A Visit To The Neonatal Ward (Evas' Baby)

I went with Sally Pepper today to take Evas some juice & fresh water - I was able to meet her baby girl and her husband Richard. What a joy she is!!! Of course I was dying to hold her - but she is still so fragile and her immune system quite weak. (see prayer requests) I was actually suprised they medical staff let me get close enough to take a few pictures. ONLY IN AFRICA! The Doctors and Nurses in the states would have flipped out! Anyways, The baby is eating well and the mother is fine also. Continue to pray for rest for Evas and that the baby would be healthy and infection free. She's such a little fighter. Ohh and the proud parents haven't come up with a name yet - so yeah if you guys have any suggestions let me know ;)

PASSION FRUIT PROJECT

Every Wednesday the WOH (Word of Hope) Team visits four different dicipleship groups. Enoch (a fellow team-mate and friend) ia currently teaching lessons from the bible that apply to planting. Below Enoch and I are assisting the members in weeding their plant bed and we also "constructed" a cover to protect the seedlings from sunlight. Mom - you would have been proud of your daughter "digging in the dirt"....Thanks for teaching me what it means to work hard - and yes I did actually write that ;)

Fear Not Amie More To Come

“Benaiah son of Johoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab’s best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spar from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada: he too was as famous as the three mighty men. He was held in greater honor than any of the Thrity, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.” 2 Samuel 23:20-23

Remolding

“When I was a sophomore in high school, I broke my ankle playing basketball. Actually, I was just running down the court in one of our drills, and I tripped over a line on the floor. My ego hurt worse than my ankle! I spent the next month in a cast, and I remember questioning God. After all, He could have kept it from happening. But that broken ankle turned out to be a blessing in disguise….

Now, here’s the thing: I had tried for years to dunk a basketball. It was my holy grail. And ironically, it took a broken ankle for me to first achieve that goal. What seemed like a setback turned into a stepping stone. I dunked my first b-ball while wearing a cast on my left ankle. Here’s what happened: My body simply compensated for its brokenness. When you’re injured in one place, you’ve got to draw more strength from someplace else. My right leg grew stronger to compensate for my broken left ankle. It was brokenness that actually increased my capacity.

In the world of strength training, it is called the principle of supercompensation. When an athlete is pushed beyond the threshold of pain and exhaustion, the body overcompensates. The more a muscle is broken down, the more it builds back up. The same is true of our bones. The two hundred and six bones in the body are constantly going through a process called remodeling. They are being broken down by osteoclasts and built back up by osteoblasts. This process…is intensified when a bone is broken. Extra osteoblasts help rebuild the bone. There is a period of weakness where the bone is more vulnerable to re-injury. That is why we wear casts. But eventually the bone ends up stronger than it was to begin with because the body overcompensates. Very rarely does a bone break in the same place twice because the bone is thicker and stronger than it was before the break…

Almost like a broken bone that needs to be reset, God breaks us where we need to be broken. He fractures the pride and lust and anger in our lives, but He does it to remodel us into His image. And once, we heal, we end up stronger than we were to begin with…

I am not suggesting that you invite adversity into your life. For all we know, Benaiah’s battle with the Moabites and Egyptians was very possibly self-defense. But Benaiah recognized that those adverse circumstances could serve God’s purposes….Each adverse situation was part of God’s remodeling in his life.”

Challenge:

" Where have you [personally] been broken? What adverse circumstances are you facing [right now]? Do you have any overwhelming problems? Maybe God is remodeling you. Maybe the problem you never thought you could overcome will turn into …a [tremendous] opportunity."

The writing shared above is unfortunately not my own, the credit belongs to author/ pastor Mark Batterson. If you get the chance check out Mark’s book “In A Pit With A Lion On a Snowy Day. God has recently used this book as a tool to teach me more about himself. It is my prayer that He is working in your lives as well. Once again – thank you for reading what God has laid upon my heart. Jena

From Acorn To Oak Tree

"The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying. The seed fall into the ground, dies as the new shoot springs up. There must be a splitting and a breaking in order for a bud to form. The bud 'lets go' when the flower forms. The calyx lets go of the flower. The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form. The fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed. The seed falls to the ground... There is no ongoing spiritual life without the process of letting go. At the precise point we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul... It is easy to make a mistake here. 'If God gave it to me,' we say, 'it's mine. I can do what I want with it.' No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of - if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory"...HANG WITH ME PEEPS..."Think of the self that God has given as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God's intention when He made the acorn was the the oak tree. His intention for us: " ...attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (see eph.4:11-13 and also mt.28:18-20) ...When you look at the oak tree, you don't feel that the 'loss' of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God's purpose in your life, the less terrible will the losses seem." ALMOST FINISHED...KEEP READING: " God's ultimate plan was (is) as far beyond our imaginings as the oak tree is from the acorn's imaginings. The acorn does what it was made to do, without pestering its Maker with questions about when and how and why. We who have been given an intelligence and a will and a whole range of wants that can be set against the divine Pattern for Good are asked to believe Him. We are given the chance to trust Him...'When will we find it? ' we ask. The answer is, 'Trust Me.' 'How will we find it?,... 'Trust Me! 'Why must I let myself be lost? ' The answer is , 'Look at the acorn and trust Me."

Passion and Purity

by: Elizabeth Elliot

So this is what my Heavenly Father has been teaching me lately. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions/comments regarding this brief devotion. Thanks for letting me share! Jena

YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF...

I MEAN...YOU MAY FEEL LIKE YOUR LIVING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY WHEN....

- you are able to purchase two dozen yellow roses for under 5 U.S dollars!
- you are able to cut up an onion with a sharp knife and cook chicken on a gas burner by headlight, candle, and flashlight!
- you about have a heart attack when at 9:00 pm the power comes back on and your security guard is knocking at your door because he wants to use your electricity to charge his cellphone! (ONLY IN AFRICA RIGHT???)
- for dessert you are perfectly content to eat spoonfuls of entella chocolate! GLORIOUS!
- you get asked at least 5 times when walking to work if you would like a ride... "White Girl You Want Boda?"
- when you discover that your electricity bill has been stick in your guest bedroom window for 15 days past the due date- but it doesn't really matter because the power company doesn't seem to have a clue when it comes too knowing who has or hasn't paid their bill!
- you make friends with the armed six foot three security guard at the local bank - because you stick out just a little bit being a white person in town - and you never know when he's presence may be come in handy!;)
-you smile on the inside and out because you are wiping your mouth with a paper napkin instead of a cloth one!
- your fellow employee tells you that she hopes that "very soon you will become fat like 'Suzy'"....(and this is actually a compliment)
- your arms get rubbed and even pinched because children think that you are not actually real
- you about spit up your orange soda when a local shares the meaning behind the word fanta...(foolish africans never take alcohol)...she than assures you its ok to finish.... ;)
- you can't get over the date being flip- flopped around. Like 04/09/07 does not represent April 9th , 2007 but it means September 4th. HA!
- you get excited about coming home to use the bathroom - so you don't have to use the "squatty" potty and you are able to actually wash your hands instead of using
sanitizer!!!
- you realize that the term "extend a bit" does not mean make yourself taller but rather it means to continue or move forward
- you realize that "fake" meat really does exist and you have to drive outside of town for "real" meat (love u mom!) LOL!

OK THATS ALL FOR NOW FOLKS!