Archives for March 2015

Serrated Edges

March 30, 2015 by admin

Yesterday, I made three loaves of bread from a recipe I printed off the Internet for sour-cream/nut-pumpkin bread. But something was wrong with the combination of ingredients—either the recipe was wrong, or my banana mash, which had been sitting in the refrigerator for several weeks, was too liquid. The loaves I pulled from the oven were decidedly damper on the inside than previous recipes of sour-cream pumpkin bread I had made. I didn’t dare leave them to brown to a crispy burnt crust on the outside in order to get them bready on the inside, so I pulled them out at the requisite one hour and ten minutes plus another ten minutes when the test sharp object I inserted didn’t come out clean.

Finally, in desperation, I pulled them out of the oven, ran a knife along the edge of the loaf pans, gently rolled them out on a rack, and folded all into a tight tin foil sleeve for another twenty minutes in the oven. The inside refused to bake dry, however, so I christened them Sour-Cream Nut-Pumpkin-Bread Puddings. Serving them warm to members of our Read & Intercede Book Group, I sliced the loaves down the middle, then cut them horizontally into smaller rectangles. Their insides were so damp, however, that nothing would slice them but a serrated knife. Any other knife shredded the soggy breads.

My company loved the little bars with the gooey, nutty centers. I told them my recipe story and about my rechristening the failed attempt as Sour-Cream Nut-Pumpkin-Bread Puddings. One of the young men said, “Hmm—they look a little like blood pudding.” Admittedly, the loaves were quite dark from their extended sojourn in the oven, but I noticed this didn’t keep him from popping them into his mouth. “Right,” I replied. “Blood Sour-Cream Nut-Pumpkin-Bread Puddings.”

Recently we have been dealing with various crises in our extended family, and I realized that sometimes the recipe for life just doesn’t bake right. Try as we might to put orderly, untroubled days together, bad and terrible things happen. The usual breaded middle is a gooey mess, the crust is more brown than any crust should be; it’s a smidge this side of burned. And God, the Master Chef, who makes classic recipes from our ruined hopes and dreams, know that any ordinary knife, even a sharp one, is not going to cut the pieces into bite-sized bars. The cutting action is going to shred the un-going work in progress. This operation calls for a serrated edge. We as humans howl and scream and shake our fists and stamp our feet as God prepares us for service, but even though the ingredients of our hours and days have combined to make a finished bakery product that is quite different than anything we’ve ever seen, the results are rather delicious.

Yesterday afternoon, I thought I’d just toss out the Internet recipe—something was wrong. But now, having tasted the end result, I’m thinking that I’ll keep it, experiment a little, change the name, try baking it in ramekins or a round baking dish. Maybe a little caramel drizzled over the top. Maybe a little whipped cream. I do have these parfait glasses into which I layer a little trail mix, a layer of frozen peaches thawed and mixed with instant pudding, some blueberries, a little more trail mix, a topping of ice cream, a couple more blueberries on top. What if I crumbled the blood pumpkin recipe instead of the trail mix into the parfait glasses? What if…?

When God combines the ingredients of our lives, sometimes He has to use a serrated edge to form us into the perfect bite-sized chunks, palatable to all those who taste of us. We don’t like it, but believe me, He knows what He’s about.

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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“Martenitsi!”

March 27, 2015 by admin

David and Karen at Rila Monastery in the
mountains of Bulgaria. Originally built
around 927. Karen is wearing her martenitsi.

We arrived in Bulgaria on February 28, which meant we were present for the celebration of their traditional holiday of Baba Marta, which falls on March 1. Our illustrator, Jivko Jelev, his wife Sia, and their son Pavlo picked us up at the airport in Sofia, and we drove southwest together up to the ski resort city of Bansko at the foot of the Pirin Mountains.<.p>

Our timeshare exchange had given us a two-bedroom, two-baths apartment with beautiful views out either side of the building. It was absolutely perfect for one young couple with a well-behaved but active child and one jet-lagging couple in their seventies.

The next morning after breakfast in the hotel, Jivko and Sia pulled two little yarn dolls from their backpacks and gave them to us as a present. “Martenitsi!” they said. The red doll’s skirt evidenced that this was a woman; the white doll’s pants indicated that one was a man; these are Penda and Pizho. March 1 is a celebration of coming spring. In Bulgarian folklore, Baba Marta (“Grandma March” in English) is a grumpy old woman who changes her moods; this reflects the March weather. As children, we used to say, “March roars in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.” Yet with worldwide changing climate conditions, I haven’t heard this saying in years. David and I wore the two little yarn dolls—his on a wrist and mine attached to a button on my vest.

In Bulgaria, Baba Marta is a national holiday, and this year, that meant there was a three-day weekend. We celebrate “April Fools” but no one takes the day off. The idea is to give the little dolls to one another as a spring rite, leaving them in place until you see a stork or a swallow, or a fruit tree blossoming for the first time in the season. After that you can tie them on the blossoming tree for fertility—fruitfulness, flourishing, fullness in life.

While packing for the overseas trip, I slipped several half-read or unfinished books in my suitcase; things to read in airports while waiting for departures, or on the long flights overseas or on quiet days at the resort or hotel. One book that has stayed too long on my reading pile is A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good by the theologian Miroslav Volf. This is a concise, easily read discourse on the relationship of faith as practiced in the public arena. Richard Mouw, former president of Fuller Seminary, writes an endorsement:

Our efforts as people of faith to bring our religious convictions into the public arena have clearly malfunctioned in recent years. But Miroslav Volf does not want us to retreat to a ‘private faith’ mentality. Instead he offers profound counsel about how faith-based public advocacy can promote the common good in our increasingly pluralistic world.”

One of the thoughts that struck me from this book is the principle Volf underlines about religions:

For the sake of the fulfillment of individuals, of the thriving of communities, and of our common global future, we need a better account of human flourishing than experiential satisfaction. The most robust alternative visions of human flourishing are embodied in the great faith traditions. It is to them—and the debates between them as to what human flourishing truly consists in—that we need to turn for resources to think anew about human flourishing. In what follows, I will suggest contours of a vision of human flourishing as contained in the Christian faith. … A vision of human flourishing—and the resources to realize it—is the most important contribution of the Christian faith to the common good.”

Human flourishing—isn’t that at the heart of the pagan longing as evidenced in this Bulgarian celebration? “Happy Baba Marta!” they call to one another on March the 1st as a kind of reminder to give one another a blessing of good wishes. May you thrive. May your orchards bear fruit. May you have many children. May they play happily around your feet. And how Old Testament are these wishes?

Isn’t this the message that Christ brings to earth, the central reality of the Kingdom of God? “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” What is that will? It is the will of redemption—that men and women will be reunited with God, that they will love Him and one another, that communities will also be redeemed and that societies will be ruled with justice. Peace will come. Every human will belong and have not only a spiritual home, but a place of material shelter. The land will flourish and bear fruit. The lion will lie down with the lamb. There will be no more tears or pain. Sorrow and sighing will flee away. War will be no more. (Happy Baba Marta!)

These longings and their fulfillment are the predominate evidences of flourishing. I (as well as pagans from the past, as their fertility rituals attest) long for that peaceable Kingdom, where a benevolent dictator, who has the best interest of his people at heart, rules. “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed” is the key to fulfilling that longing for a better world.

I tucked my little yarn dolls into a box, along with other “typical” Bulgarian gifts the Zelevs thoughtfully brought to us. Perhaps I should take them out, hang them on a branch and remember that all human hearts through all of time have longed for what Christ promised and for what theologian Miroslav Volf urges modern Christians to attempt to achieve.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Crypt Under the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral: Sophia, Bulgaria

March 25, 2015 by admin

Walking the cloister at Rozhen Monastery, above the wine-producing
town of Melnik. Located in the beautiful sand pyramids of the
Pirin mountains. The medieval monasteries were repositories of
learning and are credited with “saving civilization” across Europe.

When the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was constructed in Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria, the plans were that the crypt would become the burial place of Bulgarian kings. However, none of the kings were interred there. Therefore, other plans were set into motion for these vaulted underground rooms, and in 1965 the space under the church was converted into a branch of the National Art Gallery for Orthodox (religious) art.

When David and I entered the space beneath the cathedral itself, four very bored and cranky-faced Bulgarians sat behind a table. There was much more chance of these folk—one, a man, wearing a guard uniform and the others, all women, wearing official museum tags—of them speaking English, than there was of David or I speaking Bulgarian.

A fee, of sorts, was paid, no one smiled and we made our way into the stunning crypt, lighted with floods, clean and bright and housing what some claim to be the largest collection of Orthodox icons in Europe. Believe me, having seen many of those collections in my adult pursuit of the mystery contained within these art forms—church history and Scripture for the eyes—I believe it.

Spanning a long historical history, from the adoption of Christianity as the official religion in the fourth century through to the Bulgarian National Revival—the 18th and the 19th centuries—the exhibit is mainly a collection of some 200 icons, three fragments of wall paintings, engravings and an assortment of other religious artifacts, some rendered in bronze or gold or marble and onyx and alabaster.

A priest/artist living in the Monastery of the Holy Spirit high above the city of Lebanon, Beirut introduced me to icons when I was 38 years of age, and I have been chasing after them ever since. The Art Institute of Chicago recently mounted art of the Grecian Age, including icons from the time when Constantinople was the reservoir of Christianity in the East. Something profound hit me when I stood standing in front of them—a transcendent sense of all those worshipers, many illiterate, who had stood once centuries before me, pondering the meaning of Christ and his mother and the saints and apostles and prophets.

But here, here in the crypt of St. Alexander Nevsky in Sophia, Bulgaria, I could see the brilliant restored colors, the icon-writers’ original intent, and to me they were stunning. A quote from Sofia Guide reads: “Actually, Bulgarian icons have always fascinated people, evoking profound respect and admiration. All expositions abroad in Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Munich, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Venice, Havana, Delhi, Tokyo have provoked great interest of people and had stunning success.”

Well, I agree—for an icon-chaser, it is a stunning exhibit. If you are ever, ever in Sophia, Bulgaria, make sure you enter the northwest side entrance of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, walk down stairs, smile at the guards (they probably won’t smile back), and lose yourself in the brightly lit rooms filled with the ancient Scripture of the eyes. “Read” the icons (you never “view” icons). In fact, iconographers don’t “paint” icons; they “write” them. Without a doubt you will agree that this is a most fitting resting place for the largest collection of Orthodox art—better, surely, than the remains of any Bulgarian kings.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Home From Bulgaria

March 23, 2015 by admin

David and Karen, with Sia and five-year-old Pavlo, outside
façade of Rila Monastery. Four-story cloisters in background.
(Jivko taking the photo.)

I asked for prayers for a seven-day journey David and I took to Bulgaria. Perhaps a detailed account of how those prayers were answered will help others remember or understand that prayer is important (it moves mountains).

REQUEST: Safety as we traveled and rest so we wouldn’t be exhausted when we arrived.

ANSWER: Our plane from Chicago was delayed, but we were able to use our standby passes to get a later flight out to Washington, D.C. Dulles airport. The 9 o’clock flight was the last flight out, and I was beginning to think of asking about hotel airports where we could stay to catch the afternoon flight overseas. No need. We received the last two standby seats on the plane.

Because we had built an extra day of travel into our scheme, we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany with time to spare before our next-day early morning flight to Sophia, Bulgaria via Munich departed. To ease our travel anxieties caused by the standby situation, we used all our Mileage Plus points to book our flight from Frankfurt to Sophia. As we were disembarking, I asked the stewardess if there was an airport hotel. She directed us to a Sheraton, where David stretched out and slept for five hours. Since we were already at the airport, we walked ourselves through gate locations, checked in for the early flight and received boarding passes, then ate in a lovely restaurant where the food was excellent. European airports definitely serve better food than American airports. Needless to say, after another round of sleep, we made our early flight and arrived in Sophia without jetlag and well-rested.

On the way home, despite three days of gentle snow in Sophia, our Lufthansa flight left and arrived on time. We received the last two standby seats on the flight from Frankfurt to Chicago; they were in First-Class. Thank you! Thank you for your prayers.
REQUEST: Connection with Jivko and his wife despite language and cultural barriers.

ANSWER: Jivko Jelev’s English was excellent. Europeans are often fluent in several languages but always apologize for their language facility. We spent hours talking and getting acquainted. The resort where our time-share company had several weeks open was in Razlog, south of the Sophia airport, with two bedrooms, two baths, an extraordinary view of the mountains, and an excellent and affordable restaurant in the complex. Sia, Jivko’s wife, had been learning English and we encouraged her to practice with us. Pavlo, their little 5-year old, was adorable, beautifully behaved and delightful to have around with us. “En Englees,” we would say, and he picked up rudimentary phrases. “Letz go!” was a favorite. For the few days we were together as Jivko and family generously drove us around, it felt as though there were few barriers at all.
REQUEST: That there would be joy.

ANSWER: We laughed our heads off and delighted deeply in the company of these new friends—the ages of our own children. Thank you for your prayers.
REQUEST: Pray that our eyes would be opened to those wonderful surprises only God can provide.

ANSWER: The weather was beautiful; spring was in the air. We journeyed through the mountains in the Jelev’s car (with a beautiful little 5-year-old contentedly riding in his car seat) and visited some of the ancient Eastern Orthodox monasteries with their beautiful iconography (a lifetime study of mine). Jivko couldn’t possibly have known about David’s specialty study in church history or about this artist/devotional interest of mine in icons. Our artist/guide made a point of filling us in regarding his country’s history, found wonderful local restaurants with typical Bulgarian food.

After the Zhelev’s went home, the retort manager made a point of helping us book a hotel for two days in the capital city. She arranged for a driver, and as we were on line searching for a place to stay, the Sophia Grand Hotel rated five stars, posted a special rate and we booked it instantly.

In Sophia, though it was snowing slightly, we traipsed half a mile to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Several people and guidebooks had recommended that a visit to the crypt was a “must” and here, some 200 icons had been mounted all restored to their glorious original coloration and shining gloriously under bright flood lights. Now, I have trekked after icons all over the world. I’ve rushed to special exhibits here in the States, and I have never seen this ancient religious artwork in this kind of splendid condition or in this kind of lighting. The monasteries that are home to these pieces are often dimly lit—often with clerestory windows built in high in vaulted domes, the icons themselves glazed with the film of the smoke. There were five or six rooms to peruse without any kind of crowd (only obviously-bored guards), the colors gloriously restored. What a gift!

Because the hotel was fairly empty and staffed by eager young people desiring to practice their English, we struck up delightful conversations. One young bellhop ran to a nearby pharmacy to purchase some over-the-counter medicine we needed. The manager of the breakfast buffet gave us complimentary tickets to dinner in the hotel restaurant, and since we were the only, very-early guests (Europeans dine much, much later than most Americans eat), we were given complimentary champagne, complimentary appetizers, complimentary salads and complimentary desserts. David proclaimed the baked bass entrée as the best meal he had ever eaten, but I suspect this assessment was partly due to the fact that everything else was free.

Thank you! Thank you for your prayers!
REQUEST: That we would figure out a way to phone communicate to home.

ANSWER: A friend set us up with FaceTime so that we could communicate home. The Wi-Fi was erratic in the resort but worked enough, although sporadically, to make satisfactory-enough contact. While Jivko was with us, he was able to email all and notify them that we had arrived safely and what a great time we were having.
REQUEST: One of the reasons for the trip was to take some iPad footage of David interviewing Jivko to show at a fundraising banquet we are holding on June 6 and to use on our blog sites.

ANSWER: Though Zivko was reluctant—“English not good”—David is an excellent host, and I am an encouraging director (though my photographer skills are not good), but we caught a sweet and authentic conversation between the older and younger man that is touching. Thank you for your prayers!

How prone I am to rush into my life without pausing to pray over the days plans—in the middle of the day. Mother Teresa was once quoted as saying, “Pray before you do anything.” I am attempting to learn how to do this, but oh, how it helps knowing that I have a couple dozen people on my prayer team who are interceding for me.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Travel Anxiety

March 6, 2015 by admin

I have traveled all over this country for the last three years using the pass of one of my friends, a former airline employee. Traveling overseas, however, during these last years has been impossible because traumas in our family life. Everything is free to us when we travel, except taxes. Since we must fly standby to use the pass, we also must deal with the uncertainty of whether we will get on the airplane that we choose. Consequently, overseas travel with these passes is still a mystery to me. So, for the trip to Bulgaria, I asked my friend if she could arrange it and then tutor me a little as to the vagaries of overseas trips.

Some of the overseas flights fly with empty First Class and Business Class seats, which employees can use, but I don’t know how to engineer that.

So my friend arranged the trip and sent back confirmation numbers along with a phone number for the airline customer service. This was totally out of my grid. I’m used to working with the employee website, which then emails me the confirmation with my flight number, and times of departure and arrival. I could feel the old familiar travel anxiety starting to stir—not knowing exactly where it is I am going or how I’m going to get there evokes insecurities.

So I did—I phoned Customer Service with the provided phone number and was led through a series of questions by a surprisingly efficient recorded messenger. However, being new to all this, I made the phone call six times, missing crucial points each time I listened.

When I wrote down the flight times, I realized that we only had one hour for transit between flights in Washington, D.C. before we caught the plane going to Frankfurt. Okay—now the travel anxiety was beginning to circle within, building toward a nor’easter blow kind of panic.

I attempted to call my friend, who is now retired and flies all over the world on her employee passes. I never know what country she will be visiting. No answer. I emailed her a couple times. No answer.

I compared flights on the airline’s main website. I would have preferred taking the 8:00 am flight out of Chicago—no matter that we would land in Dulles airport with six hours to wait and would have to leave the house at 5:30 a.m. I would prefer to wait around than have the panic of the rush to make a plane.

I went to bed early, but woke at 2:55 a.m. with this niggling at my mind. If we took a local flight and checked our bags in Chicago, wouldn’t we have to pick them up at baggage claim in D.C. and then check-in again at the international counter? Didn’t we need a couple hours interlude between coming and going to do all this? I’ve not flown into Dulles for years. Was there an international terminal like at O’Hare? Would we have to transit? What would happen if the weather systems delayed our departure?

I’m sure all those of you who have worry-specific episodes like this get the picture.

I calmed myself back to sleep, although I did go to my computer again for just a moment to check how many flights there were from Washington, D.C. to Frankfurt. (Our ultimate destination is Sofia, Bulgaria.) After restless sleep, by 5:30 a.m., the determined exercise of trust had brought me to some point of rationality.

First of all, wasn’t the Lord always attempting to teach me to trust in Him whenever I traveled. Who was my tour guide? Who was my travel agent? Who was my traveling companion? Who was my pilot (engineer, boat captain, trekking leader)? This seems to be one of those lessons I have to exercise again and again.

Secondly, wasn’t my friend who has made these passes available to us, and had actually arranged this trip, an experienced traveler? And, didn’t she know more about plotting these journeys than I could ever dream about?

And thirdly, didn’t I have some 22 friends (as of today 25 friends) praying for this journey? Did I believe in prayer or not? Did I trust that their prayers would impact our travel?

I deliberately chose to be calm and to bank the anxiety in the trust account.

Then, my mind began to clear. HAH! My friend knew that David and I could check our bags at the ticket counter in Chicago through to Frankfurt (actually, I discovered that we could send them all the way to Sofia). HAH! My friend knew there was a later flight we could catch if we missed the 5:15 p.m. flight. HAH! If we caught the 1:12 p.m. flight out of Chicago instead of the 8:20 a.m. flight, we wouldn’t have to leave for the airport until 10:00 a.m., giving us a whole five hours more to pack. In addition, our other friend who loves to drive us to and from the airport because it provides us with sharing time and who is done with her nanny job by 8:30 in the morning, could drop us off. Everything—everything began to fall into shape. I headed into this morning happy, relaxed, content, and without any feeling of panic.

Trusting God is just great in theory, it’s the practice of fleeing into trust when we’re traveling through life that’s much harder. Much harder. But this time, for this journey, for this day, I am at peace. Fare thee well. Fare thee very well.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Going to Bulgaria

March 4, 2015 by admin

This is the first request I sent out to my righteous, powerful, and effective prayer team. You might want to pray along with them, but mostly, I want to share in a future blog how God answered their prayers. One of the ways we remind ourselves of God’s intervening action in our lives is to permanently record the requests we make. Here are mine for this week.

Dear Friends,

I can’t thank you enough for this generous community you are giving me for this next year. Our production schedule and my writing promises are such that we will not be able to fulfill all without a prayer team to surround us. Let me not overwhelm you, but just ask for prayers for the next two weeks. The artist, Zhivko Zhelev, who won the “99 Designs Contest” to re-illustrate the three books we are re-publishing of the Tales of the Kingdom trilogy, lives in Bulgaria. Through some Google-like translations, he told us of a brother who died at age 21 five years ago, and Zhivko promised to “Do best work” on this Memorial for our son Jeremy Mains. The second book was delayed because his mother-in-law died Christmas week of cancer. So at this point, we feel that there is some affinity that is more than circumstantial, and we need to establish a face-to-face connection. At the same time, we can carry some copies of the first book to him.

Because we have United Airlines passes (generously given to us by a former United employee), we can travel from the States to Frankfurt just paying the taxes. This friend is planning to come with us, meaning that we will use her companion passes and that may allow us to fly First Class or Business Class. This is better for our 72 and 78 year old bodies! We then used United Mileage Plus points to book flights from Frankfurt through Munich to Sofia, Bulgaria.

Zhivko, his wife, and 5-year old son, will pick us up at the airport and take us to a resort community where we have a week’s stay through our RCI time share (gifts to the ministry). The Zhelevs will stay with us a few days and they were very excited about this opportunity. Hopefully, the Bulgarian language is on David’s Google Translator!

Needless to say, this kind of travel, during winter months is fraught with complications. So we bid your prayers, as follows:

For safety as we travel and for ways to rest so that we won’t be too exhausted when we arrive.

For connection with Zhivko and his wife despite language and cultural barriers and an opportunity to communicate issues around faith. Bulgaria has a history of Eastern Orthodoxy as far as its faith confession, but has, of course, been part of the former Soviet Union.

That there will be joy.

Sara, our friend who was a former United Airlines employee, has made these passes available to us for years! She has had cancer twice, and I am often concerned about her living in her car when her money runs out. Pray that we will be able to laugh and connect with her and get a good reading on her needs.

Pray for those wonderful surprises that only God can provide and that we will have eyes to see them and to find the good in the uncomfortable delays, etc. that often happen.

We are working out our phone situation this week so we will have international calling privileges; pray that we will understand all the technology.

We want to take some iPad video footage to use for a fund-raiser on June 6th to raise money to cover the expenses for art and publishing of the fourth volume of the Tales of the Kingdom. This will make the series a tetraology (or a quartet). The plan is to write one story per month beginning in May. David and I began today to brainstorm the themes, the narrative arc, etc.

Again, thank you so much. We plan to leave Thursday, February 26th, land in Frankfurt on the 27th, and fly to Sofia on the 28th. Our return flight begins on Friday March 6th, arriving home on the 7th (I think—David has the tickets) or the 8th.

Sara, who travels all over, tells me there are wonderful sleeping lounge chairs at Frankfort. So it is good to be with the travel expert at times like this.

Thanks ever so much. It is a comfort to know that you are collaborating with us in this crucial way.

Most interestingly, I also sent an eNotice out to our “Read and Intercede” book club and mentioned that David and I would be in Bulgaria for a week. One of the gals, who has her PhD in dance, wrote back right away. After she had been awarded a Fulbright study program, she and her husband lived in Bulgaria for four months in 2006 and had Christian contacts there. We are talking this afternoon at 1:00.

And that, dear friends, is the first answer to all those prayers requests above.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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A Prayer Team

March 2, 2015 by admin

In the Soulish Food eNewsetter I wrote last month, I put out a plea for a prayer team. This is what I wrote:

“Will you become part of my prayer team?

Retrospectively, looking back through the years, it is clear that when David and I set our faces toward doing what we believe God has placed upon our hearts to do, that sudden and intense spiritual resistance forms. The resistance is not in the form of inconvenient and annoying bumps in the road, but cataclysmic detours, head-on wrecks and eleven-car collisions.

Twenty years ago, I had written a book that was designed in its language and terminology to reach to spiritually hungry readers outside of the traditional religious publishing markets. A huge controversy eventually resulted in our ministry being $2.6 million dollars in debt. It took us some fifteen year to dig out from under that mountain. Two years ago, when I started to “write out” as that inner voice seemed to be prodding me to do, our son Jeremy became ill and died quickly from an acute and rare lymphoma. The January after Jer died in November, I cleaned the writing study and was preparing to head into a writer’s life when I fell, dislocated my shoulder and tore my rotator cuff resulting in slings, an operation and months of physical therapy. Pre-operation exams eventually determined that I had “suspicious papillary cells” and resulted in a thyroidectomy.

I think you can see why I am bidding your prayers—as I prepare to make fruitful whatever last years are given to me, I feel the need for prayers of protection, prayers that my mind will be strong, that I will have the discipline to withdraw from things I love to do for the sake of being obedient to what it is I hear God speaking to my heart. I need prayers that the Enemy who loves to destroy will not be able to breach the circle of protection your prayers will put around us.

If you would like to be part of this prayer team, will you reply to this “Soulish Food” eNewsletter and give me your e-mail address? I will put you on my private intercessory prayer list, in which I will send out reports and prayer requests. This will become, I hope, my inner circle.

Last night, with the help of Nyquil®—I had caught a head cold, which I rarely ever catch—I slept deeply without coughing, and I had a dream.

I was in a pre-sermon dialogue group with a bunch of pastors, and I had worked hard on my sermon. In fact, I had requested that this meeting be held so that I could perfect the sermon I was going to present. The leader of the group, a well-known Christian leader with much influence, chided me kindly about something he thought I hadn’t accomplished, but I strongly defended myself and reminded him that this pre-sermon dialogue group had been my idea.

Suddenly, his wife swept into the room with a number of other women; they were holding a birthday celebration, and the cake and decorations came out and began to subsume the purpose of our gathering. I explained to her that this actually was a group that had formed to listen to and help me construct a good sermon at my request. She didn’t appear to be ready to back off her plan; nor did I appear to be willing to back off mine. Then I woke up.

Sitting with this dream a little, it became clear to me that all the “womanly” things of my life—housekeeping and cherishing, in fact, much of the relational ministry that I do and the normalcy of living that I have achieved in these last fifteen years, are the activities, if I am not strong, that will keep me from the work that is at hand. I need the left side of my brain to dominate the right side, the creative side, for a while. I need the planning, aggressive, organizing, ordering, intellectual/thinking, authority-taking left side to take charge and give the whole me the determination and resolve to see all these writing tasks through.

If God gives me enough life, it will be a gut-wrenching ride as I prepare myself to go gently and even eagerly into that good night. So let me know if God has placed me on your heart. Who knows what will happen if prayer is activated.”

It is gratifying to know that I have a list of some 22 people, all friends and acquaintances from the different stages and phases of my life, who have stepped up to be a part of this prayer circle. Many of these people have told me that God had already placed me on their hearts—how humbling is that thought? David and I have a demanding production schedule ahead. And, I feel as though we will be covered, surrounded, protected, comforted, guided, hedged in, enabled, anointed, and loved. What a gift!

Most of the people who are praying for us are over 50 years-of-age; most are seasoned in life, practiced in the spiritual disciplines, faithful in prayer. I think of the Scriptures from James 5:16b “…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Suddenly, today I realized that I am being prayed for by a band of 22 righteous folk—powerful and effective in their prayers. What a thought!

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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