Category: Journal

According to Google, there are 195 nations in the world. Since making my blog “public” several years ago, it has now reached 141 nations. It fills me with joy to know that it has gone where I have not been able to. Even so, I still have a deep desire to go and teach the Word, love on and pray for people, and see God move in mighty ways. But there has been no green light from my Father when opportunities have arisen these last years.

As we entered the Easter season of 2020, I began a forty-day fast. Then a couple of days in came the pandemic. What a challenge! But God gave me two prayer warriors whose prayers helped carry me through. And then at the end of the fast I heard this from the Lord. “Tarry there until you are endued with power.”  I didn’t understand it. Tarry where? Though I have prayed and pondered and even preached on the Holy Ghost, I still wasn’t exactly sure how it was applicable to me. This morning I wrote these words as I sat in my little prayer closet. I believe as He often does for me that God speaks as I write.

“Old dreams with new anointing by the power of the Holy Ghost will carry you into this next season and usher you through. You will go deep but you will also be required to navigate the currents in the deepest and sometimes loneliest places. You will think you are drowning, but take comfort in My heart and relax as best you can. Though it will be hard, try to stay above water and wait there…until you are endued with power. Then I will come pull you from the riptide. When I do and you are safely back on shore, when you come to, you will see that during the time of struggle this turned into a season of dreams come true…My dreams in you.”

So what are the old dreams? I dream of a life of missions. Is it crazy that in this hour, I just want to GO?!!! I dream of teaching the Word and fulfilling the call to disciple. I dream of praying for others and seeing the miraculous. I dream of igniting others with the desire for prayer and the Word that He placed in me. I dream that God would take my writing (such as it is) and use it somehow. I dream of writing by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Missions, the Word, prayer, the miraculous, writing! It seems all over the place, but it is all very precise.

Perhaps in these next years, I will be able to touch the other 54 nations in some way. Wouldn’t it be so amazing, when it is time to go to my heavenly home, to have touched every country in the world and to be greeted in heaven by those same nations? That is my “impossible” awfully big dream!!!!

Father, would You give me the nations? As I pray for them and find out more about them would You show me how to use this tool to reach those across the world? Lord, I know it is an awfully big dream. I fully know it is something only You can do. Is it Your dream, Father? I ask again today for the nations as my inheritance…according to Your Word….in Jesus’ holy and precious Name!!! Amen!!!

——

On the list below are the nations touched by the blog. I always put up their flags if I can and I hope on your device you can see them. Being in possession of a nations flag symbolizes victory. That is why I do it. Plus, I think they are beautiful.

(originally published 6/7/2020 and this list was updated most recently on 6/17/2021 with the addition of 4 more countries – Belgium, Lesotho, Madagascar, and Finland. Updated also on 8/5/2021 with 4 more nations – Caribbean Netherlands, Macau SAR China, Slovakia, and Papau New Guinea. ALL GLORY AND PRAISE TO GOD!!!)

——

The Reached

A
Albania 🇦🇱
Algeria 🇩🇿
American Samoa 🇦🇸
Angola 🇦🇴
Antigua 🇦🇬
Argentina 🇦🇷
Armenia 🇦🇲
Austria 🇦🇹
Australia 🇦🇺

B
Bahamas 🇧🇸
Bahrain 🇧🇭
Bangladesh 🇧🇩
Barbados 🇧🇧
Barbuda 🇦🇬
Belgium 🇧🇪
Belize 🇧🇿
Bolivia 🇧🇴
Bosnia 🇧🇦
Brazil 🇧🇷
Brunei 🇧🇳
Bulgaria 🇧🇬

C
Cambodia 🇰🇭
Cameroon 🇨🇲
Canada 🇨🇦
Caribbean Netherlands 🇧🇶
Chile 🇨🇱
China 🇨🇳
Colombia 🇨🇴
Costa Rica 🇨🇷
Croatia 🇭🇷
Curaçao 🇨🇼
Czech Republic 🇨🇿

D
Denmark 🇩🇰
Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

E
Ecuador 🇪🇨
Egypt 🇪🇬
El Salvador 🇸🇻
Estonia 🇪🇪
Ethiopia 🇪🇹
European Union 🇪🇺

F
Fiji 🇫🇯
Finland 🇫🇮
France 🇫🇷

G
Georgia 🇬🇪
Germany 🇩🇪
Ghana 🇬🇭
Greece 🇬🇷
Grenada 🇬🇩
Guam 🇬🇺
Guatemala 🇬🇹
Guernsey 🇬🇬

H
Haiti 🇭🇹
Herzegovina 🇧🇦
Honduras 🇭🇳
Hong Kong 🇭🇰
Hungary 🇭🇺

I
Iraq 🇮🇶
India 🇮🇳
Indonesia 🇮🇩
Ireland 🇮🇪
Isle of Man 🇮🇲
Israel 🇮🇱
Italy 🇮🇹

J
Jamaica 🇯🇲
Japan 🇯🇵
Jordan 🇯🇴

K
Kenya 🇰🇪
Kuwait 🇰🇼

L
Latvia 🇱🇻
Lesotho 🇱🇸
Lebanon 🇱🇧
Lithuania 🇱🇹
Luxembourg 🇱🇺

M
Macau SAR China 🇨🇳
Macedonia 🇲🇰
Madagascar 🇲🇬
Malawi 🇲🇼
Malaysia 🇲🇾
Malta 🇲🇹
Mauritius 🇲🇺
Mexico 🇲🇽
Moldova 🇲🇩
Mozambique 🇲🇿
Myanmar (Burma) 🇲🇲

N
Namibia 🇳🇦
Nepal 🇳🇵
Netherlands 🇳🇱
New Zealand 🇳🇿
Nicaragua 🇳🇮
Nigeria 🇳🇬
Norway 🇳🇴

O
Oman 🇴🇲

P
Pakistan 🇵🇰
Panama 🇵🇦

Papua New Guinea 🇬🇳
Paraguay 🇵🇾
Peru 🇵🇪
Philippines 🇵🇭
Poland 🇵🇱
Portugal 🇵🇹
Puerto Rico 🇵🇷

Q
Qatar 🇶🇦

R
Romania 🇷🇴
Russia 🇷🇺
Reunion 🇫🇷
Rwanda 🇷🇼

S
Samoa 🇼🇸
Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
Serbia 🇷🇸
Seychelles 🇸🇨
Singapore 🇸🇬
Slovakia 🇸🇰
Slovenia 🇸🇮
Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Solomon Islands 🇸🇧
South Africa 🇿🇦
South Korea 🇰🇷
Spain 🇪🇸
St. Vincent and Grenadines
Suriname 🇸🇷
Swaziland 🇸🇿
Sweden 🇸🇪
Switzerland 🇨🇭

T
Taiwan 🇹🇼
Tanzania 🇹🇿
Thailand 🇹🇭
Tobago 🇹🇹
Trinidad 🇹🇹
Tunisia 🇹🇳
Turkey 🇹🇷

U
Uganda 🇺🇬
Ukraine 🇺🇦
United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪
United Kingdom 🇬🇧
United States of America 🇺🇸
Uruguay 🇺🇾

V
Venezuela 🇻🇪
Vietnam 🇻🇳

Y
Yemen 🇾🇪

Z
Zambia 🇿🇲
Zimbabwe 🇿🇼

After many tears from my daughter and granddaughters and reassuring hugs and a prayer from this mama, the Joneses are off to Greensboro. Please pray for them as they make the transition and for safe travels today.

I feel like I have held my breath for the last three months knowing this moment was coming. I have cried so many tears, prayed so many prayers, felt hopeless, like I couldn’t bear one more different season, and so God was surely done with me.

But then, at 4:30 am Saturday morning, I had a very real divine visitation. The good Lord spoke some things. They were Words of love and LIFE but even more so Words of correction. I will talk more about it later but know that I came away, and I knew that I knew I might have some hard days and lonely days, but He still has a plan for me (and for Dan) in this strange new season. This different will require some things. It is a process – from glory to glory- and on the other side of the last two days’ changes – after Sunday School, after Pastor preached, after others sang and prayed and prophesied – it looked a whole lot like dancing and joy and with it peace, peace, that wonderful peace! Tomorrow, no matter what, if I seek God, I will find Him. That’s a promise.

Different seasons don’t mean it is all terrible. Different seasons are just different. You can define different as a bad thing altogether, or you can choose to see the unique opportunities that “different” can afford. That has been one of my greatest lessons over this last very different year.

This is a different season and I intend to use my time wisely and to come away from it different…in a very good way! Thank You, Lord!!!

According to Google, there are 195 nations in the world. Since making my blog “public” several years ago, it has now reached 137 nations. It fills me with joy to know that it has gone where I have not been able to. Even so, I still have a deep desire to go and teach the Word, love on and pray for people, and see God move in mighty ways. But there has been no green light from my Father when opportunities have arisen these last years.

As we entered the Easter season of 2020, I began a forty-day fast. Then a couple of days in came the pandemic. What a challenge! But God gave me two prayer warriors whose prayers helped carry me through. And then at the end of the fast I heard this from the Lord. “Tarry there until you are endued with power.”  I didn’t understand it. Tarry where? Though I have prayed and pondered and preached on the Holy Ghost, I still wasn’t exactly sure how it was applicable to me. This morning I wrote these words as a part of my prayer. I believe as He often does for me that God speaks as I write.

“Old dreams with new anointing by the power of the Holy Ghost will carry you into this next season and usher you through. You will go deep but you will also be required to navigate the currents in the deepest and sometimes loneliest places. You will think you are drowning, but take comfort in My heart and relax as best you can. Though it will be hard, try to stay above water and wait there…until you are endued with power. Then I will come pull you from the riptide. When I do and you are safely back on shore, when you come to, you will see that during the time of struggle this turned into a season of dreams come true…My dreams in you.”

So what are the old dreams? I dream of a life of missions. Is it crazy that in this hour, I just want to GO?!!! I dream of teaching the Word and fulfilling the call to disciple. I dream of praying for others and seeing the miraculous. I dream of igniting others with the desire for prayer and the Word that He placed in me. I dream that God would take my writing (such as it is) and do a work. I dream of writing by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Missions, the Word, prayer, the miraculous, writing! It seems all over the place, but it is all very precise.

Perhaps in these next years, I will be able to touch the other 58 nations in some way. Wouldn’t it be so amazing, when it is time to go to my heavenly home, to have touched every country in the world and to be greeted in heaven by those same nations? That is my “impossible” dream!!!!

Father, would You give me the nations? As I pray for them and find out more about them would You show me how to use this tool to reach those across the world? Lord, I know it is an awfully big dream. I fully know it is something only You can do. Is it Your dream, Lord? I ask again today for the nations as my inheritance…according to Your Word….in Jesus’ holy and precious Name!!! Amen!!!

——

On the list below are the nations touched by the blog. I always put up their flags and I hope on your device you can see them. Being in possession of a nations flag symbolizes victory. That is why I do it. Plus, I think they are beautiful.

(originally published 6/7/2020 and updated most recently on 6/17/2021)

——

The Reached

A
Albania 🇦🇱
Algeria 🇩🇿
American Samoa 🇦🇸
Angola 🇦🇴
Antigua 🇦🇬
Argentina 🇦🇷
Armenia 🇦🇲
Austria 🇦🇹
Australia 🇦🇺

B
Bahamas 🇧🇸
Bahrain 🇧🇭
Bangladesh 🇧🇩
Barbados 🇧🇧
Barbuda 🇦🇬
Belgium 🇧🇪
Belize 🇧🇿
Bolivia 🇧🇴
Bosnia 🇧🇦
Brazil 🇧🇷
Brunei 🇧🇳
Bulgaria 🇧🇬

C
Cambodia 🇰🇭
Cameroon 🇨🇲
Canada 🇨🇦
Chile 🇨🇱
China 🇨🇳
Colombia 🇨🇴
Costa Rica 🇨🇷
Croatia 🇭🇷
Curaçao 🇨🇼
Czech Republic 🇨🇿

D
Denmark 🇩🇰
Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

E
Ecuador 🇪🇨
Egypt 🇪🇬
El Salvador 🇸🇻
Estonia 🇪🇪
Ethiopia 🇪🇹
European Union 🇪🇺

F
Fiji 🇫🇯
Finland 🇫🇮
France 🇫🇷

G
Georgia 🇬🇪
Germany 🇩🇪
Ghana 🇬🇭
Greece 🇬🇷
Grenada 🇬🇩
Guam 🇬🇺
Guatemala 🇬🇹
Guernsey 🇬🇬

H
Haiti 🇭🇹
Herzegovina 🇧🇦
Honduras 🇭🇳
Hong Kong 🇭🇰
Hungary 🇭🇺

I
Iraq 🇮🇶
India 🇮🇳
Indonesia 🇮🇩
Ireland 🇮🇪
Isle of Man 🇮🇲
Israel 🇮🇱
Italy 🇮🇹

J
Jamaica 🇯🇲
Japan 🇯🇵
Jordan 🇯🇴

K
Kenya 🇰🇪
Kuwait 🇰🇼

L
Latvia 🇱🇻
Lesotho 🇱🇸
Lebanon 🇱🇧
Lithuania 🇱🇹
Luxembourg 🇱🇺

M
Macedonia 🇲🇰
Madagascar 🇲🇬
Malawi 🇲🇼
Malaysia 🇲🇾
Malta 🇲🇹
Mauritius 🇲🇺
Mexico 🇲🇽
Moldova 🇲🇩
Mozambique 🇲🇿
Myanmar (Burma) 🇲🇲

N
Namibia 🇳🇦
Nepal 🇳🇵
Netherlands 🇳🇱
New Zealand 🇳🇿
Nicaragua 🇳🇮
Nigeria 🇳🇬
Norway 🇳🇴

O
Oman 🇴🇲

P
Pakistan 🇵🇰
Panama 🇵🇦
Paraguay 🇵🇾
Peru 🇵🇪
Philippines 🇵🇭
Poland 🇵🇱
Portugal 🇵🇹
Puerto Rico 🇵🇷

Q
Qatar 🇶🇦

R
Romania 🇷🇴
Russia 🇷🇺
Reunion 🇫🇷
Rwanda 🇷🇼

S
Samoa 🇼🇸
Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
Serbia 🇷🇸
Seychelles 🇸🇨
Singapore 🇸🇬
Slovenia 🇸🇮
Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Solomon Islands 🇸🇧
South Africa 🇿🇦
South Korea 🇰🇷
Spain 🇪🇸
St. Vincent and Grenadines
Suriname 🇸🇷
Swaziland 🇸🇿
Sweden 🇸🇪
Switzerland 🇨🇭

T
Taiwan 🇹🇼
Tanzania 🇹🇿
Thailand 🇹🇭
Tobago 🇹🇹
Trinidad 🇹🇹
Tunisia 🇹🇳
Turkey 🇹🇷

U
Uganda 🇺🇬
Ukraine 🇺🇦
United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪
United Kingdom 🇬🇧
United States of America 🇺🇸
Uruguay 🇺🇾

V
Venezuela 🇻🇪
Vietnam 🇻🇳

Y
Yemen 🇾🇪

Z
Zambia 🇿🇲
Zimbabwe 🇿🇼

Last night I attended a community Thanksgiving Service at the church of my childhood. (Virtually, of course). Poplar Spring Baptist Church in Shelby, NC. Although more on the outskirts of Boiling Springs. It brought back so many great memories of Thanksgiving, Christmas plays and cantatas, Sunday night singings, dinners on the ground. Sunday School, Training Union, GAs and Acteens, Youth Choir.

Poplar Springs is the church where my dad and my brother were ordained. The church where my dad and my sister had their funerals and are now buried. The church that took us in and helped raise us after my dad died. The chuch where Dan and I were married. Then too, the church my mom and stepdad got married in. So many good people and so many good memories! I share this because since I am no longer there it is a piece of my life I have seldom revisited in person since I left Shelby in 1996. But, oh did that virtual visit make me homesick.

This is the church our family cleaned for years while my dad was preparing to go into the ministry. We cleaned every day of every week. Certain chores had to be done and we all had our assignments so that everything was nice and clean at service times and special times. We also did all the lawns, including the cemetery. Many were the days I sat out in the graveyard trimming the grass around tombstones with a pair of scissors.

Back then, we cleaned the toilets by hand, and there were about 20 of them. Cleaning toilets, though, in my opinion, was not the nastiest job – cleaning out the cigarette urns and picking up all the cigarette butts from the front steps was!!!! Boy, times have changed. Some say that change is not good, but I appreciate that there aren’t many men congregating outside on the church’s front steps to smoke these days.

I learned about missions and sharing the gospel, and I learned the Word of God at this church. I loved the youth group and youth choir, but as an awkward seventh grader, my parents had to force me to go because I was so shy. I am so glad they forced me. I learned to honor the elderly by visiting the shut-ins and the nursing home down the street. We didn’t do it just on special occasions. We just went. At first, I visited with my dad and later on my own. I have such good memories of those I met there.

I am so thankful for this place and all they instilled in me in those years. I am so grateful that they made sure I felt loved and cared for. These were a special people, and many (maybe most) have now moved on or passed on. Nothing much stayed the same except those stained glass windows and the pianist still playing all these years later. Oh yes….and what they placed in my heart. It is still there!

Love others and as God blesses you, bless others. Where would I be today had this church family not given sacrificially and faithfully to me and mine? They gave not just once but often over the years. These were not people that had great worldly wealth. They were farmers, teachers, nurses, and business people. I had no idea back then because they gave quietly. But I did know they were always there, ready to encourage or correct. They provided, and in the process, God used them to teach me to be a giver too. I am thankful that I learned all those years ago that LOVE feels great – oh yes, it does!

But, LOVE also looks like something. Maybe a smile, perhaps a visit, or sometimes it looks like a warm house. Love looks like many things given as needed – and now and then, given quietly!

Next week, I will celebrate my 60th birthday, and this week we celebrated Veterans Day. This particular time, combined with everything going on in this country, has caused me to look back and write down a few thoughts.

As a young married couple, Dan was in the Navy and deployed when I gave birth to our daughter. Meagan and I stayed with my mom for several months so I wouldn’t be alone. We then moved to Zion, Illinois. It was the first time I had ever been away from home for more than a couple of days.

When James was born two years later, Dan was there; but he left for a deployment when James was six-weeks-old. That time I stayed in Navy housing with my two babies. Don’t ever think that our military members (and their families) don’t pay a price well beyond a small paycheck for our freedoms. Do we regret that life or that circumstance? No way!!!!

No way, no regrets….but there were many weeks we ate soup and crackers daily so our kids could have what they needed. We lived far away from our families, back in the day before internet and cheap phone service (one 5 minute call per week was all we could afford). When Dan’s mother took a turn for the worse and died of cancer, we were too far away to get back in time. It was a price – but then we saw our country step in to send us back to PA to be with family for the funeral.

The nation watched the TV as CNN covered the Gulf War. I did too, alone at first. But then I watched with a community of wives as we went through it together. Are there wives that go astray? Yes! But most military wives that I met were struggling to keep their families taken care of while their husbands were gone. Our husbands (like so many others) were in the middle of that gulf. We helped each other in so many ways. We helped each other through the day to day chores, with childcare for doctor’s visits and to even go buy groceries (since at that time the commissary did not allow children), and we helped with the emotions military life brings. These were the things our children couldn’t provide and our husbands couldn’t provide – they were in a war! It was quite a great community of women – stronger than any of us knew.

It isn’t easy to be the one to leave; it isn’t easy to be the one to stay. Regrets? No, not one!!!! Complaints? Never!

Things of value rarely come without costs. Those were hard days, but precious days for us. When apart, we wrote letters to each other every day. When together, we sat at dinner and talked and dreamed of our future. We read books, walked in parks, flew kites, and fished. Those days helped make us who we are today, and those days were indeed some of the greatest of our lives.

Money can’t buy so many great things, but so many don’t know that because they are distracted by the things money can buy.

Dan and I were always very proud to do our part for this country. We knew at the time, and we know now that there is a price for our freedoms. We knew, and we volunteered for it. What a gift those prices now have become. Because of them, our freedoms hold great value to our family. We don’t take them lightly. We know that even if things get hard or we face challenges and even temporary separations, we can make it if we press on as a team.

When your spouse is gone for months on end and then comes back for a little while only to leave again…you both learn quickly not to make each other pay a $5 price for a one-cent bill, or you will spend your entire time together fighting. Time is precious. Love one another and don’t take each other for granted, or the things they do daily.

And never, never take your neighbors for granted because you never know that it might be you next in dire need of help or support or just a friendly ear!

Laugh every chance you get.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, stay in His Word, and in prayer. Serve Him and let everything you do flow from Him.

Perhaps a decade ago, a man sent me a message via Facebook, because he thought he might know some of my family from Rutherford County, NC from back in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. As it turned out, this man, who I have known as Pastor Clyde, did know some of my family back in the days of their youth. He moved away from NC and spent his life pastoring in FL and TN. We became FB friends and shared stories and testimonies of life. He started checking in here and there, and every single morning from the very day I “met” him, he sent me an email titled, “Message From The Mountain.”

This morning the “Message” was missing from my inbox, and since that was so odd, I looked on FB and read that Pastor Clyde had gone to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I will miss him and the messages. They were not airy,  feel-good, or even in-depth philosophical devotionals written by a minister with a huge following. Instead, each message was a deep heartfelt fresh Word, written by a man who passionately loved his Lord and loved and cared for his reader’s personal and spiritual lives.

From the hills of Tennessee, Pastor Clyde woke up each morning, got his coffee, and sat before his PC with his Bible. There he allowed the Holy Ghost to speak through him. He brought Words of exhortation and comfort, prophetic and teaching Words, very often Words of correction. His messages were driven by the eternal and unchanging Word of God – always!

On rare days, Pastor Clyde would give only a statement that the Holy Ghost didn’t give him anything to write for that day.  “Maybe God wants to speak to you directly today,” he would add. And you know, I think I appreciated that honesty and humility and encouragement more than anything else. What a lesson!!!!

Thank you, Pastor Clyde, for reaching out to someone from your hometown, just because my name peaked your interest. Thanks for your years of caring and for serving our great God and our Savior, Jesus! What a divine connection it has been.

The “Message From The Mountain” has now gone silent, but I will take what God gave me in this last decade, and I will not only continue to move forward, but I will also do my best to run with all that was imparted.  Maybe God wants to speak to me directly today.