New Gifts

I have had the privilege of sharing in DTS’s (Youth With A Mission’s Discipleship Training Schools) over the last several years about the “mothering love of God”.  It has been wonderful to see a light dawn in eyes of students and they begin to comprehend God loves them like a Father and a Mother.  He intended us to have both.  It is healthy to have both…..physically, emotionally and spiritually.  When one is lacking, we lack.  We don’t get “enough” in our childhood (due to dysfunction, divorce, wounding, etc.) and it can carry through into adulthood if God Himself has not been given the space to come in and fill the need.

Psalm 131:2

Several months ago as I looked out my window at a breathtaking dawn breaking, I felt peaceful, satisfied.  Weaning means to be satisfied, your needs met.  I have enough.  

This year  I took on my “word”  RELEASE for 2016.   I began 2016 with a sense of God releasing new things into our lives, mainly with how we give out in our ministry and serving others,   New adventures, new stories of sharing.  But way back in January, I began to also sense “release” meant ME releasing some things into God’s hands so He could then “release” into my life.

One area I seem to always be letting go has been the releasing of the lives of my children into His hands.  He carries them.  He will lead them.  He knows them better than I do.  Really?  Can that be??  Yes, releasing our loved ones into His care is the best thing I can do.  But releasing is not always easy.  Even the releasing of comfortable, daily, life can and will bring freshness and new adventure if we are willing to release what is normal for us or things we hide behind.  In prayer, speaking out and giving over to God those things that are good.....really good.....(maybe some not so good)....but by releasing them to God, He sets us free to receive new gifts from Him.  Don't we always want a new present to open?

One thing I love (and can be unsettling and challenging at times) in our relationship with God is we are never to old to grow and learn.  As I gaze at a rising dawn, and read my devotional for the day….it reminds me that God always goes before me.  Never leads me into situations that He is not fully aware of the needs of what I will be facing.  He is before me.  Beside me.  Next to me.  Behind me.  AND He gives PEACE.  It was His first words to His disciples after the resurrection.  Peace I give you.  Do not be afraid.  He knew we needed to hear that.  He said it a lot!  Even sent angels to tell us.

As I wait in the presence of my Father, He impresses on my mind that weaning can be something that takes place even in the oldest of us.  I am 60.  I have walked with the Lord for 42 years.  And today, I continue to be “weaned”.  I think I have enough…but He wants to give me more. Continually moving away from the “bottle” and into deeper, richer, real food.  Even after all these years, He wants to wean me from the comfortable.  The familiar.  He wants to give me “flavored milk”, beyond the white.  I have enough, but He wants to give me more.  Will I trust Him to continually wean me….trust Him as I release, He gives back more than I could imagine?  Will I trust Him?   Can I love someone or something possibly so much that He would want me to “release it into His hands” so He can turn around and give me so much more?

Psalm 34:8

Genesis 16: 13-14 (Amplified Version)

John 20:19

Colossians 3:15

Psalm 139:7-12

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Hugs and Hope in Armenia

Wow!  2015 is flying by ... We just returned from another 4-week journey into Central Asia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia.   I joined my husband for the last two weeks.  As always, in between the airports, long flights and delays, came the eternal moments of sharing life, touching a special someone and seeing the heart of a Father make a difference.

An opportunity of a week that didn’t involve teaching to larger groups, but just meeting one-on-one and letting hearts speak to hearts will always hold a special place now in our memories.  People shared their stories, their pain and we had the privilege of simply praying and touching a life.

For seven days we enjoyed the hospitality of a wonderful friend whom we have known for a few years.  However, what we didn’t realize was her enormous heart and evangelistic spirit.  She makes friends wherever she goes.  And she pulls people into her life and helps them to understand just how loved they are by their Heavenly Father.  Rarely a walk down the streets took place without someone she knew stopping her to chat and receive a hug.  A day did not go by without her small humble home filling with people whom she cared about and invited into her life.  Usually an hour did not pass without her phone beeping with a message that someone needed her.  Lives filled with pain and unanswered questions, she is available daily to simply be Jesus to a hurting world.  And she is a gift to a small town where God is moving.

One such day led us into the mountains surrounding a town in northern Armenia.  A home for the elderly in a lonely secluded spot.  A place where seemingly these dear souls are forgotten.  Yet they are cared for daily by people who are committed.  Our friend, joined by a small team of believers who love God, go weekly to sing, share stories and pray with men and women who just want to know they are not forgotten.  The wrinkled faces lit up with joy at seeing this group of young ladies come once more into their meager surroundings.  We talked about God’s love for them, His faithfulness throughout the many years and how we are NEVER EVER EVER ALONE.  NEVER.  His goodness even in the hard difficult years.  And looking out over these faces, it was not difficult to imagine their struggles through the years of communism and economic collapse in this small nation.  Their aged faces showed they had lived a life I could not imagine.  Yet, their eyes held a hope their was more to be had in the days left and beyond.  As our time ended, I realized how they simply wanted to know they have not been abandoned.  They were not there waiting to die….they STILL MATTERED.  Their hearts, their loves, their concerns, their daily existence still mattered.  

It really is not difficult to share the love of Jesus and the Father.  Sometimes, all it means is taking the time, a HUG and letting someone know their life matters.  Someone does actually care.  My hope and prayer is these lovely people continue to know HE WATCHES OVER THEM; THEIR FATHER IN HEAVEN LOVES THEM AND IS DAILY BY THEIR SIDE.  He has forgiven all their sins, wants to heal all their pain, and for the days they have left, they can experience true freedom and know their lives matter.  God is loving and faithful…even to the mountains of Armenia.  

Psalm 125:2  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.

Psalm 57:10  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

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Father and fathers

Father's Day brings a myriad of emotions to us.  For some, it is a joyous day to celebrate that man who has given so much of himself to us.  For others, it brings pain for the father we never knew.  The disappointment of not having our fathers live up to our deepest expectations of what a father should be. I wanted to post a poem that celebrates fathers, but as I prayed and looked, I am overcome once again at the "fatherlessness" of our world.  As we have traveled and ministered to those who have been deeply wounded by the lack of a father, or by what a father has done to them, I am reminded of the original Father and His deep love and care for us.  How His heart aches over our pain and lack of what should have been there for us.

We have a friend who has an incredible dad.  He was abandoned, orphaned, mistreated, and yet, through it all, his faith in God was his survival.  What happened in his life could have wounded him and turned him away from anything good.  But in his hardships, he always forgave. He didn't let what he didn't have, direct the outcome of his life. This man today in his eighties is one of the world's greatest husbands, fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and has the most gentle spirit you will ever meet.  We asked our friend once, "If your dad could tell us one truth in all he has learned over his life, what do you think that would be?"   His answer resonated deep within our hearts.  "You have a Heavenly Father who will ALWAYS be there for you, no matter what."

This weekend we celebrate our dads;  those of us who have great reasons to celebrate those men in our lives who have been wonderful fathers and husbands.  Heap accolades on them, appreciate them and give them the honor they deserve.  It is so right to celebrate and honor them.

And for those who would rather this day just get skipped over...remember this truth; HE did not skip over YOU.  These are not just words...they are Truth.  Take them deep into your heart and spirit, even if you cannot identify what a "father" even means.  Maybe even for the first time, celebrate Father's Day with your Heavenly Father being the one you celebrate.

I found this poem and collection of Truths...I hope it resonates deeply within a heart that needs to hear it.

My Child,

You may not know me, 

but I know everything about you. 

Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up. 

Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways. 

Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. 

Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image. 

Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.

Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring. 

Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived. 

Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation. 

Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake, 

for all your days are written in my book. 

Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth 

and where you would live. 

Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother's womb. 

Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born. 

Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented 

by those who don't know me.

John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry, 

but am the complete expression of love. 

1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 

1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child 

and I am your Father. 

1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. 

Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father. 

Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. 

James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. 

Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. 

Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love. 

Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless 

as the sand on the seashore.

Psalms 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing. 

Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you. 

Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession. 

Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you

with all my heart and all my soul. 

Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things. 

Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart, 

you will find me. 

Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you 

the desires of your heart. 

Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires. 

Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you 

than you could possibly imagine. 

Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager. 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you 

in all your troubles. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted, 

I am close to you. 

Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb, 

I have carried you close to my heart. 

Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away 

every tear from your eyes. 

Revelation 21:3-4

And I'll take away all the pain 

you have suffered on this earth.

Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you 

even as I love my son, Jesus.

John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. 

John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being. 

Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you, 

not against you. 

Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression 

of my love for you. 

1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved

that I might gain your love. 

Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, 

you receive me. 

1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you 

from my love again.

Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I'll throw the biggest party 

heaven has ever seen.

Luke 15:7

I have always been Father, 

and will always be Father.

Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…

Will you be my child? 

John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you. 

Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your Dad

Almighty God

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190 weeks and going strong :)

Today we are celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary!  Wow!  That sets a stage for reflection :) The actor and actress on this stage have come a long way...

When we say "I do" at the altar, we have no idea what is ahead.  Dreams, hopes and happiness are all at the forefront of life at that moment.  The honeymoon is all we can see and we are pretty sure that will last forever :)

Those who have been married any length of time are chuckling about now.  Honeymoons are great - I wish we could have one every year :)   However, the dust settles, the gifts are put on the shelves, and life moves forward at the pace of a cheetah chasing his prey.

How is it that my oldest turns 26 next month?  My youngest graduates from high school in June?  The first words out of our mouths when we climb out of bed in the morning are ... "ouch" :)    Is that a grey hair I see...no, I really think it is the lighting...

Where did all those years ago???

If I could describe OUR years in one word....27 of them....it would be "adventure".

For better or for worse.....there have been great adventures and there have been tough ones.

For richer or for poorer....months of abundance and months of leanness

In sickness and in health....we've been so blessed to have good health as a couple and family.  Injuries have been few and far between.  We've only met our very high deductible twice - actually as of March 1st this year, we met ours for 2013 ALREADY (thanks kids!)

Marriage is work, raising children is a full-time job....and I wouldn't have traded my employment in this for anything.  The stage God set for us in this journey my husband and I have been on has had many acts, many changes of costume, many laughs, many tears, scenes where we forgot our lines or the role we were meant to play, times when we felt the curtain could come down at any moment, but then God shows up and there is applause.

As I penned a few thoughts on facebook this morning honoring the man God gave me, I thought "I wonder if this seems gushy and sentimental.  My words are my heart.  I honor and respect this man more than I can even express.  I will go to the ends of the earth with him (which by the way could very well happen if God has anything to say about our adventure :).   I am in love with him and would say "I do" all over again.  I have had a great life with him."   This month I've seen many anniversaries celebrated vocally on facebook.  It is wonderful and honoring.  But friends ... and singles.... those years and couples being honored have not come upon the celebration without a struggle.  We do not take anniversaries lightly.  The years of marriage are held together by the rolling up of our sleeves and working all things through....the deepest form of commitment.  Through the fires which destroyed everything, through the injuries or illness which wipes out the bank account, through the leanness of no employment and there is a family to feed, through the challenges and through the victories.   Through the losses and the gains. Through the times when misunderstanding, criticism or being judgmental can destroy it all.   And the intense joy and yes, happiness, that comes from years of side-by-side living.

The results of 27 years....joy, deep commitment, character development (sounds cliche, but this ole' girl is not the same as she was 9,855 days ago... all credited to God's patience with me and what comes out of the iron sharpening iron of marriage and raising children), having a husband who believes in you to be all God created you to be.  And to believe in your husband and children to see them living out the purposes of God in and through them.

If we wives (and husbands) are gushy about our anniversaries, indulge us, please.  We have come a long way.  We have seen God come through.  This marriage is about more than just happiness, it is about vision, a mission and seeing God glorified through each and every year we had together and for the years and adventures ahead.  Revealing Christ to a world that needs to see healthy relationships...not perfect, but healthy and surviving.

I love this man and I am sentimental today.  As I was praying for him this morning, he walked into the room with a dozen red roses....I felt like the actress at the end of the play...roses presented and God applauding.   I love you, Jim!

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Friends, Forgiveness & Finding the Way Home

I (we) are back home.....my husband after 5 weeks of travel and myself, being able to join him in the last two weeks.  We had a wonderful time, took lots of photos, spent time with many old and wonderful friends and made some incredible new ones!  Our faith and trust in God grows deeper during these adventures as we have the privilege of touching lives, connecting and experiencing Him come through for us (and them!).

Kazakhstan, Armenia and Latvia....different cultures, different people, but all the same need and heart cry that comes forth.  We want to be loved, we want to feel worthy of that love.  For those that never had the love and acceptance of a father (or a mother), that cry resounds all the more deeply.  Words of acceptance never spoken over a life.  A childhood of rejection and abuse.  Hearts struggling to let go and be vulnerable to love.  Minds wrestling with forgiveness towards those that have wounded us.  We are all the same, we all have the same need....wanting to love, be loved and connect with those around us.  When we share the love of a heavenly Father, it can be difficult to really embrace that love or understand it when an individual has not even experienced that in their own life with a physical father. The ministry my husband and I endeavor to impart is the love of a father (& mother) to those whose hearts yearn for connection and relationship, especially to their Father above.

We had the privilege to meet so many dear new friends who opened up their lives and hearts to the love of a heavenly Father who says to them "I love you....I am well pleased with you....you are my son....you are my daughter."   Lives which chose to be vulnerable enough to say "I forgive my earthly father for this.....I forgive my mother for abandonment.....I forgive....I forgive....I forgive."  And to let the love of a Father bring healing.  There is no greater key to freedom than forgiveness.

Ivo, a young man after God's heart !

A new friend who found freedom, joy and healing in the Father's love

Another highlight for us was being able to attend a conference of teams that came from around the nation of Latvia.  These teams belong to the missions group we were a part of for over 20 years.  Twenty-one years ago we led the first Discipleship Training School in Latvia.  What a joy and privilege to once again connect, share memories, renew vision and challenge to grow during the transitions and seasons we find ourselves in.  As we laughed and reminisced over shashlik (shish-kabob) and hot tea, we found ourselves deeply grateful to be a part of a family worldwide that is trusting God, seeing Him move in and through their lives, and nurturing hope and vision for the future.

A real joy for us to be with David, our Latvian/American friend whose family

we have known for over 20 years.

Being able to visit Riga, the capital city of Latvia, at the end of our time was another treat.  Staying with a close friend of many years, dinner in an Uzbek restaurant with old friends, seeing the old city of Riga once again and having an incredible lunch with a great lady who was in our first school we led in Russia.  Disneyland has it right when it says....its a small world after all....

Have to mention the trip home....venturing out for a meal in Amsterdam...hubby leading the way, my suggestion to "try this street" and finding ourselves in the red light district of Amsterdam....then quickly trying to find our way out. It was an "eye opening" or rather an eye-closing experience.  Thank God for the ministries working in this area.  Your heart breaks for the girls/women who have been trafficked and have lost all respect for themselves. We know of several ministries working in this district and we greatly respect them for their diligence.  They are heroes to us!

And more....eating out and on the run...enjoyed "Viennese schnitzel" in a Mexican restaurant on the canal - odd combination :)  Discovered we had the "status" to sit in the business lounge at Amsterdam airport early on the morning of our flight home.....incredible breakfast, coffees, drinks, and watching the sun rise over the jet way.  And all free of charge!   I was glad hubby traveled so much at that moment in time :)

We've now been home a week, finally recovering from jet-lag.....it takes longer at our age :)  An old friend (we seem to have a lot of these :)  staying in our home for several days and just getting back to normal.  I am not sure what "normal" is anymore, but it is nice to be home. Lots of photos to share when I get to it....but here's a few.

Hay fields in rural Latvia

Our "home away from home"

Our international family of students 

Great new friends with a heart to grow and learn!

View from the conference center

North Sea...we didn't go for a walk as it began to rain as soon as this photo was taken :(

"Lagman" - homemade Uzbek noodles/vegetables - my husband

grew up on this as his family came through Central Asia on their

way out of Russia.

View from our friend's apartment....I could live here :)

Our "last view" before flying home

I have so many photos to share, but some go with stories...so more to come!  We found our way home...as did dear friends on this trip who found their own "way home" into the arms of a loving Father.  We felt so privileged to be able to share and pray with them; and hold the dream and desire to one day be reunited.  For those of you who "sent" us, rejoice with us in that many seeds were planted, watered, and nourished in the Kingdom of God.  Thanks again for your prayers and support of us.  Now...I may go take a nap before sitting down and doing some more writing :)

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1st Day...Last Year

I sent my youngest son (18 in nine days) off to school today...his last first day. As he sailed out the front door memories came rushing back.  Today all us moms of seniors are a bit teary-eyed and for those of us where this is our last...a lot teary-eyed.  Actually, I am smiling amongst the bittersweet memories.  The last year of school supplies, signing notes (do I do that after he turns 18??), obligatory meetings, being homework "cop", and "you should really be in bed by eleven so you can get up tomorrow morning".  Alas, in the midst of the "where did the years go?" there is the "whew, I am glad this is almost over" :)   Good years!

I homeschooled all my children for their first beginning years of elementary school.  Although the youngest son went to school earlier than his older siblings.  He entered first grade 11 years ago.  With excitement, mixed with a bit of nervousness, off he went to join in the adventure he had watched his older brother and sisters embark upon.  I'll never forget that day.  Along with the myriad of emotions, I received a phone call from my mom.  Dad was coming home after months in the hospital, now to begin hospice.  They didn't expect him to last many days.  Would I come home?  And so, with a heartache only a mother knows, I left my youngest in the care of my husband to maneuver his first week of school and headed home to help my mom.  Two days later my father passed into eternity.  It was a difficult week.  Nearing the end of the second week, the family joined me for the funeral, September 14th, my youngest son's 7th birthday.

Yes, this time of year, the beginning of Jamie's school year, always brings back the memories.  But they are good ones.  My father, a month before he passed on, gave his life over to God and became a believer.  His funeral was a celebration!  Jamie survived his first year of school, made many friends and decided he would rather play than do school.  Eleven years later, he still has many friends and still would rather snowboard, play basketball, wakeboard or just plain play, than "do school".  That's okay....he'll graduate with a fairly high grade point average and go on to be a professional snowboarder....Jim and I will retire in style :)  Or at the very least be given a house in the mountains.

Moms, dig out those photos!  These years go quickly!!  Hug those little ones...or rather big ones these days!  There's a new season ahead for them...and a new adventure just around the corner for us!  

And I will forever be grateful for Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1827, first photographic image) and many others in between all the way up to George Eastman (1889, invented film) who enable me to remember...

First day September 4, 2001

To the present...

September 5, 2012

You gotta love this guy!!

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The (Mother)Heart of God

Recently I have been trying to wrap my mind around the motherheart of God.  Those attributes of our God that seem to come from the heart of a woman, or more specifically, a mother.  As my husband and I travel and share with those who have been wounded and hurt by their fathers, we are becoming more and more aware of the wounds left by mothers.  The message of “The Fatherheart of God” is a very wide spread message of love and forgiveness.  The heart of a Father healing the hurts of a wounded man or woman, boy or girl trying to navigate their way through life not having known the love of a father.  Or perhaps having had a father, but as is so often the case in our imperfect nature, the father left scars on a heart yearning only to be loved and accepted.  It can be very difficult to understand God’s father heart for us  if we have not had any kind of a healthy role model of a father here on earth.  Yet perhaps the male image of God lends itself to grasping it a bit easier.

But how often do we hear of the concept of the motherheart of God?  Where does that fit into our understanding of God?  I am not sure how theologically this all fits in, but I do know God has many attributes that lean far more to the feminine character than to the male.  Here’s just two familiar Scriptures that point to a mother heart...

Isaiah 66:13...”As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” 

Matthew 23:37...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”


A myriad of adjectives, verbs and phrases all leap to my mind when I think of a mother:

Mothers...bring new life into the world.
Mothers...nurture
Mothers...respond
Mothers....comfort
Mothers....protect
Mothers....feed
Mothers....hold
Mothers....play
Mothers....pray
Mothers....kiss & hug
Mothers....give
Mothers....clean
Mothers....make special
Mothers....create
Mothers....smile
Mothers....teach
Mothers....guide
Mothers....advise
Mothers....prepare
Mothers....watch over

Available, loving, tender, gentle (but firm), hopeful, faith(ful), facilitate.....I began making a list this morning.  It has played over and over in my mind leaving me no choice to but let the words wash over my soul and plant understanding and revelation in my heart of God’s mother love for us.   Yes, many of these attributes overlap with the male and father understanding of God, but some resoundingly reverberate of a mother’s touch.  And I do realize that some today would have a difficult time relating to those words describing a mother depending on the degree of the presence (or absence) of a mother in their lives.

God the Father has been impressing in my spirit and heart to seek Him for a greater understanding of His mother heart to us....men and women, boys and girls....who have been abandoned, wounded, and scarred by mothers. My husband and I have had tearful, heart-wrenching times of ministry to several who were so wounded by their mothers, it was almost unfathomable.  
In the weeks and months to come, I hope by the grace and ministry of God to my own heart, I will be able to share some revelation of His gentle and mothering love for us.


Today as I was musing on this, I came across an assortment of poems describing a mother’s love....I was amazed - in nearly all of them you could literally envision GOD in place of the MOTHER.  I’ll leave you with one to ponder God’s gentle, nurturing, guiding mother love over you today...

A Mother's Love

by Michael O. Adesanya

There are times only when a Mother's love Can understand our tears, Can soothe our disappointments And calm all our fears. There are times when only a Mother's Love Can share the joy we feel When something we've dreamed about Quite suddenly is real. There are times when only a Mother's faith Can help on life's way And inspire in us the confidence We need from day to day. For a Mother's heart and a Mother's faith And a Mother's steadfast love Were fashioned by the Angels And sent from God above...

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Fatherless and Motherless Nation

We just returned from 3 weeks in the Ukraine and Moldova. My husband spent the last week in Central Asia, without me, and that in itself is another story :)  How do you even begin to share moments that shape a heart and worldview?  This blog today won't even begin to cover what took place these last weeks, but perhaps it will tug at your heart strings and allow you to see through God's eyes the children of our world.  

We were privileged to begin our journey with a team of incredible friends attending a conference in the Ukraine on Human Trafficking.  There is so much to tell - I am overwhelmed with information and at another time will share more on this event that told me more than perhaps my heart could handle. In Ukraine alone 440,000 girls were abducted and trafficked (in sex trade and labor) since 1991.  Of those only 1% are rescued and 80% of those get retrafficked.  Generally, there is no support for these girls.  They carry a stigma and are easy prey.  Thankfully, there are those rising up and taking notice and helping these girls get into transition homes once they are rescued.  They are provided with health care (many have been beat up repeatedly), food, clothing, life skill training, job training and after an appropriate and realistic amount of time, able to resettle back into society.  The ministries helping these women need prayer and wisdom.  Again, more on that later...

The highlight for us was then driving throughout the breadth and length of the tiny nation of Moldova just south of Ukraine.  This tiny nation is the poorest of Western Europe.  In the last decade alone, 25% of the population has left to work abroad.  Our purpose was to travel with a friend who is working extensively throughout the nation amongst orphans, trafficked boys and girls and churches helping reach out to the desolate and needy.  Oleg was a wealth of experience and wisdom in showing us a broad and comprensive picture of the condition of the nation's children and what is happening there.  We visited the site of a transition home (a home where orphans leaving the orphanages about age 15 have an opportunity to live, become adjusted to life outside the orphanage in a family setting and given life skills and job training to survive.) When boys and girls are released from the orphanage, they are given some money and a few essentials and left on the street.  They have no place to go and become easy prey for human trafficking.  These transition homes set up by Christian ministries, of which there are not enough, provide a healthy setting spiritually and emotionally for the children to make the adjustment.

This home is currently being finished and will house around nine or ten young girls who are leaving the orphanage.  There is a married couple already being trained to live, minister to and train the girls. 

Alex, one of our team members who is skilled in woodworking, is showing some of the workers the idea of a bed, desk and drawer unit in one, to put in the bedrooms.  He is already at work designing them to construct here in the States and ship over to Moldova.

These women on our team all participated in our "Run Walk for Freedom" we held last July which raised $25,000 to help with the transition homes, sewing centers and orphanages in this part of the world.

The sewing centers are being set up to train young girls to sew and earn a living.  They have already been sewing T-shirts to sell and a young professional woman out of Seattle whom we are partnering with is heading up the effort of cottage industries to train and see these girls have a productive and fulfilling life providing them with the alternative to rescue them from the streets.

The first sewing center being finished and due to open soon.

These two (actually three) awesome women played a key role in this industrial sewing machine being provided for the center.  Kelly, on left, was Alisa's home economics teacher in high school and is blessing us with

her skills and ministry to these girls.

Oleg showing the machine Kelly and Alisa bought and delivered to the center.

And the privilege of Oleg, Al and Carolyn (our leaders) cutting the ribbon of the pre-opening of the sewing center for orphaned girls.  An awesome and eternal moment !

Two last areas I have to share with you....we were humbled to put it mildly to visit a transition house for boys and girls where the pastor shared his heart and vision to help the children in his town.

Young boys and girls are housed here with the hope of separating them as a facility becomes available (they are in separate dorms now).  The staff selflessly serve these young people. The pastor shared his vision of wanting to set up a chicken farm and vegetable green house to self-support the ministry and home.  He expressed not so much his need of money, but the experience of others to come and show them how to set up the chicken and vegetable farm.  They do need funds, as he doesn't have the money to pay staff, but you could feel his heart was to provide a home for boys and girls and teach them to be self-supporting with life skills. He is asking for teams to come and help.

He went on to tell us, and this was shocking, is that they have no water (indoor plumbing) in this town.  The pump at this home was broken and we helped to get him a pump (Praise God!), but the town has no water!  They have the community wells, which the people come and gather the water.  This may seem "normal" in some rural places, but this was a town.  They have 5 or 6 story apartment buildings that were built and people moved in before the plumbing was put in.  They must walk down 6 flights of stairs to the community wells to gather water, and the same routine for carrying their "waste" each day.

We are praying for a ministry to come and help get water to this town.  The basics of life......how we take what we have for granted and normal, these people live a life of just surviving while trying to help others in need.

We were able to take this food to help feed the boys and girls.

Lastly, we visited an orphanage and to say it changed us dramatically is an understatement.  

Bubble play with the children...

We took bananas and juice...

They won our hearts :)

Two sisters...

Al and Carolyn w/Anya a girl they met on their last trip to the orphanage. She remembered them :)

And this made me cry...this sweet boy did not want to let go of my husband...I think if we could have, we would have brought him home!

There was so much this trip covered but the stories were what made it all real. When you hear the statistics of a country's population diminishing because mothers AND fathers are leaving their families to find work outside it becomes real when you realize that leaves parentless children.  Just while we were there, we heard of 3 children committing suicide because their parents hadn't returned and they were alone with no hope.  Two of these were a brother and sister ten and nine years of age who jumped to their deaths.  Even as I write this, I am overwhelmed with grief over a motherless and fatherless nation.  

Lastly (again) we visited with a lady who had been trafficked...no photos and little detail, but she had been deceived by a friend to go to work in Moscow in a market. She was poor and had been promised work to help support her family.  She ended up being shipped to another part of the nation and locked up in a hospital where she was abused physically and sexually, one of over 200 girls.  Some of the women were there for prostitution and others for bearing children for organ transplants.  She gave birth to two children who were taken from her after birth.  Babies were brought back into the women to nurse them, not knowing if it was their child or not.  When she was rescued, she insisted on taking her children with her.  Not knowing for sure, but in her heart she feels she has her biological children, she brought them back to her village. She has the heart of a MOM!  Her village and family rejected her, her father the only one who accepted her back.  They felt she had been at fault.  She is now endeavoring after being captive for over 5 years, to rebuild her life and the life of her children.  She is connected with others who are helping her and her family to survive and be self-supporting.

My mother's heart and understanding of the love of the Father have been deeply affected.  Remember the ending of the "The Grinch" where his heart swells much larger nearly bursting out of his body?  That is what I feel like.  What I sensed from the Lord during this time was...."this is microcosm of what is out there....there are orphanages all over this part of the world, girls and boys being trafficked all over the world.  Children desperately in need of fathering and mothering, families, crying out and waiting to be rescued.  I was reminded of the Scripture in Acts where it talks about "being led as a sheep towards slaughter" and in the Gospels where Jesus says "anyone who offends these little ones would be better to have a millstone hung around their neck and thrown into the sea."  God's heart is broken over His little ones being rejected and abused.  He needs us to be a father and mother to the motherless and fatherless.  His heart is to reveal HIS heart and love to a generation worldwide lost and floundering without parents.

 And yes....we will go back!

Ironic in that we have only been home a few days and already heard a story of the brother of a friend in our church who had run away and then ended up being trafficked into labour here in our own state.  Praise God he was found and rescued.  It is happening in our own backyard.

This blog ended up being longer than I'd planned....I feel like reciting Hebrews 11 which is the "hall of fame" of the saints...by faith Abraham...by faith Noah...there are so many "saints" in Moldova and Ukraine who today by faith are making a difference.  What I have shared is a small portion of what God is doing and what the situation is like.  More to come from the heart in future weeks.  In case you were wondering why I am in so few pictures...

In closing, here is the most photographed girl on the trip....she was a JOY and a trooper - we all wanted to keep her, but we let her go home with momma :)

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My Cup Psalm 16:5

"LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup."

Psalm 16:5a

As we go into Easter week, often I will reflect on a day by day look at the events in Jesus' life those last seven days.  In the garden as he is being arrested, Jesus says to his disciples "Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" (John 18:11).  This little symbol of the cup holds so much meaning in Scripture.  While the disciples are waiting for Jesus in the garden and falling asleep, Jesus is praying "Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." (Matthew 26:42)  He is saying..."Not my will but YOURS, Father."  At the last supper Jesus shares with his disciples, he uses a cup to tell them about the new covenant His blood will seal for them.  A cup....a symbol....rich with meaning.

The Lord alone is my cup.  The feminine of this noun in Scripture has a meaning of "to hold together".  The cup that holds me together.  Psalm 23:5 talks about my cup that overflows.  In Psalm 116:13 David cries out "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord."  Jeremiah 25 reveals about the cup of the Lord....the cup that makes us stagger, a cup of God’s wrath.  I am not going to build a theology around cups, but I just find it interesting the symbolism that surrounds a simple tool we use to eat and drink.

I love cups....for some weird inexplicable reason, I am drawn to glasses and cups in a kitchen store.  My cupboards are filled with a variety of glassware and mugs...cute dainty tea cups and hefty bright colored mugs.  Depending on what I drink determines which cup I reach for.  What is equally strange is I seem to have passed this on to my daughters unknowingly...when they eat ice cream or yogurt, do they reach for a bowl?  No, a nice goblet will do just fine.

What is the deciding factor when you reach for a drinking vessel? How many of us would rather drink a nice hot cup of coffee from a stoneware mug or a styrofoam cup??  What tastes better?  It really does make a difference to our taste buds what we drink from.  Ice water on a hot summer day....mug or frosted glass?  Hot chocolate in front of the fire....that favorite comfort mug.
After my father died, one thing I wanted was one of his mugs....he had these thick hefty white ceramic mugs you would see in a truck stop.  It was "him".  He always drank his coffee from these. He said it just tasted better.

The Lord has assigned me my portion and my cup....what cup do I pick to drink from???  The one He gives me.....the one that overflows.....the one that HOLDS ME TOGETHER.


I saw a movie awhile back where a woman makes a list of describing “perfect man”.  She meets two men - one who fits most of this list and one who is more on the "imperfect" side and grates against her from time to time...she discovers there isn’t much excitement in what she deemed perfect,  but predictably the one she does fall in love with is imperfect.  At one point in the movie when she meets Mr. Imperfect he is a barrista in a coffee shop.  She orders coffee...her “perfect cup” - what she is used to... but this man will not serve her what she “wants” but what he thinks is more “her cup”, what he believes suits her.  I thought, hmmm...how many times do we try to drink the cup we are familiar with or what we think is "best" for us or "perfect" and God has a different cup for us.  


Another thought, what happens when we break a cup?  If it is a favorite, we try and glue it back together.  Will it leak?  Can it handle the weight of the liquid?  We do what we can to make it useable, because we don't want to throw it away. In my house usually if a cup breaks, it gets thrown away.  When we are broken, what "glue" holds us together?  

Aren't you glad the Father doesn't throw us away?  He gently places those pieces back together.  He glues them - yes, there may be some visible cracks...maybe barely discernible, but we are together.  Made whole again.  We can hold hot or cold liquid and we can overflow when life is poured into us.  HE holds us together if we let the Master be the Cupbearer.

As we think this week about the cup that Jesus accepted from the Father and drank from, muse over the cup God has placed in your hands.  Your portion.  Your cup.  He is GOOD.  He gives us what suits us.  He gives us His Best.  It may have been broken in places over the years...but it is still the cup He chooses to fill and overflow.  Sometimes the liquid is hot.  Sometimes it is cold. He alone knows what that cup can handle.  Whatever your cup looks like or even feels like, the Cupbearer knows how to hold us and when we accept His cup, it will overflow to bless so many others He places in our lives.  

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