“So why am I blogging?” I ask myself.

When we’re active in the kingdom work, so is the Enemy. The last 48 hours have been FULL of distractions that have verged on discouragements. I’ve been reminded of how unique opportunities beg for unique prayer. God has answered my prayers in the form of an opening at the doctor’s office, a skirt at the Goodwill, a meal from a friend, sweet time with my family, and the all-too-kind serving of a friend at DIY ministry (aka blog help!). God so often shows HIS kindness through people. I pray we’ll be that for others while in Asia the next 2 weeks.

Pray for our team

So would you pray for us? We’re “wheels up” tonight at 6:50 Eastern time, and we’ll fly through the night over the Middle East (1st time going to Asia via the East). Our team will travel about 30 hours to reach our destination. We have a lot prepared, and our theme is “Trusting in the True God.” Here are some ways you can pray for our team:

1. Clear Bible story telling & teaching
2. Ability for all to minister with a translator
3. Friendship to be sown with tribal women and children
4. Understanding of our messages about “Trusting in the True God” (Songs, skits, stories, lessons, activities)
5. Energy and health to travel and serve well, with minimal jet lag
6. Wisdom to manage finances in another country’s currency
7. Flexibility and joy in activities, food, and travel
8. Insight into needs, cultural differences, and spiritual truths
9. Protection in travel across the world and in 4 foreign cities
10. Unity & cooperation among our team – We’ve been in mentoring partnerships, and this will be awesome “on the field” opportunity for the 4 women to sow into the lives of the 4 teen girls.

Pray for me

And would you mind if I give you a few “personal” ways to pray for me and my family? After all, I got up early for you.

- I’m guessing that while I’m somewhere over the Persian Gulf, Jeff is going to find out if he’s having knee surgery while I’m gone. He tells me to “go to Asia and don’t worry about it,” but you can guess how that’s going. Pray for God’s perfect will, Jacob’s help, the doctor’s hand, the mercy of friends, and peace that will pass my understanding.

- My Jo is 17 1/2, and this is the final summer before her senior year. We are watching as God shapes her future. It’s her first time back to Asia since we returned 9 years ago. I’m praying that this will be a life imprinting experience for her and a really sweet opportunity for us as mom/daughter. I LOVE serving with my Jo, and I can’t wait for her to see and do many things I love with me.

- Would you pray for me? I really want the Lord to use me to bless my team members in the way I lead. I pray He’ll help me to communicate the teaching of “Trusting in the True God” to the tribal women, most of whom are illiterate. And I’m feeling my own infirmities … I have a little blood clotting thing that makes me be careful and prayerful as I fly, and this will be my first international flight since being diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease (an inner ear thing) in the fall. Like it or not, I’m getting older, and I am still not Wonder Woman. On a temporary note, the dr gave me an arsenal of prescriptions yesterday for something that will add some inconvenience to flying (ahem).  All of these remind me that this is my earthly tent, and though it makes me feel so “human,” I think that’s a good thing. I’m claiming 2 Corinthians 12:9.  And I’m going to remember that at 5,000 feet when I open that arsenal from the dr!

Really, prayer is the arsenal we long for and need most!  Tomorrow I’ll be posting an index for Ready Set REACH! and then after that, I’ll pop in if I can to post a picture or two. My heart will be full, but the days will be long, and the nights short, so I don’t expect to be blogging much for these 2 weeks. Don’t forget us! Please go with us in prayer. I appreciate that more than you know … enough to get up early.

Blessings, friends!

So while we were dismantling our bedrooms (It IS just upstairs that we’re doing), I still planned to make biscuits to share with you. I was going to make “Angel Biscuits,” which I love; they’re also sometimes called “Bride’s Biscuits,” because even a new bride can’t mess them up! They’re a cross between a biscuit and a yeast roll, and you can keep them in the fridge for days, as you make them batch by totally tempting, unresistable batch. Well … instead I popped open a red can of pre-fab biscuits (It almost felt sacrilegious) to go with our dinner, so I’d have time to dismantle the bedrooms. I’ll give you my Angel Biscuits another day. Biscuits are a big part of my family history, and my Grandma is legendary for the biscuits she made that still remain a mystery to me.

I was thinking “biscuits,” because last Saturday was the International Biscuit Festival in Knoxville. Biscuits drew people together, and a combination of honey and jam stuck them together. For my part in the Festival, I entered the poetry contest at Union Ave. Books. It’s right near my favorite breakfast spot, Pete’s Coffee Shop, on the corner of Union Ave. and Locust St. The top 3 winners had a “Biscuit Poetry Reading” Saturday afternoon, and I was completely honored to “lose” to the illustrious poets #1 & #2.

So since I have no homemade biscuit picture and recipe ready to share with you, and since the carpet guys could be here any minute, I want to share my Biscuit Poem with you. It was inspired after a breakfast meeting at Pete’s.

“Morning Biscuit”

The Sunsphere

Like lines of bees the cars all turned down Locust to their hive
To parking floors and lots and spots, the worker cars arrived.
The Sunsphere still looked foggy through my sleepy morning gaze.
The outline of the Smokies soaked through clouds and bluish haze.
My lot had faded paint lines, asphalt crumbled by the grate,
Like a flaky something warm and white, with gravy on a plate.

Rumbles from within me urged me on across the street,
And painting on the window called me in to visit Pete.
I tried to keep an open mind, give something new a try,
To think about an omelette, cake, or bacon next to rye.
But images of crumbles light and airy on the dish,
Washed down by JFG could only seal what I could wish.

Pete would gently split it and lay it waiting on the plate,
To blanket it in gravy with some sausage as a mate.
Like countless souls before me waking up to Knoxville home,
Going out to work or meet, to learn or pray or roam,
A biscuit in the morning starts the day with more than bread,
But with tastes of home and comfort and with things that Grandma said.

So the biscuit came as ordered with my coffee full and hot,
And each bite satisfied me with the taste of all I thought.
As it mingled with the gravy, leaving crumbs out on my mouth,
I was thankful I was waking up to breakfast in the South.

And what did I do with my prize gift certificate? I bought a new cookbook … about BISCUITS!

We had just arrived for two weeks of missionary training when it happened.

Someone had left a page of a pornographic magazine lying open in the drawer. Shocked, I grabbed it to stuff it in the newly lined trash can so Jeff wouldn’t see it. After all, aren’t men the ones who struggle with pornography? Who was the “someone” who’d left it!?! I knew Satan prowls around like a predatory lion, searching for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8, Job 1:7). Since he didn’t see a crack to slink through, he created one.

A single picture left in a strategic place at a strategic time. He attacked my thought life, hoping to stir up discontent, temptation, lust, and distortion of good. It was only one image for a few moments, but for months, really years, the image lingered and popped up at unexpected moments. After all, I’m a very visual person who had guarded my eye and thought gate carefully. Satan knew that too.

I fought to pray that image out of my mind, while Satan fought for just a corner of my imagination. He can do so much with “just a corner.”

We are foolish if we believe that pornography is just a “man’s trap.” Before the magazine Today’s Christian Woman stopped printing a hard copy version, they surveyed readers, finding that 34% of Christian women admitted to a habit of pornography, and the number has grown. Stimulating a woman’s imagination with pictures and written descriptions, literary and visual infidelity feeds seeds of discontentment, insecurity, and criticism. Women invite “someone” into their marriage bed.

It may begin as just a crack, but it’s enough for the one who prowls around, seeking whom he may devour to use to dismantle a marriage, a home, and a testimony.

The enemy probably won’t send a stripper to your front door or a thong scented with cologne to your mailbox; he’ll send something more subtle … like a Facebook picture of rock hard abs on an old friend … like a love-making scene in a movie that makes you wish your husband performed “like that” … like a store window image suggesting that you’re not desirable … like an unexpected picture lying in a hotel or popping up on your computer screen .. like a novel named 50 Shades of Grey that your girlfriends are talking about. Over two centuries ago, Susannah Wesley said, “Whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind – that thing is sin to you.” The enemy doesn’t need a wide open door; he just wants a crack. He can do so much with just a crack.

Years ago I read the words of Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness, saying, “Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character. ” Oh that we would guard the gate of our eyes and minds to keep a wall of protection and faithfulness around our identity as a “Christian” (little Christ) and around the covenants we’ve made.

The wife’s prayer for a pure mind:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.    Psalm 139:23-24.

If the Enemy has created a crack in your thought life, I would encourage you to pick up a copy of Jerry’s Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness for summer study. It was life changing for me years ago, and it’s words still resonate as if newly penned. “Someone” is searching for a crack.

“We know that people in our neighborhoods, our cities, and our world are in need of rescue. How will you know who to reach?”

Download Week #8 of Ready Set REACH! HERE.

If you want to catch up or just get started, find Weeks #1-6 here and Week #7 here.

International Biscuit Festival, Knoxville, TN

I’m behind already! If you read my list of 10 Things before we go, you know that #1 was to finish and post the next Ready Set REACH! lesson … didn’t get it finished. But check back later this afternoon or tomorrow morning, and, Lord willing, it will be here.

What was I doing instead?!?  Well … things like eating Thai food with Jeff (does that count as missions preparation?), going to a cross country meeting for the kids, separating all of the amazing gift donations for my team to pack for Asia (I’ll have to share a picture!), and writing a poem for the Biscuit Festival.

Whaaaaat??  It’s true. My inner Dr. Seuss came out and penned a poem for the poetry contest at Union Ave. Books. I won 3rd place!  Which means I win a gift card to use in buying a book for summer travels!  Yay!  I’ll be reading my poem at 4:30 pm tomorrow at the Bookstore, as part of the Biscuit Festival.   Yes … this is a first for me. I’ve never been a “Biscuit writer” before!  I’ll share my prize-winning poem next Tuesday on Tasty Tuesday.

Off to tackle that list of 10 Things … starting with the RSR #8!

Mentor Suzanne with Audra

This week we had our “culture training” in preparation for serving together  in Asia. As a “Pastor of Mobilization,” my own hubby Jeff is the one who does this class, and I love to hear him share his joy and passion for serving cross culturally. For most of my team of girls and women, this is a “first,” and so we want it to be a great launch for all.

One unique quality of this short term team has been the mentoring interwoven through our preparation, serving, and follow-up. I’m so thankful  our 4 girls have connected to women on the team prior to leaving; this will help us all to be ready to serve and will broaden the impact on each of our lives. I’m so thankful my Jo gets to come on this journey with me, as her mom, but I’m also thankful that her mentor, Vicki, will invest in her life, too. Mentoring is part of God’s great design for us.

“One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4).

Read HERE about how mentoring may look when you’re a grown up!

With just a week before we take off to serve women and children in Asia, I’m pausing to consider what needs to be done. I want to be ready to serve well and know my loved men are well cared for back home. Next week I’ll give you some more details about our itinerary, but here’s what’s got to happen first!

My Jo with her mentor Vicki

Ten things I need to do before I take my team of women/girls to Asia:

1. Write and post the last Ready Set REACH! for tomorrow
2. Chat with my mentee, Allison, about how she’s feeling about our ministry-journey, finishing her junior year, how to pray for her
3. Go to the Biscuit Festival Saturday with my fam and eat a biscuit!
4. Serve w/my team on Sunday morning as we share testimonies, a skit, music, a lesson, & more in the 4th – 6th grade ministry
5. Do some laundry, get some groceries, and make some meals for 2 to put in the freezer for Jeff & Jake
6. Go order a new pair of glasses … my first BI-FOCALS!!!!
7. Meet with our group of 6 young couples to talk about God’s view on parenting
8. Go for a walk and have a good long talk with the Lord
9. Revise my teaching notes
10. PACK!

The Mom Initiative

It’s a Mom Initiative day here at Come Have a Peace! Come visit me at the Mom Initiative where I’m posting today about “Plant a mentee, watch her grow.” You can read it here.

Mama Needs a Time Out

So excited to share a new resource for moms today! This is from my Mom Initiative teammate and Nebraska mom of 3, Heather Riggleman. You can read an excerpt below, watch the video trailer after that, and even read some great reviews from other moms who know what it’s like to need a time out!  Give yourself 2 minutes with a cup of coffee and let me introduce you to Heather!

Need a time-out from your kids and a moment or two with God?

Filled with mirth and encouragement, this inspirational devotional leads you through the names of God as you march through the trenches of motherhood. 

These short devotions and life stories, told in Heather’s “been-there-done-that” voice will help you laugh at life’s most embarrassing moments, remember that God is with you in the midst of your worst moments, and help you put things back into some sort of perspective.

Doesn’t every mom, the sleep-deprived, squabbling-refereeing, hormone-wacked, women that we are, need a time-out now and then? This book might be the next best thing. Step off the mommy treadmill for some encouragement and spiritual refreshment. 

Heather Riggleman lives in Nebraska with her three children and husband. When she isn’t writing about her latest mothering experience, you can find her speaking to mom’s groups all across her grand state of Nebraska. She also has something new to offer her readers. With a few of her friends, Heather is launching a new online talk show geared for women: www.herviewfromhome.com. 

Find the book here.

“Feeling worn out, unseen, unappreciated, overwhelmed? Heather Riggleman writes with understanding, a touch of humor, and a lot of grace. Her words lifted my eyes to the Father God who sees and loves me, and lifted my heart with our common connection as moms. I highly recommend this book!”

Tricia Goyer, author of 32 books, including Blue Like Play Dough: The Shape of Motherhood in the Grip of God

“Heather offers bite-sized pieces of scripture in thought-provoking chapter designed to encourage modern-day moms. If you want to learn and grow both personally and spiritually at the same time, read this book. Mary Byers, author of The Mother Load: How to Meet Your Needs While Caring for Your Family.

“After hearing ‘MOMMY’ all day once, I asked my toddler to call me ‘Jen’ for the rest of the day. Mommy, Mama, Mom…we hear our name called constantly. Motherhood is so incredible and so hard. Mama Needs A Time-Out, not only acknowledges the challenges of parenting, but it describes the powerful names of God and reminds us that He is the strength and patience and wisdom and energy we all need to be theincredible mothers He created us to be.” ~Jen Hatmaker, author of 9 books including A Modern Girl’s Guide to Bible Study and Out of theSpin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load.

“As a mother of two and woman of faith, I found a strong connection with, “Mama Needs A Time-Out.” The authors naked truth about the struggles and triumphs of motherhood are easily relatable. It’s a perfect book for any mom who wants to use scripture to help bring encouragement to life’s everyday challenges”. Leslie Means, author of Ella B. Bella and the Magic Pink Shoes and former Co-Host for Good Morning Nebraska.

“Heather Riggleman is amazingly insightful in her new book, Mama Needs a Time-Out. Beautifully relating the various names of God with real-life challenges busy mothers face, Heather candidly draws from her own personal ‘mama’ journey and helps mothers know God is real in real life.” Stephanie Shott is the fonder of  The M.O.M. Initiative, author of Understand What Matters Most and an international speaker. 

Young moms are short on time, yet desperate for encouragement. With humor and empathy, Heather Riggleman’s short “love notes” will point them to the God who knows their name, loves them immeasurably, and longs to guide them in this crucial calling of mothering. Dee Brestin, author of The Friendships of Women and Falling in Love with Jesus.

“Moms long to know that God is real and present with them in the nitty-gritty, day-to-day aspects of their mothering. Through exploring the meaning of several of God’s names, Heather gives moms the assurance not only that God is present in every moment of their day, but that He’s there in exactly the way they need.  Mama Needs a Time Out will bless and encourage every mom, no matter what stage of parenting they’re in.” Megan Breedlove, best selling author of Manna for Moms.

5 Layer Salad

Layer in a glass bowl (I use a trifle dish, because the layers look so beautiful and colorful):

• 3/4 head of iceberg lettuce, torn into bite sizes (not cut w/a metal  knife – it will brown)
• 1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1  16 oz package of frozen peas (no need to thaw)

Now mix the dressing and spread it over the top of the green pea layer.

Dressing:

• 2 c. mayonnaise
• 2 T. sugar
• 1/4 c. milk
• a pinch of sea salt & a few twists of cracked pepper
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese (the kind in the shaker)

Over the dressing, sprinkle 1 cup of shredded Colby Jack or other cheese and then 1/2  lb of bacon that has been cooked and crumbled (I used less, because I’m watching my salt intake). Cover it all tightly with plastic wrap, and keep it in the refrigerator all day.  My family loves this!  It easily serves 8 – 10 as a side dish.

This is perfect to make in the morning before work, leave the flavors to “mingle” during the day, and then enjoy it with a grilled entree for supper.

ENJOY!

What will you do? What kind of wife will you be?

This weekend my mom and dad came to visit. I haven’t had the privilege of spending a lot of my adult Mother’s Days with my mom, so this was a treat. It also gave us the chance to semi-celebrate their marriage of 50 years. Being the “out of town” daughter, I see evidence of my parents growing older … and I think they see signs that Jeff and I aren’t getting any younger, either. In fact, I see signs of myself looking and acting more and more like my mom did when she was 40-something (why be specific?). That’s a legacy I’m glad for.

As a husband grows older, our relationship changes. Changes are both physical and emotional, spiritual and relational. As if to remind me of this, Jeff came home with a limp after his long run Friday morning. Our bodies feel the effects of the years and the miles and the demands we have put on them. My dad is just recovering from a 2nd knee surgery this winter; my mom reflected on the days when my dad was pounding the pavement in his 40′s . When a husband and wife age together, they experience the challenges that come with years, but they get to enjoy the rarely-known-anymore quality of having lived long together and having stayed long together. There’s a comfort and a confidence that comes with aging together.

Not all wives grow better with age. The love story of Rebekah and Isaac started out so beautifully, when she was found at the well by a servant from afar and invited to come back as the betrothed of the master’s beloved son. She went with the servant, first seeing her 40 year old Isaac when he was out in the evening field, meditating. She dismounted, asking who the man was, and the rest is romantic history. (Check out the excerpt here) Until Isaac grew old … and Rebekah with him.

“When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said … ‘Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death’” (Gen. 27:1-3).

The young man who sent a search party for his beloved, glimpsed her in the evening field, took her into his tent as his wife, and then prayed to God for the gift of their child had become the elderly man in the last season of life.  No doubt he had his quirks, was challenging to care for in his blindness, and was less energetic than the young man of years before, but that’s part of the “in sickness and in health” part of the covenant we make. Somewhere in those years together, his devoted Rebekah became deceitful, wanting her own way, manipulating circumstances, willing to sabotage her Isaac’s honor to have her way. She did not age well as a wife.  Read the whole story here.

Old Julie & Old Jeff

Our husbands are aging, and so are we. I have a half used bottle of Ibuprofen to prove it.  It’s not always easy, as the lady up the street from us knows today, while she sits in a nursing home beside the bedside of her silent husband. Not easy. But even our aging and all that goes with it is used for our growth and God’s glory. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

I wonder how different “Old Rebekah” would’ve been if she would’ve spent their elder years nurturing her inner self day by day, instead of worrying about the outer. I want people to say that “Old Julie” loves “Old Jeff” even more than she did and even better than she did when they married way back in 1990!

Your marriage is getting older. Are you aging well?

I’m asking myself, “Am I the person I need to be to share God’s love with others?”

In the last 2 weeks of preparation for my team, we have some important questions to answer. This week we’re answering the question, “Who do I need to be to share?”

If you arm yourself with cultural awareness, a study Bible, an updated passport, some foreign currency, and prepared lessons, doesn’t that make you the kind of person who is “qualified” to share Christ with others? And how about if you’re the “welcome wagon” in your neighborhood, game-mom extraordinaire, lover of water balloons, craft mistress, and able to recite the Romans road without cheating? Doesn’t that make you the kind of person to share Christ at Vacation Bible School?

Those are good things, even helpful things, but those aren’t “THE” things. In fact, it really doesn’t depend on “me” and “us” at all. Download Week #7 below to find out “Who do I need to be to share?”

Week #7 free download of Ready Set REACH!

Weeks #1-6  available here.