Shine

Halloween, a holiday of darkness. No matter how dark the darkness, light is able to pierce through. 

Shine, Jesus, shine!

[the pumpkin I carved this year]

"We want to see Your victory all over the earth!"

{Leeland}

Letter to my littles

I keep dreaming of little girls abandoned, afraid, alone. I keep dreaming that as soon as I see them they're forever imprinted on my heart and my love is theirs to keep. As soon as I see them I am leaning over to scoop them up. As soon as I see them, they're not alone anymore.
The Father loves these little ones, each individual one! Even now He knows the ones He will place in my path, put in my arms, and until the day that He does my heart is aching for them.

Little Ones,
Your Father is coming for you. He will not leave you as orphans. I pray that He brings loving arms into your life to hold you close until the day that I can bring you home. My little dears, may hope flood your broken hearts, peace overtake your bewildered thoughts, and may you know that your Momma cannot wait to scoop you up in her arms and tell you about Jesus -- the One who really rescued you.
With more love than I can express through words,
Your waiting Momma

Be Aware: Down Syndrome

The Love of Christ is Rich and Free

"The Love of Christ is Rich and Free, Fixed on His Own Eternally..."

Jimmy, who as a child was sponsored through Compassion International, shares his story and meets his sponsor for the first time.

This Christmas

"$441.97 billion

November through December retail sales last year, a decline of 3.4 percent from 2007, first drop recorded by the National Retail Federation since they began tracking in 1992.

Minus 1 percent

Expected drop in 2009 holiday sales from 2008. If the National Retail Federation is correct, then holiday sales will total $437.6 billion this year."

http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/studies/factoid/dec09.pdf

Forgotten Christmas

   Jesus. He left His throne in heaven to be born in a stable. He had nothing on earth, He was homeless and hunted, but He came to give us everything: Himself. For generations it has been a tradition to give gifts to loved ones, to be generous and bless those around us with gifts. Although it is a season of generosity it is also a season of glamorized selfishness; we expect to receive gifts, we expect them to be wrapped in an attractive way and if we don't get what we want we're disappointed in the gifts we do receive -- and all of that is justified by the season of giving? There is something wrong with this picture.

  Christmas isn't supposed to be a day where we open packages, hoping to get more unnecessary things that will bring us fleeting joy. Christmas is supposed to be about rejoicing in the One who gave us all we ever needed and gives us more than we could ever dream of wanting just because He can and He delights to give good and perfect gifts to His children! Did you know that in His presence is fulness of joy? And at His side are pleasures forevermore? What more could we want?! He is the fulness of Him who fills all in all. He meets all of our needs, guides us through life, uses our weak and brief lives to bring His love to the world... but we forget that, we get distracted by the pretty lights and the yummy food and the beautiful gifts and we forget Him. C.S.Lewis once said, "If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us...we are far too easily pleased."

   This year, lets remember what the season is really about and lets do so by sharing it with others. Jesus was born to give us Himself. Did you know that there are still 6.82 billion people on this earth who have never heard about that (and 4.50 billion of them live in the 10/40 window)? Let's tell them! And while we're at it, why don't we send out letters to children who don't have any family/loved ones to share the love of Christ with them on Christmas, instead of sending out Christmas cards to all our relations and friends. Let's "give this Christmas away". We can all do without gifts for a year, and there are people around the world who will not live to see next year so we can't waste this opportunity to tell them about our Lord who was born in a stable -- on purpose.

Letters to Royals by Amanda

In less than two months our mailboxes in America will be filled with beautiful Christmas cards from family and friends. Can you imagine a holiday season without one single Christmas card?  Many children around the world have never received a Christmas card and much less a Christmas gift.  Some do not even have anyone to tell them Merry Christmas.

This Christmas we want all the children in need at Royal Hope Academy to experience the joy of receiving a Christmas card and we need your help! There are 400 students enrolled at Royal Hope and only a small portion of these students have sponsors so we need YOU to send a Christmas card to a child that does not yet have a sponsor. Share the love of Christ with His treasures.  Tell them you love them, that you are praying for them, and most importantly that they are loved by Jesus and their Father in Heaven.  Feel free to include a scripture, and we would love if you can also include a simple photograph in your card!

Example:

"Dear Royal,

We are so happy to wish you a Merry Christmas.  We pray you will be blessed during this season in knowing that Your Father in Heaven loves you very much and that Jesus died to give you new life and to come and live in your heart so that you can be with Him in heaven forever.  We are the Doe family, Jane the mom, John the Dad, and we have two twins, a boy and a girl named Jack and Jill, age 8.  We love you and we are praying for you.  Have a very Merry Christmas full of joy, happiness, and love.

Love

the Does"

Mail your card by November 14 to:

Royal Child of God

C/O Rebecca Sorensen

300 Long Island Drive

Hot Springs, AR 71913

"Man Up and Go"

For more information on the "Man Up and Go" movie visit: http://vimeo.com/29805267

Chelsea Mills Photography

Serving the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin

Standard Photo Shoot

$100 fee

20-25 minutes

On the road again...

His Little Feet is on the road again! To follow along with the tour check out their new blog: http://hislittlefeet.blogspot.com/ And be sure and check out the tour schedule in case they are going to be near YOU! You would NOT want to miss getting to hear and meet these precious little ones. :)

the Love of the Father

Of all the things that move me, there are few things that literally move me to tears. This does every time...

Our Father loves deeply, faithfully, truly no matter the length of a life. Elliot's parents reflected the Father's love to their son. 

Revolution in World Mission

   When you think of missions what do you picture? An American missionary living and witnessing in a foreign country for a period of his or her life, right? Its natural to grow up biased to your own country and to look at the world through the lens of your own culture, however, its not the way that the Lord sees missions or meant for it to be. The truth is that it makes more sense for a person to witness to their own people, its easier for someone that understands the culture to bring the truth to it, and its more affordable for an individual born and raised in a second or third-world country to live in and advance the kingdom as a long-term "missionary" than someone from a first-world country. If you would like to have your view of missions expanded, catch a glimpse of the plan the Lord has, see how it is already happening around the world and learn about the part that we, as American's, play in it I would encourage you to read "Revolution in World Missions" by K.P.Yohannan. I believe that the Lord still calls American's to foreign countries as long-term missionaries but I also believe that the way we can most help advance the spread of the Gospel through other countries is by discipling, enabling and cheering on native-missionaries.

I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship if by any means I
might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to
those who never heard.

— William Chalmers Burns –

We preachers have the most serious job in the world.  It’s not to be popular, not to be nice.  It’s to get people to step out of darkness into the light.  Life is short.  Eternity is long.

– Leonard Ravenhill –

   For who cares more for people of a certain country than its own country men? And who, when they meet the Lord, would most passionately and willingly make Him known in a land covered in darkness than the very ones containing the light within that land's borders? Let us aid them with whatever resources we have that they are lacking (Bibles, bikes, discipleship, encouragement, prayer, etc) for we are all members of the Body of Christ, we all are of one Family, we all belong to the same Heavenly "Country". And if we are not anguished with the Lord's anguish over the lost in our own land, we most allow Him to change that, for we will care no more for others to know our Lord than we care for our own countrymen to know Him. The Persecuted Church abroad is willing to suffer for Christ's sake, are we? If not, I dare say we do not know the Lord for whom we are going to suffer.

Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don’t you care, don’t you care? Are you gonna let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come. You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done. ‘Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord’ you know it’s all I ever hear. No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear.

– Keith Green –

If missions languish, it is because the whole life of godliness is feeble. The command to go everywhere and preach to everybody is un-obeyed, until the will is lost by self-surrender in the will of God. There is little right giving because there is little right living, and because of the lack of sympathetic contact with God in holiness of heart, there is a lack of effectual contact with him at the Throne of Grace. Living, praying, giving and going will always be found together, and a low standard in one means a general debility in the whole spiritual being.

– Arthur T. Pierson –

Where I am...

My Jesus came from Heaven, from His throne, from Diety all the way down to a fallen world, to a smelly stable, to a weak and mortal body, but He didn't stop there. 

He went all the way to the Via Dolorosa (way of suffering), to Golgotha, to the cross, to the grave, and back up to life. 

Why? 

It was the only way that I could be atoned, which was necessary for me to be able to be in His presence again -- and He so desires to be one with me as He and the Father are one. 

Now, I am His and He is mine... I have found Him whom my soul loveth, I held Him and would not let Him go. 

Every day He calls to me to come away with Him, calls me to come and know Him more. 

Here in this fallen, dirty, broken world I get so overwhelmed by the needs that I can't even bring myself to pray for them -- its too much! 

I doubt so easily when I lose sight of the fact that my Lord saved ME, so He's totally able to save YOU! 

I face weakness (He's waiting to be my strength, He upholds me no matter how hard I lean), 

I face brokenness (He's working it all together for my good), 

I face hurting (He heals, makes things NEW), 

I face sadness (He's offering to carry all my burdens, all my cares, welcoming me to cast them all upon Him because He cares for me), 

I face fear (He stays the same through the ages: He never leaves me, He never fails me, He always loves me unconditionally, He has new mercy for me every single day without fail, He is faithful forever to them that love Him and walk in His ways). 

I see unholiness within and I know He has called me to be holy. I hide in shame from Him, not feeling worthy to draw near to Him in my unholy state. Then the devil comes in, he beats me with lies, ties me to the ground with condemnation and I feel hopeless. 

But still my Jesus calls for me to come away and I wonder, "Doesn't He know that I cant be near Him in this unholy state?" 

Then the truth comes flooding in: The fact that I recognize my lack, my need, is the proof that He is at work within me.. the proof that every day He's making me more holy, weeding out more deep-rooted ways of the flesh, disciplining in love, pruning back even the fruit-producing areas of my life in order that they might produce not just some but MUCH fruit. 

Upward I look and see Him there, who made an end of all my sin. 

As He loosens the cords that bind and heals the open wounds, that still sting from where the lies cut in, He says, 

"Beloved, I came from heaven to earth, from life to death and back again to draw you near to Me, do you think that anything can separate us? Nothing -- in the world or in your redeemed life -- can pluck you from my hand. I will not relent, will not stop pursuing you until I have totally and completely and utterly stolen your heart. No matter where you go, I will be there. Do not be afraid. I have not left you fatherless, I have come for you. You are mine." 

And, not because I doubt His words but because I must have full assurance in order for my doubts to be driven away, I ask, "Even if..." 

"Even if," He cuts me off, knowing all the 'ifs' I could set before Him before I even begin, "My love never fails. Always (forever, unfailingly, ever) remember that." <3

The same yesterday, today and forever. 

This is my God: constant.

His constancy

Hello friend, :)
I'm glad you dropped by to pay me a visit. Sit and stay awhile -- Im enjoying the autumn breeze and the fading summer sun, watching the world change and being caught up in the brilliant glow of the trees. I'm so glad I have your company. Tell me about the One whom your soul loves -- my soul loves Him too, we wont run out of things to talk about. He's sitting with us too. He's enchanted by our love for Him, our voices are sweet to Him, He's quite taken with us. Dear one, do you see how He aches for the fatherless? Let's ask Him to share His ache with us. The world and its "pleasures" will fade away as we got lost in knowing Him more. 

Later as we go about our day, passing by the people that live among us on the earth, may we take every opportunity to tell them what a rich time in His court we had -- they will hear through the light shining from our faces. Let's remember today, and lets remind each other tomorrow, our calling in life is quite simple: We're called to be daughters of the Most High King. Adopted into the royalty of Heaven, representatives of the King here on earth -- For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Cor. 6:20)

Let us lean on Him, for He has gone before, that we might live worthy of the title of "Princess" not only in these moments of quiet beauty under this tree, but in the times where our flesh is poked and prodded and He whispers, "Die, that you might live. Go low." 

Offering Family Photography