Asia and Chocolate

exactly

I remember after living in a communist country for 10 months and not being able to say the name Jesus outside of my house for that time, being asked "would you rather be the church in America or over there in the persecuted church?" I immediately said, "persecuted church."

Why? Because there you KNOW God because He is all. you. have. All. You. Have. ALL. YOU. HAVE. Nothing else. The awareness of your frailty and out-of-controlness as a human is always before your face and the fact that you depend on God is constant. I love it.

Exactly, Anne.

this just hit me ...

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst." I Timothy 1:15 (NIV)

It's true.

Operation Christmas Child

I bought my stuff for my shoebox today. I plan to take it on Friday, when I will also be helping to man the collection location at my work.

If you've never heard of Samaritan's Purse or Operation Christmas Child, or if you have, please support this amazing organization this Christmas.

I totally love this ministry, not only for what they do for people groups that I love in this world, but what they do for people in need all over the world. Read about them, give to them, go with them ... support them however you can and change the life of hurting people everywhere.

You have until Monday to do a shoebox.

GO.

Now.

I mean it.

A pure and contrite heart ...

At work today I overheard a co-worker talking about her four-year-old daughter's recent confession. The four-year-old was getting a bath alongside her two-year-old sister when she looked up at Mommy and said she had lied about something. The four-year-old continued to explain how the two-year-old's boo boo was there because she had put little sister on something in the backyard and then little sister fell off. She had been warned not to do this before and when she did, little sis got hurt. So she confessed her little sins and her Mommy was nearly beaming with pride as she shared the lesson her daughter had learned.

While teaching for the past two years I built a strong trust with many of my students. And several of them would take the initiative when they did something wrong. They would call me and let me know what had happened, ask for forgiveness and accept their punishment. It warmed my heart to see that they were truly sorry for what they did. And believe me, their punishment was much lighter when they came and talked to me first.

So, I wonder if it's that way with God? I can only assume that He much more prefers it when we come to Him and confess our sins. We take the initiative instead of running away like Adam in the Garden. We fess up and take our punishment and move on with gratefulness that our God loves us. I mean the Mommy at work and I were both thrilled that our "kids" came and fessed up to the truth. It means they get it and they really don't want to live that kind of life.

And then I look at the story of David in the Bible. God called him a man after his own heart, and yet David was guilty of some grievous sins. He suffered the consequences for them and yet in spite of it all the line of Christ was built through David's son Solomon, the offspring of his marriage to Bathsheba. Why was he still a man after God's own heart? He confessed, he repented and turned away from his sins.

How much more should we go to the Father and pour out our hearts to Him. He's not going to slap us around. Yes, there are consequences. But he has the heart of a Father and loves us in spite of our sins. And I'm sure he loves it all the more when we come quickly to Him and just lay it at His feet.

Going Deeper

Amazing!

I just got back from a day and a half of some of the best teaching I've ever had the privilege of sitting under.

Deeper Still Conference with:

Priscilla Shirer

Beth Moore

Kay Arthur

It was absolutely incredible. And the WORSHIP, lead by  Travis Cottrell, was honestly the best worship experience I've ever known in this country ... I wept every time we sang. And there is nothing like hearing 25,000 women sing acapella worshipping their God.

Some nuggets I personally took away from the weekend.

From Priscilla's talk on God's Anointing (I Chronicles 14:2-11):

• When I feel ill-equipped, I must remember Whose I am and that God's call is more than what I can do on my own. And it's ultimately that way for His glory.
• Even after David was anointed he went back to his "menial" job ... and during those years he learned everything he would need for the future.
• I have an enemy. When the enemy finds out that I'm anointed, he will come out against me in full force.
• The anointing guarantees access to God.
• Prayer is the most potent weapon we have.
• When we pray, God in his humanity can sympathize, and yet in His diety can do something about it. At best, our girlfriends maybe can sympathize.
• God is the God of BREAKTHROUGH - and my next breakthrough will come in the are of food addiction/self-control.
• David always inquired of God before dealing with the enemy, even if the answer seemed obvious.

From Beth's talk "How do we cooperate with God to get to glorious transformation?" (II Samuel 6-7):

• David thinks he's going to build a house for God, but God says he will build David a house. When we think we've done something for God, He will come back and do something amazing. He gets ALL the glory.
  • I Peter 2:4-5 - WE are the spiritual house, living stones
• God wants to do something in my life that makes Him show up.
• His calling will require more than I can ever do. All the time. I'm not looking for a tweak, but a transformation.
• When you pray the Word over people, you transfer the burden to the Word. The Word even transfers over spiritual seed (since the New Testament).
• We have to move past our personal devastation with God.
• The greatest calling of my life will be on the other side of the pain. If I let the enemy hold me in that place, I'm stuck for life.
• We've got to return to whole-hearted obedience.
• If I'm not with Christ, the enemy is ready to take my passion away for his purpose. I was made for holy passion.

Kay's talk on Crossroads (II Samuel 11-12):

• Sin is never done undercover.
• Sin will cause the enemies of God to blaspheme Him. And God is so holy that He will not try to defend Himself by covering your sin. The greater a leader that falls, the more publicity his sin will receive.
• The grace of God is favor, power and previous.
• If you're breathing, it's not over for you. Grace is still available.
• Stop moaning about your past and God will use it.
• God's grace is David's life was that even after his many sins, God allowed Solomon to build the house that David longed to build for the Ark of the Covenant. This was the son born from David and Bathsheba. THAT is grace.

There was so much more than what I can begin to fill on this page. I had really no idea what I was getting into when my mom asked me if I wanted to go to this event. I just said yes and decided to go even though I didn't feel well and would rather have stayed at home and rested. But I'm so thankful that I went and relished in the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of the Holy Scriptures and and the testimony of God's goodness, faithfulness and grace in the lives of three women who are going deeper still.

(Picture: Mandisa from American Idol helped lead worship this morning ... great testimony of faith!)

So, what happened Sunday??

Well, I didn't write anything yesterday about what happened on Sunday. I spent my evening with my dear friend Patti and her baby, Audrey. So cute!

And it's past my bedtime again, but I just had to share.

I got baptized on Sunday!

Yes, ME, the 11-year-old Christian got baptized on Sunday.

Here's the short version.

I was baptized as a young child (think 3 or 4) because a friend did it. I didn't become a Christian until a youth retreat when I was 15. I contemplated getting baptized at that time, but eventually decided against it. I think the peer pressures of youth got to me and I felt like people would think I was weird.

But on Sunday Pastor Rick gave an invitation to everyone who had not been baptized could get baptized and through several moments and one special testimony, I walked down the aisle to get baptized for the first time since giving my life to the Lord.

It was such an emotional thing, yet, it was just so matter of fact. I love Jesus and I want everyone to know and I want to be obedient.

The coolest part was that my youngest brother Philip also went to be baptized that morning (neither of us knew the other would be back there) and we got baptized together! It was so cool, a day I will never forget.

A season of blessing and joy ...

  These past three days have been an amazing time of celebration, renewal, encouragement and joy! Since Thursday night we have been having our church's annual ministry leadership conference, only this time they added a live recording/concert of our worship band (ReBirth) and a service to dedicate our new building. The weekend has been so powerful, full of revelation for me. I'm now happily exhausted and faced with the fact of  a full schedule of classes this week, and finishing pulling together the content of the yearbook by Thursday. Heaven help me!

Crunch time begins now: the yearbook, giving a Latin final next week, winding down my other classes, continuing to strive for excellence in our teacher's training course (we'll have a test on Thursday), and soaking up the sweet time with my kids. Oh and I think I should start working on graduation, huh? The workload seems overwhelming, but in the face of it all I am calm. I am peaceful because I want to savor each and every moment of these next 8 weeks. EIGHT WEEKS! I can't believe my time here is ending so soon. And lately my time has been so sweet. I love these kiddos.

Lord, may I bask in this blessing that you have given me here over these next weeks Thank you for bringing me all the way to the other side of the world in order to change me. I am deeply humble and forever grateful. And I know the next step will be equally exciting.

Some pictures for fun ...

It's Easter!

   What a great day ... I went to the early service this morning and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. During worship, right before the Lord's Supper, they showed the crucifixion from "The Passion." I don't think I made it through that scene when I saw it in the theater, but it's so powerful to watch. Everyone had tears streaming down. And I couldn't help but think, that should have been me, being beaten and mocked and tortured. He didn't deserve it, but He did it for me. And then saved my life when He conquered death and rose to life again on the third day. I've heard it my whole life, but I am always moved by it. Thank you Jesus!

This past week has been an unusual blur. I've had more free time than normal, and so I've really just rested a lot this week and it's bee wonderful. I did have the spelling bee on Tuesday and then sports day on Thursday. I came down with a head cold on Tuesday, and so I've been trying to recover from that all week as well.

I watched several moves while grading papers and catching up on other tedious jobs.  I watched "Little Miss Sunshine" for the first time and liked it a lot. Anything about dysfunctional families really  appeals to me for some reason. I rewatched the old version of "Yours, Mine and Ours" with Lucille Ball. It's so cute and every time I watch it I laugh out loud.

Like I said before, we had sports day on Thursday. I was the coordinator for the Green Team (Greenades). I did so little for my team this year, but thankfully I had great help from parents, students and some other teachers. I was very proud of my team. We won some ping pong, track & field, quite a bit of the badminton, and we came in second in boy's basketball and younger boy's futsal. We came in second in overall winning team from the whole day. I wasn't feeling so good, but it was a good day overall watching the kids compete in their respective sports. Here are some pictures from the day ...

The Good News!

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

                                                      Matthew 28:1-9

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

                                    Romans 5:10