Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Terrible Silence Has Ended--Daughter Found

Lord, I am sorry for any negative thought I ever had about Kristi's early morning phone calls.  If only she had called this morning.  Or yesterday.  Or...

I took medication to make sure I could sleep.  The second I woke up and looked over at the clock it hit me.  Silence.

I had started this blog this morning, and had to leave it to come to work.  About 9:30, we received a call from our daughter Carrie saying Kristi had just shown up at her place.  We are so relieved.  We had all thought the worst.

Kristi apparently went to visit a friend she met through the mental health program she is in.  Since she normally calls Carrie even to inform her that she is on the bus, leaving without telling anyone is not like her.  When they got to the town where the friend lived, she could not get a bus back to town because of Memorial Day weekend.  She didn't have any cell phone units.  We are all tremendously relieved.

Thank you all for praying.  After this experience, getting ready to take a team to Africa will seem like a breeze.

Monday, May 28, 2012

THE TERRIBLE SILENCE --Daughter Missing

THE TERRIBLE SILENCE

The silence this morning makes me sick to my stomach.  I can hear the loud ticking of the clock beside me.  Every tick is one second that our beloved daughter Kristi might be suffering.  Normally she calls before her feet even hit the floor.  ZERO messages.

Kristi has been missing since Friday.  All of us who know Kristi well are scared.  This is a complete break with her normal patterns.

She lost her job and the apartment where she was living.  She was staying temporarily in a homeless shelter.  She was supposed to show up at our granddaughter Marissa's graduation Sunday afternoon.  This is the kind of thing Kristi absolutely lives for.  I was bringing her pictures of her daughter Whitney's graduation and she could not wait to see them.

When Kristi did not show up, we thought there might have been some kind of miscommunication.  Maybe she needed a ride.  Maybe her friends dropped her at Carrie's, not realizing the party was at the church.  The day was very hot and we were afraid of Kristi being left out in the hot sun.  But she was not at Carrie's, nor did we see her anywhere along the route between the church and the house.

We went to the shelter where she was staying.  They informed us that Kristi was no longer there.  No, they could not tell us when she left.  No, they could not tell us where she was going.  No, they could not relay a message.  No, they could not give us any information.  I understood their position.  They were following policy and protecting those under their care, but it was a sober mama who had to come out and tell Papa John that Kristi was not there.  Still, I thought that probably Adult & Child services had moved her to a new location.  I could not understand why they would not have told Carrie, who handles Kristi's affairs, since Kristi is special needs.

We went back to the reception.  Carrie was also very concerned, because Kristi ALWAYS keeps in touch.  She called the emergency number for Adult & Family services who were helping Kristi.  They had not moved her to a new place and did not know where she was.  They agreed that it was highly unlikely that Kristi would willingly have missed a family event.  Kristi is extremely social and places a very high value on staying constantly connected.

I felt we should call the police and report her missing.  My training about human trafficking was beginning to make me sick, and I knew that if Kristi was in trouble, there could be a narrow window of time in which to act.  Plus, Kristi had no other place to go.  The homeless shelter was a last resort, and since she did not pack, she obviously planned to come back when she left in the morning.

The police came out and took a report.  They were able to call the shelter and get details.  She had not been there since Friday, and her clothes were still there.  Now I knew for sure that something was wrong.  We believe that either she was abducted or met with foul play, or someone talked her into going with them.  If it is the latter, they are also restricting her freedom or she would definitely have called home.  Kristi knows she can call home no matter where she is, no matter what trouble she is in, no matter what she may have done.  If she hasn't called, it is because she cannot call.

We called friends with whom we knew Kristi kept in close contact.  They said they had already been concerned because Kristi always called them every day but had not called since Friday.

Although my husband John & I had prayed together earlier, we asked the church elders & leaders, many of whom were camping on the grounds at Carrie's church to pray with us for Kristi, and we so much appreciated them holding us all up before the Lord.


Dear friends, I know may seem like a short time Kristi has been missing, but we have reason to believe she is in danger.  There are three things you can do to help.  1.  If you are a praying person, please pray for her.  2.  Please put this out on Facebook, email, etc. & ask others to pray, 3.  Those of you who know Kristi, if you see or hear from her, please urge her to call home and please let us know if you or anyone hears from her.



Dear God,
You saw Kristi when she still growing in the womb of her sickly, malnourished mom in Africa.  You had Your hand on her as she struggled to survive.  You love her and have good plans for her life.   You know where she is right now.  Please keep her in Your care.  No matter what her situation, give her an opportunity to call home.  We trust You no matter what because You have already proven Yourself Good and Faithful.  We love You, God.  Convey our love to Kristi.  In Jesus' mighty name, Amen.












Tuesday, May 15, 2012

My Spiritual Journey--The Changes Jesus Made

So, for the past several days, in honor of my spiritual anniversary, I've been posting how I came to know Jesus Christ.

Now I'd like to talk about a few of the changes Jesus has made in my life.
Previous to coming to Jesus, my life had been dominated by the dark shadows of my insecure personality.  Always fearing rejection, it was a 3 year project to plan how to say "hi" to somebody.  Most people stare at me in disbelief when I tell them that I don't recall ever speaking to a single person outside my family all through elementary school.  Certainly I did not speak to any of my classmates.  It wasn't that I didn't like them.  I just didn't know how, nor did I have the courage.
In elementary school that wasn't so bad.  I kind of lived in a fantasy world of my own making.  But around about Jr. High, it began to become excrutiating.  I was almost finished with my sophomore year in high school when I came to Christ, and my social situation was not much better.


I can't say that Jesus transformed me into a brilliant conversationalist or a popular socialite.  But becoming a Christian did change things for me.  It took my mental spotlight off my own pain and began to focus it on Jesus.  It assured me of God's love and acceptance.  It assured me of my personal worth as a person made in God's image, an object of His love and mercy, a part of His big plan.  As those ideas filled my mind, it was easier to relax around others.  I was still very shy, but I no longer feared rejection so much.  And I began to understand God's love for others, too, and reach out to them to genuinely befriend them, and not just to get a friend for myself.  That has been a long process.


Along the way in God's providence He brought me a husband who had all the social qualities I lacked.  He has taught me a lot, and I am still amazed at how fast and completely he opens up even to someone he is just meeting.


I am still a quiet, thinker type of person, still more cautious in how I make myself known to others.   I am still uncomfortable in many social situations.  But I no longer fear speaking to people.  I no longer worry about whether I am liked or accepted.  I feel secure and loved, and am able to extend that to others.


My heart always goes out to the underdog, to the person who is alone, to the person who is outcast.  I can identify instantly because for so many years I was an outcast myself.  (And yes, I do recognize that most if not all of that was my own making.)  My own making or not, I can still remember how it feels.  I think maybe God wanted me to go through that pain so that I could identify with the pain of others.


Because of that pain, I have been able to help homeless street kids, abandoned kids, enslaved children, trafficked children.  God has used it all to help many and I think to bring Himself glory.

I must not be the only one in the world who has gone through these things, because some years back I wrote my story for Good News magazine.  They wrote back encouraging me with the news that 63 people had written to them saying that they had received Christ as a result of reading my story.  Wow, that's more than enough repayment for any pain I suffered!


Even better yet, God is not done with me yet.  I can't wait to see what else He has in store.

Assurance at Last

May 15.  In 1961 it was a Sunday.  I attended services at Michigan Center Bible Church, where I had been attending evangelistic meetings since Thursday.   At the conclusion of the message, they asked everyone who had made a decision for Christ during the week to come forward to the front of the church.  They began singing, "Where He leads me, I will follow".  As the congregation sang, suddenly I felt a surge of courage.  That meant me.  I had not registered a decision with the church, but I had certainly made one.  Already that decision had brought a thirst for God's Word that I had never had before.  But it had not yet brought assurance.  Since Thursday, how many times had I told God that I was indeed a sin lost and condemned?  How many times and in how many words had I pleaded with Him to save me?  I understand now that He did that the very first moment I cried out to Him, but back then I did not have that understanding.  I yearned for the assurance they had sung about in church on Thursday night.

Suddenly I found the courage to do something absolutely atypical for me.  I walked down that church aisle and stood there with a group of others who had also come to Christ during the week.  That clinched it.  I knew I had come to saving faith--not that it happened that very moment, but that I felt it that very moment.  Assurance just flooded my soul.  From then on my prayers to move on to other things.

Shortly after that, I was baptized there.  Although my parents had taken me through a baptismal ceremony as a baby, I saw in the Bible that people were baptized after coming to faith in Christ.  I took that step, too.  Then slowly, subtly, God began to change me, and the horrible shadows caused by my inordinate shyness began to lift.   More about that tomorrow.

Monday, May 14, 2012

I opened the Bible and SURPRISE !

May 14.  In 1961 it was a Saturday.  Since I had received Christ, I had suddenly found a new and inexplicable interest in the Bible.  Since it was a Saturday, I had a little free time.

I hunted around my room until I found the Bible my Grandma Miller had given me for Christmas when I was about 10.  It was still stiff and unused, still in the box it came in.  I'm sure I politely thanked Grandma for it along with my other gifts, but I remember that I felt disappointed when I got it.  What would I do with a Bible?  I hadn't yet begun active disbelief.  I just wasn't interested.  So I put it away in its box and never opened it again until I was 15.  May 14, 1961.

I began first by trying to find the verse I had memorized as a child in Vacation Bible School.  As I underlined those to make them easy to find again, I noticed other verses around them that seemed just as significant.  I underlined those, too.  Underlining became a habit as I continued reading the Bible with spiritual eyes freshly made alive in Christ.  It took about one year before almost the whole Bible was underlined.  Funny how one day it was all so irrelevant and the next it all became so very important.

Our family's attitude toward the Bible was kind of strange.  My mother was horrified if anyone ever set any book on top of the Bible.  So somewhere there was a certain kind of respect for the Bible.  However, I never recall anyone in the family ever reading it, LEAST OF ALL, ME!  That all changed when I received Christ.

I am sad and ashamed to say that I have not always followed all that I read, and sometimes I have messed up pretty badly.  It's still true, though, that the Bible came alive for me the moment I received Christ.  It's as if blinders were taken off my eyes, and before me was a royal banquet table filled with all varieties of delicious food and set with the most beautiful flowers in the world.  I've been reading and studying the Bible for 51 years now, and I still marvel at its depth, its beauty and its significance. 

When someone tells me the Bible is boring or outdated, I always wonder if they have truly met the author, or if, like me in my unconverted days, they only learned to recite facts about Him.  I always encourage them to actively seek God, because that most exciting of books assures me that those who seek God will always find Him.  Or sometimes, like me, like Saul of Tarsus, like Matthew the tax collector, God will find them when they are not even seeking for Him.  That is because He seeks for us.  I love the Bible, and I first began to read it 51years ago today.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The New Has Come

My Spiritual Journey, Continued

May 13. In 1961, it was a Friday. I had made other plans, but I asked my parents if I could change them. I wanted to go back to the church meetings at Michigan Center Bible Church and hear more.

My folks had a hard time hiding their surprise. Looking back, I understand why. I had never shown the slightest interest in spiritual things before. When my aunt had suggested I attend a church camp I had sneered, "Yea, I bet that's a lot of fun. What do they do, sit around reading the Bible all week?"

I went back that night, and again I wanted to go forward and publicly confess Christ.  I wanted to tell everyone that I had received Him in my own bedroom the night before.  But still I was afraid.  I simply stood there, clutching the pew in front of me as tightly as I could.

When I went home that night, I asked my parents if I could go back again on Sunday.  I still didn't tell them about my decision, but I know they realized something was up.  My interests had suddenly changed, mysteriously and quite totally.
More tomorrow as the journey continues.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

My Spiritual Journey

May 12. It's my spiritual birthday.

  It seems SO hard to believe that 51 years ago, on May 12, 1961, I began a spiritual journey that so revolutionized my life.

It began when an acquaintance, Cheryl Phillipi, invited me to attend special meetings at her church. Cheryl and I were members of a club together, but I did not know her well. I was very shy in those days and had hardly any friends, probably because I was too shy to actually speak to anyone. An invitation to go anywhere was extremely rare, so I could not say no to her invitation.

I sat by myself, as was my custom in my shy days. The meeting began and something unusual happened, something that had never happened to me before even though I'd gone to church all my life. God began to speak to me. It was not audible, but it was real, clear, distinct, unmistakable. It reached the depths of my soul and shook the foundations of my life.

It was not the style or personality of the speaker. God began to speak to me even before he began. He began to speak through the songs. I remember that they sang, "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine." I was shocked. Could someone really have assurance in things relating to God? Could they really know that Jesus was theirs, personally? Could I know that Jesus was mine? I realized immediately that I did NOT know that. I did NOT know Jesus, although I knew many facts about Him.

The guest speaker, Evangelist Billy Walker, preached about hell that night. I had never heard a message about hell or teaching about hell. I only knew it was a bad word and my mother didn't like me to say it, so us kids substituted "H E double toothpicks" instead. That didn't seem to bother mom. I did not believe in hell when I went into the church, although admittedly I had not given it much if any thought.

Along about in my junior high years, I had begun to read the science books of atheist Isaac Asimov, and I had become convinced that science had the answers to all the world's problems. I was not really sure that I even believed in God, really, although I still went to church because if I stayed home my dad would make me work in his garage.

Somehow, as Billy Walker proclaimed what the Bible says about hell, I knew it was real. I knew God was real. I knew I had sinned and offended God's holiness. I understood that I was in awful trouble with Him. I knew I desperately needed Jesus. An invitation was given to come to Jesus, but it involved coming forward to the front of the church to get help. My hands clutched the pew in front of me so tightly that I wonder if there might still be marks there. Others were going forward, and I could see that they were being treated kindly and not being caused embarrassment. Still, my shyness would not permit me to go forward. It is just impossible to overstate how much that shyness ruled my life.

All the way home,I was afraid we would have a car accident. I knew I would die and go to hell. When I got into bed that night, I could not go to sleep. I remembered Bible verses I had learned as a child in Vacation Bible School. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). I still remembered it clearly, but I had wiped it off, thinking it meant that nobody's perfect. I hadn't understood that sin was a very serious offense to God. I also remembered, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). I also remembered how to pray to receive Christ, which had also been taught by "Uncle Fran the Bible Man" Goodman in Vacation Bible School.

Realizing how deeply I needed God's forgiveness, I began to call out to Him, laying there in my own bed. I asked Him to forgive my sins and asked Jesus to become my Savior. I remember that I started that prayer in the only way I could at the time, "Oh God, if there is a God...." When I finished praying, my doubts about God were gone. He had become real to me. More tomorrow, as my spiritual journey continues.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Hope for the Educationally Disadvantaged

I am so excited about the expansion of our school in Ghana for the educationally disadvantaged! It's called Haven of Hope Academy, and it works alongside our children's home, Haven of Hope. Besides taking in kids in all kinds of crises, Haven of Hope provides a safe shelter in a loving, home-like atmosphere. 57 kids live there right now, from preschoolers to teens. Then at the school we also provide education for over 120 additional kids from the surrounding community. I am excited, but I am also frustrated. We really needed additional classrooms, as we have been growing the school year by year along with the kids. We have 8 acres at Haven of Hope, but we already have seven large buildings and several smaller ones on the property. We wanted to preserve adequate land for gardening in order to enable the home to be as self-sufficient as possible, and to enable it to have a chance to survive in case a crisis or emergency made supplies and food difficult to come by. So, when we needed to add the jr. high, we decided to build UP instead of OUT. We thought we had planned carefully and raised the needed costs, but our experience so far has been with building one story buildings. Ghana had a minor earthquake in recent years, and unknown to us, she had changed her building codes, requiring MUCH more foundation, reinforcement and pillar support for the upper story. That's all good, because it will result in the safest possible building for the children. The problem is that it more than tripled our expected costs. With the funds we initially raised, we were able to complete the foundation and the shell of the first story. It is not finished--just rough cement, no electricity yet, and only open spaces in place of doors and windows. We were also able to press on to build the stairwells and the support pillars for the second story.
At this time, we are entirely out of money. The home director contacted us the other day and asked if we had anything to keep construction going. I felt sad, ashamed and embarrassed to tell him that we had nothing at all. !
We have had to lay off the workers who were on the project. The kids at Haven of Hope were so anxious to get their new school that the older boys volunteered to do some cement work. They really worked hard! But now we are out of supplies to continue, even in that way. We know that we serve a big God and that His arm is not too short to help us. Would you join us in prayer that God will show us how to obtain the remaining funds? If you are able, would you send a special gift for this project in whatever amount you are able? We estimate we still need $200,000 to completely finish the project, but even $10 can put one more brick in place. The next big step is putting on the roof, which will cost us about $25,000, but a gift $25 could pay for one square yard, including supplies and labor. EVERY GIFT will be deeply appreciated. Thank you so much!