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Falling Into Place–A Story of Overcoming

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Nez Perce, Author: Falling Into Place
Nez Perce, Author: Falling Into Place

For someone on the outside looking in, she had it all. Beauty, notoriety, influence, financial security. Millions of people regularly watched her news reports on the national TV show, CBS This Morning. She had won several Emmy Awards for her outstanding work, rubbed shoulders with Presidents, First Ladies, Actors and Musicians and covered human interest stories from wildfires to crimes. However, when her husband of seventeen years unexpectedly asked for a divorce, she was thrown into a deep emotional crisis, questioning her identity and value.

Growing up in poverty in Seattle’s “projects,” as the daughter of a Nez Perce woman and a German and Dutch father, she remembers her parents struggle with alcohol, neglect, hunger, and going without electricity and water. The rare times when she

and her siblings got to go back to Idaho to see their grandparents, were like an oasis for a thirsty traveler. There she experiencedbook-cover unconditional love, plenty to eat, comfy beds, forests to explore and rivers to swim. Another light during dark days was her Aunt Teddy, who deeply cared for her and her siblings. She would shower them with attention, take them on little discursions, and encourage them to memorize words from the Bible, such as the 23rd Psalm. Although the words didn’t make much sense to her at the time, somehow, her current crisis brought them back. She began to meditate on them and find encouragement and strength. As she reflected on her childhood and the seemingly random experiences she had made while covering news stories, she began to see a pattern emerge that showed her that God had always been near. One night while covering the Oscars Awards show in Hollywood, she felt drawn to a church near the auditorium and experienced a profound touch by God, coming to her rescue, blessing her in a powerful way.

By now you might have figured out that I am talking about Mrs. Hattie Kauffman. She has been telling her story in a newly released book entitled “Falling into Place—a Memoir of Overcoming.” During a promotional interview she was asked: “Did you find God or did God find you?” Hattie stated:

“God didn’t have to find me… He knew where I was all the time. He knew that I was a hungry girl, trying to control her world, scrambling to get somewhere and be someone. It was only when I was so broken in spirit that I could no longer even pretend to be in control…that I looked upward. God? Are you real?”

I hope you take the time to read Hattie’s insightful, deeply moving story, but even more importantly that you to realize God is there for you too, right now, waiting for you to respond to his extended hand.

From Desparation To Freedom

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By Donna Ireland, Lumbee and African American. We are grateful for Donna’s permission to post her hopeful journey from despair to freedom in Creator’s Son Jesus. (Donna is preparing to complete a Crossroads Discipleship Training School at YWAM Tyler, TX and feels called to serve among Native people)

Donna-Ireland-Son
Donna Ireland with Son Emmanuel

My name is Donna. I am 39 years old and I have a seventeen-year-old son. When I was 6 weeks old a loving Christian couple adopted me. I am half African American and half Native American. My parents are Caucasian. My parents adopted a boy from South America and they have a biological son. My family went to church every Sunday. We went on family vacations.

On the outside my family appeared great. On the inside we were not great. My dad struggled with alcoholism. He was a great provider but he was hard to live with. When I was in middle school the most important thing to me was fitting in with the crowd. I felt different then other kids, I felt a void in my life. In my early teens I thought I found where I belonged. I found a crowd that smoked marijuana, cigarettes and drank alcohol. We hated life and authority. I rebelled against my parents and God. I cursed my mother out daily. I thought I was invincible. I was angry at my birth parents and took it out on any one who tried to love me. I had cool friends. I went to all the keg parties and I fit in.

I didn’t know than that a lifestyle of partying would turn into a life lived in desperation. I became desperate for a drink, desperate to get high, and desperate for someone to love me. My spirit was desperate for Jesus. He was calling me, but I was to busy being desperate for the wrong things to hear his voice.

When I was 22 I gave birth to a son. I wasn’t married. I thought having a baby might fill the emptiness I felt. My addictions took the place of my son. My parents adopted him after the state took my parental rights away from me. During this time my father quit drinking and rededicated his life to Jesus. I should have followed his lead but instead I made the streets my home. I slept behind dumpsters, in bushes, and at stranger’s houses. I smoked crack every day. I drank beer from the time I woke up until I went to sleep. I would stay awake for days. I lived like this for about four years. My parents lived a few miles away from me, but I didn’t think I had a problem and I liked the way I was living. My parents finally convinced me to enter into a detox center. I weighed 90 pounds. I was so weak that I was in a wheel chair the first few days. After detox I went into a one-year faith based rehabilitation center.

It was there that I found my healer and my Savior. I found what was missing in me all along. His name is Jesus Christ. I surrendered my life and my will to Jesus. When I surrendered to Jesus he forgave me for all that I did. I am a new creation today. I graduated Bible School. I have worked in full time addiction ministry. I am healthy. God is working on my relationship with my son. My relationship with my parents has been completely restored.

Jesus has done amazing things in my life within five years. If he can do these things for me imagine what he can do for you. Jesus has a plan for you. There is hope for everyone. I pray that you will surrender your life to Jesus and receive the wonderful plans he has just for you.

I did awful things in my addiction and God forgave me. When I surrendered my life to Jesus he wiped away all my sins.

No matter what you’ve done or where you come from you are beautiful in God’s eyes. You are important and you deserve an abundant life in Jesus. Jesus has a glorious plan waiting for you. He’s just waiting for you to call on him.

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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ibreezeentertThis question was posed by Rodney King (African-American), who had been  severely beaten and mistreated by his arresting Police Officers (White), as was widely broadcast  on the News. The failure of the courts to bring about justice by convicting the perpetrating officers later sparked the infamous Los Angeles Riots.

In a time, when racial tension is flaring up like never before, this question  is an important one to ask. It is Black against White, White against Native American, Hispanic against Black, Asian against Black and Hispanic etc.  The year 1995 has been declared the International Year of Tolerance.

Isn’t it interesting that those who proclaim the value of tolerance most fervently stop short of abiding by it? They announce: Intolerance is unacceptable! To everyone’s dismay, intolerance seems to be more prevalent then ever. Is tolerance the answer? Is there really a simple answer at all to the racial question?In my opinion, the answer is No, we can’t just get along! Yet a positive answer to the question of peaceful co-existence of people of all races and backgrounds is possible if we look beyond ourselves.

We first have to realize that we are all of equal value to God who created and therefore wanted different people groups with their own cultural traits. It seems that each culture has certain strength’s (gifts) and weaknesses. From a biblical perspective, all people, all human beings are not only created in God’s image, (Genesis 1: 26-27; Genesis 9:6) their lives are also all stained by sin. (Psalm 53:2-3; Romans 3:23;) We all fall short of God’s standard.

Any person can be changed by sincerely repenting and receiving forgiveness, granted by God, because His Son Jesus carried our sins and the just penalty for them on the cruel cross. (John 3:16-17; Romans 6:23) The one receiving this new life should also be aware of the tremendous value that God placed on every single human being. It is expressed in the fact how much God paid for us. He did not pay with riches measurable in Dollars and Cents, but by giving His only Son, Jesus. That is how valuable we are to Him. One who has received forgiveness is commanded to forgive others also, realizing that the forgiveness he has received is by far greater than what he might have to forgive his neighbor for.

As we realize this we need to make an effort to extend grace to others, even if their actions are less than desirable.

We need to make an effort in trying to understand why the other person is reacting in this way. We need to feel and share in carrying their pain. This includes looking at historical events, that are all to often brushed off as happened a long time ago. Do we really understand what it means to be held as a piece of property, being bought and sold at will by an arbitrary owner. Do we really understand the pain that a Native American might feel about massacred beloved ancestors, land stolen from them, broken promises, and crude and untrue stereotypes being applied to all of them. Their wounds are real, no amount of tolerance alone can take care of those. “Time heals all wounds” is not only a false but cruel figure of speech. A festering wound left alone will not heal by itself, it will only get worse.

When will we tend to our neighbors wounds and seek healing for them, instead of having only quick answers? When will we look beyond behavior that is often only the outflow of things gone wrong and touch the hurting soul underneath instead of adding to their insult and  isolation by placing blame on them? Jesus himself gave us a perfect example. He showed  us how we should live, by being completely “other’s-centered.” This “Jesus-Brand-Christianity” is lived out by considering others more than ourselves. Jesus told us that the most important things for us to remember and do are to:

  • Love God, because He first loved us and showed His love by giving Jesus.
  • Love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

If we follow these simple yet profound commands we will get along with each other and much more, we will start to appreciate one another, differences and all, and begin seeing that we all need and complement each other with our giftings and abilities.

© 1995 Volkhard Graf, YWAM Native Ministries
(Permission to reproduce this material is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for non-commercial purposes, will not be sold, and will be distributed for the sole purpose of expanding the Gospel.)

Who Do YOU Say Jesus Is?

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Paul and Colin found themselves next to each other on a flight from Denver to Boston. Their conversation quickly got to the “so what do you do?” question. Colin was fascinated to meet Paul, a real-life pastor in a Bible-believing church. Soon they started talking about truth.

Colin assumed that all religions are equally valid and that contradictions between the different belief systems are fully acceptable, because to him absolute truth does not exist. To him, exclusive truth about Jesus was a result of a rationalistic Western worldview. In contrast, Paul pointed out that the idea of one God and exclusive truth came from Middle Eastern thinking:

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Jesus, The Only Way?

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I am the Light
I am the Light

Jesus The Only Way?

“How incredibly arrogant of you Christians to say that the only way to God is through Jesus Christ!”

This objection is raised most often against Jesus’ statement: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father (God) except through me” (John 14:6) Critics have called it: “Absurd religious chauvinism”, “spiritual dictatorship”, and “an insufferable presumption of the Bible”. In our current culture of relativism, where no fact is considered universally true at all times, for all people and in all cultures, the exclusivity claim of Jesus is among the biggest obstacles to spiritual seekers.

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