Kathy Weckwerth

Everyday Encouragement

In the Grove

The Church for $1.00

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John 10:10b “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

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It was over one year ago that I sipped my iced tea and nestled into the big green chair. I had just finished a week-long fast and a time of diligent prayer to seek God for the future of our ministry, Best Life.

My friend, Kathleen Sogge, had called me so excited about the Bible verse that God had shared with her for Best Life….only it was the same scripture that He had given me weeks before, but in a different translation. She didn’t know that.

I had read it and questioned God by saying, “What does this mean? What does this have to do with Best Life Ministries?” I re-read it out loud, [callout]Isaiah 58:12 “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; You will be called Repairer of broken walls and Restorer of streets with dwellings.”[/callout]

For a few months before that day, God had been pressing into my spirit that it was time for a headquarters for the ministry. The Spirit had prompted me to drive the highway outside of our home and pray for revival…for the hearts of women to be drawn to Bible Study and deeper relationship with Christ. I didn’t question God, but continued to pray as I would drive. But where would we meet?

My husband, Farmer Dean, and I began our search. Throughout our small hometown of Benson we looked and found nothing. We went to the neighboring towns and couldn’t afford anything. And I knew this one thing for sure: I was to pray for an entry way, a room large enough for women to sit and listen to teaching, and an office. I was to remain faithful. I continued my prayer.

Dean and I met with the town board that owned the old schoolhouse across the road from us, but when we got into the building, I felt God tell me “No, My vision is too big for the building.”

Over the next couple of weeks, two of our farmer-grandpa-neighbors called us. They felt God prompting them that we were to look for an old church. What!? Where could we possibly find an old church? Dean and I talked about it at 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night while driving home from town. Where was there an old church? How could we ever afford it?

At 8:30 on Wednesday morning, 12 hours later, my husband called me from town. He was elated….and somewhat in shock. “You’ll never believe what’s on the cover of the paper today!” “What?” I asked. “A church from 1900, for sale on Craigslist,” he answered. “How much?” I asked. “$1.00,” he exclaimed. “WHAT!!!” I shouted.

I threw on my sandals, jumped in my car and drove like the wind to get there. If it was like many of the old churches that I had loved throughout the years, it would be tiny and have the sanctuary part, but that would be it. After all, pastors from the early 1900’s would study at their home libraries.

I’ll never forget it as long as I’m alive. The day was bright and sunny, the sky a rich blue with beautiful painted white fluffy clouds streaked across the skyline where the steeple stood, high above the old church. I stopped. I waited. I looked up at God and said, “You are amazing.” Some little birds called back and forth, while the breeze swept my hair across my face. I pulled open the big white doors and stepped inside the entry way.

The rich aromas of years gone by filled my nostrils. I took in a deep breath and looked at the tall ceiling with the ornate tin, glanced across the sanctuary at the old oak pews, the piano, the organ and the colored glass windows.

Next, I stepped to the side of the sanctuary in an extra area that could be my office, and I said to God, “This is it. I’m home.” I remember telling the kind man that was showing me the church, “I want it. When do you want your dollar?”

I didn’t even stop to think about the cost of moving it; the details of anything….I just knew…it was God’s hand moving.

[callout]There are times in life when we’re on what I like to call “The Moving Sidewalk Syndrome.” God has you in one of those places where you can’t stop, you can’t get off, and you just ride the ride. This was it now! [/callout]

When Farmer Dean arrived later that afternoon, he looked at me and said, “Oh, my goodness, Kathy….this is exactly what you prayed for!” But, you know the real truth? This was bigger and better than anything I could have ever imagined!

As we walked out the front doors and turned to look at this big beautiful church, I looked down at the large gray stones that were holding it up. They were the church’s original foundation. Those rocks were laid in 1900 and had stood the years of time. And God gently, ever so quietly, brought back to my memory the verse…. “….your people will raise up the age-old foundations.”

At the end of this month, my people are raising up the church and it will be moved the twenty-one miles to our grove, where it will continue to serve in ministry, after sitting empty for the past 32 years.

For God’s timing….we are elated. That a church would sit empty for 32 years, and God would prompt me to look for a headquarters, and would prompt the board to sell the church for $1.00 at this time, plus prompt two sweet neighbors to call us, without knowing what the other suggested, and to have it be better than anything we ever hoped or dreamed….is our God. The Great I Am. The Great and Mighty, Everlasting God.

A Ripple Effect

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It’s that time of year where we look out and see the farmers in their combines harvesting this year’s crop.  Now if you’re anything like my husband, Farmer Dean, you felt great discouragement over this past week’s rain and feel antsy to get back in the field and back to work … after all, you have a harvest to reap.  P1000665

As we look around, we realize that farmers are benefiting from the seeds that the planted last spring, and now that fall has arrived, it’s time to harvest the crop.  But what would happen to the crop if no one went out to plant in the fields?  What would happen if no one cared enough to do the work? 

In Matthew 9:37-38, we hear Jesus speaking to the disciples, “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”  Did you hear that?   Into the Lord’s Harvest field …  John 4:35 says, “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” 

When we read these words, Jesus is telling the disciples and the people who are listening to Him, it’s you … you’re needed to do the work.  When we think about missionaries going out into the field,  all across the world, we know that God wants to send His people.  Yes, this is true … but this is a mandate for you … for me, as He wants US to go out into the field where He has placed us, and plant seeds for His Kingdom.  

When farmers plant one small kernel of corn in the ground, they wait and let God do His work.  The rains come, the soil takes over, the kernel grows into a stalk of corn, with corn cobs, and many kernels!  It’s a ripple effect, just like if you toss a pebble into the water and watch it create ripples.  That one stone effects the entire body of water. 

In Luke 10:1-12, you see the disciples are there with Jesus, so it’s very natural for us to read the same story from Luke and Matthew, but each personality focuses on telling it from their vantage point.  The tax collector, Matthew, tells it from his view point.  The physician, Luke, tells it from his vantage point.  Here’s Luke’s.  Follow along with me as we read Luke’s vantage point:

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-twoothers and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”

[callout]Planting seeds for God is kingdom work.  You might think I can’t do it.  Nothing I do will matter.  But it does!  When we plant seeds, it can have a ripple effect. [/callout]

Our responsibility doesn’t come in the form of everything … our responsibility doesn’t come in the form of doing it all … no, our responsibility comes in the seed.  We plant the seed … God grows the crop … the harvest for the kingdom begins.

Because a seed was planted in a young man’s heart, it grew.  It was the kernel of corn planted in the field and now is a corn stalk with cobs of corn and many kernels.  God is glorified … lives are changed.

When we look at this command from God, it is for you and for me.

Maybe that means that you’re helping someone with a ride somewhere, you’re calling them with encouragement, you’re delivering food to their home when they can’t cook, you’re mowing their lawn, raking their leaves, or praying for them.

When we go out and tell people about Jesus’ love, it’s not enough.  Why?  Because we need to be showing others about His love.  We need to be a worker.  We need to be an example.  We need to let people know the kingdom of God is at hand.  We need to be known as “workers.”

Recently, our 4 year old grandson came over to the farm.  Dean and Gary had a truck that needed some work and was parked in the shed looking rather bedraggled.  Our grandson went in and saw it and really got after Dean to get that washed. 

Well, they didn’t have time to wash it that day, but the next morning Jonah got out of bed and said to Dean, “Let’s go over and see the truck, I bet it’s washed.”  Dean said, “We didn’t wash it, how would it have gotten washed?”

Jonah said, “I bet Uncle Dairy did it … He’s such a worker.”

You see, Uncle Gary is known as a worker.  Don’t you want to be known by God as a worker!?

Jesus is telling us in both of these books, Matthew and Luke, the work is great … the workers are few … you are needed!

You don’t have to go across the world to reach people.  You can go across the street.

Scripture tells us  in John 1:14 … the word became flesh and dwelt among us.  The Message Bible translates that to:  the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

When Jesus came here on earth to become one of us, He lived daily to make a ripple effect.  One pebble in the water, means it ripples to affect another.  One person healed from leprosy … he tells the town.  One person healed from years of bleeding, she tells her community.  One person healed from being blind … he tells everyone.  It’s a ripple effect.  God uses it like this:  Just like a seed is planted in the ground and grows a stalk of corn with a couple of ears on it, that’s what it is when we plant seeds for God … things grow.  We create a ripple effect when we talk about God, share God, help others, because it can grow.    

Jesus is sending us out for the harvest.  He’s sending us out to do good work for Him.  He’s encouraging us to share His salvation story right in our own neighborhood.  We don’t have to go across the world to be a worker for the harvest … we can go out in our own backyard, we can walk across the street.  We can plant seeds for God.  I want to be known as a “worker,” don’t you?

Recreated, Reshaped, Restored

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P1000128Repurposing is something that today’s society promotes and applauds.  Every time I turn around, friends of mine are reconnecting with items from long ago, and repainting, recreating, reshaping, and repurposing them for a new use … a new life. 

Such is the life of Frank Lake Covenant Church in the Grove.  It has been moved and repurposed for a new life … a new use. 

The challenge for Farmer Dean and me has been to make things fit.  Days of old brings the challenges of no storage, no closets, and thinking minimalistic.  The congregation didn’t have to think about storing lots of books and Bibles, or stacking tons of dishes and kitchen gizmos, or even having closets that could hide the communion trays and cups. 

Instead, Frank Lake stands ready to welcome you, with a very “innocent” feel … just the bare necessities.  And although I love that, it can make it a bit challenging to find a place to store the big coffee pot and the small one.   Or where to put all of the cups or extra paper towels is continually a mystery to my mind. 

On this cold Monday night, as the wind is whipping outside the windows and the light from the parking lot is dimly shining off of the table, I sat and drank my yummy flavored coffee out of one of those “where do I store this?” cups, and began to dream and plan, to recreate, reshape, and repurpose what was in front of me. 

When we bought Frank Lake Church it had a sweet little cupboard in the corner.  It wasn’t my favorite wood or color, but it served the purpose of storage.  But what I really needed was a nice island that would host the coffee and morning treats for Bible Study.  I told Deano I needed the top and bottom of this cupboard to be separated and reconstructed.   It was time to get my favorite painter (my hubby, Farmer Dean) over to get to work.  Farmer Dean arrived with all of his painting paraphernalia and began to make the very old piece transform before my eyes, so that it looked so much better.  My favorite shade of brown red was soon covering the tired little cupboard and matching perfectly to the old tiles on the floors of the church that are of the same coloring.  Hurrah! 

The cupboard is now sitting, boldly facing the table where my Bible study ladies read, share, and learn about God’s love for us, and how to live this life with Jesus by our side.  

After we’re done with our study, the cupboard serves as the host for delectable treats and piping hot coffee, that always seems to soothe our tired souls on these dreary winter days. 

Along with this cupboard, we have repurposed an old table and chairs purchased at the thrift store for $129.00 for the 7 piece set, some old rugs with frayed edges from a grandma that had them in the 1940’s, a corner cupboard that stores our Bibles, an old desk that is from 1945, many old doors taken out of old houses, and a lovely old sink and tin cabinet from early 1900’s that is currently holding its proud place amongst the 1950’s stove that we’re planning on using to bake up a lovely egg dish some cold March morning. 

Repurposing.  It’s a funny sounding word isn’t it?  And yet, many words that have “re” serving as a prefix for that word mean “to do over, to do again.” 

We’re taking something that once was, something that served somehow, somewhere on Planet Earth, and we’re reinvesting it to use in the immediate here and now of today. 

[callout]God is like that.  He is a Restorer.  He is a Redeemer.  God is the Ultimate Repurposer.  He takes what we once were, in all of our sin and sadness, our worn out colors and frayed edges, and He comes in and covers us with the blood of His Son, Jesus, with a fresh coat of Christ-paint, and He changes us.[/callout]  He transforms us.   We are renewed, refreshed, restored.  We are reborn.  We are made new.  

Things are looking better as the weeks are passing by.  They’re coming together one piece, one paint brush stroke at a time.  And as Farmer Dean is restoring and repurposing, I continue to be amazed at how God’s mercies are new every day.  God’s purpose for us is to change us, grow us, and use us for His glory … the Original Repurposing. 

Praise God!

Along the Way

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I see life as a journey.  An adventure.  A road.  Along the road I’ve been traveling, there have been people.  This past week….I’ve met them, stopped to rest and chat, have listened, have observed, have learned and have pondered.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe journey emits facets like a beautiful piece of crystal, brought out into the sunlight.

The colors represent the personalities of these people, and how they completely differ, and yet at times are the same.

~This week I encountered kindness.  A book publisher, who knew my style didn’t fit their need, took the time to point me onto a small trail that led off the beaten path.  I was grateful.

~This week I encountered courage.  My child had a horrible test to try to pass, and I watched her in turmoil, but in the end her courage won out and she passed.

~This week I encountered sadness.  My best friend was overcome with depression over some horrific circumstances.  I reached out to offer comfort and love.

~This week I encountered competition.  A leader of a ministry did not want to work together with our ministry, because she thought we were their competition.

~This week I encountered hope.  Doors that had once been closed were now opening.

~This week I encountered forgiveness.  I saw people who had hurt deeply, and hurt me deeply.  I took God’s trail that He pointed out, and left the beaten path to offer hugs, sincere interest, and an I’m sorry.

~This week I encountered rejection.  I friend requested someone on facebook, from a place where I had served.  I received a benign comment and no acceptance to my olive branch offering of peace.

~This week I encountered excitement.  As we are moving ahead towards a conference with Rebecca St. James, she has been working with me on an interview for our new magazine, “Your Best.” I feel incredible, life-giving, motivating excitement from the very core of my being.

~This week I encountered tenacity.  The journey I’ve been traveling allowed me to meet someone who was bitter and resentful.  I would not be pushed, shoved or moved from my stance with God and remained tenacious for the path He had set me on. 

~This week I encountered hopelessness.  My mother is a widow now.  At 80 years of age, at times, she offers up a plea of not knowing how to go on without my father.

~This week I encountered frustration.  My youngest daughter doesn’t know how to balance school and a full time job.

~This week I encountered love.  When I looked across the room at the man I’m married to, I thanked God for how wonderful he is to me and to my girls.

~This week I encountered pride.  My team had a panel that critiqued their speaking abilities, and I watched as they offered up their gifts and talents, and offered them up better than I had ever seen or imagined.  I felt so proud of who God had put next to me in our ministry called Best Life.

~This week I encountered passion.  I have a passion for life.  I have a passion to encourage women to live their best life.  As I continue to work daily towards conferences, developing relationships, solving problems, creating devotionals and editing magazines, I feel alive.  I feel hopeful.  I feel faith-filled.  I feel grateful.

One day, when I worked in a law office, my boss put down his work and looked at me.  “What’s wrong?” he asked.  “It hurts to care,” I stated.  “No, no!” he said adamantly.  “The world needs people like you.  It needs people who feel things deeply.  Why?  Because they care deeply.  They care and things matter.  Don’t ever feel badly that you believe it hurts to care about people and situations, or life for that fact.  No!  Embrace it.”

[callout]The world needs more people who feel, who care, and who walk on this journey experiencing facets of life.  It’s your life.  You’ve only got one to live.  Get your shoes on and start walking.[/callout]  I hear the path calling us both!

Passing the Test

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Life is funny, isn’t it?  So very often we are faced with the same things over and over.  We just got through something that was difficult and we tried to maneuver our way through the journey, finding, perhaps, a few tripped up spots along the path.  Maybe we didn’t handle an issue so well, or perhaps we said something that was just plain stupid.  Maybe we snapped back at someone and lacked patience.  Or perhaps we took something the wrong way and ended up bitter or resentful.

Do you know what I call these times?  I call them our tests.  [callout]As the years have gone by, I realize more and more, that God will present me with a task that He wants me to learn about, embrace, and walk confidently by His side, assured that He will give us wisdom. [/callout]

But we don’t always walk with wisdom.  At times I find myself running in front of God (and at quite a distance I might add!) thinking that I know what’s best for me, for others and at times … for my relationship with God.  Ugh.  That’s all I can say is … ugh.

Here’s what happens …God has a do over.  He says, “Oh, I’m sorry, Kathy.  That was a 75% and you’ll need at least a 97% to pass the test and move on.”  And I wait.  And I watch.  And then I see the same elements coming back in my pathway, and I’m walking through the same kind of test again.

I’ve walked through tests of courage.  Will I be afraid?

I’ve walked through tests of anger.  Will I display self-control?

I’ve walked through tests of patience.  Will I endure?

I’ve walked through tests of loss.  Will I be patient?

I’ve walked through tests of betrayal.  Will I be bitter? 

Over the past two weeks, my household has been praying without ceasing for our youngest daughter, Jenessa, and our middle daughter, Chandra.  They have both been taking difficult tests and boards for their degrees.  Both of them suffer from test anxiety.  They will call me in a panic and tell me, “If I don’t pass, I have to take it over!  And then I’ll be behind and it will be the worst!!!”

Sometimes it really is the worst when you take a test, fail it, and then find yourself in front of it again.  That test begins to feel larger than life.

But here’s what I’ve found out about God and passing the tests of life:

  1. He’s in it with you.
  2. He wants you to succeed.
  3. The tests always serve a purpose.
  4. Once you pass, you can help others pass their tests.
  5. The tests make us stronger.  They are faith-stretching, mind-building, and maturity growing.

What kinds of tests are you up against this month?  Whatever it is, God will walk through it with you.  Trust Him.  Lean into His power and might.  You’ll be a better person when you pass the test.

“For I am the Lord, Your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.’”  Isaiah 41:13