My Master

I love my Master

I will not go free

I'll take Your name

And live in liberty

My life is Yours forever

I'll serve You faithfully

I love My Master

I will not go free...

-"My Master" by Christy Nockels

Seeing Him

"The carnal mind sees God in nothing,

not even in spiritual things.

The spiritual mind sees Him in everything,

even in natural things..."

-Robert Leighton

Ruhamah

Your mercy reigns

Your mercy comes

Your mercy falls

It rises with the sun

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I will abide in Your love

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-Shane and Shane, "Your Mercy Reigns"

My mind works by Bible verses and song lyrics, and sometimes they just burst out! Hope you don't mind...

And ruhamah is one of my favorite words.

It comes like a gentle whisper with the sweet fragrance of Heaven, like the breath of the Spirit, or a song in the night. And the only response is to rise and worship the Holy God who speaks it.

I do believe that it can only be whispered.

Fun With Kiddos

Sometimes looks are worth a thousand words...


I love doggy and doggy loves me.

Girls will be girls...

...and boys will be boys.

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Have a great day!

Running

If I ever find my life then I've lost it.

There is nothing more to life

than to lose myself while I'm running,

running, running, running after You.

-Watermark, "Constant"

Russia Pictures

Pictures from the mission to Russia are posted below. (Sorry they ended up down there; I was uploading them whenever I could get a chance and sorting them according to where we were at the time. But they are finally up now!)
With most of the pictures I included a little note, but if you have any questions about a specific picture or anything else about the trip, feel free to ask.
The Murom pictures are still on their way; be watching for them too.

-Capa

"Wait Thou Only Upon God"

"My soul, wait thou only upon God" (Ps. 62:5)

"Wait only upon God"; my soul, be still,
And let thy God unfold His perfect will.
Thou fain would'st follow Him throughout this year,
Thou fain with listening heart His voice would hear,
Thou fain would'st be a passive instrument
Possessed by God, and ever Spirit-sent
Upon His service sweet---then be thou still,
For only thus can He in thee fulfill
His heart's desire. Oh, hinder not His hand
From fashioning the vessel He hath planned.
"Be silent unto God," and thou shalt know
The quiet, holy calm He doth bestow
On those who wait on Him; so shalt thou bear
His presence, and His life and light e'en where
The night is darkest, and thine earthly days
Shall show His love, and sound His glorious praise.
And He will work with hand unfettered, free,
His high and holy purposes in thee.
First on thee must that hand of power be turned,
Till in His love's strong fire thy dross is burned,
And thou come forth a vessel for thy Lord,
So frail and empty, yet, since He hath poured
Into thine emptiness His life, His love,
Henceforth through thee the power of God shall move
And He will work for thee. Stand still and see
The victories thy God will gain for thee;
So silent, yet irresistible,
Thy God shall do the thing impossible.
Oh, question not henceforth what thou canst do;
Thou canst do nought. But He will carry through
The work where human energy had failed
Where all thy best endeavors had availed
Thee nothing. Then, my soul, wait and be still;
Thy God shall work for thee His perfect will.
If thou wilt take no less, His best shall be
Thy portion now and through eternity.

-Freda Hanbury
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Sweet Jesus, cause us to wait only for You.

With eyes of expectancy and adoration

We will wait for Your perfect will.

Our hope is in You.

Papolina, Russia

We visited this little village outside of Murom with the team from CC Murom.

They had rented a bus, and that morning most of their church plus our team of 6 piled into it and headed to Papolina (note: I have no idea if the village name would be spelled like that, but it is a guess. The pronunciation is more like: pahp-OO-lee-na. Anyway, that's it's name).

Pasha came also with a trunk full of literature: small new testaments for younger people, larger print new testaments for the babooshkas (grandmas), tracts, and a book called The Foundation of Christianity by John Stott. We loaded up with armfulls and bagfulls, split into groups of three or so, and headed out. It was raining and muddy, but we were excited. We knocked on the door of each house that we came to, and, if they were home, we gave them a Bible. Then we began to share the gospel with them. Many people were overjoyed to recieve a Bible and wanted immediately to start reading. We would tell them about Jesus and how he is the way to Eternal Life and the only way begin to understand the Bible. They were so happy.

This woman was had never seen a Bible in her life. She loves to read. She said, "All my life I have been told there is no God. But I believe there is Something there. I just don't know."

Isn't it amazing that people naturally think there is a God? For truly even creation testifies of Him. But they have not heard, or perhaps have been told, as she was, that God does not exist. Now she knows of Jesus her Savior and she holds His precious word. God is so good!

Here is some of the group with the bus.

Vladimir, Russia

This is Daniel and Anya.

Anya was our translator, and Daniel is her brother whom she has raised since he was seven.

This is Sasha, our other translator.

He translated for us last time I went also.

He speaks English so well that people have asked him, "How did you learn Russian so well?"

(My favorite time was when, after speaking to another American we met in Red Square, Sasha walked away imitating the man's "southern" accent. It was hilarious.)

Sasha has a beautiful wife named Sveta.

Two years ago when I met them, they were (nearly) engaged, and now they have been married for a little over year.

The picture below entitled "king and queen" is of them.

They met us at the airport this year, and we spent the whole time with them.

This is the concert that was held at the church.

A group from Murom came that day, and this is their band "The Tree".

You may have seen the video of them playing Jesus Lord of Heaven.

This is Volia and Volia, two ladies we shared the gospel with. Many women of their age want nothing to do with strangers and will not even speak to us, but these women were very open and excited to hear why we came to Russia.

There's something really neat about this time also. There is a law that will not allow us to share the gospel with children below the age of fourteen if a parent is not present and consenting. We were not even allowed to give them Bibles or tracts. I didn't much like this law and did not really have much regard for it since I believe that God's call for us to speak trumps all such laws, but I didn't want to get anyone from the church in trouble. Then again, there are ways to get around things like that. (As decievers and yet TRUE.)

So as I was speaking to these ladies, there were several young boys on a bench slightly in front of us and to the left. I could see them listening very intently, even though they pretended not to. It was very neat! In fact, they weren't the only ones listening in; there were several other benches of people nearby that heard the gospel too. Praise God!

Hanging out at the church before the prayer meeting

Here are some of the girls from the church having fun.

The girl on the right is from Murom. She is twelve and started coming to the church in Murom without her parents knowing. Now she is just part of the family, and a young woman from the church brings her every week. That was such a cool story to hear.


Here we are saying goodbye to the Murom girls. They had come for a day of evangelism, a ladies tea, and the concert.

At the ladies tea.