Shalom Friends and Family,
I hope this finds you all well and I hope you all had a great month! Ours was good and busy (as always!). It stormed quite a bit this last month and one time our electricity went out for a few hours. We had a fun family time remembering when we use to live without electricity. It is AMAZING how quiet everything is when you don't have electricity:) We lit some kerosene lamps and candles! It was fun. When the house first goes black, it feels like the world stops spinning for a minute. What do you do with yourself? No running water, its dark, no internet, phone, etc., and there is a thunder and lightening storm outside ... so you definitely do not want to got out there! And yet ... IT IS FUN:) You can make such wonderful family memories in times like these. I have a favorite from this last time ... I was sitting next to my baby sister (who is not a baby anymore!), we had some really bright candles and we were doing school by their light ... just trying to stay productive. I looked over at her with the candles flickering in her face ... she was so beautiful:) I am really blessed with some amazing siblings (and parents!).
At the beginning of last month, we went to a Pro-Israel Rally in Nashville. Here are some pictures from that.
When driving there, we passed some Muslim boys walking on the street and we knew there would be some opposition. This picture is from when we were walking up to the rally.
The rally was held in our Legislative Plaza.
Sure enough, there was a counter-rally. There were about 150-200 pro-Palestinians.
There were way more on our side though ... several hundred!
Some of you might recognize our friends Don Finto and Marty Goetz on the left hand side of this picture.
The inscription on the stone says, "American is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured"
by Woodrow Wilson.
Abba and Ima.
There were police and security all around the courtyard, and even up on the steps and porch of the State Capital Building, overlooking the courtyard and watching everything.
The whole family.
There were a lot of different speakers.
There was one really memorable time at this rally. I turned around when I heard my father speaking to someone. He was speaking to a father who had two children, a boy and a girl who looked like they might be 10 and 12. He told Abba how they had been chickens and stayed on the other side (far away from the pro-Palestinian rally). But, he decided to bring his children over to see this counter-rally. I do not think that I will ever forget those children's faces ... they stood there and just stared. They looked shocked. I wonder if they had ever seen anything like that before ... probably not. As my father and the other father were talking, my father shared how it was so good that those children were seeing this. He said that for awhile those children will obey what their father says, but at some point, they are going to have to make decisions for themselves. They needed to see the difference between Hamas and Israel.
An Israeli family speaking.
Towards the end of our rally, I noticed the pro-Palestinians quieted down and were not yelling so much. Then there was a commotion and they started lining up, putting down prayer rugs, etc. I realized they were going to say their prayers.
It was very interesting watching, but sad at the same time.
Here is a video of different clips from the rally.
Besides that rally, we went to another Israel event in Nashville as well. We met Leehy Shaer (the aunt of Gilad Shaer who was one of the Israeli boys that was kidnapped and murdered in June) along with a soldier (Jeremy Gimpel) who had been injured when fighting on the Gaza border. Both Leehy and Jeremy spoke at the event and then we spoke with them afterwards. It was a blessing ... especially to hear the aunt's strong Israeli accent:) The whole family has missed that since being back in the States!
The family with Leehy Shaer ... by the way, sorry the picture is a little blurry, it was taken on the cell phone and was not focused correctly.
This month my mother has started going to our county jail and having Bible studies, along with praying and talking with the women there. She had planned on going every other week, but because of it going so well, she has decided to try and go every week.
We have also started going to the Abortion Clinic (we call it the "Abortion Mill") in Nashville. As long as I can remember, we have done Pro-life work off and on throughout the years. Last year we went to the Mill in Nashville, but at the time being, we did not feel like we could continue going for certain reasons. Recently though, we heard that an old acquaintance of ours was going to the Mill regularly, so we asked her about it and we have started going again.
It is not easy going to the Mill, it is so sad ... but I think it is very important. The first time I was out there this month, there were a couple other people out there and one guy told us that two weeks before, a women was driving by and she stopped and asked him, "Where were you twenty years ago? I had an abortion ... I killed my baby boy, and I have regretted it ever since. Where were you?" This is so heartbreaking to think about. As we stood in front of the Mill and talked with the other Pro-lifers there, one person mentioned how there are over 1,000 Churches in the Nashville area. He said, "Imagine if one person, just one person from every Church came out here ... that would be a thousand people! People could not even drive on this road there would be so many people." His words are so true. Where is the Body of Messiah? Where is the Church? Where are those that are called by His Name? We might say we are Pro-life, but how many of us actually "putting the money where are mouth is"?
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This is the size of a 12-week old baby ...
so fearfully and wonderfully made!
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Did you know that there are approximately 1.6 million abortions in America each year, and approximately 40 million in the whole world each year? I was just looking at one site that has a "counter" and as I sat here, the numbers kept changing on the number of abortions taking place as I sit here and write this. You can see these statistics HERE. It is said that 89-92% of all abortions happen during the first trimester (up to 12 weeks old). So most of the babies aborted, already have a heartbeat (which is developed at 3 weeks), and a lot of them already look like this perfectly little formed baby in the picture to the side. Who can say this is not a person? Psalm 139:13-16, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." So many people in our world today think that when a babe is conceived in the womb ... it is not really a baby, but just a mass of DNA cells etc., but in Psalms, we see that even when an unformed substance, YHWH saw and cared. He intricately wove each of us together in our mother's womb and He is doing that with every "unformed substance" in a mother's womb! In Isaiah 64:8 it says, "But now, O YHWH, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand." That "unformed substance" is like the clay, which the Father takes and makes a beautiful (or handsome!) vessel out of. YHWH cares about every little detail of our lives ... even the tiny precious "unformed substance"!
One lady at the Mill who we spoke with told us, "My baby was an accident." But, she is so incorrect. Yeah, in our sinful world's eyes her baby would be considered an accident ... but not in our Heavenly Father's eyes! No baby is an accident, it is a blessing sent down from Heaven. I asked earlier where the Church is ... while at the Mill, I saw one woman, and she claimed she was a Christian ... she goes to Church, and yet she was there aborting her baby. What is wrong? I know she is not the only "Christian" who is aborting her baby. Where has the fear of our Heavenly Father gone? Does she not realize she is shedding innocent blood and that He HATES it (Proverbs 6:16-17)? But, aren't we at fault as well, being the Body of Messiah and not following these commands .... "Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy;" Proverbs 31:8-9? I am so thankful that the Father is SO merciful, as we all desperately need it.
While my heart aches for the tiny babes killed ... I know that they are up in our Heavenly Father's arms, wrapped in love. I feel worse for their mommies and daddies who have made these terrible choices. I pray for them that they will be convicted, that they will know that there is a Savior who is ever willing and ready to forgive them and to comfort their bleeding and aching heart! May they come to know that children are a blessing and a joy! Psalm 127:3-5a says, "Behold, children are a heritage from YHWH, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;"
Before I move on, I did want to mention something really fast, while not all the women at the clinic are open and receptive, there have been so many who have changed their minds and saved their babies because someone was standing outside of the clinic, praying, and waiting, being there for them, in case they wanted to talk. You do not always see abundance of fruit from your labors in this ministry, but "For the least of these" .... if it is just one person, one mother ... one father ... one baby ... it is worth it all! I would highly encourage everyone reading this to consider if there is something you can do to better "love your neighbor as yourself". Maybe your calling is not in Pro-life work, maybe it is to visit those in jail, or the elderly in the nursing home, or evangelizing to the unbelievers. I do not know what it is, but we all have a calling to be a servant ... may the Heavenly Father lead you and guide you as you seek Him regarding your calling!
Before I move on, I did want to mention something really fast, while not all the women at the clinic are open and receptive, there have been so many who have changed their minds and saved their babies because someone was standing outside of the clinic, praying, and waiting, being there for them, in case they wanted to talk. You do not always see abundance of fruit from your labors in this ministry, but "For the least of these" .... if it is just one person, one mother ... one father ... one baby ... it is worth it all! I would highly encourage everyone reading this to consider if there is something you can do to better "love your neighbor as yourself". Maybe your calling is not in Pro-life work, maybe it is to visit those in jail, or the elderly in the nursing home, or evangelizing to the unbelievers. I do not know what it is, but we all have a calling to be a servant ... may the Heavenly Father lead you and guide you as you seek Him regarding your calling!
Wow, I did not mean to be so long winded .... I guess my heart is just so full of this subject right now:) But, moving on! The rest of the month as been filled with regular life and business.
Lydia has bunnies!
And we have had lots of puppies on our farm as well!
At the end of the month (starting into September) we were blessed with lots of out of town company! At the same time, my father had to take a 2000+ mile road trip to deliver three different puppies:) Maybe I will share more about this in the next post as this one is already pretty long, and both the trip and company will still be here in the beginning of September as well!
Shalom and have a blessed month!
