Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Last week, I spent my birthday with our Phoenix family. Our eldest son, Randall, his wife Carmel and their two sons, Landis age 16 and Nathanael age 15, have lived away from the Chicago area long enough for the boys not to remember what it was like living through a Midwestern season of snow. They do remember, however, and love to reiterate all the memories they have of spending time with my husband and myself, with Papa and Nina.

It surprises me a little—though I don’t know why it should—how many of our conversations begin with the question, “Nina, do you remember when we…?” Actually, this has been one of our major goals. We have sought to build a rich memory infrastructure for the architecture that is becoming their lives.

So we talk about the time in Boston when Pap got navigating a roundabout and the GPS kept telling him to turn just a fraction later than he needed the information: “Wrong turn. Recalibrating.” We drove round and round about seven times with Papa getting more frustrated and the two grandkids on that trip giggling in the back seat.

We’ve hauled them up to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, parceled them out on cruises to pick up the extra-guest fee—$99 per person if they will sleep in your stateroom—two grandkids on the Alaska cruise, two more on the Maritime Provinces cruise. We took a quick, quick tour through the Niagara Falls area, did a short vacation to Branson (and endured one of those awful timeshare sales lectures), stayed at my sister’s cabin in North Carolina for gem-mining, trout fishing, and whitewater rafting.

We replace the memory stones that have fallen (No, no, no. That was in Paris and the lady’s name was…). What one forgets (usually me being the one), the other remembers.

This little exercise, which happens whenever we have time to be together, reminds me of how frequently God tells his people to remember. “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.” Piles of stones were stacked in the wilderness. Solemn assemblies commemorated events. A yearly cycle of festivals ensured that special days and remarkable divine interventions were enthroned in the memory of the Hebrew people. “You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.” Exodus 12:14.

God, in case some of you don’t know, is a good-memory-maker. Like my grandsons, He says to me over and over, Karen, do you remember when I made you laugh, when you had just enough money to meet the payment deadline, the day I protected or loved or enfolded you? Of course, my human aptitude for forgetting (how is your aptitude for forgetting?) is more the default mode than the one for remembering and rejoicing. As an aid, some 40 years ago, I began to keep a record of all the times God has intervened for the good in my life.

I make a habit of going over those notebooks, looking back through the pages and the years and saying, “God, do You remember when we…” And consequently, though inclined to forget, because of this tall, tall stack of journals, I too remember.

“Yes, I remember when…”

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-117)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Turning 69 today, with a husband who is 75, has forced an unending round of discussions on the aging process. We are determined to traverse these years left to us as well as possible.

I do not want to bore people with a litany of aches and ills. I do not want to hear myself saying (as so many of my aged friends say), “It’s no fun growing old.”

David and I want to age with grace, laughing through the years that come, accepting the physical and mental disabilities as a gift to keep our human demise before our eyes in a way that is anticipatory, not morbid.

So when I self-diagnosed the numbness and pain in my feet that activates whenever I wear the wrong shoes as Morton’s neuroma, I acquiesced to the fact that aging inevitably brings its own physical limitations. “It is what it is,” I remind myself.

A day getting the house ready and cooking for guests causes me to hobble around like I have a couple of marbles taped to the pad of my foot beneath my second and third toes—on both feet. High heels, obviously, are out.

“Aren’t you ever going to wear heels again?” asked David. No, I explained, I would not be wearing heels probably ever again. “Just pray that I don’t end up wearing a pair of orthopedic shoes.”

Obviously, I am responsible for the care of my feet. So, I make sure that any shoe I wear is ultra-comfortable, and doesn’t—in any way—pinch my toes. I buy padded lifts and slip them into shoes and I never, never walk far unless I am wearing a good pair of walking shoes that absorbs the impact of flesh on pavement. I have learned to be careful when trekking over uneven terrain.

This summer, on a 50th Wedding Anniversary trip to Italy, observing all the above precautions, we walked miles every day without the Morton’s neuroma acting up, crippling me and forcing me to spend a day in a hotel room off-itinerary. Maybe the ugly orthopedic shoes aren’t such a sure thing after all.

The other morning, however, during a prayer time, I had a totally unexpected thought. Why didn’t I use the stepping-on-marbles like pain as a reminder of the wounds of Christ? Why, when I was forced to take off a shoe because of aching feet, didn’t I intentionally remember that nails were pounded through His feet as He was impaled to the Cross. Certainly, as He pressed down against them in order to force His torso upward so His cramped lungs could suck in air, the nail-holes tore and worried the flesh and ligaments. Why didn’t I transform this minor discomfort on my own aging process into an intercessory remembrance of how Christ suffered and of how others suffer in the world?

So I have been attempting to do this work. Unlike St. Francis and other remarkable saints, I have never prayed for the stigmata, actual wounds in the flesh that come from intense and close identification with His death and suffering, but I can do this. I can look at this sometime discomfort as a gift.

Perhaps I have discovered a path forward to deal better with the inevitable signs of old age that will bring me joy in the process of physical decline.

God is in all things, even these thoughts on my 69th birthday.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-113)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
“Randall said that Nathanael almost had a terrible car accident,” my husband reported about a phone call with our eldest son who lives in Phoenix. Nathanael is old enough to have a learner’s permit and can drive with a licensed adult present in the car.

“What happened?” Of course, grandmother that I am, I was eager for the near-miss details.

It appears they had been driving on an expressway, mounted a hill and realized that logs had torn loose from a flatbed semi and were now rolling across the road toward them. Our son yelled to Nathanael to brake, pulled the wheel to steer the car away from impact, then immediately worried about the cars coming up the same hill behind them. Somehow, they avoided what could have become a tragic highway accident.

This is one of those lessons in the rationale behind defensive driving that all teens need to learn and that seasoned adult drivers often forget. On the road, it is impossible to know what surprise in the lane ahead may turn into life-threatening danger for any of us.

“Oh, I was almost in a collision on New Year’s Day.” I had forgotten to report this near-accident to my husband. Driving home from an early trip to the grocery store, with hardly any cars on the road, I paused at a four-way stoplight, and then began to turn when the light showed green and the left-turn arrow flashed. Suddenly I realized the black SUV traveling in the intersecting lane, Route 59, was going exceedingly fast and not slowing down. Instead of accelerating, which I should have done, I braked, putting me directly in the line of impact. Fortunately, the driver of the black car screeched on the brakes. I checked the signal—yep! the light was still green, the left-turn arrow still showing. I was the one in compliance. I lifted my hands in a what-the-heck-do-you-think-you’re-doing gesture, then proceeded to complete my turn.

I realized as I drove home that I had been spared a collision that would have hit our car right at the driver’s side and would have been a really, really bad beginning for the New Year.

It is at these moments when we remember that a loving God protects us from advancing dangers; they are reminders of His constant loving protection at times we know nothing about.

So I lift my heart in thanksgiving for myself, for our new teen driver Nathanael Mains, and for our families to say, “Thank you God, for these unusual evidences of your care that poke through the fabric of our daily lives to remind us that your web of protection is ever cast over all our days—even when we don’t know it.”

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-108)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
As suspected, the new bathroom cabinet I purchased from HOBO’s was too big for the collapsed backseat of my compact car. The young salesman assisted me in lifting the cabinet/mirror and the sink/counter into the back, but I would have to beg or borrow a van from someone, make another 20-minute trip to and back from Lombard. And, I really needed to bring the cabinet home this Tuesday night so that Mike, our handyman, could install it on Wednesday morning.

Who in the world could I borrow some vehicle from large enough to haul that cabinet in to my house?

I left HOBO’s trying to remember if my son’s SUV was roomy enough to fit in this box that measured 36” by 28” by 28”. Drat—it was a cold November night, slightly rainy. Jeremy would have to clear out the back of his SUV—what a nuisance!

At that moment, a flatbed truck cut in front of my car, zoomed into the lane that was on the far left of me. The truck had a large sign that read:

MENARDS RENT-A-TRUCK
ONLY $18.99 for 75 MINUTES!

“Now there’s a thought. I could rent a truck from the Menards near my house—I’ve done that before. I wonder if there’s a Menards near here. I could leave my car, rent the truck, pick up the cabinet from HOBO’s, drive it home, unload the cabinet, then drive back it back, pay for it, then pick up my car in the parking lot. Would that take more than 75 minutes? Probably not.”

I literally thought to myself, Follow that Menards rent-a-truck. Sure enough, a Menards loomed before my eyes in the shopping center to my left. The bozo who had cut me off, moving across two lanes, was probably returning this truck there. I then proceeded to cut across two lanes in order to make a sudden left-hand turn into the parking lot myself.

“David,” I phoned home. “I’m at Menards. I’m renting a truck to move that cabinet. It didn’t fit into the Mazda.”

“You’re renting a truck…?”

“Yes. I’m renting a truck.” My theory on trucks (not semis, just the flatbed kind) is that all kinds of bozos drive trucks—like the guy who cut me off in the rent-a-truck. If bozos can drive trucks, so can I.

So—I rented the truck, drove back to Lombard, picked up the cabinet, drove home where David helped me tip the cabinet box onto a dolly and move it into the garage. He then decided to accompany me back to Menards, where I learned that I had arrived within the 75 minutes and my deposit would cover the fee. We picked up the little Mazda, ordered me a dinner at the Wendy’s drive-through, returned home and emptied the back of its load—a mirrored cabinet, a porcelain sink and countertop, and the funky new faucet set.

I was home by 7:15, ready to meet my handyman by Wednesday morning.

However, in reflecting back on this little incident, I realize the “bozo” driving the truck may in truth have been a “bozo” (he seemed a little bozo-ish standing at the Menards customer-service counter in front of me), but he clearly participated in a scheme that we call some “unexpected evidence of God’s care.” Because of all the remodeling going on, not to mention the fact that it is the first week of December with all the Christmas tasks also looming, I had been up since 2:19 that morning, functioning in meetings with just four hours of sleep—not enough to propel a dedicated non-shopper into an evening of shopping. Certainly, I wasn’t eagerly looking forward to begging a car from family or friends.

That truck shot in front of me with a sign that could have been neon: Rent-a-Truck! Rent-a-Truck! I was not thinking about Menards trucks; I was thinking about whether or not I could fit that cabinet box in my son’s SUV. And, the guy driving that truck had to be cheeky enough to cut me off, someone who could clip in front of me, then once he had my attention, zoom over into the next lane. I got the idea: “Hey! What if I rent a truck? It’s only $18.99 for 75 minutes. I’ve spent $541 already, and it will save me a whole night of hunting around. Yah! Let’s rent a truck!”

This is a silly story and the fact that I consider it to be one of the ways my loving Heavenly Father intervened in my really long day may seem silly to someone else. But hey!—it’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Once again, I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-094)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Usually, around the end of October or middle of November, I find myself driving somewhere, and my eye catches a stand of wild red dogwoods by the roadside. Now I love to poke these twigs into an arrangement of Christmas greens in the barrel by the mailbox and in the pots by the walk that leads to the front door. So, I stop and clip a fistful with the garden scissors I keep in the car’s glove department. But, for the last two years, winter freeze has hardened the soil unseasonably early, forcing me to carry soup pots of boiling water out of the kitchen, through the garage, across the driveway, across the street to pour them into the barrel to soften the dirt. What a job!

So this year, though I’ve been traveling, I’ve kept my eye on the weather report. Tonight we are supposed to have our first freeze; I’ve invited 25 neighbor women for a pre-Christmas tea and really don’t have much time. It looks as though I’ll be boiling water again this year! Not only do I not have greens for the barrel, but I don’t have red dogwood twigs to stick into them.

However, my sister called yesterday. She and her husband took a trip to Paris, and while gone, their yardmen disposed of the twigs she usually uses in her Christmas pots. What was my daughter’s new cell number? Melissa once had a floral-design business, so we look to her to help us in predicaments like this. “If you can’t find any, just spray some branches the colors you want.” She thought that was a good idea for a backup plan if needed.
 
I did grab a moment yesterday to run to Home Depot. This Sunday will mark the second week of Advent and I don’t even have a traditional Advent wreath for the living-room coffee table. Walking into the garden center, I spied a tub with a few bunches of redwood twigs, and though it pained me, I plunked down $7.99 for two bunches ($7.99 for each bunch; that’s $17.08 for what I usually harvest for free—ouch!). But, if I can carve a moment this afternoon when the temperature is at its highest—a forecasted 41 degrees—then perhaps I will spare myself the labor of heating and hauling all that hot water.

Now some people might call this a circumstance, but the timing was simply too unusual. I call it a God Hunt Sighting. One phone call turned my mind toward dogwood twigs, the very day before a freeze was predicted to set in. A few dogwood twig bunches sat at the doorway to the Home Depot garden center and I spied them. I have this afternoon to store the dried gourds, haul in the few pumpkins that will freeze, and plant my red twigs—all I need is an hour!

Thanks be to God. I spy Him!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-090)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Three times a year, I fly to Modesto, CA, which is east of San Francisco in the Central Valley. I serve on the Board of Directors of Medical Ambassadors International, and its headquarters are located in Salida. Since this is farm and orchard territory and the weather is climate, each season I visit yields its own fruit. Two weeks ago, in November, I again marveled at the profligacy of growth. Orange trees were ripening for their third harvest, and the signs at fruit and vegetable stands were advertising walnuts for sale. The walnut harvest had just been completed.

“Oh, let’s pick up some walnuts,” I remarked to my host. David and I had flown in a couple days early to do some video taping, some media consulting, and to fit in a day trip to Yosemite.

“What kind do you want?” our host asked. He was in the driver’s seat and volunteering his guide expertise since this National Park is a happy place for him. Climbing the mountains, El Capitan for one, pointing out water falls, spotting other climbers scaling the sides of sheer cliffs, treating guests to lunch in the lodge—these give him joy because he loves sharing the beauty and history of the park.

“Oh,” I replied, “I want enough for holiday baking—chopped walnuts—but I also want walnuts still in the shell.”

I’ve discovered that grade-school children often don’t know where food comes from. In fact, the 11-year-old son of our Thanksgiving meal guests who are refugees from Congo, actually held up a walnut he had plucked from the bowl and asked, “What are these?” My own grandson, 12 years old, inquired, “How do I open this?” I showed him how to use the red-handled hand pliers to crack the husks.

Our visit to Yosemite was on Wednesday, Thursday was spent taping with a dinner for the Board of Directors in the evening before our full board work day on Friday. I returned home from a long day to find a five-pound bag of unshelled walnuts on my bed and another smaller bag of walnut chips beside it. We had packed tightly coming out, and though I suspected this food bounty would send our baggage into the overweight range on the airlines scales, I was bringing home treasure and didn’t mind.

“How much do I owe you for the walnuts?” I asked during a lull in our mutually busy schedules.

My host smiled, then replied, “Uh, what walnuts? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” No use arguing, because I realized my friend was also taking pleasure in making time to give me the gift of something he knew I wanted.

So, David and I repacked our suitcases, fitting in the large bags, along with ten pomegranates from our hosts’ backyard tree (each fruit costs $1.99 here in Chicago), my board notes, and a handful of persimmons along with a persimmon-cookie recipe recommended by my hostess. We’d flown to San Francisco on United, but when I went to print out our boarding passes, I realized we’d be flying home on Continental—the two airlines are merging.

“Your bag is overweight,” said the curbside check-in agent. “We know,” said my husband. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing,” he explained. “You have Elite Access Status. No charge for the bags. No charge for the overweight.” Elite Access Status!—how did that happen? All I could figure was that the airlines don’t quite have their systems together as yet in this merger.

It is in these small things that we are reminded that love is all around us. There is love that a good God built into His creation so that we are fed and nourished by the beauty of it as well as the bounty of it. There are caring friends who house us and host us and carve out time to act as a day guide and share their own love of the world. There are people who delight to give us what we want.

Love is all around. I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-086)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
It has taken a lifetime for me to learn to leave well.

Going on a journey, preparing for a five-day trip, getting ready to take a vacation, heading off for the weekend—any of these are cause for disruption in my equanimity.

Suddenly, it seems as though there is so much to do to get ready to go. Part of this has something to do with the house I want to return to. I want it clean and welcoming. I want the beds made, the laundry done, the work for the ministry caught up. I don’t want to return to face small or large disasters.

So, weird things kick in psychologically before I go. Who cares if the car is vaccumed out, the garage put in order, the garden beds raked?—this is all work that is not crucial—it will wait. Suddenly, when getting ready to leave, I care. I care that I haven’t gotten to the tasks that I’ve neglected to do for days or weeks or months. A frantic-getting-ready-to-leave bunny out of Alice in Wonderland begins to chant, “I’m late. I’m late. For a very important date.” In my case, the very important date is everything in my life that has been left undone—all of which I suddenly see when I’m getting ready to leave home.

A few rules have helped me with this sudden dislocation of priorities.

1. I ask myself the question, “Is this really germane, is it really important to the
process of my leaving?”

If it’s not really important, it can wait—the dirty laundry, the car, the garden, the garage—until I get home, at which time I will promptly forget how urgent it was to get it all done.

2. Then, I work to get everything in the office and house done by late afternoon
before the morning that I leave.

This gives me a whole evening to pack, to go over my notes, to pack my traveling office bag that holds the computer or the papers I want to take with me—and then to also get a good night’s sleep.

Leaving well. I often wonder if the frantic effort that besets me has anything to do with the end of life when I will leave permanently. Maybe this last-minute boost before trips is an acting out, a foreshadowing of an inner desire to leave this life well, to not have regrets (if I have time to consider my life when it does end) that I have not done more to put things in order—in the relational world as well as in the material world.

If so, then I have some work to do—to make the final departure a good departure—not fraught with those anxious examinations, i.e., “Why didn’t I...?” “Why didn’t I...?”

Lord, help me to learn to leave well,
all those little journeys along with my
final departure. Teach me what is necessary
to finish—and what doesn’t matter if I
leave it undone. Help all my departures
to be conducted in peace.
                                                             Amen.

I am improving. For this last journey everything was done that needed to get done. I was packed the evening before our morning departure. Work that staff couldn’t do until I do my part had been completed. The house was in order for a pleasant return. I only forgot my makeup base, a half-slip (I usually forget something crucial). So, we are doing better. I am learning. (I didn’t start on the messy garage.)

May the end of my days be filled with a similar equanimity, these little practice leavings will have helped me to ready myself for the final one.

In helping me to leave well, I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-085)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
American women often pride themselves on their ability to multitask. However, recent studies of how the brain functions are beginning to indicate that multitasking may not be all that great—our brains themselves, not to mention our productivity, may be better off if we try to accomplish one thing at a time and get one task done before we start another.

I had a week recently that was the mother-of-all multitasking weeks. Although I tried to concentrate on one job at a time and complete it until I began the next job, I found myself hip-hopping from task to task.

However, by the end of my monster week (having cut a few things out of my schedule that I simply couldn’t fit in), I was beginning to feel a little smug. I really had moved through a mountain of to-do’s, checking them off the list one by one. Drafts had been written for the new weekly e-mail sales campaign. The donor letter was off to the designer. Autumn arrangements now filled the outside pots beside the walk to the front door. I’d caught up on most of my e-mails. I’d spent good time in prayer before the Listening Groups, and they had both gone well. The house had been cleaned. I’d brought the geraniums in from outside just before the first frost to overwinter in front of a south-facing window.

It had been a productive week—I’d even set the table for Thanksgiving. That much would be ready when I returned from a six-day trip to California right before Thanksgiving week.

And, I was fitting in a Sunday dinner with a friend, using up the produce in the refrigerator in a beef and vegetable crock-pot dinner. What a gal!

Sorry to report that not one thing I prepared to serve at that meal was fully cooked. The beans in the black-bean broth were just this side of crunchy. The carrots and the potatoes were decidedly on the firm side, and the meat—well, the meat (a grass-fed beefalo roast purchased from Michaela Farms, run by the Franciscan sisters in the convent of St. Mary’s at Oldenburg, Indiana) ... was more than a little chewy.

The conversation at our beautiful Thanksgiving table set two weeks before the holiday, however, that was very good. My guest commented on how tasty the gravy was (the only food served from that menu that was not undercooked!).

As I was cleaning up dishes in the kitchen, standing over the soapy water at the sink, I heard that sure, firm, clear inner word. So, you thought you were a pretty great gal, huh?

Oh drat—that old proclivity of mine, pride in accomplishment—had been insidiously worming its way into my attitude. Yep! I had been thinking I’d been a pretty great gal with all this successful multitasking—forgetting completely that I had prayed every morning, pausing to pray at noontide and evening, asking God for His help to get through the mountain of work that waited for me before I flew off to California. An undone dinner was the attention-grabber to warn me of a little inappropriate ego jigging around on the inside of this “great gal.”

I am so thankful I have a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to warn me that I’m patting myself on the back a little too much. Without His help, without the help of friends, without a husband who pitches in willingly and often, without staff—I might not accomplish much of anything.

Despite what people say, multitasking is not all that great.

Even in the midst of learning—or, perhaps especially in the midst of learning—I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-084)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Last year when I went to fill the mailbox barrel and the garden pots by the front door, the weather had already turned cold in October here in Chicago, and everything was frozen solid. I found myself hauling soup pots of boiling water, heated on the stove, across Hawthorne Lane and pouring it in the barrels to thaw the black soil. That worked fine. After a few trips across the street, the earth was sodden enough for me to fill it with Scotch pine limbs, red dogwood branches, and the stems of the Hobby Lobby fake poinsettias I add for Christmas color.

This year it is November and we have had no hard cold snap as yet. With no freezing frost to end their leafing cycle, the yellow maples are stubbornly hanging onto their leaves. Yesterday, it was 60 degrees in some neighborhoods in Chicago! I am rushing to get all the outdoor tasks done before that cold freeze hits. Clerks in stores, our friends who run the Tower Laundry, all say something to this effect: “Beautiful day, isn’t it? Can you believe it’s November?” And then, all add the invariable aside, “But we know the cold weather is coming, don’t we?” According to forecasters, Chicago is in for a really cold, really hard winter.

So when David and I drove to church Sunday morning, my eye (a gatherer’s eye) noticed the pile of branches set out by the side of the road so the city could pick up the prunings, as well as the mounds of leaves that had been dutifully gathered in huge mounds when home owners raked their back yards and gardens. Signs notify all residents:

LEAF PICKUP BEGINS IN THIS AREA NOVEMBER 7.

So Sunday night, there I was, clipping as many of the evergreen cuttings as I could fit into the back of our Mazda. Then, on Monday morning, while driving to work, I spied another pile of evergreen branches and stopped to fill another load into the back of my car. Hm-m-m-m, I thought. Need to remember to go scouting around next fall when the leaf-collection signs go up. People are trimming their trees as well.

I have enough greens to fill all the pots by the front door and two barrels—one by the mailbox and one by the side of the driveway. I usually buy a box of greens from the local nursery wholesaler. These gifts by the roadside will save me a couple hundred dollars.

It is true that one person’s waste can fill another person’s need. But I give thanks as I think about Thanksgiving for these roadside gifts given to those of us who either don’t have the funds or need to spend the money for other charities.

Thank you Lord for yard refuse, dumped beside the street. Thank you that I saw the piles and had the time to gather my Christmas decorations. (And please me to get everything arranged before the coming hard freeze!)

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-077)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Sometimes we humans move in a kind of fugue state—not a loss of memory, but a loss of motivation—a kind of ennui of function. We know there is a lot that needs to get done, but just thinking of where to begin causes us to descend into the molasses that is in our minds.

Traveling overseas, then coming home, usually leaves me in this kind of funk. It’s not depression. It’s not discouragement. It’s a weird intercontinental displacement, which some people call “jet-lagging.” So, I accept it partly. This too will pass (although the to-do list is getting longer and longer). But, I also pray that God will restore the initiative in my spirit and the organizational capacity in my mind, so I can get the work done that I need to do.

After coming back from Africa (after almost a month out of the States), where we are working at building a micro-enterprise that specializes in African bags, I immediately went into this post-trip fog.

However, little “angels” were sent my way to assist me. Linda Scharaga has been popping into our office to volunteer when she has some extra time. This has been of inestimable value. Retired from teaching high-school home economics, Linda loves to pick up the domestic chores that are neglected. I gave her a bunch of those little sewing tasks that have been sitting in drawers, waiting for the day “when I would have enough time.”

The half-curtain in the guest room hung about eight inches off the floor. Too short, it looked like a child wearing cast-off clothes. We always have someone in our guest room. Right now a Wheaton College professor is renting a room for the school term. I had made the curtains myself from a rough muslin fabric and had even found a remnant of checked cotton that would be perfect for a ruffle. That had sat in a drawer for about eight years. It’s embarrassing to admit (I admit).

I had also found a couple yards of end-of-bolt fabric on a clearance table to hide the rod above the window that my writing desk faces. The study had undergone a purge last spring—every drawer, every shelf in the bookcase had been cleansed and ordered. I bought a shade that cuts the southern exposure so I can see my computer screen when the sun shines. I had two small chairs (unearthed at a Goodwill store for $2.50 each) upholstered, had my desk chair recovered in a fabulous remnant and my upholsterer made me a matching pillow that fits my back perfectly, but I just couldn’t finish the raw edges of the fabric to tie around the rod—just to soften the top of the window.

Linda took the curtains and the ruffle fabric, took the fabric for the rod, also took a summer skirt that had torn at the waist line, took the “by-the-way” vintage-print cotton I had once used to tie back the curtains in our Oak Park, Illinois house (we lived there from 1969-1978) and cut and hemmed them into charming tea towels.

There is nothing like a helping hand to lift you out of fugues, funks and fogs. This kind of practical care, this kind of tangible effort always touches me in the deepest of ways. I feel God’s loving interest through the kindness of friends and strangers (and loving volunteers).

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-076)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 

“My mouth shall recount your mighty acts and saving deeds all day long; though I cannot know the number of them.” —Psalm 71:15.

It is my personal theory that when we dwell in heaven, one of the delightful activities that will come our way will be to look back at our days on Earth and see all the uncounted, unsuspected ways God intervened on our behalf, performing mighty acts and saving deeds all our lives long—about which we were totally unaware.

People often ask me, “But how do I know if it’s God or not?”

My response invariably is, “Oh, don’t worry about it. You’ve probably overlooked His good favors for most of your living—none of us have any idea how much He has done for us—that if you give Him credit for some good thing for which He is not responsible, you still will be woefully behind in your gratitude and praise-giving.”

Here is a silly list from yesterday—my frail and feeble attempt to pay attention to some of the things God has done for me and to recount them for myself and for others.

1. I wrote the monthly donor letter for Mainstay Ministries in four hours. The idea for a theme, the quotes I needed, the Scripture AND the photos were all at hand. I didn’t have to think hard, research widely, hunt and find. Everything I needed was at hand.

2. Photos from the Africa trip that I took in October came to me on a CD in time to put them in blogs, the donor letter, on the Global Bag Project website, and on Facebook pages. A perfect example of divine brinkmanship!

3. The garbage service picked up the single bed-frame AND THE OLD MATTRESS we needed to discard in order to start working on the décor for the spare room in the basement.

4. I found my car keys—a regular and unending displacement in my life. At least when I can’t find the keys, at last I’ve learned to pray first and hunt last.

5. David discovered that because I was overseas, I hadn’t recorded my automated Social Security bank deposit for the month of September. I have more money in my checking account than I thought!

6. With a combination of sleeping pills, ear plugs, winter blankets, and a closed bedroom door (and with my husband finally realizing—after 50 years of marriage—that anything that wakes me up gets me up), I am getting eight to ten hours of sleep per night. For decades, I’ve functioned on four to six hours of sleep, seven on rare occasions. This is a true accomplishment. I’m hoping my brain will get into the sleep habit, and I will be able to discard the pills.

7. I found the new humidifier I forgot I’d purchased last winter. It holds enough water that I don’t have to refill it every other day. I threw away the old humidifier I had bought secondhand. This may not seem like God, but I had completely forgotten this purchase. It could have sat in the guest-room closet all winter, but I was getting the closet ready for the Wheaton College professor who will be living with us this season, and voila! there it was—new and clean and shining.

8. A retiree who was a high-school Home Economics teacher (Domestic Arts, I believe it is these days) volunteers in our office every Thursday. Because of her professional background, she is a whiz with the copier, the computer, with details and with just pitching in. She test-washed the new wraparound East Africa kanga-cloth skirt and found it washed and hung dry wonderfully. She suggested the design of its own traveling bag—we are the Global Bag Project, after all. And yesterday, she came home with me, took away the fabric I have had for a year to make a drape for the rod in my writing study, measured the half-curtain in the guest room and took the fabric to make a ruffle so that it reaches the floor (I’ve had that fabric for at least ten years), and also took the vintage tea-towel fabric to make into tea towels (not to mention the new summer skirt that needed repair at the waistline). I feel like God has just provided me with a personal assistant.

How can I prove that any of these things were part of God’s “mighty acts and saving deeds”? I can’t. I just assume these are a partial list of the incidental incidents out of my life that smooth the going for me. But then, who can prove that they aren’t? Can you?

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-073)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
My pastor’s wife, Pam Klein, met me in Nairobi. Actually, she arrived late in the evening before I came dragging in at 6:30 the next morning!

Pam, her husband Jeff, and David and I have been meeting together regularly once a week for the last few months. But, I was unprepared for the energy this woman brought to our Global Bag Project!

Pam is a remarkable photographer. At home, in the States, we had just decided in a conference call with our Internet Marketing Group that we needed photos, photos, photos to flood the technology as part of our keyword-optimization strategy. Not only was Pam an excellent photographer, but she had a new camera and a fabulous eye.

After selling reusable kanga-cloth African bags for two years, we needed to develop new products, and Pam, with two daughters, an instinct for design, and a love of the retail approach of Anthropologie®, came sweeping into the sewing room on the campus of Africa International University with the idea of a wraparound, one-size-fits all skirt (with its own traveling bag, of course).

We had a couple hundred dollars to capitalize this idea and pay the women for their work, so we headed into the Somali market, bought yards and yards of mismatched African cloth, set them out on wooden chairs on the lawn of the guest house and took photos to show the sewers just what fabric would go with what fabric—combinations we though American consumers would like.

What had begun as a functional photo idea turned into a design photo-shoot as the two of us spent a morning being “silly crazy American ladies” (hanging bags on the wooden fence, using an ancient ladder as a prop for “animal-skin design” bags).

I wear down quickly if I have too many introduction conversations (Where are you from? Have you been to Africa before? How many children do you have? How long will you be here?) Pam, however, approached each person with delight, sincerity, and eagerness. This lifted a huge social load off me and allowed me to do what I do best—deepen relationships, identify people’s passions and competencies and find ways for them to use them, encourage idea-generation, and then act as a catalyst to give feet to other people’s concepts. I went to bed at night tired, but not depleted. Pam had carried most of the conversational load—and she was not weary from it. What a gift!

Pam’s amazing energy injected our journey with enthusiasm. I realized that Carla Boelkens, our Stateside GBP Director, and I have become worn-out from pushing this start-up microenterprise ball up the hill. And to have someone else join us with such a quantity of joy stimulated me and charged my own batteries.

At the end of our ten days in Kenya, the bag-makers had stitched together some prototype wraparound skirts, which we brought home to run informal surveys for the purpose of improving the product, discovering if American consumers would buy them (great enthusiasm so far), and what price point the market would bear.

Taking photos of Benta, an orphan and the youngest of the seamstresses, modeling the skirt, Pam jokingly asked for a little more attitude. “Like Tyra Banks,” Benta said, knowingly. Pam laughed, “Yes, exactly. Like Tyra Banks.”

When I prayed about this trip, I prayed that ten people would join us who have a heart for helping without hurting. The Lord answered my prayer. He gave me ten people in one woman—Pam Klein.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-068)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Having been part of the planting of an inner city church during 1968-1978, I am all too aware that well-meaning people can do a lot of damage. This has been comprehensively addressed by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert in their excellent book (fast becoming the “bible” in the development world), When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor ... And Yourself.

The goal for the well-meaning Westerner is to work to bring any project to a point of sustainability, where the project is not dependent upon outside expertise, money or presence. The world is littered with good ideas that died when the Westerner with expertise, benign intent, and money necessarily withdrew their support.

So, I went to Nairobi—my fourth trip—with this question in the back of my mind: How do we move Global Bag Project Kenya (GBPK) to a place of self-sustainability?

You can imagine my surprise when Mary Ogalo, the Kenyan GBP Project Manager, put on my schedule a meeting with her new board of directors, the president of which was scheduled to conduct a day-long workshop on how boards function.

You can imagine my delight when I realized that an incredible synergy was developing between the Kijiji Guest House, its curio shop, and the GBP sewing room, all on the campus of Africa International University. Guests arrive, drop into the curio shop, buy something made by the seamstresses, and are invited to stop at the sewing room, where a larger display of products are available, and guests can buy or order something else. Mary reported to her board, “We have not sold anything under $600 for the last few months.” (It isn’t a lot of money, but then, this is a microfinance project we’re talking about.)

So we began to brainstorm how we could increase this synergy (and the sales). The guest houses are round (like a little village—hence the Swahili name Kijiji), but their décor has been somewhat neglected due to lack of finances. A comfortable Guest House with good food provided in the Kijiji Café, an upgraded curio shop, with inducements (blanket bags on the bed made by GBP seamstresses, cards on nightstands mentioning the sewing project just across the garden plot, Africa gift bags to take home to children, and so on) could increase the GBPK sales right at that site!

I woke one morning with the thought, What if we bring in a team of people who fix up a room or two—shop in the secondhand markets, stop at the village markets, buy fabrics for the GBP seamstresses to turn into items—couldn’t we eventually upgrade the Kijiji Guest Houses so they would attract more guests (and more sales)? What if we put a sign outside the redecorated guest room door that read:

The décor of this room has been provided
by the Global Bag Project
for the comfort of all who rest here.

All of a sudden, synergies were swirling within synergies! And as if this creative thinking wasn’t enough, Mary Ogalo was notified that Global Bag Project Kenya had been awarded its NGO (non-government organization) status—a process that only took six months instead of the usual frustrating years!

I discovered while in Kenya that the Global Bag Project was actually in the initial phases of developing a sustainable model!

Sometimes God works on the behalf of our ideas in places far away from us despite our inadequacies and our hesitations. He has bright, experienced, competent servants who love Him and want to bring His goodness to those who suffer all over the world. With a little bit of encouragement, they can take an idea farther than we ever dreamed. And in time, they won’t need us at all. That’s sustainability.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-067)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
I recently flew home from a ten-day trip overseas with one week to put the final details together for an Advent Retreat of Silence for thirty-some women. So much needed to be done, and even though our staff was in a highly busy space themselves, they assisted me in putting the final touches on the Advent Retreat with willingness, without complaint, and with a spirit that brought great kindness and grace to my jet-lagging physiology.

Someone on the staff designed name cards (someone else found leftover nametags). Another individual pulled a list of alphabetized names together, showing who had paid and who was rooming with whom. A check was totaled and funds transferred so I could pay the retreat center. Handouts were copied and collated. Flyers were designed to list coming events. Every time I turned around, another task was done. I went to the Advent Retreat with everything organized, no last-minute panic, and with an hour or two to compose myself before the participants arrived. And yes, we all experienced a powerful time together waiting on God for the healing power of silence.

One of my tasks at Mainstay Ministries is to write or gather the ideas for our monthly fund appeal. Since I have been raising funds for nonprofit organizations since the age of 18, this frequently becomes a tiresome process for me. Some days I would give anything for someone to step into our organization, tap me on the shoulder and take this whole load off my back. If I were not so certain about God’s help to do His work in the world, I would give it up. But, so frequently, there is the right idea, and the right quote, and the right photograph just when I need it most. Thus, I am encouraged by the reality that this is a collaborative process, one in which I am not working all alone.

Other tasks, particularly the teaching tasks, are different for me. When I am putting together a teaching ministry, God frequently uses anything and everything to teach me. While developing a teaching program that used the metaphor of dance to show how to “step in time to God’s sacred rhythms,” it seemed as though all my spiritual reading, the conversations I had with friends, and the films, books, and magazine articles from popular culture gave me examples of this concept.

Even better, during this period of time I was the plenary speaker at a women’s conference where one of the workshops was being taught by a professor from a Christian college who was head of the dance minor. I attended, took copies of all her scriptural notes, and in a half-hour she had us all improvising worship dance. It was delightful!

I needed help to do God’s work in this world. Help arrived. I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-065)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Because I planted tomatoes (from a nursery greenhouse, not from seed) a month after May 15th, which is the date gardeners mark here in the Chicago area as past the danger of frost, I have plenty of green tomatoes, and I am not sure there will be enough time for them all to ripen.

David and I leave for a ten-day trip overseas in two weeks. September is upon us and even with the slight chance that warm days will continue to October, I am projecting that I may have plenty of green tomatoes still on the vines.

Since I hate waste, I looked up some recipes for green tomatoes. Fried green tomatoes is one, of course, and has been popularized by the book and the film of the same name. My Joy of Gardening Cookbook, however, has some other suggestions as to how to use the not-quite-ripe bounty of tomato vines.

First of all, they can be harvested and stored. “If you don’t want to cook the tomatoes green, ripen them in a warm, dark place,” writes the author. “I put green tomatoes on a shelf in the root cellar and cover with a layer of newspaper. I check just about every day to ‘harvest’ the ripe ones and remove any that are starting to rot.” She also informs me that green tomatoes will not ripen well on a windowsill. The skin turns red but the insides stay green. The only recipes she gives for green tomatoes, apart from these instructions to ripen them, is the one for fried green tomatoes and one for “Andrea’s Green Tomato Chocolate Cake.” Since I am a sad and pathetic baker for the most part, I probably won’t try that last suggestion.

Also, we don’t have a cold cellar. I’ll see, however, if Cirillo will pick whatever green tomatoes are on the vines, store them on the shelves in the dark place in the basement where I keep extra supplies. I have no doubt he will clear away the debris in the vegetable garden before he returns to Oaxaca, Mexico sometime in mid-October.

Maybe when I come home from Europe (and then a side trip to Kenya to consult on our Africa bag project), there will be some bounty from my experimental foray into vegetable gardening that will remind me of the wonder that happens in the growing season right outside my front door.

Actually, as I think about it, nothing is really totally wasted, since everything green goes into compost piles. Sometimes I actually think, We don’t have enough weeds. I don’t have enough greens for the compost mix. Then, I am glad when we fill a wheelbarrow with the weeds I used to hate. I have more places to dump weeds than I have weeds to dump in them—but the month of August with its riot of growth, both planned for and unplanned for, helps.

When a mind is occupied with such necessities—What will we do if we have an abundance of green tomatoes?, or How will we make compost if there are not enough weeds?—there is not much room for mental anxieties. An evening in the garden when the setting sun slants, or an early cool morning of hoeing and transplanting, mostly, being at harmony with the natural world puts us back in a place we humans vacated too long ago and don’t even have the memory of missing. We just know that in some way we are dislocated.

I recommend thoughts about green tomatoes. I recommend soil on the hands. I recommend garden meditation. I am not the only woman in the world who says this is good for the soul.

And, in all of this, I spy God.
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-050)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
I will be in Africa this October. One of the ways we cut costs on the Africa bags made by the bag-makers who belong to the Global Bag Project, is we “mule” the bags back.

We are a charitable organization. The sales are donations; we give a receipt for funds above the raw costs. Our travel is for humanitarian purposes, so we can take advantage of certain airlines’ generosity and bring back more than the allotted suitcases without extra fees. (Do you have a trip planned to Kenya? Can you bring back an extra duffel with kanga-cloth reusable shopping bags?)

In contrast to our “muling,” one box with 50 bags can cost us over $300 to ship!

Because of all this, I was eager for bags to be ready so I could carry them home for the parties we mount for pre-Christmas sales. However, due to the work our volunteer staff has been doing on the Internet optimization plan, (and our ineffective “National Watermelon Day”), we have not had much time to launch parties. Nor did we have the requisite funds to order new bags (which also means that our seamstresses did not have work). We need $500 to order 50 bags. This is just to buy fabric.

I prayed, Lord, do you think you could provide $1,000 so we could wire money to Kenya and begin to start the bag-making process up again? Carla Boelkens, our Stateside Director had not been paid. Mary Ogalo, our GBP Kenya Project Coordinator, had not been paid, and I had haunting visions of sewing machines standing idle with families going hungry.

“Do you know what,” said Carla. “We have an account for designated gifts that we don’t need right now. It has about $1,400 in it. Can we write a check from that fund and pay it back?”

We decided to borrow $1,000 from that fund (to be paid back by the end of the fiscal year) and begin the process so I could mule kanga-cloth bags back from Africa when I return in mid-October.

Then we sold an unexpected $300 of bags at the backyard party and an unexpected $500 of bags in West Lafayette, IN (and, oh, I forgot—we sold some $500 worth of bags at our 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration). It was as though God was saying to me, It’s all right. You are not slipping into the “rob Peter to pay Paul” mode. You’re just a little cash poor. Trust me. I will provide all your needs.

One of the ways we teach people to spy God intervening in their every day is in the category: “Help to do God’s work in the world.”

As long as I am faithful in my prayers (and sometimes when I am not), God is ready to help me do His work. A small kindness, an simple conversation, an empty room readied for a houseguest. These all often work more goodness than any of us suspect or know. Money sitting idle.

I spy God.
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-045)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 

Oh, life’s little frustrations!

A friend offered to underwrite a trip to Italy by covering the expenses for four of us—he and his wife and my husband and me. That in itself is a wondrous gift. But, the fact that it is our 50th year of marriage and we are still healthy enough to travel makes this a double blessing. The reason he volunteered such generous underwriting is because he received some inheritance money earlier than expected, and the four of us have been talking about taking this trip together for a decade.

Our friends have traveled with us when we took a tour of 36 people to Spain to visit the sites of the Spanish mystics. Our friends traveled with us to France when we took 22 people to discover “God Through the Eyes of the Artist and the Artist in the Eyes of God.” And the four of us ended up in Vienna on the 2nd Sunday of Advent for a week, roaming the Christmas markets and attending free classical concerts in the churches of this historically musical event.

“We want to go to Italy,” said this well-traveled friend, “but we want to go with you. I’ll pay for it if you will plan it.” I suspect the generous underwriting came because there was some suspicion I would never get around to it. The bad world economy had frightened me into not attempting any more risky travel adventures.

I’ve written a book in which I used Michelangelo’s Pietàs as a metaphor for mercy, and my initial plan was to visit the earliest Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica at Rome, the Florentine Pietà in the Duomo Museum in Florence, and the last Pietà, the Rondanini in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. My plan was to use the book Comforting One Another as a major theme for our journey through Italy.

However, none of the travel agents I’d worked with in years past were any longer available. They had either quit the travel industry, moved to other agencies, or were unable to work outside the country where we had enjoyed the benefits of their specialized competencies. I left messages and received no callbacks.

Finally, getting a little panicky (I didn’t want to make a random selection with a company that was not established or without a recommendation from a traveler who had used them—horror stories abound about tourists losing their funds when a company goes under), I turned to one of the members of our small group. His enterprise treks young people all over the world for the purpose of developing leadership through adventurous travel.

“Oh, Kim!” he answered. “We’ve used Kim for decades. She knows what she’s doing. She’s local. We’ve been most satisfied with her. Also, she knows Italy. Her daughter lived there.” He even knew Kim’s phone number by heart.

Not only do we sometimes not ask God for what we need, but we forget to ask the people we know who often love and respect us and want to help in any way they can. God often helps us through our friends. (And, how often we neglect to recognize their help as coming from Him.)

Our Italy trip seems to be in capable hands (with someone who returns my phone calls and e-mails right away!).

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. This microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-040)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Caitlyn, our eldest grandchild, is 18 and starts college at Indiana Wesleyan University. She’s received a soccer and an academic scholarship. And, because she’s so far from home, Phoenix, I have been hoping we would be able to get down from Chicago to see her frequently enough to be a support in that tenuous freshman year of adjustment.

When the daughter of a high-school friend (whom I haven’t seen in ages) called to ask me to speak for a women’s event in her church in Lafayette, Indiana, I was immediately concerned to see whether I could fit this date onto my August calendar.

“Will you drive down or fly?” I was asked. Oh, drive—by the time you get yourself to the airport for these short trips, wait at the gate, fly out, pick up baggage, and drive to your destination, you might as well have taken your own car. The travel time is generally about even, if not shorter.

It was only when I e-mailed my contact that I could accept this invitation, and MapQuested the miles and directions, that I thought, Oh, Caitlyn! Maybe I can pop on to Indianapolis and catch her somewhere in a gap between her soccer practices.

I quickly cell-phone-caught Kit (as her brothers and friends now call her—it used to be Kay-Kay). “When are you arriving at school?” Next week. “Tell me about your roommate (a sister soccer-team member). How are you set for clothes?”

I suddenly realized that Kit (let’s face it: I will probably always call her Katy) would be on campus a full three weeks before classes. With this speaking invitation to Lafayette, about 45 minutes from IWU (learning the lingo here), my expenses would be covered. So, I could visit with my granddaughter (and said roommate). What an unexpected gift! Not only that, but I might even have some money to blow from book sales and a small honorarium for a warm winter wardrobe to help Caitlyn endure our Midwestern winters.

One of the categories we teach people to examine in order to find God is what we call “unusual linkage or timing”—those events in life when we are prone to exclaim, “What an amazing circumstance!” But, there are no such things as “circumstances” when we live within the embrace of a loving God who oversees and participates in the everyday progression of our lives.

I get to see Caitlyn in a couple of weeks because someone in Lafayette, Indiana, thought I would be good to invite to speak to their women’s event.

Yeah God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. This microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-039)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
The only flights David could arrange for me on his United Frequent Miles program to California went through San Antonio to Los Angeles on the trip out from Chicago. Coming home the arrangements were even worse; from John Wayne airport in Santa Ana, to a layover in Denver, to a layover in Sioux Falls and finally—12 hours later—arrival in Chicago. These were two journeys I was not eager to take, but since it was the only way I could attend the wedding of my nephew in California, I accepted the miles from my husband with admittedly some minimal grumbling about the endurance demands of the transit.

At the gate to San Antonio at O’Hare, however, the ticket agent looked at me and asked a question that in all my air travel no one has ever asked me before: “I can get you on a direct flight to California. Would you prefer me to book you on that flight?”

To save money, I had packed lightly, and looking down at my carryon case, which I had not surrendered at the check-in counter, realized I could easily haul it to whatever terminal the direct flight was departing from. “When does that flight leave?” I asked. It was now 7:25 a.m. My San Antonio flight was booked to leave in an hour at 8:31.
 
“It’s boarding now and the gate closes at 7:45.” That was just enough time for me to hurry from gate C6 down through the United connecting tunnel to gate B12. “I can just make that.” And, I took off racing through the bustling morning crowd.

Sitting in my seat on the direct flight to LAX, I calculated I had shaved four hours off my trip and another hour of waiting at the gate—five hours total. Now if I could only figure how to get from the airport to the Marriott Residence Inn in Westlake Village, California. My brother-in-law, Steve Bell, had arranged under the original plan for me to drive to the hotel with his brother and wife, who were scheduled to arrive at 3:45 p.m., about a half-hour after my original scheduled arrival time. If all went well, it seemed like a fortunate plan.

But, I didn’t want to wait for them if I could find other transport. An afternoon nap before the rehearsal dinner seemed like an even better scheme.

“Steve?” I inquired, using my new smartphone. “I’ve arrived four hours early in L.A., and I can get a shuttle up to Westlake Village. But, is there anyone else arriving about now?” Thank God for cell phones.

“No, no, no. Don’t take the shuttle,” he instructed. “Daryl and Brenda (brother-in-law and sister) have just called. They are right now at the car rental. I’ll get back to them and have them circle around for you. Are you at Terminal 7?”

I indeed was at Terminal 7. I told Steve to have them look for a white-haired lady in a brightly colored jacket (indeed, it seemed as though I was the only white-haired lady in all of the LAX airport!) waiting just before the “Taxi Pickup Only” sign. Within 45 minutes we were on our way, bopping along the 101 Freeway in a dark-blue, rented Mustang convertible. I was in my room by noon, had time to unpack and take a long nap, then dress for dinner.

What was an original travel plan that worked became a truly perfect travel plan orchestrated by a loving heavenly Father who cares when His aging children dread the impact of a long and exhausting journey. It surprised me and exceeded any of my expectations.

I recognize His caring hand. I give Him credit and thanks. My husband is praying that I will catch a direct flight home.

I spy God!
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. This microfinance 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. The 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.
 
 
(GHS-035)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Apart from seeing old friends we hadn’t seen for nearly 40 years, or being reminded of the value of our long-term ministry (a truth many of us are apt to forget with the passing of time); apart from the fact that our whole family gathered themselves together for the first time in seven years, there were surprising add-on benefits that came from our 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration—cards with lovely messages and words of thanks, and sometimes monetary gifts—$50 for 50 years of marriage seemed to be a trend.

One couple had five Gideon Bibles placed in hotel rooms in our names—what a nice gesture! Others included restaurant or event coupons (tickets to Goodman Theatre in Chicago, for instance).

The week after our 50th, my husband announced that we were taking Cirilo Leon out for pizza to celebrate his birthday. Cirilo is from Oaxaca, Mexico and migrates seasonally to garden for clients along Hawthorne Lane and Prince Crossing and Indian Knoll Road, the streets that are close to our home. For the last two summers he has lived in our basement guest room. So we took Cirilo out to Gino’s East for deep-dish Chicago pizza and “paid” for the meal with 50th Anniversary Coupons.

David had also reserved on my calendar the fact that we were going to spend one whole day in the city of Chicago with a young couple from South Africa who are stepping into a crucial leadership position in that country. Because we love “our” city, and because it seems to become more and more beautiful with the passing years, we enjoy showing it off to friends, old and new, who have only visited it while passing through O’Hare Airport or on quick, cursory trips. A rule-of-thumb we have learned through the years is: You should always try to see a city through the eyes of someone who loves it. My husband gladly provides (no matter how busy he is) the “David Mains’ Overview Tour of Chicago With Guided Commentary.”

We ended the excursion (on a beautiful sunny June day) at Maggiano’s, an established Italian eatery on the near north side. Again, we treated our friends to a meal using up our 50th Anniversary Coupons.

Eating together, listening to each other’s stories, I had the passing thought, How wonderful to have gifts that allow us to give gifts. Some presents just keep on giving. Our coupons would not have been nearly as meaningful to us if we had used them only for our own pleasure. Their meaning was doubled in the fellowship of sharing.

This certainly is one of the principles of Christian grace: God pours mercy and fullness and forgiveness and kindness into the lives of His children. And, if they “get it” instead of hoarding the bounty, they pass it along. From His gracious expansive unlimited favor, we are made replete with enough generosity to share again and again.

How pleased our friends who gave us gift cards would be if they knew they had doubled our joy—gifts for ourselves and gifts for others.

I spy God!
 
 
 
 
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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. This microfinance 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. The 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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