Friday, August 19, 2011

Just In Time


Jerry is a friend of ours who manages The Athens’s Boat Club, a small private lake community. He wears a hundred hats, taking care of all the tens of acres of lawns, the pavilion, the streets and water supply, the downed trees, the gas dock, the administrative work and about everything else that takes place there. There is nothing he can’t handle.

A couple weeks ago he was weed-eating, while a short distance away, Manuel, Jerry’s right hand man, was cutting wood with a chain saw. Jerry disturbed a bee hive and was stung by a couple of angry bees. He had been stung many times before but this time was different and he immediately began to experience serious affects. His body weakened and he fell to the ground into a red ant bed. He tried to call to Manuel but his voice was not loud enough over the sound of the chain saw. One last time his forced himself to make a sound, knowing he was loosing consciousness and perhaps his life. And then a miracle happened. At that very moment just in time, the chain saw broke and Manuel was able to hear Jerry’s weak call as he slipped into a coma.

The paramedics arrived in record time and after a short hospital stay Jerry was back at work. He says it was a miracle, a TRUE miracle that the chain saw broke at the very second he need help. He shutters to think what would have happened if God had not intervened just- in- time.



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There have been many times in ministry that we have experienced our Just In Time God. Though none are quite as dramatic as Jerry’s incident still they are always reminders that God is in our business and He is the great provider.

This past spring was one of those times. Women’s Ministry Leaders were making decisions for the fall programs and we wanted them to know that The Amazing Collection was a viable option. We knew we had a small window in which to send promotional material to churches across the country who have never heard of the ministry or the studies we have produced, but we didn’t have a list of those churches nor did we know where to get one.

But our Just- In- Time God had already gone before us. Becca Shriver had graduated from college and was waiting to begin graduate school. AND she LOVED doing research! She literally fell into our ministry and began working immediately. I would have to laugh whenever I would pass her desk because she would have two computer screens going at once and could find anything and everything with lightening speed. Day after day she would do searches for the various denominations we knew would gain the most from the studies. So in a few days she had found all of the Presbyterian churches and also had contact names, emails and addresses. Then she would begin work on the Baptists, then Methodists followed by Independent churches and on and on until she had added thousands of contacts to our data base. She was with us just four months. She was invaluable. She was a God-send and she was just in time.



Habakkuk 2:3
The vision is set for an appointed time
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.


Friday, August 12, 2011

Scooters and Sages


When I was in college my friend Rocky Driver had a Honda motor scooter. It was red and gold and easy to drive and went 50 miles an hour. I went to school year around but Rocky did not, choosing instead to take a break from the demands of student life during the summer months. While he was away I was allowed to use the scooter as I needed it. I loved it. I loved everything about it…the speed, the fun, the wind blowing through my hair (that was long before helmets took that thrill away!)

So for years following that time I have wanted a motor scooter. However, raising a family never allowed for extra funds to provide such a luxury. And quite truthfully my family never seemed to take me seriously.

I get up early most mornings, like 4:00 AM and my sixtieth birthday was no exception. As I crossed the living room I noticed a beautifully wrapped box sitting on the table and when I did, there was a motorcycle helmet!

I was not expecting a motor cycle helmet and had never asked for one. But Beloved appeared grinning from ear to ear and pointed to the garage. AND THERE IT WAS! My lifelong dream! It was dark green and white and beautiful and it was MINE!

And so dressed in pajamas I donned helmet and drove my new scooter out into the dark! It was thrilling to say the least. I drove down the drive way, up through the side woods, around the back, through the fruit trees and up the hill back to the garage! And then again and again laughing hysterically all the way!

Two days later Eleanor rode it around our property. She hit a rock and ended up on the ground with scrapes and bruises. Then I took it on the city streets. A car, impatient with my forty miles an hour, whizzed by me at sixty and the wind nearly knocked me off the road. Days later I tried quiet lanes and there I hit asphalt and sand and the scooter knocked me over scrapping my arms and legs. It was Beloved’s turn and he suffered the same fate. And at that point we had to admit that which we had refused to do. We were getting OLDER. Our balance was not as sharp. The scooter had to go.

And so on October 24, 2007 I GAVE UP and a “For Sale” sign was posted and days later my scooter and dream were gone.


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Two months ago a group of women including Eleanor and Linda, Board member Robin Rosebrough along with our production guru Kelle Ortiz and speaker Michelle Helms met to discuss Big Dream’s next venture. We are concerned about women in America. We are concerned about young women in America. We are troubled by the lies they are buying into and the choices they are making that have life long consequences. And we want to help.

We have studied and observed and interviewed and surveyed and there is one thing we know. We think differently. We are OLDER.

The younger generation can be intimidating to say the least. They are technologically savvy. They have a confidence that often prohibits them from accepting advice. They do not see things such as home and marriage and family in the same light. And so we have struggled to figure out just what to teach and how to teach it in a way that could be received.

Recently we revisited a Biblical truth. Older women (that’s us) ARE suppose to teach the younger women out of their wisdom and knowledge of God and His Word. There it is. True direction in an often untrue world.

So we are older. And no, we do not think the same. But we have lived longer and in doing so have gained something of value. Wisdom. Trust. Love. All from Jesus Christ.

And so we are pressing on with renewed excitement. We do have a message and it has nothing to do with the generations because it transcends time. God’s Word is TRUE and we can teach with great confidence from that platform. How we do it will be fresh and exciting because we know the message and we know the Messenger.

Yes we are older and though our balance isn’t as great, our passion for Christ and the women He brings us has not changed. In fact it has only grown with each passing year. So we won’t give up. There will be no letting the dream go….but simply a cry to God to help us, show us, give us all we need to find a way to reach women with the life-giving message that God has for them.



Titus 2:3-5
Older women likewise ….encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be dishonored.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Prayer and the Plan


Prayer is an interesting thing. We pray with our own great plan in mind. I had prayed for years that our daughters would be used mightily by God. When they married, that prayer expanded to include the new son – in – laws. I asked that our children would be warriors for Christ. In my mind I knew exactly how that would be played out AND of course; they would all live next door! The prayer and the plan were good ones for sure.

So when Cameron, daughter number two, called with the news that they were leaving the youth pastorate and moving to L’Viv, Ukraine to minister there, it was not in my plan.
It is a tearing away of the flesh in many ways to send those you love off to foreign fields, knowing that you cannot just drive an hour and be in their presence. And Ukraine sounded like a strange culture only because it is different from ours. I was on this side of the ocean….and they were on the other many countries away. Though I hate to admit it, often fear would take over; fear for my children’s safety and fear for our grandchildren’s development.

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There is a great kindness in God that often catches us off guard. It is so very personal, so completely designed for us that we are shocked and reminded that yes, He does really KNOW us and as a good Father, shapes gifts that are full of the surprise of tender love.

One of those gifts arrived in the spring of 2007. I received a call from Eleanor Lewis. Marsha Crowe, the Women’s Ministry Director at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church had asked Eleanor and me to teach a Women’s Conference in Ludzk, Ukraine. We would fly into L’Viv, spend a day there and then drive the three hours to the conference.

Marsha had no idea my daughter lived in L’Viv but God did and He handed me the gift of an all-expense-paid visit complete with ministry opportunities and a shared experience with some great and wonderful women who accompanied us.

And so we landed in L’Viv and my family was waiting at the airport to meet us! We dined at their apartment and shared stories. Then Cameron became not only our hostess but also one of our drivers escorting us for the next several days to the conference and back again and her Ukrainian team mate served as my translator.

But God was not done giving. While at the conference I received another gift, one that was probably the most important one. I began to see clearly WHY God had sent them to Ukraine. They were doing a good work…warriors for Jesus Christ. They were seeing God open doors that seemed shut. They brought the hope of the gospel to those who were hopeless. They saw the Spirit of God move and change lives. They had become totally dependent on His leading. They had witnessed His provision and they were well aware of His great protection.

And I began to see that God was in the process of answering my prayer, not my plan.

So for one week, every moment with my daughter and her family was a treasure. And the opportunity to minister to the gracious women who attended the conference was wonderful. But by far the greatest gift was knowing God had heard, God had answered, God was working and God understood the mother’s heart.

Answered prayer and God’s plan: the winning combination.



Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.