I'm Not the Only One Asking ,"IF?"

Yesterday a group of women that I have been reading announced a conference they are planning to do in Feb 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/IFgathering?fref=ts

I am excited because God is on the move. He is moving in the hearts of women. I find it interesting that Jesus appeared to women first when he was raised from the dead. It was women who did not leave him at the cross. It was women who tended his body.

God is speaking to a lot of us. These women are known they have published books, they have united to raise awareness about the plight of our sisters and their dying children. Their hearts are stirred to do something about it. Just like mine is.

When they first posted about the conference they aimed it at young women. I signed up anyway. I might be 57 but God is speaking to me about this exact thing. In fact he isn't just speaking He is BREAKING MY HEART over it! I belong there.

I think God is raising up an army. He is raising up an army of mothers. He is calling on those who have babies and have raised children and cannot imagine what it would be like to have
ABSOLUTELY NOThiNG to feed your baby or children with.

There are those of us who cannot stand to hear a hungry baby cry. WE cannot close our eyes to women so thin they have no milk.
We cannot turn away from the plight of our neighbors anymore.

JESUS said this, "The greatest commandments are these to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind; and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself."

Who is our neighbor?
http://youtu.be/hSqG6P8tF2E

neigh·bor

/ˈneɪbər/ Show Spelled [ney-ber] Show IPA

noun

1.

a person who lives near another.

2.

a person or thing that is near another.

3.

one's fellow human being: to be generous toward one's less fortunate neighbors.

4.

a person who shows kindliness or helpfulness toward his or her fellow humans: to be a neighbor to someone in distress.

5.

(used as a term of address, especially as a friendly greeting to a stranger): Tell me, neighbor, which way to town?

 

According to Jesus there are no strangers. We teach our children to be afraid of people, not to talk to anyone, to be safe and there is a point to that; but what about this?

What about go for the gusto?

What about he who dies with the most toys wins?

He who dies with the most toys just dies, there is no U-Haul behind any hearse.

 

We can't take it with us. We only have here and now and our neighbors. We have, we are rich. Everyone here is rich. Even our poor are not really poor, our hungry aren't starving to death. We do have pockets of severe poverty. However, it rains here, we can grow food. We do not have a nation in famine. 

 

 http://lifetoday.org/about-life/

We do not sit in the dirt and watch our children die.

I can't look anymore. I can't spend money on this.

Grooming is $68 now. Dog food, heart worm prevention, flea prevention, vet care, etc...

This is extravagance to me. Sammie's groomer wants him. I have been thinking about this for awhile. I did not ask her she asked me. She wants a dog that will get on her bed and sleep with her and get up on the couch. She lives in the country with a huge fenced yard and has two other friendly dogs. Neither of her dogs is very affectionate they like to play and just be dogs. She is a groomer and never could afford a poodle and has always wanted one. She thinks Sam is the most beautiful poodle she has ever seen.

Are you kidding me?  Talk about a great rescue story and a happily ever after :) yeah this works for me. Since her store is near my house she will bring Sam over for visits to spend the day. Just like Roman I get to be is extended family.  I love this.

I am hoping that this will also appease my husband. I hope he will endorse Mercy. I am hanging onto my heart for dear life with this hound dawg. She has her winsome ways. I could let her go to a forever home too, but it would make me cry. It would.

More importantly though are these children who DO make me cry.
More importantly are my neighbors and sisters and those who suffer and hurt.

http://amazima.org/

Katie got it. Katie left the education, the gorgeous fiancee, the cute convertible car, the life of entitlement and wealth. She left it because her heart broke. Now she has adopted 14 orphans and is busy every day all day giving love. She is FULL.

The question for me and for you and for all of us is what makes us full?

What is it that really satisfies us?

How long does the kick from the new shoes last? OR the chocolate? Or the sex? Name your poison.
How long does it last, that little happy feeling, brief as a snow flake, and just as transient.

What is lasting? What brings joy?

I believe in Jesus and I am not ashamed of the gospel. For to those who are perishing it is foolishness but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Jesus said, I AM the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE! He said to love your neighbor.
He said that to lose your life is to find it.
He told us to be peacemakers.
He asks us to give our coat if we have two.

He is LOVE and you can always trust the red letters. The ones that are his words.

He is calling now. He is raising up an army of women. An army to feed, to love, and to change the world. Do you want to join?

 

Changes Changes

WOW what a day at We Will Go we got to take 2 vehicles downtown with donations for the poor, food and clothes. Big SMILES as in HUGE. I need a new expression to replace a s*#t eatin grin.
That just isn't appropriate but it is a good description of my face so great was my joy!  Our church sent out an e mail blitz and the people responded.

THEN listening to Amy's amazing stories of being deep in the bush of Mozambique with nothing.
How some people suffer. It fit right in with the 7 study and what God is doing in my heart already.
We are in the week that focuses on clothing. My 7 items are pretty easy choices because I don't wear a lot of what is in my closet. I do love my make up and my bling. My choice is going to be to reduce in those areas. I'm going to sell a lot of my bling to begin raising money to go to Uganda in October. My cousin who lives in Southlake TX has invited me. We are going to meet Katie of Amazima, and other activities with the people. Last time she went 5000 people were baptized. My Compassion International son Isaac lives there too. I hope I can visit him and his family.

So much to do and so little time.

I have been ministering to the sick and the old. A woman in my LG class was sent home with an open incision that needs dressing changes and packing daily; it's only from her sternum to her pubis and she is supposed to do this HERSELF. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
So much for the great improvements in health care. I thank God I know what to do and go to her home and take care of her.

I can see that there is so much to do that having a job is not on the agenda. My back and feet wouldn't hold up anyway. I have been having intense lower back pain but just ignore it. I had years of working like that. I'd rather be busy than baby myself and give in to it.

Life is so good. I am so grateful! God is so faithful so rich in mercy. My heart is so full it's spilling.

My little rescue girl is something else what a great dog. The hubbins only wants one dog here.
I have been thinking this over carefully. To save her life it seems to me the decision is to place Sammie.  Maybe I am becoming a foster dog mama. You would think I wouldn't be able to let them go but I can. It gives me so much satisfaction to save their lives and restore their health and trust and then find them the perfect home. Mercy is going to have puppies.  They will need homes too.
You should have seen Roman when his family came home. He was so joyful and happy that he went out of here without even looking back. THAT did hurt a little, but it was a good hurt. He is HAPPY and they are madly in love with him. He is their Rasmus I had my Rin Tin Tin and some times in life that is a one time experience. I still love dogs and doing this is a very cool thing. I really love it.

Please pray for the perfect placement for Sammie and for Mercy's puppies to be healthy. She needs to gain a LOT of weight quick her ribs are not showing as much but she is still very thin. She has such a beautiful wheaten coat and she has been awesome.

Mercy is our Rescue.

Introducing MERCY.

 

She is here.

From this terrible situation.

 

 To this beautiful yard. She has been beaten, starved, abandoned, and she is pregnant.

But right now life is better and she is already smiling. We will keep her food bowl full. She is heart worm negative and less than a year old. She is beautiful. She is stealing my heart with her gentle calm spirit. If she can steal my husbands heart then I will keep her. That is a pretty big if. He has given me two weeks to find her home. She is pregnant though and will take a pregnant dog? Do I really want her to be taken?

 I'm glad she feels comfortable enough to trot around she has been cowering on the ground.

 So much to smell so much to enjoy.

 Am I safe? Is this real? Yes, Mercy it is real. I received mercy and grace when I was in her shape. I wasn't pregnant but I had been beaten and I cowered.  I can relate to her. She sticks to my hip like a glue stick.  I know I started this to foster but she is seriously pulling on my heart.
I hope she understands and figures out she needs to win over the hubs. Since it was a man who beat her that may be hard.  I can only hope and pray.

Sometimes on my blog I talk about blue sky thinking. If you could do anything what would you do? 
My blue sky dreaming is this;  to have a really big home down town near We Will Go where I can take in the old, the women, the orphans, and the dogs; I want to run a big home and be a big mama.
I want to teach these women how to feed and love their children. I want to take the elderly that need care and teach the young to love them. It's home schooling expanded to the community. I have always been multi-generational.  I don't believe in segregating by age. IF you don't isolate people they learn to love and accept each other.

 

This little 3 year old girl is already learning to love everybody. She is the daughter of ghetto missionaries. She is going to grow up without fear of color, without fear of age, she has a distinct advantage.  Our society would say she is very disadvantaged to be in this environment.  Jesus would say differently, Jesus is pleased.

It is hard to speak and ask for the poor. It seems to fall on deaf ears with all the other pleas for help.
Just like Mercy, if everyone would foster a dog, feed a child, donate to their local food bank, consume less; and give more; then we the people would change the world. That is another pretty big IF.

My People Perish

Sometimes when we ask God a question he doesn't waste anytime in answering.

In my last post I had asked, "what would I do if I met a really hungry child in real life?"  

What affect would that have on me?

Sunday night I met two hungry children.

They had not eaten all day.

Monday morning we went with groceries.

 

For I was hungry and you fed me.

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.

 

 The little boy was naked when we came. No diapers, no food. This is not this woman's home. It is an abandoned house with squatters in it, other street people took her in. She wants to go home to Texas to her family.

 We brought some toys and some love, food and clothing. I had brought a pair of shorts and we slipped them on the little man and packed everybody up in the car to go buy diapers and go to We Will Go for the clothing ministry and Bible study.

I was naked and you clothed me.

 So sad. The dog broke my heart too. I have offered to take it and get it a home. It's owner is unstable and abuses it. I wanted to just take the children and the dog, but that isn't the answer. We are going to work on the guy who has the dog to voluntarily give her up. We are going to help this mother.

 Poor baby. At least there is water in that blue tub. (Not to confuse you but these pictures were taken yesterday.) Today I rescued the dog she is at my vet and is going to be available for adoption. Such a sweet calm gentle girl!!!! Heart worm negative too and very young not even a year old yet.

This is squalor don't know whose stuff or what but the reek would knock you over. URINE. Why don't homeless people pee outside? This sight as appalling as it is made me give thanks for my mother. I realized that I am a resourceful person because I had a good mother. My mother taught me from the time I could stand on a chair to make food, wash dishes, hold babies, feed and change babies. My mother taught me everything about mothering. Some women don't know how. Be careful not to judge!!

 Even in the midst of the mess the promise of hope is written on the wall.

 Back at We Will Go Levi is teaching us about the shekinah glory of God. He made a reference to Iron Man's bright power heart that I just loved. YEAH we are like Iron Man with the glory of God in our new hearts too!!!! AWESOME!

 This sweet little one is the child of one missionary couple she is adorable and even better being raise in this environment which some would say is horrible and unsafe. She is learning to love the needy.

 She is safe and loved. She is being raised by missionaries in our local mission field. Right here in Jackson. Isaiah 62-64 you will no longer be called a city of death.

 A little out of focus but these two are adorable too. I wanted to adopt them. BUT like I told their mother, God chose HER out of all the people in the world to have these two souls. They are so sweet and loving! I spoke a lot of affirmation into her life that SHE CAN DO THIS! She can make wise choices, she can be strong, she can be a good mother. The poor woman has had so much trauma.
I think she has PTSD. The good news is we contacted a shelter, who contacted a beneficiary, who paid for them to go home to Texas. This mistake cost her a car she just left it behind but sometimes you cut your losses and go. We made sure their really was an Aunt who would receive them and wanted to help them. So as I write this they are all on a Greyhound bus headed for their home. They have food and clothes for the journey.

 Such purty babies God love em. I picked out the little man's outfit and dressed him. His sissy got some cowgirl boots like me, and new pink panties. She loved that. I told her all native born Texa-cans need some cowgirl boots! I hope they grow up to love white people. I told them Jesus loved them and I would never forget them. I will pray for them for the rest of my life.

 IRON MAN!!  YES!!!

 Frames for sale at WWG made out of the wood from abandoned falling down houses. How cool is this recycle? If you want to buy one go to this link. http://www.wewillgo.org/main.html Also if you want to donate food or clothes or anything else you can find out how at their website.

 Some of those who serve and love.

 Enjoying the story time and so good, so sweet. Many kisses to these precious cheeks.

Now I know what I will do when I meet hungry children in need. Feed them, clothe them, hug them, kiss them, and love them as much as I can in the name of sweet Jesus. I know I can NOT look away or walk away and do nothing. I passed this test.

Morning Thoughts Beyond my Borders

Guess what it's hot outside, can you imagine? As I get older or fatter don't know which I have a harder and harder time tolerating heat and humidity. When the windows are dripping I chicken out and stay in the house. COWARD. The garden needs work, the house is being painted by myself and some friends....I do a lot of trim work that is in easy reach. Right now I am just plain chicken. I don't want too..boo boo lip pout face.

My own response to discomfort shames me. I have been paying more and more attention to the "state of things" in this world. It is a hot mess. No matter what "party" you belong too they are both screwed up. We are still at war, we are poisoning our own food supply, our health care is absurd and broken, we consume about 90% of the worlds resources for ourselves while the rest starve and would give anything to drink water as clean as our toilets have. We are sick.

It started with Sammie. When I saw a real life starved dog there was this immediate response in me to take him home and feed him. I had compassion for a dog. He weighed 24 pounds and now he weighs 44 pounds and he is beautiful. He IS a NINNY of a dog with huge separation anxiety issues but he is a rescue so of course he has issues. There is no telling what his life was like for his first 3 or 4 years. It's amazing he survived.  That experience got me to thinking about the difference between REAL LIFE and the media. REAL LIFE has impact and the media is numbing. We can look at pictures and do nothing.

What if WE THE PEOPLE began to live differently. What if we the people began to share our resources with the starving children in Haiti, Africa and other famine stricken places on this planet?
What if we began to take an inventory of all the little bargains we indulge in and total that up and realize it could save the lives of entire families. What if thinking about children who don't eat for days and drink warm salt water for their pain broke our hearts?
http://www.loveachild.com/
I wonder what would happen to me if I went there and saw them. I wonder if I was ladling bowls of porridge into the bowls of starving children what I would do and feel when the pot was empty but the lines were still there and those children would not eat.  I want my heart to break.

Some friends of mine are coming over and we are doing a study together on the book, "7 an experimental mutiny against excess, by Jen Hatmaker"   Our minds are being blown wide open to what has been going wrong on this planet.  The government can't fix this mess. It's us.
We the people who have been sucked into consumerism, and can turn our eyes away from the plight of the rest of the world.

To whom much is given, much is required. We have so much, even our poor are not poor. You are poor when you are a grown woman weighing 69 pounds struggling to find anything to feed your children whose bellies protrude and bones stick out. You are poor when the earth around you is so cracked that nothing will grow. You are poor when the only water to drink is dirty and you know it will make you sick, it will make your children sick, but you are all thirsty and that is all there is.
You have no shoes so your feet get wounded scouring the dumps for anything to eat or sell.
You have no clothing so you are naked.
You lie on your stomach to try and sleep because it hurts less from starvation.
http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

I can't hardly put anything down the garbage disposal anymore. There are hundreds of food items in my kitchen, refrigerator and pantry.  My closets could probably clothe a small village. Most of what hangs up in there I don't even wear that much. I usually have 2 pairs of favorite jeans and about 3 favorite tops. I confess I love my bling....but do I need as much as I have?

Why am I saying all this?  I want for us to wake up. We are mothers, we are women. We could not watch an infant cry all day and not feed it or look at our children's faces  with their empty dust filled bowls. This is the plight of our "neighbors" those across the water whose lives are not blessed like ours are. Yet these people will do ANY work, and SHARE anything. They do not hoard up for themselves there is too much pain everywhere to even consider it.
http://www.lifetoday.org/
We have so much to learn. We have so much to give. If only we would wake up.

Renovate Renovate Dance With A Paint Brush

 

 It's been a busy, hot, WET, spring here.

 The hubbins built a NEW arbor and I stained it. I missed the other one.

 We are working on a exterior paint job. When it's hot and humid you can only paint early and late or your paint will slide off it seems that way because I am a puddle too. It took me a long time to chose colors. This is in progress and not finished yet. When I am finished there won't be ANY white. I think it's going to look really good and since it's my house, I am all about pleasing me.

 The color of the doors, siding hasn't been painted yet it looks really blue next to the grey.

 Repainting the light fixtures.

 New shutters and I would like Jimmy to re trim the front door and stain it to match, well see he is hemmin and hawin about it.

 He built a table and we stained it.

 The colors in the carport ceiling.

IT'S STARTING TO COME TOGETHER.

I want to stain the concrete in the front and the back. The carport won't be screened in but it will look more like a patio and be calm, cool looking in appearance, and inviting. When I'm done y'all come over.