KP: Manna_4U

KP Writes:

Praise the Lord!
Wow, it is such a blessing to see our heavenly Father pour out such a rich blessing in abundance. Jeff and I have each been working with a ministry within IHOP-KC called Manna_4U. As the name implies, this is a ministry to help provide food for individuals within our community who are physically hungry and currently without monetary means to buy food. Typically the food comes from local grocery stores who donate items that are near the 'sell by' date, fruit/vegetables that are less than perfect, or items which have damaged packaging such as a crushed box, peeling label or dented can. (Yes, I have read the reports. You do not need to email me about dented cans.) The recipients can come to Manna_4U three days per week for a couple of hours in the afternoon and 'shop' from the items available that day. The selection is always changing, based on whatever is provided for that day-hence the name Manna.

I have the privilege of working while people come and shop on Mondays. It is great to be able to pray with and encourage people who have such a humble spirit. Singles, mothers, fathers, families, people of all ages from all walks of life come. One thing that blesses me is the gratitude of the recipients, not just for the material provision of food but to the Lord for His faithfulness. Because these folks are 'forced' to live by faith, they do not take having food to eat for granted. Most of the people in America that I know do not rely on the Lord for food. That don't have to. Food is a given. No faith required. Not really any need there pressing them to pursue the Lord. Sadly the truth is that our needs are actually God's gift to us, to direct our attention and affections toward Him. Oh that we would love Him with such pureness of devotion that this would not be the case.

Also working with Manna_4U, Jeff has been able to assist Skip in picking up food, as well as off loading 'the quail'. Specifically the Lord opened a door in July/August for the ministry to receive a donation 8000 pounds of frozen meat each month. In fact, this last load was 11,000 lbs! That is a LOT of bacon, bologna, chicken, ham, etc....Jeff helps to put the pallets in the freezer for storage before distribution. The humorous thing was that there were actually some quail in one of the deliveries!Pray not only for continued supply but also increase. There are many hungry people in this current economy. Pray that the Lord will abundantly bless the businesses of the grocery stores and distributors who so generously donate. Pray also that our weak hearts will pursue Him in abundance and in lack.

Blessed to be a blessing,
Kristian

KP: Come Out of the Clutter and Hear God #2

KP Writes:

A couple of our readers have emailed and said that they are unable to read the portion of my 'clutter' post that I copied and pasted. So, I am posting it again, typing the entire post in hopes that they can read it. Sorry. I guess I have learned that not all computers can recognize things we copy and paste.
Kristian

Come Out of the Clutter and Hear God-reprinted from 9/23/10

I was reading a posting on Elijah List this morning and was struck by a posting written by Garris Elkins. I have copied excerpts from this timely message to Americans and the American church. I concur: Simplification is much needed in America. The clutter has gotten so deep, 'up to our ears' I would say, that we can no longer hear the Lord. Read on and be blessed!


"We are living in cluttered times that have produced distracted lives. Family activities and careers ask for their fair share of our day. Ministry commitments ask us for more of our time. The needs of others stand in line at the door of our lives and want to come in. Each of these demands are good by themselves, but together they can become overwhelming in their ability to fill every spare moment of our lives. At some point we must push life back and create a place to listen to what the Spirit would say.

Paul addressed cluttered lives when he wrote to the Church in Corinth: "The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away. I want you to be free from the concerns of this life." I Corinthians 7:29-32

Later in verse 35 Paul wrote:
"I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible."

Paul was listing, among those things that can distract us, our relationships, our failures, our successes and our possessions. When all the stuff of life begins to fill our lives, we become absorbed into them and take on their shape - and our image changes. Like we clay, we are crafted into an image of the distractions in our lives instead of being absorbed and molded into the image of Christ.

Now is the time to push back the clutter and distractions of life that are occupying your time and space and draining away your energy.

God is asking His people to unclutter their lives where His Spirit can set down and do extraordinary things. Remove the clutter and distractions and welcome the coming of the Lord."


I choose this day to push back the clutter and distractions and be crafted into the image of Christ. Will you choose the same?

Love ya,
Kristian

KP: You are Probably Not Old

KP Writes:

Well now. I have been informed and updated by my 'college daughter'....It seems that before this morning I was not in the know, but now, I have the latest, breaking, 'scientific' classification. I was sitting at my desk reading an all inspiring teaching about Holy Spirit and the strength of the Lord as described in Isaiah 40, you know-feeling quite inspired when Ashton said, "Moma, you are not old." Curiously, I pursued her train of thought and was informed of the facts from her current text. Psychology currently describes old as the following:

65-74 Young Old
75-84 Middle Old
85-and up Old Old

Well then. I am not by definition, old. Some of my readers, well you have entered the classification scale of old, but not to worry- you are not Old Old, nor even Middle Old-but you may be pushing the scale!

Lynn S. and Margaret K. once gave reference to Psalms 92: 12-14 when someone mentioned 'old' and it is my prayer for me as I grow 'old'.

"The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of the Lord, They will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still yield fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and very green,"

Love ya,
Kristian

P.S. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? All I started out to do was meditate on the Word. Hum...

KP: Birthday Gift

KP Writes:
My newest prized possession is a hit for the Price family! For my birthday I asked Moma and Dick for a hammock. I was really excited that Dick was able to find one online at Sierra Trading at the end of the season at a clearance price. Being a proud owner of a fabulous hammock I had the task of suspending it for use. I asked Jeff to 'just hang' it from our patio covering, "like from chains or something". Well the problems were many ranging from a sloping ceiling, to support rafters not being in the correct spot, to taking up the entire covered area where our patio table sits....That is when Jack and Doe and Uncle Dick came to my rescue giving me checks for my birthday. At first I hadn't been sure what I would spend it on until I received a call from Jeff who was at Lowes. Guess what had been clearanced.....hammock stands, the big ones like what I needed. He bought one, brought it home and I immediately wanted to try it out. Unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs which if you know MO weather means the wind was blowing (as always) and so the drops were driving horizontally. Not to be stopped, we set up the hammock in the living room.

It was great. The four of us became quite fond of the indoor hammock: Ashton lays in it with her laptop preparing for tests, Mallory reads in it, Jeff takes five to regroup between tasks, and I have found it to be my favorite place to lay while downloading my day in a 5 minute capsule to Jeff, who so lovingly swings me with his foot while he sits the couch. All good things must come to an end....today we were having 15 people over for prayer so we had to move the hammock out of the front living room. (We thought we might need to get to the piano.) Each of the young adults found time to test drive it even though it was quite cool outside. (We warmed up to 62 after having been 35 last night!) But don't worry, the Prices have decided when it is too cold to lay in the hammock it will be relocated to the basement school room for the winter. Ahhh! Thank you everyone for a wonderful birthday gift.
Love ya,
Kristian

AP: Team Gatherings

AP writes:

Hello all! 

I'm so sorry that I haven't blogged in forever but hopefully that will change. =) 

Today we were blessed to be able to have a team gathering! The Kawases (with the addition of Dacia!) and koalas (Stan, Kimberly, and I-we renamed ourselves while on the trip =) ) and our families got together at my house today for fellowship and prayer. It was really encouraging to see everyone and be together again. One of the things we had noticed while on the trip was that God was using our group as a support group for each other. We had what we called "flamily" meetings where we would go around one by one and tell what was on our hearts and then pray for each other. God was able to minister to our hearts in deep, powerful ways through these times so we felt it was essential to continue them! We prayed for each other today and one of the big concerns for lots of people, including me, was where to go from here. Where was God leading us in our lives and how to faithfully walk His plan no matter how hard the decisions seem to be was the big question that needed answering. We were asking God for his wisdom and clarity in hearing His voice. 

We were also able to pray for all the churches we visited. To name a few we prayed for Living Waters Church in Tainan, Taiwan, the Hongodai church in Yokohama, Japan, Ricky Gordon's church in Shizuoka, the Bostroms and their community in Kakegawa, the churches in Kure near Hiroshima, and many of the surrounding churches we have maintained contact with. It was a great time of intercession for our beloved friends!

Because we were able to have Dacia with us, who is a daughter of the Bostrom family living with the Kawases for school purposes, we were able to have direct prayer needs from Kakegawa. Please pray for Mrs. Bostrom as she is suffering with a pain in her forearm, back, and other pains. Also please pray for them as they are in the process of acquiring an old public school building for their Christian school. While this is a tremendous blessing it also comes with lots of stress due to the monetary aspect. Pray that God would bless them financially to be able to compensate the teachers who have to work an additional job for enough income.

We are planning on being able to have regular meetings as God allows! I'm so grateful God has enabled us to maintain such a closeness as a team and as friends.

I will write more later!

Many Blessings,
Ashton =)

JP: Campfires

JP writes:

The Price Family went camping this past weekend with two families from our home group. We had a great time of fun, fellowship, and laughter. Our campsites were down by the lake in what was termed the "primitive" area of the park which meant tents only and no electricity with about a 300 yard hike to the bathhouse. Being that our sites were right on the lake, this meant that we had to walk past every other campsite whenever we made that trek.

The thing that I noticed whenever I made the hike was that no matter what time it was, if someone was at their campsite they always had a campfire. At times it was really pretty ridiculous. People with RVs would be inside cooking or watching tv with the air conditioning blowing while at the same time there was a campfire burning outside. You could pick out the people that obviously didn't think about having a campfire before they left home. Even though they hadn't brought wood, a saw or a hatchet, they were adamant about having a fire. I saw many instances where they found 6-8 feet long fallen branchs/trees and laid them across the fire pits and had a blazing fire that could be seen from the moon. It was comical to see the extremes that they went to.


Not to be outdone, we too had our campfire going. However, we planned and brought the necessary tools to have a controlled burn. One night, we actually had a conversation about our love of campfires.

Campfires fascinate us. They are beautiful and mesmerizing with flames that crackle, dance, and flicker, an ever changing pattern. The colors are spectacular - white, red, orange, blue. We seem to be drawn into the fire and often get lost in thought in it. We cook on it, get warm by it, and gorge on Smores around it.I even love the smell. And at times small campfires aren't fascinating enough, so we fuel it to make it larger and more satisfying.

Satan and sin are like this. Much of the time they appear beautiful, mesmerizing, and spectacular. Luring us in to more and more, bigger and better in order to take our eyes off what we were called to do or were created for. That is having a relationship with Jesus. But even inherently good things can cause us to stumble if it keeps us from what we know we should be doing.

For example, one night the Prices decided to have Smores while everyone else went to bed. The other families decided to pass after seeing the sugar high that their children had from partaking the previous night. However, Angela sent Paul back to the campfire area to get her some tissues. Feeling guilty that no one else was experiencing the pleasures of Smores, Kristian and I quickly (and easily I might add) lured Paul in. Several minutes later Angela came investigating only to find Paul sticky fingered with a mouthful of marshmallow and chocolate.


It was pretty much the same classic scene as in Genesis 3. "Paul, where are you? What are you doing?" Me being the good friend that I am tried to aid in the cover up by yelling, "Here she comes Paul, hide!" Pretty similar to Adam's reaction when he heard God walking in the garden after they had disobeyed God's instructions. Hide!?!? What good would that do? At that point Paul was already caught brown and white handed. All of us were as a matter of fact.

All because of the lure of the fire and the promise of a reward of temporary sweetness. Is there anything that is luring you away from living your life to its created purpose? Ask God, He'll show you.

Blessings!

KP: Come Out of the Clutter and Hear God

KP Writes:

I was reading a posting on Elijah List this morning and was struck by a posting written by Garris Elkins. I have copied excerpts from this timely message to Americans and the American church. I concur: Simplification is much needed in America. The clutter has gotten so deep, 'up to our ears' I would say, that we can no longer hear the Lord. Read on and be blessed!


"We are living in cluttered times that have produced distracted lives. Family activities and careers ask for their fair share of our day. Ministry commitments ask us for more of our time. The needs of others stand in line at the door of our lives and want to come in. Each of these demands are good by themselves, but together they can become overwhelming in their ability to fill every spare moment of our lives. At some point we must push life back and create a place to listen to what the Spirit would say.

Paul addressed cluttered lives when he wrote to the Church in Corinth:

"The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away. I want you to be free from the concerns of this life." 1 Corinthians 7:29-32

Later in verse 35 Paul wrote:

"I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible."

Paul was listing, among those things that can distract us, our relationships, our failures, our successes and our possessions. When all of the stuff of life begins to fill our lives, we become absorbed into them and take on their shape – and our image changes. Like wet clay, we are crafted into an image of the distractions in our lives instead of being absorbed and molded into the image of Christ.

Now is the time to push back the clutter and distractions of life that are occupying your time and space and draining your away your energy.

God is asking His people to unclutter their lives where His Spirit can set down and do extraordinary things. Remove the clutter and distractions and welcome the coming of the Lord."

I choose this day to push back the clutter and distractions and be crafted into the image of Christ. Will you choose the same?

Love,
Kristian