An encouraging day! News from the Middle East.

This weekend Al and I attended the SAT-7 Christ in Crisis conference in Wichita.  SAT-7 provides Arabic language Christian satellite television to the Arabic world.  Anyone with a satellite dish can turn on SAT-7 and hear the Word of God in his or her language!

We heard first hand accounts of how God is at work so powerfully in the Middle East.  The speakers shared how children, refugees and the churches there are affected by the crisis and how God is working in the midst of it all.  And we heard personal testimonies from Arabic believers of how they came to faith in Christ.  It was so very encouraging since US media paints a very dismal picture that is so scary!

Dennis and Cindy are with SAT-7.  Here is a description from their web site:

Director of Church Connections

Before joining SAT-7 in 2003, Dennis and his wife Cindy served for over 20 years in the US, France, Mali, and Cote d'Ivoire in a variety of ministry roles — including Bible school education, field leadership, urban church planting, dorm parenting, guest house ministry, and media. Dennis grew up in West Africa as a TCK (Third Culture Kid) where his parents were international workers with the Mali, West Africa church. Dennis helped pioneer the FM radio project in Mali, using specially designed, solar-powered FM radio stations for church-based sustainable development.

Dennis and Cindy work as a team to apply their international experience and knowledge of cross-cultural ministry to the advancement of SAT-7, speaking and informing as they network with churches throughout the US.

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Side note:

We were just at their home last month.  (You can click to see blogpost)

The conference was held at Eve Free where we used to attend when we lived in Wichita so many years ago.  Our 2 older kids were dedicated to the Lord there.  It was rather fun to run into old friends who were in our young married's Sunday School class and also ministry leaders from the past!  We recognized eachother even after 30 plus years!

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On  Friday evening, we heard that there are over 90,000 believers in Iran today!  When Ayatollah Khomeini was in power, he vowed to destroy all the Christians.  But he didn't have that power. At that time, there were only about 300 Christians.   God is still at work!

With Brooke, Dennis and Cindy's daughter, and Ray Henain, one of the speakers at the conference, who is from Egypt but lived all over the Middle East and is now working with SAT-7.

We heard this story about a little girl whose family had to flee from ISIS.  We were told that ISIS captured many children from her village and put them in a cage and torched them!  Just awful!!  But listen to her story!

Just this past week a TV news station in Saudi Arabia aired this unedited clip.  May God use it to bring Him glory and further His kingdom!  Pray with her that we can forgive our enemies, that God would bring peace to Syria and to all the Middle East, and that God would open the eyes of the terrorists (we understand that some of the ISIS followers are having dreams and turning to Jesus in faith!)

This is Mr. Know who has a program called "Why Is That?"  Wouldn't it be fun to have a t-shirt like that?!

He has such energy and has such a way of connecting to children!!  I am absolutely astounded by the faith and the prayers of the little children.  We heard from 6 year olds to 12 year olds who prayed out loud on this show and it brought me to tears!

SAT-7 has women's programs.  Many of the women in the Middle East have no hope.  They are 2nd class citizens in many of the countries.  Here is the web site to see that.  You can even like their Facebook page.  Pray for the women in the Middle East!!  

What a joy to sing praises to Him in Arabic!  Well, we struggled a little with that language.....Ray told us that Arabic will be the language we speak in heaven because it will take an eternity to learn!

And here is a final video from a brother of 2 of the victims of ISIS.

Please join us in prayer for God to continue to work and to bring peace!  The following verse is coming to pass in this day.

Isaiah 19:23

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’

Moving

Has it really been 10 years since we moved to our home?!

After the children were all out of the nest, they would come home with their spouses and it would feel a little crowded.  We realized that once grandchildren began to arrive, it could be quite tight when they would all come home to visit.  We asked the children how they would feel if we would sell the home they had grown up in.  They agreed to it!

So put our home on the market and found a lot to build a home on.

We rented a home in the country for 6 months since our home sold right away.  The Josts were wonderful landlords!

The one big memory we have of that time is the ice storm that hit.  It looked like a tornado had come through!

Our home went up and then the big day came!

March 5 - move day!

The Josts cleaned up their cattle trailer and our small group and young couple friends came to help us move!

You know what is funny?  Al still wears those same clothes!

I actually didn't have these pictures in my computer.  I didn't have Picasa back then, so I had to scan them in.  I wasn't a blogger 10 years ago.  Was there even such a thing?  I don't think I had heard about blogging.  What fun to share these oldie pictures!

 
My Daddy - before his stroke!

 Ten years later, this street is all developed.

 Not easy to move this upright grand!

 Becky and the women provided a meal for all who helped.

  Jan visiting with my sweet momma.

How we have enjoyed this home!

Time has slipped by so fast!

Happy Birthday, house!

The Invite

Al and I decided that we wanted to invite our neighbors over for a soup supper.  

It seems that in this modern culture, at least in this area, people come home from jobs and just roll into their garages and stay in their homes.  And so it is hard to really get to know those who live by you.  We have wanted to get to know our neighbors more - not just their names.  

                                    

We decided on a day and took the invitations to people who lived beside us - 2 houses on both sides of us and north of us.  Only one person was home where we could hand it to them personally.  We taped the invitation to the front doors for the others.

Our son-in-law asked if we could babysit Friday so they could go on a date.

We wouldn't turn that down!  I thought it would be good to have the girls help us make a peanut butter pie for the dinner.

Big sister, who loves cooking, is learning to be patient with her younger sister(?)

 Doesn't it look good???  The recipe is at the end of this post.  The girls did such a good job!
 I also made 2 cherry cheese cakes!  Yum!

Saturday was blanketed with snow.  We knew that wouldn't be a problem since we are just a short walk away from the homes by us.

 Al shoveled the sidewalk and driveway.

We had the home all ready.  Put on some soft jazz and soft lighting.  The smells from the soup and bread were wonderful!

We were not sure who would make it.  We got replies from some but not all.  One couple could not get out of a previous engagement.  Another family had birthday party plans.  Another lady was ill. We found out that one family had a death in their family this past week and we figured they wouldn't make it.  We didn't hear from another.

It ended up that only 1 person was able to make it.

The thing is, we had prayed that God would send who He had in mind, so even if only 1 could come, we would make the best of it and hopefully make that person feel welcomed.  And we did have a good time and found some common ground too!  

It really reminded me so much of the story in Luke 14.  There was an invitation given out.  But there were many excuses for not being able to go.  

"In ancient eastern civilization, to turn down an invitation to a dinner would be a declaration of war because when you're invited to a meal with someone, that was an extension of friendship and when you refused that, that was a statement that you wanted no friendship with that individual."  Oh wow. 

I am in no way saying that my neighbors are my enemies.  Ha ha!!  No!! we extend grace and we totally understand the busy lifestyles we as Americans have!!  We had a good time and even were able to take the extra soup and pie to a family that needed it!  And we will definitely be planning another gathering in a couple months or so!!

                                       

One day there will be a lavish banquet!  God is preparing and making ready.  What a heavenly celebration it will be!  But there is disinterest, indifference, even defiance to the message of Jesus Christ.  "Come!" (Rev. 22:17) He says.  How He loves us and wants us to come to this feast!  He invites ALL to come.  But we must accept the invitation.

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Reece's Pie - (makes 2 pies)

Mix 3.9 oz. instant chocolate pudding recipe using pie filling instructions.

Spread on the bottoms of 2 graham cracker pie shells.

Next layer:

1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, soft

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 T. butter, soft

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all together with mixer.  Fold in 1 container Cool Whip or 1 cup heavy cream that has been whipped.

Divide among the 2 pies and layer on top of the chocolate layer.

Top with more Cool Whip.

Top with broken Reece's peanut butter cups.

Drizzle with melted chocolate chips (melt in microwave).  To make it more drizzly, I add 1 tsp. shortening to the melted chips.

Time Out Retreat

                                     
This past weekend, our women's ministry from church had a Time Out Retreat at the Holiday Inn Express in Wichita.

                              

I love that it was simple.  Not a lot of meetings or workshops to attend.  Just a fun time to retreat and rest!

When my daughter and I arrived, we went to our room and lay on the beds and watched HGTV!  Neither of us have cable and so watching "Love it or List it" was just relaxing!!  And wondering why the people would choose to love their house rather than go for the incredible house with the stream running downhill beside their home!
                                   

At 5:15, we went down to the lobby to meet the group of us who were going to PFChangs for supper. Everyone was given a gift card to the restaurant of their choice - I believe there were 4 different restaurants we could pick from.  We were paired up with my friend Debbe and her daughter, Beth.

We began with an appetizer - lettuce wraps.  Everyone seemed to know about this DELICIOUS starter except me.  Oh my!!  I believe I need to make these at home!  Click here for the recipe!

Here is another group from the retreat.  

We saw a few other friends there, although not with us on retreat!  

Nicki and Kari - 2 other adoptive mom friends

Debbie and Mike -

Debbie and Debbe are my 2 Debb(y, ie, e) friends I enjoy hanging around with!

Debb(y, ie, e) was a popular 1950's name.  

A little rabbit trail here - I'm reading a book my great-grandfather wrote about our Swiss ancestors from back in the late 1800's.  The girl names that were used over and over in many of the families were Verena, Magdalena, Anna, Elizabeth and Katharina.

Today, looking at names in our church directory, the popular girl names are Chloe, Emma, Ellie/Ella, Adylynn/Addison, Hannah and the various spellings of those names.

Since Beth and Debbe were ordering dessert, of course Jill and I HAD to!!

 

"You are NOT taking my picture with these desserts, are you???!!!"

Yes, I am, and they were most delicious!!!  We won't feel guilty one bit!

We actually thought they would be little sample sizes, like in a little shooter, like at Applebee's.  Not complaining...!  Mmmmm!

We went back to the hotel for our evening session.

Why is it that no one likes to sit in the front row?  Even at church, there are rare families who do that, right?  Or at school?  I have heard that those in the front row at school get the better grades.  And probably those who sit in the front row at church may be less distracted too.  But it is rather intimidating to do so I think, but not sure why.

Cheri, who is the chair of our women's ministry, opened us with a few announcements.

Paige led us in singing many beautiful worship songs; "Come as you are", "Forever Reign", "From the Inside Out" and many more.  I love that last one especially!!  

"Consume me from the inside out Lord!"

Bobbie  was our speaker.  She grew up in Guatemala and married a kid I knew who grew up in Japan.  In fact, her sister-in-law and I were room-mates together for a semester in high school in Tokyo.  Then Bobbie and Steve ended up as missionaries in Japan for many years before coming to our church to serve.

Bobbie is very visual, and I am too, so I loved all the props she brought to share her thoughts.  Her topic was "Sorting Through the Lenses of my Life".   

Ephesians 1:18:  "....having the eyes of your  heart enlightened..."

"Do you think you have a distorted view of God because of the lenses in your life?"

                          

Here is a visual of a shoe box illustration from a dream she had.  Would she stay in the middle ground-the neutral place, (the gap between the boxes) or be on the Lord's side, represented by the shoebox on the left, or on the evil one's side, represented by the one on the right.  It's easy to not get too relational with either.

If you are totally honest, would you be

---hoping for a neutral place

---be firmly connected to God's kingdom

---be unconvinced of spiritual kingdoms (or worse, choose to be against God?)

                                

How do you do relationship with God?  Do you (I) want a relationship with Him?  How do you (I) view Him?

                                      We got into groups to discuss and share.

Some of us stayed up until midnight or later!!  

            Some went swimming.  

                      And some went to sleep...zzzzzzzzz! 

 (blessed sleep for those who are usually woken up by crying babies or snoring husbands!)

We got to sleep in and have a relaxing morning.  We could eat breakfast as late as 9:30 since the session didn't start until 9:45.  The hotel offered a breakfast buffet.

                          

Some of us chose to cross the street for a good cup of coffee!! 

(don't you feel sorry for my daughter whose mom carries around this camera all the time??)

We had one last session with more singing and encouraging words.

Bobbie shared that the heart is a container and its contents are different for each of us.  The nature of the heart is bent on badness, self-centered-ness.  Hard things.  But good things too.  When we accept Christ, He gives us a new heart with His DNA.  His Spirit is in me.  It still contains "stuff", but now we can live in His Spirit, His power.

1 Peter 1:3 "...According to His great mercy, He [God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope..."

I loved the re-thinking of 1 Corinthians 13.  Usually we put it in context of how we are to love others.  But how about a new perspective of how He loves me?  He is the essence of LOVE!  

God IS love!

Yes, God does love me!  and you!!  He is patient, kind, is not easily angered at me nor keep a record of wrongs against me, He always hopes in me.  His love never fails!

 break out session -
                   lots of chatter!!  what a joy to share our hearts with others!

A few books that Bobbie shared for recommended reading were:
Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You, Shepherd's House, Inc.
Bold Love, Allender/Longman
The Fight, John White

Another book she referred to was Epic:  The Story God is Telling by Eldredge.  I like this one!
"Sure, good things happen, sometimes beautiful things. But tragic things happen too. What does it mean? We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful, usually a confusing mixture of both, and we haven’t a clue how to make sense of it all. No wonder we keep losing heart.  We need to know the rest of the story."


We dressed similarly.  Do other families do that sometimes?

Here is a time all 3 of my girls dressed alike - not on purpose, mind you!

It was lunch time when we checked out so a few of us went out to eat and talk some more!!




















Look forward to next year and hope others can come too!!