Big Stuff or Little People

The children had a broody hen that hatched one solitary chick out of the pile of eggs she sat on.

But does she ever mother that one little chick!

"Mothering a mess of kids is as important as preaching to a stadium for a month of Sundays," wrote Ann Voskamp, another mother, on her blog.  "The size of your ministry isn’t proof of the success of your ministry.

The very Son of God had a ministry to 12. And even one of them abandoned Him. Forget the numbers in your work. Focus on the net value of  your work."

So when I come home from New Guinea where I had the joy of teaching Sunday School to 30 and 60 and about 150 children at a time,

and where the missionary added up the numbers and figured that our crew had ministered to hundreds of people...

and Rosa tells me how much the simple things I said meant to the ladies and to her personally,

and how everywhere we went she said we brought a "bundle of joy--"

 when I come home from there,

it's just the kids and me.

It doesn't feel like I'm doing anything significant.
It doesn't feel like I'm making much of a difference for anyone or anything.

I would have sacrificed a lot to go back to New Guinea--and be a missionary.

I absolutely love being a missionary.

It's what I was called to be.

But there are seasons in life. 

And right now, like it or not, mothering comes first.

Then I read:

"Your most meaningful work in the Kingdom of God may not be the big things that you do — but the one little person you love."

And I am so glad I have my littlest daughter helping me paint the chair,

even though I could do it easier and faster myself.

And I let the boys set a tent up in the front yard,

and play a toddler game with my littlest daughter when she is feeling sad about something.

And I feel the spurt of energy that comes from an anointed encouragement from another mom who wants to do great things for God (and does them) but keeps her family first.

So little by little I get back into the groove,

and gain courage as this mother quotes from another author:

"I bend over each strawberry plant, press the delicate white petals between thumb and index finger —and then just pluck it off," she writes. "So there’ll be no strawberries this year."

[No mission accomplishments, no Sunday School teaching to dozens of children, no orphans helped.]

"It’s what you have to do," the author goes on. “Pick off all first blooms to ensure subsequent harvests are more plentiful.”

If you ever intend for the strawberries to produce heavily throughout the season, you have to choose to sacrifice the first harvest, so that all the growth and energy could be more efficiently invested into producing later crops."

 Wow!

So I say no to going back to New Guinea to be a missionary--and say yes to finishing raising my children. 

"Cut out that which seems good to invest in the best.

It is the law of life: Early sacrifice for later bounty.

I stand over the schedule and there’s ...this saying no... trimming back, letting go.

It can be hard to prune good things that are blooming. It can be hard to remember why you are pruning.

Because there’s a counter-intuitiveness to it, this plucking off certain life activities that will yield good fruit. Some might even think it foolish to pare back, when the bloom and gifting apparent; a good harvest inevitable.

Yet it’s the pruning of seemingly good leaves that can grow a better life. 

To allow later seasons to yield the longed-for abundant crop.

It takes courage to crop a life back — but it’s exactly the way to have the best crop of all.

What seems like hard work that’s taking an eternity today — is exactly what may make the most difference in eternity.

"Invitations aren’t obligations. Invitations are options... Every yes automatically says no somewhere else."

******

"A crop is made by all the seasons and the only way to have it all — is not all at the same time… but letting one season bring its yield into the next.

This is how to have no fear — each season makes a full year.

What can seem like a plucking of dreams — may be the wisest of investments.  In the later harvest. The sweetest one."

*****

from

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2016/07/how-to-face-the-challenge-facing-all-women-how-to-support-women-to-be-all-theyre-called-to-be/?utm_source=email+marketing+Mailigen&utm_campaign=daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email

Apples for Pie and Cherries for Cobbler

This week Grandma Lucas called about a tree near them that had Early Transparent apples that are good for pies.

I took the children the next day and we had a wonderful time picking apples.

And of course, the children had fun swinging like monkeys and gobbling up all the apples they wanted. 

What a treat!

My sweet daughter Crystal.

In just a few weeks, she's planning to leave again for college.

I am so thankful for projects like this to keep my growing boys busy and out of trouble.

To say  nothing of my growing girls.

 Then Grandpa had told me that there was a cherry tree not far away that they didn't have any more time to pick. 

So I called the owner who told me where to come.

I should have taken a picture of the dear old man who seemed to very much enjoy watching all the children picking cherries. He reminded me of my own Grandpa Morgan, whom my mom loved dearly, and whom we children also loved for his unique sense of humor, patience, and his Welsh heritage.

I thought we might get a few cups of cherries off this tree, but I had no idea how many there actually were!

There were thousands of cherries, many low enough to pick without being on a ladder.

We had to cut off the netting that was all around the tree to protect it from the birds.

This was the first time our family has had the fun of picking cherries.

 I can't get over how special that was, and how grateful I was for those luscious cherries.

We got about 11 or 12 quarts of cherries.

 That was a tiring day, but we had to pit all those cherries right away because they had gotten rather squashed in the bags we had.

Thankfully the cherries were so nice that all we had to do was squeeze them a bit and the pits popped right out. 

We were thankful the job did not take too awfully long, and we ended up with ten quarts of frozen pie cherries!

Sorry for the mess behind us--I was re-lacquering window frames which I have to do almost every summer now because of condensation in the winter, so I have the wood box and sewing desk out of place.

We hadn't expected to get more than a few apples, which turned into a few bushels, and then the cherries to top it off!

What a blessing!

I can't describe how happy I am to have these experiences for the children,

learning to harvest from real trees in real life, 

and not just from coolers in grocery stores.

I said something about cherries going well with chocolate, so Carrie made up a recipe of chocolate cherry cobbler, which was wonderful! She just substituted some cocoa for some flour in a berry cobbler recipe.
And of course, strawberry ice cream on top just topped it off!

Roofing Church in Denver--Before the Storm Hits

In mid-July, a group of six men from the Beavertown God's Missionary Church traveled out here to Colorado to put a new roof on the church and parsonage in Denver where a new young couple, Christian and Holly Walker, are coming to pastor, Lord willing, in August.

Jonathan pulled the permit for the work and organized getting material ready, 

as well as having two huge dumpsters delivered to collect all the old roofing that was torn off.

Our family went up one day to take up supper and see how things were going.

Sam and Timmy had gone early in the morning to help with the roofing.

It was a hot day, and those men and boys braved those temperatures to keep the work moving.

 Inside, Larry Kratz worked on laying flooring. His wife was having physical difficulties, one reason which led the men to head home sooner than expected, but not till the roofing was all on and the flooring finished in the kitchen and livingroom. Praise God for this help to this little church!

As we prepared supper, Jonathan had to take one of the men to Urgent Care to check out the awful blood blister that had developed after his leg went through the roof on the church. Thank the Lord, nothing was serious and the man did not fall all the way through!

However, Jonathan had to lay aside his plans to pick up some groceries for the men in order to purchase a huge piece of plastic to cover the parsonage as we watched a storm brew and come our way. 

 Hurry! Hurry! 

Colton and Linford tack on the roofing felt as fast as they can, while lightning begins to strike closer and closer. We really appreciated these young guys' hard work.

This church roof looked to me like it was the highest thing around, and I was alarmed about the men working up that high, but they had to get the felt on before the rain hit.

Sam worked hard carrying roofing up to the roof peak while Hannah watched from the ladder.

Rose and I prepared supper of meatballs, roasted potato wedges, green beans and bacon, rolls and salad and cookies, with a very limited supply of dishes and pans, plus the refrigerator in the middle of the kitchen floor while the flooring was being done.

Jonathan arrived back with plastic and the men lay it out over the roof as the rain begins to sprinkle and the wind whips up. 

The plastic billowed and flapped, and the rain came down, chasing everyone inside after a while.

Thank the Lord they got the plastic in place just in time.

Jonathan went out later to crawl under the back of the church and look to see where there is damage from termites. That needs to be fixed, too. 

The men were able to finish the roofing, but gutter still needs to be put up, and some tile work done in the bathrooms. 

We wish we were more than one family, because we cannot do everything.

We are so grateful for the willingness of these men in Pennsylvania to travel all the way out here to help a little church in a Spanish area in Denver.

Many thanks to those who sacrifice with no remuneration for small places like this.

And sometimes, you just have to sit back and not stress out about what doesn't get done right away.

How about having one grass hut and no floor?

Because after being in PNG, you realize people really can survive without the tile being in perfect shape on the bathroom floor. 

And how much we Americans stress out over everything not being perfect, up-to-date, and up to the Joneses--whoever the Joneses are.

I was touched by the words of Ann Voskamp the other day:"Sometimes you have to answer — when no one else hears a thing. 
Sometimes you need to step up — when everyone else is still sitting down. 
Sometimes in living your best life, the most missed ingredient — is to live obedient to God...
Regardless of what anyone thinks of us.
Maybe the genuine followers of Christ always march to their own drum —
Thrum: 'I will walk with God. Thrum: Even if I walk different than everyone else.'

Do we realize that 'nothing is lost by sacrifice and everything is lost when you’re sitting down when you should be stepping up? That when you’re waiting for an answer and it seems like life is silent — God is actually calling?
That who answers God’s call loses nothing, but a life deaf to God’s call loses everything?

Bee-ing Still--Under Pressure

One morning just after Timmy had brought home a new hive of bees, 

I had to go out to move a pan of honey off the deck.

This is how I dressed up--rain jacket, thin scarf over my face, and big leather gloves!

At the same time, I wasn't all that afraid of the bees.

When I was a very wee girl, I had sat on a porch swing beside an old man at an assisted living home

where my mom was a helper to the cook for a few months.

A bee had come buzzing nearby and I had panicked.

But the old man had said, "If you sit very still, there is no reason to be afraid of it.

See!"

And he let the bee land right on his finger, where it sat safely and serenely--and he did not get stung!

That left an unforgettable impression upon me as a tiny little girl. 

I was never again quite that afraid of bees.

When Timmy was working with the bees the other day, I was up close and never got stung.

There is a lot to be said about being still.

Being still and letting the bees buzz.

Whatever the bees are in your life--

pesky annoyances, hurtful grievances, hurt feelings, unfair treatment and criticisms, life's messes--

and those things that go hopelessly on and on and never are resolved. 

It isn't easy to be still. 

I read this evening in Fitzwater's blog about perseverance. She wrote,

"Interesting that the Christian experience rests on the word “persevere”, which means 

 to stay under pressure.

Stay under the water. Don’t fight the seaweed.

"What I want is for [my troubles] to go away and to quit...and to go back to easy. That’s what I want. (Well, not really, but you know that quitting-would-be-easier-than-doing feeling, right?)

But God doesn’t pull Jonah up out of the water. He keeps him right underneath there –just sends a big fish instead.

"God might want us to stay right where we are. Let it be hard. Feel the pressure of responsibility bearing down.

"Can’t breathe under it all. So we pray. We call out for strength.

Jonah says, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” (Jonah 2:2 NIV)

The distress doesn’t go away. There is just the answer in the middle of it.

Being swallowed up by something large and unexpected. Being swallowed into a place where there’s air but not freedom from the pressure all around. 

And right there from the fish Jonah sings of grace and thanksgiving and salvation.

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

 (Did you get that?)

But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you."

http://www.christyfitzwater.com/thankfulness/overwhelmed-but-with-oxygen/