Yesterday I received a tremendous blessing when the book count reached 1000 books! It was met with the help of Brian and Sally Oxley and Pierre and Christine Andrews. A special thank to these two couples for blessing me with purchases to reach that goal. Thank you also to Sara Dorna and Joseph Cofield and all the many others who have purchased books to give to others. Praise the Lord and I thank God for all of you! Please continue to pray for each other and to pray for the books to continue to be distributed around the country and around the world.
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It was wonderful to see old friends and meet new ones, as well as encourage children and young adults in their special gifts. The event is always well organized and very well done. Thank you to Linda Shaw and all who put such love and effort into successfully bringing together the Christian and local community. May you be greatly blessed. Also thank you to those who purchased books for friends and family at this event. There certainly were many gifted artists. Praise the Lord!
It has been a difficult and blessed year. The Letter of James (James 1:2 KJV) says to "count it all joy" and that is what I am doing! Praise the Lord for the good He has done! Joseph had a goal by the end of 2011 to have 900 books "out there preaching God's Word" with the Tabernacle for a Shadow book. Thank you Joseph, Sally, Christine & Pierre, Dan and Joan who helped us pass that goal and end the year with 906! Now here it is two weeks into the new year and we are at 921. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness. What is so wonderful to me is to see how the books are being shared. What a blessing to see people giving them as gifts to their families, their pastors, chaplains, soldiers, missionaries and friends. I would never have dreamed that God would do such an awesome thing in my life. I know God has much more planned. I hope to see the Spanish version in print this year and more distribution for the books into other countries. I know it isn't thousands of books out there, but to know that even a few books are in the hands of missionaries and are used as teaching tools is such an amazing thing! Just one book placed in the right hands can do so much to bless many others. Thank you Lord for everyone who has joined in this journey to spread the good news of the gospel. As your Word says, you don't just add blessings, you MULTIPLY THEM! May you multiply Your blessings this year to everyone who has joined in this journey. Amen!
Let us remember to be thankful for what God has brought forth... I WILL BRING FORTH MY SERVANT YO TRAIGO MI SIERVO, THE BRANCH El PODER. photo from the book Tabernacle for a Shadow page 76
Zechariah 3:8 I thank God for all of you who have supported the mission of this book going around the world and a special THANK YOU to Maximino and Zioly Maldonado for translating the book into Spanish! May God Bless You All in every way! Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened who were dead intrespasses and sins:
I have made a trespass in stating that the “The King James Bible comes ALIVE! with captivating photographs representing the themes of each of the 66 books of the Bible.” At the Create 2:10 conference this past weekend, Pastor Bob Petterson stated that he did not like statements that referred to the Bible “coming alive.” He said that implied that the Bible was dead. I must agree. The Bible is the LIVING WORD of God. Technically, of course, it’s not the physical Bible itself that is alive, but the life-giving Word found within its pages. I understand how Pastor Petterson feels, now that I look at the statement I made about the Bible. As if the book Tabernacle for a Shadow is what you need to make a dead Bible come alive. I guess we sometimes say and do things without thinking how someone else may interpret it. In my book, Drinking Water Quality- Taking Responsibility I dispelled the myth of distilled water being called“dead water.” According to its definition, water itself is not nor was “alive,”and for something to be dead, it must first have been alive. Water has life giving properties, but it, in and of itself, is not alive. Except, of course, for the living water, who is Jesus Christ. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD, AND WHO IT IS THAT SAITH TO THEE, GIVE ME TO DRINK; THOU WOULDEST HAVE ASKED OF HIM, AND HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN THEE LIVING WATER. Perhaps this is where people got the idea that water was living. But the only “living water” we can drink is that offered by Jesus Christ. The physical water we drink to sustain our physical bodies is not alive, but we could not live without it. So, in a like manner, as stated in the first sentence, … “And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins:…” It is WE who were dead, not the Bible! What I meant was that the pictures represent the Word and the Word represents the pictures and to those who are visual learners, it is another view of the Word for them. Is it needed? No. But it is an expression of God’s beauty as He gave me eyes to see and a way to share His love with “His body” – the family of Christ. But like water needed for our physical bodies, we need the Bible for our daily food. Tabernacle for a Shadow is a devotional – a way to spend more time with Him in the beauty of his visual word. Some people have no trouble visualizing words – others find that the pictures bring better understanding…. I hope you will forgive my trespass. I am changing my statement to say:YOUR visual senses come ALIVE! and what may have once been dead in YOU stirs to LIFE. The Bible is the Living Word. May your experience of the Bible be enhanced and may you share that with the world. The Create 2:10 Storytellers Arts and Media
Conference, held this past weekend was a wonderful treat! Organized by Bill Barnett, lay minister of the Covenant Church of Naples, where the event was held, did a terrific job! I was honored to have two framed pictures from the “Tabernacle for a Shadow” book on display at the Art Expo, as well as the book itself. The conference was a wonderful way to gather creative people together to share and learn in the beautiful new church. There were numerous“breakout sessions” led by many talented individuals in music, writing, storytelling, filmmaking, dance and other creative arts. I attended “The HeART of Storytelling” and “What is in Your Hand?,” two sessions given by Senior Pastor of the Covenant Church, Bob Peterson, as well as “The Soul of C.S. Lewis” presented by Jerry Root, and “It’s the way Jesus taught…” presented by Michael Mahony. All were encouraging and insightful. It was a great opportunity to meet some wonderful new members of the Body of Christ as well as some old time friends! We hope this continues to be a conference that grows bigger and stronger every year. Thank you to Bill Barnett, Create 2:10 and everyone at the Covenant Church of Naples as well as all speakers and performers. Praise and glory to the Lord! Summer is here in Florida. The locals have the beach to themselves and the snowbirds have flown back up north. When you have a business in Florida, as I do, you welcome the tourists, for they are your livelihood. However, it is such a busy time that when they leave then comes the rest period. Yes, it’s hot this time of year, but the mornings are cool and a great time to walk before the humidity gets too high. Now I have a moment to update the blog:
I want to thank everyone for their support of the Tabernacle for a Shadow book. Joseph has been praying for the book to be in every state in the USA by May 31, 2011 and God answered his prayer – in wonderful ways! There were 3 states that had been “lingering” on our list of states without at least one book. Then the last week of May, Joseph’s niece, Tedra, took a book to Alaska. We have yet to hear her story. On May 27th, my friend Christine purchased a book and gave it to a friend who was driving to her ranch in South Dakota. She asked her friend to allow the Holy Spirit to guide her as to who to give it to in that state. We are hoping to hear her story too. On May 31st, Ginny sent a check from Maryland to purchase a book to send to a friend. I love how Ginny stated it in her note to me: “I am always amazed by the way God carries out His plans, even simple ones, like the placement of your book in all of the states. Don’t you find it to be intriguing that I have two young Christian friends, both students at St. Andrews, a conservative Bible collegein Moscow, Idaho and Idaho is one of the 2 states where your book had not been distributed? I love His ways of fulfilling His will. Thank you for mailing Lindsey the book for I know it will be a precious treasure of hers.” The last state was now covered! Now we can give more glory to the Lord who promised the book would go around the world and be in other languages! All 50 of the United States have at least one copy of the Tabernacle for a Shadow book. How do I know? God guided me to keep a record as much as I could as to where the books went. If they had been put in national book stores they might have sold more copies or they might have been sitting on shelves. This way I can prove that they are in all these places and God gets all the glory!!! We also have at least one book in 42 countries! And I have been working with the man, Reza, who offered to translate the book into Dutch. Through a process of elimination, we have chosen which version of the Dutch bible He will use for the project. Thank you Reza for taking on this project. Many thanks also to Max and Zioly who are diligently working on the translation into Spanish as well as Joseph who is translating into German. Thank you to the others who have offered to translate into three other languages. I have not yet heard of their progress. I thank God for all of my friends and family around the world – brothers and sisters in Christ – many blessings to you! If anyone is reading this and would like share your story with the book, whether you are one who sent it or received it, please write or email or comment on the blog so we can let others know of God’s magnificent love for us! Praise the Lord! Celebrating the joy of the Lord! I had the pleasure of being invited by Joseph Cofield to be part of a welcoming committee from his church, Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Naples, FL. Members of two churches in the South American country of Suriname travelled to the USA for a visit to several other Lutheran churches here.
God had given me a great honor to be called to the mission of uniting people in Jesus Christ and this was an opportunity that I surely could not have imagined! I was blessed to sign Tabernacle for a Shadow books to two churches in Suriname: the Bethlehem Church (Pastor Kenneth M. Kross) and to the Martin Luther Church (Pastor Kevin Johnsen). I had another unexpected suprise: Reza Karg, of the Bethlehem Church, offered to translate the book into the Dutch language, which is the language most often spoken in Suriname. Then another suprise came when David Morton said he would have his missionary family, who are currently in Russia, translate the book into Russian! I am so grateful for all of these wonderful people. I can't tell you what a joy it is for someone who did not grow up knowing anything about the wonderful family of God to find such loving, giving and kind people in God's kingdom on earth! God has indeed shown Himself in a grand way this entire month of April! If you look at the "seeds" page you will see that 5 new countries have been added, 3 new states in the USA, a new providence in Canada and a new city in Russia! Countries are being added more quickly that states! We now have seeds planted in 46 states and 40 countries (that we know of). Now to top it off: we have a new page: Languages! I have added the different languages that others have offered to translate the book into. We will list them and see how they progress and see how God intends for them to get printed and distributed. So, please check out the "Seeds" page and the new "Languages" page. God is so faithful. Praise the Lord and THANK YOU, my dear family of God - all around the world! I was thrilled to be a part of the group sending boxes to the soldiers in Iraq. Our "Divine Daughter's" group met on Monday and filled boxes with food and items that soldiers away from home would appreciate. I was also blessed that the women in this group donated not only time and resources, but also purchased two Tabernacle for a Shadow books to go in the boxes. What a joy to know that where Major Coker first took the book in 2009 (see "Fingerprints" page) will now come full circle and two more books will go to our soldiers fighting to protect our freedom. Thank you to all our soldiers and thank you to my sisters in the "Divine Daughters" group. How blessed we are to know Jesus as our Savior! When Linda and I went to MacDill Air Force Base in the fall of 2009, I had made this small brochure. It was a call to "Turn them from Darkness to Light." Last year some friends requested prayer for their family members who were starting a new mission to go into areas where the gospel has not yet been preached. Their's was a call also to go and reach those in darkness and bring them to the Light. I prayed for them, but, since we had used the same words in our message to others, I also prayed to know if God wanted them to use this book, Tabernacle for a Shadow, in any of their missions. However, I had no direct contact with them. Meanwhile, another couple had a heart for the lost, especially in areas where Christians were persecuted for their beliefs or areas where governments were hostile to the gospel. This couple has been purchasing books on a regular basis to go to missionaries. Two weeks ago I felt God's timing was right to give one of the books this couple had purchased to the family who was starting the new mission. I still had no direct contact with this family, but the book was given to a family member that I do know to take to them in another state. Tonight I found out that the family was very happy to receive the book and if possible will take it on their mission trips. One couple bought the book to give to the family. The family will take it on their mission trip and use it as a tool to help "turn them from darkness to light" all for the glory of God. This is God at work through his children! Building HIs Kingsom. One step at a time. Praise the Lord! I have purposely not mentioned names here because it may be dangerous for any of the people involved in underground missions. I want to take this opportunity to thank others who have taken books on missionary trips or sent them to areas where people's lives would be endangered if they were discovered. On the "seeds" page you will see that the Tabernacle for a Shadow book is in 35 countries, some of them hostile or restricted areas. Someone had to take them there. So, a special THANK YOU to all of you who have sent or taken books to dangerous areas. You are faithful servants of God and I am blessed to know you have done this for me and for God. May God continue to bless you always! |
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