I’m Still OK

Well, I figured after all the text messages and emails I’ve been getting, coupled with the fact that I got a notification that my “blog stats are booming,” I’d better write a post and let you know I’m OK.

Most of you have probably heard of the surgence of violence and State of Emergency that has been declared for Ecuador. It’s actually just a result of our new President finally doing what should have been done ages ago – declaring war on these local gangs that have partnered with international drug cartels (from other countries) and taken advantage of our weak government these past few years, to overrun the country with escalating violence. Our little country is sandwiched between two of the largest cocaine producers in the world (Columbia and Peru). These cartels are in a turf war to use our ports for the lucrative practice of shipping their choice product to their top consumers – the U.S. and Europe. Of course, in all these kinds of things there are many complex contributing factors. But it’s really just the same thing that is happening all over the world and that Jesus told us would happen in these last days – the escalation of lawlessness and the battle between light and darkness.

So am I sorry I moved here? Not for a minute. I still feel more safe and at home here than I ever did in the U.S. And I still know without a shadow of a doubt that God brought me here. Some of the reasons I’m starting to see, but I probably won’t really know why until I’m on the other side. However, I know if I’m where He wants me to be, it is the safest place I could be.

I’m in a small, quiet fishing village, in a small, quiet gated community and I am home most of the time anyway. I’ve got plenty of food and supplies for me and my kitties (I’ve learned to keep things well stocked, because anything can change in a moment). And most importantly, I live in Psalm 91. 😇

My view as I write

What Will It Take?

This musing came into my mind this morning while I was eating a mango. 🤣 So I decided to make it into a social media graphic and share it here:

10 Year Anniversary

Wow! I can’t believe it has been a whole year since I’ve written a blog AND I can’t believe it has been 10 years since I moved to Ecuador! In some ways I feel like I’ve lived here forever and in other ways, it seems like I just moved here yesterday.

Today I had a special party, where I invited 30+ of my closest friends to celebrate with me (I so could have included more, but we were out of room). “Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.” I literally had people that I’ve known for 10 years, some I just met a few months ago, and everything in between. (I’ve known the lady that owns the restaurant from early on – in fact you might recognize her dog Socks, who I’m pictured with, from this blog.)

Here are a few pictures of the gathering, as well as the testimony “toast” I gave.

Prepare To Stand

Hello Everyone – it’s been a while! But here we are on 11/11 and the NINE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the day I moved to Ecuador!!! 😮 It has been incredible to watch so many of the things the Lord showed me were coming unfold (and we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!). So I thought today would be a good time to post this recent video series (8 episodes) that a friend shared with me. In it, Pastor Andrew Brunsen (who was held in a Turkish prison for 2 years because of his faith) shares his testimony, warning to American Christians, and practical ways to prepare for the rapidly coming wave of persecution. I HIGHLY encourage you to prayerfully watch, process and PREPARE TO STAND.
(NOTE: click the 3 lined bar in the upper right corner of this video to access the entire series and not just the first episode)

Living in the Psalms

For about a year now, the Lord has had me camped out in The Psalms. Whatever is in my heart that my mind and mouth are struggling to express, I have found there is a Psalm for that. I’ve also been listening to many ”Psalm songs” and this one is possibly my favorite. It expresses much more what’s in my heart than 1000’s of words ever could:

Are You Getting Ready?

I know I have not written much in the last few years. Not because of lack of things to say, but of too much to say and the time taken to say it better spent on other things. But this morning in prayer, I felt the unction of the Lord that I needed to put this question out there, so here goes – are you getting ready? The obvious rhetorical question is, ”For what?” The answer is, for a wedding. But not just any wedding, it is THE wedding.

There is so much I could say on this subject, but the Bible has much more to say on it – in fact, it’s really the whole climactic end of the story. And yet for the most part, it’s been almost completely ignored by the western church culture that’s mainly focused on the ”good news” being about making their lives better in the here and now. But allow me to let scripture speak for itself:

Revelation 19:6-8: “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean
    was given her to wear.”
“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

Note the key phrase – “The BRIDE has made HERSELF ready.” What bride, in the days, weeks and even months before her wedding, isn’t wholly consumed with getting ready for that day?

If we look at the book of Esther (remembering that everything in the Old Testament was written for our instruction and spiritual application), we can see the amount of preparation that went into her getting ready for her ”night with the king.”:

• Esther 2:12 – “Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.”

So what are we as the ”Bride of Christ” expected to do to “make ourselves ready”? You might say, ”I don’t have to do any work. Jesus did the saving work for me and there is nothing else I need to do.” Really? Let’s look at a few of the many examples in scripture of our part in our preparation:

• 2 Peter 1:5-11 – ”For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

• Hebrews 4:1-2 & 11 – ”Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed…Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.”
  
  
• Luke 19:11-26 – (I won’t quote the whole thing here – you can read it for yourself, but note that all the servants were each given one “mina” coin – they were each given salvation. Look at the response to the servant who did nothing with it):
  ”Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
  “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
  “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
  “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
  “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’”

• Mark 4:18-19 (from the ”Parable of the Sower/Soils” which tells us what causes us to not multiply what God has given us): ”Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

• Matthew 7:24-27 – (at the end of His famous ”Sermon on the Mount” Jesus says): ”Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock…But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.”
  
  
• James 1:22 – ”Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

So friends, how are you doing on your wedding preparations? How much of the Word that you have read do you actually do? Can you say with Job, “My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” (Job 23:11-12)

We are living in sobering times. Truly the days of this age are rapidly coming to a close. I hope that you are as serious about preparing yourself for that time as a bride is in preparing for her wedding day. I’ll leave you with Matthew 25:10-13:

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived.
The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Still Singing

Once again, my lack of posting activity pretty much stems from the fact that there is so much I could say, I just can’t narrow it down. 😆 But this song just welled up inside of me so strongly today, I wanted to share it with you here. I hope it is your song too:

Giving Thanks!

So here we are in a new year – is there anything about 2020 you can give thanks for (other than it’s over)?  Actually, I have been giving thanks all throughout 2020.  Most especially because the Bible says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)  And I can wholeheartedly say this is how I’ve spent my year.  I learned a long time ago that I am the one who chooses whether pressures and difficulties make me “bitter or better.“  This year has allowed me to experience the fruit of those choices.  I confidently stated before I left the US and ever since, that great shakings were coming.  They have come, and like the “birth pains” the Bible has prophesied, they will continue.  This past year was the “flash flood” that exposed the hidden foundations under our houses.  Thankfully, many have been awakened and have seen this past year as a time to examine what their faith and hope was placed in: Good health? Financial security? Government? Comfort? Routine? Friends/family? Job?  This year has shown us that if our faith and hope is placed outside of anything but God, we are on shaky ground.

Yes, if you look on the surface, it looks like everything is collapsing all around.  But for those with eyes to see below the surface, life is bursting forth!  “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)  This year, although mostly shut away in my house, I’ve never been busier!  In the fall of 2019, God quite providentially connected me to pray with an organization that makes disciples in some of the darkest countries in the Middle East. I quickly became a prayer coordinator/leader, and we have been doing multiple weekly Zoom prayer calls long before Covid made it cool! 😊 I can tell you that God is moving in amazing ways all across the world to begin to: 1) unite His body in global prayer; 2) fulfill Jesus’ final prayer to make us one; 3) reap a great harvest across the earth.  The acceleration I’ve witnessed the Lord do in the Spirit this year from my “upper room” vantage point has been nothing short of amazing!  And yet, it’s only the beginning…

So in the words of the Apostle Paul, I would like to encourage you to begin 2021 with “…set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Colossians 3:1-2) One way to do that is to take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities only recently afforded to us to gather with the global body in a “virtual Upper Room.”  Today was the first day of a 24/7/365 Zoom prayer call room, where groups from all over the world will come together in worship, prayer and praise all day and night for all of 2021, with a corporate gathering each Friday at 6:00 a.m. pacific/7:00 a.m. mountain/8:00 a.m. central/9:00 a.m. eastern.  You can go to this website to learn more and register for access to the private Zoom link:

Global Upper Room

I hope that no matter what 2021 holds for you, at the end of it you can joyfully say, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” (1 Chronicles 16:34)

Say It With A Song

Dear Friends – wow, has this year flown by!  My silence has not been for lack of things to say.  In contrast, there has been so much to say, I’ve struggled to know where to start.  If I even try to begin, it will be days before I post this, if ever.  So I’m just posting this video song, which pretty much sums it up:

What an amazing time to be alive!

A Way To Help

Hello Friends – I know these are difficult times for everyone around the world right now, but living in a third-world country among some of the poorest makes the reality of the situation a lot more front and center.  The majority of people here are day wage earners that barely support their families, even during normal times.  Most of them have now been without work for a month, due to the heavy restrictions imposed by the government in order to attempt to squelch the COVID-19 virus.  I have helped several families as I’ve been able.  But obviously the needs are great.

A few of my very good friends have started a relief effort to help the poorest of the poor among the locals here.  I can personally vouch for the integrity of these women, as well as the others they are coordinating with to see that the food and supplies goes to the people who really need it the most.  Since so many of you were generous in helping my friend Sigrid and me raise funds for our friend Edwin following the 2016 earthquake, I wanted to offer you that opportunity again.  Sigrid is one of the ladies coordinating the campaign and donations can be made directly to her PayPal account (we are doing it that way to avoid the fees and complications of GoFundMe).  This is purely a relief effort, not a 501c3 tax write off.  But if you are interested in helping, I can promise you it’s a very worthy cause because 100% of the funds are going to the people that need it.  Below are the details.  If you’d like to contribute, please reach out to me personally, and I’m happy to provide the PayPal information (if you need to make a bank transfer, there is that option too).

CAYO CARES RELIEF PROJECT

There are many people who are suffering as a result of the COVID-19 community shut-down in Puerto Cayo, La Boca, and surrounding areas.

The Cayo Cares Relief Project is your opportunity to help support less fortunate individuals, particularly single parent families and the elderly.  There is an on-going need among these families for specific staple foods, sanitary items, children’s supplies and medicine.

The organizers of the Cayo Cares Relief Project are working with trustworthy local leaders to distribute critical supplies ONLY to those most in need. This program hopes to continue throughout this time of difficulty for so many.

THIS WEEK we plan to:
1. Identify the initial recipients,
2. Purchase the needed items,
3. RAISE THE NECESSARY FUNDS

Your on-going contribution to this worthy community project will make a BIG DIFFERENCE.  Contributions can be made in cash, bank transfers and by Paypal. No amount is too small.