December m&m News

PLUMBLINE: Plumbline teaching: This week is a time of examining our life’s ‘wall,’ and seeing if the personality ‘bricks’ forming that wall, and therefor the way we react to and live our life, are in line with the way God hoped. It is a time of truth, revelation, and forgiveness. There was a sharing time on the last day of teaching. Fallowing is a testimony shared by one of the students: “While we were in our group, a Messianic Jewish girl from Israel was sharing about things she had been through. There was a lot of personal rejection in her life but she also shared stories about the cultural rejection that the Jewish people are confronted with, including a story of two of her friends who had been killed by muslim terrorists. It was tough to hear but very healing for her. When the opportunity came, one of the Norwegian leaders felt the need to share how Norwegians, during the war, had turned over many Jews to the Nazis, and he knelt before her and asked for her forgiveness on behalf of Norway. It was very powerful and it opened the door for something I will never forget. After he was finished, a German couple stood up and walked to her, and then another German guy followed them. I had forgotten they were there for some reason, and with only the action of them standing and walking to her,the atmosphere in the room changed dramatically. What happened next was quite possibly the most powerful spiritual warfare I had ever experienced. As those three Germans knelt before this Jewish girl and asked for her forgiveness on behalf of their forefathers, it was like a bomb went off in front of us. It felt as if I was physically hit in the chest and I don’t think I would have been able to handle seeing into the spiritual realm the battle going on around us. I wept with them for several minutes, in awe of the power of forgiveness and humility.” -Shane from Hawaii Isn’t this what we should be living for? Relationships are the focus of this life, and to truly form them we need to fallow the ultimate example that God gave us; Intimacy, forgiveness, and love. Thank you Jesus!

Loving The Neighbors... Meeting a DTS student they tell me, “He said, ‘It was still warm so I didn’t even have to make dinner.’ He was so happy and said nobody has done something like that in the over 40 years he has lived in that house. He would like you to come over this evening...” She was speaking of the elderly man, Knut, who’s doorstep the two girls on my neighborhood practical evangelism group made and took an apple pie to. Tuesday afternoons the three of us spend praying for God to show us a recipe and a house in the neighborhood to take it to. It has been a delight to bake things and bless and meet the people in the houses we previously simply walked by. We accepted Knut’s invitation and met him at his Norwegian built, white house. A piano, which we exchanged songs on later that evening, greeted us at the entrance, along with the apple cake he made for us - The apples being from his own trees. As he guided us through his home I took in the smell of antique wood, appreciated the just budding Christmas Cactuses lining his living room, and listened to the stories behind art, objects, and the pictures of his wife he lost 19 years ago. He talked and talked, we could barely get a word in. That didn’t matter through, it was just a joy to listen to him, and surely just what he needed. We agreed to come again the fallowing week for tea and to give him the recipe for the apple pie. I look forward to future times with Knut, exchanging goodies and listening ears for stories and piano playing.

Our time has been full of things such as teaching and learning, dance shows, wiring and plumbing, song writing and concerts, mentoring students, putting up the weekly memory verse around the base, and appreciating life. Thank you over and over for your love and prayers, they are being answered. We appreciate our loved ones (you!) very, very much! We’re wishing you a love-filled, relaxed season. Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Pictures from top to bottom:
Mitch and Me, Me 29 Weeks Pregnant, Rose from Holland and me with Knut's pie, students (Felix-Fedor from Germany & Anders from Norway) learning a song in the hallway, Tango performance, the Dance Track, Mitch playing in a cafe concert.