Make a Difference Today

Our world is filled with injustice. Hunger, dirty water, poverty, human trafficking, and people without hope, without Jesus. Tiny Hands fights injustice, one child at a time in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

I love to read their blog, praise God for the girls rescued, see the shining faces of those children in their homes, and receive great news from their One Girl Initiative. I received this email this week:

Moving into Bangladesh!!!

We APPRECIATE your PRAYERS

as we respond to God's Call to protect the Daughter's of Bangladesh.

Our experienced Border Monitoring staff from Nepal went to Bangladesh to begin training their appointed Transit Monitoring Team. As we share this exciting news with you, we have already intercepted 12 girls!

 

   

  

February 2014 Reports

101 Girls intercepted in Februray

199 Girls intercepted so far in 2014

12 Girls intercepted in Bangladesh

LOVED, PROTECTED, RESTORED through One Girl

You can make a difference today. 

1. Praise God for these girls rescued.
2. Join the One Girl Initiative yourself.
3. Pray for this month's prayer requests.

• For our continued Transit Monitoring training in Bangladesh-that our new staff would be bold in their efforts through our Lord Jesus!
• For our staff in Bangladesh-that they continue to work together in prayer and monitoring their borders.
• That God would continue to bring faithful servants to our Border Staff in Nepal and Bangladesh.
• For guidance and connections in Thailand as we continue to explore partners to help us fight sex trafficking in Thailand.
• Praise to our Father who we continue to glorify through our efforts!

In His Time

This summer I thought I was very prepared. We hired staff earlier than normal, decided on devotional verses early and sent these to writers earlier than in past years. I had all the age graded Bible studies written and printed out by the first of May. Ready, set, go! Not!!

As summer approached, I had an uneasy feeling about the Bible study I wrote for Youth Mission Week. For some reason, the Gideon study that seemed the right choice in the spring, didn’t feel right in the month of June. The Holy Spirit nagged my Spirit like a dripping faucet.

Finally, [You know what I did. I loudly pronounced, “You win, I don’t have time to write a new Bible study but if you insist, I will make the time. (I have such a sweet, obedient spirit with the Holy Spirit when pressed for time.)] I sat down at my computer with my Bible on my left side and let the Holy Spirit teach me. The time flew by as He wrote. The Holy Spirit directed me to Paul and how Paul shared his testimony wherever God placed him. For the application section of this Paul Bible study, each student was to write his/her own testimony and make a decision about how many times they would share their testimony with others during the Mission Week experience.

With the Bible study printed out and ready to teach, I met with the college staffers, directing them in the lesson they would teach this next week. [They are the only staff members who know the content of the Bible studies.]

Youth Mission Weeks begin on Sunday and Monday with a flurry of activity including worship, recreation, mission team organization, and preparation prior to sending the teens to mission sites on Tuesday-Thursday. Among these activities is a time of Spirit led Bible study to prepare the youth for ministry with the people they encounter at their mission site.

One night before staff supper, we were sharing things we could ‘Praise Jesus’ for and one of my younger staffers, Robbie, shared what happened during the lunch break at his mission site. As his group ate their lunch, Robbie suggested they share their testimonies. (Because he had been helping in recreation during the morning Bible study, he was unaware that the Bible study had included a time of testimony preparation.) Robbie told us that as each person gave their testimony, the fellowship of the group was sweetened, walls came down, and their work relationship improved. (I am so glad Robbie listened to the Holy Spirit!) After Robbie shared, many other staffers testified that they experienced the same results at their mission sites. Many of the staff reflected it was the best year they had ever had on a mission site.

I believe the Holy Spirit wrote that new Bible study to prepare the youth to share their testimonies, knowing that as they shared, barriers would fall down and each site group would become a family. Many of our campers need a place to feel safe, secure and loved. (Don’t we all?!) The Holy Spirit orchestrated that feeling on this 2011 Mission Week.

Does the Holy Spirit nag you? Have you shared your testimony with someone this week? Do you have a safe place to share your thoughts? Share with me how I can pray for you as you share with others, search for a safe place, and choose to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.

Precious

Beth Moore, during one of her teaching times, shared how we women think all kinds of women are precious. I immediately starting thinking of all the women I know who are precious:

Sarah’s smile and her hugs

Hope’s God-honoring decisions this year at college

Lilly choosing to sit with me some Sundays

Mary’s encouraging words to my husband

Melissa finding love again

Faith thinking marriage is fun

Joyce’s love for the camp

Nell coming to church when her feet are killing her

The sweet ladies who think my hugs are special

My Mom, who makes all Christmas’ gifts equal

All the kind ladies who bring their children and youth to camp

My Beth Moore Bible study ladies who are excited about studying Esther

Charity’s perseverance in writing even when she is battling fatigue

Ava when she smiles at me and not Al

Lydia’s smile as soon as she sees me

Hannah calling Al-Allen and still hugging him

What women are precious to you? And why are they precious to you?

Salvation, Tears, Joy....

We experience many things during a week of camp at South Mountain Baptist Camp. One of my favorite stories this summer occurred downstairs in the chapel on a Thursday night. As adults counsel with their campers, I make it a practice to move room to room, checking to see if anyone needs help or has questions about the decisions they have made. On this evening as I walked to the last room, one of our staffers, Jarod, came out of this room and stopped to tell me about one young man's decision. He could not talk for the tears choking his voice. He finally found enough voice to tell me a camper in his church received Jesus that night.

Jarod went on to describe how this camper understood completely that he needed a Savior and that Jesus was the only Savior that could fix his sin problem. Jarod said the young man went on to pray and express his feelings and his new found faith in the Savior.

Jarod was so blessed to be in the presence of Jesus this night. As Jarod finished telling about this experience with this camper, he had tears streaming down his face. I hugged and told him, "Those are tears of joy." And of course, I cried with him.

We are so privileged to see this miracle of salvation happen again and again on the mountain. We are also privileged to work with young men and woman who love Jesus and are not afraid of the tears.

When is the last time you saw or experienced tears of joy?

Sweet to Bitter

Most people do not like to be the center of negative attention. Imagine Naomi and Ruth, tired and dusty from the long walk from Moab, surrounded by nosey Bethlehem women.

“Is that Naomi?”

“It can’t be!”

“This woman is old, worn-out.”

“See the bitterness in her face. Naomi would never look like that!”

“Isn’t that a Moabite woman with her?”

“What is she doing with her?”

Finally, when Naomi had heard enough, she responds, “Don’t call me Naomi," she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me." Ruth 1:20-21(NIV) Naomi changes her to ‘Mara.’ She no longer wants to be known as ‘pleasant’ or “Merry Sunshine.’ (McGee, Ruth, page 29.)

Naomi knew the name of God but didn’t have a clue about the character of God. She had forgotten that God loved her and had a plan for her life even after her husband and sons died. She continued to look at her past and ignore her present blessings. She dwelled on her losses and not the gifts God had given her: her life, her new start in her hometown, and her precious daughter-in-law. What a waste of time and emotion!

Are you still holding on to your past? Are you overlooking the gifts God has given you? Are you listening to the negative talk? Consider Paul’s example.

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13b-14 (NIV)

Progression of Snow

Familiar Words

‘But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."’ Ruth 1:16-17

What familiar words! Most of us think of these words as marriage vows. However, these words are an entreaty from a daughter-in-law to her husband’s mother. Ruth desires to go with Naomi. Commentaries suggest Ruth had become a follower of the one True God and wanted to continue to worship and serve Him and serve Naomi.

In verse 16, Ruth says “Don’t urge me…” This word ‘urge’ in the Hebrew can mean to push against, rushing someone with hostility, desired request be granted (Key Word Study Bible (NIV), page 1543). We might wonder if Ruth felt the hostility in Naomi’s words of returning home and was pleading with her to stop the hostile words. Ruth was not going back to Moab.

These words could remind us of missionaries all over the world. With their lives, they make these words their vow as they minister to these people. However, as they pray and minister to lost people all over the globe, they pray our God becomes their God. Many times these missionaries are discouraged, tired from culture shock, and homesick. Nevertheless, they continue to plant their feet firmly in their new homes and remain to share with these precious lost people. They remind us of Ruth. They are not returning home.

Today, take time to pray for God to encourage the missionaries you know and give these missionaries fruit for their labor. Don’t know any missionaries personally? Then pray for these:

NAMB
William and Teresa Johnson
Janet Morrison

IMB
*J
*P
*M family
(*Names withheld for security reasons.)

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Isaiah 52:7