The shadow of thy wings

I am sitting here tonight in a very hot camper.  The heat index was supposed to be high today and it easily passed 100 degrees.  However, there is good news in a hot camper. The air conditioning is currently shut off while our new friend is cleaning it.  Hooray.  He works on air conditioners for a living and said ours will work 30-40% better.  Thank you, Scott.

The heat was making me think about how we were trying to escape the sun.  Today, the girls wanted to hand our free drinks and tracts.  We sat in the shade of a beautiful tree in front of the church.  It just made me think about this verse. 

Psa 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 

Psa 17:9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

This just reminded me of how we are protected by God just as I was protected by that tree.  The sunlight looked nice and may have its benefits for today.  But later the burn will hurt.  The world is out there, and people may try to draw us into it.  But we should stay under the protection of our Heavenly Father.

losing weight

When we have been in one location for awhile,  I get this sudden urge to purge the camper of all the waste.  Even living in a space this size, we seem to accumulate a lot of things we don't need. I had to learn when we first moved in here that I can't keep  everything for a rainy day.  Back in Maine, I would collect craft materials with every intention of using them with the kids.  Well, I gathered and then never used. We would do a craft here and there, but never what I had intended.

Today, I wrote all the things that needed to be done on a notebook paper.  Then the family got busy cleaning.  This included pulling out furniture and vacuuming behind it, and wiping out cabinets.  It is nice that this is a full day job but not a multiday job.  The saying "Nature abhors a vacuum" is true.  No matter how much space I have, I can fill it.  Our five bedroom house had lots of extras and so does this camper (less than 300 square feet).  As I was cleaning, I was thinking of all the weight we were getting rid of.  It makes a lot of difference when we are hauling our house around behind us.   The more weight we haul, the more gasoline we burn.

How much energy do we waste carrying around burdens that we do not need to carry?  Is there anything that is weighing heavy on your heart?  Maybe some anger towards someone, someone you have not yet forgiven, or some sin you have not yet confessed to God.  What can you do today to change that?  Our first action should be prayer.  We do not need to carry these burdens. 

What weight can you drop today?

Sara

Let's be real

The church (the people) are supposed to be One.  A large family that is to help us grow closer to being like Jesus Christ.Why do we try to be so secretive among other people who are supposed to be in our family?  As I child, if I was ill, I did not hide that fact from my parents.  If Naomi gets hurt, she knows that she can go to Nathaniel to fix her boo-boo.  If Samuel is crying because he can't roll over, Virginia can help him flip.

Many times, I have mentioned a struggle I or my family is having.  I have had brothers and sisters in Christ give me some fine answers and stories of their personal issues related to my problem.  I have had others who act as if everything in their life is perfect.  I believe that God wants us to have the support of other Christians and part of that is learning from eachother.  I am not saying that we need to complain, but that we need to help our brothers and sisters through their genuine struggles by sharing the experiences God has shown us personally.  

Most women would feel that a male doctor was belittling her if he said he understood how contractions felt.  Someone who has lost a child does not want to hear "I know what you are going through" from someone who has two healthy children.  

If I ask how to fit Bible study into a day filled with homeschooling and baby care, it is not useful for a sister to say "Well, you need to get up earlier".  It would be helpful to share "I was never able to fit it in either until I started to get up before my children".  I don't think everyone struggles witht the same things that I do, but there are some people that portray themselves as never having any problem learning how to best fit all our obligations to God and family into a day.

If I say something negative about my husband, I need a sister to lovingly come up beside me and show me how to build him up, rather than tear him down. If I admit that my personal time with the Lord is failing, I need a sister to show me how she makes it work in her daily life.  But do you think I would admit that to someone who never has any part of her life that she doesn't seem to have all straightend out.

Let's be real with each other and willing to share what God has shown us.  We need to help each other take up our cross daily and live the way God wants us to.  At least for me, I need examples from women who have figured out from real life how to make this work.  I also want to be an example to other women.

Maine trip plans

Well our adventure continues as we plan to leave Kansas on July 20th.  Our whirlwind trip includes stops in Illinois; Richmond, KY (Rose, there is a baby that wants to see you); Bluffton, Ohio (two grandmas in one state- so much fun); and then heading back to..........................................Maine.

When we left in March, God had given us a peace in our hearts that we may not travel that way again for sometime.  Recently, God has opened doors for us to do some Gospel work in the area.  We are excited to be back with some work in mind.  None of our return trips to Maine have been vacation, but there has been no planned work to get to.  

The kids are glad to get back to see old friends.  Also looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa.  We want to spend lots of time with fellow Christians while we are home, so please contact us if you can get together.  At this point, we do not know how long we will be home.  God will direct our paths, so we will just wait on his timing.  

We are glad to see the ocean soon and feel the cooler weather.

Learning from each other

This was written a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting it.

I had the most amazing time with three young women who are very devoted to God.  Two of these ladies seem to be approaching marriage very rapidly, a very good thing.  We decided to sit down and do a Bible study on marriage.  It was so much fun and amazing to see the insights that these young women have.  It seems like there is not much mentoring that goes on in today's churches.  Both young men and women are left to figure out how to live a Christian life.  

God will give us the tools we need to be able to follow Him.  One of the tools he has given us is people who are more mature in the faith and those that have already experienced life.  We can learn a lot from one another just observing how other's live in their everyday life.  The early church saw this as they met together day by day to have meals together and worship God.  Our churches are so disjointed now.  We don't even know each other.   How many of us know  the color of the carpet of Mrs. So and So who sits in the pew with us on Sunday morning?  How many could even tell you what the house looks like?  Many may not even know the town she lives in.  Could you tell me how many children she has? What her favorite book is?  

The people in the first churches could tell you.  The home church was an extension of the family.  They connected with people through meaningful relationships.  They did not just see them at the "church building" 1,2, or 3 times a week. 

 Have you ever had friends that you spend a great deal of time with?  We had some really good friends that we spent probably 20 hours a week with, outside of the church building.  We would be at their house or they would be at ours until the wee morning hours.  You get to know a lot about a person this way.  Not only did our children become really close, but you get to know their hopes, dreams, fears, and struggles.  I saw their desire to follow the Lord all those years ago, and they just returned from a survey trip to the mission field.

People say quality time is not the same as quantity time.  You find out more from eachother when you have no agenda.  A big spider jumping out at me may reveal that my friend shares that issue. When someone sees me struggling to get my little one down for a nap, she may have a suggestion that I had not thought of.   These things are not brought up during Sunday school or Church service.  I know these are trivial things but these lead to big things.

We need to surround ourselves with the church, people who believe in Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sins.  The church building is  just that, a building.  God does not call us to go to church every Sunday.  He tells us to "not forsake the assembling of ourselves together".  Our family tries to be with other families at least 5 days a week outside of scheduled church meetings.  These may be believers or they may be people we are trying to lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. This way we can bring more people into God's family, more tools to help us in our Christian walk.  

Sara Cowperthwaite

12 Emery Avenue
Thomaston, Maine 04861
cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com