STOP and consider God’s wonders !

      STOP and consider God’s wonders ! Job 37:14 

A collection of verses out of the book of Job

Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge? 37:15-16 

He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He bestows rain on the earth; he sends water upon the countryside. 5:9-10 

God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him? … Remember to extol His work, … How great is God – beyond our understanding!  36:22-26 

He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. Who can understand how He spreads out the clouds, how He thunders from His pavilion?  36:27-29 

This is the way He governs the nations and provides food in abundance. 36:31 

God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, “fall on the earth”, and to the rain shower, “be a mighty downpour”. He loads the clouds with moisture; … to water His Earth and show His love.  37:5-6 

The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in His justice and great righteousness, He does not oppress.  37:23 

Here in West Africa a well keeps a family and animals supplied with water. But if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month …

From where?

Well, the sky.

The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky?

Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the ocean over several hundred miles, and then be poured out on the fields from the sky.

Carried? How much does it weigh? … Very heavy? How does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it’s so heavy?

By evaporation: Water stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down.

Then how does it get down?

Condensation happens: The evaporated water starts becoming liquid water again. But it’s not dumped, otherwise the crops would be crushed. It dribbles the billion pounds of water down in little drops. Without evaporating again because of coalescence.

Thoughts inspired by John Piper

STOP and consider God’s wonders!!!

Wow – what a bomb put into words.

Just -

S T O P and consider God’s wonders.

Male and Female as FULL GOSPEL Partners

Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) was one of the most well-known female preachers in Europe and North America during the 1960s and 1970s. 

Her active support of many Jews during the German reign of terror, as well as her imprisonment in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, shaped her biography. Nevertheless, it was important to her to preach in Germany about the power of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

Corrie ten Boom embodied the Christian faith so honestly, simply, and attractively that it was genuinely fascinating to many people. She once recounted that she was on a ship equipped with a radar device. The fog was so thick that one could not see the water around them. However, on the radar screen, there was a streak of light indicating that a ship was not far away. Corrie ten Boom wrote: the radar device saw through the fog while our eyes failed; the same is true of faith. It perceives the reality of God where our reason cannot recognize anything.

Corrie ten Boom often used the metaphor of a tapestry to explain the mystery of God's plan in her life. She compared life to a tapestry, where humans see only the backside with its tangled and chaotic threads, while God sees the beautiful design on the other side. This analogy illustrates how life's challenges and hardships may seem confusing or purposeless from a human perspective, but they contribute to a greater, divine pattern that only God fully understands.

My Life is Like a Weaving 

I had the privilege of meeting Corrie ten Boom's secretary Romkje Fountain (photo left) in Amsterdam in March during the RISE24 congress. 

Amanda Jackson (photo right) the co-founder of the Rise in Strength global network: 

“At this moment we need to see the world through God’s eyes, and not through fear. At Rise in Strength 2024, we asked ‘How can we be catalysts of change, without despairing about all the things we can’t do?’” 

Please check out "The Call to All Christians" in English

Here you can find "The Call ..." in 17 different languages

Male and Female as FULL GOSPEL Partners

Growth is always and only a work of God

The big Néré trees are in full bloom right now. From afar the flowers look like huge cherries. Soon, out of those flowers long bean like fruit will hang from the branches. The women will pick them with long sticks to process the beans into a very popular ingredient for cooking a delicious meal.

A few years ago I accompanied some neighbor ladies to harvest those beans. Here are a few photos about the hard work of our ladies here: http://tothetopandfly.blogspot.com/2017/04/

http://tothetopandfly.blogspot.com/.../the-washing-of...

I am preparing for my class next Tuesday to teach about 22 ladies at the Institut Biblique Bethel about spiritual growth. 19 of them are not yet able to read and write. We often do some group work, were in each of the 3 groups one of the ladies is translating into Senoufo and writing down the answers into French. I'm so thankful that we have a day care so that the ladies are able to concentrate while learning.

I am learning a lot from them as I try to practice what I am teaching.

I would like us to understand that our first call or vocation is to an intimate and loving relationship with Christ and not to a performance as a pastor’s wife or a missionary.

I saw this post from Ann Voskamp which resonates with me and put her quote on my photos.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=485801769567831&set=a.221970039284340

 

Kinder und Blumen

Text: Karena Collet

Kinder und junge Menschen erinnern mich oft an Blumen, die sich langsam öffnen, sich der Sonne entgegen strecken, sich entfalten in ihrer ganzen Schönheit, die aber auch verletzlich sind; Windstöße, harter Regen oder Hagel und auch zu große Hitze können sie schnell zum Welken bringen. Genauso entwickeln sie sich bei gutem Boden und guter Pflege zu Königinnen und Prinzen, sie machen uns glücklich, schenken uns Freude lassen uns staunen und es gibt immer wieder Neues an ihnen zu entdecken.

Sie können uns begeistern und erfreuen, verändern unser Leben, machen es schöner und wertvoller.
Fehlt die Pflege, kommt diese Schönheit nicht voll zur Geltung, es entstehen Krankheiten oder sie werden überwuchert von Unkraut.
Blumen haben ihre Blütezeit, die Zeit sich zu vermehren, die Vorbereitung für den Winter, Ruhezeit, sie sind vergänglich wie wir.
Ich finde Gott hat sich bei der Erschaffung der Blumen etwas sehr schönes einfallen lassen.

Selbst Jesus hat sie erwähnt und uns aufgefordert, die Lilien auf dem Felde zu betrachten, und er hat ihre Schönheit verglichen mit der Pracht von König Salomos Seide und die Lilien als viel schöner empfunden. Sicher hat er uns dazu aufgefordert, sie so genau zu betrachten, weil wir von ihnen so viel lernen können.
Nicht die Reichtümer dieser Welt (zu denen nur wenige Menschen dieser Erde Zugang haben), machen uns wirklich glücklich, sondern die Beziehung zu Gott und das Erkennen der Schönheiten, die Gott für alle Menschen geschaffen hat, die jeder sehen und betrachten kann und durch die wir plötzlich und unerwartet, weil beschenkt, uns reich fühlen können.
Und ich denke auch Kinder machen unser Leben reich – Kinder sind ein Geschenk.

What do you think ?

I once posted a quote from Jarena Lee (1783 - ?) on Facebook.

I googled her name and found out what an incredible woman she was! She was even part of the Second Great Awakening. I'd never heard of her before, an African-Ameriacan woman living in pre-civil war times. She ventured boldly into unchartered territory when she answered the call to preach. She faced a lot of opposition, and yet she stepped forth in courage and perseverance, working as an unordained itinerant preacher for more than 30 years. It was Michele DeRusha's Insta post which inspired me.

Here are the Facebook comments from her quote above: 

"Why should it be thought impossible, heterodox, or improper for a woman to preach, seeing as the Saviour died for the woman as well as for the man?"

They Did It !!

Our classes at IBB (Institute Biblique Bethel) are coming to an end and Madame Silué, the coordinator and full time teacher of our women’s classes mentioned that the ladies would like to learn how to bake a cake before they will leave this year for their internships and some for their full time ministries with their husbands. She asked me if I could help.

I have baked cakes, but I am not much into baking. I like to cook and mix spices into a meal without a recipe and much measuring. But baking asks for exactly measuring the ingredients and following a recipe. There are so many ways of measurements. In Germany we measure by weight using a scale. In the US we measure by quantity using cups and spoons.

We ended up using cups and spoons and the 19 ladies mixed dough for about 12 lemon and chocolate cakes. It took a while to get them all baked in one oven. But that gave us the time to hang out together and the kids started singing and dancing. The house smelled wonderful and all the cakes turned out perfectly. To God be the Glory!

while waiting for the cakes to bake the kids sang and danced

preparing the frosting

Everyone decorated their own little cake

Friday morning, we did a special closure of their whole class year and invited the IBB administration and all the pastors’ wives in Korhogo. Guess what we had for lunch on Friday?! Lots of cake with buttercream frosting and even some leftovers.

Director Keo Kognon

Bon Appetit !

The planning for next year’s women’s classes are already in full swing. We do need more teachers as the women have different levels. One full time teacher doesn’t cut it as you can imagine. If you would like to help to finance the salaries for one more teacher and two to three ladies for the day care of about 15 little ones (mostly babies), here is a possibility: WOMEN'S BIBLE AND LEADERSHIPFORMATION AT IBB

"I have a Dream #2"

"We should all be Feminists" - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TEDxEuston

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies neatly embodies exquisite beauty, charm, brains, sophistication, and modesty, all with marvelous grace. She brings Hope to the African continent and to it's women and men as she shares her thoughts in such a diligent and intelligent way, right how it is here.

"The word feminist is so heavy with baggage, negative baggage: you hate men, you hate bras, you hate African culture, that sort of thing. A Nigerian journalist, a nice, well-meaning man, gave me an advise. I should never call myself a feminist because feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands. So I decided to call myself "a happy feminist". Then an academic Nigerian woman told me that feminism was not our culture and that feminism wasn't African, and that I was calling myself a feminist because I had been corrupted by "Western Books." So I decided that I would now call myself "a happy African feminist." At some point I was a happy African feminist who does not hate men and who likes lip gloss and who wears high heels for herself but not for men. ... Listen in -