Greetings His Precious Ones in Christ...

Wow! We serve an awesome God, don’t we! I am sitting in the home of Jeff and Leslie Sjurseth who serve on our board at Pure Joy International. Last night I had the great privilege to share at a women’s conference put together by St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Houston, TX. The title of the conference was “Taste and See that the LORD is Good!” It was wonderful. The women in attendance represented several churches and mission organizations and had the most gracious and sweet fragrance of the LORD coming forth from them. I was able to also share about Pure Joy and our needs for the Africa trip, plus many other opportunities for the ladies in this area to get on board with missions at a local level. If I wasn’t flying out tomorrow I would be right in the middle of helping with Little Footprints tomorrow night. It is a ministry to babies of the street kids ages 17-25. Please go on line and read about it when you can. www.littlefootprints.com The ministry to the parents 17-25 is called Montrose Street Reach. http://www.montrosestreetreach.org/.

We received donations that will sponsor 5 more ladies to attend the Africa trip! We have 11 paid for as of today (Monday). Patty would say almost 11. But I like to round up! (ha,ha,ha) Don’t miss out on this opportunity to encourage these women!

We have 50 women signed up for the Retreat with 20 on the waiting list as of today. I want to encourage you give, give, give. As we can see the need is major for these ladies to have a break!! Partner with a couple of your girlfriends and determine to sponsor one of these ladies for this Retreat. Again, cost per missionary woman to attend for 4 days-3 nights is $500. There are a lot of places we could put these ladies up at ½ the price. But I believe this ministry is a vehicle God uses to remind the ladies that He wants to lavish His Love on them because they spend their lives lavishing His Love and Word on others that might never have heard the truth of the Gospel.

I also want you to see how God works in the lives of women on this side of the continent when preparing their hearts to go. Following is a testimony from one of the ladies that will be part of our Africa Team from the states.

I Love you all so much…(The Body of Christ),

His,
vickie


Vickie asked me to blog and share my testimony with you about the upcoming Retreat in Africa. My first Retreat with Pure Joy was in 2007 to Quito, Ecuador. Early one morning, while there, God put a “whole” rainbow in the sky – I could see where it began and where it ended! I had seen rainbows but never a “whole” one. My roommate and I were so excited! We were in awe, jumping up and down, squealing, calling and waking up other team members to tell them, but I had no idea how God would use this in my life. There is not enough space to tell you about every incident, but since that trip, every time I have gone on Retreat with Pure Joy, God has given me a “whole” rainbow! I know it is His confirmation for me! If you know Vickie, you know before you can go with Pure Joy your husband has to be in agreement. Recently, I told my husband that I was feeling led to pray about going on the upcoming Retreat in Africa. Immediately he replied, “No, you’re not going!” He did not feel comfortable with me traveling there. Later, I told him, “You know if God gives me a rainbow on this, I have to go!” This began to soften his heart and it wasn’t long before he said, “You have to go where God leads you.” I knew I had overcome my first hurdle! The other love of my life is only 2 years old. He has blonde hair, big blue eyes, dimples and is my only grandbaby, Marshall Isaac. If you have grandchildren, you know how hard it is to be away from them for any length of time! Especially, to travel so far away to a place that is so different from our way of life and is even a little scary! Below is a picture of the Sunday School project that Marshall made and gave to me this past week! Yes, God gave me a “whole” rainbow! I am excited to say that I will be part of the Team traveling to Africa in March! From God’s canvas in the sky to a work of art made by tiny little hands – HE is so Faithful! Always Seek Him. Always Listen for Him. Always Look for Him. HE Is ALWAYS There!

Praying you Revel in your Rainbow!

Penny Morrow

WoooWhooooooo.....

We opened up registration for the missionary women of East Africa yesterday morning (Monday). As of this afternoon (Tuesday) we have #27 missionary women already signed up. They represent many different missions’ organizations and ministries going on in East Africa. As of this morning we have 5 of those missionary women sponsored. Some of you have asked how much it costs to sponsor a missionary for this 4 day 3 night event. The cost per missionary women to attend is $500 dollars. This takes care of their room and board and meals for 4 days, 3 nights, and all their materials for the retreat.

I am so excited to see the 50 available spots filling up! I believe God will meet our every need for this trip and for every woman in attendance. Why? 1. Because I know we are supposed to take this conference to that area of the world. God has clearly impressed my heart on the matter. 2. When it is a God idea He provides above and beyond all that we could imagine. 3. It is so exciting to watch Him putting the team together!

Please continue to pray for this East Africa trip:

• For the team to be made complete

• For all the details that take place here in the U.S. as far as preparation

• For all the missionary women to be sponsored before we leave the country

• For the resort area we are providing for them to be sweet, sweet, time of resting and refreshing and renewal to go back into their marriages, families, ministries, and world with a new fragrance of Jesus on them!

Don’t forget if you are taking the Challenge from the Blog on January 4th this is our $20 towards a missionary week. Get in on the opportunity to further His kingdom work by giving those Frontline Missionaries some rest!!

Love you and can’t wait to see God at work through all of us as He answers the prayers for this Women’s Conference!

P.S. If you want to be stirred in your heart about giving of your time, talents, and resources go to http://www.anticochconway.com/ and listen to the message from 1-16-11. It is one of the top 5 messages I have ever heard on these areas since becoming a believer 21 years ago!

His,
vickie

AFRICA on the horizon...

Well, I am excited to say that some of you are taking seriously my last blog about the $20 every other week! And it is so cool to watch it come in! I have asked Patty to put us a “wall of givers” on the Web site. Not amounts but just so you can see what we see. I love it when a small child’s name that has donated $1 to help sponsor a missionary woman is up there with the name of an adult or adult Sunday school class, etc. that has given $500 or more to sponsor a missionary. It is awesome!

Ok and yes, I am doing the Starbuck starve!!!!!! I actually have had to laugh at myself in this challenge! The other day I was headed to Little Rock, AR to visit a friend in the hospital. When I got to Conway, AR my car just out of habit took the exit to Starbucks. I am thinking about how good that coffee and muffin will taste driving in the traffic to Little Rock, AR. It wasn’t until I actually had pulled into the Starbucks’ parking lot that I came to my senses! I just started dying laughing and took out a five and put it in my Missionaries for Africa stash. Gotta love it!

I still continue to challenge you to get on board with the challenge from the blog dated Jan. 4th 2011. (Read it please!) The challenge is at the end of the blog-reading for that day. Also, I encourage you when you click into the blog on the web site to look to the right on that page and sign up underneath "Take the challenge" to be able to receive the blog each week directly to your email. You don’t have to go into the blog every week. It will come to you automatically which keeps you in the loop!

Please pray for the missionary women that will be attending the retreat in March. Pray for their families that will be without them for 4 days -3 nights. Pray for the ministries they leave behind in order to attend. Pray that the very 50 missionaries that God wants to be there will be the first to sign up on-line. Also pray for the team, the speakers and their messages, the worship leader and the songs, the women that will head up hospitality, activities, etc. Also, pray that God will move on the hearts of people to give to sponsor missionary women to be able to attend!

Tell others that have a heart for Evangelical Bible Believing missionaries all over this world to get on board with praying, giving and going. Let’s help keep those called to the field on the field!!!! And remember, tithe to your home church first, then give to this ministry and other ministries that further the Good News of the Gospel!

Loving you guys and Love that you are taking the Challenge!
His,
vickie

Don’t want your money this week! (Can’t believe I typed those words! I’m sure Patty will not be able to believe it either along with some of the Board Members! Ha,ha,ha) However, remember this is the off week! If you didn’t send your $20 last week get on it!

A Brand New Ending...

Yesterday, Bro. Bobby, our Associate Pastor delivered an awesome New Year message. He didn’t title it but when he was done I thought of several things it could have been titled such as Decision Time, The Rest of the Story, Choices, etc., but I like the last four words of a quote he shared with us in the beginning of the message that ended with these words - “a brand new ending.”

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending! - Carl Bard

The message was built around three women in scripture. Rahab, the Prostitute; Bathsheba, the eventual wife of King David; and Ruth, daughter-in-law of Naomi.

He then discussed how Rahab had made the choice to prostitute herself for whatever reasons (Joshua 2). Bathsheba was the victim of King David’s choice not to go off to war when he was supposed to (2 Samuel 11). Ruth was put in a position to make a choice due to something she had no control over - the death of her husband [simply put…a life circumstance] ( Ruth 1-4).

HOWEVER, it is significant to note, as Bro. Bobby pointed out, that in Matthew 1, five women are mentioned in the genealogy of Christ… Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (wife of Uriah) and Mary (mother of Christ).

WOW! Somewhere Rahab, Bathsheba, and Ruth made a new ending to their story. I want to encourage you as Bro. Bobby encouraged us Sunday. Most things in life aren’t “do over’s”. Remember as a kid playing ball you might call out “do over”! Well, we may not be able to have a do over with that marriage that ended, or the lost of a job, or even those life circumstances that have knocked the wind out of us. But we can make a brand new ending from this day forward! God’s word tells us to “finish strong”. Never doubt that if God tells us to do something then He will grace us for the journey! You, my dear one, are being molded into the image of Christ. Get up! Dust the lies of the enemy off your britches, and “make a brand new ending!” Amen!

Please begin to pray as Pure Joy heads to Africa in March of 2011. Our Theme is “Faith” from …Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Pray that God will meet our financial needs for sponsoring the missionary women that will attend the retreat. Praise God for the opportunities we have to go into an area where the women can fellowship, relax, worship and be challenged and renewed by the Living Word of God without concern of persecution.

We have 4 ladies sponsored as of this writing. We have 46 more to go. So I’m going to do something we have never done because desperate times call for desperate measures. Starting this week I am going to ask everyone reading this blog to please send $20 dollars to the ministry this week. Then I’m going to skip a week and ask you to send $20 again, then another week and $20 again. Truth be known, most of us spend $20 a week and don’t have a clue where it went. This way you still get to spend your twenty but it is intentional and for God’s Glory! All funds that are coming in right now are being designated for the Africa Retreat unless you tell us to put it someplace else (all donations tax deductable). There is your challenge! I will keep you posted on how this challenge is going.

When Patty (Financial Person for the ministry) reads this blog before posting it she is probably going to think I’ve gone off the deep end! But, dab-nab-it, I think it is time for us to challenge each other when it comes to accomplishing the things of the Lord. I’m giving up Starbucks from today until we leave the country for Africa and donating my money that I would normally spend at Starbucks to the Africa trip! If you know me you know this is NO SMALL commitment! Would any of you make such a commitment regarding the giving up of something until March 2, 2011, and donate that money to a missionary towards her being able to attend this retreat FREE of charge. All they have to do is get to the location of the retreat. Meals, rooms, materials are all taken care of for them. Give it up folks! Remember my last blog before Christmas! Times are getting tougher and we believers are going to have to get tougher to be able to “Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so our hearts will NOT BE HARDENED by sin’s deceitfulness.” Heb. 3:13

I love you all,

His,
vickie

Take the challenge!!!

The sweet fragrance as the Christmas Holidays linger...

As I write this blog I am sitting at my nephew’s home in Victoria, Texas. He and his wife have just delivered their third child. This very moment my sister-in-law is chasing Admiral, the golden retriever, through the house. My nephew is running right behind them telling her “of course he is going to take off running when you open that doorway.” Admiral is back in his room now looking at me as if to say, “What did I do?”. My mom is sitting in the living room – oops, Admiral is trying to make a great escape again but my brother is using his firmest voice to let him know he better get back in that room! As I started to say, my mom is in the living room sitting on the couch holding newborn Landon. Now everyone has made it to the living room where the newborn Landon is crying the sound of a newborn! Braden, his almost 2 year old brother, is running his new Christmas cars across the living room coffee table that is just made for little boys to play on with their toys. My brother, his wife, and my other nephew (twin brother to the first nephew I mentioned) and his girlfriend from San Antonio are all playing video games and eating dessert. My nephew that lives in this house has moved to the kitchen table with me and is on his computer as well. However, secretly he is listening to the football game that is on tonight in the other room because he and his brother are in this major competition with fantasy football. Tonight’s game between the Eagles and Vikings will determine the winner between them. I love the flow of family! When times such as these are going on I fully believe that family is the most awesome unit God created! Husbands, wives, children, nieces, nephews, in-laws, out-laws, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Ok now 1st nephew is going through the house saying “I need a field goal!” Admiral just got in trouble again and I can truly saying he didn’t do anything! Ha,ha,ha People alert…everyone is shifting! Help!

Hope you all had some special time with your families this Christmas Season!

As I listen to Braden playing and see his little red head pop up over the coffee table every once in awhile and hear everyone cooing over little Landon as well, I am reminded of this Bible truth……”What a difference a child can make”.

My prayer is that if Jesus has not made a difference in your life as of this blog, that He will by this time next Christmas Season.

Love you all,

His,
vickie

Admiral is loose again!

Merry Christmas from Pure Joy!

Enjoy this Christmas wish from the Board and Staff of Pure Joy International!

Just $40...

This morning when I got to the office I stepped next door to check on my friend that has an alteration business. We usually check on each other first thing in the morning and when one of us closes for the evening. As I was standing in her business a gentleman stepped in the door with a rather hurried manner about him, carrying a spray bottle. He immediately asked Ola, my friend, if she was the business owner. When she nodded yes it was like the gates opening at the Kentucky Derby. He was off and running. He could not tell us enough about the miracle powers of the cleaner in his spray bottle. Truly we could not get a word in edge-wise because he was so busy showing us all that this cleaning liquid could do. Now don’t get me wrong. I was totally getting excited about this stuff. In fact, about the time he had me in his corner my client drove up. “Ok, I’d like to talk more with you about this but I have a client waiting. However, I will take your brochure and read it and call you later.” Oh, you can’t, he said. I am leaving for St. Louis when I leave here. “Ok, then come back by when you are back in town.” Not coming back. “Ok, then I’ll take a bottle.” ($1 - I’d be crazy not to!) He then tells me we only sell it by the gallon jug. (Really). “How much for a gallon jug?” Just $40 a jug. (Really!)

Immediately within a millimeter of a second the following thought flashes through my head. If this stuff was real it would be worth the investment to purchase it. But there is no way to check this guy out and he really appears to be in a hurry for a quick buck. For all I know his bottle of cleaner is the real deal for sure and the rest could just be glorified water. So, I quickly acknowledged to him that I didn’t have $40 and went to tend to my client.

As I thought about this later on this morning I thought about how easily people can sell us something that sounds good and even looks good but it is all a deception. Hmmmm, does that story sound familiar.

I can never encourage us enough to BE IN THE WORD OF GOD!!! The ONLY things that will prevent us from being deceived in these latter days are the Word of God and the Holy Spirit!

So beware this time of year for scams! But be even more aware all the time for the enemy to try and deceive daily! He is going to get more cunning in these latter days. KNOW THE TRUTH ….INSIDE AND OUT!

His,
vickie