I apologize that it's taken me so long finish this post!
I've (well, we all have!) been so busy lately!
This past weekend we planted 700 apple trees, and we've been trying to get our garden in also.
Thank you, everyone, for your patience!
Saturday morning we all tumbled out of bed at 6:3o. We were told that the VOM conference was at 8:00a.m, and we wanted to be there a little early, and the church was about fifteen minutes away from the hotel where we were staying, so we left around 7:30. (at least that was our goal, I think we did leave a little later than that.) When we got to the church we found out, that other then the VOM staff, we were the very first ones there! Dad asked one of the guys in charge what was going on, and he said "Well, the conference isn't supposed to start till 9:00." (kinda strange, because the VOM web page said 8:00.)
We ended up being there an hour early, which actually turned out to be really nice.
As we were walking around looking at all the VOM DVD's, magazines, ect. when one of the VOM representatives came walking up with one of the speakers
Mujahid El Masih, and the VOM guy says to
Mujahid "This family came all the way from WI!"
Mujahid said"Really, Wow, That is a long way!" Then he introduced himself to us, and we chatted for a little while, telling him all the kids names, and so forth. He took Dad's name and number and said that he was going to call him sometime, and come speak at our church.;-D "Well," he said "Come on in and sit down" so he goes running into the church, and says "Come sit right in the front row!" So, all we could do was do what he said.;-) He sat right next to us and started telling us how we were his new family, and anyone else that would come up that way he would say "Meet my new family!" He also wanted to get a picture of our family, and was snapping pictures of us the whole rest of the morning service.
Not long after we were sitting down
Gracia Burnham came up to us and said "I just had to come up here and meet this family that everyone’s talking about." (I think it was because we were the only big family there, and we were easy to be spotted because we were in the very front row.)
So, she talked with us for a little while, and then signed in my autograph book for me!;-)
Shortly after that the service started.
The worship music was brought by
Amy Shreve, and her husband. Most of which was very nice,
Amy played the harp very well, and her husband played the guitar.
Then
Matt Rose (director) got up and started naming of states for people to raise their hand when he said their state. He never said Wisconsin, and then he said "I think that's it." and
Mujahid just about jumped up, and said "You missed my family from Wisconsin! They came all the way from Wisconsin."
The first speaker was
Darcie Gills (VOM speaker) who has traveled to many different country, and seen allot of what the persecuted today is going thru. She shared many heart wrenching testimonies of people who really know what it's like to really stand up for Jesus!
How inspired, yet convicted I felt as I listened to story after story of people who really gave up all to follow Jesus!!!
The second speaker was
Mujahid El Masih, (I have to admit, I had a very hard time saying his name at first!) he is a very dear brother from Pakistan who suffered persecution for the name of Christ. He came to the states seven years ago. (the way he got here was a huge miracle!)
He spoke allot about Islam, which was very interesting from a converted Muslim!
I really appreciated him sharing, and I know I learned allot from him! His passion for the Lord was so beautiful!
Right after
Mujahid El Masih,
Getaneh Getaneh(from Ethiopia) was going to share,(or so we thought)instead we saw
Matt Rose get up and he said that
Getaneh Getaneh was sick, and couldn't make it... I was so disappointed!
At 1:00p.m when we broke for lunch I already felt very inspired!
They gave us a list of places to eat that after noon, our family left to go get some sub sandwiches, ate, and headed back to church. I was so excited about the rest of the day's conference!
After lunch I headed back into the church, I bought
Gracia Burnham's second book
"To Fly Again", (I already have her first book, which I really appreciated!) after I got it the service started again, I put my Bible and the book under my seat.
The next speaker was
Robert Brock (VOM speaker) spoke about different experiences he'd had with the presucuted Church.
His three main points were:
1. The body of Christ still suffers today.
2.We are to remember them.
Hebrews 13:3
3.And as we serve them they serve us even more.
The next speaker was
Gracia Burnham, I think her message touched my heart the most!
I guess, for those of you who don't know much about her, I'll start out with a little introduction which I got off
her website...
"For 17 years Gracia and Martin served with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines where Martin was a jungle pilot delivering mail, supplies and encouragement to other missionaries and transporting sick and injured patients to medical facilities. Gracia served in various roles supporting the aviation program and also home-schooled their children--all of which were born in the Philippines.
While celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary at Dos Palmas Resort off Palawan Island, the Burnhams were kidnaped on May 27, 2001, by the Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant group of Muslims. They seized several more guests and took them to Basilan Island, an ASG stronghold.
In the ensuing months some of the hostages were killed, but most were set free. From November 2001, only the Burnhams and one other hostage remained in captivity.
During their 376 days of captivity, they faced near starvation, constant exhaustion, frequent gun battles, coldhearted murder-and intense soul-searching about a God who sometimes seemed to have forgotten them.
On June 7, 2002, in a firefight between the Philippine military and the Abu Sayyaf Group, Martin was killed. Gracia was wounded, but was freed."
They started out by showing a short video of
Gracia Burnham, and what happened to her and her husband. Then
Gracia got up, shared parts of her testimony, and also shared how through everything God is faithful! She was a very, very, very humble,
sweet lady! She shared about how us Christian need to take up our cross and follow Jesus!
She told a story about this group of people who came to a church and stole this statue of Jesus, the strange part was that they took the part of Jesus but not the cross that was with it. She likened with how allot of times that's what we as Christians try to do, we want Jesus but not the cross that goes along with that!
Gracia, speaking^The last speaker was
Tom Zurowski (Formerly;"Hell Fighters international"), I was also very touched by his message! He shared much of his only testimony of how the Lord saved him out of drugs, acohol, and porn. He came from a broken home, and was abused as a boy. He shared a beautiful testimony of love, and forgiveness! He also shared about some really hard times that he's gone thru in his Christian life, but God was, and is always faithful!
Tom also went on to share about different experiences of
his with the persecuted Church.
Afterwards, I went to pick up my Bible, and book that I had put under my seat, and for some reason it was gone! I looked everywhere, and I just couldn't find it. I was
so disaponted!
Turns out somebody must have taken them!:(
Rachel, Esther, Mom, and I went up to talk to Gracia Burnham, we chatted for a little while, and took a picture with her.;-) Then went to look around at different books and things.
Then I went back into the sanctuary to see where Dad was, and if anyone had found my Bible, and book! Well, there's Dad talking to Gracia, I guess he had told her that I lost my Bible and book, and she told my I could have a new book for free, and it looks like I have another opportunity to forgive!;-)
Gracia talked to our family for a while, said she wanted to come visit us!;-)
Rachel, Rebecca, Gracia, Esther and Mom^
Then it was time for us to go...
As we got into our car, we saw this stuck in our wind sheild....
Now it was time to go to a hotel, get a good night's sleep, and go to visit my friend Faith Borck's church! I couldn't wait to meet her!!! (and I no longer had my Bible! Big problem when meeting her! Especially since she uses the NASB!;-))
...to be contiued...
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