A Prophet Without Honor

Being home with family and friends for the holidays has been such a blessing for us. We have had time with my parents and brother and nephew and a new addition, Kaylee, who is 2 ½. We have had Christmas with Mike’s children and some one on one with a couple of them. We intend to spend some time this week with Mike’s mom and sister and their family, and we will go back to visit and begin the rounds again on Christmas Day night. This becomes a difficult time because this is our last visit until next Christmas and we love our parents, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, children and grandchildren and realize how difficult it is on everyone. For us the hardest part about being home is the pressure from our families wanting us to be next door. We have family scattered in 3 states and each one wants us to be there for them. We must be where God wants us to be no matter what the cost. In Luke 18:29-30 (“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”) We are reminded that we are to follow Christ for the sake of the kingdom of God and Mike and I know we are to be obedient to His calling. Make no mistake, Jesus promises His followers a hard time: deception, war, disasters, persecution, treachery and death. But it is hope that enables us to resist and stand firm. Mark 6:4 says, Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor. Even Jesus struggled in His hometown. Please pray for us during this time that they would be renewed by God’s love and grace. Pray they would realize their void isn’t us but it is the relationship with Jesus they are missing. Jesus is the only one that can fill the void they all are longing for. When they have this right then all of the other relationships will fall into place. Thanks for your prayers and may God Bless you this holiday season.

Our first week and a half back, and all the foods we have missed!

Wow, I can’t believe it has already been a week. Our first night, we were blessed with “pepperoni” pizza at Mike’s sisters house. Sure we can get pizza and even make homemade pizza’s but we can’t get pepperoni so that was one of those must have’s on the list. Of course the next thing was “Las Palmas” for lunch on Saturday. That was sooooo good! We took Mike’s mom with us but she didn’t understand how much we had missed this place. We met with our team on Saturday night and that was combination of many things we couldn’t get in SA, including a honey baked ham, everything was so yummy! Sunday we left after church to go to visit the kids, grandkids, and my parents. Mike and I made our usual stop in Murfreesboro at Krystal’s. We still have a few favorites in Nashville to visit when we get back but for the most part we have satisfied all those cravings. Being at my parents place for a week we have also fulfilled some of those ice cream cravings; Blue Bell, dutch chocolate and moose tracks. We still need to visit our favorites; marble slab and maggie moo’s but we have some time to do that before we leave in January.
Our visits this week have been great too! We stopped on the way to my parents to visit with all the kids and grandkids. We can’t believe how big they have gotten and some we had to take a double look to be sure they were who we thought they were. Everyone looked great and are doing well. We came on to my parents and have had a great time with them. My nephew was also with us this week and he introduced us to a new addition to the family, her name is Kaylee. Mike and I are now a great Aunt and Uncle. Mike left and went back on Wednesday to spend a couple of days with his kids while I stayed and visited with my family. My brother flew in on Friday and we had one night where we were all together. We drove back to Nashville on Saturday and have stayed put for a couple of days to handle all of our personal stuff this week. We will leave tomorrow to go have Christmas with the kids and grandkids and then return on Saturday. Pray with us that our time here with friends and family will be peaceful and enjoyable as this past week and a half has been.

Almost Home

I am writing this on the London to Chicago flight, on our way back for Christmas. The first flight from Cape Town to London flew by. We slept almost all of the way. London to Chicago has been quite the challenge. We have watched all the movies we want to watch and we still have 4 hrs to go. It has been a day flight which makes it seem so much longer. Our last 2 weeks have been spent training for business in agriculture and learning about training our minds to have positive affirmations in all that we do.This is part of the grassroots training that we plan to use in Living Way to train others. We celebrated Thanksgiving with all the trimmings. We had about 13 people, 10 Americans, 2 South Africans and 1 Canadian over to our place and we had a fabulous time. We made a couple of turkeys, and sides and everyone brought something to go with it. We also got to watch a football game (it was a week old but that was ok) and then Danielle brought A Charlie Brown Christmas just to help us kick off the season. We didn’t have black Friday, thank goodness, but we did go Christmas shopping on Saturday. We have had a couple of Christmas parties this week and everyone was telling us that we better come back. We got an awesome letter from Khumi, she runs the bag business , and I laminated it in order to preserve it. It made us want to cry. She has been such a light for me and Mike and a joy to be around. We also said our goodbyes to our Zimbabwean friends and gave them a box of traditional “crackers” for Christmas. This is a South African family tradition. You get these cheap gifts wrapped tightly in a tube, then everyone pulls on the wrapper,like a piece of bubble gum, and the crackers make a popping sound when you open it and a silly gift falls out of the package. It sounds so simple, but we know this will make about 24 people who can’t afford gifts at Christmas very happy! We got all of the volunteers sorted before we left and look forward to some new ones when we get back. We both have to have strategic plans in place for 09, so we have been working on this while we fly. By the time you read this we will have already had a pepperoni pizza from Roma’s and been to Las Palmas for lunch (neither of these can you get in South Africa). We have been looking forward to this for a couple of months. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and being at home for the holidays. The hardest part is we left a beautiful summer day to come back to winter. As we land in Chicago, there is snow on the ground. Oh well, it wouldn’t seem like Christmas if it wasn’t cold and snowing.

“God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called!”

We can be tempted to say, “This is what I do for God,” and stay there. Some people are called to a specific task for a lifetime, but God may call us to a new work. When He does, we can learn from the church at Antioch: A church that runs members off is one that follows the Spirit’s direction.
If we stay in the same place for a lifetime that is ok, as long as we are in God’s will, but if He asks us to move we must be obedient to the call. I am so thankful He called me to a new work. When God intersected our lives in 2006 I knew our lives were about to change. How much? I didn’t know. Looking back I can see now a lot. Brentwood Baptist has been instrumental in helping us to achieve all God has for us, it certainly is a church that follows the Spirit’s direction and we are very grateful to be a part of it.
I have been asked to take the lead for our Savings Clubs in 2009 and don’t feel that I have the qualifications to make this happen. I know with Christ, I can do all things and realize I must lean on Him for all of this to happen. A friend of mine told me this quote, at the top, a while back to remind me that He does the calling and I must trust Him for the equipment. I believe in my heart that this is exactly what He is doing with me for 09. As I talked this over with the manager of Living Way, Richard, a couple of days ago he basically made the same statement in a different way. He said 5 years down the road when you look back on your accomplishments here in South Africa, you will be amazed at all the things you learned that you didn’t ever dream of doing before. This is so true, I have been given so much opportunity for growth outside of my realm of dental hygiene and it truly brings joy to my heart. Who would have ever thought I could learn how to do so much with a computer, but I have. I had no intention of ever going into farming, but I am learning. I never dreamed of managing a bakery, but I am going to. I never thought I could take the lead to train trainers to present Savings clubs to churches and support group facilitators, but I intend to. The list goes on! I was certainly not equipped when God called me to do these things but I was willing and obedient and for that He has blessed me with so much. I ask that you pray with me as I have lots to look forward to in 09. Pray that he will equip me with all I need to serve Him.