Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette

Wife to The Sweetheart, Mom to the Fantastic Six, Nana to six of the cutest littles on the planet, Author, The Daniel Fast, A Devotional. UPCI ministers.

Welcome to Malta!

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We are having a great time in Malta thus far. Our missionary friends, the Parkers, took us on a two hour road trip yesterday and tried to give us a quick glimpse of the island country. Amazing! This is the one word I keep coming back to. Beauty and ancient wonders are everywhere. (You can read how we got here, why we are here and all about the Apostle Paul’s experience in Malta here!)

Here are some pictures from our first tour.

We were even able to see the spot where the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on his way to trial in Rome! Say what?! This is beautiful St. Thomas.

The waters are crystal clear and the views take your breath away. Here is the entrance to the street where we are staying in the home of the resident missionaries. Their home is 300 years old (but beautifully updated!). So lovely. Be sure and spot the post office, the barber shop and the beautiful Maltese Balconies! I am in love with these little things already and will show you more later. (tease!)

Today we had an early morning service with the church here. So excited to meet some of the people and to share Revival By Design with them. They have implemented some of the concepts already and have a heart for revival. God is going to do great things in this country…one of the first to receive the Gospel so many years ago! Here is a picture of the garden steps into the old Anglican church that the missionaries are renting from until they get their own place. (Pray for that need, won’t you?)

We were blessed to have an entourage from the Philippines and Norway visit Christian Life Center today! With some of the local congregation absent it was nice to fill up the room with beautiful visitors from far away. Look at those smiling faces!

Okay, so their faces are lost in worship, try this group photo we took outside of the old church.

We discovered some of these visitors knew a mutual friend of ours…yes, it truly is a small world. We worked alongside another Associate in Missions, Rachel Zehm, while we were serving in Riga, Latvia. Rachel then went on to Oslo, Norway and worked in a church there for a year or so. Some of these great people were out of that church and knew Rachel very well! What are the chances? We had opportunity to be in Oslo last summer on our way home from Tallinn, Estonia. Only for a day but Rachel was a gracious host to show us around the beautiful city in the country of Norway. (Rachel, everyone said to be sure and tell you “Hello!”)

It is siesta time here in Malta.

Oh. My. Word. Did I not tell you they took siesta??? Some, or most, of the businesses even shut down in the afternoons for a rest period.

Friends, I can’t even…I may have to move here.

And on that note, The Sweetheart is softly snoozing beside me while I type. I am still suffering with severe jet lag and even though I know you aren’t supposed to nap in the daytime with jet lag, I must get sleep sometime and it isn’t happening at night.

Blessings abundant upon you all and thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. I will have more to write later about the great things God is doing here. Here are a few more pictures around the country that we took yesterday.

Stay tuned!

Have you got my new book yet?? It is still selling like crazy even in May! So excited to bring this great FASTING devotional, not just for the Daniel Fast, but for ANY FAST! Check it out on Amazon in Kindle or paperback!

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Apostle Paul took a boat, we’re taking a plane: Malta

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Friends, we are heading to Chicago to board our flight to the island country of Malta in the Mediterranean. We covet your prayers for safe travel. We have a long layover in Vienna, Austria (I know, right?!) and hope to get out of the airport a few hours to at least see Old Town. Then we will be with the Parker’s, Missionaries to Malta, for the next three and a half weeks. While there, we will be teaching and sharing Revival By Design, a Biblical blueprint that will help a church prepare for the revival God wants to give. If we are not prepared to handle them then we will definitely lose them!

Did you know that Malta, which was formally called Melita in the New Testament, is the island where the Apostle Paul was bitten by a viper? There is a rich history of Christianity in this island country, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world! And it was brought by the Apostle Paul himself around A.D. 60.

He was being taken to Rome to stand trial, (along with some other political prisoners), and ultimately, eventually, he would become a martyr for the cause of Christ.

He was in the hands of a capable man. Julius was a centurion who was the commander of a cohort. A cohort is a band of soldiers between 400-600 men. This was a large ship and quite full! The end of the chapter tells us there were a total of 276 people on board.

“Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.” Acts 27:9-11 KJV.

Here is the dilemma: God had revealed to Paul that the weather was to become perilous and for them to stay where they were. Paul warned Julius, but do not forget that Paul is also a PRISONER. Julius was in quite a predicament. He had the experience of the pilot and captain in one ear, and this man of God in the other.

What they wanted to do doesn’t sound so bad. It would have only taken them a day to get to Phoenix and that didn’t seem like such a risk. It was a bigger town. It was close to Fair Havens and better protected from the weather. The sailors would be thrilled because there was more to do there.

But God said, “Stay. Abide.”

How many times do we go ahead and do what we want to do even though God says, “STAY.”

He wants us to wait, listen, and trust Him. But we insist on doing our own thing anyway.

So the ship sets sail.

“But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.” Acts 27:14 KJV.

This wind was so strong that it had a name: Euroclydon. Things started happening quickly. The second day they begin to lighten the ship, throwing things overboard.

“On the third day, they threw the ships tackle overboard with their own hands.” Acts 27:19 NIV.

Now, they were getting rid of some of the ship’s gear. Desperation had set in. If only they had listened to Paul.

“When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.” Acts 10:20 NIV.

They were in trouble; big trouble. They should have listened. They should have stayed in Fair Havens to begin with but they didn’t. All hope was gone as far as they were concerned.

How many times have we all been in the same situation as the crew of this ship? How many of us, just like Julius, have rejected the voice of God and did things our own way, only to fail miserably?

Did God make us come crawling on our hands and knees begging Him to take us back? Never, and He doesn’t require it of these men either.

He shows mercy.

Paul stands before them and brings them good news. “And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee…for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Acts 10:22-25 KJV.

Even after he gave them this great news, the storm grew worse and some of the men tried to abandon the ship. We may have done the same in a state of panic! But Paul tells Julius and the soldiers, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.”

The next morning, Paul urged them to eat because it had been 14 days since they had begun fasting. They needed their strength.

He reminds them that God had promised that not a hair on their head would be harmed as long as they stayed in the ship!

After they had eaten, those 276 souls lightened the ship even more by throwing over the wheat.

Get rid of those things that would keep you from walking with God, that would pull you down or drag you under. A little hindrance, a stumbling block…nothing is worth losing your soul.

The ship began to break apart in the back and the prisoners and crew grabbed hold of pieces of debris and broken planks to swim to shore. Not one of them perished!

“And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.” Acts 27:44 KJV.

Paul had been fasting, he was a man of prayer, and he had been shipwrecked two times previously. He trusted God when he heard His voice. He was strengthened by his time of prayer and fasting. God gave him wisdom to handle this situation and hold everything together.

Why else would a commander of an army trust a prisoner to give direction?

Only God would allow that to take place.

[Tweet “If you decide you want to abandon the ship your safety cannot be guaranteed .”]

Paul brought the Gospel to the island of Malta all because of a shipwreck. “Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.” Acts 28:1, 2 NIV.

If you feel your life is a mess, that your shipwreck and chaos can never be put back together again, remember Paul. He brought the Gospel to an entire country because of a shipwreck!

[Tweet “God speaks into chaos and calamity and uses it for His glory. “]

Believe that today. There is safety in the ship. Trust Him with the storms of your life and watch His will unfold.

Would you pray for not only our safety but for anointing, wisdom and favor? We do not take these trips lightly, we appreciate everyone who helps support us and give these opportunities to share around the world the Good News that Jesus saves. Stay updated with our Faith Journey adventure here on the blog and Instagram! And yes, you can still donate to our missions journey via Paypal below. Blessings.

Grace and Truth Linkup, Faith and Fellowship

A God like You

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“For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” Isaiah 64:4 NLT.

So there I sat. 4:45 a.m. I was appropriately attired:

Pajamas, check.
Coat, check.
Flip Flops, check.
Cell phone, naturally.
Lawn chair, check.
Towel to put over extremely cold and damp lawn chair, check.

In the middle of our driveway, all by myself, in the darkness, complete darkness of the Indiana sky, I sat. The Sweetheart was oblivious and enjoying a few more hours of precious sleep. I was too anxious to sleep; I had heard there would be meteor showers all night long and I had been out at 11:30, 2:30 and now almost five in the morning to see one of God’s great marvels.

This meteor shower was a doozy. It was reported that there could be as many as 10-20 per hour! The Lyrid meteor shower gets its name because the meteors appear to come from a spot in the sky southwest of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. (Who knew?!) It is said that the Lyrids meteor showers show up every year at the same time and go back as far as 2,600 years, farther than any other documented meteor shower.

For this big event I watched and I waited, waited and watched but nothing. After several minutes, I pulled out my cellphone and googled the Lyrid meteor shower again to make sure I hadn’t misread anything. (Yes, it’s definitely possible.) But for once I was correct, it was the right time and I was facing NE (I had double-checked that with The Sweetheart earlier since direction is not one of my strong points.)

But there it was in black and white: “Give yourself about 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark and then lay back, look up and wait.”

You can see a lot at 4:45 in the morning.

I heard or saw:

A strange animal rustling in the bushes
14 airplanes fly over my head
3 garage doors go up. And two go down.
A cat most definitely met one of his nine lives from the screeching I heard at 5:00 a.m.

But I waited. And I talked to the Creator of this vast universe, thanking Him for the beauty that surrounded me…and a few other things in my life that I needed to share. He was up anyway!

Then it happened. I was waiting, I was anticipating and that meteor went streaking across the sky at such a speed it is no wonder you could miss it if you were not watching and waiting for it. I was ecstatic! Thanking God for what I had just witnessed, and recovering from the awe of it all, then another one followed! Wow. I didn’t stay out another hour waiting to see 10-20 more. I was satisfied. I had seen it; I was a part of something glorious.

We serve a God like that; a God that waits for us, which works for us, that has our best interest at heart. He is never too busy, never asleep, and never far away from us. Ever.

“Who is *a God like You**, pardoning iniquity* and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities.” Micah 7:18-19 NKJV.

See? In His Word He declares that even if we fall, even if we fail, He doesn’t stay angry with us, He DELIGHTS in showing us mercy, compassion and will take care of our sins!

King Solomon said it this way, “…LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keeps covenant and mercy with your servants that walk before you with all their heart…” 1 Kings 8:23.

See that? There is NO GOD like Jehovah, our God! He sits on the throne, He controls the universe and everything that is in it. He speaks and it is done, He breathes and we are filled with His Spirit! He cares about the big and the little in YOUR life and He has left us each with a purpose to fulfill: to spread the Good News that this God, like no other god, is THE God and His name is Jesus.

“Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them.” Exodus 15:11, 12.

Our beginning verse says that He works for those that wait for Him. I prayed several prayers while I sat out under that night sky; one of them being for our trip to Malta this week. Friends, we fly out of Chicago on Thursday and return Memorial Day. We are excited to be sharing Revival By Design in this beautiful island country and to meet the great people there. I asked the Lord to give us direction and anointing for the trip; it isn’t a vacation, although I am sure we will see many amazing things. We want to impact the Kingdom. I asked this great God, while I waited for Him, to work for me and The Sweetheart. To keep us safe and to give us favor. There is so much unrest in the world today and cause for anxiety and the need is great. We must tell them, everyone in OUR world, whether our world impacts a few or many we must tell them: There is no God like our God.

“No one is like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.” Jeremiah 10:6.

Did He answer my prayer with another meteor shooting across the sky?

No, but He didn’t have to. His Word is enough. He has already promised and I am clinging to Him today.

Do you have something you need God to do for you?
Are you waiting in His presence and looking up with anticipation?
Are you hoping in His Word?
Are you standing on His promise?

There is no God like Jehovah! “Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high…” Psalm 113:5.

Trust in Him today, lean on Him and be assured that He is working all things for your good. That doesn’t mean all things will be good all the time, it means that everything that comes your way? He will turn even the bad into something for His glory if you trust in Him, believe in Him and live for Him with all of your heart.

We covet your prayers the next 30 days or so and please continue to follow the blog for updates on our Faith Journey. And if you ever need to be reminded of His majesty, His faithfulness and His all-around goodness…go sit in your driveway at 4:45 a.m. I promise you He will show up!

Be blessed as you take a few minutes to worship with our Marines who are singing and dancing to These are the Days of Elijah…when they get to “There’s no God like Jehovah” I dare you to sit still!!

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Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette