I love flowers. I particularly liked this photo with the vibrant colors.

When I began to write this particular blog on Friday evening, I originally was going to title it “Plastic Christianity.” As I researched the definition plastic, I realized that plastic wasn’t the word I should use.  The word plastic took me to the word synthetic.

Synthetic’s definition: Not natural or genuine; artificial or contrived.

Hmmm…not natural or genuine–artificial–contrived.

The word contrive used as a verb “is  a way of handling the situation(s).”

That sentence gave me food for thought.

On Sunday, Pastor Ron (http://markhamwoodsag.com/) challenged our congregation with a sermon titled: The Father’s Heart

Pastor spoke to the Father’s in the service…but his message was for the mother’s also.

He said Father’s need to love their children–but they also need to LIKE their children–even when their views are different from their own.

He elaborated on three areas that our children need from a Father.

1.) Acceptance

2.) Affiramation

3.) Authority

His message made me think.

God loves me as I am. He even likes me, when I don’t like me.

He accepted me just as I am. My physical appearance, my personality (my soul) and me when my spirit-man was dead.

He tells me He accepts and loves me.

He affirms His love through the intimate relationship I have with Him.

He then gives me the authority or empowers me with the Holy Spirit dwelling within me to walk in God’s Will for my life.

It made me really think…He loves me and tells me in  John 3:16.

I was still thinking today.

And I sit this evening coming back full circle to my original thought on Friday evening: Synthetic Christianity.

What do I mean by the term Synthetic Christianity?

When I refer to Synthetic Christianity, I am speaking about a Christian, who is artificial, one who can talk about how they love God–yet their actions do not reflect Jesus. Synthetic Christianity also includes the Christian who contrives to handle or control certain situations. One who will call upon God in earnest prayer asking Him to take control, but then doesn’t wait for God to answer with direction. This type of Christian then makes decisions out of their flesh and takes action to handle the situation their own way.

Forgetting they earnestly called upon God for His Will to be done–and then saying, “No God. You’re working too slow, or “it’s not the way it’s supposed to be!” or “Look at what the other person is doing!”.

Guess what!

I am the “Synthetic Christian”.

We want to apology for the delay in updating this site. We are currently learning new software and diligently working on improving the site and the ministry.

Simply stated…we are blessed that God sends each of you to visit the site.

We are working on a picture presentation of our trip. We will be posting, but not every day.

We want to apologize to each of you that our updates have been so spread out.  Stop by when you think of us. You may find a short video clip, a scripture verse of encouragement, or a note from us to you to say Hi.

You are never gone from God’s thoughts and you are never far from ours. We are praying for each of you and ask that you keep us and the ministry in your prayers. We have a lot of work ahead of us and will need your prayers.

We love you with the love of Christ!

David and Ann Marie

It has been 57 days since we took our first step in Maasailand.

As we entered the Simanjiro plain I knew deep in my spirit that my life was changing and that I would never be the same.

I also discerned that I would be stripped by God after this trip and it would be painful.

And it is.

And by the love, grace and mercy of God I will praise Him through the stripping.

I will sing of His mercies.

Because I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ.

For greater is He that lives in me than he that is in the world.

For me and my house we shall serve the Lord.

I shall sing praises to God all the days of my life for His mercies endureth forever.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for You are with me.

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

To You O Lord I lift my soul, In You I trust O My God.

In Isaiah Ch 55:6-11 God states:

⁶Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near.

⁷Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon.

⁸For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.

⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,^(D)

¹¹So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

I am trusting in God and His Word.

David and I experienced people who worship God in spirit and in truth.

We know it is possible for all of us to worship God in spirit and in truth.

It takes faith.

Whenever the devil tries to kill, steal or destroy anything in your life, your faith in God and trusting His Word, walking in the reverential fear of the Lord will always make you more than a conqueror.

I am changed forever.

Not because of Africa.

Not because of poverty.

Not because of a missions trip.

But because I have the faith to believe that God is real.

And He promises us that whomever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Are you saved?

We hope so. We are praying for you if you are not.

Our prayer for you today is that you shall call upon the name of the Lord and you SHALL BE SAVED, in Jesus Name. Amen.

We love you with the love of Christ.

David and Ann Marie

I had a most unusual experience yesterday.

The grace of God surrounded me through adversity and has me standing solidly on the foundation of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

They who trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved… – Psalm 125:1

On Christ the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,

I shall not be moved.

Nothing can shake, shatter, move, or deter my belief in God.

How about you? Can anything or anyone shatter your belief in God?

We would like to hear about your testimonies and how your faith in God has not be shaken, shattered, moved.

Email us: ammk@hotmail.com

We would like to post your testimonies to help uplift and encourage others.

We love God.

We love you with the love of Christ.

David and Ann Marie

Have you ever seen parched land like in the picture?

The picture I selected represents exactly how I felt today. Dry and cracked. Almost rejected. I was deeply thirsty for a human touch. I looked for someone to come and give me a drink that would replenish and restore my soul to the full richness of peace.

No one came.

I was alone.

I had no one to lean on…no one to wrap their arm around me and allow me to rest and draw from their quiet strength. I had no one to assure or tell me that I had made the right decision.

It was an intensely lonely place. I felt small and insignificant.

In the early part of my day I met a woman who shared her heart with me.  We experienced a brief comradeship as we both sat alone in the sterile coldness of the chairs lining the wall.

We began to make small conversation as strangers do.

Then we began to share our pain, hurt, and love as mothers, women—human beings.

As we spoke we looked into each others eyes. We could see the others’ pain and unshed tears–the bond of not being able to explain or understand what had brought us to this place today.  Time allowed us to rewind the days, months and years that brought us to this point in time. The rims of our eyes filled with tears yet they never spilled over.

We both confirmed that we carried no guilt for what we were facing. We instinctively knew if we did, it would become detrimental to why we had come.

Although we had different reasons and purposes, we shared the same pain.

At one point she looked me in the eye as she held back the tears and said:

“What saddens me the most is that everyone around me has stopped caring.  They quit fighting for the very people that brought us here today. They just don’t care any longer. Someone has to continue to fight for them. Someone has to or they will be forgotten.”

“They will die.”

I felt God’s pain in my spirit.

I felt her pain.

It’s just before midnight. I’m just now reflecting on the day. As I think about that conversation with her, I realized she and I were never alone.

I sat to think. Who would fight for the forgotten ones—those family and friends who have never been able to resolve their deep hurt and pain on their own.

I knew the answer.

Jesus is fighting for them everyday. He has not forsaken them.

He uses people like you and I to reach those that have been forgotten. It comes in kind words, a gentle touch, a smile, a prayer silently whispered…

I was never alone today.

We were never alone today.

God was with us the entire time. He carried both of us today.

Father forgive me for looking and seeking my comfort from man when You have been my constant comfort today. You kept me at peace.  Thank you for your grace and mercy that strengthened me each step of the way.

Let us not give up on those who others believe will never change. Let us not give up on praying for them. Let us remember that Christ’s ministry is the ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The forgotten ones are also called to be saved by His life.

Just as you and I have been saved by His life.

Let us all stand together in prayer as we lift our hands in humble thanks to our King of Kings. Let us praise Him for all He has provided for each of us. Let us pray for the forgotten ones.  Let the healing touch of Christ bring them to the safe place of love and peace in His Kingdom.

We love you with the love of Christ.

David and Ann Marie

I love boxing gloves.

I love to hit a punching bag.

I love the feel of the gloves on my hand, exerting the pressure and the impact of the glove against the bag.

I love the core feeling of the tightening of my stomach muscles each time I jab the bag.

I love the concentration and leverage of my feet that it takes to bounce back and forth and then combine with the dance a hit to the bag.

I love the soreness I feel afterward…the sense of accomplishment of meeting a goal.

It takes discipline to accomplish any goal.

Discipline is an important part of anything we do. When we lack discipline we lack a commitment to move forward to our goal.

I  know what happens when I don’t commit to the discipline of training. I lose my shape, I become sluggish, I lose focus and make excuses. I blame others.

I become someone that I don’t like to be around–spiritually, physically and emotionally.

I personally make life hard for myself and those close to me that I really love when I lack discipline.

Goals are important too.

God given goals are the most important.

Why?

Anyone wanting to become better at anything in life needs a goal. Goals are what help us to look at where we want to be–and helps us to push through the circumstances.

Over the past 10 months I have continually allowed myself to look at the circumstances and not the end goal.

This caused many problems.

It caused me to deeply hurt someone close to me.

I found myself pushing away the person because I keep looking at the circumstances and not the goal.

I allowed myself to analyze the circumstances so closely that I ended up over riding what God has spoken over us.

The deepest impact of keeping my eyes on the circumstances is that I closed myself off from the leading of the Holy Spirit and allowed the negative comments and remarks of others to fill the forefront of my mind.

I began believing the negative words spoken over me.

I began to fight.

I made the fight to be the world against me.

In reality it was my own fight against the world.

I realized that pride does come before the fall…and that I took a hard hit because of my pride.

And I fell.

Even though it was never my fight.

Guess what. It’s not your fight either.

It’s God’s victory.

He gave us the ending of the book so we could have blessed assurance of His victory.

He gave us the victory at the cross.

We are over comers when we make God our end goal and we discipline ourselves to seek Him. He guarantees that if we seek Him with our whole heart we will find Him.

What an incredible commitment of love from a God who came to earth as a humble servant.

It’s time to put down my boxing gloves and time to put on the armor of God.

How about you? Will you join me? It’s time to stop fighting the world and began allowing the love of God to flow through your hurts, disappointments, frustrations, and all the areas of your life that need His healing touch.

Our prayer for you today is that you will ask God to for the Holy Spirit to help you in your disciplined search for Him.

We love you with the love of Christ.

David and Ann Marie

We’ve been home for 12 days.

We feel like we’ve never left home.

We feel like our time spent in Tanzania is light years away.

Our day to day lives are so busy. We continually rush between God, family, work and all else thrown in the mix–in the end it appears there is not much time for life.

Life is light years away for us.

Life is God for us.

Life is God calling us to His purpose.

Right now God’s purpose for our ministry feels light years away.

Sometimes my relationship with God feels light years away. When my walk is farthest from God, I begin to see God as this unattainable enigma.

My mind begins to reel in a panic that He can only be found across an impossible void of space and time distance that I cannot cross.

The truth is God is always with me. He’s always with you. He’s always with us.

He promises in Hebrews 13:5 …for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”

Hmmm…it really makes me think. If God’s Word never comes back void., and He promises me that He will never desert me, nor forsake me, why does He sometimes seem so distant to me?

Distance is a numerical description of how far apart objects are. In mathematics, a distance function or metric is a generalization of the concept of physical distance.

God is never distant to me. He is always with me.

It’s me who allows distance to become a factor in my relationship with God.

By not spending time with Him. By not reading His Word. By not spending time in prayer. By allowing sin to keep me separated from God.

Sin keeps me distant from God.

Psalm 139: 23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

May God bless you and keep you today and always.

We love you in Christ,

David and Ann Marie

While David and I take time to pray about what next to share concerning our trip, we hope you enjoy the following video:

Our pray today is that God reaches deep inside your spirit and fills you with His over flowing love.

We love you in Christ,

David and Ann Marie

Praise God! Praise His Holy Name!

We wanted to take time today to begin to illustrate about some of the people we have met during our time in TZ. The Sowers Group is a Christian praise Group that brings the message of Jesus Christ to a hurting East Africa. Their love for God reaches beyond into an obedience that is rare.

Mike, the leader of the group shared with us that EVERYTHING they do, every step they take, everywhere they go, they seek God’s guidance. They follow God’s direction for everything. Even in day to day decisions.

This wonderful group of praise artists have experienced through unforseen life challenges the love of God manifest in their lives in miracles, signs and wonders.

Their testimony and how God has worked in their lives has deeply impacted us.

Click on the following link to read a background history of what occurred in the Congo as a result of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The article is about current events–but also provides solid background as a preclude to the band’s testimony that we will be sharing in the days to come.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091214/ap_on_re_af/af_congo

May God bless you in all you do today!

We love you in Christ,

David and Ann Marie