LIVING PROOF LIVE – SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
August 22-23, 2008
Step One:
Check out the conference details.
Step Two:
Register for the event.
Step Three:
Email Beth and let her know you’re coming to San Antonio. Please include your mailing address (and why not go crazy and give us your phone number too) so that we will have several options for contacting you when we have further instructions.
Ladies, we absolutely cannot wait!
Buenos dias, hermanas! Click here to view the Siesta Fiesta announcement. Make sure your volume is up or you might miss a blessing. Choose the video titled “LPL Blog.” Ole’!
Here are some of the pictures from Angola that Janice shared with me last week. There were so many to choose from! I know you will be blessed by seeing the beautiful faces of the children that LIFE Outreach International has the privilege of serving through their Mission Feeding program. We have already talked a lot about this, but I wanted you to have the chance to see these pictures.
Some of the images are difficult to look at, such as the ones from the clinics. You’ll see very skinny infants who are actually toddlers. Malnourishment horribly stunts the children’s physical and mental growth. Janice explained to me that babies do okay until they are weaned. After that, it is very easy for them to go downhill quickly. It might take a while for an adult to die from malnutrition, but it can happen very quickly for a child. A bout with dysentery after being exposed to micro-organisms in their food or water can be very hard to recover from.
The good news is that something is being done to help some of these malnourished children. Lives are being saved. A difference is being made. Thank you, Lord.
Hey siestas! Check out LifeWay’s new Deeper Still Blog. Deeper Still is a weekend event featuring Bible teachers Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore. Click here for more information. Have a blessed Monday!
My Beloved New England girls who attended the Rhode Island Living Proof Live event this weekend,
I have cried with the Lord in gratitude and great joy for you several times this morning (i.e. every time I really think about you again or picture your darling faces). I’m not even kidding. Even now I have such a lump in my throat, but all the while I’m grinning with a deep sense of gladness. A few of many highlights: I will never forget the sounds of your voices when Travis had you sing without the team or the instruments. It was breathtaking. I’ll never forget all those teenage girls who came forward to receive Jesus then, to top it off, at least a half a dozen senior adult women came, too. And will any of us EVER forget (I’m not sure how to spell her name) “Shana” with those darling pigtail braids, matching scarf and dress? She knew how beautiful she was to Jesus. Oh, that the rest of us would be so smart.
I loved every single one of you. It was literally the worst room ever (the arena in the area was under reconstruction. It was all we had) with all those terrible columns but you were patient, gracious and completely plugged in. In fact, you were down-right rowdy. (Hmmmmm. Is that what we can expect out of New England next fall?) I will keep you on my heart forever. Thank you for one of the best times I’ve ever had and for getting the message amid my scatter-brain, all over the place, throw-up “style” that drives even me crazy. God’s power and Presence show all the stronger in weak environments, thank goodness.
New England girls, let’s never forget our theme from 2 Peter 1. Here is the commissioning we did at the end to keep you reminded. For the many of you who were not there, take a moment to first read 2 Peter 1:1-11 and meditate on it and I believe you will still be blessed and challenged.
Rhode Island Commissioning
My Dear Sister
God’s Divine Power
Has given you everything you need
To do life and to do it His way
God has given you
Great and precious promises
Start believing them
And acting on them
When circumstances overwhelm you
Or people annoy you
Turn your faith into action
Dispatch what you need
From the holding tank of the Holy Spirit
And God will blow your mind
With what He can do through you
Never ever forget
You have been cleansed from past sins
Go FREE from this place
And live on purpose
Pour out your life for others
Then one day
When you close your eyes on earth
You will open them and see Jesus
And with arms full of riches
He’ll say, “Welcome Home!”
“Aren’t you beautiful!”
Now, go out into this world
And live like crazy!
Because your God
Is everything you need!
Good Morning, My Cherished Siestas! The sun is barely coming up and I am just ending my quiet time but I felt a strong compelling of the Holy Spirit to share something with you out of my time with God. I don’t have long because Keith and Beanie are waiting on me to walk but, at the risk of sounding mystical which I don’t mean to do, I think I’m supposed to say it succinctly then leave it between you and God. (He and I have talked about it between ourselves as well.)
“Because of this I remind you to rekindle God’s gift that you possess…For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control…PROTECT THAT GOOD THING entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us.” 2 Timothy 1:6,7,14 New English Translation
Two things:
1. Don’t let that precious gift God has given you lay dormant. Rekindle it in the power and passion of Christ Jesus! Use it at every God-given (as opposed to man-driven) opportunity. Gifts mature and increase with time and practice if we have a healthy, lively relationship with Christ through His Word.
2. Protect that gift (or those gifts) ferociously from shifting from the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit to the determination and grit or rote action of the flesh. (Galatians 3:3) I implore us all in the great and saving Name of Jesus to resist spiritual laziness and keep in step with the Spirit. It’s easier to obey laws and keep our rituals than to be led of the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 Fiery fresh relationships with Jesus and boldness to ask Him to make Himself conspicuous through the gifts He has entrusted to us!
Rekindle and protect that gift, Darling One!!
Yesterday I got to have lunch with my friend Janice Meyer. Janice is the resident photographer (minister of photography, if you will) at Life Outreach International. She is the one who brought Matthew’s story to life for us through pictures. She had some picture CDs from the Angola trip to give me, which means I have more pictures to post for you very soon!
Beckham, my golden retriever, has been very sad lately because it’s too hot to do much playing outside. So I asked Janice to bring her golden retriever, Flannel, over to my house to play. Flannel is nine years old and very laid back. Very, very laid back. Beckham is three years old and behaves much like a three year old child. Not very laid back. There wasn’t much common ground for our two goldens, but Janice saved the day by bringing some chew treats for both of them.
Here they are “playing” so nicely while their mommies chatted away. Some might say it was the perfect playdate.
Meet Mr. Flannel. What a sweetie.
Here’s Beckham, who is wearing a cone-slash-clown-collar to keep him from scratching the hot spot on his face. The cone is obviously in rough shape. 
This is some riveting material, isn’t it? Thanks to Janice’s pictures, we’ll have a more substantial post later this week.
If you want to post a picture and a story about your dog (or cat…goldfish…hermit crab…whatever) on your own blog, let us know in a comment!
A terrible thing happened last night on Keith’s and my Texas weekend road trip with Sunny and Beanie. We stopped in a well-known hill country town long-since frequented by hunters and ranchers whose idea of a menu special is a half-pound of deer sausage with their 24-ounce ribeye for a buck ninety-nine extra. We’ve been to this particular hotel a number of times in the past but the moment we walked in the door, it was clear that unwelcome change had occurred in the form of a fancy, remodeled dining room. I smelled trouble the moment I saw a well-coiffed waiter offer patrons at one table a sample of the house Chablis. Where in the world was the sweet tea?
Keith was hungry enough to be in denial so I kept my thoughts to myself. We were seated at a table (what, no booth?) with a white table cloth (not even red and white checkered) which Keith nearly pulled off the table when he somehow got it caught between his knees. The handsome young waiter then asked for our drink orders with an exotic accent, a fact that blessed my melting-pot heart but raised Keith’s eyebrow considerably. Don’t get me wrong. Keith just likes consistency. He would have welcomed this waiter at our favorite French restaurant back home but there in a dining room once decorated in deer trophies, it was his first dead giveaway that something was awry. “Waters. We’ll have 2 waters.” I might’ve wanted a Diet Coke, but I think Keith felt the need to reintroduce the waiter to the whole idea of a watering hole. “With lemon, please?” I asked sweetly but from the look on Keith’s face, I may as well have asked for a pineapple wedge, a cherry and a tiny umbrella.
Our gracious waiter returned with our two glasses of water and a little bowl of limes (that was okay. I like them just as well) then, the best we could make out what he was saying, asked for our orders. Keith requested the chicken fried steak, of course, because the restaurant has long-since been famous for it, and (it goes without saying) a side of mashed potatoes. “We don’t have mashed potatoes.” Oh, Lord have mercy. Say it isn’t so. Keith looked like the man had just slapped him with a white folded napkin. Then, the best the waiter could make out what Keith was saying, my man asked with a huff, “What on earth does it come with?” Then, it happened. The ruination of the evening. The culmination of Keith’s worst fears. Right there in Texas hill country surrounded by 25 square miles of some of the biggest deer in the Lone Star State.
“Rice pilaf.”
The next moments were almost too personal to describe. Words tried but failed my husband. Sounds came from deep within him that I’ve never heard. He was so vulnerable, I tried to look away. But so needy, I couldn’t. I looked around to see if people were staring. They must have been in a hypnotic trance because they seemed strangely unmoved by the trauma taking place at our table. Keith looked so shamed for Texas that I wanted to reach over and pull the bill of his Tri-State Taxidermy cap down over his face. I couldn’t. I was frozen. Guilt overwhelmed me. I knew I should have told him that I’d seen baked brie with raspberry sauce on the menu. It might have prepared him for the worst. We don’t always do our loved ones a favor when we try to protect them from the facts.
The only good news is that my man was too demoralized and weakened to hit anyone. He was a Samson shorn. He also didn’t curse, which I found greatly comforting, unless he sputtered something in an exotic language I couldn’t understand. Amid the deep gutturals, the only word I could occasionally make out was “nut.” For a moment there, I feared the waiter would misunderstand Keith to be asking what kind of nut was in the rice pilaf. I knew if he said “almonds” it was all over. Thankfully, we were spared.
After what seemed forty days and forty nights of awkward grunting, Keith finally made out some intelligible words, “Well, do you have any fries?” They did. “Do you think I could have a side order of them?” The waiter nodded cheerily. Keith’s rudeness had escaped him entirely. And he’d escaped Keith. God loves that waiter so. I wanted to ask him if he knew Jesus. After all, he’d nearly seen Him. Somehow we got through dinner and made it to our room. It’s all such a blur. Then, the sun came up again this morning and we got to start a new day. We didn’t even feel like lamenting our McDonald’s coffee. It’s at least fresh and that new “premium” brand really does have a hint of flavor if you close your eyes and concentrate.
A little later we stopped for a fulfilling breakfast in a tiny Texas town. Eggs, biscuits, and bacon, thank You, Jesus. A darling woman walked up to me in the parking lot and said, “My husband says it’s you and I just want you to know that I love you and in your Bible studies, you say you love me.”
Oh, man, I do. I so stinkin’ do.
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