Scary stuff to think about...

This is one of those things that will inspire some people, convict some, and infuriate others. Sometimes it takes someone who is willing to put reality in graphic terms to make people stop in the middle of their busy days and really think about what our country is coming to.

Behold my darling family....minus my brand-spankin' new hubby.

I will miss you greatly, but I'll see you soon!!

My dear Tante Polly went to be with Jesus last night. What a comfort it is to have that assurance that she is with Him now, completely free of all pain and sickness!

I will miss her dearly and wish with all my heart that I could be home right now. I'm so grateful that I was able to see her and spend time with her when I was home in December. I'm even more grateful that I'll be able to see her again in heaven! Praise God for that hope and gift of eternal life!!




Hats off to my dad and my grandma for taking such good care of Tante Polly over the last few years. It was a blessing to her and a blessing to the rest of the family.

What comes next?

Before I studied at NTBI, if I'm honest with myself, I'll admit that I didn't want to give much thought to anything that had to do with what comes after this life. Yeah, I knew that I had given my life to Christ and would therefore be ushered into heaven.....but what should have been the most exciting thought to occupy my mind was continually put aside. The thought of encountering death terrified me. The thought of Christ coming back scared me as well. In my mind, although I knew the outcome, the process of getting there was a huge unknown........and I hate facing the unknown.
For quite some time now, through new understanding and a deeper relationship with my Savior, my attitude toward the "afterlife" (for lack of a better term) has changed from apprehension to anticipation. However within the last few days, I realized a huge flaw in my former thinking. When thinking about what will happen after death, I considered the entire concept to be reaching far into the realms of the unknown. How wrong is that? We have been given the Bible which clearly describes to us what is in store for the human race, both positively and negatively. For those who choose to go through life without surrendering to Christ, the Bible is very clear that an eternity of anguish, pain, and unimaginable torment lies ahead. (I think this is why many people choose to reject the truth of the Bible. No one likes to even consider that there might be eternal consequences for a life of sin here on earth.) On the positive side, for those who understand and accept the gift of salvation that is so graciously and freely offered to all who will believe, an eternity of unimaginable beauty, the purest and fullest joy, and freedom from all sin and it's consequences that weigh us down here on earth is awaiting us. We will be continually in the presence of God Almighty, the Creator of galaxies, the Giver of life, the Author of Salvation!

Did God leave us in the dark to live our lives in constant dread and fear what what might be waiting for us on the other side? Absolutely not! He is not a God who takes delight in inspiring fear in the hearts of the people that He so lovingly created. He is a gracious and merciful Father who lavishes blessings on the undeserving and chooses to take extreme delight in providing hope for the children that He loves so much. He is a just God Who does not let sin go unpunished......however He took our debt, provided the payment, wrote down the path to eternal Life for us to read and understand, and now waits with open arms for His children to come home. I can't wait to run into those arms!!! Are you going to join me??

"He ran"................why is that so great?

We all know the story of the Prodigal Son, right?
The story of a wealthy father with two sons. One fine day, one of the sons decides that he really doesn't want to wait around for Dad to die...nope, he'd rather have his inheritance right now, thank you very much. Dad is deeply hurt, but agrees to his son's demand. So the young man promptly takes his money and pursues a life of materialism and deep, intense sin. In no time at all, his entire inheritance has been squandered away, and here sits a penniless and dejected young man. He was used to being waited on and having nothing but the finest of everything....and yet here he sits...in the mud...with a bunch of pigs. Ouch.

After much thought and deliberation, the young man decides to go home to the father whom he had offended, disrespected, and hurt. Maybe if he apologized, Dad would take him on as a servant in the house...at least he'd have food and a roof over his head, right? So he heads home and as he comes within sight of the house, the most amazing and beautiful part of this story comes into play.

His Father, seeing his son approaching in the distance, doesn't turn away in anger. He doesn't slam the door. He doesn't send servants to turn his rebellious son away from the house and send him back to the life that he chose. Instead, his heart is filled with compassion and he runs toward his son! He runs!!
What is so significant about this? During this time in history, in the culture that the story took place in, a man, especially one of great wealth and social stature, would never run. It was considered shameful, inappropriate, humiliating, and undignified. Does that stop him? No! His overwhelming joy, uncontrollable excitement, and unabashed love for his precious son cause him to throw all cultural barriers aside as he runs to his son and embraces him in a beautiful picture of restoration, forgiveness, and unconditional love!

What an absolutely beautiful picture of what God has done for us!! How often do I turn my back on Him? How many times does my focus turn from Him to the sinful and perishing pleasures that this world continually offers? There's no way to even begin to count how many times!! But even when I am completely faithless, He is faithful. Even when I wander, He remains. And when my wandering heart makes it's way back home to my Father, His heart is full of forgiveness and compassion, and He runs to gather me up in His arms! The King, Creator, God Almighty....He runs to His sinful child! How much more significant is that than a mere man with a lot of money running to his son? God blows me away!

Just like people wouldn't have understood the father in the story as he completely disregarded culture and custom to lavish his love on his rebellious son, the world today can't comprehend why God would step outside the norm by bringing the ultimate sacrifice and provision so that we could experience restoration with Him! His ways don't always make sense to our human minds...and I'm glad for it!!





This the song that I found accidentally today that began this whole thought process in my mind. What a blessing and beautiful reminder it is!!

What is really important?

I posted this video last year, but I'm sharing it again. It was put together by some of my classmates for a project that we had to do for our Philippians class. It blows me away every time I watch it.

Heading into a life of ministry in missions, in all honesty, there are definitely many times when I think "what in the world am I getting myself into?!" I like security. I like comfort. I like my dreams and selfish desires. I like my plans. I like health. I like having everything I need or just plainly want at my fingertips. I like financial security. I like life.

BUT...........

All of that is meaningless without Christ. He set aside more than I could ever dream of. Is my comfort something that I would refuse to give up for the sake of the Gospel? Would I put MY plans, dreams, and desires ahead of the life that God would rather have me lead? Am I willing to give up my very life for the One Who gave up HIS life?

I pray that my words would be supported by my motives and my actions when I say......this world and it's pleasures are nothing compared to the beauty that comes from serving the Lord! All the treasures on earth are infinitely worthless when compared to the riches that I have in Christ and the treasure I have that IS Christ!!! You can have all this world.......just give me Jesus!

In Your Arms

I know You'll never leave me
A love like Yours could know no end
You save me from my weakness time and time again

It's Your hands, it's Your arms
It's your grace, it's Your love that rescues me, now I see
You lift me high and I abide in Your arms, in Your arms

All alone here in my secret place
Away from everyone but You
Your mercy carries me so far beyond the blue

It's Your hands, it's Your arms
It's your grace, it's Your love that rescues me, now I see
You lift me high and I abide in Your arms, in Your arms

You meet me on my knees
I find myself indulging in the peace You bring there
Soaring on Your wings

You lift me high and I abide in Your arms

It's Your hands, it's Your arms
It's your grace, it's Your love that rescues me, now I see
You lift me high and I abide in Your arms, in Your arms



by Heather Miller

The beauty of communication.

I love languages, phonetics, linguistics, and everything that pertains to all of it! I find it so incredibly fascinating!
My friend Jessalyn and I lead a Bible study for young girls here at the school, and tonight's topic was all about the things that should characterize a Godly woman's speech: gentleness, kindness, humility....even down to the importance of tone and volume. As we were talking about it, I got a little carried away with something that just plainly excites me. I told them, "Have you ever stopped to think about how crazy communication is?? I can move my tongue, lips, and mouth and add noise to it, and suddenly, you know exactly what is going on inside of my head."
I loved seeing the looks on their faces.....it was obviously something they'd never considered before. I continued by saying, "Then lets say I go to another country with an interpreter. I move my lips and make sounds to let the interpreter know what is going on in my mind.....he makes different sounds....and suddenly, someone who doesn't know MY language also knows exactly what is in my mind and what thoughts I want to communicate."
I saw the understanding come into their eyes as they began to see the insane beauty of spoken language, something we all take extremely for granted on a minute by minute basis.

THEN I brought up the awesomeness of written language. Have you ever thought about it? You can look at a page and see a variety of shapes and markings. You can know what's going on in my mind. You can know what went on in your great grandmother's mind. You can know what went on in Abraham Lincoln's mind. You know what went on in Aristotle's mind. I looked at the girls and said "God has given us the Bible. He has given us the gift of language! We can look at the shapes and markings in the Book in front of us and....." The light bulb came on...they began raising their hands and exclaiming, "now we can know what is going on in God's mind!!"
How cool is that?!!? Talk about insane love! He created us, loved us, sent His sweet and precious Son for us, and then wrote His thoughts down for us so we can know Him better!

P.S. That big, powerful God knows you by name! Think of all He's done for me and you! All the way down to creating our minds with the ability to communicate with one another, and with Him! Need I say it again? That is insane love!!!!

I love pictures.

Have you ever tried sitting down with a little kid and reading to them from a book...without pictures? How much luck did you have?? None. Their little minds don't quite understand....or they get distracted.....or they plainly aren't interested.....or they just can't even begin to follow what you're talking about. Add pictures to the book and voila! They see what the story is portraying! The pictures make the story come alive to them!


Have you noticed how many pictures God draws for us in the Bible to help us visualize the truths that He has for us?
-We are the sheep, He is the Shepherd.
-We each a part of a body, THE body of Christ. Some are the hands, others the eyes, ears, arms, etc. But they all must work together to make a complete body that functions correctly for Christ!
-He is the Vine, we are the branches.
-He is the Cornerstone and we are the bricks that make up His Temple.
-He is the Bread of life.
-He is our living Water.
-He is our Father, our Daddy. We are His children!!

The list could go on and on!

God's ways are so much higher than ours. His thoughts are so much deeper than we could ever imagine. So what did He do for us? He drew pictures in our Book! He brought His story, His truths to life so that our simple minds could begin to understand the unending beauty that is portrayed for us in His Word!!
What a good Father we have!

It's a small, dark world.

I had a fabulous shift at work today. It's always fun to work with people you enjoy! Since I started this job in November and then was gone for almost the whole month of December, I'm still getting acquainted with a lot of the girls I work with.
Today I was on shift with a girl named Paige. We had the opportunity to get to know one another a little bit in between customers and I was surprised to find out that, not only was she familiar with New Tribes, she also knew a lot of the same people I did! She is good friends with missionaries that work at the aviation base in Arizona where Drew and I are going to live after we get married. She even knew who his family was! It really is a small world!!
So, later on, I was visiting with some friends and I decided to tell them about all the connections I had discovered that day between my co-worker and myself. As I began to tell them about it, I said, "So there's this girl that I work with, and I've known she was a Christian for a long time just by the way she acts......." It wasn't until I finished my story that it dawned on me, it was no surprise at all to me when I discovered that Paige was a believer. She is sweet and caring, her conversation is always wholesome, she is an extremely hard and faithful worker...the list could go on and on. It really made me stop and think.....do I have a testimony like that? Do I conduct myself in a way that doesn't give anyone any doubt that I serve Christ? Even more importantly, do my life, conversation, or actions dishonor the name of Christ in any way before unbelievers?
I thank God that He set an example right in front of me of what it looks like to have a shining testimony in a dark world. I pray that I will continually have a testimony that brings Him nothing but the highest honor and glory! It may be a small world, but it's also a very dark world. Only God's truth can penetrate the darkness. My our lives be shining lights for Him!

So basically..............I'm engaged. :)

Will you be a Trader?

How will they hear?

There are approximately 6,912 languages in the world......

1,953 of them are in the process of having the Bible translated into their language. For some this means that the actual written translation is in process. For some this means that a written language is being developed so that they can receive the Scriptures in their heart language. For others this means that there are missionaries living in with them, learning their culture and language so that they can begin work. It's a long, intense process. Praise the Lord for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are out there right now putting in the long hours and hard work to bring the Scriptures to another language group!!

876 of these languages have some Scripture, however small that amount may be.

1,168 languages have the New Testament!

438 languages are so incredibly blessed to have the whole Bible translated into their language!

2,251 languages still need a Bible translation.

2,251!

What a staggering number! There is so much work left to do! I have 4 different English Bible translations sitting on my shelf....and yet 2,251 people groups don't have one word.
There is a tangible number for you. 2,251 Write it down somewhere. Keep it fresh in your mind. Please be in prayer for more people to be willing to devote their lives to the preaching of the Gospel of Christ!! Remember to keep those who are currently in different countries all over the world right now, serving God as they minister to the lost and preach the truth of the Word of God to those who have never heard it before!!

Romans 10:14-15
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Crank it up!!! Or...maybe not.....

We've all done it. You're driving down the road, the sun is shining, and you're singing along to the radio. Then, it happens. Your favorite song comes on the radio! Your head starts bobbing....you turn up the volume a little bit. Then you turn it up a little more. Pretty soon you've got the radio blaring! This is fantastic!! Such a great song!!! Unfortunately, you get to your destination before the song is finished. You turn off the car and get out. What happens when you get back in the car later on?
The music is BLARING!!
So there you sit, fumbling over everything, reaching over things in a wild attempt to turn it down as quickly as possible. The whole time, you're thinking "How in the world did I let it get that loud! It didn't seem that loud before!"

Sin is just like the music in the car. Little by little, you turn it up. Slowly and gradually it gets louder and louder. Before you know it, you're jolted to your senses as you become aware of the reality of the sin that is blaring in your life. Then chaos ensues as you struggle to shut it down and turn it off as quickly as possible! Your mind is filled with thoughts of "How in the world did I let it get that far! It didn't seem like that big of a deal before..."

I've had the privilege of sitting in on Chapel this week to hear our guest speaker Chris Lujan, a missionary to the Siar tribe in Papua New Guinea. He used this example and it really got my mind working. How often do I allow this to happen in my life?! It is so easy to slip into! The more I thought about it, I started to think about all the times when I'm blaring my music in the car and someone either tries to talk over it or ask me to turn it down. Don't ruin my great song!! So instead of turning it down or off, I turn it up to drown out any outside noise. So if there is a sin in my life that is becoming more and more of an issue, maybe someone will try to confront me about it. Maybe God will show me from His Word or even just convict my heart about it. I pray that I would listen to those warning signs and deal with my sin before it is a loud, blaring problem!

Internship: Week 1 completed

Here I sit in my new apartment with my feet kicked up after a long day of working and moving. I'm still living in the building, but instead of living in a dorm like before, I share and apartment on the first floor with the other female interns and 3 students. It's a little hot but it is awesome! What a blessing! All the girls that are living here with me are all ladies that I love and respect. I know that they will all be such a spiritual encouragement and I'm so excited to grow with them this year!

I finished my first week of training in the main office here at New Tribes Bible Institute, Jackson. Wow. That's all I can say. I am so happy that the Lord allowed me to work as my Dad's secretary over at Jezowski&Markel last year.....as hard as it was to keep up with my work there, it played an enormous part in preparing me for what I was going to face here!! The ladies in the front office have been so patient with me, answering my questions over and over again. It has been interesting to see the staff of the school from this different perspective. It's one thing to interact with them as a student....it's an entirely different thing to interact with them as a member of the team. All of the teachers, deans, and all of the people that work in the offices here have been so encouraging as they watch me try to learn the ropes. There is always ALWAYS someone close by that is willing to help. What a blessing it has been!! Keep praying for me as I continue to learn and try to keep up with the craziness of registration and new students!! Registration begins tomorrow so this place is finally going to be full again! It's about time!

I fell off the face of the earth.

Just thought I'd climb back onto the surface of the earth and let ya'll know where I'm at and what the next few months will hold!
I really did fall off the face of the earth...and landed in Arizona for this week. I'm hanging out with Drew and his family. So far I've been mudding (no comments everyone..), done a lot of swimming...some of my own free will, some not, and tomorrow we're going hiking. Yes, it's true. And I'm loving every minute of it!!!
I head back to Michigan on Saturday to begin my internship. It's going to be an entirely different atmosphere to be there but not as a student. I can't wait to see what the Lord holds for me this year! Please pray that I can find a job quickly when I get back in Jackson.
I'll do my best to update this blog as well as get some newsletters sent out this month.
It was so wonderful to see everyone in California and I already miss you all. God has blessed me by putting some amazing people in my life and it was wonderful to be able to spend time with quite a few of them over the last few months. Love you all and I promise.....I'll keep in touch. Or try to......

I think the world of this man!

Happy Father's day to my Daddy!!
I set out to look through my pictures, hoping to find maybe 2 or 3 good pictures of him to post on here.....aaaaaaand found about 9 million of them. It's taken some weeding through, but here are some pictures that portray some of the wonderful sides of his personality, his loves and interests, and hopefully give you an idea of how we, his family, think of him. :)


First and foremost, he married the most wonderful woman in the world. She is his Queen and he treats her like one. Never in our lives have we (my sibs and I) ever doubted his undying love for my mom. Kudos to you Mom for marrying such an amazing man! You are one blessed woman!



Yeah, that's right....MY Dad plays the tuba. Can your dad top that? Didn't think so. ;)



He's always had a soft spot for babies. He loves them, and, lucky for him, they love him too. My mom and I can attest to the sadness a person feels when they love to hold babies, but every time we touch them, the little boogers throw back their head and wail! My dad has been a wonderful father to each one of his 5 kids. And he's going to be a fantastic grandpa when the time comes!!






Seriously, I could have never asked for a better Dad. He's a goof-ball, he's a comforter, he's a wonderful listener, he gives the best hugs in the world, and he has a remarkable sense of humor. He has always worked so hard to make sure that his family would be cared for. You walk in his office at work and there are pictures of us all over....they serve to remind him why he is there day after day. He has raised a son who knows how to be a gentleman and takes care of his sisters. (Whatever girl manages to capture the heart of my brother Peter is going to be one lucky woman!!) He has raised 4 daughters who love cars, airplanes, and know more about concrete and construction than most guys. He takes care of our family, both of my grandmas, and my great aunt, all while working long days at a strenuous job. But through all of the stress he deals with each day, he is still such a wonderful example of how we are to rely on the Lord. Everything points back to God. He loves to sit around and talk about the Scripture! I could go on and on about him!!!



So Happy Father's Day to my Dad!!! I'd like to honor my father who was so influential in teaching me about OUR heavenly Father!

I love you Pops!!!

This comes from an email that I sent to my dad.....

But really, it was something that was such a blessing to me, so I'll share that part of it with ya'll too!

"Here I sit in New Jersey......this is possibly one of the most hectically crazy summers I've ever had! Always on the go! Last night we went to another family gathering to allow the bride and grooms families to get to know each other a little bit. I sat at the table with the older people. It was wonderful to just sit there with a group of believers that was so much more mature than me. Most of them had been on the mission field for years, but all of them have been in ministry for a long time. They shared about failure in their lives and how God used it for His glory. They talked about the dangers of allowing your eyes to get off the Savior, even if the distraction is too much ministry. They talked about self reliance (my personal favorite...I struggle with that a lot) and the importance of placing yourself completely into the care of God! We get angry, bitter, and frustrated when we fail and things don't go our way...but if we're striving in our own power, that's exactly what is going to happen! This brings me to the quote of the day. I got it from a book that I read while I was at school. It says "To be disappointed in yourself is to have believed in yourself." -Miles Stanford I have to remember to only look to God and trust in His strength alone. Only then will I experience any victory in my spiritual walk.....because the victory is His, not mine."

Please pray for the Parkers!!

Rachel is one of my friends from New Tribes. She's in the same class as me. The day before we were going to graduate, her brother Daniel was in a bicycling accident and died late on Sunday night. The Parkers are a very close family, wonderful people who love the Lord. Please pray for them! The funeral is tomorrow.
I posted the link to the newspaper article about the accident below. It was amazing to see Daniel's beautiful testimony shining out on the front page of the Jackson newspaper! A wonderful witness for our Savior!

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/05/jonesville_man_23_dies_from_he.html

I'm done!!!

Can you believe it? I finally graduated! It's been a long journey. There have been ups and downs, there have been struggles and blessings, I've made mistakes and learned lessons. God has brought so many beautiful people into my life, people that I know will remain part of my life for many years to come. I've grown in my walk with the Lord and have been stretched in ways I never knew were possible. I have been taught to study the Scriptures for myself and not a day goes by that I don't become increasingly more aware of my great need for its wisdom and instruction. I'm looking to the Lord as I prepare to enter the next phase of my life and can not wait to see where He takes me! He has proved Himself to be so faithful, even when I am faithless. Life with Him can be nothing but wonderful, even in the hard times. Lets see what comes next!!