Not For Sale!

Hello all!

A Thought:

An Archbishop once said "God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us."

Lately God has been teaching me this lesson. When I think of people of God, I tend to only see their strengths. When I look at my self I tend to only see my weaknesses. Over the past month I had been struggling with not feeling worthy of this calling on my life. I have all these flaws. Why would God want to send me? What can he do through me?

When I expressed this to some one close to me, they simply said, "You are a daughter of God."

Wow! There is so much truth in those six words. I am worthy simply because I am a daughter of God. As for my flaws......well God used a man in the bible to show me that it is not about being perfect but about making God our all.

The man's name is Daniel. We all have heard about this guy. When I used to think about him I always thought he was this big super hero! But now my view of him has changed.

I decided to read through the whole book of Daniel, asking God to show me what he wanted me to learn. As I began to read, it was as if God was revealing to me what was betweeen the lines.

First God showed me how humble Daniel was. He did not want the glory but always gave the glory to God. As I begin to see the humbleness in Daniel's life, a thought entered my mind. It was that Daniel became humble through lessons learned. That just blew me away. I always thought that Daniel was Daniel his whole life. That he never went through any tough times, but was just perfect. Not true, or else we would all be perfect. To me that was so freeing.

Another thing I noticed was that Daniel prayed three times a day, every day. I often wish that I could have that dedication. And it is possible. Daniel made God a priority and so must I. I just need to figure out how that looks in my life.

The third thing that stuck out to me was that Daniel was highly esteemed in heaven. Words can not even describe the wonder or the awesomeness of that! Am I esteemed in heaven? I don't know that I will ever know that answer to that question, but my desire is to be esteemed by the Lord. I know I can rest in the knowledge that I am esteemed by my father in heaven and so are you!

Life:

Our Father has blessed me with a wonderful job! I love it! My managers have really affirmed me there and from time to time tell me i am doing a good job! I can honestly say that if I leave here in a bad mood, it is like God lifts it when am there.

I have officially been commissioned and have sent out letters of support. God has really blessed me with wonderful people at home who are working on fundraising. On top of that people in my simple church group are also planning to do a fundraiser! When I look at the big number I need to raise I feel overwhelmed and then I remember how faithful God is. I have never been in want.

Once when I needed some money, God not only gave me what I needed, but 4 times that! Lets praise his name! God bless!

Dani

Kite Flying

Kite flying is alot like life. You need a strong and heavy wind to get the kite up there. Sometimes the way up is ruff. There are unexpected twists and turns and sometimes crashes into the ground. But then there is that random time where you get it just right and the kite is flying high and smooth. Everything is perfect, you see what God is doing.

Yesterday was alot like that for me. I went to RMM (Rosedale Mennonite Missions), the program I am going with, to get my picture taken for some prayer cards. When I arrived I was told that my social security number had three other names under it. So I was like Great just another thing I need to worry about! Really God? Come on!

My Kite was out of control.

Then my mom called. We talked some and she said she had good news. She said that several were donating money to me. (I am not disclosing names cause this is the Internet.) A brother in Christ is giving me the funds of a chair that is going to be auctioned off and the puppet team at my home church is going to give their tithe money to me! Praise God!

At first my kite was struggling to reach that perfect sailing point. But then suddenly I was there flying high and smooth.

God showed me through that wonderful news, that nothing was going to keep me from Thailand. Nothing! This Social Security number problem is simply a wrinkle in the sheet! Nothing will keep me from completing Gods plan, his story!

The crazy thing about this all, is that I don't have any credit to steal, and none of my money is missing! God is keeping everything safe! Man do we serve a good God or what!

Kite flying is Awesome! It can be hard, and all I can say is that we will all go through hard times, but God's plan will never fail!

I leave you with Jeremiah 29:11.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord," plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Each one of you are part of God's story and his story would not be complete with any of you. My this truth set you alive with confidence and boldness. May You grow to love the writer of this story. Amen.

Silent As the Grave

This weekend I did a 24 Hour silent retreat. 24 hours devoted to God. I got home from work and gathered my self in the carriage house. The Lord and I were going to have a party and I was bringing the dip! I started off my time writing a letter to God telling him about my day and nonchalantly stating what I wanted to get out of this time. I then waited for a time and asked God what his reply was. Simply put REST was his response.

Well OK I thought. We will talk latter. So I began to read.

Now silence for me is a funny thing. As I read I begun to notice the silence. Silent as a grave was an understatement. So I decided to move into the upstairs prayer room. It is not as quiet and it has a balcony.

After i moved every thing I attempted to chat with the lord, and while he was patient I firmly got the feeling I was not going to hear much. So I began to talk. I bet I was a sight, out on the balcony having a conversation with who appeared to be me!

It was a great time to state out loud to God what I believed about certain things. I also shared some dreams wit him! It was awesome, especially as I got to watch a storm come in.

As it begun to darken I lit several candles and begun to read. Soon it was time for bed. After I said a quick prayer I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up at 7:15 (I think) and got ready to go out for breakfast with God. Noe that was an experience! I realized that God loves dinner dates! I choose Bob Evens. As I looked at the two sunny side up eggs, bacon, biscuits, and one good lookin strawberry crepe, I asked God what he got. He replied with a chuckle "The Fisherman's Catch". "Really? What is that?" I asked.

He replied, "A couple of fish and some gooood company!" I had to laugh at that!

The whole time God was laughing and sitting across the table with me.

Then I remembered that I needed to get a card for a friend. So Off we went to Myer. This card run ended up being a shopping trip. I bought a dress and a card and honestly I really felt like God was there.

So I went home and took a nap. Before I fell asleep I saw God as this old man with a really long beard. He was sitting on a chair reading a book and looked at me and said, "Rest. I will protect you." So I woke up and thus my silent retreat ended.

After the retreat my soul was still feeling heavy. I still did not feel as though I had heard God. That night Meridith, Sara, and I went to see the movie Soul Suffer. It was a really good movie. One of the verses it talks about was Jeremiah 29:11

"For I Know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, " plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

That really just fed my soul. Then Latter that night we wanted some chez sticks. So we went to Arbys. As we were going there we were talking in a accent. So when we pulled up to the order box the accent continued. But by now I was laughing so hard that I could not speak! So Meridith ordered in her accent. The box was silent when suddenly some one asked, "Are you from Britain?" We laughed and Meridith replied, "Yea." Silence. "Cool!" the box replied. We burst out laughing! When we pulled up to the window we not only got out food, but also a Arbys VIP free combo card. When we saw that w burst out laughing! It was awesome.

The next day was Sunday. I met with Mim (my coach for calibrate) and as I was waiting I heard a man on the radio say "When you don't do something because of fear, you are really being selfish. we have to realize that this is God's story and he is writing. Once we realize that we don't need to fear!" That really spoke with me.

As I met with Mim I told her about my struggles with work. It is really heavy there. They constantly are talking about and making sexual jokes. Sometimes they tease me cause of innocence. There is also alot of negativity. Friday, before I left work one of the guys who is married asked me if he was single would I have dated him. That really made me sad and disappointed in him. Then God gave her this picture. It was of a child playing in the mud in the farm yard. Well in the farm yard there is more then just mud. Anyway, The child was me and the mud was Donatos. And she said this silent retreat was a time for God to wash off the mud. But by this time some of the mud had dried on and so it required a bit more scrubbing. So God is cleaning me. Also That maybe the heaviness is a way of God asking me to Intercede for the people there.

So Monday morning I asked God how do I intercede for these people? Several things came to mind but the one that spoke to me the most was when Jesus interceded for humankind on the cross. Jesus simply said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This is how we should intercede for people. We have the power to "snatch them form the fire and save them" (Jude vs. 22-23). That is what I believe God is asking me to do. I ask all of you to please join me.

Praise report: I am officially appointed to RMM as an intern to Thailand! So God willing This time next year I will be on my way to Thailand!

I leave you with Zeph. 3:14-20!

My this ring true in your lives as I know it will in mine!

God bless!

Danielle

Deep Fried Doughnuts

Deep Fried Doughnuts. Yummy! You know the saying "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach"? Well I think the saying should be changed to "The way to people's hearts is over a good meal!"

Here in Columbus one thing we at the Oikos have been trying to figure out is how to connect with our neighbors. Today in Old Town East (my neighborhood) is yard sale day. So I decided to make doughnuts. This morning I rushed around the house trying to mix them together. I had to run to two different stores to get the ingredients. I was stressed out and wondered if it was worth all the trouble.

Finally, everything was put together, the oil was hot and ready to go. I dropped the first spoon of batter in to the hot oil. As I watched the dough cook, I noticed that it began to form odd shapes. I turned it over and the pulled it out to drain. After rolling it in Cinnamon and sugar, one of the girls here at the house tried it. She loved it! People really seemed to like them! I even made a tip! It was awesome!

I got to meet some interesting people! One old guy stood some distance away looking at the doughnuts. I offered him one which he gladly took. Latter on he snuck back and got another one! Hehehe, I knew he was just waiting to be invited to partake. Another Girl had just moved around the corner a month ago and seemed to be looking for a good Friend! She questioned me all about living on a farm.

Jesus really knew what he was doing when he called himself the bread of life! No wonder his followers loved to be with him! Free food! hehee, but really looking back through the new testament he really had something going with eating food! He met Zac (the short guy) and went to his home to eat! He fed 9000 people! We celebrate the last meal! Food is important to live just like Jesus is important to having eternal life.

I love our God!

This week I thank God for providing the hours at work. We had been really slow, and I usually get sent home early, but I prayed and he helped me get my hours!

Signing off!

Dani