Diaspora Harvest!

Our friends the Bellas just got back from Israel! (Here they are with jetlag!) They have been in our life group from the start the last year and a half and also in my homeschooling bunch. (Steve has been calling us the "Bomb Moms" as we meet to teach our kids and pray once a week and do warfare against the enemy.) Una is Israeli and her husband Leonardo is a NY messianic jew and they have lived in the US for the past 16 years. They and their six children have become dear to us as we have gotten in to eachother's lives. They have amazing conversions to Yeshua-Una's was nothing short of supernatural-seeing visions of Jesus, etc. God miraculously provided from them to take a long-awaited trip home to Israel back on Yom Kippur. They arrived stateside this week and came to Life Group Saturday night to tell us they were moving back to Jerusalem! We feel so sad that we will have to say goodbye to them so soon, and yet it is exciting to see God's beautiful plan carried out in them-sending them out from the land, bringing them to saving faith in Yeshua, and then calling them back again. It has been such a privilege to get to know messianic jews that love Jesus so much, love their people and remain very jewish. We know that God will use them in amazing ways in Israel to share Yeshua's love with their friends and families. And we're glad we'll have friends to stay with when the time draws near to Yeshua's return!

Prophetic Art

I had to share a cool Jez story, which is also a cool art story. Recently, I have been asking the Lord again for a fresh word for Jez. I know He has said that she will speak, but I had begun to doubt her cognitive abilities, wondering if I needed to prepare for a life-long disability that will always need our care. If we were just dealing with the apraxia, it would be one thing, but we are dealing with major cognitive delays, so homeschooling her, teaching her to speak, etc is often a very frustrating experience. through our years with Jez, I am CONSTANTLY asking Him for a word about her, as we know so little, and she can say so little to help us understand! I can count the clear words from Him on my right hand, but a few weeks ago, there was a very clear one. He spoke from the Song of Songs 2:14, "My dove is hiding behind the rocks, behind an outcrop on the cliff. Let me see your face; let me hear your voice. For your voice is pleasant, and your face is lovely."
I felt so encouraged, and confirmed that what I had been feeling was true-that Jez was still not free in a lot of areas and that we still hadn't seen a lot of the real Jez. So we have pursued some more ministry prayer and that has been great. When my friend Geri called to ask me about the prayer time, I shared the verse with her. She said God had also showed her a picture of a bird in a cage with the door open. The bird was finally beginning to near the door, even though it had been left open. Then she saw the bird soaring. She knew Jez was that bird, and that our family had opened the door to her cage when we took her in, and that she was getting ready to come out! And what was so cool was that she said she had actually painted the verse about the dove! (She is an artist.) And that maybe she was supposed to give it to us.
Well, she did. And even cooler, Steve had actually encouraged her to paint it last year, encouraging her to paint with the Spirit. She even asked Steve to photograph the dove for her! Isn't God sneaky! So here's the picture, now in my bedroom, encouraging me every day. Never again will I say art is just pictures.....

Birth Defects in China

It has been coming out in the news a lot lately all the horrible effects that coal/ash waste has on the environment, and consequently those living near dump sites. When we went to China to pick up Jezreel in Taiyuan, the capitol of Shanxi Province, we went to a coal museum. We were looking for something fun to do with our new friends and our new daughter and we wanted to get some flavor of the local commerce. The bragged on being the largest coal-poducing province in China, so I purchased a piece of coal to bring back as a souvenir and bought some other things back that were made from the compressed ash. As time has gone on and I have heard more and more stories of other babies with major heart defects from her province being adopted, I have begun to wonder about the environmental hazards. Last year I just happenned to be in a hotel the night they did a major story on the spill right here in our state in Kingston, so I watched all the horror(we don't have TV) and thought a lot about Jez. A few weeks ago China had to finally admit to the horrors in Shaanxi province-the one next to Jez'- as villagers finally stormed the coal plant demanding its closure as they sufferred miscarriages, birthdefects and illness from the plant. I just read a study saying that birth defects have increased 40% in Jezreel's province since 2001-the year she was born, and they are blaming it on the coal industry. Understanding all the why's of why Jez has had to suffer with all the challenges she has had don't make them much easier, and yet we want to be part of the solution.When we don't know what else to do and we feel helpless in the face of huge obstacles, the first thing to do is always pray, I'm convinced. On this side of the world, I don't know what we could do to stop this injustice. But God does. So we're going to start praying. I hope you have kept up with the 40 Days for Life results. There you will find out about babies' lives that have been saved, abortion clinics actually shut down and a woman named Abby who was converted and blew the whistle on Planned Parenthood's money-making tactics. She is scheduled to be on the O'Riley Factor on Fox News this Wednesday, November 11th. We MUST pray, above all else, in these times.

God's speaking YELLOW this week

YELLOW!

This is the creek that runs through our front yard. We've had so much rain, so it is especially bubbly and beautiful right
now.


Here is Isaiah-

Death by leaves!

Here is our house-it's hard to see behind the row of trees-we have a lone maple in front that is gorgeously yellow right now!

The Gift that Keeps On Giving

Steve's mom gave us some new flannel sheets this past summer and we put them on for the first time a few nights ago on a very cold October evening. OOOOOhhhhh...if you need an extra smile in these dark days-run out and get you some! The kind they are making now are AMAZING. Every time you slip in to bed at night you will praise the Lord -guaranteed. You just might not want to get back out of them in the morning!
Thanks Mom-you're the best!

40 Days for Life

I don't know if any of you have been able to keep up with the 40 days of fasting and prayer for the unborn in our nation, but it has been amazing. the kids and my mom and I went yesterday and we prayed in front of the abortion clinic here in Nashville. It is only 3 doors down from the Pregnancy Help Center! The place was deserted, thankfully. As we began praying life over that place of death, a butterfly came up from behind us and flew up and over the center as if to symbolize our prayers going up there and bringing new life. We had to keep pulling Jez and Tirza off the median where we could get arrested for standing. Evidently some sweet old nuns went right in and prayed a few days ago and the police had to come and get them for praying in the halls at the clinic! We prayed with an amazing gal that had come up from West Virginia just because she felt like God wanted her to come to Nashville. They are doing it in cities all over the nation and if you go to the website, you can see how many lives have already been saved just be the prayer. Last time I checked it was over 250! When we drove up yesterday, a woman was walking back and forth , up and down the street in front of the clinic, talking on her phone, and we prayed for her and after a while, it appeared she left as we didn't see her again. It was just awesome to actually be a part of christians uniting to really make a difference and not just put a bumper sticker on their car! They are in the home stretch of the 40 days-I think it ends November 2nd. Please pray and look up the 40 days for Life in your city.