Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

JOY, Stephanie and Jossara Makenna

THE BOOK OF RUTH

Another Bible study concluded this past Thursday as our morning group studied the Book of RUTH with great joy and expectation of what God had for us in that little short OT book!

My dear friend, Caroline, wrote this study. Her "Daily Meditations" and "Journey Thoughts" were the homework part of each week and the girls and I loved digging and pondering through all of them. God spoke deeply so that He could bring the response through each of us as He willed!

Thank you for allowing us to use this study to respond to His Heart in our present circumstances. We had many 'words' from the LORD..... one [through Kim] was: "Don't Stop Short!"

Pictured here:

Caroline Rambone [author of the study]

Stephanie [me]

Kim Reinhold [co-leader]

We will be meeting one last time on January 5th, 2012, to see what God is going to do in the next few weeks in each of our lives. We didn't want this study to end so this is our way of keeping the Word alive in our hearts until then!

Love with JOY abounding,

Stephanie

PS: We missed you Dawn and Cathy.......[not pictured]

PRAYER FOR HAITI

Isaiah 26:3

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth inThee.

My daughter, Becky, sent these pictures and this request this morning. I am asking others to pray for her and her family and those in Haiti and the teams who are ther now as well.

We are on day 4 of torrential rains here in Haiti. We had a team here since Friday and they actually returned to Cayes yesterday cause they couldn’t do anything out at their sister church. Everything was wet, the kitchen was soaked and the church ladies cooking their meals were soaked thru. Here are a few pics from their drive home yesterday. The first pic is them driving over a bridge over a river.

That was 24 hours ago, the road must be covered now. The 3rd pic is the paved road they were driving on to get back to Cayes. I have never seen rain like this. Yes, we’ve had 8 days in a row before of rain, but not the constant torrential rains. It doesn’t let up for hours at a time!

We are safe and dry. There are 5 spots where water is getting into our house (4 roof leaks and one where it is seeping thru the walls) but it’s not that bad. Most people have holes in their roofs, so I am not complaining!

Please be praying! Becky

Father God ~

Please watch over all those in Haiti this day and this week as these rains come down. May we be reminded with every drop of RAIN that you are showering down GRACE UPON GRACE UPON GRACE! Protect and provide all that is needed and turn these rains into showers of blessing! In JESUS Precious Name we ask it, AMEN!
JOY, Stephanie

Journey of a Lifetime and She's Only In Kindegarten

Many adults gasped, "Oh no, I'm so sorry." Such were the comments when telling friends, relatives, or even a grocery store checkers that my daughter and her family were going to Haiti. That was over 18 months ago - just three months after the disastrous earthquake struck the tiny country.

I had not seen my family in person until July of this year, when they were home for a short vacation to the States. After three weeks of visiting here, interestingly, all of their children [my grandchildren] couldn't wait to go "home"!

"Home" is Haiti for them. They now speak the language of the native people. This is Tessa's first day of Kindegarten [twazyčm] . The kids love Haiti, and though many adults would think they are missing so much, the kids are on an adventure of a lifetime with God!

I wondered, as I pondered over this picture, what kind of life do we lead? Do we really consider our pilgrimage, our journey, to be full of adventure and not so common place with God? Our feet may be dressed in different color socks, sometimes we march alike and sometimes we stick out like a sore thumb. But each of us has our place in God's kingdom. May we go to where God leads us falling into the ranks of "Onward Christian Soldiers" wherever HE sets our feet!

I am teaching the book of RUTH at this time. This verse came to mind from the picture:

Ruth 1
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.

Becky [the mother of Tessa] sent me this link based on this passage above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ODe4sGCKxc

JOY,
Stephanie

HERE & NOW = THERE & THEN

Revelation 21: 18-21

18The wall was built of jasper, while the city [itself was of] pure gold, clear and transparent like glass. 19The foundation [stones] of the wall of the city were ornamented with all of the precious stones. The first foundation [stone] was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony (or white agate), the fourth emerald, 20The fifth onyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each separate gate being built of one solid pearl. And the main street (the broadway) of the city was of gold as pure and translucent as glass.

My class gave me a special hand-made bracelet portraying the Scripture above. It is a New Jerusalem bracelet complete with streets of Gold and translucent glass. It also has 12 pearls in between each color of precious stone signifying the 12 gates! I will treasure this forever! We enjoyed studying Revelation together - almost half of the ladies for the first time. Two of us have studied it in depth for the 7th time! God met us here each week with His Presence! There were 22 of us in this study but only 18 made it to the final dinner celebration. We miss you Mary, Donna A., Marion and Jane!! Our theme verse was:

Revelation 17:14 "They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” Tiara and her Mom. Tiara celebrated her 28th birthday with us last night too! We had candles and cake to make it special!

God is now the CENTER of each of these ladies' lives! We learned sooo much together and God truly did bless us each and everyone one of us! We praise God for the Revelation of Jesus Christ in our lives!

Choosing JOY in this season,

Stephanie

Another Conference in PA

Christ Community Church - 2011

I had the JOY of serving with the ladies of

Christ Community Church from Newfield, NJ,

at Black Rock Retreat Center in Quarryville, PA., last weekend!

The theme for this year was:

BODY - SOUL - SPIRIT

Theme verse:

1 Thessalonians 5:23

May God himself, the God of peace,

sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body

be kept blameless

at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Worshiping Jesus was first and foremost!

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Above photo: My dear sister Kim! We met in 2008 the first year

that I spoke at their first retreat here at Black Rock.

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Above: Jane, the assistant pastor's wife -

and also my very dear friend and room-mate for this retreat!

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Above Photo:

The main speaker was Rosa Maria Faulkner from Wilmington, DE.

[left in pink - along with the retreat committee]

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Pastor Tony's wife, Lynn and me.

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Choosing JOY in this season,

Stephanie

Revive - Refresh - Renew RETREAT in PA

I had the great privilege of teaching at a retreat last weekend with Hope Community Church from Gilbertsville, PA. We stayed at the INN of Leola Village in Leola, PA, a beautiful facility hidden in the heart of the Amish Country.

My dinner table group on Friday night before the sessions began!

I wrote a skit about the Presence of God - and Natalie [left] played the little girl, and Carly [right] played the mother. Their added humor made it come alive for all those who enjoyed it! Great job ladies!! You're going on the road with me from now on!!

Worship was a focus of each session. The team from HCC is Carly, Danielle, and Marcie

Teaching for Saturday's morning sessions.

Gretchen was one of the ladies who came to the Bible study session on my favorite chapter of the Old Testament = Exodus 33!

This was our prayer upon beginning the retreat: As a Get-Away Weekend with the KING of kings – THE LIVING GOD.

We asked God to...

REVIVE us with YOUR LOVE …. that we may see clearly exactly WHO YOU ARE! Revive us with YOUR PRESENCE in a way we’ve never known. REFRESH us with YOUR SPIRIT, LORD, let the wind blows across our face. Refresh us with YOUR WORD so that we are able to live fruitfully and abundantly in these last days. RENEW a RIGHT SPIRIT within us, LORD Bring us to OWN RENEWED COMMITMENT - to follow hard after You!

It was my JOY and pleasure to serve you all!

Choosing JOY in this season,

Stephanie