Meet a criminal

Meet a Criminal

Okay folks this is the great Iranian criminal Youcef Nadarkhani  he is in jail in Iran and has been given a death sentence. The unspeakable crimes that he committed are as follows....

he dared to assert his religious freedom as a Christian in Iran.

As a result he".... was arrested in October 2009 after he protested a government policy that required children, including his 8- and 9-year-old sons, to study the Quran in school. Nadarkhani told school officials that the Iranian constitution allows for freedom of religious practice. As a result of his protest, secret police called him before a political tribunal and arrested him for protesting. The charges were later amended to apostasy and evangelism of Muslims." (from www.persecution.com)  
Really? Yes, he is in jail with a death sentence because as a Christian he didn't want his children to study the Quran. There is no tolerance in Iran and many of the countries in that region, don't be fooled.

Eyes wide shut

I cannot sit and pretend that Christians are not being persecuted. And just like you I'm pressed for time with hubby, kids, school & activities. So we subscribed to Voice of the Martyrs and they keep us informed and we pray. We are going to have to do more, even though it feels like I'm trying to empty out the ocean with a teaspoon. My eyes are open and I cannot now close them to what I know.

Pastor Youcef and his wife

Action

Here is the e-mail address (prisoner alert)  so we can contact the Iranians and let them know this not okay! That we see them and we know what they are doing and they cannot hide the ugly truth of it.  I know we cannot all react to every single thing that comes accross our computer screen, e-mail or Facebook. Plus, many of you are already deeply involved in a cause, in a person or in a struggle but if you aren't maybe you could consider giving some of your time to Pastor Youcef. This is gospel stuff this is it right here before us.

Blessings!

Here is the the update from Voice of the Martyrs latest update from Fox News

B-I-N-G-O Night

 Bingo Night!

Sugar Pie & Daddy call the numbers...

Sweetie P plays to win...



Lina, Mrs. Faye, Sugar Pie & Bullet

Sometimes everyone really is a winner.......

James 1:27

For More Wordless Wednesday click

Gospel Link

As dinner was rolling around, it was faux Chick-fil-a night at the casa, I was getting very excited. The kiddos were setting the table, placing babies in seats and DH was making plates.  We finally all sat down to dinner and began to eat and about 1/2 way through I was able to let the kids know we were able to join in the work of Gospel Link. We passed around pictures  of the family we would be committing to prayer as well as monthly assistance. Most of you are probably laughing but we have never been able to do anything like this before. Thus, I am so excited to actively participate in the gospel internationally.

"The vision of Gospelink is to provide as many people as possible the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ and to help them to grow spiritually.


There are great spiritual needs throughout the world. It has been estimated that between 15% to 25% of the world’s population is beyond the present proclamation of the gospel message. That means over one billion people still need to hear the gospel for the very first time!

Of the world's 6.8 billion people, there are over 1.2 billion Muslims; 1.02 billion who claim to be non-religious; over 800 million Hindus, and 775 million Buddhists and followers of other Eastern religions. The Bible proclaims that Jesus is The Way to eternal life and that there is no other name whereby mankind can be saved. By their own profession, the followers of these other religions do not recognize Jesus as The Way. They do not recognize Him as the Son of God. As such, they cannot possess the salvation promised in the Word of God."



photo from Gospelink's website

 We choose Gospelink for a couple of reasons:

1. Gospelink preachers provide quarterly reports to their sponsors. Our hope that the quarterly reports will serve to strengthen our families faith as we read.
2. You can write to Gospelink preachers and they may write back. Though we do not plan to send many letters.
3. Because the cost to support a national pastor is a fraction of the cost of supporting a foreign born missionaries. This is not to say that we will not support an American Born missionary as some time as the Lord leads us.
4. They have an orphans ministry.
5. Because they have other opportunities that would allow our family to do ministry together.

I  am still so excited and we are looking forward to other opportunities the Lord shall bring forth.

Wordless Wednesday ... From the Mission Trip

want to see more go to Wordless Wednessday

Weekly Wrap-up: Mission Schooling in Edinburg

Last week we laid schoolbooks aside to "For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:6

"Though you have not seen him you love him; and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith the salvation of your souls." (NIV)1 Peter 1:8-9

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (KJV)1 Peter 1:3

On Mission Trip to Edinburg, Texas and our group built a house & corrected errors made in a bathroom at a Christian Camp & held a VBS for the children. We lived according to God's abundant mercy!

Ministry Update...Lockwood Family Christmas Boxes

The Lockwood family is a missionary family located in Mexico and they have requested Christmas Boxes along the same lines as the Operation Christmas Child Boxes. We made 5 bags, one for each of our children. Accordingly, we made 4 girl bags and one boy bag. Instead of boxes I made bags because we thought the children would enjoy the bags to keep their treasures. This is another chance for our children to experience hands on mission work. We'd love to see you join in this work with us but most importantly we'd like to encourage you to join with the Missionaries around the world as they bring the gospel to the nations this Christmas season and throughout the year.

Here is the link to the Lockwood's Christmas Boxes.

We'd love to hear how your family celebrates Christmas through giving especially creative things families can do together.

I hope this post is an encouragement to your family, may the Lord shine his Face upon you!

Kyle

Ministry Update

 This is our first ministry update and I decided to do these periodic updates as an encouragement to other families. We are doing this because, we want our children to be mission minded and to fill their time with the things the Lord has called us to (James 1:27).  We do not want them to think we only serve God on Spring Break & during the summer but instead  we want service to be an out pouring of our love as disciples of Christ. Currently we volunteer at a Nursery Home & the Food Bank. I would love to say it's so easy,  but it's not easy to take 5 kiddos (2 babies) anywhere but I can say it is worth it!

 We spent the first half an hour or so making bags while I was explaining to the kiddos that they were not going to be getting paid. I had to explain to them that we were giving our time to help the food bank to serve the Elderly (We did Elderly bags) & the poor. Parker brought some tracts & her Bible with her but she was unable to pass any out this time.

 We talked about people being hungry and how the food bank tries to meet the need for those people. We wore our Church shirts to remind us & everyone that saw us that we are serving  to God's glory.

 They were a bunch of  hard little workers and their arms were strong for the task. The twins stayed asleep most of the time and ate at our break. The kids filled up a whole box! All I did was make double bags and make sure Sugar Pie gave everyone a box of mashed potatoes! :)

Volunteering at the Food bank was great and it's an easy thing for little children to do without a great deal of

help. But I would encourage you to find out who else will be volunteering at the same time as your family. At our food bank the Inmates serve there a few times a week. Well, we do not feel our little children are called to minister to inmates so we scheduled our times appropriately. Your family may feel called to minister to inmates and this would be the perfect time for you. If you would like to come with us please let me know and I'll let you know when we will be there in October.

The last picture is of the kiddos in one of the residents rooms at the Assisted Living in CS with a friend for church. We have talked to the kiddos about how the elderly are lonely and how God calls us to serve Widows (James 1:27). We try to do this at least 2x a month and the kids really enjoy going and playing games and visiting with the residents. But the babies are the true stars of this event and all the residents love to hold & play with them. We have been trying to arrange a time for a recital for the residents. This has been difficult because of constant staffing changes. We'd love it if your children would like to play and/or if you would pray for the problems we've run into with getting the Christmas Concert scheduled resolved.

Let your light shine so that they may see your works and glorify your God in heaven. We praise God for these opportunities to serve His people.