Author: Grace Mally

Family News/Homeschool Conferences

Home School Conference Adventures

6 Comments

The book is at the printer now and we are very grateful to be finished. I definitely have a fresh awareness of the Lord’s faithfulness to help us do what He gives us to do! Recently I have been thinking about how the Lord is not only a “Beginner” but a “Finisher” of what He calls us to do. “In God we boast all the day long, and praise Thy name for ever. Selah.” (Psalm 44:8)

We had seven home school conferences scheduled for this spring. At this point, we have five down and two to go. We have six Bright Lights conferences planned for the summer (in three locations: Texas, Kansas, Iowa) and I will be announcing those soon.

For now, here’s a little glimpse of what setting up the booth at a homeschool conference is like (3-4 hours sped up to 2 minutes). This set up was in Cincinnati a few weeks ago.

Announcements/Family News

Will Our Generation Speak: Behind the Scenes

16 Comments

Will Our Generation Speak? A Call to Be Bold with the Gospel is now in the very final stages. We wanted to give you a peek behind the scenes at what is involved in putting pictures into the book. The time lapse in the middle of this video clip allows you to watch my dad’s screen as he draws.

This drawing took my dad a couple hours, but Stephen sped it up to a couple minutes and created this clip to give you a little feel for one of the things that’s been going on around here over the winter months.

Witnessing Stories

Dad’s Hindu Yogurt

5 Comments


While eating breakfast at the hotel a few mornings ago, my dad read the writing under the top of his yogurt container. It was one of Dannon’s “light and fit” tips – something that only a few unique individuals in this world actually take the time to notice. [smile]

It read, “…reduce stress with some alone time. Even a half hour can help you reach your nirvana.”

“This is Hindu yogurt!” Dad exclaimed.

Wanting to get some ministry out of this discovery, Dad walked up to the man at the front desk.

“Here — read this,” Dad told the guy in the suit, holding out the flimsy peel-off lid for him to see.

The man read it.

“That’s Hindu!” Dad told him. “Nirvana is the Hindu term for their equivalent of salvation. But Hindus actually have no way to understand salvation. True salvation is being reconciled to God, our Creator. But since they worship 33 million gods, they don’t have a correct concept of God or a correct concept of man (because man is made in the image of God). Therefore there is no way for them to understand either the true problem or the solution. However, we [Christians] know that there is one true living God, our Creator and salvation is being reconciled to Him.”

He smiled and nodded in agreement.

“They ought to put a Bible verse on this!” Dad continued.

“You should write to them,” the man suggested.

I guess we just never know what little things can lead to conversations. [smile]

Our family is HOME now and it definitely feels great to be back! Lots going on around here and things are going well.

Family News/Homeschool Conferences

In South Carolina

6 Comments

Girls we met at the conference last weekend

This past weekend was very full of activity at the home school conference here in South Carolina. We were giving some new sessions, which always makes everything busier … in a good way … though it is extra pressure. However, we definitely saw the Lord answering prayers, and have lots to praise Him for.

Our temporary office

Our family will be at another conference down here next weekend, so in between we’re taking advantage of some quiet days at our hotel to get some work done! The lobby has been very quiet, which has been great. Exactly what we needed. Sarah has been helping me edit chapters and we are excited to be releasing this book really soon now …

From what we hear, Bekah and Nickie have been very busy keeping up with everything at the office while we’re gone and we are very grateful for them!

Also, we are excited that on St Patrick’s day in our town, Nickie and several friends went witnessing and got into a lot of good witnessing conversations and passed out tracts. See pictures on the Edward’s family blog here.

Family News/Miscellaneous

Better Than Anyone Expected…

26 Comments

First of all, thank you all so much for your kind comments and prayers. It means so much to us, and is so sweet of you all.

We were very surprised by the doctor’s words when he came out to tell us how the surgery went this morning: There was no tumor, and the ovaries were perfectly healthy! What had appeared as a tumor was the appendix. They said the appendix was as hard as a rock. It had shown up on the ultrasound as a solid mass next to the ovary. So, the doctor left the ovaries and removed the appendix. This was about the best news we could have heard — better than any of us expected! No tumor, no cancer, just an appendix removal! Mom is perfectly healthy. Praise God!

After the surgery, mom was very upbeat. [smile] We are now all celebrating, so grateful to the Lord for his undeserved goodness. Now we are all at home eating chicken noodle soup (along with mom).

Grateful For…

-The wonderful Christian doctor who performed the surgery.

-That even if we would have found out that mom had cancer, we are well cared by our Heavenly Father and it still would have all been okay (1 Peter 1).

-We had some very good talks with people we met in the waiting room and nurses! This made the morning extra special.

-We are grateful to friends who joined us at the hospital this morning — especially Deb and Nickie Biegler who have been battling cancer in their own family. Please pray for Nickie’s dad, Todd. They found out he had cancer last August. It has been a long difficult journey for their family. Please join us in lifting them to the Lord in prayer.

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and Thy faithfulness every night” (Psalm 92:1-2).

Family News/Miscellaneous

Need Prayer For Unexpected Surgery

33 Comments

Five days ago we learned that my mom has a walnut sized tumor on her ovary. Mom and Dad had an appointment with a Christian gynecologist this morning. We don’t know if the tumor is malignant, but since mom has had two aunts die of ovarian cancer, and it is sometimes hereditary, we want to take care of this right away.

However, there are several pieces of good news:

-They scheduled surgery for this Thursday. Apparently the receptionist worked for about 45 minutes to get the appointment scheduled so soon–coordinating two doctors, the hospital, and the anesthesiologist. My mom was so happy that she was able to schedule it so soon, she gave the receptionist a big hug. [smile] She explained how it was an answer to prayer.

-Dad said that Mom was witnessing to everyone in the waiting room. Mom and Dad both have been quite the evangelists with all the people they are encountering. In fact, most of supper tonight was spent listening to their stories. Praise the Lord for that!

The surgery will be this Thursday (March 1st) at 7:30 am. Thank you for praying.

Dad’s verse of the day today: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me” (Psalm 27:7).

Family News/Miscellaneous

A Winter of “Hibernation” and Writing!

14 Comments

Things have been busy around here! The current big project is finishing the book on witnessing which I have been working on. The title is “Will Our Generation Speak? A Call to Be Bold with the Gospel.”

Sarah has been working full time with me on the book for most of the winter. I have no idea how I would be doing this project without her. I took this picture the other day as her desk was full of books while she spent the afternoon looking up some mission statistics for me for chapter sixteen.

We are in a race to the finish line now, and Mom has been helping us maximize work hours by bringing supper over to our office so we don’t have to take the time to go home for it. She also takes care of everything at home … she does so much.

Nickie and Bekah keep the Bright Lights ministry running, while also helping with the production of new materials … Bekah just finished a study guide for Before You Meet Prince Charming (which Nickie edited and laid out in InDesign) and Nickie has been spending many hours putting the cartoons for my book into InDesign and adding the captions.

Stephen … lol … is happy that he just finished doing our taxes.

Grandpa lightens the load for everyone by working in the basement four mornings a week, preparing materials for upcoming conferences. He recently showed me his long list of materials to pack for our first home school conference trip to SC next month. Grandpa also keeps our basement “warehouse” packaging area very well organized. We really appreciate him!

Andrew has been editing video from the Strong in the Lord Conferences. It’s a big job and video editing can be very tedious.

My dad has been putting many, many hours into drawing cartoons for my book. Since our little “cartoon pizza party” we had last fall to brainstorm for ideas we’ve come a long way … [smile] … and Dad has been doing such a great job.

More reports coming soon. For now, we’d appreciate prayer about this book, that the Lord would use it mightily in our generation.

Family News/Miscellaneous

Happy Birthday Sarah!

30 Comments

All of us girls at the Bright Lights office started out the day at the coffee shop next door to celebrate with Sarah, whose birthday was yesterday. Things are going well with us. We have been consumed with lots of writing, editing, and planning for the coming year.

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

Witnessing Stories

They didn’t know

5 Comments


“Why did Jesus come to be born as a baby?” my friend Annie and I asked two other girls at the mall. They thought and thought. They threw out a few ideas, but they didn’t really know.

Before giving a complete answer, we switched gears and began to talk about sin, God’s justice, and our need for a perfect substitute – Jesus.

“No one can kill God, so God had to put Himself into a body that could die. But in order to die he had to first be born,” I emphasized to the girls.

“Ah…I see!” one of the girls said, smiling as it clicked.

The thrill of watching an unbeliever have an “ah ha” moment as she comprehends a truth about the gospel makes me think about what a privilege it is to witness. Because Annie and I had let them wrestle with the question for a while, they absorbed the answer when we finally told them.

There are two days left until Christmas. Many of us will still be out and about shopping and interacting with people. Let’s not forget how many people genuinely don’t know why Jesus came, and let’s pray for opportunities to make it known!

Pictured above are Annie, Augusta, Sarah and Xin Hui. Xin Hui, from Malaysia, has been part of our church for the last couple years but left on Monday morning. Sarah and I enjoyed spending some time with her last Saturday (part of which included the witnessing at the mall). We are going to be missing you, Xin Hui!

Merry Christmas everyone!

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him…” (Col 2:9-10)

Bright Lights Local Group/Witnessing Stories

You May Be Surprised

14 Comments

If you have never Christmas caroled before, you may be surprised at how much some people are touched by it. We took our Bright Lights group caroling the other night, and I was reminded of what an impact it can make. Many stand outside the door, trying to savor the moment, thoroughly enjoying the old carols.

After we sing, we greet them, ask for a favorite, explain who we are, and leave them with some cookies and a book that explains the Biblical meaning of Christmas.

Many of the carols themselves have great gospel words: “Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

While we were caroling, a passage popped into my head. I had been reading it the previous day. “O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.” (Psalm 105:1-2)

Amazing. We get to praise the Lord in song, in front of the on looking world, (well, house by house) and thus proclaim both the gospel and our delight in it! What a privilege.

“Are you carolers?!” the elderly couple in this vehicle asked as they rolled down the window.
“Yes, would you like us to sing something for you?”
“Would you??” they asked eagerly.
The lady explained how she used to carol around this very neighborhood as a girl.

Then we came back for hot chocolate and our normal Bright Lights lesson time and activities.

Nickie shared with the younger girls about our response to Christ, emphasizing how we need to be committed disciples.

Simultaneously, Sarah was sharing with the older girls upstairs. We are beginning a six week “winter discipleship” study in which we are going to be keeping each other accountable to be seeking Jesus more diligently.

The joy of fellowship with sisters in Christ…
Pictured above are Amanda, Annie, and Hannah

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27)