Take it Personally!

God has been meeting us here in very personal ways, providing just what we need (or want!) at just the right time.  For me, there were 4 things that people either did for me, gave to me, or that were simply there for me, and nobody knew where they had come from.

Scarf

The day before I left for Rome I was given a scarf.  I put it in my backpack and really forgot about it until the first morning in Rome.  We had a pre-breakfast prayer meeting by the swimming pool each morning.  Rome was hot, but not at 6:30AM.  So having that scarf to throw over my shoulders was just perfect.  It felt like a smile from God.  I have also needed the scarf on the buses here in Malta because they are hyper-uber-air-conditioned and freezing cold.  After a roasting hot day, getting on a freezing bus when you’re all sweaty feels really good—at first.  But our bus ride is about 25 minutes, which is plenty of time to get frozen.  So again, having the scarf to throw over my shoulders has been a real blessing and a life-saver.

Pearl

In the Malta airport I found a pearl on the ground.  As many of you know, I have recently opened my apartment in Milan as a missionary guesthouse.  What you might not know is that I named it Pearl House because of a dream that God gave me while I was fasting and praying.  In the dream I saw people lined up on the sidewalk in front of the apartment building.  Each person had a bag overflowing with pearls in their hands.  When I woke up, I realized that these were missionaries taking the Pearl of Great Price (the Gospel) to people in Europe.  So finding that pearl was significant in a very personal way.

Chicken Dinner

Yesterday I took a day off from the Prayer Center to rest, get some laundry done, and work on the computer.  We have had all our meals provided for us, but they have been brought to the Prayer Center.  I had spied a can of tuna and figured that I would just put tuna on crackers, and that would be fine for dinner.  But then the dance team woke up from their nap and made a delicious chicken dinner, and they invited me to share it with them.  They were going to do the overnight shift at the Prayer Center, and opted to get a good nap and arrive too late for dinner.  So instead of cold tuna on crackers, I got a lovely chicken dinner with oven fried potatoes and a delicious fresh fruit salad.

Yogurt

This morning I got up early and caught the first morning bus to the Prayer Center.  I had a cup of coffee before leaving, but I usually don’t wake up hungry.  As I walked into the Prayer Center I wanted a second cup of coffee and something to eat.  My favorite breakfast is a crunchy granola cereal with plain yogurt over it.  On the kitchen counter sat a cup of plain yogurt.  There were 3 people in the Prayer Room, so I asked if the yogurt belonged to anyone.  They all said that they didn’t know anything about it.  But I know: it was a breakfast treat from my Father, who loves me personally and intimately.  God is good!

Enthusiastic Encouragement

Day Nine

There is a lot of work going on at my house in the last couple of weeks.  I have given my friend Nina the job of finishing the work of furnishing the apartment.  She has been out of work for about 6 months, so was thrilled at the opportunity—especially since it means that we see each other every day until the work finishes, and weekly after that.  There are many handyman jobs to be done here as well.  Nina’s brother, Manuel, is a handyman who is also currently without work, due to the seasonal nature of his work (which is usually outdoor handyman work).

It is really nice to be able to bless these 2 friends, and ministry always moves ahead because the apartment is more and more ready to host missionary guests.  Every day the apartment looks better and better.  I can even begin to look forward to the day when I can have a grand opening party.

So, with all this work going on, I have also been emptying those remaining boxes, and finding all sorts of treasure.  Here’s one from a Women of the Harvest retreat that I attended (By the way, Bethany hates the term retreat.  She says that we’re Christians, and we should always be advancing.  We should call them Advances, not Retreats):

15 Ideas to Encourage and Empower Missionary Women

5 Needs of Missionary Women

1. To be spiritually mentored
2. Feel connected
3. To be known, understood, and prayed for
4. To have a close friend
5. Time away from ministry/life responsibilities

5 Simple Ways to Meet Their Needs

1. Take 60 seconds to reply to their newsletter so they know you read it!  Better yet, ask for more information regarding one of their prayer requests.
2. Take 5-10 minutes to ask an intentional question about their personal/spiritual lives.
3. Surprise them with a cash gift for a night out (or a weekend away)!
4. Send cards via postal mail—a rare treasure in the day of electronic communication!
5. Introduce them to the free resources of Women of the Harvest.

5 Ways to Advocate for Missionary Women

1. Share with your church and friends what you’ve learned about the needs of missionary women.
2. Ask your Missions Committee how they keep in touch with your missionaries.  Do they Skype regularly?
3. Ask if each of your missionary women have a spiritual mentor in their lives.
4. Encourage your Missions Committee to take the Member Care quiz.
5. Contact the parents or extended family of you missionaries to understand their needs.

These are all really good suggestions, and I have done most of them in my ministry of encouraging missionaries.  In fact, I would add that for missionaries serving in Europe: educate people that Europe is a mission field.  Whenever I return to the US, I bang that drum long and loud.  I am tired of having my ministry minimized just because I live in Italy.  It happens every time I return to the States.  I hate to think of the missionaries who desperately need support, and their Christian brothers and sisters put their ministry down just because they’ve got indoor plumbing.

(Sorry, can you tell that it gets under my skin?!)

Speaking of encouraging missionaries, this came in my inbox this morning from Guideposts online:  Be Enthusiastic! Be Full of God.  The Greek root of the word enthusiastic means full of God.  The mark of the Gift of Encouragement is enthusiasm.  I can’t help it!  It just comes bubbling up out of me.  And my genuine enthusiasm often helps people see their ministry in a whole new light.  I love having the Gift of Encouragement!

And finally, as most of you know, this is day 9 of my fast for understanding of these times—End Times, to know what’s ahead and how to prepare for it.  So with that in mind, here’s an excerpt from a prophecy newsletter that I received this morning:

Follow Me, and I will lead you to the wells of life.  I will give the living water to you abundantly.  And, I will also feed you with the hidden manna.  Not only will I feed you with that which has not been revealed, for it shall indeed become revelation to you, but I shall also walk with you in fellowship.  You will know Me even more intimately than you know Me today and understand by way of revelation My purposes for this season.  I am about to bring you higher than ever you have been before.  Come to Me, walk with Me, be one with Me, and drink the waters that I give to you and eat the manna that I feed you.  In the days ahead, you will realize what a great treasure is given to you at this time.  Follow Me now.  Come on, let’s go on a journey, you and I together; a journey of joy in which you will experience the power of the kingdom of God; a journey in which your righteousness will be elevated and thus the power of it shall flow out before you; a journey in which you will have victory over all the works of the enemy, says the Lord Almighty.  (Emphasis mine.)

Well, who can help but be enthusiastic with encouragement like that straight from my Father?  God is good!

Feeling God’s Presence

You have searched me, Lord, and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue You, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?  Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are Your thoughts, God!  How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with You.

If only You, God, would slay the wicked!  Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of You with evil intent; Your adversaries misuse Your name.
Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against You?
I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139

Greetings from my home base in Milan!

I had a very nice visit at my new part-time home in North Carolina—a great visit with family and friends, a good rest, and the opportunity to connect with new friends.  Each day I pray for divine appointments, both for myself and for the missionaries and pastors that I pray for daily.  Many of these new friends are the direct result of those divine appointments.

In one of my first encounters back home in Milan a man at a local church asked me to pray for him to “feel the presence of God.”  Of course, this made me extremely sad.  If he’s a believer, then he’s already got the presence of God—always.  It made me wonder if he’s being discipled at all because he should know that.  Unfortunately, because this was actually during the church service, I didn’t have time or the opportunity to explain all this to him or to his leaders, but instead just had a moment to pray, which I did.  I prayed that he would come to understand the omnipresence of God that has never left him and never will leave him.  Afterward, he left before I could explain anything.

This is sadly typical of the Church (the universal Body of Christ) in Italy.  They get hooked on that wonderful feeling of God’s presence, but have little understanding of God, Himself.  None of us “feels” God’s presence all the time.  That’s where faith is so important.  Faith is based on facts, not on feelings.  We must believe that He is right here with us at all times and through all circumstances.  Sometimes it feels like our prayers echo back off the ceiling unheard.  I have felt this especially in the midst of depression.  Read Psalm 139 to understand what the facts are.  Psalm 139 is an assurance not just of God’s presence, but of His intimate knowledge of each of us—especially believers.  He hears our prayers even before the words are formed on our lips.  More than that, Romans 8:26-27 tells us that the Holy Spirit searches our heart and intercedes (prays) for us according to God’s will.

If you are suffering from depression or otherwise not feeling God’s presence, read Psalm 139—in fact, read it aloud daily—and take comfort from it.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).  If God is on your side, that’s all you need to live a victorious life!