Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Nashville Bound

Hey Y'all,

I am so excited. I am leaving tomorrow for Nashville. It is the time of year for my writer's conference at LifeWay. I will be given my next assignment for curriculum, brainstorm ideas, work hard on activities and outlines, learn new methods and strategies, stay in a nice hotel, eat great food, but best of all, I get to see friends I usually only get to see once a year!

My mom is driving out there with me. Mike usually goes but he doesn't have time off, so my mom is going. We are planning on hitting some of the great outlets and shopping centers along the way. Yay!
Pray for us as we travel and as I work hard at the conference. Pray that God will fill us with His ideas and not settle for what has worked before. Pray that through all the writer's efforts lives will be changed and Jesus will get the glory!

A quick note on the chaplains retreat: It was wonderful! We got to tour Fort Jackson. This is where Mike will go to school when he gets in. We got to meet other chaplains, and their spouses.
We heard their stories...both encouraging and honest about the good and the bad of being chaplains. Lots of information! All encouraged us even more that this is the plan God has for our family. When they started sharing about deployment and that Mike will be in harms way, I would have thought that this would have scared me to death. I have always had an over-active fear of loosing Mike to death. But as I heard of the chaplains who have lost their lives and of the probability of Mike being in harms way, I felt enveloped in peace. That unexplainable peace. I know everything, no matter the outcome, will be OK. We left there encouraged, strengthened, and fortified. Thanks for praying. We are still waiting to be appointed by our denomination, so that we can move forward to Chaplain's school.

One last note: I would like your thoughts on a quote from a Pastor friend of mine from Tampa Florida. I will blog more about my thoughts on it when I get back next week. For now, let me know what you think.

Bill Craig: Here's a thought: The church has been so concerned at not making waves in order to draw in people, that our ocean has begun to recede being filled with biblically illiterate and soft core bodies, making this theological recession far more earth shattering than the ecological signs of global warming or the economic signs of depression. It will take biblical literacy and repentance to allow us to see revival.

Deep huh?

Love you thanks for sticking with me and praying with us.
Pamela

Thursday, April 23, 2009

God of Yesterday is Our Same God of Today!

Do you still believe in the miracles of the Bible?
I'm not asking you if you believe they did happen...no, instead I'm asking you if you believe they still do?

I do!

Here's an example:

My friend Lynn's son Jason from my last post.....

Came home from the hospital yesterday! Tuesday night he was in neuro ICU...Wednesday night home and resting!

The God of healing yesterday, today and tomorrow!

I hope to catch you up on us and our weekend retreat tomorrow.

For today...

I just didn't want to take away from the miracle...Praise our Mighty Healing God!

Pamela

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Please Pray... A Sister Needs You

Hey Y'all,
This was not what I intended to post about today. I wanted to tell you about our weekend visiting Fort Jackson...But God has other plans.

Please pray for my friend Lynn at Somewhere in the Middle http://lynnpolksblog.blogspot.com

Her son was in a car accident and is in the Neuro ICU with bleeding on the brain. He is somewhere in his late teens early twenties. Please pray for Jason.

I do not know the details. I got an email about it yesterday from another lady in our Bible study. Lynn graciously opens her house every Tuesday for us ladies to study God's Word together and laugh a little too.

I felt compelled by the Spirit to ask you to pray today...so friends let us pray fiercely!

Thank you,
I'll update you soon.
Pamela

Friday, April 17, 2009

A New Adventure

Hey Y'all!

Mike and I are heading out today for a Military Chaplain's retreat/conference close to Fort Jackson. We will get to tour Fort Jackson..this is where Mike will be in Chaplain/officer's school hopefully in September. Maybe sooner.

We are excited and a little bit anxious as well.

Pray for us.

Looking forward to sharing this adventure with you next week.
Pamela

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Easter Message

Hey Y'all,

Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the year! The day we celebrate the RISEN LORD JESUS!
Can't you just imagine...Oh to have been the angel that was commissioned to roll away the stone, or Mary Magdaline when He said her name.

There are two quick Easter stories I must tell you. I wasn't going to. I did not really want to post today. But I must tell both...I am compelled. So sit back and read them carefully because someone who reads them needs to hear them....hummmmm...It could even be me.

It was Palm Sunday. I had been helping a local church start a Special Needs Ministry. A group of adults with special needs had been coming to the church from a local institution. I sat behind them in the pews. Another leader sat with them in front of me.
This was a quiet church. A reverent place. A Holy place. The pastor a soft spoken man was delivering His message on the cross. It was very still and quiet. Then understanding broke through. One of the ladies in front of me came to realize just what the pastor was saying. She jumped to her feet grabbed her head with both hands and screamed, "Oh NO! They've killed my Jesus!" Gasps of fear filled the once quiet room. Then silence again as we held her and guided her back into her seat. Telling her it was OK that Jesus was alive, in as quiet a whisper as we could speak. The pastor who had been in shock, composed himself and added to his sermon the fact that Jesus rose on Easter Sunday morning. Everything went back to normal...except for her soft sobs. I sat there looking around the room and smiled....The truth is that although the pastor preached that Sunday Morning...She gave the sermon.
Why do I not feel that upset about the cross? It was for my sin He chose to go there...to die there. Have I heard the story so many times that I skip over the tragedy of the cross to the hope of the cross? It takes both. The tragedy of my sins and yours nailing Him...suffocating Him...turning the Father from Him. The Hope of the cross is that the very blood that makes this death a horror, also cleanses it to glorious whiteness. The empty tomb is the symbol of the defeated cross...the hope of the cross...the eternity of the cross. My Jesus did die there, but He took my sins...covered them with His blood and walked out of an empty tomb so that I could live with Him forever.

The second story is about the truth after the cross. I was on my way to church. I was to preform a monologue of Mary Magdaline. I had been praying about this performance and asking God to help me see, hear and experience what she might have felt there at the tomb. I mentioned to Him that I was a little jealous of her. After all, she got to actually touch Him, eat with Him, hug Him, Hear His voice call her name. As I said these words, my heart became more jealous and a little agitated that I would have to wait for His return to feel Him. Then new words swept over my mind and heart..."My dear Pamela, do not be jealous...yes, Mary got to experience my touch, and hear my voice...but my dear child...I live in you...you can feel me in a far greater way than that! You know my voice, you know my touch, I live inside you...my dear child we are one!"
Wow!

So this Easter...remember the cross...remember the empty tomb...remember He lives inside you and you are one with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!


I love you Happy Easter!
Pamela

Friday, April 10, 2009

Old Friends Good Times

Hey Y'all,

I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted. Life this time of year is crazy for me. There is lots of testing done at school. I've added students both at school and at home tutoring. I'm working hard at finishing up my curriculum. And of course this time of year there are many programs and celebrations concerning the cross and resurrection of our Lord Jesus! I hope to get back to you friends on a more consistent bases soon. Keep watching your blogs and checking this one. My "Anything Pad" I keep with me all the time, has lots of post ideas written down. So keep watching you should see some new stories soon.


Today has been a day of reflecting on friendships.

My friend Bonnie (the one with the rare cancer) has been taken off the Harvard study. It wasn't working, in fact, the cancer has grown and spread. Please pray. This is hard to deal with. For those who don't know the story, please take a moment and read here http://pinkshoelady.blogspot.com/2008/12/one-of-my-favorite-people.html

They have been told there isn't much they can do. It may be time for God to call this great man home....but I'm still praying that this is just further proof that God can heal the impossible. I'm praying that just like Lazarus, where all hope was lost, God will heal his friend. I know Bonnie is a friend of God! One look at his life tells me that. So pray with me until God reveals His plan. If it is time to take His friend home...so be it. If it is time to show the mighty healing power of God...so be it. God knows what is best for His friend. He knows what's best for me too!

Today, I also got to have coffee with a friend and mentor from my childhood. She was a Sunday School teacher in my church. Her heart for God always challenged me to love and serve Him more. Zoie went with me to meet her and we had a great time. Zoie even sang for her! It was great catching up and hearing her say she would be praying for us, as we are seeking to enter the military. For those who may have missed this, Mike is going through the process of becoming an Army Chaplain. Seeing and talking to Mrs. Faye was a blessing beyond measure today. Memories were shared along with updates and dreams. It is amazing to me that there are people in your life for whom time does not truly seem to exist. Not that time isn't there and we don't age...but it doesn't make a difference in our love, care or comfortability with each other. Even though it has been over 20 years since I saw Mrs. Faye, it felt like I had just been with her yesterday. God is like that!

My last friendship reflection comes from the perils preteen girls suffer in all their girl drama!
Zoie has been giving me daily reports of her own girl drama episodes the last couple of weeks. As her mom, I would love to brag and tell you she was the angel in all this drama....but alas, that would be a terrible lie!
She has been more like the spoiled diva! I have seen every signature trait of the mean girl in the movies in my daughter these last couple of weeks. Every day she has relayed the stories, knowing that I was going to tell her what she needed to change about herself, in order to be a good friend. I also listened to her own perceptions of why she felt she needed to act that way. She was not alone in her mean girl attitude. So along with the sympathy, came the rebuke about her own actions.

No matter what biblical direction I pointed to on friendship, I would hear..."I can't! You don't understand! I can't be friends with her! I don't want to be friends with anyone who is friend with her! I HAVE TO GET HER BACK FOR STEALING AWAY MY FRIENDS!"

I prayed! I pointed to scripture! I listened and hugged and agreed that it was not right what the other little girl had done. Nothing worked...well except the prayer...God stepped in...I so love it when He does that...especially because then I can't take any credit!

God gave us both the verse Romans 12:18 "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men." NKJV

Live at peace with all men! So Zoie called her friends and apologized for her actions. She told them about the verse and now they are, all but one, trying to live by that verse together! I watched with amazement. She has even been able to testify to some adults how that verse has helped her with the girl drama!

Friendship! A wonderful thing! I have truly missed being with you my friends! Thanks for allowing me to share with you and be apart of your lives.

There is no greater blessing here on earth than friends!
your friend Pamela