Ann here again! Having shared on Monday a little about church life, I thought I’d continue, this time about church and teenagers. Many of us have older kids, I know. Well, I live in a family of males. Add to that our male Persian cat and male lizard, and it seems that males are my speciality. I'm mindful that males sometimes don’t gel with church so I have a job on my hands, especially now that my boys are teenagers. Like Moses’ mum, here’s how I feel about those two boys of mine: “She saw that he was a beautiful child” Exodus 2:2 They are my beautiful children; and as their mum I will fiercely fight for their faith. However, I have a wee problem: I’m not managing to get them to church. Aggggh! I know many of you have this too. Honestly, if I could go back, I would... Read more →

Hello SUM family, Ann here! It’s a beautiful spring day here in New Zealand and I have a testimony of God’s grace that I want to share. Some fun shifts have happened in my life, so with a bounce in my step let me tell you a fun story. I’ve written previously about my struggles with churchgoing. This, for me, has been one of the hardest parts of this walk: Churchgoing without our spouses can be so complex. You know, a few years ago if you’d been to my church and gone ‘where’s Ann?’ you’d have looked and found me contorted in a crying shape in the back row. That was if I got there at all. Well, it’s changed. No, I’m not about to announce that my hubby goes with me; but these days we have a peaceful routine. On a Sunday we share a nice coffee together before... Read more →

By Martha Bush “How can I accept this situation; it’s not supposed to be this way!” No doubt, most of us have made that statement many times in our spiritually mismatched marriages. I tend to believe that God is agreeing with us and saying, “No, it wasn’t supposed to be this way.” Today, I want to write about a teaching that made light bulbs light up within me as I listened to my pastor’s wife, the late Melba Berkeheimer, teach on Acceptance vs. Approval. See what you think of this analogy when you think of the word acceptance, particularly as it pertains to hurts in your marriage. There is a big difference between ACCEPTANCE and APPROVAL. We sometimes think that we have to approve something or someone in order to accept the situation, but that is not true. We have to accept a lot of things in life, but we... Read more →

By Martha Bush It is 4 o’clock in the morning, and time for me to enter into my quite room with the Lord. I know what you are thinking. “How faithful and holy she is to get up so early in the morning to praise and worship the Lord!” As President George Washington replied when his father asked if he had cut down his cherry tree, “I cannot tell a lie–I did cut it down with my hatchet.” So, I cannot tell a lie. Instead of a praise and worship time with the Lord, I had a complaining time with Him. This is what I wrote in my journal at 4 A.M. in the morning. “It seems as though my whole life has been spent waiting for You to show up, Lord. Why Lord, why so long? Is there something I haven’t done? Is it for Your special appointed time... Read more →

Hope this video is encouraging. This is for all of you who missed it last Wednesday on our FB page. Listen to it while driving, doing the dishes, or during your quiet time. Hugs. Lynn Read more →

Photo courtesy of photo stock and FreeDigitalPhotos.net Hello, dear SUMites. Ian from Down Under here. Spring has begun and the Lord is spoiling us with some delightfully beautiful days. It was Father’s Day here on Sunday and Fiona had organized an afternoon tea with our two sons, their partners and grandchildren at our eldest son’s home. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we had a splendid relaxing time, six adults and two littlies. As you’d expect the latter received most of our attention and I rejoiced at strolling around the garden with our dear little Willow (8 months now) while two-year-old Moses entertained us with his ‘new words’ and racing around on his various tricycles. There was an interesting moment when Daniel swung his son around on a makeshift swing (Dan being the swing). It was delightful seeing the joy on Moses’ face – he kinda went into a... Read more →

A Dead-End…. …Divorce… …Failed adoption… …Lost job… …Friendship betrayed… …Circumstances… …Cancer… Arrival on: Dead End Street This is a familiar road to me, perhaps to you as well. We arrive in this desolate place by many different vehicles and at various speeds. Read more →

Hi friends, Ann here. Today concludes our Esther study, and I want to devote this post to one word: Victory. First, what a crazy mess Esther and Mordecai have on their hands. We ourselves do battle with mess .. sigh. It’s mess from past choices, but also made by others. Often this 'mess' makes us think we’re losing; but we’re not. Here’s a fun fact: Esther’s problem was King Saul. Crazy, huh? It was Saul’s crappy problem that he made some 500 years earlier by not obeying God. See, Haman was an Agagite, and centuries earlier God told Saul to destroy all Amalekites, including King Agag (1 Samuel 15:1-9). Essentially, God said: “Saul, in your obedience don’t leave any stone unturned. Ok, son?” Saul thought to himself, “Um… yes .. ok.” But then his troops captured King Agag alive, along with goodies: fatlings and lambs that he could breed. Oh,... Read more →

All of the undertones that we uncovered in Esther are powerful and new gifts to our faith. Today, I want to talk about the unequally yoked aspect of this story. I also want to point out Esther’s divine calling and how it’s fulfilled. In reality, all of us that are unequally yoked, could take a few notes from Esther. What truly is astonishing is the influence she extended over the most powerful man in the world. Whoa!! So, how did she achieve this kind of power? Read more →

Hi friends, Ann here. We're now in chapters 4 and 5 of Esther. As I begin this post, I have this in my head: Know your enemy. I don’t talk about the enemy much. I deliberately don’t give him airtime. But I do take careful notice of his activities so that I can move appropriately in prayer. One of my earliest questions as a Christian was whether there really was an enemy of our souls; a being, or beings who were influential in this world. Without going into detail, God did answer that question for me and showed me there is. On a couple of occasions, I’ve even heard a demon, though I’ve never seen one visually. Though I was surprised to hear the thing, it didn’t scare me one bit. It used a lot of F-words, and then spat out what its intentions were. My reaction was “You’re busted!... Read more →