Clothes

Don't worry about what you are going to wear.  Aren't the flowers looking stunning?  Look at them!  Do you think they wonder what to wear in the morning?  God is the one who gets them dressed all up fancier than a fabulous king all decked out. 

Easy to read.  Easy to understand.  Not easy to implement.  Particularly for this mommy with a curvy (read here big tummy) body who gets to go to a wedding in her home country SOON.  Do I go with ethnic clothing?  Do I try to fit in and miss the mark?  Big questions but from my reading this very morning big truth is that God will supply and I am not supposed to worry.  That does not mean I will get it right or even close to right.  Last time I was in the States I wore what I thought was still in and got told I looked like a frump!  Thank the LORD for honest friends!!  The above words (my paraphrase) really helped this morning.  Hope they help you too.

What are you fretting about today?  Why?

.....consider joining me on Tuesday

It is Tuesday.  

Why pray?    

I am shooting from the hip here.  Honestly I would rather read a work of Pastor John Piper and give you some reasons thence however here is why on Tuesdays we pack on our kids, walk through the morning smog and pray through gulleys for those living around us.

Firstly we are called to pray.

Secondly we are blessed to pray as we talk and listen to our Father.

Thirdly when we pray we see God answer and our faith is built.

Fourthly when we pray and we hear and see how our Father answers we praise Him.

Aaah the sweet work of prayer.  There are those silent prayers mouthed in deep, warm solitude.  There are those wrestling prayers like Hannah where our words seem strange to those around.  There are those sung prayers, music full of adoration or supplication.  There are dynamite prayers, the Word coupled with real life issues for today.  There are healing prayers.  There are weeping prayers.  There are chatty prayers.  Prayers of praise.  Prayers for change, revival.  There are prayers prayed for years, faithfully worn on the knees and prayers prayed for days lifting hands in delightful glee. There are prayers full of hope or despair.

The list goes on and on and on.  However from my earthly father I learned the great joy of working prayers.  Prayers that you pray on site with insight.  Walking through gulleys, walking down neighborhoods praying with VISION for Christ to come.  Praying before leaving to prayer walk for direction and being so intimately led by our Father in Heaven that your toes tingle. 

We are a motley crew that attracts attention, us Prayer Walkers.  Four folks.  Two pack horses and two riders.  Abe and Zana fairly ooze out of their Ergos bumping along on our backs as we plod through tiny alleys that don’t leave room for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder.  We pray.  We pray hard.  It is work.

Join me today to pray for change in your world.  Pray prayers that you barely have faith to utter.  Pray prayers that seem impossible, write them down and see God work.  Go for a walk in your neighborhood and pray.  Be ready to pray aloud for a neighbor or a stranger.  Pray in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.  Pray with faith.

How can we pray for you?

How can we pray for your family?

Charging our Crystals Together

I have ten minutes max to write so this will be a race to the finish.  Most of my blogs take less than ten minutes and the most time consuming blogs are those with pictures so... no pictures but a great story.

I have an eye infection and so off I went to the doctor here in suburbia India (we are not at home in our overgrown village or I would have NOT gone to the doctor which is an all day affair it seems and drains an individual of all energy and causes a person to contract six new diseases instead of making one better).

In the waiting room of pristine hospital I sat next to this darling charismatic lady.  We talked mainly about childbearing and the miracle that it is to have a child grow inside of you.  I talked about God's role in creating, knitting, knowing each child and my trust in Jesus Christ.  But my words seemed to be soaked up and taken in with everything else this woman believed and twisted into Positive Thinking and All Roads Lead Together.

She lives in a shared family home with her in-laws and brother-in-law.  This coming month his (the bro-in-law) wife will move in with her family, and in-laws after their wedding.  I asked how she felt about the new addition to their family.  Apparently the ladies are soul sisters with a strong sense of spirituality.  They like to "charge their crystals together."  I was a little at a lose.  I live, work and breathe amongst Muslims.  They have one God and feel a keen sense of duty to please Him.  I seldom talk with those with a pluralistic world view even though I live in a nation whose majority population believes in Hinduism.  Why?  Well Muslims all live together.  I would never have to leave my neighborhood if I did not want to, never have to buy anything from a Hindu, or even travel with a Hindu within my city so I seldom talk with Hindus.  This conversation was enlightening and disturbing.

In my ignorance I had no idea the depth of the reality of their world view that believes not only to all ways lead to God (or "A Higher Being", or "Greater Power") but a sense of their own god-ness.  The capability to create, to find their own way, to say that all is right and none is wrong.  I felt as I spoke with this delightful, chatty, lovely lady that she was her own god.  She even said she was the "Creator."

I was way out of my depth but shared of Jesus and His Way being the only Way and then just listened and prayed.

I am thankful for grace which enabled me to see my chains and see Christ and break free.  I am not God.  I am not able to find my own way.  But God in His great MERCY has shown me the one and only Way.  Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

 (ten minutes up! Please pray for India)

Cause for Hope

Spurgeon said, "God will grind sunlight out of your black nights.

Hold onto that Sister!

Cut Throat

I heard someone yelling, "God is Great" and poked my head out around the drying cloth diapers.  A man in a prayer skull cap, skirt (loongi) with no shirt was wielding a large machete.  Don't worry we are all fine.  Though blood is running through the streets.  And Abe and Zana can't play downstairs today because the floor is covered in blood and bits.

Eid is here.  It is messy.  Tomorrow those that have new clothes will wear them, show them off and go visiting but today, the day of sacrifice, it is all blood, guts, gore and sacrifice.  Sometimes as a believer in Jesus Christ I forget how His perfect sacrifice was messy.  The Passion of the Christ, which I watch annually, reminds me of the gore but on a daily basis even in the songs I sing, I forget the bloodiness of Christ's sacrifice.

I am so thankful for Eid.  I am thankful for the reminder that the price is paid.  I am thankful for the festive feeling that permeates the streets.  I am thankful that families are together.  I am thankful for time to spend with neighbors and friends just sitting, talking, and eating the best foods ever.  I am thankful for Christ today and yet also full of burden.  I am saddened as I watch lambs die as a sacrifice for the sins of the family not because I mourn the animal but the deception that a mere animal can atone for sin.

May the True Lamb who takes away the sins of the World be made known today.

Eid Mubarak. 

Cinnamon Bread, Coconut Cupcakes and Chocolate Brownies

Lemon Squares all carefully cut in perfectly equal sides.  Powdered lightly, covered with a nice cloth and then hand delivered downstairs to two sets of families.  Eid is almost upon us and I am cooking up a small storm so that I have hand made items on hand to give away when people come to visit.

I found that the Lemon Squares could NOT stay on the counter, in the freezer or even in the house.  My self control could not withstand these tasty little treats which were supposed to just sit for a few more days.  Oh well.

Our next door neighbor's sacrifice was our morning entertainment as Abe led big old goat up and down the alley way much to the amusement of all my friends who hung out of their windows watching the chaos.  I feel festive myself as the Hindu holiday finished yesterday and it feels as though we can breathe again.  It is my goal to get more photos posted so look forward to that folks.

Well Zana just woke up.  Let the party begin!  Any recipes that go over well with neighbors, and are super easy, let me know.

Cows with Necklaces Parading Through Our Gulley

Friday is Goat Eid.  The Eid of Kurbaani.  Sacrifice.  I love this Eid.  It makes me think of the True Sacrifice, the Final Sacrifice, the Perfect Sacrifice.  The Lamb that was Slain.

Today while at my friend's home the street outside exploded with the sound of children yelling.  A troop of buffalos decked out like Christmas Trees minus the lights were parading by while everyone yelled and laughed and celebrated.  My children hung out the windows two floors up along with the rest of the neighborhood and yelled.  The Holiday of Blood and a Freezer Full of Meat is coming.....

it will be here Saturday.

Until then fatten the sacrificial lamb, goat, buffalo and camel.

Cremation Pre-photography

Today is our day of rest.  Our family day.  We started bright and early a little after 6.  I sat outside on our veranda cuddling with Abe while Zana slept, sipping coffee and listening to early morning sounds.
We ate our coffee bread (a Saturday morning treate).  And then Hubster and I packed both kids into Ergos and off we went to walk to the river.

It is a journey of miles across humanity, filth, and gaping needs.  My Hubster prayed for the city talking about how God cared for Ninevah; its people and cattle.  God cares about the tiny sparrows playing in the grey water on the side of the bazaar lane.  God cares about why a calf lies dead, a rat is smooshed, a dog is clawed.  I tend to overlook the animals as we see little homeless boys pulling plastic out of their feet, widows begging, a man with a withered hand, men sleeping poverty stricken on the side of the gulley, elderly ladies tugging at our sleeves asking for food, for anything.  The humanity deeply suffering touched us today.  We came home sober.  In love with God more for sending His Son to enter into this world and walk on it.  Walk through it.  Die.  Rise. Live.

 It is good living here.  Darkness seems too dark.  Pain seems too vast.  Suffering seems too endless. And yet in those darkest moments of facing the realities of this place Christ seems all the more lovely.

"As believers we never are dead.  We go from life here to life with Christ."  This beautiful truth resonated today as we emerged from gullys above the River at the Cremation Ghats.  The photography shop with dead faces shrouded in marigolds warned me of where we might be but the piles of wood, the smoke, the sorrow, the hopelessness still hit us like a solid wall as we looked down into death and the river beyond.  We turned to find another way down to the river upstream from the burning ghat where ashes return to ashes.

As believers we are never dead.  We are always alive.  We go from life to life.  Glory Be!

That will be real rest.  Until then may I truly care about Ninevah.

Confirm

Confirm, O Lord, we pray Thee, 

the hearts of Thy Children,

and strengthen them with the power of Thy grace; 

that they may both be devout in prayer to Thee, 

and sincere in love for each other;

through Jesus Christ our 

Lord - Amen

                                                                        Leonine, A.D. 440