Overkill

I know this will sound like a redundant overkill, but I just had to go a little further with last post’s subject. You see, this morning I awoke to something beautiful. I heard my soft alarm and turned to check for the time on my Ipod. When I did so the rays of the sun hit my face in a warm and cozy way that I just loved - the sun at this time of year is in the perfect position so that when it rises, the first rays hit my bed from the window.

What impressed me more was that I pulled out the new GN, Perfect Love, to where I had stopped in its reading. Here is some of the part I was at –a message from Jesus.

(Jesus) My dear Child, I watched you this morning from the time you opened your eyes. As sunshine brought a smile to your face, as you felt its warm caress, I wanted to tell you through it of My great love for you. I put the warmth into the sunshine because I know you’d enjoy it, and that it would give you pleasant feelings. It would not only warm your face, but your heart as well. That is the warmth of My love for you.

…I want to show you My great love in every way that I can – in the beautiful things that I surround you with, in the loving warmth that I give through your family and friends, and in all the little things that make your life easier, happier, and fuller. Please accept My tokens of love for you in these ways. See them as from Me, and receive them into your heart, so that through them I can touch your heart with My love.

I love to hold your heart in My loving hands. I long to show you My infinite care in little and big ways throughout you day. And all I ask in return is that you love Me too, that you recognize My loving hand and accept it. It will make you happier and your life will be richer. Let My love come into your life every day and warm your heart and soul.

As you go further into your day now, look for Me and My love for you and you’ll find Me everywhere. I’m here for you, to make you happy and whole, and warmed and loved.

How’s that for a coincidence, or as the Active Members here put it, Jesus-cidence. Look around today, I’m sure you’ll find His special love for you too.

Birthday Specials

Thank you, dear friends and well-wishers, for the birthday cards, prophecies, prayers, wishes, greetings, offlines, and Happy Birthday songs. You made it very special. I know it was due to your prayers and fun expressions of congratulations that made it as great as it was. I'll add this just for fun. It seems like the Lord really likes working the weather to suit my fancy, or at least He likes showing me His love through it. Maybe you all already read a testimony I sent to the Grapevine about one such incident. I'll include it here to refresh: "Hubby, Could You Turn Up the Heat?" By Maria Dutch, Brazil It was my rest day and I had gone out to meet my mother for Mother's Day at the usually hot Rio beachside. I was a bit disappointed that the day was rather cold. The sun was covered by clouds and a chilly wind blew. I warmed myself as best I could with my jean jacket. I had an hour to wait so I was hoping to get some extra Word time in as I enjoyed the beach, but it wasn't working. The cold kept me from being able to concentrate and I began to wonder if I should have met up with my mother someplace else. Then the thought occurred to me. I am Jesus' wife! Am I not entitled to some special privileges? So I prayed, "Jesus, I know that everyone in Rio has probably asked You for a sunny day to get their Sunday tan, and yet You chose to make it cold for some reason. But with all the talk lately about how being Your bride affords me greater privileges, I wondered if You would like to somehow warm me up." I laughed at the thought until I heard the distinct voice in my heart: Take off your jacket. No, I reasoned. First You warm me up, and then I'll take off my jacket. I'm freezing here! He repeated again: Take off your jacket first. I was cold, but I remembered how the Lord usually rewards our faith after we do the "wenting." I slowly took off my jacket with mixed feelings of reluctance and expectation, bracing myself for what would come next. Having just done that, I noticed a warm breeze replacing the previous chill and seconds later the sun began to shine brightly resulting in a very warm day. I met up with my mom and couldn't think of putting the jacket on for the rest of the day as it was so warm! It goes to show how the Lord is willing to do not only the great and mighty miracles for us, His brides, but also the special little things that a husband would do for his wife just to show how important she is to him--even when it means shifting the elements. To add a little more background, I am the kind of person that is affected by the weather, I love thunderstorms and extreme changes in weather. The light piercing through the clouds after the rain, the clear blue sky, the warm setting sun, sudden gusts of strong wind. These are exciting and have a particular affect on me. Back to the birthday: when praying about my birthday I told the Lord that I just wanted a simple calm birthday. I didn't need anything extremely special, all I wanted was that He do those little things that He knows make the difference for me. He's such a sweetie and I knew He wanted to do something nice. When I was done a thought popped into my mind. How would you like the weather to be? Well, I thought, I'd like to feel cozy and nice, and hot sticky weather like the last couple days wouldn't work for that, so if I were to choose, I'd say cool and fresh, maybe with some rain at the end of the day if it's not too much trouble. The day went on as usual when the first little present came in the form of a gift and a note from someone I never expected to get a gift from. A nice bottle of fine cabernet suavignon Chilean wine. Now, it might seem like no big deal for you, but I just LOVE good wine - it's a sure bet with me. The whole day the weather stayed fresh and cool all day, and wonder of wonders - the rain fell through the evening lending to a perfectly cozy setting. The funny part comes when the evening was wearing on and I realized that today, the next day, we were going to have a barbecue and special Home day - plus Ang, our new mother, was worried about a water inflitration problem in her room. I quickly shot up a prayer, thanking the Lord for the sweet token, and asking Him if it would be ok for the rain to stop soon in case infiltration gets worse and so that we can entertain ourselves fully the next day. Well, I needn't say the rest. Today the rain has stopped and the sun is peeking out every now and then. Perfect weather! Not to cold or hot. We're having a blast!

Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday, and someone sent me a link to find out more about my personality with an astrological reading specific to my date and time of birth. Of course, they don't give you the full reading unless you pay, but here's the snippet I was afforded free of charge. I found it rather amusing and a little too flattering (they must have withheld the bad part, ha!). Well, I think they definitely got it wrong when it comes to the 'quiet and shy' part, but it does sum up a bit of me, so I'll post it for your entertainment. (enjoy a funny Taurus picture - again, too flattering) How You Approach Life and How You Appear To Others

Modest, unobtrusive, and often rather quiet or shy, you are a person who is content to be in the background or to serve as an assistant, in the supporting role rather than in the lead. You are quite humble in your own assessment of yourself and you have a very strong perfectionistic attitude, with a tendency to be overly self-critical. No matter how well you do something, you always see the flaws in it and how it could be improved. Often you will simply refuse to attempt something because you feel you cannot meet your own high standards.

The Inner You: Your Real Motivation You are a steadfast and patient soul, capable of tremendous devotion, dedication, endurance, and constancy. The ability to follow through and stick with things is one of your greatest assets. Once your course is set, you pursue it tenaciously until it is completed, stubbornly resisting any attempts to sway you from your purpose.

Just for fun

Since I had to look through some old pix for my Mothers' Day post, I thought I'd add a few more oldies just for fun - and in response to my persistent Aquarius friend who has now become my personal blog critic, lol. Love you Esther! Here's one of the only pictures of me as a baby. It's a long story, but to make it short: Our family lived in a motor home, and it crashed into a car. The police was trying to solve things amicably and helped the other driver to settle for my dad's antique camera instead of us fixing his car. Notice the dark hair I had at 6 months of age. Now, to add spice, check me out (with Mom and Tiago, my brother) at 9 months - quite the makeover!

Happy Mothers' Day

Here is our happy family...20 years ago! (click it if you want to see the full size) ILY MOM!!! -And to all my mother friends, you are the greatest!!! Muah!

Heavenly Recreation Centers

As I begin any W&Rs or rest days, I try to ask the Lord if He has any counsel about the day, ideas on what would be fun or relaxing, input on how to spend My time with Him, etc. I found that whenever I remembered to do this, He would usually plan the day for me and the day was more relaxing and even exciting and surprising! Today, when doing this, He said something interesting:

There is a great advantage to your doing this. You don’t have a clue as to how this benefits and keeps your day going well. I want you to have fun and really enjoy your rest. By resting in Me, coming to Me, and counseling about your day with Me you even open the gates for Me to send My heavenly help -- angels of enjoyment and fun, recreational helpers and spirits practiced in opening portals to My recreation centers. This might sound a little too grand, but it is in fact true. When you find yourself in times of trouble, as the Tribulation begins and you have few options for recreation and much less mental energy to expend, you will be able to tap into My heavenly recreation devices and relax your mind this way. How cool is that? How’s that for Heavenly fun? I want to open these for you. Don’t limit yourself or Me. This is one of the special benefits that come with being My bride, for nothing is locked from you when the need and desire is there. I love to spoil you. I love to surprise you! I hold nothing back from you.

Here's to my mom, Suzanna, a top-notch missionary who dedicated 27 years of her life to the field of Brazil. She came in winning souls, and couldn't leave any other way. Even the lady at the check-in counter at the airport was in tears after my mom prayed the salvation prayer with her. How can I be sad when I know there are way too many people in other places needing her care, words and powerful prayers (tell me about it! You had better know what you want before asking her to pray for it - it's guaranteed!). Rio will miss you, but Iceland, you have no idea what's gonna hit you! Keep it up, Mom! You are tops!

Just imagine! I always wanted curly hair ever since I was a child. This New Year my wish came true, or at least temporarily. Check out my locks, lol. (Remnants from the crown braid)

Now the last great adventure begins when the sweet boat owner, because there aren't that many passengers, decides to change his bigger boat for a smaller one that strongly resembles a rowboat with a toy engine. YIKES! And, you guessed it, the wind picked up, the rain poured, waves sloshed our faces, and, to the captain's dismay (as he tried to light yet another cigarette), the boat stopped working twice along the way. I seriously considered asking all the crying passengers which one was named Jonah, lol. We did, in fact, arrive safely and never was the 'there is no place like home' frase more appropriate. We got home just in time to deep clean ourselves for our New Year's celebration. I wonder if that resembles how my new year will be? Well, either way, I know all things will work together for good (wink).

What was that sound! Before leaving someone had told me that if you put up a tent, it WILL rain. I doubted it but, sure enough, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning to the deafening and troubling sound of pouring rain. My worries kept me awake until the more godly hour of 9:00 AM when I woke the rest of the team. No worries, we'll pack up our soaked gear and leave with the 11:00 ferry. But then, not another obstacle! It's five to 10 when we are informed by an American lady (shouldn't we natives know better) that the ferry, in fact, leaves at 10. We hear the whistle and know it is too late. Well, I think I found the title for this blog, ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD (Romans 8:28). We were granted more time for a soaking adventure. Instead of having to pay the Sunday Ferry price (3 times the usual price!) a sweet boat owner offers to take us home, if we'll go to another beach for a few hours while he picks up more passengers. We are flipped, but wonder how to enjoy ourselves hiding from the rain in a druggie packed beach restaurant bar (getting concentrated whiffs of marijuana as Polly redeems the time crown-braiding my hair. The owner of the bar also agreed to feed us all a four course meal (can you believe it? Everyone we would ask said yes. The Lord is so sweet!) until boat time comes along again.

The cold water springs kept us through the arduous 2 hour treck (especially for poor Rafa with the bagage, as well as for Tamar who couldn't forget that she is afraid of hights, and, as a matter of fact, for me as I hadn't really hiked in over 10 years!) until a victorious whoop sounded as we arrived at the beautiful Lopes Mendes beach. Rafa toiled to light our BBQ fire and the girls scrubbed the grill. We dreaded the long walk back, but He worked it out, a free boat ride circling the island ended our day with a sigh of releif. I think I'll hike again sometime in, say, 10 more years.

After some night fishing over beer and a delicious dinner provided by an amazingly kind Portuguese restaurant owner we slept comfortably (well, about as comfortably as you can sleep on a quilt over a rocky, twig-full surface). Beginning the day with a scrumptious egg/toast/coffee/cereal/fruit breakfast (prepared by yours truly) we then cleaned up the parameter with stone-age brooms. It's hike time! Good thing Rafa had the idea to take a barbecue set-up and all the meat and trimmings in his pack, so us girls could just pick daisies along the way.

We found a sweet Christian lady who let us stay at her camping (the only camping that wasn't packed and extremely noisy - people are known to clang pots and pans at night while yelling 'no one is gonna sleep tonight' amidst the partying in most of the campings, whew!) for only 8 reais (approximately 4 dollars) a night. And, to my delight, we have our own fridge/freezer for our provisions and a stove, dishes, etc. for our use. I'm starting to like the camping idea, ha. Rafa puts our tent up in a jiffy and we are off for some beach fun. I guess no one ever taught these poor girls (Natalia, Polly and Tamar) to not play in the mud, tsk tsk. JK, no worries, this mud is actually the famous black sand of 'Praia Preta' (meaning Black Beach), which is thought to have therapeutic and beautifying qualities. You go girls - it sure works!...I'll stick behind the camera - fine, I'll touch it just once, lol.

When the Impossible Becomes Possible

At Ilha Grande...Home at last!

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. The complete nature and intent of this blog is still being prayed down, but for now I'll humor any hapless visitor by sharing some intimate details from my holidays - a camping trip to a beautiful and virgin island called Ilha Grande. I had fondly remembered it as a car-less deserted paradise only a couple hours away. The problem was that, to our 5 man (or shall I say 1 man and 4 WOmen) team's dismay, the rest of Rio was thinking the same thing. We arrived to a tourist packed island. Now, our Boy Scout, Master Fisherman and Jack-of-all-trades, Rafa had brought full camping gear for us all, but due to environmental restrictions, only camping in paid campgrounds is allowed there (sounds more like a 'make-sure-you-spend-lots-of-money' campaign). After taking an early morning summer shower on our way to catch the ferry, our soggy feet stepped onto the island only to find out that the campings and hotels were packed and that the fees were exorbitant. But, hey, with our team of world travelers, not even the man who told us we should get the next boat back home unless we were willing to pay hundreds of Reais a night could convince us to doubt our cause - and when he said it was impossible, it spurred us on all the more, ha! Our Sweetie up there told us He'd plan this trip and we didn't want to miss out on finding out how. To see how, check out my next post!