Oh How I Love The Summer Time..........

Deena, from Can I Be Pretty in Pink, also known as Sweet Annee, is hosting Tour for a Cure today. She asked that each of us show photos from our gardens this year and also post the click for a free mammogram button. Please be sure to visit Deena and check out Mr. Linky for more garden photos. Be sure to click on the free mammogram button just beneath my banner to help a woman get a free mammogram.

This is my Hibiscus.. We got this last year when Dennis's Dad died... It almost died in the winter but it made it and it seems to be enjoying the summer......... Time to repot in a few weeks...



They make beautiful flowers!

Just a mixture of things can be so lovely.........

Oh my favorite......... The peonie! What a thrill..... I want more!

Put them in your house in a little bowl of water......... The fragrance is wonderful!

Oh......My second favoirte , Hydraenga... Mine are blue this year, how did that happen?

I just planted two more........ and I think that ground cover at the bottom is called "snow on the mountain ?" any ideas?

That will go in my house this fall and make great decor!

Have you ever seen Hen and Chicks bloom like this? I bought this for Mom a few months back and it has gone crazy!

I have never seen this ever!

Oh..... These are the Iris from Grandmother's and Mother's garden........ My favorite place to sit.

I can still see Grandmother working her flowers, she is the reason that I love to dig in the dirt!

A rose is a rose by any other name........... This is my climbing Don Juan. My sweet hubby took this picture a couple of weeks ago......... It is full of roses now......... I do love my roses..

Happy Fathers Day

Mom and Dad on their new porch 2007............

Just wanted to stop in and wish all those fathers out there Happy Fathers Day........ Mom and Dad live right next door to me so I think my older brother is coming in Sunday to visit with them.....Dad did not want to go out so we are just going to have pizza and visit.............. I need a nice quiet day.............. I wish for every one a nice quiet day with family......................

Hugs

We Serve a Big God!!!!!!!!

Take time to go over to Deena at Can I Be Pretty In Pink . She got her results today after all the chemo............ The Father God has given her a miracle!!!!!!! Go over and let her know that you are rejoicing with her............ We serve a BIG God!

His word it truth............... We can stand on His word in the face of all danger!

What a Crew !!!

The next time you think you have an excuse why God can't use you, consider the following:

Noah was a drunkard...

Abraham was too old...

Isaac was a daydreamer...

Jacob was a liar...

Leah was ugly...

Joseph was abused...

Moses was a murderer...

Gideon was afraid...

Samson had long hair...

Rahab was a prostitute...

Timothy was too young...

David had an illicit affair...

Elijah was suicidal...

Isaiah preached naked...

Job was bankrupt...

John the Baptist ran around in a loin cloth and ate locusts...

Peter was hot-tempered...

John was self-righteous...

The disciples fell asleep while praying...

Martha fretted about everything...

Mary Magdalene was demon-possessed...

The boy with the fish and five rolls of bread was too obscure...

The Samaritan woman was divorced more than once, more than twice...

more than three times.......

Zacchaeus was too small...

Paul was too religious...

and Lazarus was dead...

-Author unknown, from A Continual Feast, Jan Karon

Sharing the Gospel in India Part 3

.......... I emailed Chris and asked permission to use some of his pictures on this post.. Here is his response........ I just loved it and wanted to share it......


dear sister, how glad to hear from you, yes you can use the pictures, and please mention, that: Christopher, is a Missionary in India, with Urban India Ministries, who was greatly blessed by your message in the blog: that is Samaritan women made me to speak OUT and gave me blodness to meet the saviour! ( please change and put it on your English,)

......... I will finish up tonight with my post about Chris in India... It has been on my mind all day and trying to find a way to relate to you the monumental significance of this in my life and in the life of all believers in Christ... We are ALL called to ministry ... there is not one single child of God that is not called to testify of the goodness of Christ.
..........I was a very broken woman with so much heartache over the years that I considered taking my own life on several occasions. I was hopeless in a hopeless world. Even as a very young Christian I felt the pull of the darkness that I lived in and the call from the pits of hell to just quit............ It would take me years of reading and praying and calling on the name of Christ to receive healing, complete healing and healing without scars.
.......Oh I have the memories if I choose to recall them, but they come to my mind without the pain. Someone very close to my heart once told me that if we can recall a painful memory without the pain then God has moved through that heartache and removed all traces of the tears......... I will never forget that..... How powerful a picture that paints.............

...............There are women across this world that suffer daily, the abuse is either continuing or it is a past abuse, but abuse no less. They walk the streets of this country and the countries around the world. They hang their heads in shame, their eyes are cast down fearing the judgemental stare of the imaginary people........ They suffer......... as I suffered......... they feel that because of their shame they have become worthless and without purpose and without hope. I say those things with unflinching authority as I was one of those women......... They fear the daylight because of their shame and they fear the night because of the loneliness that it brings......... a life broken.................

....... My first contact with Chris has been lost because I fail to save them before we formatted my laptop....... my sweet DH was able to find a couple of them.......... I will share a few bits and pieces of our correspondence........... The original email came from Chris after he had found my Samaritan Women web site......... He spoke to me of the women in his country that had no self esteem because of their pasts....... He was sharing my Samaritan women devotionals to the women who felt that they were unworthy because of their past....................



This email is just letting me know about his ministry in India and the people that he touched daily..... He is sharing my blog to these people and you see where he even invited me to India.... Mercy....... I will have to pray about that...........

I am doing ministry among urban poor in in India, I shared about your blog in my message yeaster day in the devotion. I think God has a plan for you to come to India even.. so I am always available for you in India,

if it is Gods will let it happen: if you come you could preach in our churches in India.


I prayed As i write this mail to you, let God use mighty.



This is a latter email and talking about the people on the sides of the streets and how his love of God compels him to reach them for Christ.........


I love my people in India... in India you see every where people.. now summer - hot sun... poor people in the road side..

a week before I found a women in a road side.. she was looking for somebody.. that always break my heart when I see my sisters... standing in the rode side...

I feel she is my sister, she belongs to my family.. I never want her to suffer any more...

I love them, because I am loved By HIM,
Denise I work in the slums of this City Bangalore...and I could see many children and women who were all abused...

God has given me a people in hand to work... I need you continually to encourage me with HIS Word And His transforming Love.

Together we show the love of Christ to Unloved!

In this email he share some of his life with me and his ministry..............

About me....
1.City is the place of opportunity, I have seen in my slums and in churches -there are many young ladies left by a husband and they have a child, most of them are worked in garments, where they made a wrong choice – they do not know where to go for help.

In this email he lets me know the dangers of the times in India...... We must pray........ he is there sharing Christ, we must pray for his safety......


Now in our state anti christian government has taken the rule from last week, it is to be a duff time for me to work in the slum, I may get betting any time from them,or I may even kidnapped by them, it is a great challenge so I need your prayer.. i am also praying for you. one life that's for Jesus..

In his Grace.

Chris



.......I leave you with this one thought........ You may find this of no significance, but to me it is and answer to 30 years of prayers and fasting and tears..... It is God moving in my life bring to light the things that I have prayer for and waited for since that day in that upper room in Anadarko Oklahoma.

...........It is the path that He put me on 30 years ago and that path has taken me through many valleys and many mountain tops...... It is a path that took me through the fire and a path that I sometimes wanted to leave.......... It is the path chosen for me by the Father God and it is a path that has brought me to this day...............

............. If just one women in India, just one women lifts her head and shakes loose the shame of her past, if just one women that is broken and beaten by life rises up and takes her rightful place in the body of Christ....... if just one woman moves onto the path that God has chosen for her regardless of the darkness that she has been saved from.........

......... if just one woman reads one word that I put on paper or on an invisible network called the Internet gives her heart to the Lord Jesus and her name is recorded in the Lambs book of life........ then all the ups and downs and all the valleys and all the trials by fire are more than worth it............. more than worth it........ and one day I will see that beautiful face standing beside me as we are seated at the marriage supper of the Lamb..............

This is my miracle........ expect God to reveal your miracle........ He is a miracle working God

blessings

Denise

A Life Changed ....... Part 2

……..When Dennis and I met on April 24th 1999 I had no idea what God was up to……. And by the way we met on the Internet……bet you did not know that…….. After talking for what seemed like years we met at the praying hands in Tulsa Oklahoma. We were married October 17, 1999…….. It was God……. It was so God……… Long story short, we lived in Wichita for a couple of years where he was employed at Cessna Corporation as a computer technician. (Smart guy) .

............After a couple of years he knew that the Lord was telling him to leave there and come to Ada. I had elderly parents here and a son that I miss so……and a brother and sister in law that I so wanted to spend more time with. . In December 2001 we moved to Ada and he was hired at the University here in town……. And I resumed my business of screen print and embroidery.

...........Now I share that with you to let you know that my life up until 1999 was difficult at times but the Lord had walked with me through many many trials and had changed me from the inside out…….. I remember through all those years up until 1999 I would lay on the floor and cry out to the Lord to please not let my life be in vain……. I would pray that over and over and over for years and years……. I could never understand why such heartache came my way but through it all I survived……… I never tried to second guess why, I knew that some was my stupidity and my lack of self confidence and then there were the things that I just had no control over……..


...........Life is like that, some days we just have no control as to what comes next… However through those years I studied and taught and did some preaching and cried and begged God not to let my life and my struggles go for naught…….. He heard, He would answer………


……. When we moved back to Ada I felt that I had come home for many reasons and I hoped that the Lord had finally planted me to put down roots and begin……. But begin what? I had learned a long time ago that when the Lord moves it is never never in the way we every imagined…

…… With Dennis being a computer guru that he is I was quickly learning much more about the Internet and the computer than I ever imagined. Dennis is a beautiful Christian man he has encouraged me from the get go to write. He has always sat and listened as he would ask questions about the word of God and I would explain the best I could. He would always comment that I had such a wonderful way with teaching that others should hear……. Thus I created the Samaritan Women web site. I think I did that in 2003 …. And I began to write my devotionals.


........... My mantle from the Lord is teaching and I can tell you right now that I am in my element when in front of people, it matters not if it is one person or 500 people……. That is where I find my voice. It is a feeling that you can only understand if you have stood in the very middle of your calling…… there are no words… Now I will say to you that I am a good teacher and I only say that because the Lord has given that gift to me and to not tell you that would be like putting under a bushel the light that I have inside……..it is not a statement of pride or being puffed up, it is just my gift and I wear it proudly……….


............ Now……. After having a lot of time to write and pray and read, I began to write…… it was a few years latter that I became very discouraged and after a couple of years lost my will to write and decide that it was really a waste of time and after all there are millions of web sites and I am a pimple on the butt of a tadpole in the great scheme of life……….


......... I think it was almost two years that the web site was not touched and nothing added and then a computer crash and I lost most of my devotions and did not even try to replace them….


........ That is one thing about God, nothing moves Him and if we are a willing heart then He continues along the same path that He started out on regarding our lives……… He is not moved right or left He just continues……… He sees our heart and He sees that we have a passion to serve Him…….

…About a year ago my husband told me about the blog world and I began to blog in April of 2007……… and I found an outlet to begin to write again, and I can tell you that I have loved every minute of it and have met some wonderful ladies. I will always continue in the blog but I feel that the Lord has changed the course of my life in the past few months. It began back in January I believe ( I am sorry to say that the very first email from Chris along with several after that have been lost when I formatted my laptop from Vista to Windows XP) but I can share with you several of the other emails (in part) and I think you will understand what I am so excited about………….
......... Let me introduce you to Chris.............

........Chris is a man on a mission living in India.... He has a calling of God in his life and he has a heart turned to God and he is reaching out to the lost and hurting people of India. I love his statement at the bottom of most of his email..............."Life which is totally committed to God has nothing to fear nothing lose nothing regret"

........... Due to the fact that this blog has gotten pretty long... I will finish tomorrow night.........

Blessings

Denise

p.s. my web site is open again......... Samaritan Women

A Life Changed

…………I have thought about this post for a while and now I think it is time that I share with you a new friend that I have been talking to for a while……… But before I do that I would like to share a bit of my life with you and it will help you understand why this new friendship is so meaningful to me………… I will keep this as short as possible and I will post this in two parts…………..

Let me begin on September 10, 1977…. That is the day that I was born again and my life changed so drastically. I was in the middle of my third marriage. He was sent by God, everyone said. He was loved by all my family and my sweet Grandmother thought that God had finally answered her prayer to send me a Godly man ……… Well, much to our disappointment he was not an answer from God and he was not a godly man. A short time into the marriage I learned that he was a convicted felon in Texas and still on probation and he was wanted in one county in Oklahoma by an ex-wife for past alimony.

………..Now those are not the sort of things that enhance a new marriage. It was not long before I discovered that he was also physically abusive. Now, if you have never known a woman that has been abused or continues to be abused then you cannot understand what it does to the spirit. It is a devastating situation, but in most cases the woman has such low self-esteem that she stays…….. I was one of those women. Now we do not know what keeps us there but looking back on my life I was on a collision course of self destruction that only a Savior like Jesus could stop… and stop it He did.

………..The years before Jesus saved me was very tumultuous to say the least. I had been beaten and thrown out of the car in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere and all this was done by a husband. He would come back a bit latter and beat me a bit more and then drive off and so it would go for hours……. I share just that bit of information with you so that if any out there would question my authority to speak of the effects on a woman that has been abused would be put to rest. However, you will not hear me speak of any further experiences, as I have no desire to glorify the evil that tried to take my life; my purpose is to speak of the Love that saved it.

........My husband then, lets call him Mr. B. decided to move us to Anadarko, a small town in Oklahoma about 6-8 months into the marriage. I guess I was hoping that to move and start a life somewhere else would help…….. That is a lesson in futility! When you physically move to start anew, the evil travels with you. It is a lesson that I would learn the hard way.

....…In the late 70’s there was a movement going across the country know as Women’s Aglow…… It was during the Charismatic movement in which many many people were born again. It was at one of these meeting on a Saturday morning in a small upper room over a restaurant in Anadarko Oklahoma that Jesus would walk into my life and tell me everything that I had ever done……….

John 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29: Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

……….The woman ministering that day was Marcia Kendall. I do not remember much else from that day only that she stood there and she spoke what the Holy Spirit spoke to her, and in her obedience, I was born into the kingdom of God. She spoke things to me that day that only God knew. She spoke to me as she approached me and as she drew closer I felt something. When she reached me and was “face to face” the room seemed to disappear and it only contained her voice and none other…….. I knew nothing else other than I was being changed in a twinkling of an eye… Her words to me were soft and gentle and after introducing me to the Christ that she served she invited me to accept Him into my life…… Her eyes never left my eyes and after she offered Jesus she stood quiet, it seems as though time stood still and somewhere from within me I spoke the words “Yes I will”… It was then that from the top of my head to the tip of my toes the feeling of oil washing over my body…… I was born into the kingdom of God…. It is her words following that are the words that I want to share with you today… It is the words that have kept me searching and maybe searching is not a good word, but waiting for that time and waiting for that place that God would fulfill those words… For you see, I believe her to be true prophet of God and the things that she spoke to me that day did and will come forth. She took a few steps back from me after my accepting Jesus as my savour and she spoke these words………..

………. “You will teach and preach to the broken hearted women and you will share with them out of your brokenness about the Grace that has saved you………….. You will tell them that the Jesus that you serve is a Savior that forgives and He will restore them back to the Father and welcome them in as He has welcomed you this day… You will tell them that He is a God that loves them and a God of new beginnings and when He forgives and He forgets”

Do you accept this from the Lord this day she asked? And my response was yes……. Now there were other things said that day that I vaguely remember but those were the words that buried deep into my heart and remain to this day…..

…….. Now I share that today with you for only one purpose……to let you know that the past 30 years walking with the Lord has been a journey. For many years after that day in 1977 was a time of healing……. You see, I was broken and undone and full of the wisdom of the world and the hatred of the world and the ways of the world… I was 30 and had been around the world twice.. I had experienced more than my share of good times and more than my share of heartache… I had issues from childhood that needed to be addressed and then the years of physical abuse and mental abuse and divorce from the men in my life…..… Mercy….. I have no idea how the Holy Spirit worked through all of that for me, but worked through it He did…….. but…….. you have to understand that God lives in a place where there is no time….and the ways of the world would say hurry but God just takes His time………And time was all I had……… and so began the healing and the teaching and the instruction and the ups and the downs and the mistakes on a daily basis……. But through it all the words of Marsha Kendall sounded in my heart……. That out of the brokenness of my heart that day I would learn to offer that same Christ to others that have walked where I once walked.

……. I have watched for that day, I have prayed for that day, I have tried to force that day, I have given up on that day, I have lately grieved about the loss of that dream…and said in my heart that day would not come………. I was wrong, that day has come and it is not something that I would have not guessed in a thousand years… It is far more than I could have realized…… Tomorrow I will share with you what the Lord has done in my life and I will introduce you to Chris……..