Time Saving Tortilla Lasagna for supper

If you are trying to redeem the time and feed a large crowd, you may want to try out this recipe that our family came up with this week. Using a basic recipe I already had, we experimented a little and came up with a hit that everyone liked. That's pretty hard to do with twelve of us! Actually, baby Paul didn't get to taste it, but eleven of us voted for it to be served again. It's a one pot meal and fairly quick to make. Let me know what you think!

At your funeral...

My husband did a radio program on, "Who will be crying at your funeral?" The idea is that there may be a lot of people at your funeral, but only a few of them will be crying. Our priority in life should be to invest our time in those who will be crying at our funeral.


Just this week, we lost an acquaintance to a debilitating disease. Both my husband and I had admired this man for his many great character qualities, but one thing he was remembered best for was his diligence in witnessing to every one that crossed his path. Those who knew him best knew that he rarely let an opportunity pass to tell others about Jesus and what He had done in his own life.


As I have reflected on what people remember most about this man, I have been reminded to invest my life in those who will be crying, but to also make sure that the things they will be saying reflect a life well spent. As those who are crying at my funeral summarize my life, will the things they say reflect a depth of spiritual life and character or will I have been just a good person? A wife or mother can be remembered for doing lots of loving and sacrificial things for her family, but in order to really succeed, she must have lived a life that was consumed in focusing others on eternity.


Who will be crying at your funeral and what will they be saying? Will their statements reflect a life of temporary good or of eternal significance?

Thank the Lord for a Great Trip

We're finally rested up and fairly recovered from our four months in Europe and Africa. We visited thirty countries and ministered in twenty one of those countries with the seminars translated into thirteen languages. I must say that it was nice to get back and hear a little English for a change!



This morning I posted a country by country review and slide show of our ministry there. God worked in marvelous ways His wonders to perform!

God Pays for What He Orders

For many years as we have travelled and spoken in churches, we have told people that, "God pays for what He orders," when people ask us how we afford ten children. It has been one of the biggest blessings of my life to see God pay for all the children that He has ordered for us. One example happened just this week...

One of the ways that I try to manage money carefully is by buying in bulk when I find food items on sale. Obviously, what our family considers bulk is different from most families because for us, a weekly trip to the grocery store would still be a huge amount of food to purchase. A family of our size consumes a large amount of food--especially when you consider that six of our ten children are growing young men!

Because we emptied our freezers before we left for Europe, we came back having to buy food at the going price rather than having a stockpile of food we had gotten at good sales. We buy so many groceries that this quickly makes a big difference in the food budget.

Earlier this week, we travelled to Rick's mother to visit her and while we were there, I picked up a sale flyer from her local grocery store to look for any good deals. I noticed that they had chicken breasts there for .99 a pound, and I intended to go by and get some to freeze, but we left without doing so. The next day, on a whim, I decided to shop at a totally different Walmart than usual. One of the things I like about Walmart is their price matching guarantee, so to save time, I just take the local grocery store papers in there and match the prices. I knew it was a stretch, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to see if this Walmart would match the sale prices from a competitor in Rick's mother's town even though the other store was not anywhere nearby.

I got to the meat counter and showed the lady there the ad and asked if they would match it. She said that she didn't think so because it was not really a competitor being so far away, but that she would ask the manager. To make a long story short, after a while she came back out and said that they would match the price on those chicken breasts, plus they would give me what I considered a much better grade of chicken for the same money. I took all they had and she got me more from the back of the store!

Before I left the meat department, I decided to just check on the ground beef prices and nothing seemed to be unusual. Usually I buy ground beef at a big discount and then I don't have to buy it again for a long time, but I always wait until it's a super deal. Just as I was walking away, I noticed a little sign that had fallen down into the bin of ground beef. It was a special sale sign, and I quickly started filling my cart and then called my mother and got more for her.

I knew the real test would come when I got to the cashier as she might balk when she saw the awesome deals I got on such a huge amount of food. At this point, it looked like I was running a restaurant by the amount of meat in my cart! When I got to the cashier, I showed her the sale paper and told her the manager had approved selling these chicken breasts for .99 versus the normal price which was a whole lot higher. She called the front manager and they started overriding the price on all these packages of chicken. After a few packages had gone through, the manager stopped and looked at me and said, "what was the original price on this chicken?" I replied that I wasn't sure, so she told the cashier to scan one and see. I figured that this was where the great deal was going to end, but I was hoping that this was how God was going to pay for His children! The cashier scanned the price and the manager saw that I was getting each package of chicken for about $3.50 less than the normal price. She said, "Hey, you really got a great deal on that chicken!" She helped me bag up all the chicken plus the huge amount of ground beef and I went happily on my way!

I was so encouraged to see how God always pays for his orders and it is so fun to see how He is going to do it! One more thing...I don't know if God is paying for the cashier's children, too, but I noticed she kept my sale paper. I am just guessing that on break time, both she and the manager were back there in the meat department loading up on chicken!

Now since this blog is supposed to be about time management, you can find out a great timesaving way to prepare ground beef ahead of time. No, it's not frying it all ahead of time. It's a much healthier and quicker way to prepare large quantities of meat for meals in the future. If you are interested, check out this tip on our website http://www.lifechangingseminars.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3192&Itemid=315

Thank the Lord for Clean Water

And now an advertisement...



When we were preparing to go on this trip, one consideration for me was where I was going to get good water in all the countries we were going to. Since there are so many of us in our family, buying bottled water everywhere we go for four months would be very expensive, not counting the times and places where good water might not be available. We purchased a pump water filter for the family, but this takes time to set up so it was not the best solution for having good water all the time.



Our plan, which actually worked very well ,was to pump several gallons of water at a time so that we did not run out. However, I drink water almost continually and I very, very rarely drink any carbonated drinks. Because I am still nursing our baby, I did not want any situation where I would be without good water. I also didn't want to change water every few days.



I found what worked perfectly for our situation, and I thought that there might be other missionaries or short term trip takers that might like to know about my water bottle. The water bottle that I took for these last four months through thirty countries including several third world countries and Africa, is a bottle that has a special filter built into it. You can buy bottles with filters to improve taste and to moderately reduce chlorine, etc., but this is not what this filter is. It says on the side of the bottle, "Serious Protection," and that is what it is.



Basically, you can take any water source whether it is coming from a kitchen tap in Moldova or a river in Morocco and the filter will bring the water up to the World Health Organization's water safety standards. It is an instant filtration system as the suction of drinking forces the water through the filter. This bottle was invaluable for me as I could just walk into any place and fill it up while the others had to either stop and pump or try to find quality bottled water. Not only that, but it gave me a continual source of water that remained the same for four months.



The bottle is very durable as it has been dropped numerous times on our trip. The only disadvantages that I found was that it is just a little bulky without having a handle. Another small annoyance is that it stresses airport and other security officers a little bit when I carry it through. It is a semi transparent bottle and the filter contraption inside makes it look as if I might be carrying some highly explosive water bottle. I never was stopped in security, but it did attract a few extra stares.



If you are going on a short term trip overseas or if you are going long-term, you may want to go to Walmart.com and check it out. It's called the Sawyer serious protection water bottle. Although buying the bottle is between thirty to fourty dollars up front, it's good for 500 fill ups and since it's a large bottle to start with, it's a good deal all the way around. That's my advertisement for today. Here's the link to see the specs... http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8283710. Let me know if you try it out and if you like it!

To Africa and Back

Monday morning we experienced a unique adventure in our lives as we crossed the Mediterranean on a 35 minute ferry from the southern tip of Spain to Morocco on the continent of Africa. I hadn't thought that I would ever visit an Islamic country in Africa, but it didn't take me long to figure out that I really had arrived.

The first thing I noticed besides all the bribing being done at the border crossing was how the western style of clothing was quickly fading away. The further we travelled into Morocco, the fewer western style clothing we saw and the more typical Arab clothing we saw until we got to the place where we were definitely in the minority. It was interesting to see the range of clothing in the Islamic world as we don't often think of our own culture as having this range of clothing styles.

In our culture, we see the range of clothing from the Amish to what we would see as very immodest clothing. I suppose in the Islamic mindset, they have the same range although I must say I saw very little immodesty. For the first time in a long time, I had fewer clothes on than most people around me--that was quite a change! Perhaps the best way to express what we saw is to tell you what happened on our first evening there.

Our son, Christian, is five years old and has learned some about the Islamic world as we have prepared for this trip. I have tried to teach him that just because someone has a head dress on, doesn't mean that he/she is Muslim, but he can't seem to get that concept. Although it is fairly uncommon to see a person dressed in Arabic clothing in our area of North Carolina, once in a while when we are travelling, he spots someone dressed in this way, and usually lets me know.

Our first evening in Morocco, after our service, we went back to our apartment where we were staying and decided to take the whole family on a walk. The biggest reason for doing this was that it looked like an excellent opportunity to experience the Moroccan culture as it was the heart of Ramadan--a major Islamic holiday. The people had finished feasting and now the streets were full of celebrating throngs of people at about 11 at night and we wanted the kids to see what was going on.

We got out on the streets and all around us were throngs of Arabic speaking, long-robed wearing people. Everywhere around us were men in fez hats or other traditional male clothing such as long shirts, robes, and sandals. The women were dressed in a wider range of clothing from simple head scarves to complete burkas and gloves.

I know I felt a little uneasy myself as I was obviously ridiculously conspicuous with all twelve of us walking down the street of Morocco's holiest city in western wear, and all around us were these people of such a different race. However, I can only imagine how my little five year old felt as he experienced the night of spooky black burka-clad people walking by! To my amazement, we had only been out just a little while when all the sudden, he said with great excitement, "Mom, I see a Muslim!" I was so caught off guard by his obvious innocence in realizing that he had just seen a Muslim--thousands as a matter of fact--and he never realized that he was the only nonmuslim on the street! I quickly said "shhhh" as if hoping people wouldn't hear him, understand, and actually notice us! Oh, well, I guess the mind does quirky things when under stress!

Another very interesting thing we experienced was going into, the Medina. I had heard about the Medina of Fez before we got there and just thought it was a large flea market type place with lots of different products to buy. I assumed we would go there for a couple of hours, buy some souvenirs, and that would be it. I was very uniformed however, as to what the Medina is. As I quickly found out, the medina is not a flea market, but is actually the old city of Fes and is a cultural experience that can not be found anywhere else in the world. We travelled to the city walls, parked our van and walked in through the medina gate. Immediately we realized that we had just walked into another world. The medina is a modern day city that is still living back in medieval times. It is an area enclosed in old city walls encompassing about ten square miles of the city. No motor vehicles are allowed in the whole ten square mile area. People live, work, buy and sell in this enclosed area of the city as they did a long, long time ago. All around us were little shops, craftsmen, fruit stands, public baths (get a bath and massage for about 3 dollars), tanneries, schools and houses. This was no living history museum, but it could certainly qualify for it! We walked for hours in this medina as someone guided us through. All the information about the medina says not to go in without someone who knows the way as you will certainly get lost. Our contact there in Morocco actually lived in the Medina and guided us around. It would be almost certainly impossible for a newcomer to enter and not get lost as there are 7,000 little dark streets, alley ways and small roads, all jutting off in odd angles.

I don't claim to be a softie, but even I got a little shaken when I was standing in the street and saw a robed person approach the counter of a little shop right near where I was standing. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to where I was standing although I was standing taking pictures of the live chickens hanging out there. The customer approached the clerk and apparently requested a particular live chicken. I assumed that the customer would pick up the chicken and go home with his squawking purchase. However, before I could even turn my head to protect my sensitive feminine senses, the "clerk" plopped the chicken up on the counter and promptly pulled out his big knife and began sawing the chicken's head off before I realized what was happening and could turn my startled head. I have seen chickens butchered before, but I was totally unprepared for this and just never expected someone to start butchering a chicken right where you would normally see a cash register in my day and age. I mean, nice chickens are supposed to go into Walmart bags aren't they? Anyway, my sensitivities quickly adjusted again as I realized they were going to continue to prepare the chicken right there including singing it and defeathering it. I decided not to watch anymore as I never intended to see any part of it anyway and headed on to slightly better sites.

As we walked through the narrow streets, frequently, we would hear yelling and so we would squeeze up against the sides of the shops as a heavy donkey load of vegetables or market products would squeeze by.

We headed on down the street and soon came to the leather tanneries. Here, again, this was not a tidy museum experience in leather making. This was men sloshing around in hugs earthen tubs of liquids out under the baking African sun. Animal skins were hanging up, lots of smells were wafting around and inside we saw beautiful leather sandals, purses, jackets, etc.

In the middle of all these experiences, one thing was really bothering me. Here we were in the middle of a country that was listed in the top ten countries for persecution of Christians. Being a Christian in Morocco is a serious thing and there is no option on the national identity card for "Christian" on the space given for religion. It is forbidden to tell any Moroccan about Jesus. The churches that are there are for foreigners serving in Morocco only and the police have made that very clear. Morocco just threw out a group of missionaries not long before we got there, and although it is not technically against the law to become a Christian, they make it so unpleasant that the law doesn't matter at all. One person there told us the penalty was 20 years in prison.

Why did this bother me? It bothered me because when I walked into the English speaking churches, everything in me wanted to step outside and invite the throngs of people outside in. We were there during the holy month of Ramadan so in the evening, we would hear the call to prayer coming from the mosque and would see the throngs of mostly men heading for the mosque to pray before ending their fast for the day. They all came out a short time later while the voice from the mosque would continue to chant for a long time later over the loudspeaker. I wanted to stop them and let them know about the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It was a new experience for me to stand there and not be able to do a thing. It went totally against my nature to enter a gate to go into a church and know that those outside could not easily come in. Rick was speaking inside and a police was standing outside so it was not even an option to invite people in even if we had been able to speak their language. I'm not sure how it happened, but I do know that at one point in the evening, one Moroccan man did come into the service, so pray that God would satisfy his hunger for the truth and protect him from those who would try to hurt him. He must have been very hungry for God to come in as he did.

When you think of Morocco or hear about it on the news, remember to pray that God would make it possible for the people there to hear about the true way to heaven. One person who is working there with the people, told us that when the Moroccans can hear about God, the people are very responsive. He said that there is great responsiveness to the Gospel, and he was not the only one to tell us that. However, he said the problem is "when" they can hear the Gospel. There are so many hindrances for those who are there to tell it that it is extremely difficult for them to do it, but we met those who are spending their lives trying to tell as many as possible.

Another thing that I realized when I was there was the importance of meeting and sharing with the Moroccans and other Muslims who are living in both the Europe and the United States. They are moving to western countries in huge numbers, and if they can be reached, they can influence their own families as we never could. This was brought home to me twice on this trip.

On the way over to Morocco, I decided to step out onto the deck of the ship with Paul and get some fresh air. I decided not to stand near the rail as the ship ride was not the smoothest ride I had ever taken (it was choppy enough for the kids to enjoy it without getting sick at least if we weren't on there too long!) I stood back against the wall of the ship and a young Muslim woman and her husband and baby also stood there beside me. Both of our babies were about the same age and communicated in their own baby language. However, I realized that unless the Gospel could be shared with this young family, no doubt our little boys would have drastically different futures.

One the way back, I saw even more clearly the opportunities that we miss when we fail to befriend Muslims in our own country. We boarded the ship to return to Spain late at night. Right before the ship left the port, I stepped out onto the deck to enjoy the ride. Just as the ship was preparing to leave, I noticed two people step out onto the darkened deck, and cross a chain to go past a "no access permitted point." I wondered what they were doing so I stood and watched them without making myself obvious. It was a young Muslim couple. They were nicely dressed and appeared to perhaps have on special clothing. She had on a beautiful long dark blue robe with gold trimming and he was standing nicely dressed beside her. They made a striking picture standing there, but I wondered what they were doing there at the very edge of the ship where they weren't supposed to be. In a moment, the young man lifted both his arms and began waving them slowly back and forth and just stood there doing that. I wondered what he was doing and I kept wondering as he just stood there slowly waving his arms back and forth at something in the distance. In a moment, though, I realized he was crying and his wife beside him was wiping her face on the edges of her head scarf. Then I realized they were telling someone goodbye so I looked toward the terminal, and I saw a fairly large group of people standing outside the terminal, and they were doing the same slow waving of the arms back at him. This was not a casual goodbye as they apparently were leaving their family in Africa. It went on for a long time as the young man kept slowly waving his arms and periodically putting both his hands to his mouth to blow solemn kisses to the people on shore. As the ship moved away, they continued to stand there and wave and cry until the people were gone from sight on the shore and someone came from the ship and asked them to move from the area. I realized very strongly how sorrowful this young couple was to be leaving and how likely it would be that someone with compassion and tact could befriend them in their home where they were going and have a lot of influence for God in their lives. I know now that I will be watching for Muslims in our area and making aggressive efforts to befriend them so that I can share what I was not able to do in their own country.

The Strange Moroccan Stoplight

This is the case of the strange Moroccan stoplight. We have been travelling in Europe for four months and during these last few weeks in Europe, we have had several meetings in southern Spain. On Sunday night, we travelled to Gibraltar and then the next morning we boarded a ferry for Morocco on the continent of Africa. Now, everyone else may not be as geographically challenged as I was, but I never realized until we were planning this trip, how close southern Spain is to the continent of Africa. After church on Sunday night in Gibraltar, we saw the lights of Africa in the distance, and when we got on the ferry, it was just a 40 minute ferry ride before we disembarked in a whole different world in Africa.

We knew all along that a trip into Africa, and into Morocco in particular, would possibly be both very challenging and very rewarding. Since Morocco is listed as one of the top ten countries for persecution of Christians, we already had a clue ahead of time of what they thought about us, so we were under no delusions, but now that we are back out of Morocco after three full and exciting days, I can honestly say that I am very glad to be out of Morocco, and I am very glad I went to Morocco. With all this said, perhaps you will more easily understand the case of the strange Moroccan stoplight.

During our time in Morocco, we noticed that their officers of the law seemed to hang around everywhere quite a bit, but they never seemed to pay much attention to us other than to take note of who was entering the church where Rick was speaking (it was supposed to be only foreigners--but one very brave Moroccan made it in toward the end of the meeting). We drove for three days in Morocco with Rick speaking in three different locations. During our time on the highways, we noticed that these vigilant officers would randomly appear on different sides of the highway quite unexpectedly and dutifully pull over apparently non-law abiding citizens. Nothing seemed to be out of order until we approached the capitol city of Rabat for the third and final time during our stay in Morocco. We were moving along with the traffic at about 45 miles per hour as everyone around us was when we noticed a stoplight up ahead. It was green as we approached so we dutifully prepared to proceed as we have done since the day we first learned how stop lights operate. This is where we learned about the oddities of Moroccan stoplights.... Just as we were ready to proceed through the intersection with the other cars in the other lanes beside us, the light suddenly and inexplicably turned red. We were shocked, but we were already entering the intersection and there was no way either we or the other vehicles could stop so we just sailed through. At that perfectly timed moment, the aforesaid vigilant officer was standing ready ahead of time to motion us to the side of the road.

Now with all the commotion of Moroccan roads going on around us, we quickly pulled over, but needless to say, we were a little stunned. Neither Rick or I ever run red lights, and we didn't see how such a thing could happen as a stoplight turning red instantly. The friendly officer came over and asked for Rick's license and chuckled merrily about how he didn't know if he could interpret it. Rick wasn't chuckling. Especially when the dutiful officer told him just a few chuckles later how much the fine would be. (that's a sentence fragment I know, but it gives the effect I want to express)...rules don't matter right now it appears.

Rick tried to explain, but the officer was unmoved--it was all our fault because we were going too fast. Just then, noticing what was happening a little clearer, I turned and looked where the officer had been standing, and saw his stoplight switching station. Now, I had learned earlier on in our stay in Morocco, that the government there has a very wonderful policy in effect in their country. That is, King Mohammed VI, Islam, Mohammed, and everything even remotely related to them, are and always will be perfect in every way and if you think otherwise and are smart enough to say so, they will arrange an extended visa and free lodging to go with it. (A Moroccan recently found this out when he noted in the newspaper that the King didn't seem to be healthy).

Now, we have prayed for a lot of free lodging on this trip, but considering the fact that our ferry was leaving later that evening, I decided that I didn't want to take advantage of their free lodging offer by opening my mouth to enlighten the officer to the criminality of his stoplight switching station, so I just started thinking some choice thoughts about this dutiful officer.

He saw that we weren't going to pay him this huge fine so he told us that we would have to pay this fine when we got to customs in a few hours. He took our customs paper so he could kindly arrange the details for us, and we proceeded on our way. I don't know all of God's reasons for sending us on this trip, but it seems that I am having a lot of practice in holding my tongue, so maybe I am going to need this practice later because I really wanted to say, "Wait a second before we go...my little boys back there in the van are really into gadgets and neat little inventions, and I'm wondering if you would be interested in just taking them over to your little light switching station and demonstrate how it works? I mean, if I have too, I could slip you a nice little sum--but you probably don't know what I mean by that, do you?"

We travelled on for a couple of hours to the customs office praying that God would either hinder the officer's message getting though or would work in some other way to accomplish His plan. When we got to customs, Rick went in to have his form stamped and the officer never even noticed that we had to pay this fine. We asked no questions and actually kept the form which I thought was supposed to be turned in. We'll put it in a nice little scrap book of Morocco to show how God is bigger than any of Satan's devices. This was just another example of how everything is really under God's control. We think we have a difficult situation, but all situations are the same to God. Nothing is big or small to Him because the word "problem" is not in his vocabulary. God has no problems--He only has perfect solutions to the situations we find ourselves in!