I'm getting a divorce....

Yes, you read the blog title correctly.  I am getting a divorce.  It has been a long, hard struggle, with many ups and downs, but the time has come and the decision has been made...I am moving forward into freedom.

Now, before some of you pick up the phone to call me or jump on Facebook to see if I've changed my relationship status, and before others of you come running over to my house to try to talk me out of getting a divorce, let me explain.  If, after my explanation, you still want to call, please do...I would love to hear from you.

I'm divorcing all the things that I have been married to for years, and some, for decades.  Somewhere along the journey of life, I came into a "loving" agreement with fear, anxiety, mistrust, and doubt.  Daily, on many levels and in many ways, I heartily agreed with, partnered with, communicated with, and united myself with these unworthy partners, who brought nothing but compromise and destruction into my life.  So, today, I am getting a divorce.

You see, being 'married' to fear has permitted the tentacles of all of fears' sisters and brothers to grab on to parts of my soul and even my body, with the goal of enrapturing me with their deception and lies...promising great things and delivering nothing.  So, I'm divorcing fear, and in doing so, divorcing all of these other manipulative minions that will no longer be given access to my life, my heart, my mind, my well-being or anything else in my life.  

The terms of my divorce are non-negotiable:  no longer will I be bound because "It is for freedom that Christ has set me free!"  (Galatians 5:1)  So I am standing firm and will no longer be enslaved by the aforementioned things.  No longer will fear of man enslave me and cause me to say that something is "ok" when it clearly stands against the beauty of God's created order.  Therefore, my divorce means that the acts of the flesh are cut off from me:  sexual immorality (every form that God's Word says is wrong is wrong), impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. (Galatians 5:19-21)

My divorce is final.  Please do not try to convince me otherwise. The only thing being wedded to the aforementioned minions has brought is twisted thinking, confusion, compromise, misguided decisions, and death to my very soul.  Please don't worry about me...you see, my divorce is bringing me freedom.  

Now I can walk in the fruit of the Spirit:  LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL. (Galatians 5:22-23)

In this month of Adar, I am CELEBRATING this divorce, the ending of being unequally yoked to fear, anxiety, mistrust and doubt.  I am FREE and my divorce papers have been signed in the blood of Jesus.  

Now, who wants to call me and try to talk me out of my divorce?  By the way, Paul and I are happily married, and each day, we delve deeper into the joys and rewards of marital bliss, centered on Jesus!

The month of Adar

We have been on a journey with our spiritual family here in Kansas City for nearly 2 years now.  What I can liken the journey up to this point to is having been on a wonderful adventure through hills, valleys, up and down mountains, fording streams, climbing trees, digging ditches, growing weary, being rejuvenated, growing weary again, questioning lots of things and experiencing God's grace along the way.

Where we are now I can liken to having "finished" the previous adventure as we came to a cross-roads and had to choose between continuing on the same path, or embarking on a "new" path, which really turns out to be the Ancient Paths...the paths God has been leading us to all along in His perfect timing.  

We chose the Ancient Path...we chose to follow Him into His calendar, which is the lunar calendar, and we chose to align ourselves with His days, weeks, months, seasons and years.  I've known God is an orderly God, but our journey into all of this has uncovered an orderliness to God and a syncronicity that has brought about a peace, a settledness, a joy and challenges like nothing ever experienced before.  

We are smack dab in the middle of Adar I in the year 5774, and I could not be more excited about what God is doing and how He is transforming my thinking, my life, my heart, my soul, and our marriage.  The word Adar means "strength", and this is a month to get into the celebration mode of ending certain seasons of our lives.  It's also a month to overturn worry and root out depression and despair so faith can break through into our thought processes. (From A Time to Advance by Chuck Pierce).

Of course there is much more to this month, but these are the things that God has highlighted to me and is speaking to me about through His Word, the Bible, and in our prayerful conversations together.  This is a key month because what is broken off as well as what is set in place in our lives in this month will set the stage for the rest of the year.  

I've found that in my life and sometimes in my interactions with my fellow believers that we are "excited about this next conference" or "can't wait to hear this speaker come to our church"; we go, we listen, and then what?  We talk about it for a while, maybe apply some of the principles, and then we are looking forward to the "next thing".  I'm not saying those are bad things, but when I read Scripture, I don't see that being the primary mode of operating in the early church.  

The early church, and the pattern set up there was first about loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Also, as we look at the whole of Scripture, the first "church", so to say, was God, Adam and Eve in the garden.  Throughout the Scriptures, home is and was the center of spiritual life.  Our western culture has moved it outside of the home an into a building where we "go" to get fed.  Meanwhile, the enemy has wreaked havoc in the home, destroying families and the home structure so we look to "St. Elsewhere" to be our "spiritual home".  

Can you imagine the transformations that would begin if home became the center of spiritual life again, and every time someone walked in your home, the first thing they said was, "Wow, there is such peace and joy here!  There is such a sense of rest!"  

Just this weekend, an old friend came to our home for an appointment with another friend of ours, a naturpath, and this old friend stayed after her appointment just to hang out and talk.  The Lord was so present in our time together as we shared, laughed, cried, encouraged one another; she made mention of the peace in our home.  That is God's presence, and nearly everyone who walks through our door makes a comment about how peaceful and restful our home is.  

I am not poo-pooing "going to church"...no way.  We still gather on Sunday mornings with other believers, but that is not the "mainstay" of our spiritual walk, nor are we "dependent" upon it.  I think of the plethora of nations where the only place believers in Yeshua can meet is in homes because it's illegal to meet publically.  Stories of exponential growth in the Body of Christ are pouring forth from those nations.  

I'm just excited to share that as we walk out God's calendar, His ancient paths, celebrating what He has deemed important to celebrate, we find Him.  What more do we need?

How significant is water?

We all know that we can survive many days, even weeks, without food.  However, we cannot survive very long without water.

The people of Charleston, WV have a new perspective on the reality of the need for clean water after the recent chemical spill into their river and water supplies.  What many may not know is the pandemonium which erupted as people flocked to stores to stock up on water; news media outlets kept that rather quiet.  

This ARTICLE gives a more balanced picture of what took place and also encourages people to plan ahead.

To that end, have a look AT THIS LINK where you can easily find top of the line, tested products that will be shipped directly to your door.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to be a blessing to our families and to others?

The times.....

A couple of days ago, I was reminded of a poem I wrote in 1985 after I'd visited the former Soviet Union.  We'd spent 11 days playing basketball and "touring", during which time, this naive 21 year old, was shocked by the limitations people there lived under.  It's one thing to read about communism and socialism and quite another to experience it first-hand, even as a "tourist".  

In the poem, I reflected upon sights, sounds and smells, and the last two lines read:

I never knew what freedom was

Until I saw what it is not.

Those same words flooded my being this week as I read about our nation's freedoms slowly being whittled away.  The tell-tale sign in the former Soviet Union of freedom being gone was the rise and promulgation of atheism.  

When a nation turns its back on God, freedom, in the truest sense of the word, flies out the window.  May we learn from other nations' mistakes and turn back to God in America!

DoTerra Essential Oils

My husband caught a cold...and we are treating it with lots of liquids, rest and DoTerra Essential Oils!

WOW, what a difference these oils are making in his recovery.  We've heard of people suffering for weeks with this junk and he is coming around today after just 3 days of intensive treatments with eucalyptus, OnGuard, Lemon, and Lime, primarily.  

Check it out here:  Arden's DoTerra Website

Our year in review!

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My adult ESL students

This past summer, I applied and was hired to be an ESL teacher for adults at Johnson County Community College.  This has been one of the best teaching experiences of my life so far because I have highly motivated, respectful students who are working full-time jobs and then spending 6 hours a week in the evening studying English.  

My group of 18 students is a level 1 class, which means we started with the alphabet and numbers.  I am proud to report that 16 of 18 received "gains" on their state level exams.

On Monday of this week, we had an end of the semester party where everyone brought food.  Only a handful of my students showed up, but we had a great time eating, laughing and speaking a little bit of English.  Here are a few pictures of my class!

Yolanda and Patricia - both from Mexico

Armando from Guatemala - He wants to be an English teacher back in his home country!

Maria, Armando, Jessika, her daughter, who came to the party, Jose, Yolanda and Patricia

Irene and Michael - from Ukraine

Arden, Jose, Aphinya, Patricia, Yolanda, Meseret, Maria, Jessika, Irene, Maria, Armando and Michael

Auschwitz and the United States

This is a heavy blog entry.  However, I believe it needs to be posted.  

I first visited the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1985.  My fellow AIA teammates and I were on a trip around Poland playing basketball, and our leaders decided we should visit the former Nazi death camp.  Quite honestly, and I hate to admit it, but my history lessons were sorely lacking in high school and I only knew smatterings of what transpired in this infamous death camp.  

We drove through a quaint little town called Oswiecim (Auschwitz in German) and there on the outskirts lay a HUGE plot of land dotted with the remains of barbed wire fences, brick buildings and smokestacks:  the infamous death camp of Auschwitz where the Nazis exterminated millions of Jews and other "undesireables".  After completing the tour, I remember feeling like someone had kicked me in the stomach and the ache would never go away.  Slowly, it did fade, and I proceeded to live my comfy life in the U.S. only giving a slight thought or two to what transpired in a far off land so many years earlier.

It wasn't until I taught my 8th graders about the Holocaust in the late 1980s that the gruesome reality of what took place ripped my heart open again.  

Fast forward to the mid 1990s when I began taking groups of high schoolers to Hungary to teach summer English camps; on the weekend between the two camps, we piled onto an overnight train to Poland to expose these American high school kids to the realities of the horrors of WWII death camps.  As we passed through the sweet quiet town of Oswiecim again, I couldn't help but wonder why the residents of the town didn't stand up and say anything during the holocaust?  

You see, there were furnaces burning humans cranking 24/7, especially during the final years of the war, and stories of ash falling from the sky and coating cars and trees and roads still exist.  In addition, the smell must have permeated the air, so why the silence?  And what does any of this have to do with the United States today?

I found these "answers":

Why didn't Auschwitz residents help the people in the holocaust?

The concentration camp and the extermination camp were well outside the town and surrounded by an exclusion zone.  Also, because if they did, they would probably be captured and sent to the camp as well as the person they tried to save.  Not to mention when they got captured they probably would have been whipped.  

And another:

Most residents of the town were not involved in the holocaust.  Obviously, the Jewish inhabitants were taken to the camp and killed.  The camp itself (or rather complex of camps) was surrounded by an exclusion zone.

Here is where it gets interesting and relevant to us in the United States today:

From a German woman… when she was about sixteen years old she said to her grandmother, “How come nobody stopped what was happening with Hitler. How come they didn’t stop them from taking the Jews away?”

And the grandmother said to her, “You don’t understand. It wasn’t one day that we woke up and all of our rights were taken away from us. They took them away from us slowly. And then one day you couldn’t speak out, because if you spoke out you were dead.”

We are not facing standing up for a particular people, although I do believe that day will come, but more significantly, we are facing standing up for ourselves!

As a believer and follower of Yeshua, I am advocating ONE THING:  Repentance and turning to the Lord.  

If we remain silent, if we continue on in our lukewarm ways of cultural Christianity, if we continue to feed the Babylonian spirit that has invaded our nation, families and individual hearts, we too will be asking the same question our German sister posed above.

Maybe you think I am sounding gloom and doom; Ezekiel is clear:  if I, as a watchman of the Lord, do not sound the alarm and warn people, I will be held responsible.  

In all of this there is GREAT HOPE!  His name is Jesus, Yeshua, and His heart is FOR us, not against us.  He is coming again for His pure and spotless bride, and so we must stand up, declare the praises of our King, share His love and His truth, not watered down, and shout it from the mountain tops:  WAKE UP AMERICA!  The Lion of Judah is coming and our compromise, our flirtations with sin, our bowing to the cultural tide of "whatever feels right is right" has got to stop.  

Our King is mighty to save, mighty in love and mercy and forgiveness, mighty to overthrow all that hinders His love from being manifested in our hearts.  He will do it because He is a jealous God, longing to defeat the true enemy who has done nothing but lie, steal, kill and destroy humanity.  He wants nothing more than His goodness to be manifested in our lives and in our nation; the key is discovering what HIS GOODNESS really is.  That goodness is fully encapsulated in One Person:  Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah...a Jewish man who came to seek and save the lost, and is coming back for a pure, spotless bride.  HE is the way, HE is the truth, and HE is the life, and no one comes to the Father except through HIM.  

In WW II, it was not popular to take a stand for the Jewish people; it could get a person killed.

In 2013, it's not popular to take a stand for Jesus; in many parts of the world, people are being killed for their faith in Him.  

We in the United States are faced with this question: 

 Choose this day whom you will serve:  God or man.  Ironically, either choice will bring death:  death to self, or eternal death.  

An alternative to government healthcare

Now that we are faced with the choice to sign up for government healthcare or pay a tax penalty, how about a sane alternative:

Christian Healthcare Ministries!

Click on the above link and have a look at a wonderful way to live out New Testament life with other believers!

One of the newest blessings in our life!

For the past two years, we have needlessly fed a phone system that has taken us for a ride financially.  Sadly, we spent about $1920 over the course of the past 2 years for our cell phones which we could have saved had we been with THIS COMPANY.

We are AMAZED!  Not only do we have better coverage and lower bills, but we can also earn discounts as people join us and switch carriers.  Click on the link above, especially if you would like to spend less than $50/month for unlimited phone, text and data usage!

Our International Thanksgiving Celebration!

We shared a blessed Thanksgiving this year with friends here in Kansas City.  Around our table we had seven new friends from Ukraine, one new friend from Brazil and one friend from New York.  We feasted and shared about our various nations, talked about the state of America, and opened up our hearts about our relationships with God.  

How would you like tomorrow's food at today's prices but NOW, up to 50% off?

Many of you know that I am an independent consultant with Thrive Life.  We specialize in high quality freeze-dried foods (not your grandma's powdered milk and not tasteless scary stuff), but rather non-GMO, picked at the peak of ripeness fruits and vegetables, meats, etc., that I am using in my everyday cooking and have on hand for those times of emergencies as well.  

TODAY through Monday, we are having our biggest sale of the year...up to 50% off!  But it's not only food but also emergency supplies and camping gear!  

Follow this LINK to see my store and order today, while supplies last!

Thanksgivukkah!

What a great celebration we had here at the Czaszewicz household hosting people from other nations for Thanksgiving!  We treasure these new friends and loved sharing one of our favorite holidays with them, sharing the stories of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah!  

Health Care redefined

Wow!  The airwaves are filled with talk about healthcare these days, and as one who spent 11 years in a nation that has socialized medicine (which is where we are headed, by the way with the newest health care measures being introduced), I am thrilled to have an alternative.  Don't misunderstand me:  I LOVED the health care I received in Hungary.  I had an amazing GP, I was blessed with a neurosurgeon who performed a stellar laminectomy, and I loved the fact that everything, yes, EVERYTHING was free.  Or was it?  

Of course I didn't have to dig into my pocket and pay for any of those doctor visits or surgeries, but the government dug into my pocket for me.  In fact, they dug into my pocket every month to the tune of approximately 40% taxes on my meager salary.  

It was a beautiful thing to receive major back surgery and a 7 day hospital stay for "free", which included 3 MRIs and a plethora of doctor visits.  My doctors there were professionals, outstanding in their fields, and cared deeply about me and my needs.  So, were there any drawbacks?  Of course.

As I've already mentioned, my Hungarian teacher's salary was taxed at a level most Americans may never see, and EVERY Hungarian that was employed had to pay these exorbitant taxes for the blessing of these services.  Another drawback was sharing a room in the hospital with 5 other women, and sharing a toilet with 30 women.  In addition, I received about 500 calories of food every day in the hospital.  But that's where GOOD friends came to my rescue by bringing me food, juice, water and treats every day!  Hungarians know the system well, and they love each other (and loved me) in the midst of it.  

However, I am leery of where our healthcare is headed here in the U.S., mainly because I don't believe the average American is ready for the kind of system outlined above.  So, for the past couple of years, I've been a part of a fabulous ministry called Christian Healthcare Ministries.  In their own words they say they are "The biblical solution to healthcare costs."  I strongly encourage everyone to check them out at:  www.chministries.org  

According to CHM, people who are a part of CHM are exempt from the Obamacare tax and requirements.  

So, just as my Hungarian friends met my needs, we here in the U.S. through CHM can help to meet each other's needs in our times when medical bills need to be paid.  Contact me on my blog here...I have comment moderation on so your information will not appear publically...if you want to sign up for CHM!  You will not be disappointed!

Learning.....

There is nothing greater than the moment the Lord gently grabs a hold of your heart and squeezes it with His love, even as He points out places where you need to change.

Such was the case this morning.  I didn't sleep well last night.  Anxious.  Worried.  Questioning.  I crawled out of bed and went to the living room where I continued reading Cliff Graham's book Song of War, hoping to lose myself in the battles of King David and his men.  

I finally made my way back to bed a couple of hours later and awakened to my alarm sounding at 6:30.  One thing I like about my I-phone is that I can listen to the Bible being read to me by a fabulous man with a British accent.  So, I lay there in bed, allowing God to minister to my still-troubled heart through the reading of His Word.  Then, that wonderful, still small voice came through as I cried out.

"You are trying to rescue, and you need to repent."

Of course there was much more to this morning dialogue with God, but that comment above pretty much sums up what I am learning.  

Being single, with all of its drawbacks, had its advantages.  I only had to be concerned about me, really.  God was my husband and provider and He always came through.

Being married, with all of its blessings, has its drawbacks.  Dying to the way I've done things my whole life...stepping back from taking care of myself and allowing my husband to take that role.  Walking a walk of faith like never before, trusting and knowing that He is good and he is good too!  

Repentance is a good thing, especially in this season leading up to Yom Kippur and in this season of the fall feasts.  It makes sense that God is stripping away all of the old ways of functioning to make way for the new.  

As my husband came in to pray with me, the presence of the Lord descended and His peace drove out all anxiety and stress.  He is faithful to lead us perfectly.  I am learning......

Happy New Year....almost!

Yes indeed, we are fast approaching the new year, 5774!  In fact, we are celebrating this new year with our spiritual family on Wednesday evening!  I've never felt more alive and more in tune with the Lord than in this past year as we have entered in to His timetable, His calendar and His cycles of blessing!  

Some of you know that this past year has been challenging on numerous fronts....but, IT ALL MAKES SENSE AS TO WHY!!!!!!!  As we have aligned ourselves with God's calendar, He has seen fit to be faithful in each of His months to what He is doing to form us into His perfect bride.  How freeing and exciting to know that we don't have to "guess" about what His purposes are.  

So, Happy New Year, everyone!  May Yeshua be lifted up and praised!

Life's complications

I once heard a saying:

Life was much less complicated back in the sandbox.

How very true.  I just saw the movie "Elysium" this afternoon, and life was complicated both on earth and on Elysium, but for very different reasons.  

People are complicated.  The older I get, the more complicated they seem to become.  I long for the simplicity of the sandbox sometimes.  At least there, everyone who was present wanted to be there and they worked together toward a common goal...building something.  Creativity abounded and a natural cooperation unfolded that forged friendships.  The sandbox became our own little world where we could create life as we wanted it to be.  I remember it was always constructive and never destructive, unless of course your brother came plowing through with the sole intent of disrupting everything.  But it could all be re-built fairly quickly, and in the process, improved.  

Maybe there are valuable lessons we can learn.  We are continually faced with those who come and plow through our creations.  If we stick together, we can rebuild, stronger and more creatively than the first time.  Life's complications are merely that:  complications.  They are not defeats, nor are they completely destructive.  Great hope, life and fortitude is forged in the fires of life's complications. 

Simon is gone....not forgotten....and God has been teaching me through it all!

My last post was about Simon and his downhill plunge.  Sadly, two weeks and one day ago, we had to make the EXTREMELY hard decision to put him to sleep.  

The morning we took him to the vet, he awoke and came out to the kitchen and drank water...the first in 4 days...and he didn't throw it up.  I began to have second thoughts about putting him down, but the reality of what his life would be like post hospitalization convinced me that he would be miserable, and so would we.  

The gift I got at the vet was to be able to say goodbye to him with my hubby Paul right beside me.  The greater gift was to be able to hold him when they injected him with the "sleeping" medicine.  You see, Simon was a cat who hardly ever let me hold him.  On rare occasions he would let me pick him up, but within about 15 seconds, he was squirming to get out of my arms.  So, when I held him for the last time at the vet's office, and he fell limp in my arms, I wept.  The vet asked me if I wanted to put him back in his carrier, and I said, "No, Simon never let me hold him longer than 30 seconds his whole life; now I am going to hold him all the way home."  And I did.  I held his lifeless body in my arms, stroked his soft fur and enjoyed every second of it.  

I miss my little boy so much, and in the days following his passing, I asked the Lord many questions.  

"God, why did you take Toby (my other cat and my favorite) before Simon?"

Answer:  "I took him first because you had to learn how to love Simon as much as you loved Toby."

Of course I broke down weeping hearing this because indeed, I had loved Toby more, but in the last two years, I'd absolutely fallen in love with Simon and had grown to appreciate all his quirkiness.  

"God, why didn't you just take Simon in his sleep?"

Answer:  "I wanted you to make the hard decision to let him go yourself, to do the unselfish thing, even though it would break your heart.  You had to learn to say goodbye to one you had grown to love so deeply."

As I write this, I am weeping almost as hard as I did when I first heard the Lord say these words two weeks ago.  

"God, how does this apply to me and life?"

Answer:  "You had to learn to love Simon, who was difficult to love at times.  (He really was challenging to love....I have lots of stories)  I'm bringing people into your life who will be very difficult to love, and you are called to love them...to learn to love them...just as you learned to love Simon."

Sobered is the only word that captures how I felt when I heard the Lord speak these words to my spirit.  God uses EVERYTHING to shape and form us and prepare us.  

I love my little buddy and always will.  Of course he and his brother, Toby, are memorialized in my book, Walking Forward-Discoveries in Freedom and Forgiveness.  

So long for now, Simon....I wonder if Toby was there to greet you when you passed....I sure hope so!

Simon is not doing well....

This is a picture of my precious cat, Simon when he was doing better than he is today.  Three days ago, he began showing strange signs of not feeling well.  

Backing up, about a month ago, I noticed he began losing weight and was drinking a lot of water.  I know this is a sign of "something" in a cat....not something good....especially in an older cat.  Simon is now 15, so he is no spring chicken.  We just kept loving on him, and he kept losing weight, but he was eating, playing and talking.

Finally, yesterday, I took him to the vet because he'd not eaten nor drunk a thing since Sunday afternoon.  He'd lost 3.5 pounds over the last year, and was really looking thin as he stood on the table at the vet's office.  We brought him home after they took blood and have been waiting for him to urinate to get that sample.....no luck.  He's just gotten increasingly lethargic in the last 24 hours and is now camped out under our bed, the place he goes when he is scared during a storm.  I've tried giving him water with an eye dropper, and while I've gotten a little in, he pulls away and is not interested at all.  

My heart is breaking....I wept this morning, realizing this may be goodbye to my buddy of 15 years.  This little guy has been through it all.  He nearly died shortly after I hauled him and Toby to Hungary back in 2000.  The vet there said it was a miracle that he lived, and he only had 1/2 of one kidney still functioning.  After 9 years of living in Hungary, I carted them back to the U.S., and upon going to the vet learned that God had healed Simon's kidneys!  The vet here said both of his kidneys were functioning 100%; praise God as I had asked God to heal them and He did!  

In 2011, just 2 months before I got married, my other buddy, Toby, died suddenly and tragically after having a seizure.  I was devastated.

Now I'm facing losing my other buddy.  I told Paul this morning that he's been with me through a lot....and I'm so thankful to the Lord for his companionship these 15 years.  I know he's not gone yet, but I will miss this little guy....I just pray he doesn't suffer.  I've asked the Lord to have him fall asleep and not wake up....I pray this happens when it's his time.  

Partnership

I love partnering with people, and as I am building my own business, I want to plug a friend's business here in Kansas City as well.  

Ben and Katie Fetzer own Fetz Cleaning Services.  Follow this LINK TO FIND OUT MORE!

They have been busy of late, after all this rain, helping people get water out of basements.  Great people, great service, and I know you will be pleased!  :-)