Hope

Sue’s Views
No matter what you are going through right now ….. one thing you can hold onto is hope! Hope is not wishful thinking ….. ‘I hope things will change’. Hope is a blessed assurance that God already knows the future ….. and has your very best interests at heart. He is the One who made a dry path through the Red Sea ….. made streams flow in the desert ….. fed 5000 people with 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish ….. and countless other miracles. Put your trust in Him! He will change your outlook from bleak to sunny!
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Magnificent Magnolia

Sue’s Views
I love the magnolia season! When most trees are bare and appear lifeless ….. it’s time for these beauties to shine! And shine they do! Out of a small furry bud comes these huge and magnificent blooms. Do you know that you too were designed for greatness? You may look in the mirror and see nothing amazing ….. but on the inside of you is the potential to bring joy to someone’s darkest day. Don’t allow the devil’s lies to contain and limit you. You have a purpose and a place that no one else can fulfill!

I can do it, Lord

This was written, first and foremost, as a reminder to myself. How easy it is to stray into this trap…

Thank you Lord for giving me
This work that I can do
In fact I think that I don’t need 
To always bother You  

And sure, I know that it was You
That called me to this task
But surely you don’t want that I
For everything must ask  

In fact I have so many things 
That I have thought to do
Some programs, groups and ministries
That’re all to do with You

And now I find that I enjoy
This work so very much
I’d rather spend my time on this
Than be with You, as such

For I can do it on my own
Most probably, it’s best
If I just take initiative 
Yes, leave me to the rest

And if I were quite honest with You,
I’d like that it should be
That when I have done all this work
The glory goes to me

Life’s Journey

Sue’s Views
Life has its ups and downs! I was just reading through my journal for this year ….. and what a roller coaster ride it has been. We often remember the highs and the lows ….. but the bits in between become a blur in our memory. The truth is ….. as we look back ….. it’s in the valleys that we grow the most. Without those times of loneliness ….. despair ….. anxiety ….. and need ….. we wouldn’t appreciate the times of elation ….. joy and celebration. Make the most of every step of the journey! None of them are wasted!

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Washing some Hospital Beds

Our son Levi had just turned one, and we were in David’s village in rural China celebrating Chinese New Year. One is an age where they love sitting in the dirt, touching everything, and putting everything in their mouth! Rural China is a place that Westerners often don’t go because of the hygiene standards, and other things… but it was where my husband was from, where his family lived, and I had come to love it. However, it wasn’t always an easy place to take our young kids! 

 

The day after Levi’s first birthday, he started vomiting and having diarrhea and a high fever. He continued like this for another day or two before we decided we had better take him to the local hospital in the town nearby. Being a westerner, I was nervous about taking him, since I was used to a different level of hygiene and medical care, especially when it came to my young children. However, he was admitted to the hospital after they diagnosed him with Rotavirus, and we were told he would need to stay there several days at least, until they could rehydrate him and his vomitting and diarrhea stopped. 
 
The room in the children’s ward was a small room with three hospital beds. At the back there was a window with a washing line, and a bathroom the size of a small closet. It was a squat toilet with no sink, but just a hose coming out of the wall for washing. There was no drinking water, toilet paper, or food provided, you had to provide your own or have family and friends bring it in. It was the middle of winter and there was no heating in the rooms, so we and our children had to stay rugged up in our winter jackets and thermals. The room was mopped once a day, and that was it: no wiping, sanitizing, scrubbing. There was no cot for sick babies, instead their mothers had to keep them on the hospital bed all day, especially when they were on a drip. Levi was an active one year old boy! How was I supposed to do that? I was by myself with Levi most of the time, as David had to stay with our two-year-old daughter Anna back in the village, away from the hospital, but they were able to visit once a day to bring food and supplies. His brothers and sisters occasionally came to visit too and brought homemade meals. At night there was little sleep… the light was almost always on, and the other people in the room would bathe their feverish kids at 3am, or talk loudly, or wake their kids to feed them, or have relatives coming in and out. Most days I would carry Levi through the ward for something to do and a change of scenery, and we would wave and smile at the other kids and their families. But after days of trying to keep this sick boy still and warm and fed and clean with little sleep, I was so tired, stressed, frustrated… so wrapped up in my own discomfort and “suffering”. I would pray most days “God, please just help Levi to get better so we can get out of here!” On the fourth (or fifth?) day, when we found out we still had to stay one more night, I was almost beside myself. 
 
As I was sitting there in all my self pity, thinking about another day of taking all my baby wipes and wiping down our bed and wiping all the things Levi would be touching, the Holy Spirit started prompting me… “Go and wipe down all the surfaces in the room. Everyone’s bed, everyone’s side table and chairs, everything.” Hmph. Oh, alright… by that time the family in the middle bed had gone, and it was just a young woman and her young child on the other bed. I’d had several conversations with the other people in the room when I could, but mostly they were busy with their children and talking amongst themselves in the local dialect, or watching the TV. But that morning, it was quiet, and just this woman and her baby were there. I felt a new surge of strength and resolve to be obedient and to serve instead of wallowing in my self-pity, and so I picked up the wipes and went over to her bed and asked if I could wipe down the headboard and railings for her. She nodded, and as I cleaned, tears rolled down her cheeks. We started chatting and she told me how her mother-in-law had scolded her and blamed her for their child’s sickness. She’d been told all the things she did wrong, and that she wasn’t a good mother. We chatted and I talked about how normal it is for kids to get sick! I told her that I thought she was a wonderful mother, just the mother that child needed, and it wasn’t her fault he was sick. More tears rolled down her cheek…
 
I wished I’d been listening to the Holy Spirit sooner…

Winter Blues

Sue’s Views

It’s midwinter here in New Zealand ….. and for some ….. the winter blues may have settled in. The winter season is not always welcome but it is a necessary and productive season. It strips us of the old and prepares us for the new. It also exposes who we really are. It’s a time of adjustment maybe ….. or just a time of acceptance. When asked which of the Commandments is the greatest ….. Jesus replied ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ We can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Soon this weeping cherry will be covered in the most beautiful blossoms you can imagine. And your season will come too. But I encourage you to use this time to really get to know your ‘inner’ self.

Faith and Works

Sue’s Views
One of the hardest things to understand about Christianity is that we are saved by faith ….. not by works. We are so used to earning our way through life that the idea of receiving something free doesn’t sit right with us. On the other hand ….. there are some who accept the gift of salvation ….. but think they can live as they please. The balance is explained in this illustration. If the rower uses only one oar ….. he goes round in circles! If he uses both oars ….. he will get across the lake to his destination! ‘Faith without works is dead’. The works ….. or good things we do prove our faith. We don’t do them to earn our salvation ….. we do them out of gratitude for it.
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Don’t be anxious!

Sue’s Views
Let’s face it! The world is in serious trouble! There is much to be concerned about. The media keeps us up to date on the latest disasters ….. crimes ….. and injustices ….. and the outlook is bleak to say the least. But nothing is new under the sun! In Jesus day ….. people were facing a tyrannical government ….. poverty ….. sickness and social injustice. That’s why He so often told them ‘Do not be anxious about your life. Look at the lillies of the field! They don’t have to worry. Their Heavenly Father takes care of them.’ And He will take care of you too! This is a time to trust Him.

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How’s Your Heart?

Sue’s Views
How is your heart? Is it soft and pliable ….. or has it been hardened by the circumstances of life? No matter what state your heart is in ….. offer it to God. He is the Potter ….. we are the clay. If you are willing ….. He will take that hard heart in His wonderful hands and soften it. He will remove all the hard lumps ….. all the hurt and doubts ….. all the resentment and bitterness ….. and mould it into something beautiful and useful. When He has your heart ….. He has all of you!
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Living Stones

Sue’s Views
There are 7.8 billion people on the planet ….. and yet no two are identical! Even ‘identical twins’ have some unique characteristics. And then ….. when you consider all those who have passed on since time began ….. the numbers are countless. Some would say there is no designer ….. we are all a product of an explosion. But everything in nature tells us otherwise! No two leaves are the same ….. no two blades of grass ….. no two flowers. What a Creator! The Bible calls us ‘living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple’. He wants to live in us! How amazing is that!

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