Better think before I sing next time...

I was sitting at work tonight and as my Pandora shuffled through my list of stations, the song Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) came on. Now, I have really enjoyed this song over the past few months and even learned to (somewhat) play it on the piano and sing it. In fact, in some of my personal prayer/worship times, this has been a song that I have kind of hung out on, especially on the bridge. Read these lyrics:

     Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders. Let me walk upon the waters wherever      You would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be        made stronger in the presence of my Savior.

Sounds nice, doesn't it? In fact, I thought it sounded really awesome! Yes Lord! I want to walk on the waters anywhere You send me! I really do! Don't I? I mean, it'll all be sunshine and roses, won't it? Ha, my friends, I don't know about you, but if you're anything like me you have a tendency to wander off into some imaginary land where everything is happy and meat doesn't come from animals (yes, I do know the truth, but leave me in my make-believe world!!! It's nice here!). I have a propensity to choose to expect only good things. This isn't always bad, don't get me wrong. However I can think of two places in the Bible where that bubble is busted right away. 

The first is Ecclesiastes 7:14, "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future." The second is John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Wow! So King Solomon tells us that God has made our good times as well as our bad times and then Jesus told us we would have trouble! Sounds really encouraging, huh? But it is friends, it truly is. And Jesus reminded us that He has already overcome the world! That's comforting for sure! But sometimes that part is hard to see and easy to forget.

Many of you know, to some extent, the roller coaster of trials my family has endured the past several weeks with my grandma's health. She's currently getting a little bit better again, but we're still praying for a miracle in her brain. It has been so hard because I love my sweet grandma and you cannot even imagine the things that have transpired during this time. I have had to really press in to God for the strength to keep going in the direction I know He wants me to go because my nature is to drop everything and do whatever I can to fix the problem with grandma until either she's better or I can't go on any longer. But I cannot do that anymore. It's not because I don't want to or I don't love her, but it's because I have to fulfill the call of God on my life and in order to do that, I must keep going and keep saying "yes" to Him!

So when I heard that song tonight I felt as though He was asking me during the bridge part, "Do you remember singing that over and over? Didn't you ask Me to take you to a place where you could learn to trust without borders? Didn't you ask Me to teach you to walk on the waters? Did you not listen to what you were singing? This is a perfect situation to practice these things. When Peter got out of the boat and walked on the literal water, do you think it was calm? No, it was a stormy sea. This is your stormy sea. Stop freaking out and start walking with Me on the water. Start trusting and stop fretting. I AM."

I don't know what to say, other than, "Yes, Lord. I hear You. Your servant is listening." If this is speaking to your heart about your life as well, I pray you will say the same.

Blessings and love,

Tami

A few thoughts...

Ok, I admit it...I'm terrible at this whole blogging thing. Not that I am not proficient in writing things down, it's just that I do not do it on a consistent basis. For that I am sorry.

I am writing to give a quick update, yet again. We have been working on a play called "Eli's Amazing Workshop" at the church. It's pretty fun :) This weekend (Friday and Saturday at 7, Sunday at 3) will be the last three performances of it. Please come if you can! We'd love to have you there!

I was so happy to get to see, even though it was quite briefly, some of my awesome family that I don't see very often last weekend! I love them so much! Later that night I got to visit my Wellsville Family Worship Center family  and spend some time with them at the Christmas party. It was so fun! I'm hoping to get over to WFWC for a Sunday morning service in the next couple of weeks to see more family and friends there!

We are planning to be in Mexico again, most likely in February. I'm really excited to get there! It's not just because I love the people or just because I love to travel. It's not even just because it's an awesome country with much warmer weather than Kansas in the winter! It's because I love getting to share Jesus with people in another language. It's because I get to be a part of what God is doing in many places during these trips. I get to do these things right here too...what a blessed life I live!

My friends, it's Christmas time again. I pray that in this season you are blessed beyond measure. I pray your family is well and that you are feeling loved. And I pray that you are finding a fresh, new revelation of Jesus Christ beyond the manger and the cross. The apostle John knew Jesus as a teacher in sandals and a robe walking around like every other man, but in the book of Revelation he got a whole new revelation of who Jesus was and it changed his perspective permanently. I pray that we all get this kind of revelation and allow it to change us and shape us further into what He wants us to be.
Blessings and peace to you all! Merry Christmas!
Tami

P.S. I thought I would add a picture in here since I haven't posted one in a while. This picture is me in costume and makeup for the play with my friend Alisha :)

Wowza!

The last time I wrote to you all I was writing from Engeltal. Since then I have come back and celebrated the 8 days of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and then we had a conference here at the mission base. We have been working hard to get things done and just keep up!

During that time my car broke down (fuel pump), my grandma got really sick (she's better-praise God!), and my grandpa in Texas got sick (he's also better-praise God!). Things have just been crazy!
Today I received a letter from Engeltal. It was one of those things that they sent out to everyone that was a part of the ISOM school just thanking us for being there. There was a picture on it from during one of our worship times, which made me a bit nostalgic. Then at the bottom there was a handwritten portion just to me from one of the ladies there on behalf of the President of the Endtime Handmaidens and Servants, Sharon Buss. When I saw the note Midi wrote for her I just started to cry and realized how much I really love and miss the people at Engeltal. It's amazing how quickly our hearts were knit together!

Later today I was able to reminisce a little about the things that happened there and it was nice. I often get so busy that I don't take the time to remember what has happened in all of the amazing places/meetings I get to be a part of.

Friends, I don't know why I get to be where I am, but I'm sure glad I'm here. I've had such an amazing journey in my life with so many amazing people and I'm feeling so very blessed. If you're reading this, chances are you have been (and maybe still are) a part of that journey. For that I say thank you.
Love and blessings,
Tami

Greetings from Engeltal Valley!

I'm just writing a quick update while I have a few minutes. Right now I am sitting on a bed in a house called Ahava in a valley called Engeltal in Arkansas. Ahava means love in Hebrew and Engeltal means valley of angels in German. What a beautiful place!

I am here to help prepare for and attend the Endtime Handmaidens and Servants school of ministry and I have been having a great time so far! I've met some very precious people, most of whom have been on the mission field for a very long time...some probably even longer than I've been alive! Oh the stories they can tell! It's amazing to hear what God has done all over the world!

Tomorrow I am told that our little team is going with our leader's friend to explore an Indian cave on his property not far from here...if we have the opportunity to get away for a while. We'll see. That would be a really cool little field trip before the rest of our team (and the other 100 or so people) arrives tomorrow evening. Tomorrow night
we begin our week-long intensive school on Revival.

Seriously my friends, I ask myself all the time HOW in the world I ended up living this crazy, blessed life. All I know is God has lead me here and is leading me to some other really awesome places in the near future.

Hope all is well with you! Blessings from the house of love in the valley of angels :)

That's what's up :)

Hey friends,
It's been a little while, so I thought I would write a quick update to let you know what's up. We have been learning a lot these past few weeks. Yes, we always learn a lot, but I don't always mention it. We have been hearing a lot about bitterness and what it can do to a person lately. I always find it interesting that I can be sitting in church hearing something one day from one person and then hear about the same thing on the radio, through an email, or just about anywhere else from someone else. God works like that a lot!

So anyway, we've been learning about how bitterness takes root in people and then all sorts of terrible things come as a result. The fruit that bitterness puts out can be bad relational fruit, such as being just plain mean to people, it can be bad mental fruit, such as never thinking you are good enough for anything, or it can be bad physical fruit. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:15, "See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled" (ESV) Too often we allow bitterness to take root in our lives and then that causes trouble for us and causes us to become defiled. To be defiled means to be tainted, polluted, or unclean. There is healing and cleansing for this, but in my opinion it is better to resist allowing bitterness to defile us in the first place. Just some food for thought.

There are many things coming up for me in the near future. I am going to Jasper, Arkansas in September for a school focused on Revival. This is about a week long and by the end I will have earned 12 college credit hours (4 college level classes). I, unfortunately, will be missing my friend Jessica's wedding to be at this school. I hate missing it because I know the wedding will be awesome! I definitely wish her and Matthew all the best!

In October I will be traveling back into Obregon, Sonora, Mexico and the surrounding areas. We will be ministering all the way down and back as well. Please pray for our team! At the end of December into the beginning of January I plan to be a part of a prayer journey all over Israel. I would love to discuss the details of that with you in person if you would like to know more about what I will be doing there. Right now the plans are still being finalized. Please pray for me because I feel that God wants me to go on this trip, but it will cost around $3500, which I do not have. I am praying about how to raise the money I need for all of these trips.

There is always a lot happening here and I hope that you enjoy reading about some of it. Feel free to leave me a comment or email/facebook me to let me know how you're doing and what is happening in your world!

Hey there :)

Hi everyone! I'm just getting on here to say hello and touch base with you guys. Things here are still pretty busy. One of my friends from work quit and so I have been picking up a lot of extra hours for the past couple of weeks. That works out great as far as acquiring money goes, but it does cause some issues in that I have been needed for some important tasks at the church, so my schedule has been to work 15+ hours per day almost every day this past week between the two places. Friends, I'm a little tired ;)
Soon enough they will hire another person to take her place and I will be back to my normal hours at work, so I am considering it a blessing to be able to make a little extra money for a while. We have a lot of things coming up very soon and, unfortunately, money will be a bit of an issue.
In September I will be attending a week-long school in Arkansas and will actually be in Arkansas working for a few days before to help the school prepare for the week of students. It's a strong possibility that I will be heading into Mexico in October(ish). At the end of December I would really like to be a part of a team going into Israel as well.
I am not one that ever enjoys asking for help, but I would like to ask you all to be praying for me that I will be able to do these things that I believe God is calling me to do. I need God to provide in some very big ways in order to do these things. Please pray and believe with me for the time and the finances to accomplish everything that God has set forth for me to accomplish.
Thank you!

Wowowow!

Hey there friends! Wow, it's been a while since I've written anything on here. Life has been nuts the past couple months. Our church moved to an AWESOME new building that has a ton more space and space to potentially grow into as well. We moved in on June 1st (I was actually at a crazy-awesome wedding that day watching my lovely cousin Ashley marry her best friend Taylor. I love them!!!) and spent the next two weeks unpacking, cleaning, painting, sanding, re-cleaning, rearranging, re-cleaning again, and preparing. We had a big conference here in June (the 19th-22nd...seriously, we did a lot in that first 2 1/2 weeks!) and learned a little over 2 semesters worth of stuff in 4 days time. Honestly, the information was amazing and we are all still trying to unpack it all and discern what it means and how we can utilize this information in our everyday lives.
Since the conference we have been trying to finish with the unpacking/arranging of things here at the church and doing what we do. My friend Daniel and I went out on the street the other night for evangelism. We didn't have a lot of conversations on that trip, but we saw some interesting things, did some heavy praying, and made a contact with someone I already knew but hadn't seen for a while. It was a good night.
God has blessed me lately with several great days. I've gotten to visit people, relax a little, have some fun, and spend time in His presence. Last night we got to have a service with some people who are part of the persecuted church in another country. If you see me in person, feel free to ask me to show you pictures. It was a great night!
There are a lot of things coming up soon, could you please be in prayer for me? There is a week long schooling in Arkansas that I may be doing in September, several missions trips (including Mexico and Israel) coming up perhaps by the end of this year, and the everyday juggle of work, mission/ministry work, and living life that happens. All of this is very costly and it's a struggle to get by sometimes, so saving money toward these things is tough. God is a great provider, though, and I know that when He sends me somewhere, He will provide...even when it's right here in Lawrence.
I hope to see or hear from you all soon! I'd love to hear what is happening in your corner of the world as well! Thanks for reading!