Category: Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous/Thoughts

The Romans Challenge

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About 2 weeks ago, Nickie and I began a “Romans challenge” where we are reading Romans 1-8 every day for 50 days. This was recommended to us by a friend who did this as a new Christian (when he was in his 20’s). It had such a dramatic effect on his walk with Christ and understanding of the gospel that he’s been an advocate of this plan ever since.

Romans builds in a systematic way, so it is helpful to read those chapters all together to grasp the flow of the argument being made. It establishes an understanding of the whole context: starting with creation, God’s wrath toward sin, and our hopelessness, and then dives into the amazing news of Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death and resurrection—and what all of this means for us as believers!

It takes most people about 45-60 minutes to read chapters 1-8, depending on how fast you read. But the goal is not speed, it’s comprehension. [smile]

So … WHY read Romans this much? When we saturate our minds, day after day, with God’s magnificent explanation of the gospel in Romans, we develop a greater understanding of the depth and beauty of the gospel. The greater our understanding of it, the greater our delight in it! Gospel truths will then overflow to others in our conversations as we both edify believers and evangelize the lost.

Today was my 14th day, and I definitely have a much stronger grasp of Romans than I did before. It keeps getting better the more I read it! I have been e-mailing some friends (especially girls who helped with our overseas Bright Lights conferences) and many have been interested in joining. As of yesterday, there were about 50 of us reading Romans 1-8 every day! But in the last 24 hrs, 34 more people have joined the plan! (Sarah sent an e-mail about it to all the leaders of Bright Lights groups.)

I am filled with joy about this … especially because many of these friends have also expressed their desire to witness more. What greater witnessing training could any of us receive than to thoroughly know Romans?!

SO (did you guess I was getting to this? [smile] ) if anyone else would like to join, please let me know! I would be happy to add you to my e-mail list. I’m sending out weekly e-mails with tips and ideas. If you don’t have my e-mail, please leave a comment and I will get in touch with you.

This afternoon, I received this e-mail from a friend:

“Already God has used this Romans reading to prepare me for something He was going to use me for! Yesterday I flew to Alaska from Boston, and by God’s providence, traveled the whole day with a “stranger friend.” The young woman I sat next to on the plane was friendly and talkative. We began chatting right away, and continued to for almost the entire 5 ½ hour flight, got Hot Dogs together at our layover, and stood in the cold at 1am waiting for the shuttle where we finally parted ways! As we began chatting and getting to know each other, I began praying that the Lord would help to turn the conversation to spiritual things. Sure enough, the lady asked me about a book I was reading (it was a Lamplighter book, “Stephen, Soldier of the Cross”). “There it is! Thank you Lord!” I thought as I began to explain the plot of the book and the life of Stephen, a martyr for Christ. We continued to talk about God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, and other matters … She calls herself a “Christian” but did not have a salvation testimony. Many of the things she believes are based on her personal feelings, though she prays often and is seeking God’s will for her life. Continually, I brought her back to the Bible, and almost all the topics we covered, were in Romans 1-8! Though I am only on day 5 of the 50, I was familiar enough with the chapters already to find the pertinent verses! It was such a blessing to be prepared to wield my sword! Praise the Lord, I look forward to seeing how He will continue to use this long-term reading of Romans 1-8!”

I really appreciated that note from Jordan, because she brought out a true point I wanted to make anyway: Studying Romans helps to both strengthen our confidence in our knowledge of the gospel and increases our eagerness to share it.

I have also been encouraged by all the other testimonies I’ve been receiving! Here’s a sampling:

“I’ve been understanding these passages more than I ever have before … it really helps reading it all together as one ‘thought,’ rather than as separate ‘thoughts.’” – Bailey, BL Leader in Arkansas

“God has used this to reveal so much to me, and I am so excited about His Word!” – Katrina, Canada

“… I’m only on day 12, but it’s been a really neat thing so far! I am understanding those chapters like I never have before.” – Kristin Youngblood (BL leader in Texas)

“… we have grown so much for the Lord!! You can learn so much reading it every day!! I love it!” –Michailia, BL Leader in Alaska

“I am going to totally do it and I am going to mention it in our meeting tomorrow. I would like to see if the other girls might be interested in trying it too.” – Sarah, BL Leader in Nebraska

“I am enjoying it so much! Today is my third day … and I am also coping the book of Romans into a notebook during my study!” Janessa, BL Leader in Texas

“I got through all chapters in 45 min! I’m so excited, not so much about the short amount of time (although hehe that is exciting too, since I have been taking 2 hours), but also because of what I’ve gained. Keeping in mind what you said about reading it all as a whole and ignoring chapter breaks, I changed my reading approach. Usually I read detailed-ly, stopping after each chapter if there’s some insight to journal about… So today I tried ignoring chapter breaks and title breaks (my Bible has a lot of titles), going straight from one chapter/section to the next. I also didn’t journal till the end. It was so great. I got distracted much less, and it was exciting to start to see how the passages all fit together!! I know it is good to be detailed at times, but I am beginning to see that it is also very beneficial to read the Bible as a whole and learn to see the bigger picture and how it all fits together!! …I’m really excited and I just wanted to share it with you!!” –Judith, Australia

And it has been exciting to see how the Lord has prepared peoples’ hearts for this:

“Hi Grace! Ok, true story here… I’m working on memorizing Romans right now, and as I was reviewing chapter 5 this morning I realized it’s still quite rough and that I don’t have the ‘flow’ of the previous chapters down as much as I’d like. It occurred to me that, in addition to working with the flashcards I’ve made and working on one section at a time, I also should starting reading through all the chapters regularly- yes, it would take extra time, but probably worth it, right? Still pondering this, I put aside my Bible and checked my e-mail, and read yours first! I would love to join you ….” -Kea, Alaska

“God is so neat in how He weaves everything I’m studying together. Even the set 5 lessons are going right along with what I’m studying in Romans. Our adult SS classes at church just started studying the book of Romans in January, and I started trying to memorize chapter one, so reading through chapters 1-8 every day goes right along with it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that is so neat and was smiling very big when I read your e-mail last night.” – Kim, BL Leader in Indiana

“I would love to take on this challenge in my own life, and am planning to start today. I have such an acute desire to delve into Word in a deeper way, so I am very excited to embark on this study. It’s quite amazing to me how God works; for a while I’ve been working on memorizing Romans 8. I’m only in the beginning of the chapter so far, but this is such a powerful chapter to read/recite! So to know that there are other young people who are studying these passages at the very time that God laid Romans 8 on my heart just thrills me! What a beautiful thing this is…this journey on the set-apart Narrow Way.” – Amber, BL Leader in Virginia

“I would be thrilled to join you in reading this passage of Scripture. I just finished reading “Morning Star of the Reformation” – the book about John Wycliffe – and it really made me think about how much we take for granted having the Word of God so readily available to us. It just makes me long to read it even more!” – Danielle, BL Leader in Maine

Creation Museum/Miscellaneous

Goodbye Dinosaur! :(

20110516_144445_7447 For over two years we have had this um … cute little dinosaur in our bookstore.

20110516_145050_7449 He made a great display, and, side by side with our model Noah’s Ark, we felt like we owned a mini-Creation Museum, right in our own bookstore! Well, not exactly. But anyway, our personal little museum is now down to only one piece, because it was time to return the dino to the Creation Museum.

Though we were sad to see our dinosaur leave, it did provide a nice excuse to make another trip to the the Creation Museum!

“If we’re going, I think we should bring a group!” my dad said.

The Lord pulled together a group to come with us in a sort of miraculous way (through my dad “randomly” bumping into a friend at the store!) and we had a terrific trip.

20121228_163306_19488 Most of the group sat in front of the dinosaur …

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…and Nolia and I had a unique experience with the dinosaur in the back. It was a bit tight, but we had fun. (Right Nolia? [smile])

20121228_190028_20292 This is just a tiny fraction of one of the pathways. The whole Museum grounds were lit beautifully (as it is every December). For more pictures see here.

20121228_192245_19492 The best part of Christmastown was how the gospel saturated the presentations, especially the presentation by the “archaeologists”, as pictured here. Thousands of unbelievers from the community come to see Christmastown at the Creation Museum and then hear the gospel.

I was volunteering nearby as a greeter, so I got to hear the message about twelve times [smile], which was fun, esp. since both of the archaeologists were friends from the times we have helped with the NEA outreach.

After one of the presentations, my friend Grace Ramsek and I began talking with two girls who didn’t have a good grasp on the gospel. Their youth pastor observed our conversation and expressed how much he appreciated that we talked with them. He explained that many of the girls from his inner-city youth group were there at Christmastown that night.
“I pray for them so much,” he explained, expressing that they had a lot of needs.

I offered to talk with the rest of his group, and this evolved into a little gospel sharing time with about ten of them which lasted, maybe, 30 minutes. We praised the Lord for allowing this opportunity. (We were praying that he would provide someone to witness to!) And we pray that the Lord continues to work in their lives.

20121228_220537_19496 The Ramsek family was very hospitable to host all ten of us! Here we are in the middle of a great discussion, sharing ministry reports and talking about evangelism and many other topics.

20121229_083348_19504 The adventures of traveling down a steep snowy driveway with a big van.

20121229_132847_19511 The Creation Museum has a fantastic new display about “Lucy”. They created a model of what Lucy likely looked like.

20121229_133124_19518 Underneath the display are many pictures that people have drawn of what they think Lucy looked like, based on their imagination. They make her look somewhat human by drawing white around her eyeballs (something no apes actually have) and giving her human shape and expressions … but it’s really all a big hoax. Lucy was just an ape.

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So if you haven’t been to the Creation Museum yet, you must go … and if you haven’t been to the Creation Museum for Christmas Town yet, I highly recommend putting it in your schedule for next December!

Miscellaneous

Tract Organization Process :)

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Today I have been organizing several boxes of tracts and I have been thinking about how grateful I am for all the young people God has raised up to get them out … into the hands of a world that really needs them! A while back, we started putting “witnessing packets” together for our book table at Bright Lights conferences, and I have been very pleased with how popular the packets have been! (They are a combination of sample tracts and materials to get people started in witnessing.) Also, local young people have distributed a lot of tracts at the University of Iowa over the fall months … so we have been making many purchases from Living Waters! [smile] Yay! But it’s encouraging to remember that now, not just in Iowa, but in all the cities and countries we have been to recently, young people are excited about witnessing and gospel tracts.

Soon I will be posting a few things about what I learned at the Bible retreat, about our recent trip to the Creation Museum to return a dinosaur, and a few more highlights from our overseas trip!

Family News/Miscellaneous

Good To Be Home!

I am going to pause from sharing about the trip to post some pictures from today! When we arrived home from Australia there was no snow, so you can imagine our delight when we heard a blizzard was coming!

20121220_122813_19406 This post is especially for all our special friends in tropical places. We miss you and wish you could be here at our home to enjoy the beautiful white scenery we woke up to this morning!

20121220_094355_19335 Right here Stephen is telling me to get out of the way because I am about to get my face full of snow as he turns on the snow blower.

My mom, Sarah and I went together and bought Stephen and my dad a snow blower for Christmas this year … a little early so we’d have it in time for the blizzard.

20121220_114901_19356 We get quite excited about storms, so we had to celebrate with pumpkin bread this morning (Sarah’s favorite).

20121220_115329_19367 …made with freshly grated nutmeg. [smile] Does anyone out there grate your own nutmeg? I had never done it before, but I bought some fresh nutmegs (is that what they’re called?! haha) at Victoria’s Market in Melbourne, Australia. It’s amazing how much more flavor freshly grated nutmeg has!

Isaiah 1:18 says “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” What an incredible transformation. What an amazing God.

Well, many power lines in the area are going down, so I am going to post this before I lose internet!

Miscellaneous

Prayer for Mr. Biegler

Please pray for Nickie’s dad, Todd Biegler, who has been battling cancer for about a year and a half. Pray for wisdom in decisions, and healing from two infections as he is scheduled to have surgery next week. He is in the hospital right now.

IMG_0743 Last night Nickie and her brothers and sister came over for dinner along with and Cheryl Kissling, a friend of all of ours.

Miscellaneous

Moose, Porcupine, and Witnessing!

Thank you for all of your prayers today for our materials in Singapore. Currently Customs is closed for the weekend. We will let you know what we learn on Monday.

The “Strong in the Lord” Conference started tonight and ends tomorrow at 6pm. I will be posting a report about it soon. For now, here are a few reports from the week.

Wednesday our team went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and saw moose, grizzly bears, elk, bison, lynx, etc. We had a nice time watching them and trying to get them to socialize (i.e. come closer so we could see them better).

A moose

Of all the animals the porcupine was definitely the most excited to see us….

Wednesday evening Jessica Vassar (left) asked if we could go witnessing. So she, her sister Gabby (right) and I went to a local coffee shop in search of someone to share the gospel with.

After a few minutes of trying to figure out who to talk to and how to start the conversation, we decided to do our own little Halloween questionnaire, asking questions such as, “What do you think happens when someone dies?” This helped us get a conversation started with two high school girls which went pretty well.

Then we began talking with a girl who was sitting by herself. It became evident very quickly that she was a believer, and when I gave her Living Waters’ “Good Person Comic” tract, she said that she had been wanting more of those to use in witnessing but didn’t know where to order them! So I gave her a stack. [smile]. We talked for a while and found we were like-minded in many ways. We were very encouraged by this conversation and by the way the Lord arranged that.

The girls in the Bright Lights group here wanted to do a witnessing outreach with our group while we were here. We decided to go witnessing door to door on Halloween, giving little “gift baggies” (instead of taking candy) and sharing the gospel by using our our little Halloween questionnaire. We divided into 7 teams and reached about 100 houses. We were surprised by people’s receptiveness and had many good conversations! Before we froze entirely [smile], we all piled in vehicles and gathered at a nearby home for hot chocolate and sharing reports (pictured above). It was a very special evening I don’t think I will ever forget!

Miscellaneous

Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for the pallet of materials we shipped to Singapore for the Bright Lights conferences. It is currently being held up by Singapore Customs. Singapore has special rules for DVDs and they have rejected our shipment due to the DVDs we have on the pallet. If Customs rejects the DVDs they will ship the entire pallet back to us.

Miscellaneous

Little Hello from Chugiak, Alaska

Due to someone’s spontaneous idea, we have a little greeting to share with you from our sightseeing adventure on Thursday at Peter’s Creek Inlet in Chugiak, Alaska. The Radiant Purity Conference went very well yesterday and I will be posting more about that soon!

Miscellaneous/Thoughts/Witnessing Stories

Homemade Tracts

I met these special young ladies last summer in Texas during a Bright Lights conference. I wanted to post this video, hoping their idea is one that some of the rest of you Bright Lights out there may want to try!

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Bright Lights Conferences/Miscellaneous

“Where two or three are gathered… (via Skype) …”


This morning we had a wonderful sharing / prayer time, via skype group call, with our team of five Americans who are going to Singapore and Malaysia next month (Sarah and myself, Bekah, Nickie and Dani), and two good friends in Singapore (Jolynn and Carolyn) who are helping to plan the conferences on that end.

It was a blessing to “meet” with Dani in Ohio along with our friends in Singapore, and it was a big encouragement to share thoughts, needs, struggles, desires, and goals. We are anticipating great things for this upcoming trip. We would really appreciate your prayers as well, remembering that “Prayer is not preparation for the work, it is the work” – Oswald Chambers

We’ll be gone for about seven weeks, starting in Alaska, then going to Singapore and Malaysia and Australia … coming home just a little before Christmas.

If you live in Alaska, Singapore, Malaysia, or Australia and would be interested in attending, you can register here.

“O God, do not remain quiet; Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still” (Psalm 83:1).