GREAT is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable!
from "My Heart Stands in Awe of Your Word; Jane Hansen Reads her Favorite Scriptures" (paraphrased from NKJV)Buy the CD
Dear Ones,
There is something about picking blackberries that causes Kathy Sanders, U.S. Field Assistant, to have wonderful philosophical conversations with herself and gain insights from God. You may remember her “Berry Picking” letter from last year. She has shared with me another “lesson from the berries.” It is so good that I want to share it with you. Here are her words:
All year I looked forward to blackberry season. I had visions of huge buckets of juicy berries stacked all around. I could picture the Aglow staff gathering in the lunch room, enjoying the aroma of a cobbler baking, and waiting for the finished product. For many months I watched the blossoms fade and the green berries mature to a rich, purple hue., As I went out that Saturday in September to gather berries, you can imagine my surprise to discover that the berry patch wasn’t as friendly as it was last year. The vines were longer and the thorns sharper than I remembered. The berries weren’t as large either. In fact they looked shriveled. The more I picked the more I seemed to hear the berries speak to me. “Why did you stop picking so soon last year? We were here, waiting on you.” My reply was a little defensive as I thought, “I gathered all that I needed. There was no need to return. Besides, I knew you would be here this year.” As the thought of the berries being in the berry patch year after year rolled through my mind, I remembered something that happened during a planning session for the Worldwide Leaders Summit, to be held on Wednesday, November 16 at our Aglow Conference in Nashville. The leadership team was seated around the table in the conference room when Jane asked, “What would we want to say to our leaders if this was the last time we could talk to them?” Her voice broke with emotion and tears came to her eyes. It was a sobering thought to realize that there could come a day when it might be the last time we could talk face to face as the Aglow family. I counted on the berry patch being fruitful this year. I counted on the berries always being there for my leisurely visits. I didn’t think about droughts or hurricanes. Before December 26, 2004 I never considered what a tsunami was or the devastation one could bring. When I lived in the south, I didn’t think about earthquakes or volcanoes. I have lived life as though I will live forever. I haven’t thought about “what would I do if this were the last time….” God has called us as the Aglow family and He has entrusted into our hands mandates for the end times, yet I live as though the end times will come in someone else’s day, not mine. “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). My thought was to go to the berry patch this year and next year and the year after. I thought I had my berries forever. Now, there is even a sign on my berry patch that says new apartments are going to be built there. For these berries, their “ forever” has come to an end. Our world is in constant change and Aglow is positioned to deal with the change. A network of women covers the face of the earth in 164 nations. The ministery of Aglow has been positioned for end time work. You have heard Esther 4:14 quoted many times in the past 25 years, “Who knows but that you, Aglow, have come to royal position for such a time as this?” We must become a people of purpose, a people full of determination. We must be purposeful in our monthly meetings; purposeful in area retreats; purposeful in our regional events and in our conferences. We must be purposeful in our giving. You think you will invite your neighbor to the next monthly meeting. You think you will begin a new Lighthouse in a neighboring town. You think you will begin to give monthly. You think. Read 2 Peter 3. Since the last conference, the Aglow family has suffered a devastating tsunami. At the same time, Aglow has grown by 9 nations. We have seen the U.S. Gulf Coast ravaged by hurricanes that leave politicians and news reporters using the words, “devastation of Biblical proportions.” There have been fires in California; floods and mudslides in Guatemala and Mexico; earthquakes in Pakistan and India; terrorist attacks in London and Bali. Aglow women live and minister in all these nations. At the end of each year, a letter comes from headquarters asking you to give a year end gift. I’m asking you -- remembering the berries -- to make every gift you give to Aglow as if it were a year end gift. Who knows when it will be the last gift? Like my berry patch, we have no guarantee of tomorrow. I’m asking you to make a purposeful decision to give beyond measure each month. I’m asking you to take a leap of faith. After the tsunami, Aglow received disaster relief funds and distributed them to the leaders of the affected nations. Again, after Katrina the Aglow network sprang into action, gathering money for relief, sending and receiving calls and email, searching for news of our Aglow women in that area. By now, you have probably read Jane’s letter telling you about her October visit to our own Hurricane Katrina victims. To hear of Lighthouse presidents living in state parks in pop-up campers or by their washed out homes in tents or travel trailers makes our hearts long to be with them. We want to bring them a hot cup of coffee and a sandwich, to wipe away their tears and whisper in their ear that a better day will come and that until then we will stand with them as they find the place we call normal. To actually stand with them in their gutted homes, or beside the tents or travel trailers that are their current homes, is a sobering experience. You might be asking, what can I do to help? Pray. Give. Be purposeful in your giving. Don’t wait until a need arises. Give BEFORE the need arises. When money pours in to a designated fund, the giving to the worldwide fund often wanes. Without the worlwide fund being healthy, we have no funds to operate, no working funds to send to the national leaders, no funds to print materials and the list goes on. Did you know that 40% of McDonald’s profits come from the sale of happy meals? No gift is too small. No gift is too large. Each gift is needed for us to fulfill the mandates that God has entrusted to us in these end times. Will you take that leap of faith and give beyond measure? We are partners together, you and I, and you are loved more than you can imagine! - Kathy Sanders and your staff at the Worldwide Headquarters.
All year I looked forward to blackberry season. I had visions of huge buckets of juicy berries stacked all around. I could picture the Aglow staff gathering in the lunch room, enjoying the aroma of a cobbler baking, and waiting for the finished product.
For many months I watched the blossoms fade and the green berries mature to a rich, purple hue., As I went out that Saturday in September to gather berries, you can imagine my surprise to discover that the berry patch wasn’t as friendly as it was last year. The vines were longer and the thorns sharper than I remembered. The berries weren’t as large either. In fact they looked shriveled. The more I picked the more I seemed to hear the berries speak to me.
“Why did you stop picking so soon last year? We were here, waiting on you.” My reply was a little defensive as I thought, “I gathered all that I needed. There was no need to return. Besides, I knew you would be here this year.”
As the thought of the berries being in the berry patch year after year rolled through my mind, I remembered something that happened during a planning session for the Worldwide Leaders Summit, to be held on Wednesday, November 16 at our Aglow Conference in Nashville. The leadership team was seated around the table in the conference room when Jane asked, “What would we want to say to our leaders if this was the last time we could talk to them?” Her voice broke with emotion and tears came to her eyes. It was a sobering thought to realize that there could come a day when it might be the last time we could talk face to face as the Aglow family.
I counted on the berry patch being fruitful this year. I counted on the berries always being there for my leisurely visits. I didn’t think about droughts or hurricanes. Before December 26, 2004 I never considered what a tsunami was or the devastation one could bring. When I lived in the south, I didn’t think about earthquakes or volcanoes. I have lived life as though I will live forever. I haven’t thought about “what would I do if this were the last time….”
God has called us as the Aglow family and He has entrusted into our hands mandates for the end times, yet I live as though the end times will come in someone else’s day, not mine. “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).
My thought was to go to the berry patch this year and next year and the year after. I thought I had my berries forever. Now, there is even a sign on my berry patch that says new apartments are going to be built there. For these berries, their “ forever” has come to an end.
Our world is in constant change and Aglow is positioned to deal with the change. A network of women covers the face of the earth in 164 nations. The ministery of Aglow has been positioned for end time work. You have heard Esther 4:14 quoted many times in the past 25 years, “Who knows but that you, Aglow, have come to royal position for such a time as this?”
We must become a people of purpose, a people full of determination. We must be purposeful in our monthly meetings; purposeful in area retreats; purposeful in our regional events and in our conferences. We must be purposeful in our giving.
You think you will invite your neighbor to the next monthly meeting. You think you will begin a new Lighthouse in a neighboring town. You think you will begin to give monthly. You think. Read 2 Peter 3.
Since the last conference, the Aglow family has suffered a devastating tsunami. At the same time, Aglow has grown by 9 nations. We have seen the U.S. Gulf Coast ravaged by hurricanes that leave politicians and news reporters using the words, “devastation of Biblical proportions.” There have been fires in California; floods and mudslides in Guatemala and Mexico; earthquakes in Pakistan and India; terrorist attacks in London and Bali. Aglow women live and minister in all these nations.
At the end of each year, a letter comes from headquarters asking you to give a year end gift. I’m asking you -- remembering the berries -- to make every gift you give to Aglow as if it were a year end gift. Who knows when it will be the last gift? Like my berry patch, we have no guarantee of tomorrow. I’m asking you to make a purposeful decision to give beyond measure each month. I’m asking you to take a leap of faith.
After the tsunami, Aglow received disaster relief funds and distributed them to the leaders of the affected nations. Again, after Katrina the Aglow network sprang into action, gathering money for relief, sending and receiving calls and email, searching for news of our Aglow women in that area. By now, you have probably read Jane’s letter telling you about her October visit to our own Hurricane Katrina victims.
To hear of Lighthouse presidents living in state parks in pop-up campers or by their washed out homes in tents or travel trailers makes our hearts long to be with them. We want to bring them a hot cup of coffee and a sandwich, to wipe away their tears and whisper in their ear that a better day will come and that until then we will stand with them as they find the place we call normal.
To actually stand with them in their gutted homes, or beside the tents or travel trailers that are their current homes, is a sobering experience.
You might be asking, what can I do to help? Pray. Give. Be purposeful in your giving. Don’t wait until a need arises. Give BEFORE the need arises. When money pours in to a designated fund, the giving to the worldwide fund often wanes. Without the worlwide fund being healthy, we have no funds to operate, no working funds to send to the national leaders, no funds to print materials and the list goes on.
Did you know that 40% of McDonald’s profits come from the sale of happy meals? No gift is too small. No gift is too large. Each gift is needed for us to fulfill the mandates that God has entrusted to us in these end times. Will you take that leap of faith and give beyond measure?
We are partners together, you and I, and you are loved more than you can imagine!
- Kathy Sanders and your staff at the Worldwide Headquarters.
Love and blessings, Jane