Driving!!

Well, yesterday Rob passed his learners' driving test and today he drove to school.

I have heard no end to it. The coaches saw him. His last year's Bible teacher was there. The history teacher told me tonight she wondered what he was doing behind the wheel, and the principal stopped Peter in the hall and asked if it wasn't his mom or dad who dropped him off in the morning, who WAS it?

You can't hide much at a small school. And who'd want to? Everyone is so sweet. People are still coming up and hugging me to say they are glad we aren't moving.

They said the South would grow on us and it has. God is so kind.

Last week I drove for Peter's class on their missions day outing. We visited a nursing home for seniors, and the kids sang some of the old songs like Blessed Assurance and Amaging Grace. I was standing next to a dear little old lady who obviously couldn't hear. So I sang the songs into her ear and she perked right up and said, "Oh, JESUS! I do love Jesus, He is so so wonderful! He is my best Friend, Yes, I love Him!!"

Wow! If it is true that as we grow older, who we really are is distilled down to our very essence, then I hope and pray I am pure essence of joy and love for the Lord Jesus like Mrs. Laurie, when I am eight-eight. What we sow we reap, I guess.

Anthony at our parents in Prayer group asked a friend of his who is in prison (got born again there) to come and speak to our young people in their school chapel. Miracle of miracles, they allowed him to come, shackles and all, he shuffled in clinking and clanking for effect. He certainly had the kids' attention, when he talked about alcohol and drugs and then about giving your life to Jesus Christ and really living.

This afternoon I went to the County elevator to see if they had any chickens. No. I'll have to go to Jackson, but they do have feeders and feed. So once I get the garden underway, I think it will be time to get some Aracona chicks. They lay different colored eggs, are cute and have little tufts over their ears.

Maggie is sending out her sponsor letters, she is very happy and excited about going to Johannesburg this summer, and in the meantime whenever she has spare time she is in the inner city or helping with handicapped kids' camps. This week she did horse camp. I love hearing her stories.

It is hockey playoffs time and the boys are into it with their daddy. Red Wings won tonight 4-2 against the Oliers!!

Today I saw Peter's teacher who told me how for the first time that he had read aloud a straight paragraph from his history book without stumbling. When he finished, the class all clapped. He has his nose in a book all the time, now, praise God. What a blessing! I think he will do fine in 6th grade next year, even if he has to audit again for a while. Who cares about recording grades in 6th grade, anyway? God is good.

Emily's baby is due any time and we are asking our Father in Heaven to have that little girl(?) come in perfect timing and naturally. Mag and I will fly up, God willing. Can't wait!

Saturday Rob runs in the North State track meet, so we will be driving up there for all day. Guess the grass mowing can wait.

I love y'all. : )

People Stories

When we were asked for a show of hands at church, our James raised his to say he had been born again because someone on the street had shared Jesus with him. But 99% of us had come to salvation in a church. Of course. This is Mississippi.

It is time for that to change, though, because more and more people out on the streets are confused and hopeless and lost, even in Mississippi. The Russian girl holding her baby, next to me in the parking lot hates it here and wants to run back to New York because she has no purpose in her life and it is "too conservative here."

I wonder if she will find her Purpose in New York. Or will she like so many everywhere never find out what to believe, and just chase after emptiness or flow with whatever foolishness she is told or sees in the latest movie? Simply because no one has told her any better?

They are like sheep with no shepherd, wandering around, and so lost, like another girl said to me, "I have never really been introduced to the real Jesus."

Yesterday, when I started out, I had no idea He was doing it, but Jesus went with me to the streets to meet and encourage a few, even some who are already aware that He saves lost people.

As I drove up to Curves an aggitated young woman in a red shirt with G.A.P was poking under the hood of her car. She said she didn't need a boost, that it was just the devil giving her a hard time, and that she had also just lost her job.

When I suggested we pray, she immediately slammed her hands down on the fender and said, "YES! PRAY!" So the two of us rebuked that devil and commanded the car to work as a good servant in God's Kingdom. She pushed the tears away, smiled and went around to start it. As she did I noticed that her shirt read God Answers Prayer. She waved and smiled as she drove away.

That was a good way to start my day because after that, there was the man in the photo studio at Wal Mart who looked so desperately empty and sad, that I just had to lead him in the 'sinner's prayer' for salvation. His marriage in Las Vegas had just broken up, but he had recently found his father here in Mississippi after 20 years and this Easter his mother got him to go to church. He told me he very much wanted to know Jesus and God. Well, now he does.

Well, after that it was just as if the angels, who were 'rejoicing over one sinner that repented', followed me through the fish department where the butcher beamed ear to ear and told me he talks with Jesus all the way to work and back each day, wouldn't leave home without Him.

Then the burdened down, little black girl in the meat department broke into a big grin and said she knows Jesus is real. The man from Cuba at the checkout stood very still and serious as I put my hand on his chest and asked Jesus to heal his heart that has remained broken seven years since his wife died.

Then the carry out man who was 'terribly bored' with life nearly cried when I encouraged him to read his Bible and talk with the Lord when the nights are lonely. "I WILL! he said, and bowed his head in the parking lot, as we prayed for Jesus to draw him back to Himself and heal his hurts.

They are waiting out there, whether it is in a dimly lit old orphanage building in a former Soviet nation that still has a ton of darkness in it, or in our blessed nation, where the same darkness is pressing down on the lonely, hurting people here who just need a touch from Jesus.

Jesus commands us to Go! and then he comes too and that is what makes it so fun. It is He who make them smile.

Lights Popping On!

The other morning I woke up with a very distinct dream still fresh in my mind. It was pitch dark out, and I was coming up to the top of a hill. As I rounded the crest, the lights of a small town came into view. What was unusual was that the lights were popping on everywhere until the whole town was aglow, lighting up the whole dark valley. They were not tiny lights, but bright ones. Even a church with its steeple was glowing brightly.

That was it and I woke. I prayed for the interpretation, waited, and then got up to shower and dress. All day I tried to still my heart to hear what it meant, but it wasn't until the next morning at the same time as I lay in bed, that my eyes opened wide and I knew for sure. The lights were homes that were taking in orphans.

I thought, Wow, I'd better tell my friend in Ukraine. She'll like this one.

She did, and the wonderful thing is, that in the next two days she received letters from four families whose hearts are turned to a total of five 'big kids' that she knows personally. Isn't that amazing?

Another family in Michigan wrote that they feel led to open a thrift shop to raise money for families who want to adopt but don't have the funds. And yet another has begun in the last few days a ministry for sponsoring kids who have aged out of adoption.

AND God has answered our prayer for someone to go in the the orphanage and love on these same lonely older children, whose future, once they are sent to the cold streets on Odessa, likely will mean if the drugs and suicide do not snatch them, child traffickers may.

This young couple have stared Bible Studies and teaching English to a couple kids. Pray God blesses their efforts and that Odessa Internot # 4 orphanage becomes a bright glowing light on the landcape of Ukriane. May God raise up an 'army of orphans' to carry the Good News of Salvation through the Cross of Jesus Christ to all the world.

Meanwhile may we on this side of the ocean de-clutter our lives to do the same here, become and army of Love telling everyone we meet that there is hope and life in Jeuss, because He died and rose again.

May the lights in each of our villages pop on as homes everywhere not only 'receive little children and forbid them not', but also reach out to the adults we meet.

Because that is what life is all about - LOVING PEOPLE, whatever age.

Here am I; Send Me

For anyone out there who may read these postings of mine, I am sorry I have not given you anything to read lately. That is not because there has been nothing happening. On the contrary, much has been happening. Much in the way of family activity and much soul searching about the call of God.

Speaking of the call of God, a great 15 year old we know is needing a family to take him in. Please consider it. I am trusting that he can go to a godly home before he is too old to be adopted. Whoever it is, they will not regret it. He is a darling and would be a HUGE blessing to your family.

Our news, first amd foremost is our daughter is expecting her second baby soon, which has been a cause of much rejoicing and prayer. I am hoping to fly north soon and/or go with the family in June on our usual pilgimmage to Michigan Bible camp. We are very excited about another little person and of course to see our darling grand daughter who is almost 4!

Watch for us, on the Lake Michigan beach, Babs and E.B. :) The boys look forward to the lake and rafting with brother-in-law, Chad.

Back home, our Maggie is moving along in elementary education and loving it. She is falling desperately in love with the little black kids at an inner city school in Jackson and hopes to work there some day. In the meantime she is trying to save money for a summer tripto help at an AIDS orphange in Johannesburg, South Africa. She may ask us if we'd like to contribute toward this exciting adventure for Jesus.

Rob is pressing on in grade 9 and we are believing for healing for his knee from a minor medial cartilage tear. The trainer says, "Use common sense, but continue on in sports." He is in tennis, track and baseball. Yes, all three! He has turned a toasty brown, but not before he got a burn on Wednesday at a big invitational Track event, which our school hosted.

Because he had to sit out a couple races, some of his good buddies pulled the slack and got stretched running relays they had not done before. A good thing. He was honored by a request to dress with our senior baseball team Thursday. The joys of being in a smaller school. You get OPPORTUNITES!

James came home with a big smile last evening after winning a singles tennis match against another school. On Wednesday I got to drive some of the boys from his grade 6 class to the Stew Pot, a local ministry for the poor and homeless. As we drove I asked the boys to consider what their purpose in life is. That along with their genetic makeup, God inserted a Calling, a Purpose for living. That it would be boring to get old and never achieve your purpose, but only live for yourself all those years and then die.

At any rate these kids have seen some things to make them think. They can live each day NOW for Jesus. Many have touched divorce, drugs and alcohol and most have lost a relative or acquaintance to drugs or drunk driving, a big problem with teenagers here. The challenge is to help them set their minds on serving Jesus, Who gives clarity and purpose, instead of fooling around with your life.

Once we got to the mission we were given our assignment by a very relieved and a little apologetic director, an elderly woman. It was a dirty task, she said, and did we mind? Cleaning out a warehouse to rescue some stored canned goods that the rats and mice had gotten to first. The 175 people a day that she feeds will really appreciate it, she told us.

What struck me, as we 'got down and got dirty' was how easy it is to send in canned goods to our local shelter, but how I need to consider going there more often to help organize and help put them away before the rats get them. It was an amazingly filthy job and the ministry people were greatly blessed by our kids digging in and joyfully working several hours.

The little girls screamed at the mice, but mostly the kids had a great deal of fun, making a relay by passing the bags of cans that some guys from a halfway house and I salvaged from among the rubble. We tossed them to James, who tossed them down the line, and on into a waiting truck. All to the tune of "99 Bottles of Pop on the Wall." Thank you Lord, for soapy water and disinfectant!

From there it was straight to the invitational so James could run the 2 mile and the 2 mile relay. He and his friend Jeremy say there are okay with competing against 9th graders on the 2 mile (3200 meters) event, because it challenges them to raise their own standards. As they finished the course, the announcer said over the loudspeaker, "Look out, some o' you bigger boys! You are gonna be lookin' at THEIR backs next year!"

Peter runs too and has numerous smaller awards that he is accumulating daily. He is one little worker bee. Diligently working at his academics, he is now fulltime in school and very happy to be there. He is hard of hearing because of his "little bitty ear" and encounters difficulty with reading and spelling. I would be so glad for prayer for him for that, and for whatever action God is ready for us to take on that regard.

I have been challenging all three boys to seek the Lord for themselves as to what is His calling on them. We began reading the Book of Exodus recently in prepartion for Passover and Easter season. Today we were struck by how kids have a great part to play in God's plans for the world.

Moses was a baby, of course, when he was "called," and Miriam never let him forget it. She, herself, was called as a child to watch the little Deliverer in the bullrushes and then approach the Pharoah's daughter about finding a wet nurse for him. Gutsy girl, I say. She probably got it from her momma, Jocobed.