by Tina | Feb 14, 2015 | Devotional
This week we are reminded of “love”, with Valentine’s Day being tomorrow. I have had some pretty wacky thoughts about love this week and I’d like to share them with you. We are at Dan’s parents’ house in Texas. We have gone over to Mexico twice this past week as Dan’s mom had dentist appointments there. I hate to admit it, but while we were over in Mexico, I was ashamed to be an American! What I saw this week appalled me and I was so saddened! I saw an elderly man, with a beer in one hand, trip over a beggar woman and cuss her out! Then I saw others being openly rude to the people whose country we were in!
Did Jesus command us to love those who were lovely? Did He command us to love our spouses, children, and friends only. No he commanded us to take care of the orphans and the widows, to share a cup of water with one who is thirsty. Did he command us to act like arrogant jerks to those “less worthy”? I think not!
This Valentine’s Day I want to remind you that our Jesus, lover of our souls, wants US to show HIS love to everyone that He has created. This means the homeless, the down-trodden, the drug addict, and the sick and hurting.
My point for today is this: We are called to show everyone His love, not just those WE love this Valentine’s Day and throughout the year. How are you doing with that? Ask Him to give you His eyes to see the lost and treat them as He would.
by Tina | Jan 30, 2015 | Devotional
This week has been very busy and I write this post today from our very own couch in our little house in Pine River. We have had meeting after meeting this week and it has been awesome! We have met with a non-profit that collects hospital supplies and equipment and donates them to missionaries. We hope to be getting quite a few items that we need for the hospital project and all we have to do is pay to get them to Gembu! We have met with individuals, churches, small group Bible studies, as well as our wonderful travel coordinator who orders our plane tickets and always gets us the very best price!
Today I am struck with how it takes ALL of us to do the work in Gembu. The picture above are some of our partners making the Days for Girls kits. Isn’t it amazing how God can bring people together using the gifts He gave them, to accomplish His purpose here on Earth?
I, for one, am humbled and excited that He chose me to work in Nigeria! He has created each of us for a purpose and it’s our job to listen! How is your hearing today?
by Tina | Jan 21, 2015 | Devotional
Here we are on the road again. We thought our travelling days were over for a bit, but not so! We went to Florida last week and are on a road trip to Michigan with a lot of meetings talking with churches and individuals about funds for our hospital plan. We are also meeting with organizations that deal with hospital equipment.
We are at Art and Dorothy Helwig’s house in Michigan meeting about future plans for Gembu. We have had very few nights in a row in the same place but God is blessing! We are making wonderful connections and gathering resources.
On Saturday we had a Days for Girls Event at Edinbrook Church. It was awesome to see this in action and I can’t tell you again how much I believe this organization and the concept of this is going to really benefit our women and girls in Gembu, Nigeria!
Today I am once again blown away at the way God keeps blessing and blessing! We have hit a lot of JoAnn Fabric stores to purchase flannel for our Days for Girls kits. We are not able to find flannel currently in Nigeria. People ask what we need that much flannel for and we tell them. We are so blown away by peoples interest and responses.
My thought for today is this: What if I was content with my life as it was? Do not get me wrong, I loved my life and I loved knowing exactly what each day would hold. I DON’T ANYMORE! I would be missing out on the blessing of having God use me in His plan for this great big world. What if I would have been afraid to go back to Nigeria because I got shot the first time? I would be the one missing out! Think about this? What does fear stop you from doing?
by Tina | Jan 13, 2015 | Devotional
Dear Friends,
It has been a while since I posted. We have been traveling CONSTANTLY and I finally have enough time to think here in Florida to update you on what is going on in our lives.
We left Gembu on December 10, heading for Abuja. We stayed with our friends, Mark and Sabrina Holmes. They are dear, new friends who, along with their 5 young children, are missionaries in Abuja. We finished up the things that we needed to do as far as banking, buying our vehicle and last clean details of the Abuja house. We said goodbye to Nigeria around midnight on December 15. It was sad to be leaving, but we knew we also needed to leave for the elections in Nigeria and that we had work to do in the States as well.
We arrived in Minneapolis on December 16, Dan had his leg surgery on the 18th and the Dr. said he is doing very well. We enjoyed Christmas with Tina’s family and our boys came to Pine River and we spent New Years weekend with them. We have been meeting with individuals and churches as much as possible as we are working on raising some work funds to start making some of the changes needed to turn the Clinic into a Hospital. We have also been shopping ALOT! We are finding flannel fabric for the Days for Girls Project as well as other items we are not able to find in Nigeria. I met with my dear friend, Mary, who donated our sewing machines to use in our DFG project in Nigeria and sweet friends, the Rasmussens, who gathered donations and gave us an essential oil kit to keep us healthy in Nigeria! We have never been more humbled or excited as we talk with people about our dreams and plans for Gembu and what God is doing there!
We have made a trip to Florida to connect with the Converge staff and to update some of our things like a video and web-site page as well as a couple of wonderful days with our long-time friends, Ivan and Susan Veldhuizen. I am sitting on their couch typing this right now with a warm breeze blowing in and water splashing in the background.
Next week we may or may not go to Michigan. We are working on some meetings and are feeling that God may be leading us to travel there for some meetings.
Here are our prayer requests for our dear prayer warriors out there!
Please pray that we can make the connections needed in getting the hospital equipment that we need at the best price and the best way and that we truly hear the Lord’s voice in this.
Please pray for Tina’s mom who is recovering from a severe fall and new hip replacement.
Please pray for safety in much traveling while we are in the United States.
Pray for favor in meetings with potential work funds supporters.
Thank you, dear friends! We appreciate and love each one of you and are humbled to think we are able to be God’s employees!
by Tina | Dec 8, 2014 | Devotional
Yesterday I was walking down to the Clinic with one of the student that helps us here I started to put my foot down and Ekonnel said, “Ma, don’t step on the army ants”. I was intrigued as I always have been about critters and things. I took a picture and, as you can see this group is going in a straight line. Here in Nigeria there are lots of ants. I am very intrigued by these army ants though. Guess what? Thousands and thousands will travel all together in a straight line or fan out and all travel to the same place. If your house is in the path that they are taking, they will go right through your house and eat anything that gets in their path. They are a force to be reckoned with.
As I was reading about army ants and how interesting they are I got to thinking. I wonder how many Christians are out there? I wonder what would happen if we all got over ourselves, and voted as God would have us to, were employees like God wanted us to be, loved His world and the people in it like He wants us to. I wondered what would happen if we told all hurting people and people in need about what God has done in our lives and started really listening to them and developing a relationship with them and getting out of our comfort zones. I think we would be a force to be reckoned with! Think of the early church – People and “the establishment” didn’t know what to do with them! They were the first to care for orphans and widows as well as caring for each other without thought of themselves.
My point for this week is this: What if we all stopped trying to push our own agendas and started working together and networking for the benefit of human kind? Would we be a force to be reckoned with?
by Tina | Nov 18, 2014 | Devotional
It was a Saturday afternoon on July 13, 1985. I was taking care of Andrew, an 11 month old and getting ready for a garage sale. While I priced and folded clothes and things I had the T.V. on. While Andrew was taking a nap, God used that day and that time to rock my world!
I was 21 years old and had no idea that God had a message for me on that day. My small-town world would be shattered and I would have my heart broken and my eyes opened.
You see that was the day that Live Aid occurred and was broadcast simultaneously from London and Philadelphia. I was young, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t watch the news because typically it would depress me. That day, this young mom saw moms in Ethiopia watching their children die from starvation and there was not one thing they could do about it as they were dying as well. I had been told growing up as a child to “finish my food, there are starving children in China”. This really bothered me the first time my mom said that to me. I couldn’t believe that ANYONE in this world could be starving and how awful that would be. After all, I was a 100 pound 5 year old and this was totally out of my element!
On this day, I SAW it through the magic of television and I wondered how I, this small-town girl with a very soft heart protected with a very hard heart could have been born in America, blessed with so much and taking so much for granted. Health, food, shoes, family, and shelter.
This was the day I thought, “that mother watching her child die. Tina, that could have been you”. I realize that was just about 30 years ago, but that seed has been in my heart ever since that moment when God broke into my heart with truth.
What brings these thoughts up this week is that we have been looking for a lot of different auto parts and so I have been in the car watching people a lot. This, unfortunately, takes a lot of time, but I have been observing people and life in this Nigerian world. Tuesday I saw a pregnant young woman hawking food. “Hawking” is what some people do here. They have a large container of something that they carry, it could be bananas, rice, peanuts, olives, sunglasses, etc. and they carry it to cars and businesses trying to sell it.
Well, I thought, “this is her world”. She hasn’t been brought up being told that she can be anything she wants to be when she grows up. She is living day to day. She hopes to make enough today to survive another day. Soon she will have a baby to take care of as well. Frequently hawkers also have their baby tied to their back as they go about trying to scrape enough money for another day.
This is my thought for today: Are you counting your blessings today? How has God broken your heart and opened your eyes? Are you doing anything about it?
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