Scriptures From Around the World - Canada

Hollandaise Sauce

One of my mom’s favorite breakfasts is Eggs Benedict.

You know, fresh sour dough English muffins, thick sliced, home smoked bacon, over easy eggs, and that thick buttery sauce that just is almost too delicious to be real!  

Sounds like it would be a complicated meal, but is actually very simple and easy to make! The hardest part is waiting for the sauce to be done! 

This sauce is another one of those recipes that you just have to eyeball it and make it according to taste. Some people may like their hollandaise sauce thinner, some thicker, some may like it more tangy, others may like to add paprika instead of pepper. This is a recipe that you can make totally your own! I love recipes like this! 

2 cups (250 grams) cubed butter

(Don’t worry, you won’t use all of it) 

3 egg yolks 

juice of 1/2 lemon (about a tablespoon)

Pinch of pepper 

Place a small pot over low heat (VERY LOW), and add egg yolks, lemon juice, and a couple cubes of butter. Using a whisk mix the sauce. Never stop! If you have to leave the sauce take it off the heat. This sauce is easy to make, but also easy to mess up. Constantly add more butter. Don’t wait until all the butter melts before adding more, add more before it all melts. What makes this sauce work is the cold butter bringing down the temperature of the sauce as it cooks. If the sauce gets too hot, the eggs will cook too fast and you’ll basically have buttery scrambled eggs. 

Continue to add butter until the sauce is thick and smooth. 

Serve over eggs and toast, or on broccoli or fish! There are so many things you can pour this delicious hollandaise sauce over!  

Scriptures From Around the World - Malaysia

Stuff Gets Said

Gossip and "fake news" have been around since long before social media. People like to talk about things that are different. Sometimes they are afraid of something new. As missionaries, we are often surprised to learn some new stories people are telling about us. Some stories are hurtful, some are just puzzling, but some are downright hilarious.

The Hurtful Stuff

Regarding the hurtful things said, we have to deal with that just like anybody else does. The best thing is to take it to the Lord.  This is true in any land. We have to remember who we are in Christ, and remember that the truth will come out.

The Puzzling Stuff

Sometimes we hear misconceptions about ourselves or our church that make us scratch our heads.  Usually my snarky replies remain unspoken. 

"Is it true that you can't drink coffee in your church?" Um, no, thankfully.

"We heard that you aren´t allowed to celebrate Christmas." That house with the giant Christmas tree in the window, it's mine.


"Why can't women talk in your church?" It would be really hard for me to teach Sunday school without talking. 

"Why are you against science?" I'm not, but my kids might have wished I were when they had to take chemistry and biology.

The Funny Stuff

Then there are the stories about us that are so bizarre, we can do nothing but laugh about them. 

About a year ago, I was feeling really good about myself - I know, pride goeth before a fall - because a local teenage girl had told my daughter that I was really nice and pretty. Wow! A few days later one of our church teens told me that she had heard something about me.  I couldn't wait to hear it.  Someone else liked me perhaps? No. The Lord had a cure for that pride of mine. A rumor was going around our whole village and had spread to some other towns that I was killing cats. Apparently they thought I was putting poison out in the yard and enticing cats to come taste their doom. It was talked about at home, at school, and even in the grocery store. Who knows how this even started. Okay, it was a blow to my ego to know something so blatantly false, and strange,  was being said about me. That first night brought tears of self-pity, but the Lord helped change those into tears of laughter. I joined my kids, our church teens, anybody who actually knows me in laughing about the silliness of it. 

My favorite story about the church, though, happened years ago when the military base was still here. The church was trying to build but was being stonewalled from several places. Because of that, we couldn't afford windows in the building.  Having no windows invited all kinds of speculation about what was happening inside, but one local village was convinced they knew the truth.  The story went something like this: "Those strange people in the window-less church are evil.  They dress in nothing but long underwear, dance around strange lines on the floor, and sacrifice hens." So there were some military folks in long undies under their clothes, and we did admittedly have an AWANA circle for the kids' game time.  That said, none of us knows where the hen sacrifice part started.  And why not roosters, too?  This is one that still makes us laugh today.  

People say stuff. We have to learn to take it to the Lord, grow some thicker skin, and sometimes just laugh about it. 

Patrick and Vicki Weimer, Iceland since 1999

Praying for Missionaries

Over the years there have been people that I know pray for me.  As time goes by, I have lost some of these dear prayer warriors.  I lost several in recent years as they went to their eternal home.  When this happens, I find myself thinking, “Who will pray for me now?”  

Maybe you have experienced this too.  This has caused me to be more diligent in my prayer life for others.  I was introduced to a tool a few years back that has been life-changing for me.  It helped me to create a plan that works for me instead of trying to make myself fit into someone else’s mold.  

As a result of working on this vital spiritual discipline, I have learned to pray more specifically for others.  One of the areas the Lord has lead me is in praying Scripture.  I believe  the Lord delights in our prayers when they contain His Word.

If you are a missionary woman, you understand the burdens that we face more than others and can pray more effectively.  A few years ago, I heard of a missionary family that walked through the unimaginable.  Although I never experienced that myself, I could somewhat imagine the difficulty and I began to pray for her and her dear family.  I saw the Lord answer my prayers and it was a great encouragement to me.  I have never physically met this family.  They may not even know that I pray for them.  What matters is that God used me to pray for them and He used them to encourage me to pray more specifically.

If you are reading this and you are not a missionary, your prayers are no less important.  My husband often tells others that we need your prayers more than we need your financial support.  This is so true as we serve in a spiritually dark culture.  

The tool that I mentioned above is wonderful for helping me to remember who and what to pray for.  Here is a download that you can use to begin to pray for missionaries that includes Scripture references.  I hope that you will find this useful.  

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”  ~Hebrews 4:16

Homemade Cheese

What is one of the foods you miss the most while on the field? My family probably misses dairy products the most. Cheese! Milk! Sour cream! All things that are cheap in America, and expensive on most fields. But what is a dairy product that is cheap (or cheaper) that most of us can get on the field? Powdered milk! Making cheese out of powdered milk is super easy! And it takes less than 10 minutes to make! 

The nice thing about cheese from powdered milk is that if you use one cup of powder you’re gonna get about one cup of cheese. So it’s easy to make for recipes. You can make small or large amounts without any extra math. 

The only problem with this kind of cheese is that certain brands of powdered milk don’t work. I don’t know why, I haven’t figured it out yet. So if you try this and it doesn’t work out like the video shows, try again with another brand.

To make simply mix the amount of powdered milk needed with just enough water to make a smooth paste. Then, add boiling water to the milk mixture until the mix is almost too hot to keep your finger in. Then, add vinegar (apple cider vinegar is my favorite) or lemon juice one tablespoon at a time until large curds form. When the liquid turns yellow you’ll know you’re ready to strain. Strain curds and toss the liquid. Add salt to taste, or seasonings. 

My family likes it when we put roasted vegetables or extra spices in the cheese. This cheese is great on just about everything! It’s great for tacos, nachos, or even as a substitute for ricotta or cottage cheese in recipes! 

I hope your family enjoys this cheese as much as mine does! 

Fitted Pieces

"What is your favorite thing about God?" is a question I have been asked numerous times.  Although there are so many favorite things one could share, my favorite is God's sovereignty.  I absolutely love looking back over my life, or even a moment in time, and see the pieces of my life's puzzle God was putting together.

I had every intention of becoming a neonatal nurse practitioner when I was in high school.  I even went to tour the neonatal unit of the hospital in Charlotte, NC while inquiring about their nursing program.  Little did I know, that even though He totally changed the desires of my heart to pursue a completely different career path, that I would need that little bit of knowledge of a neonatal unit when my son would be born, 11 years later. 

I became a teacher.  I went to my admission advising session to enroll as a Preschool Education major.  My advisor ended up getting stuck in traffic on the way to meet me and couldn't make it; her replacement had a degree in home economics and, after several questions, convinced me that was the path for me as well.  I taught Family and Consumer Sciences in high school for four years and at the university for eight.  Both times that I left my teaching positions, God had something awaiting me--unexpected to me, but planned by Him.

My last teaching position was at the university from where I graduated.  It was my "dream job."  I loved being there--my children were always welcomed with open arms to spend time with me in my office; they came to class sometimes; they were there for student events.  It was a wonderful experience.  I loved teaching.  I loved teaching Family and Consumer Sciences.  I loved teaching at Winthrop University.  I loved building close relationships with my students.  I loved where God had placed me and what He had me doing.  Then, I became restless...

I had always wanted to be in "full-time ministry."  I had always said I was willing to go anywhere and do anything God wanted me to do; yet, He had kept me in my same hometown, in my same church, in my same job for so many years.  As I saw youth pastors and pastors come and go in our church as God led them to different ministries, I would always wonder "when was my turn?"  He did move us to a different church, with the full blessings of ours, but it was only ten minutes away.  Really??  Then, God convicted my heart:  I was right where God wanted me to be.  My workplace was my full-time ministry and my neighborhood was my mission field.  Then, after God molded me and shaped me for several more years by showing me opportunities to make Him known right where He had placed me, He led us to pursue missions in Mexico.  One of the neatest things about this whole process is to look back and see who our financial partnering churches are:  almost every one are led by former pastors under whom we had served at one time or another in our home church.  They are the most supportive pastors of us, and we are so thankful for the relationships God had built for so many years.  We also have many individual partners from the relationships God had built through the years, from high school to now.  Winthrop University let me stay on teaching part-time as long as I could until it was finally time to move to language school.  God gave us ministry partners from our relationships there as well as opportunities to share about Him--from my students asking me why in the world I was leaving and moving to a different county to being interviewed by the university newspaper and being able to share His story that He had been working out in my life.  

As all of us can, I could share so many more stories of seeing God's hand in my life.  The pieces are still falling into place.  My life's puzzle is still being put together.  And, my prayer is that it shows the faithful sovereignty of an almighty God.  Because He is sovereign, I can find joy in the journey; and because He is faithful, I can find comfort in the valleys.    

A Famous Banana Bread Recipe

     This is a story about how God used a willing heart, some overripe bananas, and a recipe, to reach a soul for Christ...oh, and the attached recipe.

     A few years ago, while on furlough and after a few cancelled meetings, we decided to settle in a small apartment in a large metropolitan area that was within driving distance of most of our scheduled meetings, rather than continually having to look for housing. While my husband had to spend most of his spare time now working to pay for our apartment, I thought that my daughter and I could get busy witnessing and reaching out to people in this new mission field--which was the hundreds of apartments in our complex. My hopes of a door-to-door ministry were quickly dashed when the office told me that this type of soliciting was not allowed in the complex. After some discussion, they did, however, allow us to put some tracts in the office.

     Having a blow to my first plan was not enough to deter me. I knew that we would only be here for six months (and in and out of town often) and there had to be some way to help me connect with the people around me in a way that would give me the opportunity to communicate the gospel to them while showing them that I truly cared for them as people. 

     At the same time as all of this was happening, I noticed that in this much warmer climate, my bananas were ripening a lot more quickly. Growing up poor, and now living by faith, taught me that waste was an absolute no-no, but what to do with all these over-ripened bananas--I had no clue. I had heard that you could make banana bread out of them, so I started to do some research on the internet. Reading reviews and mixing and matching recipes, and some trial and error, ended in a quite tasty recipe being born.

     After making all the needed changes and using my family as guinea pigs, I started by baking the banana bread for my nearest neighbors for Easter; but soon, I was baking it for any holiday, special occasion, or any person with whom I could have a conversation--even baking one for the maintenance man after he fixed our oven. I gave a tract with the bread, and sometimes a homemade card too, depending on the occasion. We also prayed that God would open the heart of all these people to the gospel. One couple always thanked me and told me how much they liked it. I continued to make them a loaf each time I made a batch, and soon we were chatting every time we saw each other. After one particular conversation with the lady, I offered to do a Bible study with her. She had grown up going to church with a friend whose dad was a pastor, and she seemed responsive. One day, she knocked on my door with her childhood Bible in hand, saying that she was feeling guilty for the things that she had done in her life and wondering if we could talk. God was very evidently working in her heart. After a little over two hours of answering Bible questions and giving her the gospel, she accepted Christ.

      I became known for my banana bread; I even had someone knock on my door and offer to pay me to buy more ingredients to make her some more banana bread. At the church where we attended when we did not have meetings, word spread about my banana bread, and one lady who had an unsaved husband asked for the recipe in hopes that it would work to help to bring her husband to Christ--she knew it had no power, but she had tried everything else and thought that it couldn't hurt.

     It just goes to show that if you, "...do all to the glory of God," it doesn't matter what you have, God can use it. I have also used cookies or extra fruit from our fruit trees in the same way.

     BANANA BREAD

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas (this is about 5 small bananas)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (176°C). Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon).

3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add in vanilla. Then stir in eggs and mashed       bananas until well blended.

4. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until moistened...do not over mix. Pour in loaf pan.

5. Bake 60-65 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

***Important things to note***

I have baked this with as little as four small bananas with no real change to the recipe. The more bananas, obviously, the bigger loaf. The recipe calls for a 9x5 pan which makes it more the shape of a breakfast cake. Most loaf pans are smaller and may tend to overflow; if this happens, try making a few banana muffins with the over flow. **I now use a 9x9 pan, lined with foil, and foil to create a divider, and use 1 1/2 recipes to make 2 loaves--one to keep and one to give.

Also, if you are like me, you may have a few bananas ready to make banana bread at any one time, but not enough for a full recipe. You can freeze the bananas and they keep very well until you have enough to make a full recipe.**If you do this, remember to thaw completely and add in all the water that is in the skin that comes from thawing. Removing the excess moisture will cause it to be dry, and not thawing fully will cause the bread not to bake properly.

   

Scripture From Around the World - China

My Story...

Hello from the Sonoran Desert!  My name is Julie Ford. My family & I are missionaries to the Tohono O'odham Nation in Southern Arizona. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to become a contributor to the In Her Shoes blog. In introducing myself, I keep asking “where do I start?" and “what do I leave in and what to leave out?”.  You see, as a “not so young” missionary, I can look back over my life and see how God orchestrated each step to where I am today. So, I guess I just need to start at the beginning.  I was born in Northeast Tennessee and raised in the small town of Fall Branch. Andy Griffith’s Mayberry would have been the big city to us! The youngest of three daughters, I was raised in a single parent home by my mother.  Unfortunately, I would grow up without my father, as he was killed in Vietnam when I was eleven days old.  While I didn’t understand back then, God would use these things considered obstacles to shape me into who He would want me to be.  

At age sixteen, my sister set me up on a blind date with a guy she worked with.  That guy turned out to be my husband, Billy. I would like to tell you at this point how both Billy and I grew up in Christian homes and got saved a Bible Camp in our teens, but we didn’t.  Both of us grew up in dysfunctional families and neither of us had a clue about this man named Jesus.  But God’s plan for our lives opened doors that would place us in a Christian Outreach where Billy would be saved and myself in a little country church where I accepted Christ as my Saviour. 

In 1998, God would bless us with our daughter, Madison. We were a picture of the American family.  Billy was managing a multi-million dollar company and having just completed a Bible degree,  I was a career social worker in a ministry position that I adored, and Madison was going to the same school I attended as a child and even had some of the same teachers I had!  Our family owned an eight-acre farm with horses and we attended a Baptist church that was highly respected in the community and served weekly as bus captains and as a Sunday School teacher.   In 2012, our family traveled to Southern Arizona for a short term mission trip on a Native American Reservation that we had never heard of. Little did we know that it would change our lives forever.  During that week, God showed us remote villages where the O'odham live too far away to attend a Bible believing church.  Coming from the Bible Belt, it had been hard for us to comprehend places in America where people did not have access to a church.  The one thing that kept going through our family’s hearts was how selfish would it be for our family to go back to Tennessee, knowing that we held the ability to provide something these people didn't have…the Gospel. After much prayer and counsel, we surrendered our lives to become missionaries to the Tohono O’odham people. After three years of deputation, we arrived on the mission field in November 2016.  Today, our family provides through the use of a Mobile Mission Trailer,  Bible Clubs in remote villages on the reservation. The O’odham people hold tight to their traditional beliefs mixed with Catholicism, but they keep coming to join us each week. How humbling it is to know that the Lord Almighty chose our little family to be His servants in this awesome way.  

It is my hope that the words I write glorifies God and blesses someone along the way. You can follow our ministry at: https://www.facebook.com/fords2thetonation/?ref=bookmarks.

 

"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert".  -Isaiah 43:19-

Tortillas and Chips (with video)

Tortillas

We make these every week in our house. Our family has always had nachos on Sunday night after church. In America it was because nachos were convenient. Just grab a bag of chips, cheese, a can of beans and a tub of sour cream and BAM! Nachos for a crowd. Here in PNG, though, it’s not quite that simple. We aren’t able to get most precooked or packaged foods like we can in the States. 

Just cause you can’t grab that stuff at the store, though, doesn’t mean you can’t have them. Tortillas are super easy to make! And they make great tortilla chips! They actually make great everything!

Here’s how its done. 

Mix 2 cups flour 

      1 teaspoon baking powder 

      1/2 teaspoon salt 

      1/4 cup oil (don’t use coconut unless you want sweet tortillas.) 

      1 1/2- 3/4 cups warm water

Mix and knead dough until you have a soft dough. If you need more flour feel free to add what’s needed. Let the dough rest for ten minutes. Cut the dough into four pieces,  and roll each piece into a 1 inch thick snake. Then, using your fingers as a guide, cut the snakes. Two finger widths makes perfect taco size tortillas. Three to four make good medium sized tortillas. And a hand breadth makes large tortillas. Play around and figure out what size you like best. 

Roll out tortillas to desired thickness. Go thinner than you think you need to as they do rise slightly while cooking.

Cook on a hot cast iron pan. When the top of the tortillas starts to bubble, flip it. When that side starts to brown you know it’s done. 

These are super good to eat fresh with butter and hot pepper flakes! Yum! 

Or you can cut them into strips or triangles and fry them in hot oil. When frying, remove chips before they are golden brown. When they start to brown on the edges remove from oil. The chips continue cooking even after you remove them from the oil. Sprinkle with salt and enjoy. 

You can also make corn tortillas (which are my dad’s favorite) even if you don’t have masa. As long as you’ve got popcorn in your pantry, you’re good to go! But, that’s another blog post!

https://youtu.be/9iRgNTyen2M

What Will You Do With Jesus, My Friend?

In the shadow of the Resurrection (here in Tbilisi, Georgia, it was celebrated yesterday), and also because my crazy schedule dictated a re-post; here is a poem to remind us of the purpose of Easter.


What will you do with Jesus, my friend?

Where will you go when your life ends?

Some hear the story at their door,
    because their neighbor their heart implored.

Some read a tract left by the way
    and curse, and rip, and throw away.

Some claim Christ is in their heart,
    but from His truth, their walk departs.

A man who learned Christ as a child,
    but leaves Him, choosing to run wild.

One meets Christ in trials hard
    and prays a promise to restart.

In jail, Christ makes a heart to change,
    their life He starts to rearrange.

Others meet Christ and are never the same;
   they live to honor His holy name.

Because of His love and grace they tell
   His story to others they meet, as well.


My Jesus, God's Son, died for you
   He wants to make your heart anew.

He'll clean your heart, change your life
   fill you with His truth and right.

Christ loves your soul; so He makes
   a promise of heaven to all who partake.

If you know Christ, why not tell
   His free gift to others as well?


What will you do with Jesus, my friend?

Where will you go when your life ends?


© Barbara Hinson, December 2016
please do not copy without crediting the author!

Scripture From Around the World - India

Never the Same Again

There’s a Spanish saying, “He who leaves never comes back, even if he returns.” Let's think about this in the light of missions and missionaries. How has your journey changed you? Why are you different?

Another Spanish saying is: “I didn’t change. I only learned, and learning isn’t changing. It’s growing.”

I’d like to spend a little bit of time challenging you to use your missionary journey—whatever stage you’re in—for learning and growing.

Sometimes, the journey can just feel like necessary tediousness.

Deputation is one church after another, travel, tiredness, trying to keep the kids clean and appropriately dressed—while you try to do the same. Deputation can feel long and unending, and we all have our horror stories. Sometimes, missionaries feel like itinerant beggars while trying to raise support. They might have lost the learning and growing in this stage of the journey.

Newbies arrive with stars in their eyes. “We’re finally here,” they say as they unpack, take hundreds of pictures, and begin to learn the fine art of driving, shopping, and figuring out how to do the basics. The stars quickly dim as language learning begins and people stare and them and simply won’t listen. If you’re in the dimmed-eyes stage, you might be missing out on the learning and growing.

Second termers are excited about a new church plant, and they are gung ho. The church is prospering, and God is good. Then comes the criticism. Jealous missionary brethren attack. Co-workers betray. People they’ve led to the Lord turn their backs on them—and seemingly, on God. Disappointment in people can totally blind these missionaries to learning and growing.

Veteran missionaries might find themselves in a rut. Day after day, they strive to be faithful, to be a light in a dark place—the place they call home. They know by this time what works and doesn’t. They understand the field so well they’ve become one with it. They need spiritual and mental refreshment and don’t even realize it. They may have quit learning and growing.

What will help us learn and grow? There is only one answer. We absolutely positively need personal time with God. There are three elements that will help us learn and grow:

1. Worship—Worship is adoration of God. It is praise and positive prayer. There are many ways to achieve private worship. Let me suggest just a few: study the biblical names of God, and praise Him for Who He reveals Himself to be. Sing an old hymn to the Lord. They are packed with doctrine! You can’t sing “Crown Him with Many Crowns” without ending up in adoration. Read the Psalms. Most of them are full of praise—even after laying out a very sad case. But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more (Psalm 71:14). Study God’s attributes and thank Him for them. Worship is all about God and Who He is.
2. Prayer—I recommend prayer before Bible reading, simply because it works for me to talk to the Lord, ask Him to open His Word to my understanding, and tell Him all the things I want to before I focus on the Bible. I believe in total transparency with God in prayer. If we are to cultivate a true relationship with Him, we need to be honest. Tell Him your concerns, gripes, sadness—and your joys, victories, and gladness. Be open. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah (Psalm 62:8). And, after you talk, listen. A lot of times, we women do a lot of talking and not much listening. It’s especially important after praying to see what God has to say to us. Speak; for thy servant heareth (from 1 Samuel 3:10). Then, open your Bible.
3. Bible reading and study. The Bible is the only living book. There just isn’t another that actually ministers to the reader. None other is inspired by God and applied by the Holy Spirit. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). I remember years ago that I had a very negative experience. I couldn’t seem to shake it. It occupied my thoughts, and I was extremely hurt. I prayed, and those thoughts continued to swirl around. I felt bruised. But then, I almost had to laugh because, no matter where I turned in the Bible for the next week or two, verses popped out to me. All were on the same theme: that God would take care of it. They were also specific to the need. They were exactly the guidance I needed. Was this a coincidence? I don’t believe it for a minute! When I have sought His Word in moments of crisis, this has always happened. God’s word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105). He actually speaks to us through His Word!

Do you want to learn and grow?

• Accept all of your missionary experiences along the way as lessons.
• Worship the Lord for Who He is and keep your eyes on Him, not on people.
• Talk to God about everything—the good, bad, and ugly. Listen for His response. (Many times, He will bring to mind a Scripture.)
• Open your Bible and get tutoring from God Himself. Study your Bible. Know it. Keep learning from Him. Apply what you learn to your daily life.

Learn and grow.

Till we all come in the unity of the faith,

and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,

unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro,

and carried about with every wind of doctrine, 
by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, 

whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,

which is the head, even Christ (Ephesians 4:13-15).

God bless you!

by Lou Ann Keiser, in Basque Spain for more than 34 years

Sandpaper Lady

I can’t remember where I first heard about her.  The woman who can rub you the wrong way.  The one that can rub your emotions raw.   The woman who can leave you feeling brush burned and bleeding.   Her name is Sandpaper Lady.  

We have all met women, and even some men, that fit this description.  Perhaps there are some in your ministry right now.  Our instinct may be to run the other way.  Avoid this lady at all costs.  I dare say that some of us may have even prayed that she wouldn’t show up for a certain activity or service because we just couldn’t face her that day.  

When I first heard about her, there was a lady in my life that fit this description perfectly.  I avoided her and I wasn’t the only one.  She drained me.  Trying to have a conversation with her was the last thing I felt like doing.  It was awkward, sometimes one-sided, and often times painful.  As if that weren’t enough, the odors coming from her person were not a sweet aroma! 

I was encouraged to love Sandpaper Lady, to look for something good in her and praise her, take an interest in her life and maybe even look deep enough to see if she might be suffering in some hidden way that no one could see.  I was told that if I did this, I might even learn to love Sandpaper Lady.  I could not possibly imagine that last thing happening, but God works in mysterious ways.  

So Sandpaper Lady became a project.  I didn’t avoid eye contact and actually tried to engage her in a conversation from time to time.  Even though the conversations were awkward, I started to hear bits and pieces that I could assemble together about her life and what she was enduring.  Once I even reached out and touched her arm with compassion as she was talking.  And then I noticed an amazing thing…

My rough edges that splintered when around her, started to smooth out.  I started to notice that  I really cared about this lady and what she might be going through.  I missed her when she didn’t attend an event or service and silently prayed that everything was ok.  It was then that I realized…I looked at her as a project, but maybe, just maybe, it was actually me that was the project!

*****

When our Lord was speaking to the crowd a beggar came 

Who fell down before Christ and called out His name.

The disciples quickly came, And they turned the man away,

Till they saw the Lord’s compassion And they head the Savior say:

Love as I loved, Give as I gave;

These are the people that I came to save.

Love as I loved, and I will shine through.

Let others see my love, in you.

Yesterday my time was filled with vain and empty things,

And I was so busy with all that life brings.

People crowded in my way, But I pushed them all away,

They were just a senseless bother Till I heard the Savior say:

Love as I loved, Give as I gave;

These are the people that I came to save.

Love as I loved, and I will shine through.

Let others see my love, in you.

~Ron Hamilton