Monday, March 30, 2009

Snow Fun...

Saturday Pure Joy went to Tulsa, OK to provide a ‘Whiff of Pure Joy’ for Evergreen Baptist Church. We had such a sweet time with the ladies there! They were absolutely a wonderful group of ladies and they are excited about Pure Joy! Several of the ladies from Evergreen will be joining us on the Poland trip and we are excited about that.

We drove into Tulsa as a light snow hit against the car window. However, by the time we left Evergreen several hours later, we were surrounded by about five inches of snow. It was wild! Ever noticed when you are in bad weather of any sort that all the passengers in your vehicle decide they need to help you drive? I wish I could have videotaped the conversations that went on for approximately an hour and a half while we headed back to Arkansas, because I’m confident we could have won the $10, 000 prize on AFV America’s Funniest Videos. Sure I ran over a couple of curves, but that was because other car tracks made it look like it was the way to go. Okay, if truth be told, I wanted to leave the three passengers along the side of the road and even threatened them with that, but my mom was one of the passengers and that made it kind of tricky! Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!

I’m headed to Longview, TX today to visit with some of our Poland team members.

Please remember to pray for Poland -- it is on the horizon.

His,
vickie

Monday, March 23, 2009

Sweet Time...

Saturday we met with most of our Poland Team for the first time since God put us together. It is really a group of characters! The team is made of women from two churches in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, one in Memphis, and two in Longview, Tx.
We laughed and planned and worshiped together. Yes, of course we broke bread together! The Poland ladies are in for a treat with this team! We have a couple of fireballs that remind me that I’m getting older even if I don’t believe it! Ha, ha, ha.

Sunday I had the opportunity to speak with a precious group of women from Cherokee Hills Church in Oklahoma City, OK. They had such sweet spirits as they learned about Pure Joy and what it means to be one of our sponsoring churches. Our worship leader for Poland, Nikki Boyd, is coming from that church. Pray for the ladies and Nikki to be able to help the church catch the heartbeat of the ministry!!

Lots going on here in preparation for Poland so remember all of us in your prayers. Also, pray for how God would have you be a part of Pure Joy in praying, giving, and going. We have 50 missionary women attending the retreat in Poland and they all need your prayers. If you would like help sponsor a missionary coming to the retreat see the donations section on the home page of the website.

Also, friends of Pure Joy, be watching for a note from me no later than tomorrow regarding our recent trip out of the county.

Remember us in your prayers.

His,
vickie

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Can you belive it...

This past week Pure Joy was in Sheridan, AR on Thursday night where I spoke to a great group of ladies. We shared worship, sweets, and information about Pure Joy. You have to love these two stories…The first one, I met a lady there that I shared a hospital room with in 2002. We neither one remembered each other but her husband saw my name in the brochure and remembered. The lesson here is don’t let those guys tell you they can’t remember. They remember what they want to remember! Ha,ha,ha. Secondly, a lady introduced herself to me and asked me where I was from. I told her from Morrilton, AR. She said we have a house in Morrilton. Really I said. Where? She said on the lake. I said which lake, Overcup? She told me yes. Long story short….they have a lake house right around the corner from my mom and me. They come to fish, etc. I’ve never known who lived in that little yellow house and now I do! Hmmmmm.

Isn’t God fun!!!!

Saturday, Pure Joy traveled to Grace Church in Little Rock, AR. We did a ‘Whiff of Pure Joy’ for a great group of ladies there as well. We had a sweet time of music, messages, lunch and fellowship. If you have never seen their church, it is in a beautiful location just off of Cantrell.


We have a few pictures from our visit there on Saturday because we took Janice to take care of that. Thursday night in Sheridan it was only me. Sorry no pictures girls!



Pure Joy is gearing up for Poland. We have big team meeting this weekend. Looking forward to having the ladies together that will make up this Poland Team. Friends of Pure Joy, please make sure you are praying for the ladies by name! It is your prayers that take us on angel’s wings!

We will be in Oklahoma City, OK this coming weekend to share with a church family there, and then in Tulsa, OK the following weekend. Please pray as God continues to bring women and churches alongside us in our journey!

As always, if you are interested in Pure Joy coming to visit the women in your church, please contact us.

We covet your prayers, support, and going!!

His,
vickie

Monday, March 9, 2009

Home Again...

Well, we may be home again, but I promise you that God continues to leave our hearts scattered all over this world!!! We had a wonderful time with our ladies in the undisclosed country we just returned from. There will never be enough thanks to all of the Friends of Pure Joy, bloggers, churches, and others who have come alongside this ministry in the past, in the present, and for the future. You play your role
in these trips as equally as those who step onto the field so, thank you for being a part of His ministry to the ladies on the field.

The group that we met with this time was much smaller in number than we usually meet with. This gave us ample opportunity to get to know all the ladies more in depth. No matter what your background denomination is, I want to encourage you in knowing that the women and their families that we have on the field overseas bringing the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ need your prayers, support, and to see your faces when possible! It is good for their soul and spirit! And it is good for our soul and spirit!!

The oppression in some of the countries our ladies are in is overwhelming. Add everyday life to that and you can see the need to pull them out of their cumstances and give them a retreat.

We did a lot of laughing with this group of ladies. We seriously tried to get one of them to understand that we think we should develop a site on our web page just for her that the ladies overseas could just go to for a good laugh every week. She kept us all in stitches. And that was driven by her honesty of herself and the everyday situations they experience in life.

Being with these ladies did remind me of something I try to share with people on a pretty regular basis. I see so much performance in the body of Christ, to put it bluntly so much religion. Nothing stumps the growth of a believer more than religion for the sake of religion.! One of the things that I always hope ladies receive from our ministry is this truth….God isn’t looking at how many times you hit the wall. What He is looking at is your heart!! He wants to see if when you get up you are still heading toward Him. This reveals your heart. And if your heart is right, eventually your outward life and the things you do will line up and you will be authentic from the inside out!!! An orange can look good and be rotten on the inside.
Who wouldn’t rather get an orange that doesn’t look the best on the outside but when you get to the inside it is refreshing and sweet. And to get one that looks good on the outside and taste great too….Now that is the best!

God wants us to be the BEST we can be as His kingdom workers!!!

We all hit walls in our journey. They are called life circumstances. And how we deal with those life circumstances says everything in the world about what we believe about Him and His Word!!! Life circumstances separate the fruit!

Pure Joy has a lot on the table as we step into the next two months. We will be in several churches during this month and the month of April. We will be at FBC Sheridan this coming Thursday night 7:00 – 8:30 as I share my testimony and the birth of Pure Joy International. Then we will be at Grace Church in Little Rock coming this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Our theme is “Who Am I”?

Also, we are closing in on our trip to Poland. Pray much for us as the details of this trip continue to be accomplished! We have 50 missionary women already signed up and ready to go!! Pray for the speakers, the music, the team, resources, etc.

You know how to pray and what to pray for because it is you who allow us to go and come on angels wings!!!

His,

vickie

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Only Believe...

Girls, as I pen this blog before we leave the country to our undisclosed location to minister, I must tell you that I am in AWE of HIM! Because of your hearts for Him, your kindness to listen to Him and your generosity, we have reached our financial goals and have actually gone abundantly above and beyond what was needed and or that we could imagine for this trip!!!

All of you gave! You gave prayers, cards, encouragement, phone calls, emails, finances, hugs, smiles, joy and it has been obvious that God Himself has done it in and through you because of the spirit of it all!!!

Sometimes, I just wished I could look each one of you in the face and say, “thank you for loving Jesus, thank you for dancing with Him!! Oh, if we could just help the world to know that when we ‘dance’ with Him, there is no greater joy! It reaches from the inside - out! It touches lives and changes hearts!! Thank you Bloggers, Friends of Pure Joy, and the Body of Christ from the east to the west, to the north and to the south! God uses you to let me dance with the stars!! You are the stars in my sky and He is the one that holds us all with His mighty hand!! And I pray that He who knows every star by name blesses your heart, marriage, family, church home, community, state, and the nations because He can and He loves our obedience!!!

Special hello to the ladies from FBC Ft. Smith! Thank you for having us yesterday and we enjoyed worshiping with you and breaking bread physically and spiritually! Leah, you and your ladies keep on dancing!! God is working there!

FBC Morrilton Men and prayer warriors, thank you for praying for us this morning when our flight was cancelled out of Memphis, due to weather. I KNOW that God placed the ticket agent in our path who helped us re-route out of Little Rock because of your prayers! You have to LOVE HIM!!!! Know your prayers have been answered and are being answered!!

Remember us this week while we are gone. If I can blog I will, but no promises!

Loving the Body of Christ through Jesus!

His,
vickie