Thank you for partnering with HCJB Global & me this year!!
“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel...it is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart.” Philippians 1: 4, 5, 7

I arrived in Colorado Springs on my birthday, the 1st of October, after a long drive through Texas highlighted by a day spent in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. I had a few days to settle in and see some of the state parks here before jumping into my new job. Cheyenne Mountain State Park is the newest park and is in Colorado Springs. The prairie dogs there seemed to share my excitement at being here at last.

My new job is split between two departments … personnel and mobilization. I will be supporting the missionaries already in the field, and my first assignment was to make a newsletter template for each of our global regions. Since I did, I thought I should at least use one of the templates this month. On the back are several global updates plus an emphasis on Russian and our Sub-Saharan Africa region.

The other part of my job will be organizing and tracking personal data for Global Involvement events and communicating with regional staff. That will allow me opportunities to go on short mission trips to some of our ministry locations, most likely starting with Quito, Ecuador.
I’m beyond excited...each day I hear of incredible ways the Lord is changing lives around the world!!!

Pikes Peak or Bust

I’d put my excitement up against the gold rushers of the 1860’s … I can’t wait to get there and join the HCJB Global team with whom I’ll be working. My house hunting trip went smoothly and the Lord provided just the right home.
My last two months in Houston have been filled with family, friends and fun. I spent many days watching my granddaughter Presley who will turn one in a few weeks.
My friend Dana and sister Deedie joined me for the Praisefest Texas and a great time of study with Charles Stanley, and worship with the Booth Brothers & Greater Vision. I love what Dr. Stanley always says, “Obey God and leave the consequences to Him”. What a great life motto!
The week before school starts my friend Jane & her grandson Maric hook up with Tristan and me for a week of activities. We visited NASA, the zoo, the Lego store, the Museum of Natural Science, the pool, the Aquarium, the driving range and putting green, built a remote driven Mustang at Ridermakerz, and still squeezed in devotionals as we studied some of God’s awesome promises.

SELAHblessings just had another day retreat led by Theresa Flanagan and twenty women gathered to study the Feast of Pentecost. It was a rich time of study, prayer, fellowship, and “feasting”. The next retreat will be November 7th. Please come!
God’s has poured out His blessings in so many ways as you can see. My support level went from 80% last month to 93% now! I am really close to being fully funded. I’m trusting the Lord to get me to that place before I start my job in October. If you would like more information on HCJB Global and how you can partner with me, please call or email me. I will have an exciting job supporting the missionaries in the field and helping with HCJB Global’s strategic projects around the world as we seek to be the Voice and Hands of Jesus.

Well, my elevation will soon change from 43 feet in Houston to 6035 feet in Colorado Springs. I got my long awaited call from HCJB Global this month asking me to begin service with them on October 1st… my birthday. What a great gift!! I love the Lord’s timing. My support level is only 80%, but I’m making plans to move and trusting the Lord to provide the rest soon.

After a short visit in June with my grandson Tristan, my daughter Renee and I headed to The Jesus Way conference with Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and John Ortberg. There were so many gems that we took away from the talks, but I particularly loved what John Ortberg said, “There is a God, It is not you. This means our life is not our project. Our life is God’s project.
God thought us up, and He knows what we were intended to be.”

I was triply blessed this month by the kids at my church who attended VBS. They collected quarters each day for missions and presented me with a generous donation of $106.11. Some of these same kids surprised me in May with a donation of over $400, the proceeds from several bake sales they had to raise money for a mission project. I had no idea I was the project. I thank God for their hearts for missions at such a young age, and their gracious gifts. Tristan returned from his third mission trip this week, and he’s just twelve years old! What a blessing to be able to see firsthand the needs of people in other countries and cultures.

What does God expect of us? That is the question on the cover of The Hole in Our Gospel, a book by the president of World Vision, Richard Stearns. It has been months since I’ve read a book that challenged my thinking as much as this one. The founder of World Vision once prayed “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” I’ve prayed that prayer often recently and have loved how God has answered it and given me new eyes to see others and circumstances differently. I want and need His eyes!
A friend of the author suggested that if believers cut out all the scriptures we pay no attention to, or just ignore, what would our Bibles look like? They would truly be full of holes.
The author reminds us “that being a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ, requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world.” May God give us open doors to be His voice and hands in reaching out to others today.

Celebrating the joy of serving,

April has been filled with great times of study, fellowship, and worship. Our church’s ladies’ retreat speaker is a creative access missionary from Africa. Her topic was “Matters of the Heart”, and her testimony of God’s provision for her family encouraged us of the power of prayer and the faithfulness of God. One statement she made has such incredible application for today, “refuse to be dominated by the seen and the felt...our feelings and our circumstances do not affect God’s facts (His Word)”. I love that!!
I celebrated Easter by attending an early service at my niece Bethany’s church. Some of the congregation shared their stories of redemption with cardboard testimonies. If you’re not familiar with them, check out www.youtube.com and search for “cardboard testimonies”. I particularly loved one that said “lost son of Sudan” on the front and on the flip side “citizen of Heaven and the USA”.

Celebrating redemption,

HCJB Global's Vision trip to South Africa revealed several deep spiritual truths to me during those two weeks. I had a really clear visible picture of one truth from God’s Word after we went on a jeep safari at Pilanesberg National Park. Some of the symbiotic (interdependent and mutually beneficial) relationships among many African animals are well known. The red-billed oxpeckers feed off the ticks and other parasites on giraffes, rhinos and impalas. The wildebeests always travel with zebras because zebras have superior vision and hearing, and provide an early warning to them when predators are nearby. A definition of mutualism is a beautiful picture of the body of Christ: joining forces to achieve something bigger than a single individual could manage alone. As the Church, we are all diversely gifted and called to various ministries. May we use those gifts for the edification of the church and the glory of God.