Please Join My Prayer Team!

I am excited to share a wonderful opportunity I have been invited to be a part of September 4-15th. About a month ago, I was invited by Paula Hemphill, Women's Mobilization Director for the International Mission Board, to join their vision trip to Central & Eastern Europe (CEE). I was humbled and thrilled to be asked to join this group of women's leaders from around the United States.

The reason I am writing to you all today, is that I greatly desire your prayers as we prepare to leave, while we are traveling, as we minister there in Central & Eastern Europe, and as we travel home. Many of you have journey with me to India and Africa and I covet you each as not only friends but partners along the road!

This trip is designed to meet the many regional officers positioned in the Prague, Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland. Our group of 14 will travel to Prague to meet those who are in leadership over this vast region and hear about all the things God is doing. We will be blessed to meet women who are making an impact all over CEE!

After we have met and ministered in Prague, we will divide into smaller teams and leave for our specified regions. I will be with Paula Hemphill in Krakow, Poland for the remainder of the trip. We will be working in the rural areas with women and ministering to the poor of Poland. We will also have the opportunity to prayer walk in Auschwitz, Poland and meet with various ladies who minister among the Jewish people.

Finally, I covet your prayer covering as I will be speaking at a women's conference in Krakow while we are there. I am seeking God's guidance on the words that He would have me bring to these precious women. As you can see, I will need you to work over time!!

Here is a quick list of my prayer needs at this time:

*Glory be brought to God only through every day we prepare, travel, and return!
*Focus personally on daily devotion to God's Word, prayer, Bible study, and witnessing.
*Increased faith that God will provide the financial needs for my trip.
*A continued spirit of unity in our group...as we will not meet until we arrive in Prague.
*Travel mercies and health from September 4-15th.
*Opportunities to encourage, exhort, share, minister, witness, and love those of Central & Eastern Europe.
*Divine appointments throughout our journey!
*God's Word to be proclaimed through me as I speak to the ladies of Poland.

Thank you so much for joining me again on God's journey! I am so blessed to have people like you in my life. I am humbled at the support and friendship you have been!
If you have any questions or comments, please email me at frances@desertflowerministries.com. I look forward to sharing what God does in the days ahead!

Sorry for the delay!

I am so sorry for the delay in posting! For some reason I have not been able to access my blog dashboard for this site. But, my husband figured it out and I am so grateful! Thank you for hanging in there with me while we got this fixed!

I am so thrilled that in two weeks we are starting our new ladies' Life Group called Thrive! at Noonday Baptist Church! It will be an amazing time in God's Word with worship and small group discussion. We are all getting pumped up about it as it gets closer! If you or anyone that you know is interested in this class, please contact us on the contact page. We would love to get you more information about this.

The kickoff is August 10th, so please lift us up as we get ready and get the word out! We've already had emails and interest in it...so we just can't wait to start! I will have a Desert Devotion tomorrow as I get back into life after ICRS. We are still catching up and processing all that God did there. He has taught me so much about Himself and His goodness through this summer. I can't wait for the fall!

Thanks for traveling this journey with us. Leave us a comment anytime to let us know what God is doing in your journey today...I'd love to share that with you!

Blessings,

Frances

Desert Devotion: July 21, 2008

"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you." Matthew 25:24-25

As I was reading and studying this very familiar parable this morning, God was so gracious to point out something new to me! As I looked at the response of the last servant who only received one talent and went on to bury that talent of money instead of investing it, I saw that he was afraid. He shared that he saw a skewed picture of his master and he was afraid. So, he hid the money (a talent is about 20 years of wages for one man) in the ground until his master returned.

So many times in my life I have found myself afraid of doing something wrong, sharing the Gospel in the wrong way, and disappointing God. So, in those times I seem to just freeze. I don't do much of anything...for fear of doing anything wrong. But, that fear is wrong!

God has given us a gift more valuable than any wage for a job...no matter how large! He has given us eternal life through Jesus Christ. He has given us a gift that changes not only our live here daily, but our eternal destination! We can not be afraid, because the battle has already been won and Jesus Christ was victorious over sin.

When we have a correct view and faith in who Jesus Christ is and what He his worth is, then we will cease fear and run boldly to those around us to share what He has done. Today, as I looked at my own life, I see traces of fear. After experiencing such a powerful week of God's grace, leading, blessing, and glory I came home and was in fear! I was afraid of God leading places I was too scared to go. I'm not speaking of locations I fear...but of what God is giving me to do while I am here on this earth. Things I know I can't do and that is scary in my flesh. That is where I struggle...in feeling overwhelmed by God's goodness to me.

But, today I saw the horrible result of fear. It chokes out those precious blessings God gives. It angers God because it keeps me from living the life of faith that pleases Him. It affects the witness I have. It's sin.

Today, I am seeking to live a life of faith. I pray that I will be faithful in little! I pray that I will exchange fear for faith today! The Master is coming back and I want to be multiplying His kingdom in faith. May I share boldly today...

ICRS Recap

Well, I have caught up on some much needed sleep and spent tons of time with my girls over the past 2 days (though Anli came home sick...she is much better now). I have cried (in the good way over God's kindness to me) and spent time in God's Word processing all that happened this past week.I don't think I can go over everything, so this will be a simple recap of the week. We were so very busy that we forgot to take pictures most of the time! I know, I'm not sure what happened to my brain. But, I did get a few that will help me share about the week.

Sunday was an amazing day of worship! We enjoyed challenging words from Anne Graham Lotz about keeping Jesus the focal of our lives, ministries, and jobs. It was great to get the chance to meet so many people and worship with them. There were over 50 countries represented at this convention! What an opportunity to see a little glimpse of heaven as we worshipped together raising hands and lifting voices to God Almighty!

I told you that as I went to the restroom before the service began...I met with Karen Kingsbury and her mom. We visited for a while and enjoyed sharing what God was doing in our lives. She was truly amazing in her humility and love of others (see former post).

That night we went to a concert that featured Nicole C. Mullen. They had lots of artists share about the power of music in their lives...along with retail owners who shared stories about people who were affected by the music lyrics of certain song. It was very powerful to hear those stories and worship together again. Nicole sings "Redeemer" here and it brought the house down!

OK, you HAVE to get this CD when it comes out. This band is a family who are all classically trained musicians...two from Julliard. They sing and play all sorts of instruments desiring to "bring the Renaissance of music back to the church. " They are the Annie Moses Band and their Christmas CD is due out in November.

Jeremy Camp was awesome and the testimony he has of loosing his first wife is inspiring to us all. He was much more than a musician...he was an encourager.The floor was always buzzing as over 10,000 people, 500 retailers, and 50 countries were represented. It was organized chaos...and so much fun!

This is just one of the numerous examples God gave me to individually share His work in my life and our ministry. This sweet lady ran up to me after the book signing was over and asked if we could talk and if there were any books left. God truly blessed our time. I will share tomorrow the amazing things God taught me this trip. I have shared a few things and I want to expand on those deeply. I have been changed by those things God shared with me. This is photo of the intimacy God brought to such a huge convention.

Here is the only photo of any book signing. This was the last lady that came through...and Jay was able to run out of the booth and get a photo of this sweet lady. It was really busy during both signings (we signed over 150 books in one hour...that's about 1 book every 15 seconds). So we didn't have time for photos and videos. It never even crossed our minds! We were just so thrilled to have the honor of meeting that many people and talking with them for just a brief moment. It was humbling and joyous to see God's work all over the globe!

We're Back!

We are home and I'm a little brain fried and will need several days to process all that happened this week. It has had a huge impact on me. God was truly involved in every moment we were there because though there were over 10,000 people there...I felt like I made wonderful friends every day. God took a HUGE event and make it intimate for me. I met so many people, enjoyed numerous stories of God's work in this world, and saw His involvement in every one of them! I don't think that a post could ever recount all the things God did this week!

I will try to debrief for the next few days and enjoy having my girls home and will try to post some details this weekend. Truly my heart is full and I am changed by this opportunity to go to ICRS.

**I also had a wonderful time on a conference call with the ladies around the US that are going on the Women of Hope vision trip to Central & Eastern Europe. I found out that I will be traveling to Krakow, Poland as my assignment along with Paula Hemphill. Please pray for me as I also found out that they are having a women's conference in Krakow and I am the speaker for that conference! So please begin now to pray that God will begin to give me the message to share with these women and leaders. Thank you for walking this journey with me!**

I so covet your prayers. Thank you for your support on this journey!

International Christian Retail Show 2008!

We are leaving for the International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, Florida and we are so excited! We will have the opportunity to meet and share with people from all around the world who are involved in Christian ministries. We will be meeting with the authors from Winepress at a wonderful dinner Sunday night. We just received the catalogue that was mailed all over the US and I am excited to meet other authors and hear their God stories!

Please pray that we would have Divine appointments all week. I know that we will be surrounded with so many opportunities to share what God is doing in DFM and I pray that we will be good stewards of this time. I pray that we would focus on the prize of Jesus Christ above all else this week. We know God has allowed to go to this for His reasons and we don't want to get distracted by anything at all!

If God brings us to mind, please pray specifically for these times:

Sunday night: Author dinner: pray that we will meet and glean from all the amazing authors and their stories. May this time be full of encouragement and support!

Monday evening: New Release Party - Pray that we will have Divine meetings with women who desire to thrive in this life. We aren't just signing books at this convention! We are there to share the message of hope through daily dependence on God and His Word. Pray that those books will land wherever God plans!

Monday evening: Meeting with musical group Beloved - pray that God will allow us to encourage and glean from this group. May God's will be accomplished as we talk about the direction God is leading our ministries.

Tuesday afternoon: Formal book signing - pray that again God will bring the women (or husbands) who will desire to thrive in this life by the power of God's Word. May God give me precious moments to share and listen to women from around the world.

Tuesday evening: Dinner with Danya Clairmont founder of our agency -pray that this will be a wonderful time of friendship and encouragement! May God use us to sharpen each other and enjoy sweet fellowship together!

*Please pray that we will be humble stewards of this time. May Jesus be lifted high and that HE may increase which means we MUST decrease!!

Thank you for walking this journey with us. Thank you for those who will pray this week as God leads your heart. Thank you for caring enough to stop by here and join your hearts with us. We love you so very much!

Blessings,

Frances