I'm Encouraged ... please continue to pray!

"To Rebecca's Parents"

"Greetings in Christ,

It has been a very long time since I've written to Rebecca.  I feel that God is telling me to write to you.  When I met your daughter at Monroe County Fair, I think it was two years ago, I was impressed with her.  She had a light that shone and was unmistakably from Christ.  You are doing a wonderful job raising your children to love and serve the Lord.  Your family has been in my prayers and I hope all is well with you.

There is more I'd like to say, but I'm unsure how to say it and whether now is the time.

Please accept my best wishes and prayers for you and your children.  May God's love sustain you."

Molly Shields.

Please pray for this lady, as she said, I met her two years ago at the Monroe County Fair.  When I talked to her I remember that she was a former Roman Catholic, but she had left the church.  But I did not sense that she was born-again.  We emailed back and forth for a while, somehow though, we lost contact.  I had prayed for her a lot... I'm not exactly sure what she meant by this email, but maybe God is working in her heart.  She seemed very open when I talked to her, but I don't think she ever had the "from darkness to light" experience.

I'm just posting this to ask you all to pray.  God has really proven to me the power of prayer lately, and like George Muller said, prayer is like  a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets.

Oh, and today I got a call from the Catholic nursing home for the nuns.  They are going to have me work for them.  Next week they're going to call me with a schedule! :D

I'm very excited!  Thank you everyone for your prayers!  Please continue to do so if you think of me!

Answered Prayer!

Okay, there's this Catholic nunnery about 10 minuets or so away from our house, and this past winter I drove past it every week.  I had a burden for these dear older ladies for a long time.  

So, I started praying that God would give me an opportunity to witness to these ladies.  Then I thought, well you know, I should just go over there and volunteer for any work they might have, and maybe then I'd be able to share with them.  I talked to my family about it some, and they all basically told me that I had a great idea but as soon as I went they'd say; Are you Catholic?  and of course I would tell them no.  That would be the end.

I just kept praying about it... 

Today I needed to run some errands, and I thought; It's on the way, so what's the hurt in trying?

I was praying almost the whole way there.  When I went in the first thought that came to my mind was Wow, they really are Catholic! :D (The huge cross necklaces and everything) I went up to the front desk and told the lady I would like to volunteer for any work they might have helping with the "sisters".  She seemed very happy and surprised.  She called the administrator who took me to her desk, had me sit down and tell her a little bit about myself, what I'd be willing to do ect.    After all that she said "Well, Rebecca we'll see what we can do, let me check with my schedule and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.  I think I'll have you work a couple times a week for two hours each time.  Thank you very much for being willing to do this.  I'll have you doing things like; reading to them, writing their letters, even feeding the blind ones their food."

I couldn't believe what I just heard!  It was exactly what I'd been praying for.  I don't know why I was surprised, God can to anything.  I was just think WOW the whole way home. :)

Anyhow, I just thought I'd share this with you all... if you think of me you're welcome to pray that God would give me lots of opportunity's to witness for His name.

Giving Thanks In ALL things!

"It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me."

"If I had a choice, I would still choose to re­main blind…for when I die, the first face I will ev­er see will be the face of my bless­ed Sav­iour."                                              --- Fanny Crosby

 

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."   1 Thessalonians 5:18

God is SO amazing!

I've been gone this past weekend at the La Crosse County Fair, and I thought I'd share a bit of what went on and ask you all to pray.

I'd like to start out by saying; please never doubt God, He is so amazing! I know that might sound weird, but a lot of times I pray for something and then I'm shocked when God answers. I really shouldn't be because God has never failed me, but I often fail Him, I just need to loose all trust in myself and totally rely on Him for everything.

God was so faithful this past weekend, I was able to present the gospel tens of times, and funny how I can share and share and share and I never get tired of telling the beautiful gospel over. I never said "man, I have to tell that again", it was more like "wow, God, you are so good to let a forgiven wretch like me share such an awesome story of God's love for all mankind!" I can't even begin to explain how blessed I was, I mean, nothing match's being able to share of the cross of Christ!

At one point I was talking to a group of young people and I had went through the law with them, and then I presented the gospel, and this young man probably about 17 started jumping up and down yelling "I just got it, I just got it" and his friends were like "you just got what?", and he said "The whole reason why Jesus had to die on the cross, it never made sense to me before, but now I see because of my sin He had to die." It really made me think that the modern day gospel that Jesus died to give people a better life or that He just "has a wonderful plan for their life" doesn't even make sense to people. It gives no reason for the death of Jesus, and then if they "try Jesus" and it doesn't work then they're bitter. We need to remember to share with people that they must come to Jesus for righteousness, because many times people don't have a better life when they are born-again but rather the promise is fulfilled "all they that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."

As a funny note, though, I was told that I have a New Hampshire accent, and they wanted to know where I was from. When I told them I'd lived in Wisconsin all my life they said "well, maybe it's just a knock-around country accent." :D LOL. I thought that was so funny. I've never been told something like that before!

Caren witnessing 

Chris witnessing

Me with a pretty wild group! :D

Aubrey and I

Chris and Christy witnessing :)

Dad talking to some friends of ours

See if you can pick Chris and Mr. Mattews out of the crowd. ;)

Mr. Mattews and Chris again

Me and my good friend Kenndal  (thanks for liking me even after all our heated talks ;) :D)

Laren, me, and Aubrey

I love you, Christy!  Thanks for all your help this past weekend!  Your love and passion for God was such a blessing, and I don't think I could've done made it without your great sense of humor!  (I really think that's why we hit it off ;) j/k)

A very Happy belated birthday to you!   (((hugs)))

Honoring Parents...

This is a post written by my dear friend Laura Bulter.  It really blessed and challenged me, and my hope is that it will do the same for you!

Dear Reader,
I want to share with you something God has been teaching me over the past few months. Something I hope you will grasp sooner than I did. If you can grasp this principle while you are young, and learn to live by it, you will not only save yourself and those around you from much trouble; you will gain length of life, and many blessings. The principle is this: honor your parents.

Honoring your parents means a lot of different things in a lot of different situations. It means obeying them in the Lord. (Our parents are sinners, too, and to blindly follow an order when it is out of line with God is wrong.)Honoring your parents means trusting God to lead you through them. It means respecting them even though you think their ideas are old-fashioned and, well, crazy. It means doing what they ask you to do, - or not doing what they ask you not to do - with joy.

As hard as this is, it is completely worth it. Not only does God bless you when you obey him, but he has promised to bless you especially when you honor your parents! Ephesians 6:1-3 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." When you honestly seek to do what's right, even though it's hard, it will really draw you closer to God.

One of the blessings that comes from honoring your parents is peace. If you are trusting God to lead you through your parents, you have a lot less to worry about when it comes to what job you're going to get, what college you're going to, or whether or not you should date that really awesome guy/girl. I'm not saying that you don't have to make these decisions as well, but when you're submitting to your parents, you have their guidance, and God's blessings.

As you learn to honor and obey your parents you are cultivating a submissive spirit, and this is a major blessing! All throughout life we have to submit to those over us. The sooner we learn this, the better it is for us and those over us. If we're not struggling to submit we are free to put 100% of our efforts into the job they've appointed to us.

One final note - If you've given your life to Christ, honoring your parents is not something you can get around. Your Lord commands you to honor and obey them. If you want His blessings and guidance for your life you have to obey the rules he has clearly laid out for you. Ultimately,if you learn to abide by this principle, you'll find that God knew exactly what he was talking about when he put it in the ten commandments. Even when it seems tough and crazy to listen to your parents, and even if it seems like it doesn't affect your life, it does. God notices everything, and will bless your obedience to him.

My Blue-Eyed-Sweetheart!

I just had to post some pictures of Ben.  He really is a very cute little guy, and is getting more so every day! ;)  I know - I'm biased.  But you have to admit, he is cute!

I'm Posting! :D ;)

First I want to apologize to everyone for how terribly long it's been since the last time I posted.  Not to give an excuse, but I have been very busy! :D
As you all know, my sister Rachel left for China last May.  
There is always a lot of work to do in the summer, and since I only have one other sister who's 10, I don't have much help with cooking, cleaning, gardening, and the like.  Things like blogging, reading, and quilting have kind of taken a back seat in my life.
I will try to do better in the future! :D

We had a very wonderful 4th.  The kids all had a blast watching the fireworks, and dad bought them a trampoline, needless to say, kids love bouncing up and down. (yes, even in the house, it's nice to have some of that out side now! ;))

Here are some pictures of the fireworks and all! :D














I love this picture!  It's great the way they're all looking up! :D


                                     John-Luke

                me and Michael

                                          Gabe

Last Sunday we had a baptism service, (which are my very favorite) my brother Chris and three others got baptized.  It was really wonderful.  The whole picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is beautifully seen!



                   Mr. Mattews, Chris, and Dad



   Me. Ditmar, Mr. Mattews, Mrs. Ditmar, and Dad

                   Mr. Mattews, Kendal, and Dad

                          Mr. Mattews, Laren, and Dad

      They're all wet! :D LOL!


Anna and my little guy named Ben! :)