Today's Musings

Isn't that cool?? The closest we get to snow in Madagascar. :O) On Monday, we had a huge thunderstorm come through. With it came a hailstorm. Our yard was covered in pea-sized hail. I enjoyed the storm -- there is just something so majestic about a thunderstorm. But I did NOT enjoy the three hours with no power. Heh

A Letter from Christ

Our life is a letter written for others to read.

Wow! That is quite a statement. In II Corinthians 3:3, 5-6, we find the following words, "You show that you are a letter from Christ..., written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts..."

What can I allow the Spirit to write in my life today? Is the letter of my life that the world can see full of love and grace? Or anger and bitterness?

Continuing on with our verses: "Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent..."

He has made us competent. What a great promise! Reminds me of: "I can do all things - through Christ - who strengthens me." I am so glad it is not dependent on my competency or my ability. Only on my availability to Him.

Lord, I'm available to You!

Conference is over

Praise the Lord for a great week! Conference is over and what an awesome time we had! With around 18,000 people attending services throughout the week, we were blessed to see 1,435 people find their salvation experience during our conference. Although we're exhausted, our spirits are soaring as we saw the Lord pour out His blessings on our services.

Pictured above: half of the conference crowd on Sunday morning...minister's wives gathered for some teaching...our children with our General Director of Missions, Bruce Howell, and his wife, Diane Howell, as they enjoyed some time hanging out with the lemurs!...and finally, me and my dear husband with the Howell's.

Now life will hopefully return to some level of 'normalcy' after the month and a half of whirlwind craziness! Hey, a girl can hope, right??? :)

Have a blessed day in Jesus!

Note: as always, you can click on the pictures for a larger view!

Conference News

This week is our National Conference here in Madagascar. We are having a great week! Monday through Wednesday were focused on the minister's and wives. And now we are in the general sessions. We're blessed with the powerful ministry of Bro. Bruce Howell, Pastor Gary Keller, & Pastor Keith Sjostrand and Bro. Jerry Richardson. Our services have been blessed already with 474 saved. Praise the Lord! I will continue to bring reports...and pictures...to share.

Thanks for your prayers!

Butter Update

Well, I found some...

Paid $14 for this 500 gram packet of butter!!! All the way from France. :)

I told my husband...it is appropriately wrapped in a gold wrapper!!! LOL

Butter anyone?

Okay, just when you think you've seen it all, this country rises up and bites you again. :)

It seems that we have no butter in this whole city of 2+ million people. Grocery store shelves are bare of butter/margarine, or any such product. The little shops along the road are out of it. Wow!

I'm going to check at a few of the grocery stores that carry imported butter today...and hope they are not sold out! Who knows how much I'll have to pay for it, but what can you do? Gotta have my butter! :)

Dust

Living in Madagascar, one of the things you quickly have to adjust to is the amount of dust in the air. Known as the Red Island, the dust is very much a part of our lives here, particularly during the dry season. I am amazed at how often the furniture needs dusting! Even now, when our windows remain closed because of the cool temperatures, the dust still manages to find its way into our home.


This morning as I sat here looking at the dust on my desk, I begin to wonder if this has a spiritual application as well? If we are not careful, do we allow the dust of the world, the dust of LIFE, to clutter our lives? How often do we come in and dust off the furniture of our heart? How often do we allow the rain of the Spirit to refresh the dry, parched soil of our heart -- thus minimizing the dust?

I'm reminded of the words of the song:
We thirst for you,
We search for you,
In a dry and barren land,
We're longing for your hand
to guide us to a place where you
can cleanse us with your rain...
baptize us once again
We thirst for you!