Jesus, I love You. :)

I just wanted to say that.

There's an awful lot of slander being spoken against You in this world,

and a whole lot of curriculum in schools telling youth that You're some

horrible person. But they simply don't know my Jesus.

I want to say that, no matter the criticism and the digs against my Lord,

I know Him and I know His character, and I love every single thing

that He stands for. I love that in a world that is so impure, He remains

pure. And in a world where there is so much injustice, He remains just.

And I love that the more I spend time with Him, the more wonderful I

find His character to be!

So, that is that. :)

In Christ Jesus, Miriam

God's Beautiful Nature

Wow... do you know,  I walk down our little road almost every day *except for when we're on tour..* and yet every time I do it's as if it's all brand new.
This evening it was as if I had never even seen these hills and trees before! The richness of the beauty of the Lord is just... incredible. This field to my right is un-cut grass up to my knees, a sea of soft greens and purple-hues, finally calm as if the evening's magic hour sun had quieted it with it's rays. I know that very soon this field will be mowed and then a whole new beauty will come forth, going from an unkempt, natural beauty to the kind of beauty that God has wonderfully ordained which arises when men work hand-in-hand with Him to subdue and cultivate the land. Every day is sweeter than the day before.
Here on the road I pause, because suddenly the Psalm is so clear: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard." ~Psalm 19
And it's true! The fields and the trees and the sun setting do not speak with words, and yet everything that I am looking at is practically shouting the glory of God! They speaking louder and more clearly of God's character than just about anything!
Such sweetness, such tenderness that the Lord has put into creation. If we were to look into Jesus' eyes we would see such depth of wisdom and understanding... He was there. He was there when all of this was made- because He thought of it.
When I walked back up the hill, I thought that I simply couldn't know a nicer evening- and then I thought of the times that we're going to have in the future, with evening just like this... only with Jesus walking beside us. :)  That... will be sweeter.

You know, it's crazy... because I just wasn't expecting to have a chance to walk tonight. It's been a crazy busy day and the last few weeks we've been going through some difficult trials, yet God just allows such sweet moments when I least expect it, and I hope that even if you didn't get to go out today to enjoy the sunshine, maybe somehow this post can bring a little of that sweetness to you. :)

And, you don't need to be where I am to see the beauty of the Lord. If you are in a city, surrounded by crime and misery and houses that are to close together.. look up. Look at the sky and see that it is a window into Heaven.

Love in Christ, Miriam

A Heart Searching

"The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking."

       Can you imagine the horrible feelings they would have had as in shock they heard the words, "Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me."   The pang that would have gone through their hearts! The bewilderment they would have felt!  They had spent so long with their Beloved Master and had left everything dear to follow after Him... everything known to follow Him into the unknown. They had grown to love Him more than anyone in the world.    To those who loved their Master, it would have been the most painful, piercing word, and each one would have desperately searched to the innermost of their hearts to see where such deception lay. Each wondered in alarm if it was them...  yet how could it? For they loved Him dearly! 

Now, Jesus knew what was in the heart of men... and He knew fully well the honest love His dear friends had for Him. He knew that in their hearts was no desire to do evil against Him. He knew there was only one in their midst who had evil intent toward Him. Yet He made the statement in front of everyone and for what reason? Why did they all have to be thrust into such a painful state of heart and mind? 

      It produced the effect of an intense feeling in their hearts to bring about a soul-searching... and in that moment I am sure... that never had they felt such a deep love for Jesus. So in the moment when Judas determined that he truly did not love God and did not want any part of Him... the other disciples were realizing that there was none other they would rather serve with their lives. 

    Even though these disciples did stumble and fall for a time, each came back with humble and repentant hearts to God because there was no other course they would rather pursue... no other person they'd rather serve. They had realized that Jesus was indeed the Son of the Living God and they loved Him more than life itself.

   Have we been tested in this way yet? Has a question been posed in our hearts that would make us search to the depths whether or not we truly love our Lord?

God bless you all!

In Christ, Miriam

Sowing with a view to Righteousness

We're officially driving Eastward! This is the third day of our East bound treck and the last leg of the trip for now. We just drove from Northern Saskatchewan into the States to the border of N. Dakota/ Minn. then to Toledo, OH and now to CT.. just in time for U.S. Thanksgiving with some our our family!!

God has given us such clear, beautiful days... :)

I just wanted to share a part of my journal entry from this morning about a verse I was reading. 

I was reading my Bible in Hosea 10 and this really stood out: 

"Sow with a view to righteousness. Reap in accordance with kindness..."

Keep in mind that what you sow to your heart or in your actions will affect your future. Sow things that will result in righteousness. This is all of the little things that we do every day, and will be affected by our choices every time. Practical app: When I'm settling in for a long day of travel, my automatic tendency is to go into "drive mode" *ie. airplane mode: on. No signal.* :]  and I let myself drift into a mindset where I'm not held accountable to keep on the alert spiritually. I feel like I don't have to be quite so "on duty". 'Course, so much of the time our driving days are more intense than any other time. So I need to purposefully fill my mind with edifying things and not slip into that dull mode. 

"Reap in accordance with kindness"

What we reap will show if we've actually been sowing righteousness. It will show if we've actually been making the choices in those little things to sow to a future of righteousness. If we've been sowing what is true and honorable and right, pure, lovely, of good reputation, excellent and worthy of praise. If we've sowed selflessly or with the wrong motives, it will be revealed. We will see if what was sown was with the right motives.

Refuge Ranch

At the Refuge Ranch in Linden, Alberta with our dear new friends Rick & Carol Plett and Company! What an awesome night!

We got to meet up with the Josties en route through Ontario! God just so directed that our paths crossed on the highway! :) It was really great visiting for a little while- We love you guys!

 Gabe and Tai in Plevna :)

 I LOVE sweet sunsets with sweet couples next to them :)

dear friends in Plevna: The Lemkes and the Bartletts- we love you each and really hope to see you again soon! :)

Marmora,ON

Some of the awesome group God blessed us with while in Marmora, ON! Some we got to stay with, others came to the concert, and all of us were so blessed by what God did in each heart… it's actually amazing what He did that night.

This was so cool! We were heading out of town, and as we stopped at a stop sign, we saw this group of little girls running toward us down the street! It was the Dejong family we had met the night before! :) We jumped out, got a TON of hugs :) had a super fun few moments, grabbed a picture and headed on our way. :D   I LOVE God connections! :) 

A view into God's heart

Do you know that this picture, as poor a quality as it may be) is actually a view into God's Own heart?
This is a lush, green field filled with little yellow paintbrushes, and as I looked at it, I was just so caught up with joy and gladness! I wanted to dance around the field for joy because this... this little piece of creation came bubbling out of God's Heart. Just think of it! When He created the heavens and the earth, these brilliant little flowers just came springing out from the overflow of His pure Heart. :)

So I began to think of the kinds of things that would happen if we started just hanging out with the Lord. That might sound like a casual way to put it, but I'm talking about just being with Him, just spending lots of time learning what He likes and what He thinks about, and the depth of His pure heart. Who knows what might happen when we spend lots more time with Him? These kinds of things might just begin springing out of OUR hearts too!! :) In the midst of this oppressively dark world, when we start seeking God, He's going to start creating a purity in our own hearts and causing joy to come welling up within us, also.
So, just a few thoughts, and I hope it blesses someone and simply inspires us to spend wayyy more time with our amazing Creator.
God bless you!!
In Christ's joyful service, Miriam

WOW we have a lot of catching up to do….

You know, one would think it'd be pretty easy to just do a quick update any time.. but I have learned to out manoeuvre those silly assumptions of mine to go for the more impractical route. :) 

I have been thinking of you all a lot though and very much wanting to write for you and post pictures, so now I can get a chance to at least tell you this and you can know you weren't forgotten or left out! 

I'll try to do a bit of a re-cap on the goings on of the last…  uh oh… well, the last…. 2 months…. =) and try not to be TOO long winded. :) 

So here I go *deep breath*  ……..*………………………… *well*… well okay, never mind. I can't do it. I simply CAN'T avoid being long winded, so I'll just do a post dedicated to Grand Manan, NB and THEN… go on to tell of the next 2 months after that. After all, how many times do we get to go to an island even smaller than PEI??

(population 2,460) 

~The Adventures of Grand Manan~

April 14-15, 2012

WAIT!!!

 Don't get ahead of the story! There were adventures even BEFORE the Grand Manan adventure! :)

On land we discovered a deserted isle! ….

in which Gabe goes discovering..

it appears upon first inspection, to be merely a little peninsula, not a deserted isle after all… but upon further inspection, and a few pairs of wet feet, we discovered that it indeed becomes an isle quite separated from land in only minutes! 

Fortunately, we did not know this and blithely carried on.

here we cross, unwittingly, the dry sand to the isle.

Gabe discovers a rope! how convenient, AND adventuresome!

after following a little trail that wended its way amidst the most amazingly fragrant, moss-draped conifers, we finally came upon the last outcropping of rocks 

and so stood he on that point

quickly we were alerted to the approaching of our ship, so we went back, and here discovered that the lovely causeway we had crossed over on, what formerly had been dry sand, now had been overtaken by the ocean waters which were rising at an incredibly rapid speed. (inches every wasted moment) WOW we DID feel adventurous!! 

Anticipation

we set off! 

At the high school we set up to do a concert, and Seth tries his hand at a tuba…

ZOWIE I think he's a natural…

While looking up things in my journal, I found the entry I wrote for that weekend, so I think I'll write down an excerpt..

Journal entry:

"… Saturday we had a concert at their school and we found out that a group of ladies had started meeting together to pray twice a week for revival on the island and had been meeting for the last 7 years! They had been inspired by the same revival that inspired us 7 years ago (while we were still working in Massachusetts) - that which took place in the Hebrides (pronounced Heb-er-dees)   of Scotland! So God let us go there… and get to help pray alongside them for at least a little bit that He would pour out His Spirit on the Island. Oh what a blessing! He SO blessed the night, and all of the older generation who left just were so thankful.. some were even misty eyed and broken up by what God did in their hearts. :)  The dear janitor who was working, Jacqueline, probably touched my heart the most. She had shown up so overwhelmed, weighed down and stressed by her day and week, and when she came in.. she immediately felt the peace of God flood her. She said she felt so much real joy in her heart!  We had such sweet fellowship with Pastor Kirk and his wife Jo, Pastor Jasper and Debbie, and a few other very dear people. :) 

Then saturday night began the intense battle, that's only now ending. (Here we caught the severe stomach flu that apparently went around the East Coast.) Tai was up all night losing her dinner, I was up all night feeling yucky, Gabe was up because he was praying for Tai, and Joel was up feeling the same as me. Then morning came and Tai and I couldn't leave the motel for being so sick, she couldn't come for the concert service. Then Joel and I started er, having to call uncle ralph over and over,(before and during the concert) and had chills and couldn't stand… then the concert started…. somehow by God's grace we were there! Standing! But… we couldn't do the dance… Joel really must have been worse off than me, but he kept on praising God so whole-heartedly and really gaining victory. We knew we had to just stand and pray (which at that moment was exceedingly hard to do) and that God would do the rest. Hallelujah!…"

"God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble(!)" ~Psalm 46:1

"But as for me, I will hope continually,and will praise Thee yet more and more(!) My mouth shall tell of Thy righteousness, and of Thy salvation all day long(!)" ~Psalm 71:14-15

This is one of our Grand Manan representatives!  (Jacqueline, who I was telling you about! :) 

                   

AND even though I totally forgot to take a picture when I saw them there, I HAVE to post a pic of the family I met last summer on PEI who were from Grand Manan and said they'd make it if ever we did a concert there! :) And they DID!

So this is for you guys! Love you! :)

We spent one more night there to try to re-coup and got to see a last sunset. :) Praise God for what He's doing there- keep praying for the whole Island to meet Jesus!

God bless you all and be encouraged to keep pressing on in your pursuit of righteousness!

Please pray for us as we set out tomorrow morning for a July tour in New England!

In Christ, Miriam