A curious thing happened the other night while I was listening to music and waiting to go to sleep. As I lay there staring at the ceiling, the shadow of a bug as big as my hand appeared on the ceiling. At first, I lay perfectly still; after all, you don't want to disturb a bug that size — I didn't know if he would want to eat me all at once or in small pieces, so I didn't want to give myself away.

But then something strange started to happen. I noticed that as the bug moved, its shadow would become smaller and smaller, then disappear, and then reappear on the ceiling again, larger than life. As I watched this progression 3 or 4 times, I finally needed to satisfy my curiosity, so I summoned the courage to get up and investigate.

There was a small very bright nightlight in the guest room where I was staying. On the light I discovered a tiny, winged critter no more than an eighth-inch long. As I watched him, he would land on the light for a few seconds, then fly away from it (probably because of the heat) at which point, he appeared to be getting larger. Then, he'd gradually move in closer to the light, thus his shadow becoming smaller, until his shadow disappeared altogether whenever he landed on the light again.

I laughed at myself for thinking there really was a human-eating monster bug in my room. But hey! One can never be too careful about these things….!

Then I started thinking about the Lord and how my life sometimes resembles that bug's life. When I first started walking with Jesus, I wanted to look just like Him. I wanted to talk like Him, walk like Him, trust like Him, believe like Him, touch like Him, and love like Him. But then as I gained more Bible knowledge and grew in my faith, I would start going my own way in my own strength — and before long, people couldn't see the Son's light anymore; they only saw my shadow.

But Jesus wouldn't let me stay there. Before long, He'd beckon me to come back and draw close to Him. Then, again, it was easy to see Christ working in me rather than me working for Christ. But, before long, I'd start to draw away again — sometimes out of my own insistence of being able to do things on my own, and sometimes because I could no longer tolerate the bright white 'heat' of His constant searching and refining me. And as all the times before, it wasn't long until you could only see my shadow, not Jesus Christ.

But thankfully, our Savior never leaves us where we are. He knows what we're capable of and what He wants to do in and through us; so He lovingly and patiently calls us to draw closer to Him and gain strength from Him.

So where am I now? I'm on my way back to the Son-light, and I'm praying that this time I'll soak up so much of Him that I'll never be able to cast my own shadow again.

May each of us draw closer to the Son and lose ourselves in the light of God's amazing love and grace!

Your sister & servant in Christ,
Pastor Linda
My Redeemer Lives Ministry International

My Redeemer Lives is a one-person ministry originating in Cleveland, Ohio in the United States and now serving in southern India. In 2003, God called Pastor Linda to India to tell others about a few independent indigenous ministries that are proclaiming the Gospel of freedom and salvation in Jesus Christ while striving to help desperately needy people — especially the children.

Although My Redeemer Lives Ministry International is still a one-person organization in practice, this ministry is affiliated with 13 non-denominational Christian ministries in India, Kenya, Philippines, Tanzania, and Zambia — and more ministries are coming every day asking for help. These 13 affiliated ministries are currently caring for more than 500 children and are buckling under the weight of overwhelming need versus mind-boggling passivity.

• bring to you a few of the faces and stories of children who need someone like you to care whether they live or die;
• introduce you to other independent indigenous ministries that need your support;
• entertain you with inspirational stories, poems, and humorous anecdotes that people send to me every month; and
• let you know how easy and inexpensive it is to support this ministry and its affiliated independent ministries.

Did you know...?

• more than 380,000 children die each year due to deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine. (That's 1000 children who will die tonight!)
• more than 575 children in India will lose their sight today due to vitamin deficiencies.
• every year almost one million children die from preventable illnesses such as diarrhea.
• India has the dubious distinction of having the largest population of street children.
• India has approximately two million prostitutes, twenty percent (20%) of whom are under the age of 15.
• seventy-five percent (75%) of rape victims in India are children.

..........

You can also support the work of this ministry by shopping online with our affiliate merchants
to purchase gift items for special occasions or the things you use regularly for your home or office.

---

A young woman went to her mother to tell her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots; in the second, she placed eggs; and in the last one, she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the daughter replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they had become soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity — boiling water — but each reacted differently.

• The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting; but after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
• The egg had been fragile and its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior; but, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
• The ground coffee beans were unique, however; after they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water!

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong; but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Do I have a fluid spirit, but after a particular hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or... am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases its fragrance and flavor — and changes the water around it.

As the lady handed it to them suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand." It said, "I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over, and I yelled out, 'Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone!' but he only smiled and gently said, 'Not yet!'

"Then. WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!' I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, 'Not yet.'

He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then... Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. 'Help! Get me out of here!' I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not yet.'

"Then suddenly he put me back into the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited… and waited…, wondering what's he going to do to me next?

"An hour later he handed me a mirror and said 'Look at yourself.' And I did. I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!'

"Quietly he spoke: 'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.

"'Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.'"

The moral of this story: God knows what He's doing [for each of us]. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink", try this... Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter.

"That's my umbrella," a woman immediately scolded.

Abashed at his mistake, he walked on to his office. He was drenched by the time he arrived. Once there, he discovered three umbrellas that he had left in the office over the months, and decided to bring them home at the end of the day.

That afternoon he ran into the same woman who had confronted him earlier. She looked at the umbrellas, then at him, and tartly remarked, "You did real well for yourself today, didn't you?"

1. How long did the Hundred Years War last?
2. Which country makes Panama hats?
3. From which animal do we get catgut?
4. In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5. What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6. The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7. What was King George VI's first name?
8. What color is a purple finch?
9. Where are Chinese gooseberries from?

1. How long did the Hundred Years War last?
   116 years
2. Which country makes Panama hats?
   Ecuador
3. From which animal do we get catgut?
   Sheep and Horses
4. In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
   November
5. What is a camel's hair brush made of?
   Squirrel fur
6. The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
   Dogs
7. What was King George VI's first name?
   Albert
8. What color is a purple finch?
   Crimson
9. Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
   New Zealand

Immanuel, whose body exhibits the irreversible signs of chronic malnutrition, dreams about going to college and becoming an Engineer. He is an extremely intelligent young man who's attending a prestigious state-operated school based purely on his scholastic achievements. But without a sponsor to assist him, his education will end in 2006, and he will likely join the thousands of other under-educated unemployed/under-employed Indian young men in Andhra Pradesh.