Bible Verses

College years

I was just working on a "well known" Bible verse, Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is a good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things" and it brought back quite a few memories.  Through my college years someone had posted this verse on a bathroom stall and I thought I would memorize it.  Well even though I reviewed it daily I couldn't seem to recall which word came first.  I do have to say that repeating it daily it did become a bit more a part of my thought process. 

The "Hide 'Em in Your Heart" Kids

When our children grew old enough to start learning verses we got a copy of Steve Greens' Hide 'Em in Your Heart.  Putting the song to music and working along side my kids, I learned the verse in the NIV version.  We whistled our way through this verse during our Awana sessions on Wednesday evenings.  That was a great time for me to learn verses because as I taught my kids verses I found myself reviewing old verses and that I had learned as a child and meditating on them and knowing them

A CD "Not just for kids"

better than ever before. They became real to me, they became wise words of wisdom to be practiced in every day life.  Raising children seems to have a way of waking us up to reality no matter how much wisdom we had or thought we had before.
Now that my children are grown enough to work on memory verses on their own, I now have started my own memory program. I have started using a computer program, memverse.com. http://www.memverse.com.  It began at the New Year 2013 when I made a commitment to memorize the book of James in a year.

Great Study, if you are looking for one.

  I was starting the James Study from the Lifeway Bible Study done by Beth Moore.  She actually challenged us to learn it in five months but I extended it to a year.  This computer program actually challenges us to learn all the references too.  So to help I added a few verses I already knew rather well in order to help my boggled mind remember references.  When every verse starts with James things get confusing. Philippians 4:8 was one of those familiar verses but then the challenge came when I decided to use my good old faithful translation, New American Standard Bible Instead of New International Version that I used with my children.  Now that I have told all you this, I will have to stick to it.  I am working on Chapter five but have yet to claim chapter 4 is completely memorized.
 http://www.stevegreenministries.org/music/hidem_in_your_heart_vol1.php
 http://www.lifeway.com/n/Product-Family/James:-Mercy-Triumphs?intcmp=BethMoore-MTX-Text-James-20130627

THANKFULNESS!

Post Card Photo

Kenya Thank you

Rod and I work for Mission Aviation Fellowship here in Congo.  Part of the job is finding supporters in the states to partner with us in ministry.  When we left to go overseas over 22 years ago, we were a young married couple expecting our second child.  We visited many churches and homes sharing about the ministries we planned to do in Zaire, Africa.  We were often surprised at those who stepped forward to support our ministry.  I learned quickly not to "expect" support from anyone.  Often the one who we thought we were sharing our ministry with and who was actually catching the vision were two different people.  Like I said, "That was over 22 years ago!"  Many of those people are still supporting us to this day!

Supporters bought us this truck to get through the roads here.

I have a goal of thanking those ministry partners with a personal note every six months.  There were years when our children were small and I was homeschooling them that I didn't make that goal.  After a while I was convicted of a need for me to show thankfulness and got back at it.
 I am in that process right now.  There are several observations I  have been making.  First, once again you never can predict who will remain faithful for 22+ years as part of the support team.  I wonder if these wonderful partners knew when they made that commitment that it would be for such a long time.  We have actually had people stop us and ask when we think we have done enough.  Then again we started out telling people that this was our lifetime career.  
Second, almost every one of these partners are special and bring back memories that make me want to write a story about them or give them a badge of honor.  There were two that I didn't know  who in the world they were but I had a great time googling them.  Lydia and picked out our favorite of a particular name on Facebook.  We liked the one who was playing with his kids. :)  That's okay if it wasn't him.
I had one time I didn't know who that ministry partner was and I "thought" she was a lady we had met in a church in Ohio but her address was California.  I put off making personal contact with her for so

Christmas Card Thank you note

long it was embarrassing.  When I finally did contact her I found out that we had never met her, she had picked us from a list of names and loved our ministry.  I learned to stop procrastinating after that.  Too bad the lesson didn't stick permanently.

Christmas Card Thank you note!

A third lesson is humility.  I am an American whose roots go back to the hills of Tennessee right after the American Revolution as well as various other lines including the ones who greeted those relatives coming over the hills.  We don't depend on other people, we pull ourselves up by our own boot straps. When we became missionaries we had to learn to reach out and ask for support from others.  There are times I am so humbled by those people who sacrifice regularly so we can serve the Lord here in Congo. 
Fourth lesson, most of these people that support us financially also support us through prayers.  Actually, many that I have no written record of pray for us.  I wish I could send each of them a thank you note every six months too.  Maybe one of these days I will do that with the whole mailing list just to make sure they all get thanked.  Prayer can be work but it is the way many barriers are overcome and the way we remain here in Africa for so long.  Thank you if you are praying for a missionary whether it be Rod and I or someone else.