By Mary Spence

I was watching a video recently about being in God's will. Pastor Trent on Instagram talks about how both Simon and Jonah heard from God. He told Simon to throw his nets to the other side. After an entire night of catching nothing, same bait, same net, same boat, nothing changes. Simon was obeying God. 

Jonah on the other hand went the other way. He heard from God and went in the opposite direction. But God did not abandon him. He went with him on the path he decided to take. First, I wondered how Jonah thought he was going to hide from God?  Did Jonah think God could not see him? 

Then I remembered when I lost my brother. He died suddenly, at age 43, alone in a motel room. I was devastated. At that point in time, we were not speaking to each other. Mark had been my “ride or die”my  whole life. We were born less than 2 years apart. We drove each other crazy. No one else knows how to push your buttons like a sibling. But he also came to my rescue when I was in trouble. He knew me better than anyone else. We had the same experiences growing up, celebrating wins and suffering losses together. Mutual wounds and scars covered both of our hearts. 

When he died, I too, hid from God, just like Jonah. I retreated back into a corner of my couch, wishing it was me instead of him. Once the shock finally dissipated, I was angry, so angry at God. But God knew all of that and He still came and comforted me. I was not strong in my relationship with Him at that time. I viewed Him as a distant, stern father. I had not experienced His love personally yet. But I was about to… He sent a pastor to me to say "God is a God of bedside salvation". My brother was not a believer yet. He had been to AA meetings and heard about a greater being but had not declared his faith. He didn’t go to church. We had talked about God and I told him what I knew. He talked with my husband about God while they hunted together. I heard this pastor say that he believed that Jesus gave a person right up until the end, their last breath, to choose Him. And I knew. 
  
I began to feel the weight of Jesus' arm across my shoulder. Slowly I became aware of the ones around me suffering this horrible loss too. And I felt a comfort I could not explain. Instead of my heart feeling like it was irrevocably broken, it began to beat again. I got up, I showered, I somehow put on clothes and I began to move forward. When it felt like I just couldn't do it, He did. I was aware of His presence in a way that I had never felt before. It is true that He cares for the brokenhearted. When I hear about the prodigal son returning and the father gathering up his garments and running to his son and gathering him in his arms and kissing his face, I know. Because that is how Jesus embraces me. Because I've seen it. I've felt it.

When people say that God is there in the deepest valleys and on the mountain tops, I can shout Amen! I experienced Him so much more personally in my deepest valley that I was never the same after.  He is there for the good, for the miracles and our victories. But He is so much closer to us in the valleys… in the deep loss, in the paralyzing grief. In the places where you think you are completely alone. Look up. He is not only there, He is holding you.
 
Take hold of that hand, friend. He can bring comfort, peace. He desires His very best for you and He sees you. Wherever you are hiding, even in the belly of a fish. 

Yo Yo given to Miss Valleria and passed down to me from another missionary. 
Children at the 2025 Sports Camp learned to use it!

By Linda Hokit

Spoils of His Word-October 16, 2025
Linda Hokit

Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years…while Isreal moved about in the wilderness.  So here I am today, eighty-five years old. I am as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that that the Lord promised me that day. 
 Joshua 14:10-12 (NIV)

I love the passage in the Bible where Caleb in his elder years says to the Lord, give me the hill country! In another translation says, “…give me this mountain” and in another, “…give me the high country.” Caleb is not seeking a rocking chair. He wants to be used to rebuild a nation. He wants to use his skills and stretch. 
How many of us ask for the difficult tasks as we are going into our retirement. Don’t we usually lean into ways to relax? Not Caleb, he wasn’t thinking relaxation. He was thinking service. Let me share with you about people I have known who accelerated their service when they could have just rode a wave into the sunset. 
During Sports Camp I was able to tell the children about a missionary in Alaska who served in a village in western Alaska called Kiana. Miss Valleria served many years there and then in Fairbanks in a church ministering to Alaska Natives. I got to work with her in her retirement years after she moved to Anchorage where she did the same. In Anchorage, there was a hospital for Alaska Natives where she served many years as a chaplain. She did not leave her post in Anchorage until she felt she had finished her race and was able to go south to spend her last years with family.  Many people came to know the Lord through her ministry and became strong Godly, leaders in their community. Please pray for Kiana. It was one of 40 villages impacted in some way by a typhon that hit Alaska recently. Pray also for the churches in impacted villages who will play an important role in rebuilding homes lost.
Another missionary who remained busy in her retirement years was Louise. She taught me what I know about teaching Conversational English to foreign-born peoples who settled in Alaska.  She learned from the person who started the work which became foundational for Conversational programs now established nationwide. Both Louise and Lillian taught students and other instructors well into their elder years. 
The story I want to share is about Lillian is how she taught Grandma Tucker to read when she was more than 100 years old.  Grandma loved the Lord so much she used to open the door of her little cabin at sunrise because she was expecting Jesus to return and she did not want to miss His arrival. When her husband died, she could not read scriptures each morning as they had done. So, she asked Miss Lillian to teach her to read. The first word Lillian taught her was “Jesus”. Since Grandma Tucker was nearly blind, Lillian traced the letters in her palm and used a large magic marker to write “Jesus” in large letters so she could see it. 
A few days later Lillian went for a follow up visit. She saw the word “Jesus” written all over the house in indelible marker! Grandma had literally encircled herself with God’s presence! That same day, she showed Lillian how she now read her Bible. She opened it and ran her finger along the page until she saw “Jesus”. Then she happily said, “Jesus”. She repeated this over and over because Jesus was enough for her!
Valleria, Lillian, Louise and Grandma asked God for the high country, the hill country, the mountains. They climbed until they saw their Savior. Their example fuels me in my own retirement. I challenge you to ask for the high country no matter how old you are!

By Peggy Potter-Balaun
Gary and I just love to go for drives at this time of year! How beautiful is this fall season! For Gary and I it is a true occasion to praise and worship the artistry and majesty of our marvelous Creator! I truly believe that the beauty of all seasons is just further evidence of His wondrous Love that He made this Earth to be our home and blessed it with incredible beauty ! (Genesis 1:31 God saw all He have made and it was very good !)

My own life and how Jesus remade it and me in His perfect understanding of me is my own best testimony to His greatness. Provision, wisdom and Love and that is true for all of us! Nobody loves, understands or cares for every one of us better than our Heavenly Father who made us and sent His Own Son Jesus to shed His precious lifeblood for all our sakes!

I accepted Him as my Savior and Lord as a young wife and mother back in February 1978. My three sons were reared on His Word The Bible and all three turned out well! Jesus saw me through the failure of my first marriage by providing me with a support system and a new career which He knew was right for me. He eventually brought me to Vermont where He united me with a wonderful Godly man, Gary, as my new husband.

Things have not always gone perfectly in my life and I am far from a perfect person! I need my Savior Jesus and am so very grateful for all He has done to and for me! Having Holy Spirit within me, being washed in Jesus' Blood and learning
everyday how to live & be more like Him is so very precious & essential ! I love Jesus, because He first loved me !
Psalm 139:1 & 17 Oh Lord You have searched me & known me ... How precious are Your thoughts toward me, oh God ! How
great are the sum of them !
1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you !

By Kaydeen Edwards
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4

Embracing grief and experiencing it is so important to the healing process. Many of us run from grief, loss, pain, suffering, sadness, and mourning. When the thing that we are going through is hard and heavy, we turn to God. However sometimes God hears us but he doesn’t answer right away. Sometimes he makes us wait. But waiting in emotional distress is hard. 

If we don’t keep our eyes fixed on Jesus remaining in his word, remembering his faithfulness and holding on to his promise can result in running to other sources to find fulfillment. Yet these places are empty. It is hard to say in the pain and suffering that is heavy. 

Yet, if we look to the lord for what we need and wait recalling his past faithfulness, our faith gets the opportunity to grow stronger. When our faith grows stronger we will see the grief and suffering as a tool that God can use to heal and grow our faith. 

And all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes. All things even grief, pain and suffering. So as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for he is with me. He’s always with us.
Psalm 139 8-10 says If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. What I know is God is holding us.

By Rebecca Vickery

​The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may
pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of
sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.   Each of you should use
whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in
its various forms.    If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very
words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so
that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the
power for ever and ever. Amen. 1Peter4:7-11

Last month in part 1 of The End of All Things is Near, we talked about being
soberminded to pray, about loving deeply, and offering hospitality without grumbling.
Regardless of how far away the glorious return of Jesus is or isn’t, one thing is certain.
We are closer to the end of things now than the disciples were when they were warning
about it. As such, we continue with the admonition to use whatever gift you have
received to serve others. We need to steward God’s grace in its various forms.
How delightful to think that there is grace in various forms and that we should the be the
delivery mechanism for that grace. What gifts have you received from God? Do you
know? If you don’t know, have you asked some of your close Christian brothers or
sisters? What am I gifted in? Once you know the answer to that, how are you using
your gifts to serve your friends? Your neighbors? How are you serving in the body of
believers?

I believe that part of the mathematics of God is that we give and we serve, and he
multiplies our gifts and our impact. I think the more we serve, the more he gives us to
increase our giftings. Our gifts don’t exhaust us (although saying yes to too many
things can do that.) We want to use our yeses to say yes to the best thing. If we say
yes to everything, we don’t have the capacity to use our gifts well.
Peter goes on to give examples of some of the gifts and the ways in which they may be
used. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.
What a high calling to which to aspire. Matthew 12:36 says that we will have to give an
account for every idle word we speak. I don’t know about you, but as an extrovert (and
an external processor) I found that verse somewhat terrifying. Nevertheless, it is good
for me to be reminded of (and maybe often.) I need to be thinking through what I say
and asking the Holy Spirit to speak through me. Maybe I won’t always get it right, but
thankfully, there is grace enough for that. It is my hearts desire that I should glorify God
with my words.

Words are very important to me, but they are even more important to God. 1 Peter
1:24-25a says, “All men(people) are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the
field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands for ever.”
And Isaiah 55:10-11 says As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do

not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields
seed for the sower and bread for the eater,   so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the
purpose for which I sent it. What these verses all suggest to me is this: God’s words
will accomplish more than mine could possibly, and his word is eternal. So when we
speak, the more we speak the word of God in love and in deed, the more our words will
literally be as if God was speaking.
​
“If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things
God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” This goes hand in hand with showing
hospitality without grumbling. There are countless opportunities to serve, so when we
do it, we ought to make sure that we are doing so joyfully. We can show up to serve
and know that God is going to provide the strength for the task at hand. What a
beautiful partnership that is to be found in Jesus with these things!! He gives us the
strength, the people we serve are blessed by our service, God is blessed by our
service, and we are able to be blessed by having been able to use our gifts. God math.
He helps us, and everyone involved is blessed by it. And God is praised in the efforts
that we expend on his behalf. Colossians 3:23 Do all things as though working for the
Lord. Imagine, you have been invited by the King to serve in his courts. What a
privilege that would be. It is the same thing to serve here in the Kingdom of God. It is a
high honor. Our attitudes and demeanor should reflect that.

To Him be the glory and the power, forever and ever. Amen. As we continue to turn our
lives over to the Lord, we decrease, and he increases in us. Then those around us will
be able to see. The gospel in us causes us to rise up into our good works, which he
prepared in advance for us to do. Peter was a common fisherman before he became a
follower of Jesus. I was a 16 year old exchange student. We are called from all
different backgrounds. And we are each invited to use our gifts in service of the King,
that we might glorify him, that we might point others in the right direction. The more of
use that do that, the more people will be unable to deny the work of God in his people.
And maybe, just maybe, they may join us in praising our Father up in Heaven. Peace to
you.

Linda as a seminary student, praying during an Associational Missions Committee Meeting in New Hampshire in 1992 during a snow storm. Two years later, a church starter used our resources to start churches in New Hampshire we were praying about that night.

By Linda Hokit
​God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble…
Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46: 1 and 10 (NIV)

Oh, my word. The young ones in my community are on the streets heading for schools, running to cars and buses for pickups and filling the little library in my town after school. The energy level is at a high pitch, the enthusiasm is high and I love to see it. Their hope, joy and enthusiasm are contagious! However, there are times I just want to pull aside and linger with the Lord and imagine how God will turn things to good for them!

If you read the verses between the ones I shared above, you’ll recognize similar upheaval that exists in the world today. Upheavals that affect young and old alike. And yet, we are told to go to God and let Him lay the course for the future.

I remember early in my career hearing about a mother who found a brilliant way to pull aside
and linger in the Lord’s presence. Her name was Susana Wesley. She had a son named John and another named Charles. They were among the 19 children Susana and Samuel had! I can not even imagine what craziness must have gone on in their home! Even so, Susana set aside time during her busy day to pray. As the story goes, she laid her apron over her head when she wanted time alone with God. The children soon learned that when she covered her head and shut out the world, it was time to settle or go outside the house so their mother could pray. John and Charles must have witnessed her prayer routine many times.

The Wesley’s lived in England during the 1700’s, which is before the Revolutionary War. John and Charles were among those God eventually used to bring Spiritual Awakening to England. They also wrote a number of hymns still sung today, such as O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Christ the Lord has Risen Today. They also helped form the Methodist denomination.

In 1735, John and Charles sailed for America to minister to the English who had settled near
what is now Savanah, Georgia as well as the nearby native tribes. James Oglethorpe who
founded the Georgia colony invited them to come. Charles got sick and went home early but John stayed about a year longer. Even though he started the first Anglican church in American, he did not consider his efforts successful. I had the honor of praying in that church!

John may have considered his journey a failure, but it triggered a spiritual renewal in his life. Once back home, a Moravian minister led him to the Lord. Soon John began preaching in the highways and byway of England and was part of a spiritual awakening there. In 1784 John ordained Thomas Coke, who Methodists then sent to American. I fully believe that had Susana not stopped and prayed so faithfully things would have worked out very differently in the livesof John and Charles.

We have had a number of spiritual awakenings in America. However, there were three historically recognized Spiritual Awakenings in early America: 1) The First Spiritual Awakening (1730-1755) that covered primarily the American Colonies; 2) The Second Spiritual Awakening (1790-1840) that spread across the nation existing at the time; and 3) The Third Spiritual Awakening (1857-1859) in New York City known as the Businessman’s Revival. It started as a
result of a noontime prayer meeting when a financial crisis was happening.

There have also been more modern-day revivals. A friend of mine was part of the Saskatoon in 1971. I was part of the awakening known as the Jesus Revolution. Many might be aware of his awakening because of the movie by that name. Although that movie focused on the California
awaking, it happened in other locations. Perhaps you know about one of the revivals that broke out on a college campus over the past few years. And, of course, there were awakenings recorded in the scriptures.
An evangelical awakening was defined by a man named Edwin Orr as, “a movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the church of Christ and its related community.” It often comes about as a result of prayer and in answer to great need.

So, are we willing to pull aside like Susana Wesley on a regular basis? Are we willing to pray on a regular basis for the children and young adults in our families, church and community? Are we
willing to ask God to lead us to our knees and beyond our doors for His sake? Do we believe
God is our refuge? Do we believe He is able and active in our world today?
In closing, I am reminded of the chorus of a song by the late Andrae Crouch wrote in the 1990’s.
Do you remember it?!
Jesus is the answer for our world today. Above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the way…