Category Archives: Uncategorized

Castles and Towers and Cathedrals, Oh My!

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We have arrived!

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What a day and a half! 24 hours of travel and a not-so-happy start to the trip but God was faithful and kept us safe and we are finally in Riga, Latvia!

For those who do not follow on Facebook, I started out our day by leaving my passport at home. Admittedly, not the smartest thing I have ever done, but we all make mistakes! We had spent the night with our son north of Indianapolis and I did not discover it until we were on the way to the airport. Our plane was to leave in less than two hours and home was an hour and a half away!

I called my sister-in-law and she ran to my house, retrieved my passport from my bag (I had decided to change purses at the last minute because that is what we women do!) and she started up the highway as we started down. We met in the middle and thankfully walked right on the plane as they were boarding. She saved my sanity and saved us several hundred dollars, thank you Sue!

We had a ten hour layover in Paris, France!

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With traveling an hour into the city and back, that left us with about six safe hours of site-seeing. We took a river tour down the Seine River to see as much as we could of the beautiful city. We were not disappointed! We were able to “see” the Louvre Museum, which is home to the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and many other famous works. I never dreamed it was so big, it is over 652,000 square feet!

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We also were able to see the Notre Dame Cathedral, the famous Lock Bridge, (the Pont des Arts), which is much bigger than the one in Latvia, but not nearly as beautiful. We passed by the Musee’ d’ Orsay and the Place de la Corde ( not on the cruise of course), it is one of the public squares.

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I was so fascinated by La Conciergerie, a former royal palace and prison in Paris. Hundreds of prisoners of the French Revolution were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the guillotine at a number of locations around Paris! Gulp! One of its most famous prisoners was Queen Marie Antoinette.

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We ended our short little excursion with lunch in a quaint French cafe. Love!

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I had tried my best to experience some genuine French beignets. My sweet DIL, Rachel, her mother makes the most delicious beignets and I was determined to see if the French could top them. Would you believe they were out?! What?! The one place I stop they were sold out and I was so disappointed! I settled for a delicious hot crepe with strawberries, we shared it and it was wonderful.

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Now we begin our visit with our treasured friends here in Riga! We met with Missionaries Mark and Robin Shutes and some of our “kids” last night, Martins and Konstance Steinbergs, at the airport. My husband had the privilege last August of coming to Riga to “marry” these two wonderful people! They are so precious to us. Today and tomorrow I will be able to meet up with many more friends and hopefully recover from our trip.

Oh, did I forget something? They have this big tower there…the Eiffel? We saw that too…

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Thank you all for your prayers, they are much appreciated!
Much love,
Nannette

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Back Across the Big Pond!

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We are so excited to be heading back to our beloved Latvia today!

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The church in Riga will be hosting their 2nd Annual Apostolic Power Conference and we are blessed to be able to attend! We will be gone about three weeks and I will be posting and updating you about our trip and the conference. It will be almost like being there!

Please keep me and The Sweetheart in your prayers as we travel and also pray for the meetings that many souls would be saved!

Eastern Europe is not like some foreign countries when you talk of “revival”. When Ethiopia or South America has a revival you read of thousands being baptized and filled with the spirit in one meeting! But in Eastern Europe you have to build friendships and win the trust of the people.

A revival of nine souls in Europe is 9,000 anywhere else! It is so true!

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We will be reunited with our “kids” that we were blessed to have in our House Church while we were there, we have missed them so much. They now have “kids” of their own! They have won souls to the Lord and started their own House Churches and are making disciples of them, teaching and training them to go out and win more souls for the Kingdom!

That’s the way Revival By Design works!

Some of them will one day soon pastor their own regular assembly! To God be the glory!

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This picture was taken on our last night in Riga. They took us on a crazy ride through Riga and a Christmas light tour high above the city to see the lights. It was freezing and I didn’t have my coat so, true to his nature, The Sweetheart loaned me his jacket! He is taking the picture. Love him!

May God richly bless you all. I appreciate your prayers, encouragement and support of this ministry.

First stop is Paris, France for a ten hour layover….say what???!!!!
Somebody point me to the Eiffel Tower!!

In His Service,

Nannette

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The Mercy Rule

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For Nancy…

The game is called and the home team is relieved. The ‘Mercy Rule’ saved their pride this time. The Little League team was no match for their competitors and it was becoming embarrassing.

Sometimes you just have a bad day and Mercy steps in.

It’s where you don’t get what you really should have gotten, what you really did deserve.

We have all sinned according to the Word of God. “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV. “…for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.  We are all deserving of judgment.

So if God gave us what we deserved, we would be condemned to die!

And Grace? Oh that’s not necessarily when you can glide across the ice skating rink like Dorothy Hamill or any other Olympic Gold Medalist. That is pretty special but grace is more than that.

Grace is when you DO receive the good things that you didn’t deserve!

We do not deserve anything from God and He doesn’t owe us anything. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…” Ephesians 2:4,5 NKJV.

They are pretty neat companions, Grace and Mercy.

God’s grace is a beautiful gift and He gives it freely. We don’t have to ask for it or beg for it, it is already there. We cannot earn it, we cannot buy it. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

Then Mercy shows up in the following verse!

“For God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17.

He sent His Son, came as one of us and gave His very life. That was Grace! Giving us what we didn’t deserve!

Then He tells us that He didn’t come to condemn us but to save us, He didn’t give us what we really deserved! He did not bring condemnation upon us, but He could have.

We deserve judgment. But we were given Mercy. We accept Him as Lord and Savior over our lives, be filled with His Spirit and receive Grace, forgiveness of sins and eternal life!

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16.

Friend, Jesus has a different set of Mercy Rules. He wrote them just for You… in red.

 

The Mercy Rule Hope in the Healing

 

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