Past, Present and Future

I don’t think a person can fully grasp the wonders of what God has done without being able to see clearly all that He’s done in every stage of our life.  I’m a very forward looking person for the most part but there are things of the past that I hope to give me experience to make the future brighter.  Last night we had our mid-week service which was also our New Year service.  One thing we have done is have everyone involved in the services and I love that.  Last night they brought out a home made banner with the trips we’ve had over the last couple of years put on it.  It was so incredibly encouraging to see those things God has done in the past be a testimony to what God will surely do in the future.  I can’t help but believe that this will be the best year yet.  The weather has broken records this year with a tornado even hitting our Metra causing damage that they say won’t be fixed until April but I believe we have records of our own to set this coming year!  Our youngest will turn five on the 31st which is a great way to kick off the new year as well!  20011 will surely be a year of fulfillment and I can hardly wait!

 

Looking back on our trip to Ghana I am warmed not just by the heat I can remember so well as we traveled from place to place.  Nor is it the palm nut used to make their fiery soups…not even the powerful chilies warmas much as the coming fulfillment for 2011!  The promises both warm and refresh me…much like this coconut on a hot day in Ghana!  I believe that we have vision and faith will provide the building materials for the job we have at hand.  It is not merely a change in location that warms meno, not just the wonderful friends who have now become family to us…not only those things.  What thrills me is that God has brought together these precious things to make a structure of His making.  My dream has been to travel a road less traveled.  I always wanted to see people from the nations we visit be in an international team ready to go into all the world together to bring unique anointings to places that would not ordinarily see it.  This year this vision will come to the birth.  We intend to bring our dear friends and family from Africa to a mission to the Philippines…this vision has long simmered on the back burner but now it is about to bloom like a glorious flower!  Sometimes it can feel that you’re eating whatever garbage fate tosses your waybut put action to your faith and you’ll never walk away ashamed or unfulfilled!  This year we’ll form another team even greater than the one we had in Ghana.  Though many that went to Ghana will return we will have new people and greater purpose!  We’ve stood tall in the storms of the past and attainted marvelous things, we’ve cut through the jungle of doubts and fears that Satan presented but now we roll down the tracks on a train of his purpose with greater vision than ever before!  We’ve been accepted by those God has put us together with.  We’ve seen the promise in the generation to come.  Never was this more obvious then it was in my adopted brother’s son Julian.  Now the vision that has seemed hung out to dryis coming to pass before our very eyes!  Don’t let the vision come upon your unaware!  This is our time!  God bless you all in this New Year!  Something good is about to happen, something good is in store!

T’was a Night or Two Before Christmas

I am about to breach protocol…I know, it’s brave to risk a lump of coal in my stocking but here I am pressing ahead!  Normally I’d finish with my pictures of Ghana before putting up anything else but what better reason to do something special is there than Christmas itself?  I feel that a new day has dawned and the sun has set on the past more than ever before.  Those of you that know me realize I don’t dwell on the past but am all about the future.  It’s not that things in the past haven’t been good but they are just steps to the good things God has in the future…thus the past is beautifulbut the future is more so.  Some say clouds have a sliver lining but often I see clouds and difficulties for that matter as something that will always give way to a brilliant blue dawn!  Hope and God’s promise reside in every season…even when it’s the last leaf hanging on for dear life in the fallor the dead of winter…there’s promise in the future!  Hope gives way to faith that burns like a bright flame even in our seasons of grey and white.  Looking in our backyard it’s very dreary at times with the brown and dead prairie stretching endlessly as far as the eye can seebut I know that I know it’s only a matter of time before that deadness gives way to life again.  Our bold Pansies that braved massive hail and a tornado this year finally bowed to the weight of season’s changebut though they seem to weep I know our garden will rise again even better than before!  The snow came this year with a surprising furryand our coffee table outside went from looking like a single Oreo cookie with the top off to a double stuff in a hurrybut the promise there is in Christmas shines brightly.  Even our ornaments have a missionary flare!  Our tree has been a beacon of hope every year because no matter how tired we are from the gigs our choir performs before Christmas we do this and it brings us hope as we look at it.  Some see it as a pagan reference but for me it’s a symbol of our togetherness and that could never be complete without Jesus Christ.  Each ornament has a meaning to me…even this for my daughter DanielleLOL!  Even this one reminds me of the things God has blessed us with that transcends material things.  This one is more than a patriotic bell…it’s a more modern version of the bell my grandfather always had on his tree before he passed away.  This one we brought back from Africa so it’s very special to us all!  Now the coffee table has become a quadruple stuff Oreo or morebut the promise of a new season shines bright like a Christmas star that lead the wise men to Christ!  Merry Christmas everyone!  God bless you!

Creature of Habit Vs. Man of Destiny

There are so many times in my life when I can see how strong habit is.  It’s so easy to fall into familiar patterns rather than test the limits of our faith but what is faith if it’s not challenged?  A while back the prospect of going to Ghana with my whole family seemed absolutely impossible.  Even standing with my youngest near our luggage couldn’t bring the reality home to me at first.  The mounds of luggage grew as we met with our team at the airport…now Gabby is truly dwarfed by the mountains of things we needed for the trip…note the coffee…no day is complete without some coffee!  This was the first trip we started like this that wasn’t some ungodly hour of the morning.  I never would have guessed that later there would be people in Ghana that we would meet that we couldn’t imagine being without.  This is me and Hans…we intend to bring him with us on our next trip to Asia.  If we wouldn’t have stretched our faith we never would have met Hans.  Faith is like truth:  before it makes you free it makes you miserable.  Here in Montana it’s hard to imagine the fan palms of Africa.  It all takes not just faith but a leap of faith.  It took a leap of faith to wash clothes without a washing machine too let me tell ya!  I told them they should try trampling out the grapes of wrath!  Faith is like a plant that needs to be nourished with action to thrive.  Sometimes the crop that comes up from our faith can look like and alien life form far from what we were originally believing for…much like these palm nutsbut trusting God through the unexpected is what leads to reaping great benefit.  Unless you’ve experienced coconuts you can’t imagine the skill of people who can open them for you to enjoy.  Sometimes a great vision requires someone to take it and open it for others so they might partake of it.  Taste and see that the Lord is good!  Now we’ve gone from chasing lizards in the tropicsto staying in to avoid the snow and cold but still I remember all that God has done…we really were in Ghanaand now we need to push forward into the next vision that God has for us.  This is the power of faith that causes miracles to bloom!  I believe in going from gloryto glory!  For now we leave the streets of Ghanabut I know we’ll look on them again.  I expect that the next time we look down from my brother’s churchit will be finished and we’ll be ever closer to completing what God has for us to do.  For now we cling to the visionbelieving that something better is just around the corner!