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May 2007 |
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Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all." Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, And let her works praise her in the gates. Proverbs 31:28-31 NAS |
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From the desk of Pat McEwen, 5/5/07
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Dear Friends: Greetings in Jesus’ mighty Name! I am writing between a trip to Washington D.C. May 1-2 and one to Norway May 8-13. D.C. was a time of meetings. I saw a friend there who I first met in The Hague about ten years ago. We both work in the international scene but do not often run into each other because of differing schedules so it was great to get reacquainted. She told me she was at a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa where the pro-life team was seriously outnumbered. They cried out to God to please send people when suddenly within a few days people (Christians) seemed to come out of the woodwork. I was able to fill in the “rest of the story” for her. Johnny Hunter called me at the exact time of the meeting and said there was something bad going down in South Africa but he didn’t know what—could I use my contacts to try to find out? I e-mailed everyone I knew including Cherlyn Dudley, and Kenneth Meshoe, pro-life Members of Parliament and Diana and Rachel from Doctors for Life and Christians For Truth. When I asked Patrice who had come she said, a whole group from parliament led by Kenneth and Cherlyn and others from Doctors For Life and Christians For Truth. She wondered how they had known to come. We both laughed at how the Lord had called in His troops by e-mail first through Johnny, then me and then the South African pro-lifers. . When you work in pro-life you are constantly awed by how the Lord works. There is never a dull moment. I am so excited about Norway. As I told you, this invitation grew out of a ministry trip to the Netherlands where we thought we had not accomplished much but God accomplished a lot! God’s ways are not our ways and His plans are much more effective. One young man who went to the streets in the Hague with us was so excited about street witness that he went home to Norway and got more young people excited. HE then invited us to come and train these students. I was going nuts trying to get tracts translated to Norwegian. I finally gave up and went with only one tract because of the time constraints. At the D.C. meeting another friend told me he had over 2000 pro-life tracts in Norwegian in his office that he had no use for. He is sending them to me 2 day air for the cost of the postage. I plan to put them in a duffel (because of weight limits) and check them into the airline and carry all my clothes in a carry – on. The bag loss affair in Israel taught me that I need much fewer clothes that I thought. We will be speaking in a college and taking the young people to the streets of Oslo each day to witness the Gospel of life and the truth that there is another king—King Jesus. I will be traveling with an awesome group, Pastor Flip, Pastor Mike, David. Joseph, Abby, and Christan. They are all powerful Christians with a heart for evangelism. What an awesome opportunity. I will tell you all about the trip in June’s Newsletter. I am expecting to see God move in the most un-churched nation in Europe! It will be such fun to see what He does when we just show up! My trip to Israel was an eye-opener. I learned a lot when the Lord took over orchestrating the meeting and I prepared messages over and over only to find I was not supposed to give message after message. I am sure the Lord expects us to plan but I am also sure He doesn’t want us to get so busy with our plans that we run out ahead of His plans. I was not until I gave up striving and just let the Lord plan my message that I was able to give it. His ways are not our ways! There is a variety of pride that makes us run out before the Lord and this pride will ruin our ministry. I ministered to someone who had a problem with this and in helping her I taught myself a lot. It is pride that makes us get so caught up in our own plans that we can miss the Lord. We are so sure that we have the answer. We easily recognize this pride in a the newcomer to the pro-life battle who is quick to tell us they have the answer to the whole situation— “If you only…” We patiently listen and refrain from saying—”Been there, done that.” but do we recognize that pride in ourselves? The faithful are not immune to pride and people who are actively employed in the Lord’s service are no exception. King Uzziah “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD,” (2Chrinicles 26:4a) but after the Lord prospered Him he fell victim to pride. But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God." Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests. 2Chronicles 26:16-19 NASB I noticed others not bowing to the conference leadership as to schedule etc. and I noticed that sometimes I squirmed under a tight schedule. Submitting to authority when I had to rush to finish or get on a bus instantly was not easy but I came to realize how important it is. By teaching another I have learned to recognize when pride rears her ugly head and I have also learned to defeat her. Thank you Lord for teaching me. Thank you for your prayers for me in Israel! Would you please pray for many open doors on the trip to Norway? Thank you for your support. You have chosen to support Life Coalition International with your donations and prayers when you have many worthy causes and ministries to choose from. Thank you!! A servant,
Pat McEwen |