A note of thanks from Tony and Sharon in South Africa

Dear New Life Fellowship,

The entire Jones family wants to thank you for the two huge boxes that arrived yesterday! We were so excited! I had just lamented a few days prior that we never get any mail. Then here are these two huge boxes. Wow - I never expected you all to be so generous! Thank You so Much! It meant so much to be remembered in such a way!

The kids felt so special that their church family thought of them and with Mac N Cheese! The funny thing is we just had Mac N Cheese the night before made with cheddar cheese - Wesley, and Irina were so excited for it until they tasted it and they realized it wasn't what they wanted. Then here is the "real" Mac N Cheese so we had it today Saturday for lunch and the leftovers for dinner! We also made the chocolate chip cookies. Surprisingly enough they are not all gone! We had to set some aside for Tony who is currently at the Inner City outreach, we get to visit him tomorrow to go to church and spend the day there. We are surprising him with homemade chocolate chip cookies!

Irina and Lucy both love the dolls, Irina was strolling them around in the stroller most of the day. Wesley took his cars into the dirt then decided to wash them and has played with them a lot today. I've decided for them that we don't have to eat all of it at one time and so it should all last awhile.

Again - thank you everyone! I think of you all in the new building and wish we were with you to worship together but we are their in spirit as part of the family of God.

Hope you have a blessed day!

In Him,

The Jones Fam 5
Tony, Sharon, Wesley, Irina and Lucy

Hidden riches

Latest from Dan Hagen in Peru

Every pothole shall be exalted, every speed bump and mound made low

No big yellow taxi here. Sometimes, you don't know what you've got til it's here.

So here is this beautiful, "new" building, the Gibson's department store building, Idelman Telemarketers building, whatever it once was called, a building that sat vacant for a very long time, waiting for a new purpose.

And now people from every walk of life, with a whole variety of skills, worked together to make this building into a place of worship -- and it's beautiful.

You kind of wander around in awe as you see old and new faces also wandering around in awe.

The chalkboard walls - awesome! The nursery - state of the art. I actually got to hear the sermon and could even control the volume while working in the nursery! The signs Brian Schultz and Barb Klein made. I saw men up high on dangerous looking machines installing ceiling tiles and men with more dangerous looking machines cutting things in what will be the kitchen.

I saw Bob Marler in a secret back room with dangerous looking wires and connections on the walls, working with all kinds of hanging doors.

I saw Theresa Heupel, so intent on scraping paint from door panes that she was standing up out of her wheelchair to reach spots of paint up high!

I saw my dentist on his knees cutting carpet for those hard to fit places. Only someone with fine motor skills like a dentist could do that kind of job!

I saw Jacob Mellette running a roller over carpet and Rod Johnson down low doing something with carpet trim. There were many, many people I didn't see, working day and night to build a place for people to worship the Lord.

And the result is the gorgeous building that you can only walk around in with your mouth hanging open.

Then, there is the parking lot. Someone said it would cost another 80- 100 thousand dollars to resurface it, and you can see why. Dips and gullies, huge craters and lumps, cracks, lines, hills and lakes and rivers. It seems like an overwhelming problem. After spending so much on the building and working so hard, how can we possibly take care of the parking lot? What will we do? How is God going to provide for this challenge?

(I thought that once a month everyone should bring a bag of gravel and fill a pothole, but no one is too enthusiastic about that idea.)

But leaving alone after prayer this Sunday, I took another look at this vast, uneven surface and words from Isaiah came to me: Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shalll see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Has spoken it (Messianic group Lamb lyrics repeat "Has spoken it.")

Isaiah wasn't talking about parking lots. I think he was probably talking about justice. Everything will be paid for someday. Justice will be done. Somehow, though, the words just fit. Someday, somehow, that surface will be smooth as glass, or almost. He will provide. He will shock us and put us in awe once again. I don't know how, but I know it will happen.

A new season of grace

By Na Keum Dong (Kady)

a Korean believer at NSU

The woman is going her dormitory powerfully and laboriously with a big load: textbook, laptop, and diary which is filled with compact writing that lays out a full schedule that makes feel alive, and her face is brilliant with a smile and confidence from deep in her heart. She looks so steady and durable, maybe the reason is that she has not only annual rings of summer but also winter ones, too, which have made her stronger than ever because they are the traces of her hard seasons and long winters that were so harsh and gruesome.

YOUTH AND HAPPINESS
On a vast, open cabbage farm, in the mountains, there is one house in which five family members have been living, including the girl. It is looks a cozy hut enclosed by mountains which seem like mother’s plump breast to protect newborn baby. The girl had brilliant black hair, two dark eyes, and she was healthy. Her parents were good people and had warm hearts. They loved inviting others to share life and feeling. She never felt lonely because her family was really harmonious and loved each other before she began her long journey with solitude. Later, she realized that to be good lumber, each tree should have both annual rings: summer one, and winter one. Obviously, the best lumber doesn’t grow overnight.
In one elementary school, she was so clever. Not only teachers loved her, but also she had many friends. After school, she was playing with friends doing active games like hide-and-seek; she loved outdoor activities. Her father and mother loved her skin tanned leathery in the sun. They loved everything about her: bravery, smartness, kindness, winsomeness. In the summer, her house was a fantastic and fabulous place to ride in a sleigh with her brother and sister. The girl’s father was so healthy and generous and he had a well tanned skin like her, too. He was always good friend to her and her siblings. After playing, her truly womanly mother was preparing awesome food for them. There was no family happier than the girl’s.

A HARSH MOVE
When she was twelve, her parents didn’t want their children to stay in a rural area. Because there was no appropriate school, it was hard decision but they transferred them to an other more developed area. It had good schools so that they the children could see bigger and better things. The girl was excited to experience a new world. At the same time, she felt uncomfortable and was afraid of unexpected circumstances since she and her siblings were only around twelve-year-old. Indeed, they were too young to handle burdensome circumstances.
She loved her new house, which was big and charming enough, because the house was covered with a vivid red color which was her favorite. However, soon she didn’t love the house anymore because there were not any parents. Instead of parents and warm air, boring grandmother, grandfather, and cold wind was there. Absence of parents at too early an age was very deadly to the poor children.
One day, an event happened in her new elementary school. The girl was always the best student in school. The teachers loved her because she took prizes in and out of school. Before long, friends who got to know each other well in small size town for a long time started to hate the new and uninvited guest because of jealousy. When she brought an assignment to school, after she come to her desk, her copy was torn. They kept glaring at the poor girl as if that was funny. After school, she couldn’t focus on anything. She felt abandoned from the world, friends, and everything. Only the big new empty house kept looking at her with silence. The small wood was in the harsh rain and hailstorm with a small and feeble body standing everything all alo

LONELINESS AND REBELLION
Her Parents were working in a totally different area that made it hard to meet. As time went by, in her mind, love toward her parents was changing into love and hatred. Circumstances lead her to be negative and depressed, she was too young to handle her mind and feeling and she indeed needed shelter and shield.
In one high school, she was wearing a blue school uniform, and she was not a girl with winsomeness anymore to her parents. Instead, her face was solid with no laugh, like a dark cloud. After twelve-year-old, she was getting more and more independent, with a shortage of love, so she became disobedient, going through the age of puberty. She didn’t obey her parent’s order intentionally. When parents who occasionally dropped by house nagged, she mouthed back always. When they saw her wrong behavior, her parents started to whip, but she didn’t answer with her lips firmly closed and with her tears kept in her eyes. When she watched her parents’ leave, she was crying in her room alone, but she wouldn’t express her feeling anymore to her parents. Her mind seemed already frozen.
Indeed, there was a too deep of a river which couldn’t go over among parents and her because time passed too much. Even while she was living independently, she was suffering from insomnia, there was nobody who could understand her feeling of loss, even her parents. Actually, she told them like this, “I NEED YOUR LOVE!! I AM STARVING TO DEATH FROM LACK OF LOVE.” However, they didn’t have much time to catch her feeling because they weren’t able to support three children. After finishing school, there was no one who could listen carefully to her feeling. In the hailstorm and rain&storm, there was a deep, dark, solid annual ring. That was really horrible winter to small wood.

A FRIEND WITH GOOD NEWS
Meanwhile she had met one friend who was coming to her. She never had religion. The friend was tall and beautiful, always with many people following her. She became her good friend. As the girl knew her, she could know God too, because her friend was devoted to God. The lonely cloud was starting to leave because of her truly good friend. Her beautiful friend told her “If you are lonely, with closed eye, just call ‘God’, and tell your hope to him. He is always with you.” It was awkward, but she started to pray to God. Although she didn’t be sure to whether God really exists or not, but she needed help to save her. She needed love to fulfill her emptiness in mind. At first, to her, Jesus Christ was just name of the bible that seemed to be fake to her. The bible said there is no other name that we are saved except Jesus Christ. Sometimes, she read bible, especially she loved psalms 13:1-2 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” When she was suffering from insomnia, it gave her strength and hope, and then she often sobbed herself to sleep.
When she entered University, she met a church which was totally different compared with others. One day, she entered a church that was small and cozy, there was one Evangelist whose smile seemed like sunshine that made her relax. He prayed for her, holding her hands. There was nothing without calm sound of coming spring toward small wood.

WARMING TO JESUS
In that church, all people seemed that they really were believing God and Jesus Christ exist. They were really warm to accept her everything. Her mind and spirit which were frozen were getting warm. The love she felt in church and from faith was bigger than any other love in the world, even that was above love of parents’. She was really wanting while she was alone. Finally, She got real love that she was really eager to seek! She is getting brighter like her real nature from God. Laugh and passion which was lost was flowing through her body and heart again. By grasping Jesus Christ’s hand, she took back her smile like an awesome flower.

REUNION
Now she not only got an annual ring of summer, but she became strong lumber. Amazingly, after she started to attend a church and prayed to God, her family started to attend church too, about 2 years later. Now, they are attending church together, also talking often, forgiving each other, and understanding each other too. Now, she confirms that there is no other name that people are saved except Jesus Christ, as someone told her formerly. Now, her step is really nimble and powerful. She isn’t sad anymore, because now she has taken her everything more than she expected: a strong bond with family that at once had difficulty with communication, a stability of mind from love of God, and furthermore, annual rings of summer too. Finally, she became healthy and durable lumber! Yes, Indeed.

Toward the Light

My window garden has been growing, and one thing I can tell about my plants is that they hunger for the light. My large zucchini especially leans over toward the window, almost as if grasping for light shafts.
I pray for my kids, that they, too, will lean toward the light, that they will hunger for the presence of the Lord beyond anything else. I also pray that nothing I do or say will be a shadow between them and the light of the Lord. No impatient outburst or selfish response, no careless neglect or impulse.
It's too easy to be an obstacle. I pray instead to be a window.

Thinking about windows reminds me of lyrics of a Keith Green song:

Stained Glass

We are like windows
Stained with colors of the rainbow
Set in a darkened room
Till the bridegroom comes shining through

Then the colors fall around our feet
Over those we meet
Covering all the gray that we see
Rainbow colors of assorted hues
Come exchange your blues
For his love that you see shining through me

We are his daughters and sons
We are the colorful ones
We are the kids of the king
Rejoice in everything

My colors grow so dim
When I start to fall away from him
But up comes the strongest wind
That he sends to blow me back into his arms again

And then the colors fall around my feet
Over those I meet
Changing all the gray that I see
Rainbow colors of the risen son
Reflect the one
The one who came to set us all free

We are his daughters and sons
We are the colorful ones
We are the kids of the king
Rejoice in everything
We are like windows
Stained with colors of the rainbow
No longer set in a darkened room
Cause the bridegroom wants to shine from you
No longer set in a darkened room
Cause the bridegroom wants to shine from you

Jones kids in South Africa

So how are the Jones kids holding up as the family trains as missionaries in South Africa? Here's what Sharon has to say about their adventures:

The kids had some interesting
adventures:
1. Using the longdrop (outhouse).
2. Living without toast for 17 days.
3. Meeting and making friends with
children that don’t speak the same
language.
4. Lots of walking - Irina found this a
challenge.
5. Very dark nights
6. A trip to Kruger Park
7. Wesley wanted to be involved in
everything. Irina would often sit
down and just play in the sand.


PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Healing for Wesley - who is on
medicine for tick fever.
2. That none of the children develop
any worms from the sand they
played in.
3. That they understand why they are
not going on the next outreach to
the city.
4. Prayer for Tony and Sharon as we
are dividing up the next ministry
one of us will stay at base for a
week with the kids while the
other one goes out for a week.

Tony and Sharon return from rural outreach

Ministering as a Family on the Rural
Outreach

Tony and Sharon Jones

The rural outreach was about a
few things: Living a simple life, learning
about the culture and using our
initiative to do ministry.
As a family our goal was also
about surviving the whole time. As
long as the kids were thriving. I know
now that as a family we can pretty
much live through anything and with
the bare minimum. There were times
when I thought I had about as much
as I could take. The challenge was too
great, but some how with God’s
strength we continued on and it got
better again. Our team was great and
really stood behind us, even though
because of the children they didn’t get
as much peace as they might have
had at camp without them around.
As for ministry - I found that I
really enjoyed teaching the High
School students the HIV/AIDS awareness
training. God really showed me
that I really do have a gift in the area
of teaching. I didn’t enjoy the kids
ministry so much - the dramas and
cute songs were fun, but I find that I
want a more relational experience
then just performing. The home visits
were great and sharing the gospel is
really at my heart.
Pray for Given a young man that I
was able to share the gospel with.
Jeffery - was a young Deaf man that
came to the camp often our conversation
was challenging to me as we
didn’t understand each other, but after
visiting the Disabled school and
talking to his Deaf teacher I was encouraged
about Deaf ministry in the
future.

New Life, New Home

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Photos by J

New Start

Somewhere under that snow is grass. In my window, I have several vegetable seedlings started. (I always get started too late and have to buy starter plants. This year, I think I started too early.) Whether they will mature to full-size plants that give crops later is yet to be seen. But for now, they at least give oxygen and wonder.

Thank you, Father, for the new start that comes with your Spirit.

Baby, bath water and Christian cliches

One project I've been working on lately is gathering in one place lots of links to spiritual abuse sites, and in the course of doing this, I too often come across people who've been so burned by their prior church experiences that they sit there, suffering in their gauze wrap and crying out in different ways. Sometimes, they just want to throw their whole spiritual life down the drain, Jesus and all. Sometimes, they are able to separate the fake from the real and they cling to Jesus, but won't set foot in another church.

Sometimes, they find a church home that is nurturing and healing. That's what I've found at New Life. When I think of New Life, I think of the balm of Gilead. Not sure what that balm was in the Bible, but people traveled a distance to go to Gilead for it.

Anyway, in the course of my hunt, I CAME ACROSS THIS SITE that seems to be from one of the third-degree burn victims crying out. The site, called "Leaving the orbit of Planet Christian," includes a list of things the blogger no longer believes in. What I found interesting were the cliches, the pre-digested thought morsels Christians use without thinking. Now, I don't toss all these out, like the blogger does, but I do think the list of things is important to consider.

How many items are just knee-jerk Christian cliches, words you don't even think about, pre-formatted auto-pilot phrases and ideas? It's also important to think of how these things sound to the world at large, the world that isn't cocooned in church.

Two things to digest here. 1. Many people are hurting from bad church experiences and ready to leave "the planet." How can we provide a place of safety and health in the Lord for these hurting people? 2. Is it possible to talk about things of the Kingdom of God in fresh, new ways so we aren't sounding like Christian robots?

Your thoughts?

Donna