Spread the Love Blog tour... Am I back?

 Okay my friends it has been a long time… 

I mean too long, but there was a purpose and a reason for that season. 

When a blogger friend of mine, Stacey, (Who is aca-mazing and a bigger encouragement in my life than she even knows…) asked for some volunteers to join the tour I felt God give me a nudge and tell me to jump in.  SO…

Here I am.

All of my craziness is still intact and I have things to share, but oh where oh where to start?!?!?!

Hence this blog tour gives me a simple way to share what I have been up to these last few months…errr… “Cough, cough” (YEAR).  

One more side-note for you… This will not be a polished and pretty post. We had our anniversary, a wedding, grad party, birthday party, and allot of home projects that have been going on this last week and sooooo…
Grace my friends. Give me some grace. ;)

1. What are you currently working on?

Can I just give you some pics my friends? A picture is worth a thousand words right?

Getting demo's done for Art classes that my good friend, Brianne, and I get to teach together.

Another Demo. This one is of my daughter;s silhouette. She is full of life and color so that is how I painted her. ;)

Average week at our home. We all have fun painting. Can you tell?

Was privileged to be asked to return and do another experiential service for a Youth Retreat. This one was on The Persecuted Church. It is one of my favorite things to help others understand what people are going through across the world.

We went on our last youth mission trip before resigning. (Yes, I am a dork.) :)

They repaired the inside of a family's home which had some severe damage inside. The husband had aids and was unable to work.  They also completely re-roofed another family's home and did an immaculate job. Love these teens!

Survived Michigan's worst winter ever. With record snow falls and and record low temps it was an experience for sure! ;)

We lost power for 5 days straight over Christmas and of course, while family was staying with us. Entertaining 7 kids while trying to keep the fires going to keep the house warm made for some good memories.

Yes, grown men do play Bakugan. ;)

Good times. We were so excited to be able to visit a bunch of my family. It had been years y'all. Way too long! (Can you guess which one is from Texas?)

Movie time with the Cousins!

Cousins having some fun!

Heading up north and seeing my brother from another mother. (In other words we grew up together and I count him as my brother.) P.S. Don't tell him this pic is in here...He doesn't like it. ;)

Being Silly with my Hubby at a good friend's Grad party for her daughter.

Love. This. Man.

 Trying to get a pic with my kids. It only took 6 tries... Goofballs.

This is why. ;)

Homeschooling Fun! The challenge? To build a Trojan Horse that you can all fit in from Card board and tape. Oh yeah!
 They rocked it!

Learning about the racism and inequality
that still continues to this day.

Loving Nature as usual.

Hiking the largest Dune. Love those Great Lakes. 

Good times at Lake Michigan!

 So much more happened, but I do not want to bore you my friends. Just know it's been a fantastic time full of adventures with family, making new friends, and learning new things. 

Now, back to the blog tour questions.

2. How does your work differ from others of its genre?

Ummm.

What is my work? Well I guess that would be a better question.

Hmmm... A little synopsis perhaps?

I am a homeschooling mama, ministry peep, artist, art teacher, justice and poverty advocate, who is prone to spontaneous dancing and/or singing.

The biggest news over the last year is that after over a decade in youth ministry and 15 years of various ministry positions we resigned.

     

 It was a hard decision to make because we love our teens and we loved working in youth ministry, but it was a necessary choice for us. Since then it’s been a beautiful time of learning new things, healing from the stress of the last few years, and also a rough time of wrestling with God as we ask Him,  "What’s next?". 

Aaaaannnnnd His, “What’s next?” is a different type of adventure. We have always been a bit out of the ordinary (Shocker, I know.) and now we feel like God is asking us to just jump off the reservation with this next adventure, but we are absolutely excited about it and have a peace. (Are we nervous? Heck yes, but with God? Things are risky and exciting and require faith. So here we go!)

3. Why do you write/create what you do?

To put it simply, God gives me a drive to create. Whether it’s art or words, speaking or creating experiential services on global issues, or teaching art classes...

 I just do what He nudges me towards. I love getting to foster that creativity in others. My kids, my friends, youth, anyone?! 

Art is such a therapeutic and freeing process. I gave a creativity workshop at a youth retreat and discovered a quote that basically said. (And I am totally paraphrasing this…)

If as, Christians we are worshiping and following the Master Creator of the universe then shouldn’t we be the most creative beings on the planet?

This is sadly not the impression allot of us are conveying to the world. 

“Sigh” 

There are glimmers though. Along the fringe lines there is a beautiful group of creative cats that both love Jesus and are following in their Creator’s footsteps. 

Getting Bolder and braver in their expressions of creativity. Willing to think out of the box, which last time I checked God doesn’t like to be put in a box. (I could write on that one for a bit, but this is supposed to be short. Lol)

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

I watch life constantly and ask questions just as much. There is so much to learn, see and experience. Life, is a never ending lesson we can learn from. God is constantly drawing analogies before my eyes each day and I find it beautiful and exhilarating. 

To be more specific. There is always music playing and then the juices of creativity start flowing and away we go. 

I just want to thank Stacey for asking me to join this lovely tour. You should check out her blog my friends. She writes, she creates, she advocates for women. She is a rockstar in my book. (Seriously! Click HERE and visit her.)

So how are you?

 I hope and pray you are doing well! I will be returning to this little corner of the blog world more often. My, "Let's Talk Church" section will be finally getting some more posts soon as we share what we have learned and explored the last few years. I hope you will join in the conversation. It is always better to hear from all points of view so we can learn from each other's experiences and knowledge.

God bless you lots!

When You don't know where to start... Start with one.

She was drunk.

 I could see our breath like a mist in the cold winter’s night as we sat outside the church building. People passionately lifting up praises to the Lord echoed out of the churches open windows. My rear end was starting to move from sore to numb as the chill sank into my bones from sitting on the ground outside. She was anxiously glancing back and forth. She told me again she should not be here she was “drrrrunk”. She rolled her “R’s” as they do in the Afrikaans language. My heart went out to her.

We sat together there in the cold damp night, waiting for her to sober up or just gain the confidence to go inside the building. I was silently praying for her and she was feeling nervous about the church people’s reactions to her being drunk. I reassured her of our love for her. She repeated again that she should not be here, yet made no move to leave. 

She had followed me all the way up the winding dark streets from where she and her friends had been partying. All the while we kept chatting lightly as we walked.  She repeatedly told me that she should go back to the party, and yet we continued walking and chatting together as we headed up the hilly road towards the church. God was propelling her. I smiled as I watched her keep pace next to me.

God had placed her on my heart from the first day she arrived at the park where our mission’s team was working.  I spotted her standing towards the back of the ever growing numbers of teenagers and children who were coming out to the site. With her arms crossed, her face cynical and smug, she would stand and observe us. If you got to close, she side stepped you. If you reached out to give her a friendly pat on the arm, she made fists and darted. She smirked when we spoke and made fun of my American accent, but God nudged me and said,

”This one, love and pray especially for this one.”

It’s always amazing how God can place a love inside of us for someone we do not yet know personally. Or when He places a love in our hearts for someone who does what they can to be rude or dodge us like the plague.

 We shared some of the horror stories from our lives on that chilly evening. She allowed me to share with her how God brought love and healing into mine. We prayed together and still keep in touch. She still has an abundance of hardships to deal with in life, but I am confident of this.

God loves her. That she is beautiful and valued in God’s eyes whether or not she feels valued in her family. I pray for her protection and for God to guide her each week. I pray for healing for her heart and the strength to stand for what is true. I also pray that one day I can see her and give her a big hug again, I even long to hear her giggling as I try once again to pronounce her name correctly.

There are many of us who are in need of God’s love, forgiveness, grace and freedom, whether here in the States or halfway across the world. They are hiding behind tough exteriors, towering walls built from years of broken trust and open wounds, yet dying inside for someone who will care and be patient enough to love them out of from behind their walls.  

I have heard from quite a few people how they feel overwhelmed by the needs in our world. A friend of mine shared she did not know where to start and if she could truly make a difference. 

This brings me to this week’s challenge. Consider this phrase,

“Do for one what you wish you could do for all.”  

Friends, if you relate to this then, could you please pray and ask for the Lord to help you to see the “one” in your life? 

Couldn’t we all start there with just one person?

Ask the lord to help you to see the ways you can encourage and bless them and then do it. Don't think too long about it. Do not put it off till next week. Just do it.

Maybe it is someone in your neighborhood, a co-worker, or a person you have met where you volunteer. Perhaps God is leading you to support a child through Compassion International or World Vision. I encourage you to take the first step today and ask the Lord, “Who is your one?”

Then remember the words Bob Goff so aptly coined, 

“Love Does”. 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

From the Archives. When you have to let go... and let grace take hold this season.

"In every situation God is doing a thousand things that we cannot see and do not know."

-John Piper

Lately life’s blows have left me speechless.

If you know me then this is a feat in and of itself. (Wink, wink.)

At times it's been over-whelming and yet we have been quietly trudging forward. The verse that says,

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

 has never been more poignant. (Matthew 6:34)

And while I could go on and on about our own families “stresses” my heart is more heavy laden for those dear hearts of my friends and family around me.

One dear young friend who is grieving the loss of not only her mother, but the grandmother who raised her. Both passed only a week apart.

A mother who is grieving the gut-wrenching loss of her baby.

A brave heart who is fighting the attacks of the enemy as she heals from the damage left by childhood abuse.

A few of my friends who are about to celebrate their Christmas season for the first time without their loved ones. 

A friend who was told his place of work would be closing at the end of the month when he has 4 little mouths to feed.

One who is about to undergo another barrage of medical tests as the Doctors search for a diagnosis yet again.

Another in debilitating pain, still trying to work and support the family.

And more than one of my friends are dealing with the pain of affairs and divorce.

Yet still, there’s more my friends, so much more.

I am sure you have been there because life is not always rosy, and every rose has its thorns as well.

 I am reminded of something the Lord revealed to me on a cloudy, rainy day as I sat in the airplane awaiting the take-off. The rain dripped down the windows of the plane and carried the heavy cares of the day downward to the ground.

The heavy clouds hung low, dark and gloomy, but as the plane made its decisive turn  on the runway and began its ascent. As it continually pointed its nose upward towards the heavens something amazing happened.

Onward and upward we plunged into the dark clouds. They grew so thick around the plane that I found myself unable to see through the masses of gray apparitions. 

Suddenly a flash of blinding light broke forth searing my eyes. I blinked several times and had to look away, but yet there it was…The blue sky, the sun, they were still there even during the storm.

The deep azure expanse of bright glowing sky was all the more alluring after the hopeless pallor of the storm clouds. The rain drops that were being pushed back across the window pane from the ascending winds, sparkled in the suns bright and blinding light. A light that caused the once gray clouds from below to almost glow, stretching into fluffy white rolling plains here above the storms.

And then I heard the Lord whisper to my heart,

 “You see my daughter? I am still shining even during the storms of life. I am still working good things for my children. I am always here.”

And so my friends, in our dark nights when our questions and "whys," pour out in a torrent into our tear stained pillows, this I cling to...

This I absolutely know.

Our God never grows tired or weary and He never ever stops working for our good.

Isaiah  40:28-31

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

So like a sweet friend encouraged me the other day, I will let “grace take hold” for I have nothing left to offer and in the end I know the result will be His masterful craftsmanship.  A life's work that will point gloriously to the Lord because it is showered in His beautiful finger prints.