I’m so excited to announce a four-book giveaway of Little Mole Finds Hope, the first title in an adorable new series published by Beaming Books. Releasing on February 4th and written for children aged 3-6 years, the illustrations by Sally Garland are just precious!
When Little Mole is feeling sad in his dark, underground home, Mama takes him on a journey to find hope. Together, they find it, even when it’s hiding in the darkest place…
Take a peek at these lovely excerpts… Continue reading
We cried.
Not many people know that, but when David and I got the phone call that we were moving to Dearborn, we cried.
We stood in our quiet lake home and looked at each other. And we knew, right then, that we wouldn’t say no. We could have. But we would never do that. If you sign up for the itinerant life as a pastor (which we did) and if you believe that God called you to it (which we do) then how could we say no? We couldn’t.
So we packed up our boxes and we cleared out our home and we stood on the dock and watched one last sunset and I rode to my cornfield to say goodbye. And I peeked in the robin’s nest one final time and bade farewell to my favorite tree, the one that always reminded me of a ballerina.
And we moved.
And left all this…
It was this time last year that we first met Tiny.
Spring had finally come to Michigan, and the robins began building their nests, hopping around and collecting twigs, just like they’re doing now. And the one I saw on the lawn today, I’m wondering if that might be Tiny… but of course, I’ll never know.
Tiny’s story began in a scrawny nest, built in our ladders, just one year ago…
We were worried from the beginning, my son and I.
His blue egg was the last to be laid, the smallest of the four, the final one to hatch.
It’s Christmas Eve…
many, many, many years ago.
There’s no snow in the air, but there IS a certain magic, dancing in the dark night skies outside our bedroom window. We have our noses scrunched against the glass. And we’re peering out, into the blackness, my siblings and I.
And suddenly a cry goes up: Continue reading
I was born skinny.
Well, maybe that’s a lie. I was, in fact, the largest of my mum’s eight babies, weighing in at a whopping 10 pounds. But the joke in my family for a long time was that I’ve never put any weight on since.
It’s true though, that through no merit of my own, I managed to give birth to four children and then shrink, almost immediately, back to my previous slim self. The same skinny jeans that I’d discarded a few months prior slid easily over my hips without too much trouble. And I continued in that same skinny vein for years and years. If you don’t believe me, here’s a 1990’s picture to prove it… Continue reading
A few weeks ago, we celebrated my grandson turning four years old. It was the first time the four cousins had been together. This picture captures their joy, and perhaps you can imagine mine…
I love the way they are holding hands. I love their hats!
These are the children in my world: these are the ones I can influence for good; these are the ones I can be a good example to; these are the ones I can teach to love and respect all human beings so that they can do their part to bring love and light into this world of ours.
Then there’s this: Continue reading
It’s hard to believe, but we have reached the final part of our Bible study based on Love Letters from God: Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart. This book will be published TOMORROW! I feel like the woman in our Bible story for today…..happy! But, of course, Mary Magdalene had so much more to sing about than a new book release… Jesus, the King of the world, and the Lord of her life had just been released from the grave. Let’s tiptoe to that quiet hillside with Mary and see what she sees…
The woman could not escape. Two men held her arms tightly as they pushed her in front of Jesus. “Jesus!’ the teachers of the law shouted. “Look at this woman. We caught her sinning. Our law says she should be stoned. What do YOU think?”
So begins the story of The Forgiven Girl, in Love Letters from God: Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart. It’s hard to imagine the feelings of that poor woman, who was dragged and disgraced, not just in front of Jesus, but in front of an entire crowd.
And let’s not forget the significance of where this awful scene took place. This shame-filled act happens in the temple courts, instigated by the religious leaders. In other words, this woman was judged, and already condemned, in the church, (another name for which could be ‘sanctuary’) by the church-goers (another name for whom could be ‘Christians’) of the day. Shocking isn’t it? Surely nothing like this would happen in our church, by our Christian friends, would it?
Let’s find out…
Israel, March 2015. The coach pulls to a stop, the doors open and we all spill out, cameras at the ready. We are British and America tourists, anxious to capture a photograph to prove that we’re standing beside the famous Jacob’s Well.
It wasn’t in the middle of a field, as you might expect. The well where Jesus sat, over two thousand years ago, and had that holy conversation with an unknown Samaritan woman, is now located in a church which serves to preserve this holy site.
We dropped a stone down the deep, deep shaft, and heard it splash 135 feet below. It was Betsy who turned the crank to wind the bucket back to the surface. And she tasted that water. I tasted that water. My sister tasted that water. We all tasted that water: the very same water that Jesus drank, all those years ago.
Don’t you think that’s incredible! After more than two thousand years, Jacob’s Well is not dried up. The water is still flowing. And if that’s not a picture of God’s never-ending, everlasting, soul-quenching love for us, I don’t know what is.
Let’s find out more about our Thirsty Girl…
I have two adorable grandchildren who live 2000 long miles away. I see them about twice a year. Last time we visited, I distinctly remember what the weather was like the day we said goodbye. It was really cloudy and gloomy and rainy. I felt like the dark skies matched my mood.
But as we flew high above the clouds, the sun was waiting to greet us, shining bright and strong and cheerful on Mount Hood’s spectacular snow-covered peaks. It was a gorgeous sight. And it reminded me that in every sad or hard situation, there’s always hope, even if you can’t see it.
Sometimes you have to climb up to find hope, and sometimes you have to go down. And that’s where we find our Hannah… down on her knees, in the temple, literally crying out to her God of hope.
Hannah was desperate. She was desperate for the one thing in life that had eluded her… Continue reading
