When Missionaries Come To Visit!

My dear friend, Jenilee, and her family came to our house for a visit.  It was such a great time with them.  They have become nationally appointed missionaries of the Assemblies of God to Senegal, Africa.  I am so excited for them.  They have just begun the process of raising money for their journey.  They have already achieved their first goal in their fundraising today and January isn't even over yet!  Awesome!  

They are traveling everywhere sharing this burden for African children, God has placed in their hearts, in various church around Michigan and their home state Ohio.  They hope to be in France by January of next year for a year of language school and then on to Africa for two years. You can check them out at www.ourgoodwinjourney.com, read their story, support them financially, and see what is going on as they journey to Africa.  

So, I am so grateful to have had them in my home for two days before they are on the other side of the planet.  

We home schooled together. 

We learned about Martin Luther King Jr.

We talked way to late.

Our girls played a lot!

We went to our church's Global Prayer Initiative prayer meeting.  

We prayed for them and the people of Senegal.

I got my Goodwin prayer cards!  Whoot Whoot!

We loved having these missionaries to Africa in our home!  

Godspeed Goodwins, Godspeed!

GET JOY!

Romans 15. part 2 - Passion for Missions

²⁰ My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard,

We are left with the challenge from Paul to spread the gospel to those who have never heard. Paul is such a great example of a true missionary. He was so driven to share the love of Christ. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul radically launched the greatest movement of church history.... the spreading of Christianity into all the world.

Maybe God has not called you to a foreign land to tell others about Jesus; however, He has given us a job to do. We need to have a mission's heart. I was telling my kid's in kids church that we can have a heart for missions. They can pray for missionaries, give to them and even go themselves on short or long term trips. We need to be missionaries where ever we are. We all come into contact with people everyday that have never heard the "Good News". A Christ follower should have a desire to spread Jesus' love because the time is running short.

I wrote a blog post before, check it out "Heart for Missions"!

Let's have a passion for missions and....
GET JOY!

Our missionary friend, Matt Love, took this picture while my husband was in the Dominican Republic working with him on a short mission's trip.

Romans 15, part 1 - Hope for All

We are nearing the end of our Romans study and Paul is tying everything up here at the end. I like that over the last 29 days, I have been really challenged to dig deep inside of me. I want to live a life that pleases God and brings Him joy!

Here in Romans 15 we are also challenged to share the love of Christ with others. First, we see that unity with the body of Christ gives praise to God!

⁵ May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. ⁶ Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is for the Jews and the Gentiles. We must do all we can to spread the good news the best that we can.

⁸ Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors. ⁹ He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them.

I love this verse....

¹³ I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I wrote about this verse before; make sure you check it out....God gives us Hope!

Let's share the love of Christ and overflow with confident Hope!

GET JOY!

Romans 10, part 2 - Beautiful Feet

Feet are not usually something we think of as beautiful. But in the next couple of verses we read about some really beautiful feet.

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

What a challenging passage of scripture for us all who call ourselves Christians. God is calling us to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. We need to reach out to all those we come in contact with and share the love of Jesus.

Our missionaries are just about the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They give up all the comforts of home to go to some place that is so foreign to them. Many leave loved ones, many leave security, and many leave everything to share the love of Christ.... wow, such compassion such zeal! What beautiful selfless people.

We need to remember our missionaries who "go into all the world" to preach the gospel in prayer. We need to pray for them and give to help them go into the areas that we are not able to go to. Our missionaries are our heroes!

17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

We need to share the message of Christ. His love, His compassion, His longing for a relationship with us is what the world needs to hear. We need to share the Good News with the people around us and if we cannot go too far off countries help those who can.

The beautiful feet of missionaries and sharing Jesus help me....
GET JOY!

31 Virtues for Our Kids ~ A Heart for Missions

A Heart for Missions

This is my last installment for 31 Virtues for our Kids . Hopefully, you will pray for these virtues for your children and yourself!

It has been fun writing about all 31 virtues. It has been challenging for me to pray these for my kids. My prayer has also become that I would have these in my life as well; so that I would be an example to them and bring glory to God!

Psalm 96:3 (New International Version)
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

(These top two pictures are from my husbands team that went to the Dominican Republic)

Our family loves missions. We love to give to missions, pray for missionaries and sometimes we even go on mission trips. We feel that missions is what God has asked us to do. We are obeying the "Great Commission" found in Matthew.

Matthew 28:19 (New Living Translation)
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We teach our kids to give to missions at our church. John and I give to missions. We sponsor a little girl in Jamaica, pray for her every night and send her letters. My hubby and I have gone on mission trips; in fact I went last year. You can read my blog about it here and my trip to Mexico here. We want to go on so many more trips. We also pray for our missionaries. These are some of the things we do to show our kids how to have a heart for missions.

But why do we need to have a heart for missions? I think the answer is pretty simple...It is God's heart. We should want the heart of G0d flowing through us. God wants all people to know about Him. But not only for others to know Him; but to meet their needs in a real way like providing food, clothing, shelter and healing their sicknesses.

Our God is compassionate. He loves us all. I want my kids to have that same compassion. We need to get our eyes off of ourselves and onto God. We must show compassion to all people all over the world. It is the least we can do for our God who has done so much.

*"Lord, please help my children to develop a desire to see your glory declared among the nations, your marvelous deeds among all peoples." (Picture of me in Jamaica)

These 31 virtues will surely help me and my children....

*by Bob Hostetler, it is excerpted from Pray! magazine issue #4, 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Kids

Wednesday's Walk ~ Mission Trip to Mexico

I love going on Mission's Trips. Unfortunately, I have only been on two out of the country. I was just in Jamaica last November, what a wonderful time. I also went to Mexico after my junior year in high school. It was also a really great time of learning, giving and growing. One major theme I learned while down there was to "Let Go and Let God".
There were so many cool things that happened before, during and after this trip. I had just been in a major car accident a few months prior. I was supposed to be on crutches all summer long. I had fractured my pelvis in 3 areas and my sacrum in one spot. Jesus and I had a little talk about that. I knew that I could not keep up with the mission's team if I were using the crutches. We were told we would be doing a lot of walking (they were not kidding). And even if I was off my crutches I was worried about the pressure I would be putting on my pelvis and pain. I was really worried about it but I had to give it to Him. I stopped using crutches two weeks before we had to leave. My trip to Mexico was mid July. I was in no serious pain before, during, or after. God is amazing!

I worked with the children's team. We did puppets, balloon art, clowning and just a bunch of other stuff. The children were so amazing...I fell in love with them. I learned to be so thankful for the things that God has blessed us with. I was able to see miracles, people give their hearts to Jesus, feel God's call on my life, and see the power of God. So, if you ever have thought or are thinking about going on a mission's trip...do it!

(Michigan AIM Team to Mexico, July 1993. One of the largest groups taken on a missions trip from our state.)

Doing what Jesus has called us to do will help us....

My Jamaican Boy!

Sometimes, my kids just make me smile!

Jamaica Beauty

I love flowers and gardening, so this post is just because I love it!

Jamaica Journal Part 3

Thursday, Nov 12th
This morning I finished up some things for Pastor J.R. Hopefully, it will help him and the coffee business portion of City of Refuge.

Then Jen, Morgan, Jaycee and I worked on the snack I brought. We made dirt cake for the kids. This is one of the highlights of my trip. It gave me such joy to watch them eat it; it was entirely too much fun. At first I thought they might not like it; I thought it might be too sweet. But they loved it! Loved it to much I am afraid....they used their hands to scope out every last drip, licked any drips off the table, off the floor, the dirty spoon bowl, other kids cups...you name it they try to lick every last bit. Then they asked if they could have it tomorrow. I wished I had more. Who knew there could be such joy in pudding?

In the afternoon, I helped Morgan (Missionary Kid) with her homework. I actually enjoyed it. She had to write an essay on 3 Jewish festivals and how they are fulfilled in the New Testament. The funny thing is that she is only 12; but she did it and did a great job. However, her one mistake was letting my sister edit it. It was funny watching Morgan roll her eyes at my sister turning her paper into a college level essay. LOL

Then Laura, Jaycee and sorta me (probably much to Laura's dismay LOL) made an apple pie and leftover pie crust cookies. The apple pie turned out perfect much to Laura's doing and my pie crust cookies turned out good and I have proof...the very picky Levi loved them. It was fun because Jaycee had to learn to make a pie for her home economics class. It was probably interesting watching precise Laura and the not so precise me teach her, very funny. Hopefully, I didn't drive Laura too crazy.

For dinner there was fried chicken, French fries, baked beans (made with ketchup and mustard), salad and cake (they really like to make cake...cake everyday!) Apparently, their very yummy fries have a secret that I found out. They roll them in butter first and then fry them in a cast iron pan. Oh my goodness fries from heaven (or maybe not)....but they are a coronary waiting to happen. I told Slater the cook, "They are very good, but in so many ways terribly sinful." He laughed. We are going to bring him some apple pie we made. (Found out later most of the Jamaicans don't like cooked fruit and didn't care for our pie. LOL)

I then went and painted the mural wall white. Maybe, I can convince a friend of mine....Peter...to do something for those wonderful children.

We then stayed up late and talked with Yasmine. We tried to convince her to come to Michigan. We decided to take her Wal-Mart, Starbucks, bowling, roller skating and lazar tag. I hope she can come someday; it would really be a fun visit.

Friday, Nov. 13th
Jen and I woke up at 5:30, the sun wasn't even up. What is wrong with us? At 6:30 we decided to go for a walk. Of course we took more pictures and I think our picture count is near 1,000.

At 9 am we went with the team from Lancaster, PA on their fun day. We went down the mountain, through Kingston and to a boat place on the coast. We then took a very interesting boat ride over to a private island. Interesting because I didn't think the boat was going to make it. Living in Michigan and being on a lot of boats in my lifetime caused me great concern when I heard some of the noises coming from the boats engine. Somehow, I think by God's great mercy, we got to the island.

It was so much fun on the island. Our group was the only ones there. Everybody had a blast snorkeling, exploring, relaxing, sunning and swimming. Pastor Paul, one of the other missionaries, found about 30 star fish and brought them up on the shore. That was very cool!

We then went to a fantastic restaurant, Cuddy's. I had very yummy BBQ ribs and fries. Cuddy's was attached to a very small mall (5-6 stores). While we were waiting for our food, I was able to do a little souvenir shopping.

We then began our trip back up the mountain. I took some time to do some reflecting. Then at Laura's we ended the day looking at our 1,000 pictures.


Saturday, Nov. 14th
Once again Jen and I woke up early, so we decided to take one last walk. I think my soul just needed to drink in the mountain and its beauty one more time.

I watched her scale the mountain to get a photo of this one beautiful flower. That was entertaining; but, anything like that with my sister is no doubt going to be entertaining.

We said goodbye to the Bushhorn Family (missionaries). Then we journeyed down the many steps to say goodbye to the children and Yasmine. That was very hard and we only had been there a week.

I went to see baby Kamar to pray with him. I asked God to heal his heart, to bless him with a long life and full of future and a hope in Christ. I know that God will keep His promises.

We loaded up our luggage into Pastor J.R's vehicle and headed over to their home. Their house was adorable. We also saw his neighbors home which was amazing. She is a professor of architecture down in Kingston. So many more amazing flowers over at their homes too.

We then traveled down the mountain and I got a little car sick. I am glad I won't have to travel that mountain any time in the near future. We stopped at "Juicy Patties" for lunch. Their version of fast food and one I don't ever intend to try again, Blah!

We stopped at the market for some quick shopping. I was so happy to find a little steel drum for my son. Yeah!

Then came the hard part of the trip....saying goodbye. It was really hard on Jen. If she could have stayed I would be on this plane alone tonight.

Thank you Lord for this most amazing opportunity; bless the City of Refuge, its missionaries, its workers and its children. Help me to always remember them and to pray for them. I live and breath for you alone, sweet Jesus and I will...


Please, check out the City of Refuge website. You can do many things to help them. You can even sponsor a child there. Or maybe you and your church can send a team to work at the City of Refuge Content Gap, Jamaica!