A grand night...

Well that was fun! House Wyne was a wonderful night. If you want to watch it, it is on Ustream. I am so glad we did it. We saw woman make new commitments to Christ and seasoned Christians take the charge to go tell others. The night raised a little over three hundred dollars for The Potter's House. Not bad at all.

Getting to drop off cupcakes, bibles and money to them the day after the event was the best part of the whole shebang! There is nothing more fun then giving away money!

We have had a lot of "So what's next?" I have no idea! When God put this whole thing on my heart, it came with a vision for a single night. There are some life details that have had to wait until after the event that I get to deal with this week. Not a bad thing...things like, yes, mommy still cooks dinner.

I got to see some things leading up to HW, that I never expected to see. Some of it wonderful.
Some of it ugly as, well, sin. The Beatitudes have taken on a whole new meaning in my life.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matt 5:11-12)

Rejoice and be glad? Yup.

When I was told about a nasty comment that came in about me, my first thought was, "Thank You." Now that is an odd reaction, even for someone odd like me. But it meant that I was on the right track. It meant that I had discerned correctly about staying away from someone, who I knew was full of hate, wrapped up in the bible. And lets face it, the enemy can't live the fruit of the Spirit and so has no self control....his hand was shown and that is a comfort to me. Like I said, odd indeed, even for me.

So I have received both spam and hateful comments...I must be doing something right! Talk about a need for discernment though. I should think it would be easy for a ministry to receive hate mail regularly and just chalk all criticism up to "They hate me because they hate You..." and I should think that is a rather thin line. I have been so convicted to have good men and woman of God around me...and not just the "yes" crowd either. That is just plain dopey. No, there has been some real debate on things and while most things come down to opinion or a denominational tradition, when it comes to my walk, I got me some extraordinarily godly folks to be accountable to.

So House Wyne 2011 is complete...who knows what He has next for all of us. I am going to keep listening because truly, "my expectation comes from Him!"

This is it girls!

Here is to House Wyne! He is gonna' do what He is gonna' do! Let's pray for a wonderful time for all...
...and for those who can't be there tonight. I know one who will have a front row seat next to Jesus and I am a blessed woman for it. Glory.
See you all tonight and if not, I shall be counting on your prayers! Hope you can watch it here on the Events page...pray the wifi hook up works!

PS The flowers were sent from my brother, Mark and SIL, Julia to bless me for tonight. LOVE IT!

Four more days...

To House Wyne! I am so excited! If you haven't seen Paul Guglich's video pre-view/invite, head over to the event page. He did a great job. Some observations from me? Sure if you want.

1) Don't wear a bulky, white, turtle-neck when Uncle Paul is around with a video camera. Only the truly anorexic can carry it off.

2) Don't worry. No one noticed that I said "the Gospel of Jesus Christ" as often as Rachael Ray said "groovy" the first time she was on the Today show in 1996. No one noticed, I am sure.

3) Wear foundation when on video...

4) I am blessed beyond measure by an amazing team who also want to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Also, if I want to be a proclaimer of the Gospel, I should learn to spell it with out spell check!

All of that said, I went to bed with a scripture on my heart, having run into it a few times yesterday. I took the index card I have it written on, out of my bedroom with me this morning to read and re-read again.

"My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation." Psalm 62:5-6

Why is that so heavy on my heart? Not sure. Perhaps it is because I want so much for my expectation for this Friday night to match His. Maybe He is giving me a reminder of that...just in case I start to worry more about what I am wearing, how many woman are in the seats, what I look like on video, and if there are enough cupcakes to go around...500 should be enough, Mair.

Today, Jack (who has been sick for a while now) is well enough to go to school. John is working~praise God~and the girls have just a regular school day as well. Phone will be on silent and while I have to vacuum, I have the day to pray and ask Him what He expects me to say on Friday night...because that is exactly what I want to say, whatever He asks.

WATER!

This is kinda what I feel like right now! After about six weeks of being water free in my kitchen and laundry room, my man has cleared our pipes! Someone ring a church bell please!

The Blue Bat

Lovely right? Actually my little, blue bat was way cuter than these...and there was only one. I bet you want me to explain don't you? Of course you do, or you would not be on the blog...all ten of you!

About six weeks ago, I spent some time with a dear friend. I asked her to keep a situation I was dealing with in prayer. I had found myself in the middle of a stronghold like no other I had dealt with in a very long time. No matter how hard I tried to be "transformed by the renewal of my mind," I found myself marinating on one topic day and night. It had found myself not thinking on anything that was sweet or lovely or good. Not a moment of my time was spent thinking on my children or John...It was the thing I was thinking about over and over...yup a stronghold had me in the grips.

I knew that staying stuck in that pit was not an option. I had done everything I could to shake it off and yet, I remained in it. It was time to call in the big guns and get a prayer warrior on it.

After we spoke, I had no doubt that my friend had been in prayer right away. That night was the first time I had sat still and not thought about my stronghold. As I rested with my head on the pillow I had this wacky dream, yes. About a little, blue bat. I remember at the time, that even if I wanted to think on my stronghold, I couldn't. The view of the stronghold had been replaced by my little blue bat.

In the dream, the bat was on the other side of the kitchen window. It was so ugly, it was cute...I mean it was a little blue bat for crying out loud. It practically looked like a Bitty Baby...only not so stuffed and with some very real fangs. I knew enough not to play with it, no matter how cute it was.

The little, blue bat kept opening my kitchen window. I kept closing said window. It would open the window, I would close the window...over and over and over and over and over again.

At one point, the open/close routine got a little bit of space between each...but that little, blue bat opened it once again.

Just as I could not get myself to think on my stronghold, I could not get my brain off the darn bat.

Later the next day, I told John about my odd dream. We kicked it around a bit. Yeah, the enemy of our souls is like a little, blue bat. It will never leave us alone completely. And some days are just proof that we live in a fallen world. Stuff will always happen.

In the weeks leading up to House Wyne, there have been a plethora of little, blue bats. I have even been dinged up side the head a time or two. One situation in particular is known as wading, knee deep, in bat poo.

Last night as I rigged the washing machine, the dryer started to act up. The phone, the kids, the husband running late...I finally went into my prayer closet (AKA the bathroom) and just got away for a moment or twelve. There are some days that have felt like a swarm.

We all have our little, blue bats. We all have our bat poo. And if we are actually living out the Gospel...we will have our swarms.

Today, I start out with my little-blue-bat-repellent...His name is Jesus.

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ps no time for major edits today. I am on John's laptop because of a LBB on my computer.

The poo...

Pastor Tony Evans had this story on his blog last week only he told it way better:

A little birdie was flying south when he got so cold, that he just fell out of the sky. He landed in a cow pasture where a cow promptly walked over to him and poo'ed on him. He was completely buried in poo.

At first the birdie was a bit upset. I mean, he was covered in poo after all. But the bird realized, after being upset for a few minutes, that he was not cold anymore. As a matter of fact, he was pretty darn warm from being pooed on. Well, our friend the little birdie was so happy, he began to sing!

A bit later, a cat near by heard our little birdie singing. Said cat walked over, dug him out and immediately ate our little birdie.

The moral of the story: Not everyone who poo's on you is an enemy and not everyone who digs you out, is a friend...Oh and if you find your self stuck in the poo...shut up.

I was explaining to God today that I was fed up with a particular pile of, ahem, poo that I've found myself in. He brought that story to mind. Okay, Lord. I get it. Just keep doing what I am doing and shut up. But you have to admit it stinks.

Okay....

Is this pretty or what? I just love the pinkness of it all!

Last summer when I read Brother Andrew's book, "God's Smuggler" I asked God to let me hear from Him the way Brother Andrew and other dear saints have. I want to know, that I know, that I know that I am doing exactly what God has called me to. I knew I could not go into outer Mongolia to spread the Gospel, but I can do it here, in my little corner of the world. And so I blogged on, never imagining that a dream come true would actually be a reality in my life.

The fact that we can throw this kazillian dollar event for nothing, is nothing short of a gift from God. So what is the point?

So I can show off my great talent, duh. No wait, that's wrong. It is perfectly wrong.

So we can have just a girls night out, duh. No wait, that's wrong too...

So we can spotlight the great businesses that have given their time and products, duh. No wait, wrong again.

God forbid this should be "The Maryellen Hour" staring your very own dispicable me.

So why? Let's face it, God needs me on His side, like He needs a hole in the head. Seriously, while I may be fantastic, and frankly everyone needs at least one Maryellen in their lives~and I am painfully aware that only one of the likes of me is enough~ He is God and all. I think he probably has a bucket of full of Maryellens to put up with. Being God, He needs nothing, especially me...

And yet, from the very beginning, He chose to include us in His work. And when Jesus told His disciples to go and tell others, it was not a suggestion. We call it the great commission.

It has never been enough to believe in God...what if we actually believed Him. When friends have said they are coming, I've strongly suggested they bring someone who may not know Him...seriously, if you already know Him you can get way better teaching!

So from our little corner of the world we get to tell others about Jesus in just about 22 days...and do you know the best part? When I mentioned to God that I am not an event planner...He agreed with me!

My parties often wind up being something out of an old "Mary Tyler Moore" episode...if you don't get that, please, for the of all things funny, Google.

...I missed most of my own wedding worrying about dealing with the band and the photographer...I am not at all interested in doing that at the House Wyne event. Not that God could not give me the ability, but He didn't. He provided planners and an entire staff...and cupcakes. Lots and lots of cupcakes. I mean seriously, what is the point to girls night without chocolate?

Not sure if I should mention this here or surprise you all that night, but since the folks pinging to South Korea, probably won't make it, I think I shall share here:

You see, we have had a lot of snow and with that snow, a lot of snow days for the kids. Not to mention that my pipes are still frozen...

I've always lived by the motto that if you can't change your life, change your hair. I was a little PMS, in need of chocolate...the color on the 10 minute hair color kit was called, "Light chocolate brown" and I now find myself a brunette...Don't judge. We've all thought, "I will just go one shade darker or lighter." We've all wound up looking like Elvira or Marilin at least once in our lives. Hey, this is still way better than the year I spent with lime green hair... the whole "ash" thing was a bad idea. But that was 25 years ago...at least I didn't go with ash?

Yeah, I know. It is kind of like getting a perm the night before the prom. Or as I've been known to do, getting my eye brows waxed the night before a wedding and looking like Hermon Munster, thanking God for my bangs.

All in all, while I still don't recognize myself in the mirror, my man said it looks hot. I try not to think about the "Archy Bunker" episode when Michael was chasing Gloria around because she got a short brunette wig. She kept accusing him of wanting to have an affair with a brunette...Yeah, that is not on my mind at all. See?

Maybe I will post a picture before House or not...I may make you all wait to see the darkness of it all!