The Pursuit...always the Pursuit...

And now these three remain:

FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE.  

But the greatest of these is LOVE.

(I Corinthians 13:13)

...THIS
is our new family secret...

We have a green plant that we use as a center piece on our dining room table.  It is a simple houseplant with cheery spreading green "arms" and heart leaves.

Each night conversation, laughter, and singing,and prayer flows over this little humble plant as we sort through the days' business, lessons, trivia, triumphs, stories,  and testimonies. And at the end of the meal we purpose to make sure we have fed everyone  REAL,LIVING FOOD that keeps us ever-full and nourished--God's Word.
  We bring verses that have impacted us in our day with the Lord and share them...or listen to one of the littles read a chapter that they have been reading in their cute lispy way...or we memorise a verse all together...or sing a verse together...

...the Holy Spirit will press on one of us to open up a piece of the Word and share it/ digest it with whoever God has brought to our table that evening.  The corporate "chew" is an incredible dynamic.

  I have learned and been taught by every member of my family here.  For there is no "JR. Holy Spirit"!!  He can speak through a child powerfully and clearly ~ maybe even more so than the adults many times!  We are a flowy family more than a systematic one--so each night looks REALLY different but is rich and precious ~ truly alive.  Then, after Word, we "work out" this word in worship in the living room--or I could say, since what God is doing here is so organic--our Word time that vines around the table springs into blooming,fruitful  praising worship in our living room...

  Before dishes...before bed... THIS...is my favorite portion of the day...

Recently, our fresh green "friend"lost a few leaves the night after our day spent picking blueberries this week. But for a very noble purpose!  (Aren't the humble so often used for noble means?)  :)

We love the Hebraic model of teaching aka. asking questions.  As we impart things to the children.  Our time had gone something like this:


"What was it like to find fruit on the blueberry bushes today?"

Oh, YES...EATING the fruit...that's best part for sure!!

"What was it like to see your bucket filling up with fruit?"

"What do you plan to do with all of that fruit?"

"What happens to a bush that is picked?"

YES!  It makes MORE fruit..!"



"What about the branches that did not have fruit on them?  What about them?"

"Why do you think they did not have fruit?"

You know...JESUS spoke about gardening and pruning and picking and fruit...does anyone know about this?


And God moved the conversation to our little plant on the table...and at this point our little friend lost two leaves for the betterment of our hearts!! :) 

"AW! Don't pick off her leaves!!"

"But what do you think will happen to these leaves?  Can we reattach them?
  Are they getting that good life from the roots of our little plant or from the vine?
  What's going to happen to these little leaves?"  Lets watch them for a couple days and see... (...hint...for those who want to know...shrivel...shrivel...shrink...dry...dust....Poor little leaves...)

And now for the Word...Children, did you know there are SECRETS in the Bible?  God says that if we seek Him out, He will be found and He will share the secrets of His heart with us ~ the secrets of the KING!!  We are going to hide ICor. 13:13 in our heart.

  It is a SECRET to life.

To ABIDING...

In Christ...


  In anything that we are doing whether it is getting along in our family, or doing our work jobs, or in friendships or talents, we can ask this question of ourselves:

"Are we growing in Faith (in this area), Is (this area) full of hope to God? Do we see more and more love (here, in this area?)  Let's take LOVING YOUR BROTHER as an example (hee!hee!~it had been kinda a rough day for this!!)  You could love God in your room or anyplace and just lift up in your hands your love for your brothers~ you could ask yourself, "Did I grow in faith with God in the way I loved my brother today?...Or in the way I forgave my brother today?...cause growing in Faith is actually more important than being right about the card game..."How about my love, God? Did I grow in love with you today?"
 
Jack relates..."you know...its like God is always there but you have to accept Him and let His love grow UP,UP,UP around you.  You gotta CHASE it down...like when I chase Bruik around the house!!!"
 
Bruik beams with pleasure.
 
"Yeah, you gotta chase love down"
 
And we read that NEXT  verse about "pursuing love"... (later he dances this out in the Spirit in the living room...(see video below)
 
Then it is 10 year old Anderson who makes this connection.  "OH! and when you find out that you need to love more you will realise that you JUST DON"T have the love you need.  Then you are like the little green leaves on this plant...as long as you STAY close to Jesus,stay near to Him and repent from what is not love...HIS love will flow THROUGH you...it won't be work!  The leaf just rests on the vine!!!"  He puts his head on the table and grins. :)

"Whoa! "  He rests...in knowing...in loving...in connecting with the one who brought this revelation to his heart...then...

"You know what? I found out today that I never have to be bored!" 

All eyes on Anderson--after all we have been stuck in the house ALOT on 110 heat index days in Missouri summer heat.  "All I need to do is to go in my room and turn on worship music on the radio and sing to God...and I'm never bored!" (and you are abiding my son...)He bounces over to our computer and puts worship music on REALLY loudly and I do not dare turn it down for the children are all so ready to dance...and we flow into worship...

Untitled from gillian tucker on Vimeo.

Untitled from gillian tucker on Vimeo.

...This is sweet Jack "Chasing God's Love Down" ~ Look, Mom! He said, "I'm Chasing Down ...I PURSUING God's Love....I chase Him and He chases me....and His love goes UP, UP,UP all around me...then I bring it to other people too...It heals them...God is chasing them down in His love too..."

Blessings, precious friends!!

Love, 

GG

p.s. Blue Scarf Jack is using for dancing was brought back to us from Ethiopia by Ally P. at the time of the P. family's addition of their beautiful two Ethiopian girls :)

Safe...In the Arms of Love...

After 11 months...our day has finally arrived...Daddy...Beloved Husband...

IS HOME!!!!

He packed all day Friday and Drove through the Night with our last Rented Truckful...

Coming home feels wonderful...

Our hearts are full of thankfulness!

Number Nineteen! :) ~ a dance to remember~

Yesterday we celebrated Anniversary Number 19 with my Honey Yesterday On The 19th of June :)!!

  AND on Father's Day!!

  It was quite a day!! :)

  After 11 months of expectant waiting, Richard is wrapping up his job in Nashville this next week and heading out to Kansas City to join us here  in our call to be intercessory missionaries~ WAHOO!!!!!!~

We will have much to share soon about our continued journey for God is downloading even more in our lives and hearts  as the time arrives for Richard to join us here.



So love my pastoring, compassionate, missionary-hearted man.~

Our hearts are full as we look back on this past year ~ it has been so full of the Father's heart.

We had an amazing treat yesterday ~ straight from the heart of Abba God. After spending the day as a family, at church,at lunch, at a local park...swimming...we next had an impromptu visit from two amazing young missionaries to Israel and Finland...the conversation and love around the table was full of power as they opened up a Hebrew bible and gathered up my children like a flock around them ....instructing them in Hebraic style questions...

Next, the young men put in a Dvd that was about one of the friend's, Michael's recent wedding in Israel...

So very rich and glorious to see the glowing lights of Jerusalem just beyond the white wedding canopy...

Then the young men led us all in Israeli  circle dancing as we worshiped Yeshua, Messiah, Jesus ...

Brown hands...tiny feet...massive peach hands...boy feet...girl feet...man arms raised...women waist bowing...Dancing with my earthly husband of 19 years...in a circle full of our quiver of children...some from the nations...joyfully singing with these brothers...It stepped past the immediate now and brought heaven to earth...images of the coming kingdom and the joy to come circled in my heart as we went around the living room last night...

Wonder's overflow... thanksgiving for this man, my earthly Adam, the one I have to reach my neck to smile up to :)...

this one

that God has chosen for me to journey with...

the one who whispers courage in my ear and reflects who God has purposed me to be...

Father to so many...

some our birthed children, some brought from the nations,some still being brought to our door...

and the many to come...

  the gift of marriage...God's wondrous gift  for man and woman in every step as we traverse  home to Him...

full heart for the inheritance of Godly children...

kissed up, raised up as a gift for Jesus...

AWARENESS

...of Holy wind and fire...

a real heart that beats...

pursuing us...

... the tension between joy that transports our heart to the Father
 as well as the ache and burst in our heart for Jesus' remaking of everything to new...

at the arrival of  His coming!!!!!!...

to His waiting...made-ready bride...

And on that day...in that time... His REAL hands and LITERAL feet dancing the wedding dancing with me...His bride...with US, His children!...and we will look and grin and smile over the sea of multi-colored children's heads...dancing ribbons of every color...swirling gifts from the nations to Him...as we laugh with Joy and spin in the lights of Jerusalem...

(the song we danced to last night...)




O Lord bless me and keep me cause Your face to shine on me
Lord be gracious lift the light of Your countenance give me peace

I live only to see your face so shine on me

let the light of Your face shine down on my heart and let me feel it


Blessings and Love,

Gillian

The love story..For HIM...For them...and For me

This BEAUTIFUL post is from my friend, Sara. She is an intercessory missionary here at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City and a beautiful adoptive mom who has adopted 2 adorable preschool children from Ethiopia and now is in the process of adopting 2 elementary- aged girls from Uganda.

I love her heart--

It first burns in love for Jesus

Then flows out to others...

Kingdom love...Kingdom journey...

A fellow traveler on the road that leads into the arms of our Father...

That will end up

taking us

  HOME...

This post is a reflection of where our hearts are these days as God is marrying in Richard and my heart,
adoration for Christ

and deliverance,

or as Sara would say,

"rescue"


 into the broken places of the world...

bringing the "HOME" of God's heart to the world.

(I have highlighted this pitch-perfect section of her post in bold letters today)


Look up Sara's blog at:



Enjoy!!


The Rescue

Posted by Sara on Thursday, June 2, 2011 · 14 Comments

“I don’t want to grow up before my mom gets me.” She said the words my heart felt.

At eight, she isn’t waiting on a mystery. Adoption has been explained to her and though family is a new concept for her orphan-mind, she is being indoctrinated into the very thing I am, an ocean away. Waiting on a promise.

Adoption is never easy. What sits deep in the eye of the Father is a target for His enemy. The layers of testimony being built around the rescue of the vulnerable ones don’t go unopposed. Simultaneous to the glorious accounts we’ve received from friends who have visited with Hope and Lily has been the news that our story has hit some paperwork-related hurdles.

And Lily knows about those. The same little girl who kisses my picture on her wall knows that the path to her promise will have to be paved by Jesus.

“At least I have a mom,” she says in response to news of the potential delays. The child, whose daily comings and goings have never been under a mother’s watchful eye (though now under kind caregivers), finds peace in the whispers of me as if they were my arms wrapped around her. Something is better than nothing for the child who’s grown accustomed to nothing.

Hope still seems oblivious to the radical life change around her corner. She loved her pink nail polish, Molly’s treat. And bore smile after smile for a camera that would deliver gold to my inbox just hours later. Carefree and full of the delight that an outdoor playground solicits, the disconnect between this message bearer and those who sent her, obvious.

She appeared to brush away tears when she watched a video we sent, enamored with the kisses we blew across miles. Is it possible for a five year-old to feel the pain of waiting?

Three years between she and Lily seem like eons which have potential to wash away the innocence of youth. Young and fresh, malleable turned molded — needing re-molding. But for both of them, every day they are not under my roof is a day I’ve lost. A day I will one day have to ask back of the God who restores the years locusts eat.

There is something innate in a woman, created to protect her young at all costs, which adoption stirs up. I find myself explaining our adoption process to people as if I’m explaining the mortgage application process. Dry description, dry process because I lack words to explain the torrent going on within me.

I have daughters living minutes I don’t get to shape. The little-girl moments mothers are made to ponder are ones I only dream about.

++++++

Eden scoots into my lap, eyes on the floor and lower lip quivering. She lets down. “I’m sad Mommy,” she says as a precursor to the conversation we’ve had many times. My five year-old mourns the early years when she “didn’t get to be with Mommy and Daddy” and I can’t help but think of the two others on another continent whose time-cards reflect immeasurably more of those minutes which will one day need healing. Our home, soon to be a hospital for these type of heart-casualties.

Injustice spans the gap between where I live my days and where they grow more inches. And the horizon is pregnant with more waiting.

All of this can make a mother crazy.

And crazed I have been. Allured by the dark side of promise. It’s a faint fume which has set like a damper over my spirit, telling me that rest will come with the promise and that my stomach was meant to be in knots — and my heart awry — until the answer comes. Subtle alluring, couched in mission. Seeking the promise, instead of the promise giver, slowly becomes my goal. And I get heartsick.

Until the One who allures appears.

Adoption is not about a child. It’s about a Man. A God-Man who could end injustice in an instant and who does not look on the fatherless with hands tied behind His back. Instead, He works every angle for the greatest love story of all time to unfold.

The love story for Lily. For Hope. And for me.

He’s rescuing my heart and teaching me a trust that isn’t dependent upon human constructs. He’s alluring me to love which, when I melt weak at its feet, does not allow me to leave that place unchanged. He’s awakening me to an encounter that infuses peace in a valley of darkness.

He calls us to justice not because He needs our acts of justice, but because — in doing so — we find Him. We learn Him. We brush up against a love that does not leave us with a little bit of Jesus to add to our already-formed mission but leaves us hungering for a Man that will change every dusty corner of our lives.

Adoption reveals His relentlessness. For them. And for me.

Whether a month from now or six months from now or a year from now, when I get to hold Lily for the first time and my lips grace Hope’s forehead as if they’d been there a thousand times before, there is one thing I’m desperate to have found.

More of this Man Jesus. More of this One who keeps calling me to walk across a tight-rope and promises I’ll find Him safe in every step.

The end is a Man. Not exclusive to adoption, the end of every promise who’s seen the sweat of waiting, is this Man.

My inbox has been flooded lately with questions about adoption (if I haven’t yet responded to you, I haven’t forgotten you — it usually takes me a few days to respond) and I’ve been tempted to craft an auto-reply that says:

Adoption is for the hungry. If you want to know more of Jesus and are willing to get a little undone in the meantime, sign up. You can’t pursue a child without being consumed by His pursuit of you.

Delivering the Orphans...Will Begin With my Own Heart...

Sid Roth - It's Supernatural Messianic Vision: Leif Hetland - Healing the Orphan Spirit

Mothering ....in the Rains....

We have had a DOWNPOUR of rain this morning.  In
the midst of it we gathered to the living room window to check on our nesting robin bird out in the peach tree next to the window.

And as we did...I was given an early Mother's Day present ~ one of the sweetest I have ever received ~

Anderson leaned across the sofa and leaned his forehead onto the cool window pane.

"AW!  She's getting wet in the rain!!"


Aggressive Sheets of rain blanketed our precious little lady, hunkered down deep in her nest with her wing over her face...Only bits of tail feather and nest running with water were visible from my children and I in our toasty dry room...

Jackson dissappeared... with a faint "I'll be back"....

Anderson thumped his head on the glass--gently as to not frighten our friend...

"Man....She's SO wet..."

He leaned back,

"Mom, she's SACRIFICING herself for the eggs."

(Oh, my baby...The glory weight upon that sentence.)

"They are such good parents."

(my heart sinks and feels tens of things...none of which related to pride or pleasure...)

I am out done

Undone

By a feathery friend in the rain...

Then I get my gift

Like all the best gifts it is a gift of

Simple Grace.

"Mommy, you're like a robin bird!"

He leans back to the window petting the glass--reaching toward her in protection...

"You're like sisters."


And from the corner windows at the other edge of our room...

We hear a splash,splooosh,wack,brushy.splash!!!


And look out to see Jack...dressed in his winter coat,  and under a pink umbrella

Bare feet splashing in puddles

Riding in to bring a lady a "brella" in the rain.

We run interference but laugh with the adorable compassion :)

And,...My eyes see wings

Over me

Over ~ Parenting,Mothering, ~ all

Kept

in a Nest

In the Palm of HIS hands...


And when the rains come...

Sheltered....


Under the Shadow of HIS wings....

Love, Gillian


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now...

 A precious gift to you today....

From my full nest to yours...

My heart so resonated with this message today, that as Mothers we do not have to "BE" the Hallmark card...

...there is grace...

for

"He gently leads those with young"

Isaiah 40:11

Please click on the sentence below to go to Ann Voscamp's blog for a treat

A Holy Experience -- For the Mother who Fears Failure...

Gotta Love it!! :)

Don't you LOVE it when the children learn how to write? :)

another pic of Joyful Jack :)...taken by Anderson...
in a "snowstorm"...in the rec room...

:)...just noticed the dude scaling our bookshelf...

Yep.

After all the  hours stuck inside due to several snow storms....MAMA was itching to climb some bookshelves!!

BUT,
The Sledding was the BESTest!!

A long winter made us so thankful for ~

Leafy trees to climb again ..
   for finding big sis up there reading in the big ole maple in the    back !!...
       for runnin' around and
           for "just hangin' out"
              on bright blue playground slides warmed by friendly sunshine...

AHhhhhh....so nice!
Happy Springtime everyone!

Love, G