picturesfromheaven

We woke up to an alarm at 3:30 a.m. in Milado, Indonesia and 41 hours later arrived home. Our Heart to Heart missions' team arrived home safe, emotionally and physically drained, exhausted beyond words, but full of what God had done in us and through us while we were away. Unfortunately, all 12 suitcases for our team were lost...but we are thankful to be home. I think everyone mentioned something about hamburgers when we arrived at O'Hare airport at 4:50 a.m. Girls, did you get your hamburgers? This is us at midnight in Hong Kong waiting for our overdue flight...

How can I even begin to describe our mission's trip? Impacting, awesome, draining, exhilarating, stretching, anointed, devastating and life changing doesn't even begin to describe it. We left Chicago Thursday afternoon, stopped in L.A., Korea, and Hong Kong before arriving in Manila, Philippines for a 5 hour layover and a visit with Jane (more about her in a later blog) and her ministry in the dumps and a cemetery...yes cemetery where THOUSANDS of people live. I've seen a lot of sights in my 53 years and travels around the world, but never have I seen such hopelessness, such poverty, such abject suffering as I did that day. Nor seen such beautiful smiles. I've never met a true, honest to goodness hero before, but I have now. Jane's tenaciousness, compassion, vision and courage in reaching the destitute left me breathless...our whole team breathless. And that was just the beginning of the trip. We flew on to Davao to begin our Pastors/Women's Ministry Conference after a very short night's sleep.

For three days all of us poured into the women of the Philippines. We sang, loved, taught, testified, preached and prayed until there nothing left of us, only Jesus. He came through in such an awesome way...hearts were healed, hope restored, vision cast, prophetic words given and friends made. The day after the conference closed we went to the Children's Circus, a children's' ministry reaching the poorest region of Davao. The smiles and hugs we received was one of the highlights of our trip. Then off to the orphanage and afterwards a few hours of down time which my team took advantage of to shop. We had a blast. The next day we worshiped and ministered in the Releaser of Life Church. It's a wonderful church in Davao and I believe the pastors there, which I now consider friends will also be strategic ministry partners for the future.

The next day we flew to Manado, Indonesia to start all over...this time through interpreters. It started off really slow...like they were going to watch us a bit to see if we were real. But by the middle of the second day we were hugging, crying, smiling and rejoicing together. There was such a wonderful breakthrough. I can't even find words to describe. Of course, it's been about 50 hours now with only 4 hours sleep, but even with adequate rest, I don't think that I would be able to describe the love we felt from the Indonesian women at that conference. Our hearts were knit to theirs...and we again made friendships that I believe will prove strategic for future ministry of Heart to Heart. The managers of the hotel where we stayed were wonderful people...the wife, Ruth, a Filippina became a true sister of our heart. And I believe we will be working with her through out the world. God is so good...so awesome...the women we've met, ministered to and ministered with will never be forgotten. The power of the Holy Spirit working through us for those two weeks will humble me for some time to come. The poverty, richness, sacrifice and dedication of those we met has changed us, reshaped us and made us better women.

So no pictures from heaven today. Just pictures from our trip...although there were moments when I thought I was in heaven. Enjoy!

Hey...how are you all doing? How was your Christmas? How was your New Years? Did you enjoy the Super Bowl? Obviously, it's been some time since I've written and we have a lot of catching up to do. Let me know how you are doing. I'm about to tell you about me...

Stress has taken on a whole new meaning as this year came crashing through. My mother had another major surgery and I needed, wanted to take a couple weeks to take care of her. I've preached at our Shorewood, South Bend and Tinley Campuses. I've created a whole new curriculum for Heart to Heart our International Ministry for women. Worked with our Board of Director to get H2H non-profit. Kicked of the new H2H term, kicked of the promotion for our H2H retreat. Videoed the first three lessons, and written the first four. I've stepped up the ole exercising thing, have a trainer and everything. Taken care of family, my house has never been so full. What happened to empty nest? But the biggest responsibility of all was preparing a team of H2H women to go with me to the Philippines and Indonesia. That included training, creating a devotion book, ordering pens with H2H logo on them, buying toys and gifts for the orphanage and oh yes, writting out 9 lessons. This morning I was up at 4:30 for it's our last day at home and our last training session and I found out that I had lost my file with all of the updates of the lessons from this week. I've been putting in 14 hour days to get it done and you can probably imagine my response when the computer, rather the computer demon lost it. My response had tears, screams and hyperventilating as my husband calmly kept telling me. Chris, it's not lost. It's there somewhere. But 2 1/2 hours later, my husband, daughter and our church IT guy confirmed what I knew in those first paniced moments...its gone. I went ahead with the 3 hour training breakfast. I even managed to stop my tears long enough to make the breakfast. We eat, planned, prepared and prayed. Some prayed more effectively than others. I really wasn't into it. Yes, I was upset at God. Stupid thing, I know. It was something that I did when I was exhausted I'm sure. But I was thinking to myself, couldn't the Holy Spirit nudged me and said, "na na na"? The good news is that after everyone left and I went to my computer to try to recreate everything, God settled my heart and mind enough that I was able to work. But just a few moments ago when I finally called it quits, I asked God why I initially handled the situation so badly. His answer was a question, "How's been your praise life?" And I admitted to something He already knew, it has been non-existent... So I stopped and praised. But before I put on my out of office, gone to the Philippines and Indonesia sign, I thought I would stop and share my life, and more importantly, much more importantly this word. I pray that it blesses you.

Picture…I saw a picture of a man sitting on a medical table like you see in most doctors’ offices with a wounded knee. Although it wasn’t very serious, no amputating required, the whole knee was badly scraped, bleeding and raw. There was a nurse trying to cleanse the wound before bandaging, but she was called away. The man impatient to be on his way, found a box of Band-Aids. He found the smallest one in the box and tried to cover the wound with it. It was ridiculous. I was ready to tell the man, get the biggest bandage in the place, that little bitty Band-Aid is not going to help you a bit, when the Lord surprised me.

Hear…the Lord say, “ When wounded, you must worship in proportion to the size of the wound to cover it with my grace so that it can heal.”

Consider: I was surprised because I really never thought about worship in regards to healing of personal wounds. I know that at times worship is an act of faith and it can also be a weapon, but I never considered it as part of a healing regiment. But it makes sense. Worship covers the wound while healing agents of forgiveness, solitude, or changing of attitudes and mindsets are applied. Since it protects us while the healing is taking place it only makes sense that you need to worship in proportion to the size and depth of the wound. If it is a shallow wound, easily mended, a small amount of worship is all that is required. But if your heart feels like it is breaking, and it hurts so bad its difficult to breathe, then you are going to need to worship God in proportion to that hurt. The more you hurt, the more you need to worship HIM. Now I know this sounds impossible to anyone who is presently hurting, because worship is the last thing you probably feel like doing right now. If you are like me, all you want to do is cry, be alone in the dark or hit someone hard in the nose. But I truly believe that you need to push through your personal suffering until you reach Christ’s suffering. Worship Him with everything that is within you. Worship Him in proportion to your need. As you worship, you will find the healing mercy of God applied to your wound. God knows that you are hurting; he is right there beside you, waiting to minister grace and hope as you worship him. God wants to heal your wounds and change it from something that is hindering you to the very thing that is going to promote you in his kingdom.

However, others do not cause all wounds. Some wounds are caused by what we have done. If you have repented and asked God to forgive you, but for some reason you can’t forgive yourself, it’s probably destroying you. You are being robbed of peace, joy, contentment and hope. Hear the Lord as he speaks to you right now. “My blood has already covered the failure. My blood has already covered the sin. I love you, I have already forgiven you and I am standing here waiting to embrace you. Just worship me and release the shame and the hurt that has been attached to the memory.”

You may not be in pain today. God may be calling you to be a mender of broken hearts and wounded spirits. Even though you are probably already aware that God wants you to touch hurting people, you may be struggling with what to say or what to do. Although you are attracted to the hurting, to a certain extent, they also frighten you because of your uncertainty. What the Lord wants you to understand today is that there is nothing special that you need to do or say. Sometimes our words get in the way. All that you need to do is be aware. That’s it. That’s all you have to do. He will do the rest. Be aware that the person that you bump into on the train, or slide by in the aisles of church might be someone to whom God is sending you. When you sense God’s gentle nudge, stop. Stop what you are doing and focus on that person. Allow God to direct you in what you need to do or say. It could be as simple as a smile, hug or embrace. It could be a scripture or a word of encouragement. But mostly God just wants to love on them through you.

Prayer: “Lord, I love you and I appreciate you stopping my day to tell me how much you love me and want to minister to my wounded condition. Thank you that you are aware of each and every hurt. I am amazed that you can actually take these hurts and turn them into something that will give you praise, be for my good, and kick the devil in the shins all at the same time. But I understand that is what can happen when I worship you through the difficulty and pain. I love you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for allowing evil men to torture your body so that your blood could flow freely to my wounds today. I receive your healing right now in Jesus Name. I let go of the hurt. I let go of the past. I also promise to be aware of your gentle nudge as you bring other hurting people into my path. I know from personal experience that people don’t need a lecture; they just need love. So allow your love to flow through me to others. Help me to be a conduit of your compassion and your grace. In Jesus Name, Amen.”