Red Tent Project

***NOTE: I know that several moms read this with their children...this is a sensitive subject. Please use discernment reading about this ministry this with your kids.***

*UPDATE- the party is on SATURDAY June 5th! I got the day wrong (thanks Melissa!).*

I read the below blog post this morning and knew immediately God was calling me to this. I will be hosting a Red Tent Project party at my home on Saturday, June 5th if you can sew (basic knowledge) and have a sewing machine you can bring. We will have dessert, hot teas, prayer time for these beautiful young ladies, and make these projects. Please leave a comment or email me if you are interested in coming...frances@desertflowerministries.com.

Here is the original post from a blog friend...

our agency felt burdened by the young girls’ overwhelming need for sanitary pads in ethiopia.  i don’t think i need to explain what a HUGE problem this is.  many girls are considered “unclean” for a week each month and are unable to go to school or work.

here are some facts:

ordinary woman are unable to afford basic sanitary protection.
one pack of sanitary pads costs more than 50% of the average monthly wage for women.
millions of african women are forced to replace tampons/pads with newspapers and dirty rags.
     • this can lead to vaginal infections for which there is no available medication.
     • these vaginal infections are often mistaken to be sexually transmitted infections leading to social embarrassment and domestic violence.
wives and mothers are unable to work when they have their periods, further hindering already impoverished families.
girls are forced to take time off school, further jeopardizing their education.
     • because of the economic and cultural crises in africa, its schools serve as more than academic centers.  they provide community resources where young people receive basic care and services, such as food programs, clean water and counseling.
we are currently working on a project to provide the girls at our agency’s transition home with reusable menstrual pads.  we are starting with the older girls first.  there are about 30 girls who need the pads and we’d like to send 3 of the outer envelopes and 6 of the inner pads to each girl – so we’ll need 90 envelopes and almost 200 pads!

here is where i need your help…i don’t know a thing about sewing, but i am very passionate about this cause.  i am calling all my friends (adoption-related or not) to consider helping these young women have a safe way to protect themselves each month. 

if you are interested, i will send you the pattern and a photo of the pads.  i have been told that they are fairly simple to make.  there is a family that is willing to carry them to ethiopia next month, so if you have some time between now and June 15th and would be willing to help, please let me know (you can leave a comment here or e-mail me).  i will pay for the shipping once you are ready to send them off.

please consider helping these sweet girls.  it is a very simple way to make a HUGE difference!

**  and please feel free to re-post this information (or link to my blog) to help get the word out **

Let me know if God is calling you to this and if you want to come join the party! Even if you don't sew, but want to come and join the fun and PRAY with us...COME ON:)

I'm having a hard time blogging right now...because hubby and I are praying, reading, seeking, talking, crying (OK...I'm crying!), and burdened for how our family can live more RADICAL this year. We were up until way late last night joining God in allocating our finances more in line with the Gospel. At the end we realized GOD had brought to fruition the prayer we had for our personal (not tithe or church giving) missional giving a year ago!!! Isn't HE awesome?!?!?!

It is going to be hard for all of us to live true Faith in the midst of an overindulgent, self-obsessed, balanced, and comfortable culture...and that's not just the world! Our church families are swimming right along...and in many areas of my own life I have felt the strong current leading me along with it. But, my daily prayer is that I will follow God's path in His Word today and every breath I breathe!

Today I was reading in John 13:6-17.

One thing that really stood out to me was Peter's responses...oh boy...do they sound like me:) Peter and I are VERY passionate about loving Jesus. And we are ready (we think!!!) to follow wherever He leads. Yet, as we see is this passage, he flies from one place to the other trying to figure out how to respond to Jesus washing His feet.

First he is the picture of humility...oh Jesus you will never wash my feet! I am not worthy and could never allow or accept that. I'll just do it myself. Then, once Jesus tells Peter that unless He washed him, Peter can have no part of Him. Peter then jumps to the other side into overdrive! Oh Lord...then not just my feet...but my whole body!!! Jesus reigns him back and shows all the disciples that his desire is that they follow His example in servanthood. They are to humbly serve one another in following Christ.

I thought about that in my own life. I am totally like Peter! Many times, out of serious love for Jesus, take things and run with them! I used to think that God wants us to be "balanced" but He wants us to be BIBLICAL! Very different!

Jesus wasn't asking the disciples to be balanced between a lost and evil world and being holy...finding some kind of middle ground compromise. He wanted them to FOLLOW Him in RADICAL obedience! Is it balanced to get down on your hands and knees and wash feet? Um...NO! That was extreme which is why Peter, who loved Jesus, did not want Him to ever wash his dirty feet. That is NOT the role of Messiah to Peter...or the world.

Jesus was not balanced. He was seen as a madman. He was killed on a cross. People plotted his death ALL the time. He did miracles, raised the dead, and ascended into Heaven and is at the right hand of GOD! He is not some compromising balanced kind of Messiah!

I want to be BIBLICAL and not fling myself all over the place trying to either be falsely humble...or running way ahead of Jesus thinking I am super passionate. Jesus says to us..LISTEN to ME!!! READ my WORD!!! FOLLOW me!!! Stop chasing causes and chase ME...and in chasing ME you will find the narrow path of serving that changes the WORLD!

Let's let HIM define how following Him looks. Let's dive way down deep into His Word and See His face and listen to His voice and follow Him in crazy radical obedience. Let's stop living in our extremes...and throw balanced out of our vocabulary, and be BIBLICAL. I promise you...it won't get any more RADICAL than that!

As I have shared at numerous conferences...you CAN'T be in God's Word every single day and love Jesus passionately and NOT overflow. It's impossible! So, let's find our lives immersed in His Word! It's gonna get a little crazy around here:) I can't wait!

Love to the End

Good morning sweet friends! I pray that you have had time to watch the
two videos below that I posted yesterday. If not please scroll down or
go to the full blog (if you are here through the DFM website) and
watch them sometime. Powerful!

My husband and I began David Platt's book Radical last night together.
It was strong and at one point when it spoke of one church spending
$23million on a new building followed by all baptists raising $5,000
to send to the refugees of Sudanese war...I was weeping so hard that
Jay had to finish reading to us aloud.

Radical. We spend most of our lives wanting to be balanced...oh how I
have said that before!!! Our Christian culture has labels like fanatic
and radical and freak for those who step out beyond the Christian
culture normal. But once a friend said to me...a fanatic is someone
who loves Jesus more than you.

Wow...according to David Platt...we are not called to live a
"balanced" easy to digest kind of life here. We are called to RADICAL
obedience. And I believe Jesus said that first:) he said if we are to
follow him, we are to deny ourselves (not much of that happening in
our Christian lives!), take up an instrument of torture called our
cross...and then follow Him. That is pretty radical!

This morning, I was reading in John 13:1-5. It said that Jesus was
about to have the last Passover with his disciples. It said that
though one had already been swayed by Satan to deny him...he loved
them all to the end.

Those words hit me. To the end. Jesus loved radical. He loved
passionately and he loved the world. After it says he loved them...it
says he washed their feet and served them. 1 Corinthians 13 warns us
that serving without love means NOTHING! We must love...to the end.

We can not get all about a cause...even if it is good...because a
cause is all out US! We must be about real radical passionate love for
Jesus and OUT of THAT love, we can love others and serve them.

We can not love Jesus and not overflow to the poor, homeless, orphan,
widow, immigrant, and the LOST. It is impossible! But that love is not
safe or balanced or SANE by the world's standards...or even the
Christian standard.

I agree with Platt that our churches (and myself) have been happy with
just a Christian spin on the American dream. Oh how that breaks my
heart!!

Jay and I prayed fervently last night together about how we can be
more in love with Jesus and love others radically out of his love.
Will you join us?

Will you read God's Word for yourself and experience such JOY and LOVE
that you MUST overflow? True authentic love following Jesus will
require everything! It will be radical! And I am even more ready to
shed man's approval and run HARD after God's glory to fill my life, my
family, my country, and the ends of this earth.

The call is radical. God's love for this sinner is radical. Radical is
HIS idea...not a new book idea. HE is radical in that while I was
still in sin HE DIED FOR ME.

That is love. That is the example. That is the command. That is my
invitation. That is LIFE to the FULL!

Oh, Jesus help me to love to the end...and strip away everything to
take up a towel and serve those YOU loved first. May it be so!

Thrive!
Frances

RADICAL!

Please take a few moments to watch two following videos by David Platt and The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham. I met his wife at the Georgia Baptist Convention Ministers' Wives dinner and they are adopting sometime soon:) Hold onto your hat, sweet friends...it just may get a little bumpy...and amazingly AWESOME as we follow Him to the least and the lost!!!

RADICAL from David Platt on Vimeo.

Next Five Minutes from David Platt on Vimeo.

I'm back:)

We are back from being at the beach and it was absolutely heavenly! Paradise! We returned and then I was traveling again this weekend. So, I am just now catching my breath...just in time to enjoy a spend the night party for my Anli turning 11, a trip with friends to Stone Mountain, then heading to Alabama for a nice Memorial Day with family...all this week! Whew...and I thought summer would slow down?!?!

Tonight, I will be writing on Thriving 365 and hoping I can keep up during this busy summer:) I hope you are winding up school or maybe even finished like we are! It's nice to take a little break and enjoy some other activities! I pray that you are still Thriving 365 my sweet friends! Have a wonderful week!!!

Love to you all...

Thriving 365-
Frances

Vacation

Our family is going on vacation (to the beach!!!!) for the next week...and my sweet husband just informed me that under NO circumstances am I to take my computer:) He is so right! I do have my iPhone with me, so I might post a thought or a photo...but I'm not to blog at all! I schedule my family blog posts a week in advance, so those might keep going if I get around to scheduling them. But, he said NO blogging! NO working! All family fellowship and FUN...I agree totally!!

So keep thriving in your time with the Lord this week!!! I will continue the walk through John where I'm leaving off. See you when I return friends...THRIVE!!!

Thriving 365~John 1:43-51

OK...I have to tell you a funny story about my Virginia Grace girl. Yesterday we were trying to get all the forms for the missions camp they are going to this summer and all the physical forms from the doctor. As we were on the way there...Anli was ensuring that we were not going to the doctor for an appointment. I reminded her about how last year we had to get all these same forms for her and now that they were both going there would be forms for each of them.

At this point Virginia looks at Anli and says, "Anli, you remember...it's when they looked for fleas in your hair!!!"

I DIED laughing...um...sweetie...that's LICE not FLEAS they are looking for in your hair:) Just had to share that with you today and start our time with a little fun...I just LOVE my kids!

Thriving in Truth~

Take time to read John 1:43-51. Then, take your journal and write down your personal thoughts on this passage.

What are your thoughts about Nathanael?

What are you thoughts about Philip?

What are your thoughts about what Jesus tells them about what is to come?


Thriving Together~

"You will see greater things than these."

Oh, I love that! Nathanael testifies that Jesus is the Son of God and the King of Israel because he saw him under a fig tree before Philip called to him. Jesus saw him! How wonderful to know that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords SEES us!!! This amazes Nathanael and he believes Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see even GREATER things than this! Not only can we know that He sees us...but we will SEE HIM!! Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see the heavens open and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Yes, Jesus sees us and knows us and loves us. But, it is even greater that we can and will see Him as He truly is!

If we are His and have accepted Him as our personal Savior by faith and submitted to Him as our Lord...we WILL see Him face to face...as He is! We can not only see Him, but spend eternity with Him in heaven!!! Amazing!

So, as precious as it is to know and trust that Jesus sees us where we are and who we are...it is greater to see HIM were HE is and who HE is! What a gift salvation is to our lives both daily here on this earth and in eternity to come. I can't wait to see Him face to face at the feast of the Lamb. Praise His Name!

Thriving Outside~

How will this passage change your life today?

In what ways will you apply this passage to your life?

How will it change your relationships with others today?


I pray that you will see Jesus daily in His Word! He is the Word and as we savor it daily, we can SEE Him! In seeing and savoring Christ...we will thriving and overflow!

Thriving 365~
Frances

Thriving 365~John 1:35-42

Well, first off I heard from my baby sister who lives in downtown Nashville and she is just fine! I got a text from my dad this afternoon that they had heard from her and then she called me later on...so good to hear her voice! Thanks for praying!

It's been a busy weekend with Carl Kerby from Answers in Genesis sharing all weekend and Monday night at our church! It was AWESOME!!! Love that stuff!!! So, I have been behind on posting. So, yes it is 9:30pm and I am just now able to sit and write. I was at the mission tonight...love those girls. It was crazy with only 3 volunteers and almost 20 women, but they remind us how God does this thing and not us...whew...what a day!

So, let's take a breath and let it out slowly and savor God's precious words in John 1:35-42. Take out your journal and write down the thoughts you have about these verses. Allow God to speak to your heart through His precious Spirit.

Thriving in Truth~

What are a few things that stand out most to you in this passage?

What do you notice about John?

What do you notice about the disciples?

What do you notice and learn about Jesus?

What can you glean yourself from this passage?


Thriving Together~

I love, love, love that John isn't about building a ministry and a name for himself. He clearly and boldly speaks the Truth about Jesus!! And...his own disciples leave him to follow Jesus. Oh, how well John modeled true discipleship. He had trained and taught those men well. He led them straight to the Lamb of God...and they immediately followed Him.

Ladies, let's follow this challenge! May we be the kind of mothers, friends, family members, ministers, and followers of Jesus that disciple others to immediately follow Jesus. Teach and mentor in the Truth of WHO Jesus is and the rejoice when the take off after Him!!

So many times ministry is built around the person in leadership. It's more about a personality and a style than discipleship and real life change. It can quickly become about the vessel and less about the Potter. John prepared his disciples to quickly and immediately leave and follow Jesus on their own.


Thriving Outside~

May each of us draw all attention to Jesus and His Word! My heart literally dances to read:

"John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus (the only way we can lead and minister is if WE are looking at Jesus!!!!) as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this , and they followed Jesus."

One of those men...was Andrew...who brought his brother Peter. What an amazing testimony of discipleship! Once we truly see Jesus in our own lives...we WILL overflow my sisters.

Oh Father, may we lead and disciple those around us in our lives so that they are ready to immediately follow and run hard after You on their own. May we not build my parenting, friendships, or ministries around ourselves. May those around us fall head over heals in love with You and Your Word!!!

Please pray!

Please join me in praying for those in Nashville! My sister lived and works downtown on Broadway. I haven't heard anything back from her yet. I'm praying so hard for all those displaced and affected by this flooding. I will update when I hear from her. Thanks!!!

Mom Monday!

I will post the Thriving 365 later on today...since today is Mom Monday! You can check out my family blog> if you want to know more...and laugh at some funny photos:) Love to you all!!

Thriving 365~
Frances