Set The Table

A few months ago my father was temporarily in an assisted living facility and my sisters and I would go visit him. I of course got to know some of the other residents and would talk to them each day we were there. We would go to the dining room with my father for lunch and dinner so he didn't have to eat alone. The facility isn't full so there's plenty of room in the dining room, however, I noticed quite a few people sitting alone at their table including my father. I could understand my father sitting alone because he's not the nicest person to dine with but the other residents were quite pleasant, so why were they alone? I decided to be friendly and asked one of the women if she wanted to join us. She looked at me kind of baffled and said “no” that she was at “her table.” She literally grabbed the sides of the table with her tiny frail hands and held onto it showing ownership. I got the same response from a few of the other women. They each had their own table and rather than have company they wanted the security or the routine of sitting at their table even if it meant eating alone. The first woman I asked has been living in this place for 12 years! She moved there with her husband who had Alzheimers but he passed away 2 years later so she has been there alone for 10 years. No children or family and apparently no close friends in Florida. How very sad and yet she did not want to join us and leave “her table.” I could not get passed this experience of being alone rather than having fellowship.
As always it got me thinking about what kind of things our frail hands are holding onto. What keeps us from having fellowship with others? Isolation is one of the greatest tools of the enemy. As long as we are alone he can fill our minds with lies about ourselves and others. He can make us second guess what Jesus tells us about ourselves and more importantly who we are in Christ. We shouldn't be surprised, he did it to Jesus. Remember when Jesus was in the desert for 40 days being tempted by satan. (Matthew 4)What did he keep saying to Him?
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down.
Satan was trying to get Jesus to question if he was truly the son of God. He does the same thing with you and me. If you are a child of God you would be able to forgive. If you are a child of God you wouldn't be in this mess. If you were a child of God you wouldn't hate yourself.
Recently someone asked me the question “why does it feel so weird to have people tell me they love me?” What this person was really saying is satan is making them question who they are because if they were really a child of God they would know they were loveable. This person has been dining alone, holding onto a table of rejection BUT asking the question was a great way for her frail hand to begin to let go.
I'm going to share another personal story with you. Growing up with my mother was a challenge to say the least. My mother was the kind of person that agreed with whoever she was with at the time. A person chameleon if you will. It would make me so angry because I felt like she never stood up for anything and was lying every time she changed her mind to agree with who she was with. Part of the problem was I never felt safe with her because if she told me she liked something about me, which wasn't very often, it could change if someone else didn't like it. I know that sounds kind of confusing but I hope you get what I'm saying. The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day about this. He told me the real problem was my mother didn't know who she was. She had been dining alone her whole life and the only way she could fellowship with other people and feel accepted was to be just like them. I had never thought about it like that. I remember my whole life people saying things like “it's just Rose Mary, she's always making stuff up, you never know when to believe her.” But no one including me every tried to find out WHY she did this. What was satan saying to her. If you were a child of God you would... This of course broke my heart and gave me a whole new perspective of my mother. It also broke my heart because now that she has Alzheimers I can't even go back and tell her I understand and make sure she knows God loves her just the way He created her. That she was His chameleon. This would be a really sad story if it ended there but my sweet Jesus would never do that. The Holy Spirit reminded me that I may not be able to reach her but He not only could but would! Gems let's not allow the enemy to make us question who we are in Christ. Let's not dine alone when we are feeling insecure but reach out for fellowship to one another and set our tables with love and acceptance.

Power of a Testimony

It is with excitement, joy and amazement I send you this unusual jewel. This is the first official Gena's Jewels Mission outreach but I need to tell you how it happened. About three years ago my son Anthony set me up a twitter account which I haven't used since he set it up. Recently I got an email from a man in Africa. This is part of the email:

May this letter find you blessed in Christ. I am writing from West Africa and it is a blessing getting to you in the other part of the world. It is my prayer that you become a friend of me and the local church here. I got your email when I searching online and got into the web site and I know that it is God’s arrangement.

It was the unused twitter account (only God) he found gena's jewels. The gist of the letter was he and his small church are in desperate need of Bibles. We wrote back and forth a few times, easy for me not so easy for my new friend that had to walk about 6 miles to get to a place that has a computer then pay a ticket to use it.

I told him I would send some Bibles but had to wait for my tax return. I could not wait for Jessica (my youngest daughter) and I to be a part of Kingdom building for my sweet Jesus. We bought the Bibles and 10 pairs of reading glasses different strengths because Owen (my new found brother) said the strongest believers were very old and it was hard for them to see. Jessica and I packed up our box, prayed over it to arrive without the glasses breaking and mailed it off. As you can imagine it took a while for the package to arrive. What I didn't imagine was the letter I got when they did. This is what I want to share with you my dear Gems.

You are about to read the gospel come to life in the sweet/sad story below. Please take time to read it and my notes at the end.

Dearly Beloved,

Greetings in Jesus name. I am happy to let you know that the bibles and glasses you sent have arrived. I am short of words but I want to tell you that this bibles are greatly appreciated. God is aware of this great service and hand of fellowship you have extended to us and great is your blessings. Tears of joy flows out of my eyes as I opened and saw the wonderful bibles. I wish I could see you face to face to shake your hands but I know we shall meet in Heaven if not here on earth. We spent much time interceding for you and your church yesterday evening in our evening Bible Study. We are greatly blessed, Glory to God!

I pray that the Father shed His marvelous light upon you, as it is written: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side." Isaiah 60:1-4.

Let me share with you about all we have been doing since the past two weeks. The Muslims quarters here again had much flooding. That area of town is valley so most times flood water destroys things there. The heavy rain that fell last Thursday killed 2 persons there and destroyed many buildings. I encouraged our church and few days ago we went to help in any way we could like removing debris and helping to stand some wooden building. We went again yesterday. Most of the Muslims are amazed to see us coming to help despite all the persecution from them. We tell many about Christ when necessary and many are won, six families. Again many Christians around us criticize us for doing this simply because the Muslims do not show sympathy of Christians but killed Christians around Nigeria. I know for myself, it is definitely challenging to love people who may be hostile towards us, but God calls us to love our enemies and He will supply us with the love to do it if we surrender to Him. For God is love. And we can only love because He first loved us. And His love is only made complete in us, when it transforms our hearts and outflows into every facet of our lives. (1 John 4:7-21). God has been showing me how He calls us to do what is impossible for man, because it shows us that we can only have victory through Christ alone. And the act of loving our enemies can be done through Christ. God is amazing, and He provides an endless source of love! We will continue to reach out in love to those Muslims because of the love of Christ in us.

My wife is on me serious to tell you of this because she loves this poor family and compassionate about them. There is a particular woman and her four children in this muslim quarters that we are assisting. This woman has given her life to Christ with her children. She told us that her husband abandoned her and her four children about four months ago when she gave birth to their last baby the man could not care for the children. She has to care for the children all alone. My wife and I are helping her for food items and medicine for the children and in other way we can. She is a respectful warm woman and needs helps. There is also her younger Sister who is 17 years old with her who did not appear in the picture I want to send to you. The area we would want you to assist her and the children in for clothing, shoes and maybe toys for her and the children with her younger Sister. As you can also see in the picture I’m sending to you they have no cloths and only use rags. Please look at the picture I send to you and send the cloths of children of that age and size. The first son is Ahmed age 11, Sunu male age 7, Kiamatu male age 5 and their baby about five months old and female. Her Sister’s name is Kudirath age 17, female. Please help send clothing items through us to this poor lovely family and God will bless you for helping them. The Sister’s name is Amari Suleman. She gave us her picture yesterday and hope you can see it. Buying cloths for them here is too expensive and no money.

We thank you because through you we have a testimony that God's love knows no boundaries, whether through earth or sea, His love stretches beyond all of that. " Have not I commanded thee Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever - Joshua 1:9" We believe that God will pour his love and abundance of blessings on His people who serve him with such humility and courage. Continue to aid and assist the people around you, as we remember that each and every one of us are made in the beautiful image of God, and thus all of us are creations of God, loved dearly by Him.

I have spent over one hour typing this message. I am not fast at typing. I wish I can share all about us with you. Thank you! 2 Thessalonians 3:1-Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you. I wish you could visit us and see all that we are doing in Christ. Let us know.

Looking unto Jesus- Hebrews 12:1-2,
Brother Owen

If this letter didn't touch your heart grab the paddles and shock yourself! My first goal is to testify how amazing our God is and 2nd to share the love of God through a man to the Muslim people who are persecuting him and his people and 3rd to let you have an opportunity to help me send another care package or the privilege to pray for brother Owen and his family.
There have been a lot of changes in my world and the Gena's Jewels ministry has finally taken flight. I gave my ministry to the Lord in February 1992 and am beyond excited to see it coming to life in such a tangible way. My hope is to one day do full time ministry. To let people know that I feel like I'm God's favorite and my goal is to make everyone I meet feel the same way! If you would like to be a part of this just email me.
Thanks for taking the time to read this Jewel Gems.
In His Love,
gena