Women of Promise

    Amy Carmichael was a Christian missionary to India.  She is most known for her work with the women and girls, many of whom were left at the Hindu temples.  She rescued girls of all ages from a life of prostitution and started a home and school where she taught them the love of Jesus, while also providing love and care for their physical needs.  Facing opposition from the priests and families, and even other missionaries, Amy served in India for fifty-five years. The last twenty of those years she was mostly confined to her bedroom due to chronic pain and immobility she suffered as a result of a terrible fall. She wrote many poems and books. Her home for girls is still in operation. Her work is continued by the girls she rescued and raised along with others sent by God to help. I encourage you to read more about this inspiring Christian lady, if you are not familiar with her.    I love to read and learn about Amy's life, as well as her many poems an...

      Time. Don't you wish there was more of it?  I often think of how much I could get done if we just had a few more hours in a day! Mercifully, God is not limited by time.  He gives us an allotted time on this earth (we don't know what that time is) and is watching to see how we use the time He gives us.  As my children grow, I am finding that next to the gospel, the most important thing that I can teach them is to prioritize Jesus in their hearts and lives.       Haggai is an itty, bitty book in the back of your Old Testament.  It is only two chapters long!  God gave the prophet Haggai a message and it boils down to this: "Ya'll forgot about my house!  Fix it!" (Those are my words, not God's, in case you were wondering!)      You see, these Jewish people had been exiles in Babylon. They had returned to their homeland and started building for themselves some pretty nice houses. It had been eighteen years...

  This was first written 4 years ago. The dates have changed (this is the 14th Father's Day since my dad was taken to Heaven, and 4 years since Sam's dad's passing) but the truth of God as our Faithful Father is still the greatest comfort. May these words bring comfort and strength to your walk with Jesus this Father's Day.      Father's Day is a beautiful day to celebrate and honor our fathers.  Both Sam and I will celebrate our fathers, knowing that they are worshipping our Saviour in His very presence this year.  This will be Sam's first Father's Day without his dad on Earth, and it will be the tenth without mine.  Father's Day will be filled with sweet memories and pangs of sorrow from missing those sweet faces and hugs.  However, what we can both testify to is the faithfulness of God.  He is a Father to the fatherless and His love and mercy are never-ending.      Our earthly fathers are to be a picture of our Heavenly Fath...

       The seventh of our eight children made the most important decision of his entire life last week.  After VBS, he made the decision to follow Jesus.  River is only six years old, but I am sure he understands the basics of sin, Jesus' redemption, and salvation.  There has been much rejoicing in heaven, in our church and in our home.  So, what is our responsibility to ensure River grows in his relationship with Jesus and in his Christian faith? Discipleship. I am so thankful for a church that encourages our children to grow in their faith. God has blessed us with leadership that encourages growth in God's Word among all of us, from little ones to adult.       We have talked some recently about the startling statistics of children who choose to leave the faith in their later teen years as well as the sad state of Christian churches where the pastors and teachers do not even possess a Biblical worldview.  It is scary and ...

       (Repost from a couple of years ago)      I am sentimental by nature.  I love things and pictures that remind me of times and people gone by.  But when I hit different milestones myself, I grow even more retrospective.  This tendency is not always healthy. It is easy to fall into traps of self-pity and wallow in our perceived loss.  However, we can learn from meditating on the lessons passed on by those who have gone before us.  These can serve as building blocks for us to build a legacy of faith and dedication to serving our Savior.       If you will indulge me, I would like to reminisce about my mother a bit.  Mom graduated to her heavenly home almost 20 years ago.  My birthday was a couple weeks ago and  I have reflected frequently on the fact that I am roughly the same age as my mom was when she received her cancer diagnosis.  A couple of health scares (which God graciously...

     C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying that Psalm 19 was "the greatest poem in the Psalter, and one of the most beautiful lyrics in the world."  I am not a judge of literature, but I tend to agree with him! Have you read this Psalm recently? It is only 14 verses, and does not take long at all to read.  While it is very beautiful to read,  it is more than pretty words.  This short song draws our hearts to the Creator and His law, ultimately turning our hearts and minds to repentance and worship.  The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.               Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.                             There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.                        ...

The Via Dolorosa, or "The Way of Suffering," in Jerusalem is the traditional route that Jesus was taken as He carried His cross to Calvary.  If you go there today, you can walk this same path and visit fourteen stations along the way, where traditions say different events are said to have taken place such as, where Jesus was beaten by the Roman soldiers or where He stumbled and Simon of Cyrene was called upon to carry His cross.  The road is narrow and cobblestone, much as it would have been over 2000 years ago.  The very last station is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is traditionally the site of the crucifixion.  Perhaps one day, I will get to walk that road in person -- what an experience that would be! As Easter draws closer and I begin to revisit the events of Christ's crucifixion and glorious resurrection, one song that my father sung around this time of year always comes to my mind.  It is a Sandi Patty song (Love me some Sandi Patty -...