hands

it's been a bit since i've posted anything.  i've thought about a few things, but then i just got to tired to post them, and now they don't seem that blog worthy anymore.  but as i did some research last night, this was laid on my heart.  

a few days ago i received some mail from world vision.  it's a group that helps children world wide, children that are poverty stricken and don't really have a hope.  i have one child that i sponsor from Ecuador and it's been on my heart to sponsor another child i really wanted to sponsor one from South Africa.  and there she was.  she's from Swaziland.  

i have a very strong desire to go to South Africa, and the same strong desire to adopt children from there.  i've shared that with a couple of my friends, and they told me i would have to learn how to grease hair, braid, and maybe even get botox so my kids will feel like i'm really their mom.  (it's just fun to talk about). hopefully the man that i will marry will have the same vision that i have!

 anyway, i was interested in Swaziland, and my heart broke.  they are so stricken with AIDS and HIV that they are predicting by the year 2028, the  population of Swaziland will be 0.  AIDS will have wiped out an entire country.  

World Vision is stepping in and hoping and praying that people will sponsor the children to give them a hope.  they are called "hope children", they have special needs seeing how they are surrounded with death and severe illness.  the cost is $35.00, but i believe it is well worth it, just to give these kids hope.  to let them know that there is a God and they are loved.  Swaziland has had a lot of kidnappings and rapes too.  these children are precious!  it breaks my heart.  on the positive note, they do speak English in Swaziland, so if i were ever to go, the language barrier won't be there, or at least not as strong.

if you are interested in sponsoring a child you can go to worldvision.com, you can pick the gender, age, country, any special needs or birthdays and you can help paint a better world for these children and give them a chance to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

below are lyrics from a secular song by Jewel.  but i couldn't pass up posting them.  they are so true.

"Hands"

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these
I won't be made useless
I won't be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear
My hands are small, I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
Poverty stole your golden shoes
It didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't ever after
We'll fight, not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
I am never broken
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
But they're not yours, they are my own
And I am never broken
We are never broken
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
We are God's hands
We are God's hands

around the world

well, it's 8:18 a.m. and it's already 53 degrees!  thank you Jesus!  there is so much to blog about these past few days, i'm not going to go into every little detail (or at least try not to), but i want to share with you some things about the wonderful missions conference that we just had.  it ended last night.  it was bitter-sweet, bitter because i didn't want it to end and for all of our friends to go back to their respective homes, but sweet because we can all go to bed  at normal times and not run around like chickens with our heads cut off.

so about our missions conference, we have it every year at the start of March.  it's from Sunday morning to Wednesday evening, with meetings in the evenings and sometimes even meetings throughout the day.  this year we had 10 countries represented along with 9 states.  all together, we had about 50 guests.  it was wonderful.  we meet some new friends.  none that i think i will quickly forget.  actually i hope and pray that i will remember them all the days of my life.  they lived a life of sacrifice.

the first guy i will share with you about it a man from Moldova.  during the Communist years, Christianity was not tolerated, it was persecuted because "religion was a crutch, and it was only for weak people".  this man grew up in a Christan home, which meant enduring persecution at an early age.  he shared while he was 10 years old he was at school and the teacher would ask questions like "did anyone go to church this weekend?"  or they would pick him out an ask him because they knew of his religion.  he did not lie, he would always tell the truth, and one time the teacher beat him over the head with a rod because he went to church.  this young man grew up loving God, then a time came when he had to make a decision what he was going to do, give up God and join the Party, or continue his relationship with Jesus.  as all wise people do, he choose Jesus.  as time went on and the persecution continued he knew that somehow he had to get Bibles in the hands of the believers, otherwise they would never grow.  to make a long story short, he found some other men willing to live a life of sacrifice and began to run an underground printing press.  God has done so many miracles in this man's life, and through this man.  it is an intricate story, but as this man spoke i knew he loved God to the highest degree.  he has a book called "While Children Slept" and i'm in the process of reading it (Esther, i'm going to bring it to you next time i see you).  i have hardly been able to put it down.  he has 7 children, and they too learned to live a life of sacrifice, when the children were young they were on a journey to deliver Bibles, and they got pulled over by the KGB , now where they hid the Bibles was they took out the back car seat and made a seat out of Bibles, the 2 children were in the back seat and the mother cleverly decided to have them "play possum" pretending they were asleep,  the young man knew he'd be caught, but the KGB officer saw the children sleeping and decided not to search the car.  this is one of many instances of miracles in his life.  however, there were so many people involved and they took EXTREME persuasions.  things that we would never think about today.  last night as all of our guests stood on the platform to pray for us, we returned the favor and prayed for them.  and i couldn't take my eyes off of this man who is now somewhere in his mid to late 60's.  i had laid eyes on someone who risked his life and his families life for the Kingdom of God.  he not only did it in the face of persecution, but also, did it breaking the law.  during the meeting he said so many things happened, and that he would tell us some stories, and there were other stories in the book, but there were some stories that he would never tell because he would much rather receive God's reward in heaven than men's applause.  i believe he really got touched over these few days.

now for the next man, his name is David Davis, he is from New York City and was in Broadway plays and the whole bit (seeing him i had no trouble visioning this), him and his wife moved to Israel.  they have a church on Mount Carmel, and they also opened a rehab for Jewish and Arab men, together.  they are having quite a bit of success.  people all over the world are amazed how this works.  there have even been Jewish men that have fallen in love with Arab women and have been married, and vice versa.  it's really incredible, i think it touched me so much because that's what we do here at Heartland.

the next man i want to talk about it quiet remarkable.  he's 87 years old and is a Holocaust survivor.  we went to the meeting yesterday to hear his story, and wow, what a story.  he has a very thick German accent, and was quiet comical, but very real.  he told the story how he and his family got kicked out of several countries because they were Jewish.  he told the stories about how no one knew him and his family was Jewish in Poland, but the school teacher began to ask questions because they wanted to take a survey of their students, like "who is catholic?"  "who is prodastant?" and the big question "who is Jewish?"  he was the only Jew in his class.  from there on he was treated differently.  when things first started to get real rough, the Jewish people could not go to the market until 10:00.  the farmers all brought their produce very early in the morning and by 10:00 99% of their wares were sold, and what little was left, cost a high price.  i believe he was rushed in his speaking and skipped around a lot so it was hard to make sense of a lot of what he was saying.  anyway, he said that he went to concentration camps, and one camp he was caught for doing something so they made him eat human waste, another time he switched numbers with another man so he could be with his son and Max could be with his father.  he almost got caught, but the guard showed him some mercy for some reason.  also, he talked about "the showers" where his brother died.  he talked about how for 3 months his dad saved his life.  his father worked in the kitchen and towards the end of the shift, he would cut a potato in 2 and put 1/2 in each of his sleeves and sneak it to his son.  Max said that it was a raw potato, and they crunch really loud, so he had to chew very very slowly so he wouldn't be caught, and that's how he stayed alive in that camp.  another story was they got moved to another place and the Jewish people had to build their own ghetto.  he said out of all places, it was on a Jewish burial plot.  the soldiers made them take down the grave markers, and make a road or something like that out of them.  the stories went on and on and on.  it was amazing.  one of the most remarkable things was he was #2 on Schindler's list.  he was one of the 11,000 that Schindler saved.  i think i could talk forever about this.  it's so very very sad.  i did not know this until the evening, but Max IS NOT a Messianic Jew.  but what he said from the pulpit, was amazing.  he said that he has never seen people this happy.  he's never seen kids this beautiful and this full of joy (our elementary lead worship last night, and did a dance).  he was so impressed, he's going to go to India with one of our missionaries who is from there.  i believe that his eyes have been opened to the goodness of God!  i believe he will be saved, and part of it will be because of this conference.

John and Grace were here (they are spiritual parents to Ms. Jan) John is 97, and Grace is 94.  they have been in the ministry for 70 years!  they were missionaries on the Ivory Coast in Africa for many years and came back to the states to start Shalom ministries.  last night they got an award for a life of excellence or something like that.  

well, i guess i'm done rambling about this now, it was just wonderful, and i wanted to share it with you.

real blog

well, it's been a bit since i really wrote anything.  not that is saying much, but anyway, thought i would update you on some things.

for starters, it's March 1st, 2009.  that's hard to believe!  and spring and Easter and the dreaded time change is just around the corner, lovely isn't it?  

today was the first day of the missions conference.  it was wonderful to see all of our far-off-in-a-distance-friends up close and personal.  the oldest person we have there is 97, and the youngest, 19.  it's really amazing.  Pastor was on it this morning, we have some people that are from Moldova so they speak Russian (I believe) i bet some of that stuff translated really funny!  and then i got to see some of my new friends from Oaxaca.  how wonderful!  this is going to be better than Christmas, yes, even better than getting my laptop if you can believe it.

tonight, the ladies and even us staff are going to be on the worship team.  that is going to be an unforgettable event!!!!!!!  it's been a little while since we've done that.  at least we don't have to lead.  anyway, a lot of the ladies are nervous about it, but it will be fine.

i guess not much else to say.  it's been busy, but not much blog-worthy!!!!

GOD IS SOOOOOOOOOO COOL!!!!!!

this post may be a little lengthy, but so be it.  i've been reading this book called "Eternity in Their Hearts" by Don Richardson.  it's a bit wordy in some places, but once you get into it, it's really really good.  i like it a lot, anyway, this part talks about how the Chinese in their very own writing system tells the Gospel story, and i'd like to share it with you, and so we begin:

early missionaries to China faced a formidable obstacle.  they had to learn the Chinese writing system.  as Westerners, accustomed to writing with European alphabets of approximately 26 letters, they gasped!  Chinese writing, they found, used a system based on 214 symbols called "radicals."

they gasped again when they learned that these 214 radicals-enigmatic enough in themselves-combine to form between 30,000 to 50,000 ideographs.

it was enough to make even the most patient saint gripe!  why on earth would the sovereign God permits any people to develop a writing system so "radical"?  didn't it matter to God that Chinese writing placed an almost impassable barrier in the way of communicating the gospel to one-quarter of mankind?

one day, however, one of the missionaries stopped complaining.  he was studying a particular Chinese ideograph, the one which means "righteous."  he noticed that it contained an upper and lower part.  the upper part was simply the Chinese symbol for a lamb.  Directly under the lamb was a second symbol, the first person pronoun I.  Suddenly her discerned an amazingly well-coded message hidden within the ideograph: i under the lam am righteous!

it was nothing less than the heart of the gospel he had crossed the ocean to preach!  Chinese were startled when he called their attention to the hidden message.  they had never noticed it, but once he pointed it out, they saw it clearly.  when he asked, "which Lamb must we be 'under' to be righteous?" they had no answer.  with consummate delight he told them of "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Rev 13:8), the same "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

he shared his discovery with fellow missionaries and soon they in turn began uncovering still other spiritual messages encoded within the 4,000 year old ideographs!  Chinese language study suddenly became the most exciting adventure they had ever experienced!

another example: the Chinese symbol for a boat embodies a vessel with eight people inside it.  eight people?  Noah's ark bore exactly eight people to safety.

the radical meaning "man" is a figure shaped like an upside down y.  the ideograph meaning tree is a cross with the symbol for man superimposed upon it!  and the symbol for come calls for two other smaller symbols for man to stand on either side of the tree with the greater man superimposed upon it.  some students of Chinese writing claim that the two smaller human figures collectively mean mankind.  if so, the ideograph meaning come seems to carry a code that says: "mankind come to the man on the tree."

for careful study of several other spiritually pregnant Chinese ideographs, i refer readers to C.H. Kang and E. R. Nelson's recent book on the subject, listed in our bibliography.  not all researches agree on the exact interpretation of each and every symbol.  nevertheless, Chinese people themselves (and many Japanese, for Japan uses virtually the same writing system) have been intrigued by interpretations which missionaries have suggested to them.  even when theories are non-conclusive, the mere discussion of them may be sufficient to communicate spiritual truth to unbelievers.

i have found in my research that many Chinese and Japaneses pastors themselves consider the use of these various symbols a valid entree to the minds of their own people.  

One missionary, returned from China, told of a Chinese solder who approached him, bristling with hostility.  the missionary sketched some of the aforementioned symbols on a pad and pointed out their "hidden" meanings.  the soldier's eyes opened wide.  "I was told," he exclaimed, "that Christianity was a foreign devil's religion!  now you show me that the wiring system of my own country preaches it!"

the book mentioned earlier about the ideographs by Kang and Nelso is called "the discovery of Genesis"