Count Days, Not Calories

Several nights back, I was wakened at 1:00 A.M. by this urgent thought: You only have fifteen years left, you know.

Obviously, I didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, I slipped out of bed and went downstairs to seriously pondered what I had just heard. You only have fifteen years left, you know. This wasn’t a gloom-and-doom message; more the kind of reminder a spouse gives when you’ve lost track of time: “You know we have to be ready to leave the house in half an hour.” Or perhaps, it was more like the gentle words of a friend, “We really need to attend that meeting; it will mean so much to Julia if we are present.”

I’m suspecting the Holy Spirit was nudging me, since I’ve never really been any good at math. At least, something was prodding my subconscious in the middle of the night, after I had slept for a while and my mind was rested, and when I was not distracted with any of the “to-doings” of my daily life.

Let’s see … 15 years x 365 days equals 5475 days left to me. In 15 years, I will be 81. How much world traveling, strategic-living do I think I will be doing then? Click here to read more: http://goo.gl/QMn8F

Sleeping on the Danube

“There aren’t many Americans who can say they’ve slept on the Danube,” laughed my new friend Catherine Sevier. She is an R.N., PhD, and former Vice-President of the Diabetes Foundation. Catherine, along with her husband David, was in charge of the Health Consultation track for the Hope for Europe Congress II. Our little group of 42 folk (out of the larger 1000-plus attendees) were rooming in a “botel”—a ship-turned-hotel docked at Quay 21 on the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary. Read more here: http://goo.gl/OMk9P

Scavenger Genes

Some of us were born with a scavenger gene. I confess that I am one. I can’t resist the temptation to comment (obnoxiously) when complimented on an article of clothing or a new household item, “Goodwill—five bucks,” or “St. Vincent’s Resale Shop—three dollars.”
So when I saw the kitchen cabinet (without a hole cut in the top for a sink) discarded at the curb in front of the house of a son’s neighbors, I realized it was exactly what I had been praying for to store all the messy leftover paints and supplies that had been gathering dust on a rusting metal shelf in the garage. Click here to read more: http://goo.gl/s9o2Z

Need Some Bridesmaid Gifts?

Hannah T. put this photo on her Facebook page. She was in Nairobi when Karen Mains and Carla Boelkens visited in April. Hannah was a month away from her wedding date while working on some projects for staff at African International University. We were with her in the sewing room when she chose her gift bags. This was so much fun, and we thought Global Bag Project bags for bridal party gifts was a terrific, eco–conscious, globally–aware idea!

Last year, Ashley B. gave Global Bag Project bags as gifts to her bridal party as well. Here’s what she says,

"We loved the bags and they are often used. This is such a wonderful project. My bridesmaids were so happy to know that their gifts were not only awesome, useful bags, but that they were partnering with the women of Kenya with them. Continue the g

Tales of The Kingdom

An intriguing allegorical children's classic that takes place in the enchanted city where you will enjoy the wonderful experience of God's great deliverance. I would place this treasure on an equal with The Chronicles of Narnia. Twelve stories centering on the adventures of two orphaned brothers who escape a polluted city ruled by an evil enchanter to seek their exiled king in the place where trees grow.  

Chapter 1:

~ The Enchanted City: 
Scarboy and his brother Little Child escape from the Enchanted City and find Great Park, where they are welcomed by Caretaker and Mercie.
Chapter 2
~ The Orphan Keeper's Assistant: 
He travels to the Great Park to hunt escaped orphans and outcasts and bring them back to the Enchanted City, but as an outcast herself discovers that the Kingdom is also for her.
Chapter 3
~ The Apprentice Juggler:
The Apprentice Jugger follows the advice of a beggar, who is actually the King Himself, and discovers that when he follows the rhythm of inner timing approved by the King, he finds his own place in the Kingdom. 

Click here to get more details about this marvelous book. 

Making Prayer Your Second Language

Making Prayer Your Second Language is a complete 4-week preaching campaign that will help develop your congregation’s skill in speaking with God in four vital ways. Based on the ACTS model of prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication), your church will learn to incorporate each attitude of prayer into their daily lives, particularly so if they elect to use the Prayer Journals. Each sermon will take a closer look at a different aspect of prayer, and bring a contemporary light to communicating with God. Every message is also supported with a wealth of pre-built service elements, videos and professional graphics, allowing you to create a custom series tailored to your congregation.

The Old Guys Are Wise

A strange thing happened to us some eight years ago as we were collapsing our media ministry (The Chapel of the Air national radio broadcast, the You Need to Know national television show, our publishing arm Mainstay Church Resources and our pastoral conference ministries—137 or so per year).

David and I looked at the reel-to-reel tapes and decided that since we had no environmentally controlled storage available and since these tapes are notorious for degrading quickly, that the best thing we could do was to toss 20 years of daily broadcasts into a dumpster and salvage a few of the crucial beta-television tapes, boxes of which we moved to our garage and basement to await the time when we could purge, dump or save those. Read More here: http://goo.gl/S5CKz