My first book came out over three years ago. I have been thinking about the life of this book and how it has formed mine. I turned in last minute edits for Running a week before I went into labor with our girl. I finished writing it the year I started homeschooling our boys. I look… Continue reading How Writing a Book Beats You Up (in a good way).
Author: ablycker
Lars Launches a Prayer Attack!
Our son Larsen spoke at all three services in our church last Sunday for Youth Sunday. The Thursday before he came to me after his personal prayer time and said, "Mom, let's have Dad text Pastor Tom. God wants me to speak this Sunday. I want to launch a prayer attack!" We and so… Continue reading Lars Launches a Prayer Attack!
Jealous.
I don't often have time to sit down at any screen for any length of time. My emails pile up, facebook drains me in about 2 minutes and I don't watch any TV. I posses a geriatric phone that takes a good five minutes to compose a text and blogging well, I feel with my book out and all… Continue reading Jealous.
6,000 Miles and the Lessons of Presence.
From mid-June till almost the end of August our little family spent over 140 hours in a mini-van together, traveling 6,000 miles through fourteen states and even up into Canada. We slept in cabins, cheap hotels, trailers, apartments, farmhouses and urban neighborhoods. Three days before our scheduled departure date, we still had no money to go. But… Continue reading 6,000 Miles and the Lessons of Presence.
Top 10 Things Learned in the Last 23 Years: From Ben in Mexico.
In March after ten years, we returned to Mexico to serve as a family for two weeks. Ben spoke to the students and staff at Puebla Christian school where he attended for six years, 23 years ago. Here I wanted to give you a peek into the heart of my amazing husband through his words.… Continue reading Top 10 Things Learned in the Last 23 Years: From Ben in Mexico.
Hope of the Nations: From Angela in Central Asia.
* This post is about my travels to Central Asia to minister to women this past fall. For security reasons I cannot mention the name of this predominately Muslim nation. When I was about five years old and sensed that my Creator was calling me to Himself, I ran. There was a world map hanging in… Continue reading Hope of the Nations: From Angela in Central Asia.
Learners. Followers. Messengers.
Here is just one of my reflections from this past summer of support-raising. We traveled through parts of Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas with God’s provision of protection, endurance and remarkable connections with new and old friends. The stories of His grace and lavish love in the lives of so many blessed us. We know Him more now… Continue reading Learners. Followers. Messengers.
One Voice.
I want to write my heart tonight. As you read, assume you already know I'm writing from the perspective of one who is now "homeless" and on the road for most of the summer with a husband and three children doing the very thing we've tried to avoid most of our married lives: "raising support".… Continue reading One Voice.
This Is What It Means To Be Real.
This past Sunday we celebrated Resurrection Day. We drove in the dark to the edge of an ocean isle, not to far from where we worship together every Sabbath. In the dark we joined the gathering throng and began to sing. I stood with Kiersta in my arms, feeling the softness of her round sleepy cheeks against… Continue reading This Is What It Means To Be Real.
Molting.
I have often thought that marriage is the laboratory where the sufficiency of God is put to the test; it is no less true for mothering. I can either cooperate with this grace, or I can resist it and spit at the dumb-founding significance of the beautiful bloody cross. All this truth rattled me today and I… Continue reading Molting.
Love According to Pooh.
The stuffed animal I carried around as a little girl was Pooh Bear. I've always had this affinity for Pooh. Perhaps it has to do with the honey or maybe the way he used language. The goodness of both have beckoned me since I can remember. When Benjamin and I were in our first year… Continue reading Love According to Pooh.
Make Me Ignitable.
I have not written in over a month because in many ways I have been in a pit. Sick, exhausted, vulnerable, doubting, hiding, feeling fraudish, pulled in many directions and utterly agreeing with the enemies arrows that have sought, yet again, to keep me down and quiet. But there has been a lifting. Victory is becoming… Continue reading Make Me Ignitable.
What Is That To You?
Nothing undermines and deflates our growth as women, our relationship with God, our marital joy and our vision in mothering as much as falling into the trap of comparing ourselves with others. Consider this a personal confession. Several weeks ago a young woman asked me how to stay focused each day with energy, passion and purpose. I replied, " Know your race well and know where you… Continue reading What Is That To You?
Our One True King.
If God is the Creator, the Saviour and the Judge what does that mean to you as an intentional and missional woman, wife and mother? As I have been diving into the attributes of who God is, this question comes to me from every angle. Who God is matters. Every other post over the course of the next… Continue reading Our One True King.
Day 29:The Whole World. The Whole Gospel. The Whole Church.
We've been on the road for 29 days. This is a mission-support raising trip. Every day we tell our children that our focus is to love and serve people as a family for 42 days wherever God places us. I've lost count of the different beds we've slept in, though as a writer the stories I've gathered from each place remain… Continue reading Day 29:The Whole World. The Whole Gospel. The Whole Church.
The Large Significance of Small Things.
I admit it. I've got an edge of domesticity. I just don't talk about it all that much. All of that "stuff", though it takes up the majority of many women's lives is too small to be the starting point, not to indicate that small is not significant. Just that the bigger picture must inform smaller ones or we live and think in limited ways and… Continue reading The Large Significance of Small Things.
When He Brings Us Out.
"The time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom." ~Anais Nun I had some moments last week to actually sit on the couch and I grew wistful at the sight of the branches batting each other in the hot breeze while the lizards tried… Continue reading When He Brings Us Out.
Therefore, We Will Not Fear.
Fear is something common to every man. Still, we shame ourselves for our fears as exposure of them reveals some of our deepest inadequacies and leaves us feeling naked, grasping for our fig leaves yet again. We are certain that we should know better than to be afraid. After all, we grew up to know… Continue reading Therefore, We Will Not Fear.
Is Unity Essential?
u·ni·ty Something whole or complete formed by combining or joining separate things or entities. "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." -1 Corinthians… Continue reading Is Unity Essential?
God Asks Us to be Risk-Takers.
Are you willing to risk it all for the purposes God is summoning you to? Will you allow his perfect love to so fill you that there simply is not an inch for fear to creep in, poisoning your confidence in who he is and what he has said he will do? Would you gather up courage to move forward in… Continue reading God Asks Us to be Risk-Takers.
Enough to Write About.
Yesterday I read a random news clip about a woman journalist in a closed country recently jailed and banned from writing for 30 years. It is in a magazine upstairs by Kiersta's rocker, but I'll wake her if I attempt to give a credible citation. This writer is not alllowed a computer, pen, paper, and probably no chalk. I am horrified at such a sentence and… Continue reading Enough to Write About.
What We Believe About Anger (is usually false).
This is article long, but worth your time. I've chewed on this all week. I don't know anyone who does not deal with anger on a certain level. A true understanding of anger can change everything in your world; the impact on our relationships is astronomical. Andrew Olsen, the author, works here at New Missions Systems International where my family and… Continue reading What We Believe About Anger (is usually false).
Resources We Like.
The below information provided is to answer some recent questions I have had about some favorite resources our family uses throughout the year in terms of spiritual formation and developing a passion for the nations. Please comment in and share some of yours! I don't usually get so nitty-gritty in these details here... Books: YWAM Heros of the Faith… Continue reading Resources We Like.
For All the Mothers: An Excerpt.
This is an excerpt from the epilogue of my book, shared in honor of the women whose lives have been transformed through the practice of motherhood. May this gift of words enlarge the beautiful vision of your most holy endeavor. Happy Mother's Day. ~Angela Several years ago, Ben and I attended a wedding reception. In a gorgeous glass atrium flooded with light… Continue reading For All the Mothers: An Excerpt.
Aquainted with Waiting.
"I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint." - Jeremiah 31:25 It is safe to say that many of you are acquainted with waiting. Waiting and I have gone beyond the level of mere acquaintances; we are quite intimate. I waited fifteen years for a certain healing; it came. I waited ten years to hold a degree;… Continue reading Aquainted with Waiting.
A Night To Remember.
I imagine my life is a pilgrimage and Christ is leading me. Sometimes I close my eyes and see the thick wood at dusk, the path grown over and a faithful figure up ahead ever walking, never slowing even when it seems the scenery has not changed much in quite some time. When I dwell in the truth… Continue reading A Night To Remember.
Release Event.
On February 16th at the home of my friend Ginger, a gathering of about 30 women took place. The occasion? The release of my book, but more so to me a fresh release of the Spirit. My hope was that women would not leave with more of "me" but wooed by Christ, the fountain of life. … Continue reading Release Event.
What a Healing.
I discovered this in-depth article on Jesus' healing of the unclean woman in Mark 5. It connects this biblical account to the current suffering of millions of women in Africa and Asia from fistula. How much I adore this Jesus who is so tender and esteeming towards us as women! The writer of this article, L. Lewis Wall, is… Continue reading What a Healing.
Eve’s Forgotten Legacy.
I read through this and found it riveting... " The word theologian doesn’t appear in the Bible. Old Testament writers used a warmer, user-friendly expression, describing people who “walked with God.” A theologian takes a long walk through life with God — living in his presence, going his way, learning to see the world through his… Continue reading Eve’s Forgotten Legacy.
Where the Water Meets the Sky.
A Letter to You.
George Frederic Handel is said to have told a nobleman friend the reason he wrote Messiah: “I should be sorry,” Handel remarked, “if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better.” He dared to speak with the confidence one has when they are certain that their work will help clear the way to… Continue reading A Letter to You.
