Monday, January 26, 2009

Gotta Love Him...

I tell you what….. To know Him even in the smallest sense you've just got to love Him! I mean it is just impossible not to!

I love Sundays! I try to get in a couple of messages from a few of the local Pastors on TV before I even walk out the door to church. These two guys I watch just flat out 'Love the Lord'. Then I get to church and I get to be with these 4th-6th grade kids for an hour. Watching them learn about HIM and being a part of helping them learn about HIM! I love that too. Then also sometimes on Sunday I get to visit with my Pastor a few minutes and we love to talk the latest books and doctrine. I do love that too!

And as soon as church is over the family heads to my Aunt Myrna and Uncle Charles' house to have Sunday lunch. Every Sunday we have family lunch! Like the old days when the family ate after church together at home. I love that too. And I love it that we all have the freedom to invite a straggler if we want to. Then after lunch I get the opportunity to let my Uncle Charles beat my socks right off my feet in Wii bowling. And to be perfectly honest with you, I don't love that!!!

Then it is off to the night service. I love the Sunday night service.
It's family. Everyone is easy and just loves each other or does a good job pretending! And when church is over there is always the where does everyone want to go grab a bite to eat thing. Now, I'm not good about the going out to eat after church unless it is just 2 or 3 other people. The reason is when you have 10-13 people sitting at a oblong table it is just to difficult to communicate with everyone. You end up communicating with just 2 or 3 people anyway so you might as well have your own table. But, I do love fellowshipping with others so I'll suffer through all that! ha,ha,ha

I pray that Sundays bring you joy in your relationship with Him, your church, and family and friends!

We have a lot of things going on with Pure Joy. Friends of Pure Joy you should be getting an email this week about one of the opportunities we have.

Praying for you to have a blessed week!

His,
vickie

Monday, January 19, 2009

Life...

Wow! Don't you just hate those days that start out for no apparent reason "down" hill. I mean you had your quiet time, you met with the LORD, you love His Word. And then you walk out the door into life and BAM! Now, I'm not talking about a big 'trauma' of some kind. I'm talking about some minnows. I heard a speaker once share this illustration, "I'd rather be eaten by a shark then nibbled to death by a minnow." I guess you'd say the minnows are nibbling today! I know this doesn't sound all spiritual and everything but it's just the truth! And don't think I haven't had a few cries lifted up to the LORD today because I have. But, you know what I have figured out over the years. I am sooooooooo slow when it comes to recognizing the enemy at work on me. My little logical mind wants to find a logical reason for every thought, feeling and emotion. You know what the truth is….some days are just hell storm days. I taught on that once. Obviously, I wasn't listening to the message! Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha

I say all this to say, I 'm glad I can just be honest with you about life. I'm thinking that God intended for us to be real with one another. In fact, if we would all stop pretending we are sooooooo okay all the time, we actually may be able to come alongside each other for the kingdom's sake! Anyway, just some thoughts…. See you on the other side of the storm because as you know…this too shall pass!!!

His,
vickie

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Spirit-Filled Weekend...

Well, several of us just returned from Macedonia Baptist Church in Longview, TX. Wow! What an incredible weekend! First off, how can it not be fun to have five women in a vehicle and plenty of snack food headed down the highway. And to top it off, we had instructions from two husbands and Sir Scott (my GPS husband). That is a piece of equipment you put in your car to help you know where you are for those of you that are like me and clueless about technical things and are trying to make something spiritual out of the letters GPS. I know you won't find this hard to believe either, but we didn't exactly follow any one of the directions given to us by the two men and/or the GPS system. We kind of rolled it all together and looked at a map too. The good thing….we made it!!!

Our time in Longview was absolutely Spirit-filled from the moment we walked in the door to the church Sunday morning until we left Sunday night to come home. The spirit of the people was so precious. The praise and worship was truly of the Lord! Bro. Steve allowed me to share my testimony with his church family Sunday morning. Through three illustration tools I was able to share my testimony with this church family in a fashion I have never been led to share before. The move of the Spirit at the end as Bro. Steve opened up the altars was only a movement of God on a people who were willing and needy of His presence at work in their lives. Unreal! Same thing on Sunday night as we shared about Pure Joy International. The spirit of the church was incredible again!

We have been so blessed to visit churches and see God's hand at work. Ridgewood Baptist in Forrest City, AR and Macedonia Baptist in Longview, Tx all within the past four weeks have encouraged my heart that God is at work among us for His Kingdom sake! Precious, Precious, Saints!

Well, the grand finale came as we headed home Sunday night. We rejoiced in the LORD and His goodness, in friendships, and in fellowship! We ate more tator-tots then we should have (that was Janice's fault). Laughed our heads off and acted like we were all in school again! All and all it gave new meaning to a girls' night out!!!!

Don't forget to pray for Poland. We also have Jordan and Honduras coming up in the Fall. If you would like for us to visit your church regarding any of these opportunities for you to partner with us, let us know.

His,
vickie

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Don't let the grass grow under your feet...

Well, if you are like me, you are off and running in 2009. All the family made it home safely from the holidays. As of yesterday, we have rearranged, dusted, vacuumed, thrown away, tried to figure out what the thing we were holding went to, and had several cups of coffee and leftovers while accomplishing those tasks. Honestly, our family had absolutely the greatest Christmas of all time, from my perspective. I loved having everyone home, and not just for an 'in and out' play, but for a 'whole inning'. If you know me, you know I miss the little ones a lot. I also learned that I'm not any good at speed 'Scrabble' and honestly, I'm not good at it if there is no speed involved. We also played a game called 'Balderdash'. It's about a lot of bluffing each other regarding your responses to a statement, work, initials, etc. I learned that bluffing is really just another word for lying! Ha,ha,ha,ha, but bluffing sounds better! We also spent hours on my nephew's Wii and Guitar Hero. Let me say this to you ….the guitar thing….well, I just had to finally give that up because you can only be booed by a video audience so many times before it starts to have a negative effect on you! Ha,ha,ha,ha, However, I did really like the Wii bowling, tennis, and golf. In fact, I believe that I got in a tremendous amount of exercise during the holiday time. I also know I got in a tremendous amount of calories. Hmmmmmm I sense I'm not alone in that statement.

So, what is new for Pure Joy in 2009. First off we will be traveling to Longview, TX, to share with the church family at Macedonia Baptist Church this Sunday morning. I have the privilege of sharing my testimony Sunday morning and Sunday night we will be sharing about Pure Joy with the church family. Then, at the end of this month, Pure Joy will be doing "Pure Joy at Home" an opportunity for my own church family to really gain some understanding of what we do when we are overseas. We are continuing to make plans for the retreat in Poland in April/May and Wendy is putting together another church tour for us in the central part of Arkansas. If any of you would like for us to come visit your state and your church to share about Pure Joy, please email Wendy Stotts at wendy@purejoyinternational.org or vickie@purejoyinternational.org and we will make arrangements to come your way. We have two more retreats coming up in the Fall of 2009 and we will make you aware of them as when we have locked in the dates. In the meantime, please pray for the teams God would put together to go on all of our retreats along the way. He knows what the missionary women need and He knows what we need.

Remember to lift up our missionary women all over the world and their families near and far. A lot is going on in the world around us and it can seem very overwhelming. Rest, we serve a Mighty God. He is enough!

His,
vickie