Author: RHonda (Page 7 of 10)

My apologies that there are several ‘old’ stories being published. I have had stories to write and publish as ‘history’ here and they are just now being done.

Wednesday after the 4th of July, we sent two van loads of folks to the East!. Terry and his family in Mom and Dad’s van that they pull behind the coach and Ted and his family in their classic ride. They headed out together, had lunch in Kansas City, decided Interstate 70 beat the trip on Interstate 80 by a long shot and split up to return to their respective homes in different states.

July is usually known for celebrations of our independence. I’m not sure how old I was before I realized that all the fireworks and the picnics weren’t in celebration of my birthday on the 5^th. Just kidding, I am glad to share a birthday with such a noble institution as this great country of ours. This year is a milestone for me and I was not sure how my actual birthday would be spent but I knew that I was excited about the significance of having had 49 of these days prior to this one. I was going to be celebrating 5 decades of living life on the 5^th of July! Continue reading

I recently heard these questions in an email and have also been asked that in person. The updates have not stopped, they were simply too much for me to do while I was sick. Matt has been pretty faithful to write especially for a guy that has been a busy as he has. My apologies. I became ill in late January with laryngitis and chest congestion/coughing that lasted until almost Easter
My laryngitis came on suddenly at the conference I wrote about in January and I felt fine (without a voice) until the following week. Then a number of symptoms developed at once and a roller coaster effect began. I would get better for a couple of days and then land right back where I was previously – silent except for the coughing fits and fatigue. I thought Matt would enjoy the silence and having me home. He did actually, for about 2 days! Then he tired of all conversation being written out or just pantomimed. Needless to say, conversation was limited. We had a lot of decisions to make and things to talk through so it was frustrating at times. I had very little energy for anything that I didn’t have to do. I spent time reading while in doctors offices or just being by myself as Matt was studying until all hours every night and weekends. This has been a defining time in my life as I look ahead to what I still need to accomplish in my life and evaluate where I am in relationship to that. My God is a loving and wise Father. He will use everything to my good if I allow Him to and I chose to allow Him in this time. I know this block of time was a reflective moment that He is using to refocus, refine me.

I am reminded of a story Stephanie Grace Whitson tells in her new book, A Hilltop In Tuscany. One of the characters relates how Michelangelo sculped the statue of David. He started with a very large piece of marble that no one (including Michelangelo) thought would be “worthy” of being sculpted. It had a large crack in it and had lay dormant and unused in his studio for a long time. When he finally sculpted David, he was asked, “How did you take that large marble piece and create something so beautiful?” His reply, “It was simple, I just knocked off the parts that didn’t look like David”. I believe that is what God did to me over these many months; He knocked off what didn’t resemble Jesus. I am not a perfectly completed work like ‘the David’ but I am headed toward the plan and purpose God is sculpting out of the cracked, marble slab that is my life. This time alone has not been wasted but fruitful.

I am now a better listener. I have learned about setting boundaries. God has softened me with His love and kindness so that I am more gracious to others, cognizant of their needs and frailties, more realistic about my own. There was quite a bit in my life that needed to be broken away. I am so grateful for the experience!

Matt is through with school for the semester and only has one more year to go! That is a relief just to type that sentence. He has taken 2 semesters off this past year to spend time with Josh and Kristina. Kristina moved back to Colorado in January and needed time with us. Josh has been here almost a year now and we have had some great times together. Josh is healthier than he has been in almost 4 years! He rebuilt the suspension on his truck which I believe Matt wrote about earlier. THAT was a huge project and Matt left his studies occasionally to go out to the garage and work next to his son. The timing for Matt’s Masters degree has been rearranged a bit in all of this but well worth the cost!

Well, Dear Friends and Family, I have been reminded again, some what gently but constantly, by my better half (and some of you) that it has been way too long since I wrote another article for the website. That must be why Matt changed the name of my column from ‘Ronda’s Ramblings’ to ‘Ronda’s Rareties’. Hmm. Matt also reminds me that I don’t have to write an epistle, just a short article. Short?! Me?! He does remember who I am….right? I have had a number of wonderful experiences recently and decided I could probably make short articles of them. Here goes…..small group and a road trip.

I have been involved with a couple of small groups for several months now. One of them is led by Eileen Fisher, www.eileenfisher.com, if you are interested in knowing more about her ministry. Eileen is a speaker, teacher, prophet, and author. Her first book, Embraced By The Holy Spirit, is out and doing very well. I have learned a great deal being in her small group, also known as The Weekly Prophetic School of The Holy Spirit.

Eileen recently asked my friend, Cynthia Lang, and I to accompany and assist her at The City Church Prophecy Conference in Oklahoma City, OK. Eileen was to be one of the guest speakers. I had not had a road trip since our family Iowa trip for Thanksgiving. Cynthia and I needed some ministry time – both to give and receive. This conference seemed like a grand idea and place for those things to take place! We had not spent a great deal of time together since establishing the Partner Relations Department at Messenger.

I have been in trouble with the resident webmaster for some time because I have not written anything for the website in ‘a long time’. This morning as I looked at the website and my page, I realized the webmaster (Matt) is right, as usual! It was May 1 when I posted last! Gracious! Where have the days gone! There are many changes and I need to get updating. If my children read this I will remind them that they TOO need to be updating. There is so much in their lives that is changing or has. God is moving mightily in our family.

Change is good. I have not often felt that it was or even been willing to embrace it but I have learned that change is good. At least for me. Us. I have found, though, that one of the reasons I do not like change is that it is unsettling. In this season of time, God desires His children turn only to Him and rely on Him. I believe that the season is coming where we will only be able to trust God’s voice for, possibly, our very lives. We are getting an opportunity to allow Him, in less stressful times than what is coming, to show us what it is like to relax in Him so that we may hear, trust and obey Him.

That has meant a lot of changes in my life. The ministry of Messenger International continued to grow and change over the summer. It was an exciting, full, and exigent time. Lisa Bevere’s new book was extremely challenged at that time. From the completion of it, the editing, the battle over the title and just getting all the details that God wanted the way He wanted them. WOW! What a battle!! God reigned in it all though and the book, Fight Like A Girl!, is now wrapped up and slated for release in early Spring. If the pieces of the book I have discussed with Lisa are any representation, which I am sure they are, it will set a lot of the female population on its ear or possibly, their faces before God. It will not be in conviction but in restoration of what the enemy has taken from women and our culture. Continue reading

Many of you know that God placed me at Messenger International in January to help clean up the database. It was a temporary position serving two purposes; get the database cleanup started ensuring accuracy and excellence in the ministry functions, thereby positioning us for effective system migration later this year and, giving me the opportunity to be in place when a position, more suited to my skills opened up with ministry growth.

Well, the ministry growth is happening! As we are going through the business process definition that is necessary for system selection and migration it was determined that the Church and Partner Relations Manager needed a Project Coordinator. In my recent 90 day review I was offered this new position. I accepted and have been in that position two weeks now. It has been a wild and gratifying two weeks! Continue reading