teaching skills, which I guess I missed, I didn’t realize.

I help out at an afterschool program called The Clubhouse at one of the local housing projects. We do a Bible study with the kids and then do some kind of activity – the past two months has been knitting games. I really love these kids. They crack me up.

I help out with our computer lab one afternoon a week which is a good time to hang out with kids and sometimes get some office work done.

Hopefully by next week I will be helping out at HeadStart, the local preschool. This is something that has been on my heart for a while and had just not panned out due to scheduling up til now. Praying that all will work out and God will open a door.

Heather C. started a Bible study and jewelry making night for teen girls, recently, so I’m hoping to just come along she and Stacy to help out there and get to know these girls.

As a staff we spend time in prayer and worship every morning Monday through Thursday, including some time for staff Bible study and teaching in there. Then we also have paired up for afternoon prayer times a few times a week where we can pray with one another about whatever God lays on our hearts for the community, nation, world, etc.

And of course there are the necessary staff meetings.

And as time allows I spend time praying over at Hannah’s house.

I think, perhaps like the rest of my staff, I always wish I had more time. There’s always more I want to do. We probably all feel like that sometimes.

Time for bed.

New pages…

I’ve added a couple of new pages to my blog.

“My Testimony” is just my story about finding God.
“His story” is His story with pursuing us.

Check them out, if you like, you may need time to read them all ;o) so wordy… sorry. But be blessed, none the less.

Happy Valentines Day, Two Rivers, here’s a healing….love, God.

Last night as I was falling asleep, I prayed that God would show me His love in a fun way for Valentines, that it would be like a little Valentine to my spirit. He certainly didn’t disappoint.

Ladies and Gentleman, here is the testimony of our first physical healing of a community member here in Cairo…(drum roll).

So I was just finishing my time in the prayer room along with three of the other girls when two women come to our door asking about Family to Family boxes (program that provides food for families here). So Heather C is out talking to these two women and I’m eyeing the clock thinking if I should go home for lunch quick.

Heather comes into the room with one of the women and asks if we can pray for her. This woman shares a little about what she’s going through. Some financial concerns with utilities and also she’s had a migraine headache since last Tuesday.

So we start praying for all these things. Just speaking life and God’s truth of how he loves her and sees her, etc.

We stop and ask if the headache is better. She says no, and Amanda asks her where the headache is. She says behind her eyes. So we keep praying that the headache was going to leave – come out through her eyes. We canceled any witchcraft or curses spoken over her…just kept praying…heal her, Lord.

We finished and she looked up at us with tears rolling down her face. “It’s gone.” She said. The headache was gone.

She then began to thank Jesus over and over again telling us, “you have no idea! you have no idea how amazing this is, I haven’t been able to sleep, I’ve been in so much pain, and now it’s gone!!”

It was like seeing the Samaritan woman after she encountered Jesus and ran through the town full of joy telling everyone about Jesus! Her whole countenance was different – full of joy! She kept saying how good God was and how we couldn’t even imagine how good this was (that she felt). Her friend was encouraged too.

And then it gets better – we asked this woman to pray for Gary, who suffers from horrible migraines continually. She agreed joyfully to pray for Gary and just began to praise God for how good He is and praying for all to know the love of God. It was so amazing just listening to her praise God!! Jess asked her to put her hand on Gary’s head and just command the headaches leave in Jesus name. She did. Gary wasn’t having a heachache at that point, but we are believing the healing is coming! No more headaches…come on, Jesus!

I love the kindness of the Lord, seeing the joy in this woman’s face was the sweetest Valentine’s Day gift I may have ever gotten. To see the love of God touch someone’s life in such a tangible way – the kingdom of heaven become real in our midst- where pain is washed away. Amen, Lord. Amen.

We love you too, Jesus

Creation groans.

Please pray for those still without power in the heartland, we’re having a crazy ice storm. Cairo is blessed to still have power, so we’ve got heat and all, but I know there are many without, so keep them in your prayers if you think about it.

The word says “that all creation is groaning for the sons of God to be revealed”…I feel confirmed that I’ve been witnessing the groanings of creation between 50+ tornadoes raiding the south in February, ice storms, wind gust, and fires here in Cairo – the earth HAS to be having a hissy fit, come on.

The heavens declare Your glory.
The rocks will cry out to praise You if I don’t.
May I have eyes to see, God, and ears to hear what creation seems to know all too well.
We desperately need You in this hour, God.
Have mercy.
Awaken our sleeping hearts.

The next generation.

I’m very excited about August this year. Usually August isn’t one of my favorite months, tends to be so hot and muggy here and such. But this year will be exceptionally special because my family is expecting, not ONE, but TWO precious babies!!

My sister Katie and her husband Phillip are expecting a baby August 12th.
And my oldest brother Shawn and his wife, Katy are expecting August 21st.

Join me in praying for healthy pregnancies and deliveries. These four soon-to-be parents are wonderful people and I’m excited for them to now be wonderful parents ;o). We’re all excited to have grandbabies around next Christmas!!

I am also thrilled to now be an AMAZING aunt. )

Victory.

Victory is mine!
Victory is mine!
Victory today is mine!
I told Satan, get thee behind
’cause victory today is mine!

Learning to love (lesson 3,489,940…and counting)

The past few weeks have been harder for me. The enemy is just throwing out a lot of lies, feel bombarded by flaming arrows and my shield of faith seems to be very wee, as it were. Struggling with feelings of inadequacies, questions of identity, wondering if I’ve really been effective in this place God has called me to. The enemy loves to discourage. It’s all lies…those He calls, He qualifies. My identity is in Christ, and His fruit has been plentiful, most of it has been in my own life, though – in the work God has done in me, not what I have done for Him.

But in the midst of it, one of the areas I feel I could improve on is in building relationships. I’ve been here in Cairo for a while now, and it’s still so hard for me to really build into people in this community, to invest in their lives and actually build friendships. And it ticks me off, can I just be honest? I wish I wasn’t so guarded, or selfish, or awkward, or insecure. I wish I was the extrovert who always had something to say and made others feel at ease to be themselves. I feel this gregarious quality runs in my family, but somehow skipped over me. I wish I could just love like Jesus. So I’m working on this, you can pray for me, I have a ways to go.

My theme for this year is to walk in victory, and so as I identify areas where I’ve felt bondage, I’m speaking victory over them! Because, in all honesty, God died to set me free, the gift of “making friends” in Cairo should be part of the deal.

So, today I was praying before I went to help Melissa out at school with her precious little 5th graders. I have been feeling just a lack of motivation and vision all around, feel like I have call towards children, but at the moment have been questioning it all, you know, one of those seasons… Anyways, just prayed that God would help me love like Him. And I really had fun just getting to love on the kids today.

I was talking to one boy, D, I’ll call him, and he was really worried because progress reports were coming out and he knew things weren’t going well with his grades and he knew this would have consequences at home. I was just going around asking the kids how their days were and D was telling me that he really struggles with reading, because he doesn’t enjoy it. So I got to share with him how I really didn’t like reading at all when I was younger, but if I found one book I liked, then I would try and find other books by the same author and give them a whirl. I told him about one of my favorites, Roald Dahl, who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate factory and such… turns out that was a book he read that he actually liked, before I know it, D is walking about the room trying to find a copy of James and the Giant Peach I had seen earlier. It may not sound all that earth shattering, but it was a neat moment for me to see how taking a few moments to earnestly ask someone how their day was brought a little encouragement into a kid’s life.

Next I walked over to another kid’s desk, and M was sitting there reading a game book about Yu-gi-yo..I don’t know how to spell it. This kid, I truly believe has a really sweet spirit, but whatever is going on at home in his life is having really back effects on his attitude and attention at school. Suffice it to say, there is some major spiritual warfare going on around this kid. Often I will just sit in his desk and pray for him when Melissa takes the class to PE. I love this kid, but I’ve had no idea how to reach out to him and show him that. So I asked him about his day and then his book, and all of a sudden that sweet spirit just came out and he told me about the board games he loves to play, he was so excited to share, made eye contact and everything (this is major).

I left school praising God for moments with the kids, it reminded me of how much I love those moments, and those kids.

Fill me with Your love, Lord. Help me to pour it out to those around me. Release victory in love, in my life, Lord!

Answered Prayer.

Thanks for praying for 12th street Missionary Baptist church. They have already leased a church building here in Cairo and will begin having service there this Sunday! The church building they are now going to meet in belonged to a church that closed down.

Thanks God for Your provision for our brothers and sisters at 12th street. Please continue to pray that God would use this time to bring unity between the churches in Cairo!