It's about time!

Well, what can I say? Yes, I know - it has been way too long since the last post. A good friend recently told me with some question in her voice, "It's been March 12 since you posted last!"

I guess I thought no one was really noticing!

But you know what it's like to be busy! I know you do. I do not stand alone in this. Isn't it a line we each say!

Ok - let me just show you some of our summer highlights!

Oh bother! I can't get rid of the upside down picture. Will I ever learn?

Once again - a picture mistake. I quit!

I'm starting to prepare for our ladies study. Maybe I'll have more success there!

Thanks everyone for your prayers throughout the summer and for more recent events regarding Evelyn. The Lord's people are great and we love you all.

Mexico update

Dear Family and Friends,

We are very much enjoying our time in Mexico. There has been much going on. We completed a very intense weekend conf. with the young adults over the weekend and have spoken in 3 different assemblies thus far.

There is a meeting scheduled for this evening in yet another place. This weekend we will travel to Saltillo for another 2 days of meetings.

Please pray for continued good health, good ministry and receptive hearts. The saints here are very dear and many of them speak some english. There has been a translator for those who don't, mostly the older folks.

We expect to return home on the 18th and are so thankful that we were able to fly. Driving would have been difficult given this schedule.

Greetings to each of you and thank you again for your faithful prayers.

By His Grace,
Ken and Marti

Mexico or bust!

Well, come Friday Ken and I are flying to Mexico for ministry. Your prayers would be appreciated. The schedule will be very heavy. There will be a conf. on Sat and Sun. Daily devotional messages at the Christian school there thru the week with Mexican students in an English speaking environment. Speaking at area assemblies 3 or 4 nights and then another Sunday message at a different chapel. Other than the school all the speaking will be with an interpreter. Ken told them since we're coming the distance to just fill up the schedule.

We'll be seeing Tom and Sandy Peasland and the Wielengas from Torreon. (Not sure if I spelled that right!) We have prayed about doing this for several years and are finally seeing it happen.

Pray too that we will get no stomach bugs and for Joel as he remains home with different family members.

2 Cor. 4:5-6 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Listening or not!

I am so cold! Forgive me for stating that I do not like the cold. It seems to come rushing through me and I find I lose all desire to do anything I should be doing! I don't really understand. I would just be pleased to curl up in bed and sleep without a care in the world, snug and warm.

But this is not what I am called to do! Thankfully the Lord continues to bring things in my life that need to be done. Keeping Elisa comes to mind. Now she keeps me moving! (and I do turn the thermostate up on the days she visits!)

Recently I have been doing lots of study in both Romans and Matthew. I am trying to both catch up and get ahead in these. Matthew has been challenging lately.

Matthew 16:8,9 "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves...? Do you not yet understand, or remember...?"

Of course he was speaking to the disciples regarding the past miracles of feeding the multitudes but to me He seems to say -

"Martha, stop trying to figure everything out. You don't have to have an answer for all that happens! Just remind yourself of what I have done in the past. I have been faithful through time and eternity to you and all mankind."

We get caught up in the moment of our own preoccupation. We don't listen to what He really is saying to us. Or, sometimes we are so busy trying to fit what we think He is saying (based on our selfishness or ignorance) that we don't hear what He really said!

Isaiah 64:4 "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him."

God is acting on your behalf today. Whatever your struggle, your pain, your loss. Listen quietly to Him. Hear His still small voice. Let Him calm the storm of your life with His Words. Peace be still!

Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Pray for the Hughes and Horn family

My heart aches tonight at the news of little Elliot having gone to be with the Lord. His suffering has ended but his parents and grandparents will need much prayer in the days and weeks to come. Let us minister to them mightily in prayer. The Lord is able to make all grace abound.

To tell the truth...

Wow, where has this year gone? Honestly, my mind is in a jumble. I have been in a fog...
Ever feel that way? I don't like admitting that I've had more downs than ups this year, but it's true. Being real with others is sometimes hard to do. But I want to be real and that means admitting to stumbling around at times.

Thankfully, I am not alone. I know that is true although I haven't had anyone tell me they too have been stumbling around lately. Why is that? None of us wants to admit that we struggle in a very real way. I especially, at my age want you to think that I am doing fine. But I have been lonely, stressed and discouraged. Why do I admit this? Because I want you to know that I have been through struggles and it has made me love Him more.

I was reading Kept For the Master's Use by Frances Ridley Havergal. This little book looks at the song Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. You know that song! You, like myself have probably sung it many times and meant it too! I so much want this for myself and you; to be consecrated to the Lord of Glory!

" Consecration is not so much a step as a course. It is not so much an act as a position to which a course of action inseparably belongs. Insofar as it is a course and a position, there must naturally be a definite entrance upon it and a time when that entrance is made. That is when we say, "Take." But we do not want to go on taking the first step over and over again."

" What we want now is to be maintained in that position and to fulfill that course. So let us go on to another prayer. Having already said, "Take my life, " let us now say - with deepened conviction that without Christ we really can do nothing - "Keep my life, for I cannot keep it for Thee."

My friends, the keeping of my life is not in my hands. Now I have known this. It is not new to me. But, life happens and we can become so weary in it's course that we sometimes forget that the Lord "keeps" us.

"For with the deepest and sweetest consciousness that He has indeed taken our lives to be His very own, the need of His active and actual keeping of them in every detail and at every moment is most fully realized. But then we have the promise of our faithful God, "I, the Lord, am its keeper... I guard it night and day" (Isaiah 27:3)

Meditating upon this thought that the Lord is my Keeper, I began to search scripture for this.

Ps. 121 " I will lift up my eyes to the hills––From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore."

My heart is encouraged. The Lord so kindly has brought me through difficulty again. He is faithful beyond my understanding. I am kept by His gracious, omnipotent hand. Kept to continue on, to press forward and by His keeping to bring glory to Him.

And by the way, Joel is kept by this same One and I have no need to worry about him. My God is able.