Give us this day our daily bread.
I remember exactly where I was when He came to me. I was at the lowest point in my life. I was a mess of my own making. I had walked away from God, from my family and from hope. I was broken beyond repair, sitting on an air mattress reading a book about vampires. It was a Friday. I still cannot tell you for sure if His voice was audible to anyone else but it reverberated in my head, heart and chest. It was louder than thunder. He called me by name...CONNIE!! I was on my knees and then on my face. In an instant He revealed to me my entire life. Every heartache, every loss, every failure, every hurt I had ever caused. The whole sorry mess. I thought I was dying and that this is what people meant when they said their lives flashed before their eyes. For the first time I felt the weight of my sin and how it had separated me from my God. Lying there on the floor He redeemed me. He is redeeming me still.
I remember exactly where I was when He came to me. I was at the lowest point in my life. I was a mess of my own making. I had walked away from God, from my family and from hope. I was broken beyond repair, sitting on an air mattress reading a book about vampires. It was a Friday. I still cannot tell you for sure if His voice was audible to anyone else but it reverberated in my head, heart and chest. It was louder than thunder. He called me by name...CONNIE!! I was on my knees and then on my face. In an instant He revealed to me my entire life. Every heartache, every loss, every failure, every hurt I had ever caused. The whole sorry mess. I thought I was dying and that this is what people meant when they said their lives flashed before their eyes. For the first time I felt the weight of my sin and how it had separated me from my God. Lying there on the floor He redeemed me. He is redeeming me still.
And then He said to me, If you will give Me your life, I will make something beautiful out of it. Those were the sweetest words I had ever heard. Even now they break my heart. I remember thinking, not even You Lord could fix the mess that is my life.
That night God not only changed my heart, He changed my direction. I knew exactly what He wanted me to do. Enroll in college and then in nursing school and be prepared to serve Him in Israel when He called. That was when the dream started.
That night God not only changed my heart, He changed my direction. I knew exactly what He wanted me to do. Enroll in college and then in nursing school and be prepared to serve Him in Israel when He called. That was when the dream started.
I am in a large room, seated on a stool and I am there to speak to a group of Arab and Jewish women. The Lord is telling me that in order to ever share with them who He is that I have to first make a heart connection with them through friendship. So I begin to talk to them about things that are common to women. What do we as women want? Faithful, loving, protective husbands, safe and happy children, good education, freedom in faith, peace with our neighbors, clean water, healthy living environments, financial security, a voice. So the Lord began to teach me that nursing was a means to an end. That it would provide me a skill that would be useful and a doorway through where I might have opportunity to speak to these women.
Two years ago I was getting a little frustrated. I had been a nurse for a year and I was still trying to find a contact person in Israel. The Lord had told me that they would come but it seemed to take so long. That's when I met Kathy Morgan. My new daughter, Haley, was singing at J-Fest and she was dating Will Morgan, Kathy's son. I had seen Kathy once before, I think, but not really had an opportunity to talk with her. I noticed a necklace that she was wearing that day because it had Hebrew and Arabic writing on it so I asked her about it to start a conversation. And as she began to tell me about her friends in Israel that were in the ministry trying to build relationships in Christ between Arab and Jewish women, the Lord was speaking so clearly to me that she is the one. She is your contact person. Wow. Only God, right?
So, over the last two years Kathy and I have formed such a close friendship and she is my fellow laborer in Israel for the upcoming trip. Through her I was introduced to Donna at Shevet Achim which is where we will be staying in Israel. Shevet Achim brings Arab children to Israel for life saving heart surgeries and in the process they love them like Christ loves us in the hopes that not only will it build friendships between the two peoples but that it will foster an environment that will bring them to the love of Christ.
Just last week I was introduced to another of Kathy's sisters in the Lord who is in ministry in Israel. She is actually the lady who designed the necklace that Kathy was wearing at J-Fest, that she later gave to me. As we were sitting and talking she started to share with me her ministry over the last twelve years. She spoke about building friendships between the Jewish and Arab women by finding ways in which they were alike rather than focusing on their differences and as she was speaking I just wanted to shout. YES, YES LORD!! She was speaking my heart and my dream.
God calls us to His service. He equips us for His service. He gives to us a love for His work. Then He opens the doors through which He plans for us to walk through. Amazing!!
I know this is long but to write it all would be really long. This is really just the tip of the iceberg of what I could tell you about the faithfulness of God in my life. That is my goal for this blog. Not that you would see anything good in me or in my writing because there is nothing good in me, save the Holy Spirit and any of you that have ever heard me speak can attest to the fact that I can murder the English language with a terrible accent. I am writing this because maybe someone will read it who thinks that they are beyond hope, beyond help. Maybe God is speaking to you and You just can't believe that He is able to do something so big in your life. He IS able. He is faithful. He is willing to give us life, abundant, free, fulfilled and full of glory.
And we know that God works all things together for good to those that love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Two years ago I was getting a little frustrated. I had been a nurse for a year and I was still trying to find a contact person in Israel. The Lord had told me that they would come but it seemed to take so long. That's when I met Kathy Morgan. My new daughter, Haley, was singing at J-Fest and she was dating Will Morgan, Kathy's son. I had seen Kathy once before, I think, but not really had an opportunity to talk with her. I noticed a necklace that she was wearing that day because it had Hebrew and Arabic writing on it so I asked her about it to start a conversation. And as she began to tell me about her friends in Israel that were in the ministry trying to build relationships in Christ between Arab and Jewish women, the Lord was speaking so clearly to me that she is the one. She is your contact person. Wow. Only God, right?
So, over the last two years Kathy and I have formed such a close friendship and she is my fellow laborer in Israel for the upcoming trip. Through her I was introduced to Donna at Shevet Achim which is where we will be staying in Israel. Shevet Achim brings Arab children to Israel for life saving heart surgeries and in the process they love them like Christ loves us in the hopes that not only will it build friendships between the two peoples but that it will foster an environment that will bring them to the love of Christ.
Just last week I was introduced to another of Kathy's sisters in the Lord who is in ministry in Israel. She is actually the lady who designed the necklace that Kathy was wearing at J-Fest, that she later gave to me. As we were sitting and talking she started to share with me her ministry over the last twelve years. She spoke about building friendships between the Jewish and Arab women by finding ways in which they were alike rather than focusing on their differences and as she was speaking I just wanted to shout. YES, YES LORD!! She was speaking my heart and my dream.
God calls us to His service. He equips us for His service. He gives to us a love for His work. Then He opens the doors through which He plans for us to walk through. Amazing!!
I know this is long but to write it all would be really long. This is really just the tip of the iceberg of what I could tell you about the faithfulness of God in my life. That is my goal for this blog. Not that you would see anything good in me or in my writing because there is nothing good in me, save the Holy Spirit and any of you that have ever heard me speak can attest to the fact that I can murder the English language with a terrible accent. I am writing this because maybe someone will read it who thinks that they are beyond hope, beyond help. Maybe God is speaking to you and You just can't believe that He is able to do something so big in your life. He IS able. He is faithful. He is willing to give us life, abundant, free, fulfilled and full of glory.
And we know that God works all things together for good to those that love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose.
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