Official May 2015 Newsletter

(Written March 2015)

Happy May!

I hope that your spring is growing into a more warm season. I know that many of you have survived a rather harsh and cold winter. Historically, I have used my May newsletter to recap the highs and lows of this past year. So, holding to tradition, I seek to share with you the past year. 

May of 2014 saw my very first birthday spent in Kunming! Every other year I have been someplace else on my birthday! The end of May brought me to America for my second Home Assignment period. 

June, July, August, and September were whirlwinds of catching up with friends and loved ones, catching planes, helping people catch my vision and hoping that the good food wouldn’t catch up to me. 

October, found me enthusiastically returning to KM with the high hopes and great desires to dive into school visits. But the reality is that what happens in one part of China greatly affects the entire country and the activities that began September of 2014 in Hong Kong created a closed atmosphere within the government in allowing foreigners to be involved in many areas of education. So when I attempted to schedule school visits I was put on the back burner. 

November, was filled with good food and good fellowship. My time of waiting for “work” continued but I found that there was lots of little things that I could do for and with other people while waiting.  One person who blessed my life during this time was a woman who was a substitute foster mom for an adorable little girl. During this time we also began hard core planning for Permeate 2015. 

December, happened to be one of my best Christmases here. I was able to spend several days with close friends, including Christmas Eve night and waking up and doing stockings together. It was so lovely.  New Year’s was also an event filled with family feelings. There was maybe eight or nine families together playing games, knitting, talking, laughing and celebrating. So much fun! 

In January, we ran a Shine course with the new women who had recently stopped working as prostitutes. This course was so very good for me personally because it seemed to signal the beginning of starting “work.”

February, Driving license finally obtained I drove into the Permeate rush and ended in an extended stay in Thailand for routine medical checkups and getting pages added to my passport. 

March, started with going to the South of China to train eight sisters in facilitating Shine. It was a marvelous time of growing as a trainer. From there I went to Vietnam where I was trained on how to facilitate and train others in Flourish, a program similar to Shine. This was exciting because I got to see the differences between Shine and Flourish and see where each program could be used to its greatest potential. 

Since it is not quite the end of March yet I can tell you my plans for the rest of March and April but cannot guarantee that I will accomplish everything I set out to do. 

I have been greatly disappointed to visit no schools until recently. At the current writing of this letter no schools have been visited since April 2014, but we do have plans to begin visiting schools starting the end March and running on a weekly basis into May. We also have been asked by a couple contacts, who work with migrant communities, how and when we could come teach at their schools. So the hope is that by the end of March or beginning of April we may be “back in the game!” 

At the end of March a colleague from a different city in China will come and visit to see if she is a good fit with our team because she is very interested in the prevention program. I have high hopes for her to be one of my teammates. 

So all in all my 34^th year of life was a busy one. Not everything went as I planned but Father orchestrated many things in order for His plans to be carried out. I have learned much about myself and about Him as I continued the path He set before me. Thank you for your involvement and your thoughts for me as I continue to follow Him.

Happy 35^th Birthday to Me!!  

Official March 2015 Newsletter

(Written in January 2015)

Praise the Lord that my season of waiting for something to occur is over. I have been on a whirlwind of activity. Currently, the end of January, we are in the middle of a fabulous session of Shine. There are 8 young Chinese women and 2 foreign women who are participating in this session. We are already seeing some deep heart work happening. Thank you for your support and thoughts for my work as well as for these women. By the time you are reading this, I hope that I will have traveled to a border city to train several women both nationals and expatriates. Plus, there is a strong possibility that I will have also traveled to Vietnam to get trained how to facilitate a program called Flourish. One that is similar to Shine but designed for more rural areas. All this traveling and training is very exciting. Fear Not however that I have forsaken the Prevention work. It is still very heavy on my heart and I have high hopes that I will get to go and teach at a school in March and especially in April. 

I know that my last newsletter was somewhat vague and I also know how irritating that can be. I am still not able to discuss the situation behind it all but I want you to know that my heart is still very much engaged to the ministry before me. If and when anything does seem to be changing I will be notifying you all and asking for your thoughts regarding it all.  Waiting is hard but the rewards of it are very great.

I took and passed my exam to be given a Chinese driver’s license and this upcoming weekend will be my first outing by car. I am frankly frightened. But I know that my faith in the Father is strong because I am going to do it. Hooray!! I went to the rental agency this afternoon and answered all their questions. The very concerned owner wanted to know if I was English or not. When I informed him that I was American he became much more at ease and proceeded to tell me that he was very glad because in England they drive on the other side of the road. I then understood his previous concern. 

So as I embark on this new exciting new driving adventure please continue to ask Father to protect me and those around me. Please ask for the women who I have taught and trained that His power would be upon them as they teach and train others! 

Permeate 2015!!

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." 

Jeremiah 9:23-24

I have been waiting to post something related to how Permeate went until I could post pictures from it. So this is later than I anticipated. I waited and I waited and cannot wait anymore. These pictures are curtesy of Amber Goodloe who was a special guest this year at Permeate. 

Permeate 2015 started out as it always does with a flutter of new people, old friends, moving equipment and frustrated retreat employees.

But this year there were some major changes. The retreat center had done quite a lot of updating and renovation to the place that affected us. Usually we get a conference room for our leaders' room but this year they were giving us a series of three-two story houses to use. So we housed the band and some additional leaders in one house and used the main room as our leader room. It was a nice change but took some getting used to. 

The girls' side of the retreat center was also in the process of getting a new face and so all the girls' rooms were moved into a new area of the retreat center. This was exciting but also posed some complications for the Permeate Planning Team. The up side to this new development was that there were two hot tubs in the girls' area of the campus. The down side was that leaders had to all sleep in one room where in the past we roomed with some of the girls in our designated small groups. This made the "connecting with our students" part of our job slightly more complicated.

This year we had more students attend than ever before-154!! As we continue to grow we ask for you to keep lifting this up to Father. We want it to be a place where these TCK's can truly meet with Father and connect with one another.

We had a phenomenal band this year. One student commented that one of the leaders would turn into an angel when he began to sing. Our musical team was twice the size it usually is and one of the blessings to me was that one of the band mates was himself a student at Permeate in the past. One of his dreams was to return to give back to something that had made such an impact in his own spiritual walk. 

As if one returning student as an adult wasn't blessing enough, we were doubly blessed because there were actually two returning Permeate Alumni. One was in the band as mentioned above and the other came and volunteered his time as a small group leader. 

Permeate 2015 was the 7th annual Permeate and there were some seniors who had been at all seven. One of our returning alumni had been to all seven and it was exciting to sit down with them and listen to how Permeate has changed as well as how it had changed them. 

As the resident Nurse at Permeate, I get to see a lot of things and this year was no different. As usual we also have a doctor on campus but usually the problems are minor and don't involve him. PTL!! This year things became a bit more complicated when my phone found its way into the hot tub.

One person asked me if injuries were up this year from last and I answered that I didn't think so. That same person said that he felt he just heard over and over all weekend-Do you know where Denise is? Um I need Denise. I told him that it was because I didn't have anyway of anyone getting a hold of me this year.  One young woman told another girl in her small group that she didn't want the ibuprofen that her small group leader had because she heard that Denise had magic pills. I promise anyone who asks that my pills were only ibuprofen or tylenol. I did nothing magical. The same young woman told me personally that I was worth way more than hugs. 

There is nothing like the gratitude of a teenage to melt your heart. 

We had a couple kids who had the 24hr flu and we muchly appreciated all your prayers for them.  They both were able to regain health and rejoin the larger group after rest and water.

Other than physical injuries I was very encouraged and refreshed by my junior high girls small group. Usually it is very difficult to keep junior high girls on a spiritual discussion for longer than a half hour. So imagine my surprise when I had to end our first day's discussion after and hour and 15 min. It was an amazing indepth and passionate conversation regarding-If there is no sadness in heaven will we remember the people whom we loved on earth who are not in heaven? That question spiralled into other questions they had and the girls themselves took turns posing answers based on their own personal opinions as well as some of them using scripture to back their thoughts up. It was so very encouraging. We were very careful to listen to everyone who had an opinion as well as to reassure those who didn't know that it was okay to not know. 

By the last night I was deeply blessed that one girl felt safe enough to share that up until this year's Permeate she had been living her life as a Christian because that was how she was accepted in this community but that inside she had still been an atheist. This weekend though-through the messages shared in the sessions and listening to the discussions something clicked inside her and now she believes.  Please praise Father for this young one and ask that He would grow her faith ever stronger. 

What a revelation to share!!!

A second girl shared that her life is mostly going to school and trying to get good grades and that there is a lot of stress and pressure from her home. She said that she has been listening to everyone this weekend and she thinks that maybe that having Jesus in her life would make her inner self be better.  At the time of sharing she wasn't ready yet to make a choice but she is so close. Please ask that Father would show her His way clearly and help her to see how His burden is light!

These are only two girls from my group of 12 who were impacted deeply. There are several others in my group and in others' group who were encouraged to hold tightly to what they already know and strive to press on-relying on His strength. Some other students who were struggling to know what they believed were touched by the love and faith they saw in the leaders as well as in their peers. 

One thing we would love for you to pray for these kids is that as they return to routines and normalcy they would not loose the enthusiasm and joy of their faith. That Father would ground them in His word and with His love. 

One of my special joys during this years Permeate is that my brother designed this year's Permeate logo. Every year we have a theme and this year's theme was: Boast in This. Up until this year we have always had the same woman design our logo but for various reasons we needed to ask other volunteers to submit options for a logo. I feel very blessed to know several of you how sacrificed your time and energy to submit us logo options. Thank you again!

I was excited and proud that the Permeate Planning Team picked my brother's logo out of all the submitted options.  He graduates shortly from art school and does a great job in graphic design in my opinion. 

Blogging Fail but Life Success!

Blogging is hard. 

I have to think of something that is interesting, relevant, and true about my work here that will help you all to understand what is happening in my life. Sometimes I truly feel like nothing that has happened would be of interest to any of you and other times I know it will interest you but it is too personal to share with the whole wide web. At times I am so busy to take time from productive "work" to blog seems like a burden. Other times the process of blogging that needs a certain kind of Internet connection just keeps getting kicked off. Of the pictures take so long to upload that my computer seems like it is in pain. This season it has been even harder than usual!

I have been in a waiting phase. Waiting on Him has been incredible. But there is no outward fruit in my work and if any of you would have asked I would have had little ministry to show for it. However, I wanted to tell you about some of this fruit that is hard to outwardly show. 

I have been studying Esther, Proverbs, and the women of the Good Book. It has been amazingly encouraging as well as challenging. 

I think that most of us are slowly growing. Walking along toward becoming a more Father like individual. I am no different. I cannot adequately explain to you how or when I have grown this season. All I can really do is look behind me and see that this season-hard though it has been-has not been a waste. 

Esther's most famous verse comes from chapter 4. It says: "If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Her response is: "Then I will go to the kind, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish."  The thing that I have clung to during this waiting time is that at this time Esther had been queen for some time. They estimate approximately: 5 years. This was a lot of time before her destiny landed in her lap. Father knows exactly when we should act and when we need more preparation. But when the time to act arrives He usually makes it very clear. When the who knows becomes the I know. 

I have been wanting to act. Sitting on the edge of my seat longing to be in the battle. But it is as if my time has not yet come. So I have been seeking for guidance. Have I gone the wrong way? Have I missed a door open before me? Should I press harder? Should I change course? It is so tempting to make our own way when we are not sure if our waiting is of the Lord or if it is due to our lack of initiative or disobedience. So I sought wisdom from one of the wisdom books. I was certainly not disappointed. 

Proverbs 2:1-6 says: "My son, if you receive my words

and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;"

Proverbs 18:1 says: "Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement."

Proverbs 19:21 says: "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand."

Proverbs 4:23-26 says: 

Proverbs 16:3 says: "Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established."

Proverbs 11:14 says: "Where there is no guidance, a people fails, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety."

I have been reminded that as I seek out His will He surely will give it to me. I have sought the advice of wiser men and women than myself and I have sought my own heart and I came to the resolution that until the door opens either by its owner I am to wait. If it never opens then I will wait for the window to be opened.

 I tried to have my ear open for all matter of direction. From the squeak of the door being pushed open to the solid clank of the lock being thrown. I wanted to be clear when I finally made a move. 

Psalm 119:34-37 says:

Looking through the Old Testament I have been trying to learn from the women whom Father has named or not named how He wants us to lean. It has been an altogether different experience for me. Most of my life I have read the Old Testament as a way to understand who Father is and what He wants us to learn about Him from the OT. 

This time through I am examining the people whom He has associated Himself with and the positive or negative character aspects of each woman. It has been a fascinating and enlightening time. 

Sarah and Rachel both have taught me so much regarding waiting. Although, I am not waiting for a child that doesn't seem to be coming, I have been waiting since October to teach some students regarding the risks of the big world. The waiting is hard. Both Sarah and Rachel took matters into their own hands and tried to push through the promise of a child. Those actions caused a lot of trouble for them and the consequences were far reaching into the nations. I learn that often our human desire to control the situations we are in many times leads to our own sorrow later. We need to carefully think through decision that are big choices-making sure that they are in line with Father's word,  as well as how it will affect others.  The situation of these women also confirmed and reminded me that Father does not always take us out of hard places (like waiting for His promises). Instead, He sends us His strength to endure as well as His presence to comfort us. 

Of course there are lots of other lessons He has been teaching me. But these lessons are regarding this period of waiting that I have been doing since October 1. 

Ironically, as I waited I decided that a change of scenery would be a good idea and so I traveled to a different area of China to visit some dear friends and see their ministry as well as to just share with them some of the things that have been happening or not happening in my life. :) While there I was able to meet with a woman who was very keen to learn how to facilitate Shine plus she is interested in learning how to facilitate the School Program in her area. I talked to a co-worker in Singapore who also has a group of women who are interested in learning how to facilitate Shine. My bucket began to overflow with opportunities. PTL!! 

The season of waiting is officially over as this past week my co-worker and I started a Shine course for the 6 new women who have left prostitution here. From this week on I will be pretty busy with all sorts of activities, trainings, relationship building, and teaching work. His faithfulness is always sure. 

Official January 2015 Newsletter

(Written November 2014)

I don’t know about how your new year has started; but, I am overwhelmed by my Father’s goodness to me. Returning to work in Kunming has been so much different that I had ever imagined. I have been gifted with an abundance of change. I don’t like change. I like to know what to expect and I want to plan for the future. But these past few months I have been on an adventure with Him that hasn’t completely changed everything but has the great potential to change my roadmap. 

Psalm 145:2 “Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”

I am still in the processing phase but I am excited to see where this road will take me. 

So far it has taken me to Myanmar. I went with another Shine Facilitator into Yangon late November and was a part of giving 8 women a new outlook on life as well as train 2 of them to continue to pour into other women. It was an exciting and challenging opportunity. We gave the Shine message to 7 different people groups. John 16:33b “But take heart; I have overcome the world.” 

My co-worker, Angela, who goes with me to the rural schools and translates for me is pregnant. Which is a huge blessing but it is a change in our situation. Women in China are not usually encouraged to go or do many things while they are pregnant and after giving birth they are cloistered in their homes for an entire month. So these next 10 months have the potential for some slow progress in the Shine School Program.

Please ask for Angela’s health as well as her baby’s during this time, ask that she would be willing to continue taking our program to the villages, ask that Father would provide me with enough ministry work so that I feel that I am being useful but also able to adequately spend time with Him.

Matthew 28:20b “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In March of 2012, I wrote to you: “The place I am at confuses me....God has told me that I am to be His servant and at this time he has said it is to be in China. I do not understand how I will be used but I know that God’s ways do not always work out to our logical way of thinking. As I continually petition for direction and guidance, please hold on with me as I fumble and search for the next step.” 

Now is similar to that time. I am seeking His face daily as I walk upon this trail that He has laid before me. It is suddenly filled with wildness, flowers, stumbling, tenderness, and wonders I hardly believe are real. I am amazed and overcome. I know my words are vague and I am writing figuratively because I am not through the tunnel yet and don’t yet feel able to share all the details at this time. 

Song of Song 8:7a “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it out.” Despite, the slight befuddlement,  I know that my Father is with me and loves me in a way that I cannot fathom and because of His great love I can rest knowing that this path, this journey is for my good. I am ready and willing to go where He leads to receive the good gifts He has for me. 

Official December 2015 Newsletter

Alleluia, we can sing it. Alleluia, heaven’s ringing. Alleluia!  Endless hope and relentless joy started with a Baby Boy.”

 Baby Boy by For King and Country

Merry Christmas! 

This is my first official newsletter after getting back into the swing of things here. (written Oct 27th) I had a wonderful time in the States. Getting reconnected with many of you was such a blessing to me. One of my favorite things I got to do with my dad on this trip was that I got to canoe down part of the James River. 

It just a good time in Father’s world, seeing His beauty, working hard, and being with my dad. We were doubly or triply blessed because we were visited by an Asian Big Head Carp. It just jumped out of the river into our canoe.  It was startling and exciting. 

This made me think about how much of that canoe trip is how I want my life to look like. I want to be sitting in the front of my boat (life) looking and acting like I am directing it’s way. While someone else (dad/Father) does the real paddling and actual steering. I want to appreciate all the lands and animals go by and just enjoy my ride. Then I want to suddenly have fruit, a giant fish in my lap. 

But usually, most of us, don’t find that this is how life works. Usually I am sitting in the front of my boat (life) feeling and sometimes acting like I don’t know which way is the way to go. Likely as not paddling against what the man behind me (Father) is trying to do. Causing waves and not getting very far. Sometimes, I see the world around me as Father’s handy work but more often I have critical eyes that find the things that need to be changed. And in reality-if I want to see a fish in my lap (fruit) I have to be patient with the right tools and with the right attitude. Sometimes it takes years. It can be exhausting all that waiting. 

This endless hope and relentless joy that is sung about in the song above is a great mystery that comes to followers of Father’s Son. It is a hope and joy that permeates our souls even when we are tired, worn down, troubled, angry, or saddened. It overrides our basic emotions and settles deep inside. If you don’t know the Son this all sounds rather strange-but I bet you have longed for that kind of hope, peace, and joy. 

This life of mine is good. I am blessed beyond what I deserve. But it can exhaust me. Before I came back to the States I was tired but I was not joyless. The beauty, familiarity, and love I experienced during my time in the States refreshed me and between the gifts I received from our good Father and the encouragement I received from many of you I regained energy for this upcoming year of service.

We are currently waiting on our government partner to guide us to our next school but I do get to meet with some partners of Eden this upcoming week. It is shaping up to be a good and busy year.  

I hope that your year is filled with things that bless you. Mostly, though, I hope that you can find the endless hope and relentless joy that comes from knowing and loving and serving Christ Jesus. 

Myanmar 2014

So I have been to Myanmar and back.

We watched from the sky as we landed and were fairly certain that we would be like the city mouse goes to the country. There were no tall buildings. Nothing to indicate that we were in a metropolitan area.  But once we got on the ground and entered the city the massive traffic jams cured us of any country expectations. 

We desended from the plane to the amazing view of Air Force One. It was just a plane. But a huge white mechanical genius with the big blue letters spelling THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA followed by the Red White and Blue. It was breath taking. Being the only American on the plane from China to Yangon I felt almost like royalty. Perhaps we would see Him. Of course we did not. In fact His presence in the city caused traffic to be blocked off and detoured in such a way that I actually began to feel embarrassed that such a fuss was being caused by my head of state. 

Saturday, the first full day in Myanmar was spent shopping. We trucked ourselves down to the gem market and some gems were purchased. We got to meet the seller who sells Eden many of their jewels. It was really cool. Of course every sapphire or ruby or fire opal that I asked to see were in the thousands of dollars. I consoled myself by congratulating myself that I have good taste.  We got to meet a monkey at one of the churches in downtown Yangon. 

Sunday, we had fellowship in the afternoon. It was a new place that has been gradually growing and was held in a small apartment. It was a very charismatic group that met with several healings as well as many words of wisdom spoken for many there.  

Monday, we began to teach Shine at 10am. We had expected to have 6 participants. Three women wanting to be trained as facilitators and three as participants. In the way that only Father can do things we arrived Monday morning to find 10 participants. Which was the exact number of gifts I had packed for each session. Hooray for His Plan. Some of the teaching we had to change due to cultural differences and or educational levels. 

Tuesday, two of the women who attended on Monday were ill. So from Tuesday on we had 8 women that we taught. We had four days to go through all eight sessions and we succeeded. Each session has a special gift at the end. On day's gift is usually a letter that tells them what potential we have seen shining from them. Because many of the women could not read we tried to give them tangible gifts that would have some significance to the sessions. So instead of writing them each a letter this time we painted them a picture with one word on it.  

Please lift these women up as they go forward in sharing what they learned from Shine with other women. 

P.M.-her favorite session was: My Potential is Limitless.

W.M.-her favorite session was: My Decisions determine my Destiny

D.D.-her favorite session was:My Life has a Purpose

L.S.-her favorite session was: My Life has a Purpose

T.T.-she didn't have a favorite session.

M.A.- her favorite session was: You are One of a Kind

S.T.-her favorite session was: My Decisions determine my Destiny

J.J.-her favorite session was:You are Valuable

There were 10 people groups represented at our Shine Graduation, including Kalinda, our Chinese helpers, and myself. 

Thank you for your petitions for me while I was there, I know that your faithfulness helped me greatly. I was seriously exhausted once returning home due to the intense ministry that was undertaken. I would be glad to share more details one on one in person via Skype or Face Time or via email. Your support and love is felt. Thank you!