Shalom Dear Friends;
500,000 Israelis have family in Ukraine, so you can imagine the prayers going up from here. Israel has received thousands of refugees to date.
I prayed for you today. Thank you for your loving-kindness. I am not sure why you respond? Still Small Voice is blessed as a result. Personally, I am encouraged and I share every goodness with my family. Please enjoy the many ‘thanks’ in this note.
These are trying times for every soul upon earth. Our pattern of response is important. I am only doing what I have done throughout my life. I am leaning into the LORD. When something needs to shift or change, I fast. In desperation, Jay and I have fasted without water. That is tough. I’ve been on many 40 day fasts on water only, and as I am getting older I like to keep fasting one day a week, like one of my Grandma’s did. She was a pioneer preacher’s wife. Now I am working to eat one good meal a day. It’s so true the ‘change’ begins in me. As small and insignificant as you and I might be, Jesus must have preeminence in our lives at all times; IF we are going to fulfil our calling. We know this is not the end. “God will arise, His enemies will be scattered. O taste and see that the LORD is good!”
Learning to say NO when needed is a marvellous tool for keeping one’s borders intact. Saying NO to self comes first of course.
Learning Patience, and waiting is the hardest for me. “It is all about allowing the Holy Spirit His rightful place. He always answers! “Be still and know that I am God.”
Learning to use what is in my hand, helps me to live simply and thankfully.
Learning to live in loving kindness is pretty powerful too, especially in the area of giving until it hurts and holding one’s tongue.
Learning how to pour ‘IT’ all out in prayer is health-giving and stress-relieving. It makes everything possible. Tears cleanse us on the inside. They relieve stress and carry toxins away. Only Jesus can restore the soul. His is LIFE itself!
Worship has to be our way of life. Keeping our thoughts in line with what Jesus teaches, helps us to resist the negative, the combative, the hurtful at home, in the neighbourhood or abroad. It helps us to put everyone and everything in their rightful place and keeps me in mine.
Last night at dinner after ‘Grandpa Jay’ gave the blessing over the bread, little Ryan, now one year and one month old, threw his little arms up over his head in praise! I said to the family, “Now, that is the perfection of praise!” How blessed we are to have Daniel and Shelly and their little son around our table.
I was looking over some of my notes from 1976 and was touched by this: “Joshua age 3 made a cross out of blue lego. He brought it to me and said, ‘Momma, this is to help you climb mountains.’” Again, the perfection of praise in a tiny tot, now 48.
We can no longer meet the rising financial demands of the cost of food, water, electricity and taxes, in Israel. We have made a fundamental decision to rent our home. In my heart, of course, I hope it never happens. Daniel, our youngest son and Shelly, his wife will also have to relocate. Jerusalem Vistas is secure in that we built a studio that will be retained and used for ongoing media work. Although Daniel is young, from a teenager he was his Dad’s ‘helper’ on film shoots. He graduated from the Tichon u’ Maniot-Charles Smith Art High School Jerusalem, and the European Film College in Denmark and Beit Beryl College, Israeli School of Film. He has packed 18 years of film experience into his young life. Shelly is a graduate of the Ottawa Business College and she is his right-hand man, in every way. Thank you for your prayers on their behalf as they take over Jerusalem Vistas.
The Call is to keep the garden of my life budding, blooming, perfumed and hopefully, “bearing fruit that will remain.” I hope you agree. Thanks again for every prayer and every act of loving-kindness towards Israel and this little Israeli family.
“Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Love from Meridel
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things which are revealed and disclosed belong to us and to our children forever; that we may do all of the words of the [teaching and statutes] law.”
Deuteronomy: 29:29
