A Support Community for Moms

Category: Notable Acts

Conversation about extraordinary people

Daniel Gets the Bronze

Daniel went to Nebraska for the Special Olympics Nationals in July with one other team member from Shepherds. His team brought back the bronze.  Good job Daniel!

Thankful for God’s Protection

3 car pile-upI am very glad to let you know that God protected our family today. Our daughter Jillian was driving back to work after lunch today and was stopped right in front of the daycare where she works when another car stopped right behind her. They both had to wait for a tow truck to pass.

After it had passed, she turned into the daycare parking lot. As she did that, she heard a loud noise, but thought it was just the noise of a nearby truck. As she parked and looked, she witnessed a six car pile up right behind where she had been waiting to turn in.

Apparently someone three cars back wasn’t paying attention and rammed right into the car that was stopped right behind her. At the present time, she’s watching the scene unfold as ambulances and police cars arrive. One of the vehicles received the most attention. The back was smashed in about two feet and it appears that the rescue personnel are trying to extract a car seat from the back of the vehicle.

Thank God that she was saved from a possible fatal accident and please pray for what it appears to be a child that will be air lifted to a hospital. I’ll let you know more as she find out what has happened to those involved in the pile up. I am reminded today that life is fragile and that our lives can be changed in an instant. I am very glad I have a God that is in control.

Thank you God, for protecting my daughter today.

My Eyes Were Opened

p1010014There is a camp called Midcourse Correction Challenge Camp  that a lady on my Adoption Support Yahoo group told me about. I was skeptical because it’s only 46 hours long and I’d never heard of it before. I’ve spend 100+ hours on the Internet searching out Christian resources for families like ours that needed help with their special needs kids.

How could a boot-camp type of weekend ever change my kid? We’d had years of tough times…how can they promise me results when I’ve worked with him for years and was never able to get through to him? I’m going to let him tell you himself. Let me introduce you to Jonathan – adopted at age 6 months, 17 years old, 12th child out of 15 in our family. He’s the one in the picture in the back row. I blanked out all the other faces since it wouldn’t be appropriate to show them. Below is his story.

The Way My Life Used to Be and What it is Now

I guess I can start out by saying God is good. For the past 6 months I have not been doing too well. I have been doing bad things and have been going down hill since. I’ve been disrespectful, disobedient, rebellious, etc. to my parents and thinking I was the only one that was right. I have been a fool, doing the same things over and over again and getting in trouble for it. This is where every thing changed. My mom was talking to a lady and found out about a camp called Midcourse Correction Challenge Camp – it was just like a boot camp and it was hard for me physically but I made it. I passed and I graduated during the process.

I was there and God spoke to me. I learned to listen to authority, not be disrespectful, and not be a fool, so in the process I learned a lot. Most importantly, my eyes were opened and I got saved. I am a totally different person. I’m a newborn Christian and I’m the most excited person ever. I’m so glad I went and I encourage you from my heart – if you are one of “ME” or what I used to be, or if you know someone like that, I strongly encourage you to go to Midcourse Correction Challenge Camp. It will change your life just like it did mine, but it’s your choice, so choose God and your life will be totally different.  ~ Jonathan

This makes five of our children that have been saved since June of last year. Wow. “I stand amazed in His presence.”

God is Still in the Miracle Business

Praise be to God for His kindness toward sinners! It’s easy to see why God blesses those who follow Him, for in a small way, we expect it and think it is right (even though we ALL deserve hell and in no way are worthy of the slightest blessing). But it is truly an amazing thing to see God lift up out of the mirey clay someone we all feel is worthy of condemnation or retribution for their sinful ways (although we should see that we ALL are in that category as well).

 

We have petitioned God for three miracles.  The first two had to do with others – we were petitioning God’s mercy to be clearly shown.  About a month ago He blessed us with a last minute, midnight answer to prayer – that was the first miracle. It was an amazing moment and we were so very grateful. Today I received word that He has provided the second miracle. There are yet some details to be worked out, but we will leave them in God’s hands, for He has proven He is Worthy of our gratitude  and praise. Prayer does work and He will honor our petitions made to Him on behalf of others.
 
A great burden has been lifted, and based on the blessings He’s given our family lately we are sure He has great things ahead. God has provided a full time job, a showing of our house tonight, and has blessed in others ways that have given us hope. We can now come out of the shadows and into the light. Thank you to all of you who reached out to us during these tough months. It is so very good to leave the shadows of discouragement behind.
Now we await our third miracle – to sell our house for a decent price in this terrible economy so we can move to Wisconsin to be near family. I once again request your prayers on our behalf. We know He is able.
 

Chiastic Structure Isn’t Just in Literature

Occasionally I run into truly amazing people. You know, the ones who just jump out at you as being above and beyond – a person who is truly like Christ. Often we accept as normal the disloyal, unkind behavior of those around us – whether Christian or not. We excuse it as, “Well, they’re having a hard day,” or “You just need to ignore her, she’s always been like that.” While I do believe we need to cut people slack and be forgiving in difficult situations, I think we have turned into a mamby pamby type of Christianity where we can’t tell a difference between the Christian and someone who is lost.

This past 7 weeks has been extremely hard for our family. We’re encountering the same type of attacks on our family from Satan that we’ve seen before. It’s been a no-holds barred type of attack on our children. The other time we experienced the same type of length and intensity was just a few years ago. It was so bad for our family that we ended up leaving the ministry. Of course we’ll not let him win, for we fully intend to re-enter the ministry in the future – after we’ve recovered, but I also know that Satan is alive and well and doing his best to damage families whom he feels is a threat to his agenda. Though he’ll never win the war, he’s doing a pretty good job at trumping the Christians in his little skirmishes. Of course it doesn’t feel like little skirmishes to the Christians who are in the midst of them, but to God they are little and of no consequence because He can take them and turn them over – for His glory and our good. This time I am seeing the attacks differently because I know his agenda from my prior experiences. Apparently he’s extremely threatened by our family and wishes to “take us out.” But I know God is greater than him and will work all this out and give us victory just like he did Daniel, Joseph, Moses, and all the other Bible heroes set up as examples for us. I have learned amazing things about myself and others these past 7 weeks that I would never have learned any other way. I learned more about God and have seen the true worth of many around me – and found some true abiding in the faith believers that I didn’t know were there. It’s been a truly amazing experience – amazingly painful and amazingly enlightening.

I’ve been studying Esther in my ladies’ Bible study (Beth Moore) and have found myself to be living her story. I’m expecting God to do something great through our family – even in the midst of extreme pain and trial where I can’t see Him doing anything miraculous outwardly, but I am seeing miraculous things being done by his people on our behalf. It’s like the chiastic structure that we see in literature. Chiastic structure is a literary term for inverted parallelism. Here’s an example: We don’t live to eat, we eat to live. You take the Greek letter “chi” and it’s an “X.” Put the word live at the left top of the “”X and eat at the right top of the “X.” We should not live to eat, rather, we eat to live. Put the word eat at the bottom left of the “X” and the word live at the bottom right of the “X.” There you have a mirror image (the bottom of the X) only inverted (or switched). The statement “we live to eat” is not a proper statement – we should only have the attitude of “we eat to live.” That is chiastic structure. Here’s another one: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” ~ John F. Kennedy. You take that statement and invert it (inverted parallelism) and it becomes a noble statement rather than a selfish one. Esther is riddled with chiastic structure. God used the greed, pride and corrupted beliefs of a vile man and turned them around to do His will – But he didn’t just wave His hand and make it so, He chose simple, inexperienced believers to save his people – people who love Him enough to risk their own lives to help others.

That is what I am asking God to do for our family. I am asking Him to take our circumstances brought on by sin and to reverse them to bring Him glory and my family’s good. He can do it. He did it for Esther and He will do it for me. I have a Haman and a King, along with a Mordecai and Esther in my story – and God will work through them all to bring us victory. I even have a Hatach! I need a peripety – a sudden change of events that reverse the expected or intended outcome. God is a great God and can take any situation and change it around. He did it for us Wednesday of this week already. We found two men, Jimmie and Jeff, men who we never met before, to bring us our needed peripety (sudden change of events) for one of our sons. These are true men of God. They heard our cry and met our needs – sight unseen. They didn’t know us, but they knew God and that was all that mattered. They are true Christians who let God work a miracle through them. They went out of their way and helped another believer. Wow. That’s pretty amazing. The impact of God’s love freely received by a believer can change another person’s life. I know it has mine.

So, now I’m lookin’ for another miracle because my family needs one. I just don’t know by whom or how it will happen. All I need to do is live my faith and God will take care of the rest.

The Greatest Gift for Christmas

There have been many Christmas gifts that have been wonderful through the years, but this year there is one that particularly stands out in my mind. It is one that rests on my mind daily and could not be shaken off if I tried – not that I would want to, for it is a gift that I have desired for years.

Recently I received bad news that threatened to take my peace.  I think disappointments are the hardest for me to live with – for the death of a dream has always been hard for me. I must also admit that the greatest things in my life have come directly after the death of a dream. I find myself tooling along in a happy state, encouraged and hopeful and then bang! The dream is ripped in two and I’m left in the middle of a sad, empty, cold room all alone with no light.  (When I say “I”, I’m including my husband. We take life’s ups and downs together as one person. Along with us has always been my mom – even when she didn’t have an answer, she was always present.)

But this time was different. I can barely believe it myself.  This time, little by little there began to be light. Then a little heat. Next I saw various people I knew sitting near me encouraging me to look up – to see the Savior’s shining face giving hope. I wish I could say I expected it to happen. But I never thought it would. In the past the cold empty room was a sure thing, something that I was used to, something that was familiar. Just me, the Word and nothing else.

But this time was different. It was so different that I feel like I’m living in a different world. Why was it different? People. People made it different and I don’t know why this time it all changed, but it did. I know God did it, but I don’t know why He did it this time. Before it was just Him and me. This time it was Him and me, four daughters, one son, two sons-in-law, one nephew and a niece, a brother, pastor, 5 friends and 4 strangers. Wow.  This time it was different.  It’s like God grabbed people and said to them, “Hey, go walk beside them, they need you right now.” Wow. God did that for me. If you are one of the four daughters, one son, two son-in-laws, one nephew and a niece, a brother, pastor, 5 friends and 4 strangers . . . thank you. I like this new world that God has given me now that you are in it.

What a nice surprise!

I am always apprehensive when going to a new church while on vacation. I watch and wait to see what uncomfortable thing is going to happen next. But it was different this time. The people were friendly. The music was God honoring and very enjoyable. When we stood to introduce ourselves as visitors and we told them why we were in Wisconsin, they all clapped for Andrew and several after the service thanked him for his service in Iraq. The pastor’s sermon was amazing and just what I needed to hear. He was down to earth and used lots of Scripture to make his points (I love that). I wasn’t planning on taking notes, but I was compelled to not let it go. I will definitely use what he taught today to help others along the way.

On the way out I was going to tell him that I appreciated him and his church but when we walked out, he was distracted by someone and we walked right past him. But true to form of a pastor who truly has God’s hand on his life, when he saw us, his visitors, walk by without being greeted, he stopped his conversation abruptly and chased us down so he would not miss the opportunity to make us feel welcome.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

What an encouragement to me to see that there really are other churches out there that are doing what they’re supposed to do. Here’s the web site of Wyldewood Baptist Church. If I lived in Oshkosh, WI, I’d go to this church.

“God reserves His best for those who leave the choice to Him.” Pastor Randy King

Dismantling Evolution Made Easy

An old friend of mine, Arv Edgeworth, wrote a book that is being published this week. It’s called Dismantling Evolution Made Easy. I’ve reviewed the book and believe it’s a tool that we all could use when we need to answer questions regarding evolution. It’s full of quotes from renowned scientists on both sides of the issue. Information for purchasing this book can be found at Truth and Science Ministries.

Arv holds many types of seminars: from 1 to 8 day meetings; senior camps, junior camps, VBS, mission’s conferences, educator’s conferences, Christian schools, public schools, area wide meetings, exposing evolution workshops, radio and television. His seminars are designed for those who seek to critically and logically investigate the scientific evidence that refutes the unsubstantiated hypothesis of evolution.

Here are some of the topics of his main presentations: 1. What About Dinosaurs? 2. The Age of the Earth 3. The Fossil Record 4. Science Versus Religion 5. What’s In The Textbooks? 6. The Evidence For Creation 7. The Impact of Evolution 8. The Pre-Flood World 9. Evolution and Dating Methods

He also has a four-part series on false teachers, Bible versions, and UFO’s – Satanic Deception in the End Times

Above and Beyond

There’s a young lady in our church named Carol who has shown the servant’s spirit twice now to me recently. It should not go unnoticed. Others need to hear about her kindness because it is a true picture of what a Christian ought to be like.

I encountered the blue screen of death with my laptop (it wouldn’t boot up) and was beside myself wondering what to do about it. I had questioned a couple of computer people that I knew but none of them knew what to do with it. Carol’s mom, Nancy, was in my Sunday school class and heard my prayer request regarding my laptop (it is a very essential part of my service at school and church). She mentioned to her daughter about my laptop and Carol took it and within 5 minutes had it up and running. She told me what she did and I filed it away in my mind for future reference. Three weeks later the same thing happened, I did the f12 trick, and the computer self checked, passing every test. So, once again, Carol took it and looked at it, but rather than the blue screen coming up, it booted up right away. She offered to take it home and check it for viruses, so I agreed happily.

Many times I have had a computer crash on me right at my busiest times, losing valuable information. It can be a heartwrenching experience. It is my main tool. It helps me stay on task in my classroom, manage my schedule and my student’s work. Carol truly enjoyed helping me out of my trouble. She sought me out. I didn’t have to go find her. When her mom told her of my troubles, after the service was over, she came over to where I was and found me talking with a man that knew something about computers, but had no idea what to do for me. She patiently waited for him to finish what he was saying, and then stepped up and offered to look at it.

You don’t find this kind of servanthood in just anyone. It takes a special person to care about others enough to stop what they were doing and seek a person out to help them. She obviously takes her position in Christ seriously and takes His command to serve others to heart.

Servanthood is about showing that others are valuable. It’s about helping others in their ministry. We’re supposed to work together for the Lord’s glory and His kingdom. Carol has it down. Thank you Carol. You have made a difference in another person’s life. You are living Scripture.

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