Sunbeams

I started roller-blading yesterday...I dug out the very nice pair of skates my brother helped me to buy probably 7 years ago, and which I'd probably used 3 times. There is a wonderful "new" road which runs alongside the river that runs through our city and walkers, bikers, runners and roller-bladers, along with the occasional car, use this road. It's very peaceful and a great place to "get away" without getting away.

Today, as I was blading, I turned around and saw this incredible picture with the sun, slowly setting. I took this with my phone's camera and was blown away by the beams! It reminded me of how far-reaching is the love and grace of God.

The Sacred Romance

I've been reading a very good book called The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge. Here are some quotes to ponder...you know me, I love quotes.

"It is in our heart that we first hear the voice of God and it is in the heart that we come to know him and learn to live in his love."

"For above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart. It cannot be lived primarily as a set of principles or ethics."

"There are only two things that pierce the human heart, wrote Simone Weil. One is beauty. The other is affliction."

"Whether we feel it with finality...or as a lingering fear in the corner of our minds, most of us sense that we are alone in the world. No one has ever been there for us with the strength, tenderness, and consistency that we long for. Even in the best situations, people eventually let us down. Our personal drama leaves us little hope for an Author who is taking the story toward a good conclusion. Chesterton said we're certain to minsunderstand the story we find ourselves in and he was right. Furthermore, those closest to us often help in the misinterpretation."

"We long for intimacy because we were made in the image of perfect intimacy."

"Jesus left to prepare our place in heaven; the Spirit has come to empower us to continue the invasion of the kindgom, which is primarily about freeing the hearts of others to live in the love of God."

....to be continued.....

Weekend photos....

newly renovated "palace"

Don't worry....

Just some photos for you to enjoy...and comment on if you want!

Thanksgiving Dinnerssssssss........and Szeged fun!

Unlike last year, I didn't cook a turkey this year. However, I got to enjoy not just one, but two wonderful Thanksgiving dinners. The first was Saturday night...a local church congregation here, Cornerstone, had its annual Thanksgiving outreach feast! Probably 150 people were there, about 50 kids, and while most were believers, there were some who were not and got to hear the Gospel and eat traditional Thanksgiving foods!

Sunday, Edith, Mary Jill and I drove to Budapest and attended the International Church of Budapest, after which we joined about 55 other people at a retreat center for another Thanksgiving feast celebration, with cranberry sauce to boot! That was a sweet time of fun, fellowship, worship, and great food!

Saturday afternoon, MJ, Edith and I walked around Szeged and of course happened upon my favorite statue...you simply cannot walk past this forlorn looking girl and not sit down next to her to have your photo taken.

More ICF pix.....

Putting our best feet forward.....

We're filling up the chairs we set out.....

Friday at 7 - International Christian Fellowship.....

The leadership teams' "true colors" are starting to show after 2 months of meetings....two weeks ago, we arrived to find a "clothing bazaar" taking place in the room where we meet...and I was speaking on Jesus cleansing the temple. Sort of ironic. Well, this week, Erik, pictured above found a hat that was a keeper, and a "gown" that was not a keeper. He and Sara also decided to try their hand at synchronized head stands...and all this before our meeting started. Mary Jill, Elza, Edith and Judit and I just looked on and laughed.

In all seriousness, we had 29 in attendance this past Friday and it was a blessed time of fun praise and worship and an excellent message by Erik on the first section of John 3. I had a wonderful discussion with Markus, a young man from Germany, for probably an hour after the meeting. He is searching and so hungry to know God.

We have three meetings remaining before the Christmas holiday break! We hope to organize a Christmas party on one of those Fridays. Our November tithe has gone to a 10 year old little girl, who lives with her mother in the battered women's shelter...we've bought her Christmas gifts that she requested: a baby doll, a comb and hairbrush, and a story book.

Oswald Chambers

Some powerful thoughts to ponder and take to the Lord.

"Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God.

Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, "O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself." Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul's faith in God. Don't say, "I must explain myself, " or "I must get people to understand." Our Lord never explained anything---He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.

When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede."

HIS doors of opportunity, not mine

I'd prayed since last Friday, after having learned about the 17 year old student from our school who took his own life, that I might be able to talk about it in some of my classes and share about having a true and lasting hope. Monday passed...the topic came up in a couple of my 5 classes, but no ensuing discussions...Tuesday, the same...Wednesday...the same, til the last 5 minutes of my LAST lesson with my 9th graders. However, the topic was not suicide, but rather whether there is such thing as luck. I "argued" that there is no such thing as luck, that there are only blessings! Well, if you have any familiarity with 15 year olds, they will argue with you like a cat cornered.

Our "discussion" was more of a heated debate, which turned, of course to the Author of blessings...in whom only 1 of the 7 students remaining to take part in the discussion believes. So then we begin to argue about the existence of God...the typical arguments of "we can't see Him", "if you believe that then He is real for you, but if I don't, then He is not real," etc. Quite honestly, from my perspective, it was NOT a pretty sight, with some raised voices and bantering back and forth...BUT GOD. Quite suddenly, I knew the Holy Spirit had descended upon the room, our group and the conversation, and His peace and calmness and love took over. I was able to get to the heart of the matter...there is a God who loves each of us passionately and endlessly and wants a personal relationship with each one of us....at this point, each of these students who had been "at a distance" moved in closer to me and began to "hear" His love, as I told them how I fail miserably every day at loving Him and loving others. The questions then turned to, "Well, how do you know you are hearing His voice?" "How do you know that He is telling you to go and love that particular person?" Then one boy gave this scenario: "My dad had cancer and my mom prayed and prayed and prayed that he would get healed and he died anyway. How do you explain that God is a God of love when He allows that?" I told him that his question is excellent and yet we didn't have time to discuss it, but I want to discuss it, so definitely next week we will sit down and talk about that! ALL of them said, "OK, in the next lesson, let's talk about this!!!" There was an excitement in all of us...it's like the Holy Spirit showed up and wanted to declare Himself Lord over our silly arguments and bring in His Love.

This was not the door of opportunity I had "planned", but it was God's, and I pray that He will again, pave the way next week for more outpourings of His love into these young people's hearts. At the end of our discussion, I could see how incredibly hungry these young people are to know a love like I was talking about...keep that door open, Lord!

Simon revelation

My cat Simon has an open wound on his side...he'd had another wound there about 2 weeks ago, but it had healed...I thought...now it is gaping again and I must play doctor and keep it clean, etc. When I try to put medicine on it, Simon immediately jumps up and starts licking the wound again. Last night after I put the betadine on it, I began to stroke Simon's head and neck and just love on him. I was sort of "holding him down", with the purpose of having the betadine soak in and do its bacterial killing thing before Simon licked it all off. As I sat there, purposefully stroking his head and neck, he began to purr loudly...I knew I had to continue loving on him and doing everything within my power to let him know that he didn't need to be afraid, and what I was doing TO him in putting medicine on his wound was the best thing FOR him. Yet, while sitting there just loving on Him, with "my" ulterior motives, a deep love "connection" happened and a renewed trust between us seemed to rise up and take hold. Simon stopped trying to "break free" from my gentle grip and just let me love on him.

I was struck with a revelation that this is so much like how God deals with us. We've got major wounds, sometimes they are open and needing "treatment" by the Great Physician...and that treatment is not always pleasant; but in the middle of the treatment, our loving heavenly Daddy is all the time gently, lovingly, warmly stroking our head and heart, letting us know it's gonna be ok, and "I'm doing this for your good...you have to trust me that it is better for you that you don't continue to lick away at this wound, reopening it and letting it ooze, but rather that you let me apply the balm, the healing salve, so it can heal and you can be healthy again. In the meantime, I'm just gonna keep loving on you, passionately, purposefully, and always because that is Who I am." And when we willingly yield to His loving strokes, that intimacy between us is strengthened.

In the midst of our pain, do we know and feel the loving strokes of our heavenly Daddy? Maybe we simply need to sit in His presence, under His gentle hand and let Him love on us!

Rain, cat fights and suicide

Well, after days of rain and light snow, with puddles everywhere, I'm sort of wishing that it would all go over to Georgia in the U.S. where they desperately need the water! The rain has kept lots of people inside, because it is also very COLD, and my cats as well. Cooped up, they've got some energy inside, so when I let them out this morning, Toby immediately picked a fight with the neighbor cat who frequents our yard when my boys are not in the yard. Not a pretty sound to hear at 6 a.m.

So far this is a very different winter than last year...we were still in shirt sleeves this time last year, and now we are in winter coats, gloves and hats. Seems strange to have two so very different years...but then again, there's lots of upheaval going on everywhere, not only physically, but spiritually...God is shaking things up, shifting things, moving, stripping, cleansing, breaking, molding, remaking, and forming His children. Will we welcome His work?

This will be a very different holiday season for one family at my school. Last Thursday night, an 11th grader took his own life, the day before his birthday. No note, no indications...in fact, he'd started to become much more extroverted and friendly with classmates and others in the past 6 months. Unlike my cats, who took out their pent up frustrations on another cat, this young man took his out on himself, leaving many to wonder 'why'? I pray that in these next few days God gives me the opportunity to share with students about hope in Jesus!

A smattering of thoughts to ponder...

Of course, from Oswald Chambers:

"We should battle through our moods, feelings and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him."

"All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear?"

"Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited."

"Abraham, at this point (Gen. 22:16-17), has reached the point where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God. 'My goal is God Himself...At any cost, dear Lord, by any road....' means submitting to God's way of bringing us to the goal."

"The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God."

First Snow in Szeged

Yep, we awoke to the first snow in Szeged this morning! These shots are taken out my bedroom window looking into the back yard of the building where I live, and into the neighbor's yard too. I LOVE the first snow, and last year, I think it came in January, so this is a real treat! They say you can take the girl out of Colorado, but you cannot take Colorado out of the girl! I MISS snow and mountains. If this "early onset" of winter is any indication of what winter will be like this year, maybe we'll get a lot of snow! As my friend Jo wrote in her blog...they got snow in Budapest on Sunday...everything seems much quieter with a blanket of snow covering it.

For me, this blanketing is a tangible picture of God's covering...He wraps Himself around us, covering us with His wings where we can hide and be safe, and it is in this quiet place with Him that everything comes into perspective because we are seeing things from His point of view.

Films

I love watching movies. Even moreso, I love going out afterwards and talking about them, if they are the kind that warrant discussion. This afternoon, two dear friends of mine and I saw the Jodie Foster film...don't know the title in English... where she "snaps" after she and her fiance were attacked in Central Park in New York City one night. Essentially, without ruining the film, she takes things into her own hands, and her "second self" emerges.
As Barb, Lari and I sat and talked about it afterwards, we all agreed that it is quite frightening to know that what happened to Jodie Foster's character is a latent potential in all of us. Every one of us could do exactly what she did---that is the true heart of a person---outside of Christ and outside of the grace of God!
The film does not offer any hope. The only hope lies in those who come out of the film and ponder the reality of our fallenness, how we need to care for each other, especially during the really hard times, and the absolute necessity of the Gospel in a broken world that offers no hope. Without God, as this film clearly depicts, the writer of Ecclesiastes is absolutely right: everything is meaningless.

The gang was all here!

We had the entire leadership team for Friday at 7 - International Christian Fellowship here on Friday! It was really, really good to be together again, and on a rainy, chilly Friday night, we had about 23 total come to ICF. Two more new faces, one of those from Romania.

Jim spoke on the first section of John 2, where Jesus turns water to wine at the wedding at Cana! It was really good and at the end, when he asked if there were people who wanted to be even more filled up with God, nearly everyone in the room came forward, and Jim and Mary Jill prayed for each one! Jim also had the chance to spend about an hour after the meeting talking one on one with a young man from Germany, who has been faithfully attending. Precious young man who has many questions and is truly searching for God! Pray that the Holy Spirit meets him with His tender love and gentleness, and draws him to Himself.

Because the Person family was driving home to Budapest Friday night, the leadership team went to Burger King, a stone's throw from where we meet, and had our team meeting! We are blessed in so many amazing ways!

Conference speakers

"Open up the Earth" was the name of the conference in Holland that I attended, and these two pictures show two of the main speakers and their translators. In the first picture, the translator is on the left and Craig Kinsley is teaching on the right. In the second, James Lavesque is on the left and his translator, who was also the main organizer of the entire event and leader of Tabernacle Ministries, is on the right.
Some thoughts from each of their teachings for people to ponder....

"The beginning and end of a supernatural culture is LOVE."

"The key to a supernatural culture is getting full of love!"

"Another key to a supernatural culture is getting with people who are pursuing the love of God!"

"In the culture of God, there is only ONE culture---and that's Jesus' culture."

"There are many admirers of Jesus, but not many followers of Christ...Followers of Christ live the song."

"If you've been going through a shaking in the last 2 years, know that God is shaking so that every fruit from the hands of men will be destroyed."

Food for thought....

More Conference thoughts

Here are some pictures from the conference I attended in the Netherlands last week. The first is a picture of the sweet little cottage I stayed in the first two nights! The second are some really fun and wonderful people I met...the couple on the right I met on the first day and they invited me to stay with them at their house the second two nights, which I happily accepted! They are precious people and tears were in all of our eyes when we said goodbye on Friday morning! The third and fourth pictures show the "stage" and part of the conference worship venue. Mike Smith and band are a truly annointed group from Connecticut and ushered everyone into worship! More to come!

Holland conference

I arrived last Monday at Schipol airport in Holland, got my rental car, and drove 2 hours to a tiny little town of about 6000 people where this conference, "Open up the Earth" would begin on Tuesday.

I found my accomodations...quite miraculously as the bed and breakfast was on a side, side, side road way out in the countryside...so far out, it was actually a working farm, with cows and all! My wonderful hostess showed me my "cottage"...it had sounded so quaint from the phone call, and now I realized why the price was so reasonable...the cottage was a tiny thing that could hold a bed and my bags and me...yep, the bathroom was in the main house, about 100 yards away. I was not looking forward to my nightly 3 a.m. potty run and quickly began to consider changing accomodations for the second night.

I dropped my things in my cottage and then went into the small town of Gorrekjik to have a look around as it was "open market" day. Found where the conference would be held, enjoyed some food, did some Christmas shopping, and then went back to my cottage to settle in for the evening.

Remember I said it was a working farm with cows? Well, when I arrived there was a HUGE bull cow in one stall and a momma cow and her baby in another stall about 50 yards from my cottage. When I arrived that late afternoon, the baby cow had been "taken" from its momma...NOT a pleasant thing to witness or hear...so, even through my very good earplugs, I "enjoyed" the mournful cries of the momma cow weeping over the loss of her baby calf...calling, calling, calling out, no kidding, ALL night long. In the morning, as I walked to the bathroom in the main house, I looked at the momma cow, who was breathing heavily, after having pulled an all-nighter mourning session, and she had spittle dripping from her mouth and literally LOOKED sad. Ok, this sounds strange, but my heart really broke for her. As has become a custom for me, I asked the Lord to show me something through this situation.

What made me weep inside is the reality of her pain---while I've never given birth, I can imagine the tearing, the heart-ache a mom must feel when a child is taken from her---it struck me that a cow can FEEL so deeply and stay up ALL night calling out for her calf---she knows her calf knows her voice because she or he has come running to it before---and so, with everything within her, she cries out, in desperation, in hope, that maybe her baby will come back to her---there's a love there that some would simply call animal instinct, but I believe it is a real love---and separation is devastating---it's like a death---for the mom. I can only imagine for the baby calf as well---who is gonna care for me? I'm all alone in a new place and everything I've ever known has changed, and the unknown is terrifying because "mom" is not here.

The connection to our relationship with God is obvious---He cries out and cried out from the cross---"Father, forgive them!" and "It is finished!"---and His voice continues to cry out today around the world, to His BABIES---to those whom He created, whom He knew since the foundation of time---His heart is broken but not because His children have been ripped from Him, but because we've chosen to leave---we've decided that life without "poppa" is much better---we can do it on our own. God wants us right by His side so He can provide everything for us...and even as I grow up in You, You still want me close to You; You don't need me there, but You know that I need to BE there with You. May the mourning cries of this cow be a reminder to each of us of how MUCH or heavenly DADDY cries out for us to come home and crawl up into His lap and just rest in Him.

Life changing conference

In the next few days, I'll be writing some thoughts about the conference I just attended in Holland. Yes, life-changing...yes, cannot even put into words...yes, we love a GOOD GOD who loves us passionately and in abundance, beyond what we could ever imagine or comprehend on our own. Here's one quote from one of the speakers you can ponder: "If your life in Christ is boring, then you don't have a life in Christ."