Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Remarkable

Saturday night was girls night out for me and the Girlfriends. You
would think with our kids mostly grown and gone, we would find it easier to spend time together, but actually it seems to have become more difficult. We do try to do dinner for our birthdays. As we ate and chattered through dinner I was just very thankful to have each and everyone of them in my life. When you start listing the life changes we have gone through together it is a remarkable list. Not all of the things we've been through have been happy, fun or exciting, but the important thing is... We've done it all together. It's been an interesting journey. I spoke with my daughter yesterday. She had spent the weekend in New Orleans with a friend. For kicks and giggles they got their palms read. When the fortune teller told her that she saw a wedding and a baby coming to her family within the next year, my daughter immediately thought of her extended family. One friend has a son getting married, and one friend is looking forward to her first grandchild. That's how much our friends mean to us, my kids actually consider them family without
hesitation. I would say that my very best parenting skill (and I'm not one who really brags about that) would be my desire to surround my children with people who can add to their lives in a positive way. People whose strengths far outweigh my weaknesses. I believe 100% that my relationships have shaped and molded my children every bit as much as their relationship with me and my husband. I have some remarkable kids because I have some remarkable friends.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Africa 2011
























Send Me Missions, Changing the World One Life at a Time

My son just returned from his second mission trip to Africa. He is living a life that is poured out to others and dedicated solely to Christ.

Isaiah 53:12
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
 Genesis 21:18
Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
Matthew 9:37
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Genesis 27:28
May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.


Matthew 9:38
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
John 4:36
Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
Jeremiah 31:4
I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.

He then said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you and if it is the will of the LORD our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of our people throughout the territories of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites who are with them in their towns and pasturelands, to come and join us


 .

Ray of Hope Send Me Missions... Changing the world, one life at a time.









Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Children of Africa

There are no pictures of Africa that depict it's beauty more than the face of a child. I'd like to capture their cheeks in my hands as their faces have captured my heart.
Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Mark 9:37
“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Luke 10:21
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
Nehemiah 9:23
You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess.
Psalm 90:16
May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.
Psalm 127:3
Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.
Proverbs 22:6
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
Matthew 18:5
And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Luke 9:48
Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”
1 Thessalonians 5:5
You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
Revelation 21:7
Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Ray of Hope Send Me Missions, Changing the World One Life at a Time

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Out of Africa


What is life like when you expand your borders, color outside the lines and live without fear? It's an amazing technicoloured world as the pictures my son took on his last mission trip to Africa show. It's hard to imagine walking among God's creatures with no boundaries in place..No fences, no wires.



Genesis 1:21
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.




Genesis 1:24
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.



Genesis 1:25
God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Daniel 4:22
Your Majesty, you are that tree! You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth.



Daniel 4:3
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.










Psalm 23:2
He makes me lie down in green pastures






he leads me beside quiet waters,





Isaiah 43:20
The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen,




Deuteronomy 33:29
Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.”








Deuteronomy 11:15
I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be
satisfied.








Psalm 36:6
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.











 Psalm 65:13
The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.





Proverbs 7:15
So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!