A Debtor To Grace

Recently, I was asked the following question: "Do you think that the reason so many of our young people (saved) have gone or are going astray is because we talk and teach so much about grace?"

I thought, and continue to think, that this is an excellent, but exceedingly sorrowful question. I don't think that the teaching of Grace is the issue, as much as the simple, beautiful freedom of Grace itself. If God the Father was really the big, fearful puppet master in the sky, He could just stretch out His hand and throw a bolt of lightening every time one of us sins, and, "Zing!", we'd be obliterated down to a burnt lump of charcoal. And I'll betcha that after that happened a few times on each continent, well, the old sin problem would probably be under control. and we'd all be a well trained bunch of puppets, wandering around down here living in fear. Now, we'd still have choice, but it would look like this: Sin=Immediate Death, or Don't Sin=You Get to Keep Living. And sometime I think it would just be so much better that way. It sure wouldn't be as complicated. But God didn't want to be a controlling master; He wanted/wants to be a loving one. He gives us our freedom in order to better show us who He truly is: Loving, Giving, Protecting, Almighty, Merciful, Gracious, Gentle, Caring, and the list goes on and on. But with the freedom comes that choice to do things His way or the way of the world.

There's nothing easy or cheap about His grace. We were bought at an incredibly great price: the death of His Son. The only way that sin could be atoned for was through the sacrifice of One who Himself was sinless. And that debt that He paid for us set us free(those who believe in Him) from the penalty of sin, gives us the ability (through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) to be free from the power of sin, and ultimately has guaranteed freedom from the presence of sin in our glorified bodies. But right now, while we're living this life, we have choices to make. Each and every one of us(regardless of age) decide to ignore, or take advantage of Grace each and every time that we choose to sin. Regardless of the "size" of the sin, we're saying somewhere inside of ourselves, "God will forgive me. He promised He would."

What will it actually take for us to truly grasp what Grace is and live it out in each aspect of our lives? A tattoo on the hand, a catchy song, a little saying on a social networking site? Why isn't the Gift itself enough that it's seared in our brains and displayed in everything that we do??

Grace. May we not take it for granted, ignore it, or take advantage of it. May we choose to live in grace and act out of the grace that was given to us through the ultimate sacrifice of our Redeemer.

"Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be,
Let They goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart,O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."

"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Robert Robinson

What did you do this week??

For some reason, the question of, "What did you do this week?" puts me on the defensive. It shouldn't, but it does. Ever since returning to the States, I get asked this question a lot. I can have a completely crazy travel schedule, but as soon as I return home and have a more relaxed week....the question returns. Because I'm not living overseas where no one is thinking about my schedule because they're not there to see me. And I'm not working the typical American 40+ hour work week. And I'm doing stuff that's hard to comprehend. I'll be honest and tell you that the idea of the 40 hour work week means very little to me. As a former musician I had a similar schedule to what I have now. Some weeks I would work 30 hours teaching, and other weeks I would work 50+ hours teaching and playing. I would get through the rough times and then return to my easier times, but doing my best all along the way. So the schedule that I have now doesn't faze me. I may go like crazy for 2-6 weeks at a time; traveling, fellowshipping, expending all of my energy....and then I return to home base and have to have down time. And I've learned that however long I was gone, I need about half that time to recover. Now I don't mean not doing anything, I just need quieter time without travel and a crazy schedule. Sometimes I get what I need- sometimes I don't. Here's the thing. When I'm home, what I "do" varies from week to week, but here are the basics:

1)I ride for about one hour and forty minutes daily, if the weather permits. It's a privilege, and one I've come to understand is important to my overall well-being. I don't take it for granted, and I don't see it as a waste of time that I could be using for ministry. My well being is super important to my being able to care for others
2)I Skype with staff. That varies from week to week, anywhere from 2 hours to 10 hours weekly, and anytime from 6am to 11pm, depending on their needs.
3)I keep up with e-mail correspondence with staff
4)I pray for them daily
5)I edit their newsletters(again, there are busy times with this and non-busy times)
6)I read books, which are helping to equip me to serve better
7)I have my own quiet time with God. Again, I can only serve out of my own overflow
8)I plan the next trip(that in itself can take ample time, as getting nationals to commit to dates can be a challenge)
9)I am active in my local church body and am a youth leader
10)I am active in my city, by serving through mentoring a little girl weekly and spending time outside of mentoring with her
**#'s 1,9, & 10 are also important b/c they help me to be fully here when I'm here, so that I don't stay disconnected emotionally when I return from a lot of traveling.

And here's what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks:

It's the Arts & Crafts portion of my ministry. =-)

This is my third year making cards to welcome all of the ladies at IM's annual Staff Conference. I started doing it just for the IM staff women, but now do it for every female attendee who is a teen or older, which has me making about 100 cards each time. I also make cards for the home office staff and the staff and students in MT who don't attend the conference. This year I decided to do picture cards from some of the countries where IM serves: US, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. We serve in many more countries than that, but I've not been there and don't have pictures. The idea is to give ladies a visual reminder to pray for their colleagues in other countries. On the back I write an encouraging verse and a note welcoming them to the conference. 100 cards takes a long time to make. Last year I had the teen girls at church help, but this year I've done them on my own. It may not be "typical" ministry, but it's one I enjoy doing, and it's been neat to see the cards in people's Bibles a year or two later, or in their homes when I've gone to visit. It's a return blessing to me, knowing that it was an encouragement to them.

I shouldn't get defensive about the question of what I did the past week, because I'm thankful and extremely blessed to be able to do what I do; from listening to e-mailing, praying for or with someone, sending a note of encouragement to someone in the home office(they need encouragement,too),  reading and writing, editing or helping with a budget, planning the next trip or getting back from the current one, or even cardmaking!...I'm thankful to have the privilege to do what I do each and every week.

Cuppa

Saturday was the 6th annual GBC Ladies' Tea, a fundraiser for the Varsity AWANA group's trip to SUMMIT, the yearly national competition and quizzing. This tea started out small and has grown to be quite a successful fundraiser, in addition to being lots of fun for females of all ages! The youngest one that I saw there was three and the oldest was probably my grandmother, who is eighty-seven. All of the tables were set with different patterns of china and tea and coffee were served by the Varsity group to go with the beautiful treats that many of the ladies contributed.

Pre-party donning of the hat. Pretty awesome hat I found, huh? =-D

With my great aunt, my grandmother, and my mother. The lighting's terrible in that room, but it's a sweet picture.

With my lifelong friend, Kristie

I just had to add this one, b/c this group of older ladies just seemed to be having the best time every time I walked past

.

*note: I can't get this to be with the caption for some reason, but of course I'm not including my mother when I say, "this group of older ladies." =-D

Bike CLT

Look what I got today, on the day that I went over the 1000 mile mark on my bike odometer. 21 miles today. Yeah, me!

On another note, I'm thinking that I might have succumbed to the sickness that has been going around, and that both of my parents had. I'm beginning to feel congested, and a bit feverish and nauseous. I'd sure appreciate prayers that I could fight this off!!

Wasting Away/Month 9

Wasting Away? Not really, but that's what a couple of people have said to me recently. And I have assured them that I'm most definitely NOT wasting away. This is the end of my 9th month of life change, and yes, I've lost 47 pounds, and yes, that's a LOT of weight. I totally get that. Let me share with you a few of the other things that I've lost along the way: I've lost the BMI(body mass index)designation both of morbidly obese and obese, and now find myself merely in the category of overweight. And for me to get out of this category and into the healthy weight category, I've still got to lose 28 lbs. So, no, I'm not wasting away. What else? I've lost aches and pains in my feet and knees. I've lost lots of clothes that were size XL or 18. I've lost the lack of desire to really exercise. And what have I gained? Well, I've gained my health, for sure. I've gained tons of muscle. I've gained the ability to ride long and hard and have learned physical endurance in a way I've never known before. I've gained a real appreciation for those who push themselves to workout every day and keep their bodies in shape. I've gained back some of my youth(I weigh less now than when I graduated highschool). I've gained mobility and energy. I've always had really good self esteem, but I've gained more. =-) And I've gained a real understanding of why it's important to value and treasure the temple of the Holy Spirit. I don't ever want to be fixated on my body, but I do want to take care of it, so that I'm better able to serve others without the hindrances of a body breaking down before its time.

Pictures from today:

47 lbs. lost and 970 miles logged since installing my bike odometer in mid-Nov.

Sanford

Sanford(where NTM's headquarters is) is a smaller city with a lovely little historic downtown. Though I had very little time to enjoy it, I was able to get out a couple of afternoons and enjoy the beauty that was everywhere. Here's a bit of what I saw:

SYIS

So this last week had me back down in Florida at New Tribes' Headquarters again, doing another workshop. I should probably wait to post this until I've gone through all the material again, because there was just SO much to process. In my opinion the group that does the Sharpening Your Personal Skills workshop packs waaayyy too many serious topics into a six day period. But then when I was filling out the evaluation form and it asked which topic(s) I would take out, well......I wouldn't. I guess I would want the workshop to be longer. haha It was interesting this time also to see the dynamics of the group change with the size of the group. In the debriefing and Cerny Smith trainings, there were nine or less of us and it was a really relaxed group. This time around, there were twenty of us and some rather big personalities thrown into the mixture. I found myself getting stressed out by some of the more dominant personalities in the group, so it was a good thing that we covered Managing Stress, Living in Community, etc.  =-D

Doing role-play for the "Helping Others Solve Problems" session. And yes, I'm wearing my biking clothes. At our 3pm break every day, I ran to my room, changed clothes, loaded the bike, and ran back to the session so that I could get a ride in post-workshop before the sun disappeared.

We did a lot of role-play and list making, analyzing the wrong and right versions of the role- plays.

The Millers, Member Care workers with NTM. I met them back in the Fall at the PTM conference, and they're the reason I turned around and went back down for this workshop. Actually, they're the ones who told me that NT offers these trainings. I said it back in the Fall, and I'll say it again- they're the most fun couple in their 70's that I've ever met. Honey and I did the Conflict role-plays together, and found it difficult b/c we made each other laugh so much. =-)

The entire SYIS workshop group. It was mostly comprised of NT workers, but there were a couple of us from other agencies, and a married couple not in missions at all.

These are the topics that were covered from Sunday to Friday:

Relationship Killers, Loving Listening, Drawing People Out, Helping Others Solve Problems, Confronting Well, Receiving Confrontation Well, Building Trust, Living in Community, Managing Conflicts Well, Helping Others Manage Conflict, Walking in Moral Purity, Managing Stress, Maintaining Margin, Helping Others Grieve Well, and Being an Encourager

The sessions that I most enjoyed and got the most from were the ones on Stress, Conflict, Helping Others Solve Problems, Walking in Moral Purity, Maintaining Margins, and Helping Others Grieve Well. Some I enjoyed because they are areas in which I have a lot to learn, and others because they're topics I feel strongly about. It really was a great workshop, and I'm looking forward to using the remainder of this week to review all of the workbook and go through the bible studies that are included with each topic.