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Kingdom Tales Trilogy

A Folded Check Slipped Into My Hand

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Every so often throughout our decades of ministry, someone will slip a folded check into my hand. This happened recently, and I quickly thought, How lovely. Perhaps it is a gift for the women in the Global Bag Project.

Mary Ogalo had just graduated 11 seamstresses, awarded them certificates of achievement, and presented each with her own sewing machine (part of the value of which they will pay back to buy machines for other seamstresses who complete training).

Because I was talking with other people, I stuck the check in a pocket just to make certain I wouldn’t lose it in the joyful confusion of meeting and greeting.

An industrial-strength sewing machine with dual controls for electricity and for manual operation (when the power goes off in Kenya, which it is always doing) costs about $325. You can imagine my amazement when I opened the check and discovered it had been made out to me personally and that it was for $5,000. The short message on the distribution line indicated that it was to be used to spread the love of Jesus. I was left in kind of happy shock!

So as soon as I got home, I wrote a thank-you note and said, “I would love to know what God whispered to your heart?” Then I wrote out a $900 check for the Global Bag Project, a $300 check for a friend whose husband has had a freelance job but has not been paid since February, sent $1,000 to the Brendan and Kailey Bell fund to contribute toward paying down their catastrophic medical expenses. I put some money aside so I would be able to pay our friend from Mexico when he had a day here and there without work; the funds would help him and his expertise would help me. The rest I divided between my Hungry Souls ministry and a donation to Mainstay Ministries.

You get the idea—I had joy, overflowing joy at being able to share the generosity shared with me. Indeed, I spread the love of Jesus, absolutely happy with being able to do so.

When we teach about the God Hunt, one of the four categories we use to help people identify God’s intervention in their everyday lives is that of “help to do God’s work in the world.” This is a prime example. Go find some examples of your own.

I spy God!

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

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

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

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

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

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Food From the Food Pantry—Again

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

The call-waiting notification rang three times while I was talking with someone else on the phone. I rarely interrupt conversations when this happens—but someone was trying to get hold of me.

It was Angela—my daughter-in-law. “Karen, I have boxes of food from the food pantry. Can you come over and pick stuff up, some of it is frozen. I have the three kids and think if you can make it here, it will be easier for you than for me.”

I finished the phone call, then hopped in the car. This kind of notification comes from my daughter-in-law a couple times a year. The Neighborhood Food Pantry, which provides for those who are economically stressed, sometimes has to clear out their shelves and commercial freezers because another delivery has been scheduled and they must clear space.

One of Angela’s neighbors, a woman with eight children, works at the pantry. Her van is loaded with the discarded food (discarded but perfectly safe and edible), and then everyone on Angela’s block get the word. This time, there was so much food, we all went home with a couple boxes and several sacks—ready-made sandwiches from Panera Bread, pork chops, ground beef and steaks for the freezer, cereal and granola and boxes of crackers for the shelves, packages of pasta. It was so much food that I was having difficulty finding room for it all.

Just when I had stored everything away (sometimes shoving boxes into corners and shutting the cupboard doors fast), I heard a noise in our garage. It was a friend who does odd jobs for me when he has time and I have money. He had come to put a second coat on the windows for the cold frames he had made for me during the winter. But that task was already done; the second coat—Cinnamon Tea, the color chart informed me—had been applied.

“Oh, could you use some food?” I explained about the food pantry and the fact that I had more than I could use and he would be helping me by taking some home with him. I know this friend has been out of work for a while, and I understand from personal experience what a break it is not to have to put out money for grocery store bills.

We laughingly filled three sacks, and I sent him out the door with that warm satisfactory inner feeling. Not only had Provider God filled our food needs (not to mention the block on Claremont Street that is fortunate to have a neighbor who works at the food pantry), but I was able to pass it along to someone I knew it would help.

Which Scripture is it that tells us, “…He fills my with good things”? If you find the reference before I do, let me know. (Hint: It’s somewhere in the Psalms.)

With or without the Scripture reference, however, the truth is this: He bounteously supplies us with all good gifts. Even when we are not looking to His hand, He stretches it toward us. He gives us enough to share with our mother-in-law, and enough for her to share with a friend.

In such realities do praises begin.

I spy God!

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

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

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

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

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

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The Bees Are Back!

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Bee hives early morning. I get up first!

Our bee colony died over the winter. Last summer, grandsons Elias Mains, age 14, and Ayden Timberlake, age 13 and I ventured into the world of apiculture. Our gentle bees produced (in their first year) some two and a half gallons of honey, and though we worked with them all summer and became acquainted with this extraordinary other world that borders on the numinous, none of us received one sting. (And I separate the boxes of the hive supers, pull out the frames, stand with bees swarming around me without suiting up or wearing a hat with a veil.)

So it was sad to hear that our precious colony that had served us so well and delighted all who can to observe did not survive the harsh Chicago winter of this last year. I would have taken that most personally, concluding that we were new apiarists and had done something wrong, but many professional beekeepers also lost whole hives of bees.

The bee population is fragile due to the poisons we use on our crops and grasses, so one of the reasons we are keeping bees is to make sure that the gardens within a five-mile range of our normal worker bee’s flight pattern will have these busy golden buzzing creatures to ensure flowers, food and fondness. I actually have become most attached to the whole bee-keeping apparatus and apiculture.

This spring I ordered another hive to match the one we bought last year. We cleared the earth and leveled it, set two smooth pavers on which we stacked two cement blocks (causing some height to keep out skunks), then stacked the hives on these. A friend, Pat Mitchell, who has been tutoring us in things apiary, demonstrated how to take out the queen, uncork her small box cage, stick in a marshmallow so there will be time for the colony to get used to her pheromones before she has eaten her way through the sticky substance. Then he dumped in two colonies of bees—one in one hive, the other in the other.

It was fascinating!

We evened out the frames with last year’s honey so that each hive had a similar amount, and then I spent days waiting for the bees to begin darting out and back, and circling around the hive. Dead bees were swept by the drones out of the hive, but there was so little activity that I actually lifted the lid from the supers, moved the top box a little just to make sure they weren’t all dead. I could see busy bee heads around the can of sugar water we left in a hole in the top super.

This lack of activity went on day after day. I resisted the urge to sneak a peek into the hive. My anxiety wasn’t assuaged by David’s frequent question, “See any bees today?”

Yesterday, I spent early morning and evening gardening. The day wasn’t any warmer than the few before it, but the temperature was perfect for early tasks—transplanting the lungwort that has gone rampant this year (maybe because of so much bee pollenizing)—moving herbs so they won’t crowd each other in the kitchen garden, getting the hoses all hooked to spigots again and making sure there are no leaks that spray excess water in places I am not wanting to water.

It was a happy day. I noticed bees drinking at the ponds that formed on the now-muddy earth. When I glanced at the two bee boxes, I was delighted to see the familiar hive activity that I have come to love because I know it means that healthy bees are doing the work God created them to do—making lively things live.

So the bees are back! What a gift of God this world is—in its spectacles and in its particularities.

One little bee stung me slightly; it was my fault. I picked up my trowel and didn’t notice that it was sucking water from its muddy handle. I quickly scraped out the stinger, noticed the syrupy string and watched the poor little creature go wobbling in flight out of sight. I’m sorry. Had I been more careful, you would have had more life to live.

But I am happy to have you and your brothers in my way—underfoot, in the water pools on the earth, on my tools, because it means you all are back. My garden (and my disposition) are all the better for you.

I spy God!

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

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

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

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

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

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A Sniff in Time

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Amy Roth, the guest worship-leader and soloist for the Warm Beach Camp Women’s Retreat, leaned across the table as I was hacking and blowing my nose (I have a chronic allergy that seems to be dust-related) and said, “Have you tried a saline solution? I spray two squirts up each nostril four times a day. It’s made all the difference in the world to me.”

Now, I listen when a vocalist shares the tricks of her trade. My father was a music professor specializing in training vocal majors. Sore throats, hoarseness, scratchiness, anything related to the glottis, the vocal chords, are all hazards of the trade, as they are susceptible to overuse, strain and infection. Concerts get canceled, money is lost. I listened to what Amy was telling me.

“When you go out this afternoon (Amy and the pianist were planning a jaunt into the little towns around Port Susan Bay), will you please pick me up some of that spray?”

And she kindly did.

I sprayed two squirts up each side of my nose, and I have been using it for the week and a half since coming home.I am doing so much better!

Now this is a cyclical allergy, and my lack of sneezing, wheezing and waking myself at night with coughing may simply be that I have circled out of the active allergy phase. But I don’t think so. If I sit down on any surface, like an upholstered chair where the dust has had a chance to gather, or if the vents on the car blow in my face (I usually turn them off first thing), I may sneeze a few times, but it doesn’t set off panic in my system.

I just go get the bottle of Premier Value Saline Nasal Spray containing sodium chloride 0.65% and take four whiffs that I can hardly tell are filling my nasal passages, the spray is so light, and I’m OK! (Can it be this simple? I’ve been harried by this allergy for over 15 years.)

I’m testing it on my husband. He has one of those little hack-hack-hack coughs. He’s been taking it for a few days and is much better also.

It’s amazing, isn’t it, what results a simple solution (and cheap too—the Premier Value 3.0 fl. oz. bottle only costs $5.99) can bring about.

Just wanted to tell you about this God Hunt Sighting—might be of help to you, and if it is, pass the information along.“My mouth shall recount your mighty (and small—my addition) acts and saving deeds all day long, though I cannot know the number of them.” Psalm 71:15.

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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Remembering to Collaborate—Again!

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

The days that I remind myself that I am collaborating with God in his design for my life and ministry are the days when everything goes smoothly—often breathtakingly so. The days when I just cry “Help! Help!” are not so easy—I kind of bump and stumble and waste time and get delayed.

Yesterday was an example of a collaborate effort between myself, the all too human Karen, and the Divine, a great and transcendent and all-powerful yet intimate Heavenly Father.

Moved with compassion over the huge financial burden of my nephew and his wife after two premature births, both babies with allergies, and one with a twisted bowel (altogether some 18 weeks in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit), I have taken it upon myself to raise the amount to pay off the remaining medical bills that are sitting on this young couple’s credit cards.

Trying to be sensitive (sometimes, as we all are learning, helping actually hurts), I interviewed my nephew and his wife, consulted with my sister and brother-in-law, talked with a few close friends, wrote a draft letter, had it edited, ran that past everyone for suggestions or corrections, then sent it off to the designer via my son who manages our print projects through his company, Pathmaker Marketing.

Yesterday, when I came into the office, two boxes of No. 10 business size envelopes—100 in all— were sitting on my desk. It was my plan to print a tag line on them and hopefully, a photo of the for-sale sign on their house (due to the huge payouts for the extraordinary hospital bills, their out-of-pocket premiums that are now the equivalent of another mortgage payment).

I had decided that we could save funds and run off the envelopes and the designed letter on the color copier in our office, but I had never needed to learn how to run this kind of project through our copying machine. Searching through my computer programs, I found the one that teaches users how to run off multiple envelopes as well as the short lecture that teaches how to do your own design.

We decided that a tag line on the envelope should read: “Update on Baby Merrick: Kailey and Brendan Bell.”

Just as I was struggling with this, one of the faithful volunteers who helps out several hours a week (and without whom I could not be productive) came into the office. She is a retired home-economics teacher and used to office equipment.

“Oh, I know how to do that!”

Of course. I had prayed the prayer of collaboration. Our editor, who is part-time knew exactly how to manage the program when she ran into glitches and was available just when we needed him before he was called away because of an emergency in his family. I didn’t want to include a photo of the baby on the outside of the envelope and ship it through public mail, so I settled on what I felt was an even stronger image of the For Sale sign in front of the house.

Before my editor left, all three of us figured how to run multiple copies through the copier and how to make sure they were printed in color. My volunteer assistant and I stuffed the envelopes with a reply envelope on which I hand wrote in red ink—“Baby Merrick Account”—and as she left the office, she took the envelopes home, packed them in a sturdy box and had them in the mail by 4:46 p.m. My sister could begin addressing envelopes while we waited for the letter to return from the designer.

What a collaboration!—done and out the door. Why is it I don’t remember to always get myself into this attitude and understanding that God is as interested in collaborating in my life as I need Him to do so? Not only that, I think He takes as much joy in working with me as I take in those days that go like smoothly oiled mechanics in some kind of master clockwork machine.

Perhaps this attitude of collaboration with my Heavenly Father is just not as yet a habit and the more I work at it, the more it will work in me to become a practice. At any rate, I strongly recommend that those who are not collaborating with God on creating their lives with him should try out this delightful practice.

“So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart, and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.” Psalm 78:72

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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Internet Technician Services

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Our Internet service had been disconnected for about two weeks, and I was too busy to take the time to sit down with my new laptop and figure out how to get it started. David has a new iPad that he’s enjoying learning to use, and a wonderful friend gave me a new laptop. Both of these have touch screens, and I, in particular have been struggling to learn Windows 8. So I kept putting off my all-important phone call for help.

In addition, getting back on the Internet, so I can be productive at the office and at home, is not an easy undertaking. If I am required to unplug the modem filter, or the phone line, I have to squeeze in the corner between file drawers and a book case, scoot the book case out from the wall a few inches so that I can reach my arm while I am scrunched into the corner bending my knees to be low enough to feel blindly for the outlet and the plug. Sometimes I am a little desperate pushing up from this cramped spot—will my knees be strong enough?

Just as I had suspected, this contortionist’s position was required some four times when I finally made the call while the phone technician read the monitoring system on her end of our consultation. A couple times, when the phone line was disconnected in my study, I had to run back and forward between rooms. Several times, she had to phone me when we lost connection. In addition, I was still working through my unfamiliarity with the Windows 8 system on my new laptop. The whole process took a couple hours, and I became friendly with the very patient technician. (Fortunately, I could understand her since she was an American.)

We were waiting patiently for a signal on the laptop screen to indicate that the modem had performed certain functions. “How did you get into this?” I wondered. “Were you a techy-type.”

“Oh no,” she answered. “Far from it, but they train you extensively to work with the computers.” They hadn’t trained her to work with people who had the Internet Connectivity screens that popped up with my Windows 8 system, however. She confidentially confessed that one day she realized people on the phone were working on their end with screens that neither she nor her colleagues knew how to navigate. Resourceful, they just learned along with the users!

We waited so often that I could have fixed my hair and put on makeup for a 7:00 evening meeting that was on my schedule. “Do you think this will finish in time?” I wondered, explaining that I needed to leave in 20 minutes.

“Let’s hope so.”

Sure enough, with five minutes to put on lipstick and run a brush through my hair, I was finally back on the Internet again. We tested a few pages, and I thanked her profusely.

As you can imagine, all this time, the contortionist act, the running between rooms, the squeezing into the corner space, the insecurity of not knowing what I was really doing with my Windows 8 function, my apologies, and then the nervousness about missing a meeting that I had actually called were worth the effort and anxiety. As we all know, we have become Internet dependent.

This is all a fairly apt metaphor for struggling to keep in touch with God through prayer and the intentional direction of our minds around His promises toward us. We hit a bad patch in our life, the connectivity with our own selves, with others, and with the divine goes awry. We can’t get through, hear what we need to hear, figure out where should be, and the temptation always exists that this communication thing with God just doesn’t work; we should just give up.

Don’t give up. Crawl into that awkward corner again and again. Stretch to reach behind the heavy storage unit. Unplug what needs to be unplugged. Plug in what needs to be plugged in. Answer the other extension phone when it rings. Run between rooms to hear the next instruction. Do what you are told. Wait and wait and wait for life’s seeming interminable corrections.

God, your Technical Advisor is working on your behalf. He is making things better for you, sometimes by correcting your character as He goes. But whatever you do, don’t give up. You can be late for that meeting—meetings come and go. But, being connected with Him, truly connected, is one of the best things that can happen in your life.

One day, all the lights on the modem will be green and you will hear a voice saying, “There, I think everything is all up and running again. Happy to be at your service.”

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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“I Don’t Love You”

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

While bundling three little grand kids into their car seats in the back of their parent’s car, I bent down to talk a little with Nehemiah, age three. I love his fat cheeks and his happy personality (at least around us—grandparents don’t have to deal too much with temper tantrums). “I love you,” I said after he was buckled in.

His answer: “I don’t love you.”

Now I have raised three boys of my own, and David and I have five grandsons. I know that there are phases in boys’ lives when they don’t want a grandmother nuzzling their cheeks and whispering lovey-dovey words into their ears. Consequently, when Nehemiah replied to me, “I don’t love you,” I didn’t take it personally. He’s only three years old, after all. He may mean it at the moment, but he doesn’t mean it permanently.

He’ll love me again when I pull out the new book I’ve ordered for him titled Spots. On the first page, there’s one spot. The instructions say to push the spot twice. On the next page there are two spots (and so forth all through the book.) So I’m not at all bent out of shape with his slightly rebellious three-year-old declaration of non-love.

I wonder if this isn’t more like God than unlike God. We tend to think when we have given ourselves to some act of rebellion that He is shocked with our behavior. I suspect it’s more like that of an ancient Grandfather with one of his young and immature off-springs. He knows we’ll get it sorted out eventually, that we’ll begin to remember all the good gifts He’s given to us, and that this little tantrum, this nasty shout of disbelief or rebellion can be chalked up to immaturity. After all, we’re only 18—or 28—or 38—or 48 … you get the idea. He knows we’ll get over it.

We’ll get over it pretty soon, in fact, because He also knows He’s brought us that delightful book. (Have you been reading it?).

I spy God!

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

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

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

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

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

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Rent Due

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Due to my travel schedule and the fact that Carla Boelkens, the Director of the Global Bag Project, volunteers one day a week in the GBP office, neither one of us has had time to appropriately market the beautiful reusable shopping bags the Kenyan women make to earn a living for themselves and their children. Consequently, we have had few home parties in the last months, and home parties are our major venue for selling their products.

I’m clearing my schedule for the days ahead so that I can rectify this, but for the time being, the $225 rent for the storage room we use as a Global Bag Project office is overdue.

I had a meeting in Danville, Illinois this past Saturday. Danville is about three hours from West Chicago, where we live, so I looked forward to the drive downstate as a time I could spend concentrating on prayer, and I had several wonderful uninterrupted hours interceding for the people I love and thanking God for all the amazing gifts He pours into our lives. On the drive down, I decided that I would use the money from my book table sales to pay for the rent, which I thought was about $250.

The women’s meeting was a delight. I’m pretty sure that if I attended Second Church of Christ in Danville, Illinois, all the gals who planned this event would become close friends—believe me, that is a wonderful feeling to have about all the strangers one meets on the road if you are part of the speaker’s circuit.

When I opened the envelope that held my honorarium, I discovered that I had been paid almost $200 more than the fee I was offered—this was an unexpected and welcome generosity (since my personal checking account was down to $34.41). What a lovely God who cares for us in such immediate and practical ways!

Not only that, I discovered that I had sold $249 worth of books, only one dollar short of paying for the GBP rental fee. How does He do this? I wondered. With all His children all around the world, how does God give us what we need when we need it almost to the exact amount? Obviously, I could make up the dollar difference.

I had money enough to pay for the groceries I bought on the way home for the crowd that was coming for Sunday dinner (I’d taken $100 in small bills from my checking account to make change for the book table).

Coming in the front door, I called out to David, “I’m home!”

He replied, “Oh, I have a surprise for you.” It was a small—but nice—royalty check for a book I’d written. (All in all, an exceedingly profitable day.)

This morning, sitting at the desk, I realized (and had forgotten) that my Social Security check is electronically transmitted on Wednesday. Now I have money to pay for help with spring cleaning the yard (two teenagers of close friends are my yardmen), buy topsoil and compost for the garden boxes and the new cold frames, and plant the cool weather crops that hopefully some nearby nursery has started for me.

I’m a wealthy woman! And—the monthly GBP rent is $225, not $250—so I won’t even be out one dollar to make up the difference. Actually, I sometimes feel a little sad for people of great wealth. How can they possibly know the delight of living day to day and seeing God meet their needs, pay their bills in unexpected ways, or feel the rush of joy that comes from knowing that a Heavenly Father loves you so much? Do they even understand that He is able to provide for you down to the last penny?

“On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

I spy God!

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

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

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

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

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

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It’s Important!

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Our five-year-old granddaughter, Eliana, came rushing out the door of her house when she saw our car drive up her driveway. “Come! Come!” she shouted, running in her stocking feet across the muddy lawn to the backyard of the next door neighbor. She paused when she sensed we weren’t following close on her heals. “Come! Come and see!” And then, just to make sure we felt the urgency she was feeling, she called, “It’s important!”

When we reached the neighbor’s back yard, we could see what all the fuss was about. Their yard was broadcasted with thousands of blue scilla flowers, little tiny stars sprinkled, as if by magic, throughout all the grass. These were the first flowers of an all too cold, too long-delayed Midwestern spring.

Eliana paused to see if we were appropriately in awe, standing in her muddy stockings and without a coat and jacket. She swept her hand, while grandly gesturing to include the whole wondrous display. “See,” she said. “It’s beautiful!”

Many of the ancients who wrote what is known to us moderns as wisdom literature made exactly the same point. Some think that the most important thing we can do to grow ourselves spiritually is to pause—stop our frantic pace—to open our eyes and to see.

“It’s important!” said the five-year-old child, too impressed to put on a jacket or shove her stocking-feet into shoes. Indeed, it is.

“With my whole heart I seek you …” Psalm 119:10. It is important. Come! Come and see!

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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Million-Dollar Babies

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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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Flying home from San Francisco, I was assigned a middle seat in the last row and struck up an intriguing conversation with the woman seated in the window seat beside me. It so happens she was an ob-gynecologist who specialized in high-risk pregnancies. We began talking about the baby in my extended family who had just been released from spending 12 weeks in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. The baby had been born prematurely with food allergies in addition to a twisted bowel condition that required surgeries.

My concern, of course, was for the baby to begin to thrive—putting on weight at this stage is a necessary factor for life—and we began to talk about the incredible advances in medical technology that allow for an infant who would normally have died to survive.

“Indeed,” she continued. “We are actually creating some of our own health cost scenarios.” She went on to explain that this amazing technology can actually allow operations on a child still in the uterus, such as what takes place when ultra scans reveal an embryo with a deformed heart. “However, in my field—high-risk pregnancies—I just dread having a pregnant mother come to me who has had one of these pre-natal operations, because it creates all kinds of complications in her own pregnancy.”

My sister laughs ruefully that she has million-dollar grand babies. This is actually not quite true—million-dollar-and-a-half grand babies—would be more like it. Baby Rhys needed Neonatal Care for five weeks before his brother, Merrick, was born this year and needed 12 weeks in NICU. Insurance has covered most of the whopping expense, but increased the premiums, and the insurance industry has also decreased the amount of payments it is covering for clients seeking psychological counseling, which is my nephew’s (the father of these adorable little boys) profession. This amounts to almost a 50% cut in salary for this family!

Not being able to pay two mortgages (one on the house and one to the insurance) company, a FOR SALE sign has now gone up on the property where my sister and I lived as girls. This is a hard but appropriate decision to make, but one that many have faced in our years of economic collapse.

However, knowing something about the fatigue of living through a possible death and life scenario and imagining now having to pack up and relocate, I was moved to ask friends and family to help pay down the remaining medical expenses on the credit cards

I have personal experience with overwhelming debt—because of a collusion of accusations years ago, our ministry ended up with a debt of $2,600,000 dollars. It has taken us fifteen years to clear this off and we have been the recipients of amazing miracles and loving gifts that have taken our breath away. Without unexpected and loving assistance from others, David and I could never have shoveled our way out from under the weight of that black and oppressive debt mountain.

So why am I taking the time to mount a campaign among friends and friends of friends, with family members, some close and some not so close? Why have I taken the time to meet with my nephew and his wife and to hear their story and to figure out what we could reasonably do to help financially? Why have I found a young web designer who is willing to give his time gratis to design a website? Why am I volunteering that our part time office staff will look over donations and set up a separate account to manage funds and design the direct-mail package? Why am I happy to oversee this campaign for the next few months?

That’s easy to answer, isn’t it? I have been where my nephew and his wife are—at least I’ve been close enough to where they are to imagine how crushing the pressures they are facing must feel. Simply, this is called empathy. The truth is: None of us can empathize very well without having walked down troublesome paths.

I know this debt can’t be paid down without the help of that One who delights in cancelling debts. So, I am already eagerly anticipating what His surprising and amazing plans will be. I know this God who loves life will not disappoint. Paraphrasing King David from Psalm 4:3:

 “Know that the Lord does wonders for the faithful; when we call upon the Lord, he will hear us.”

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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