Dear Above Rubies reader,
Blessings to you again as I keep you updated with the news of Above Rubies while you wait for your next issue, although I realize that some countries are only now receiving, or will soon to receive #71.
ABOVE RUBIES #72
I am working on #72 now. Pray for me as I prepare this next magazine that God will give me wisdom and anointing to know what He wants to go in this issue.
There are two subjects that many have requested they would like feedback on, so I am planning to print testimonies on these subjects in this coming issue. If you would like to share your experience regarding these subjects, could you please email me as soon as possible? Yes, as soon as you possibly can! Here they are:
FITTING A LARGER FAMILY IN A SMALL HOME
I know this is a real art. Many families are growing, but their homes are still small. What ideas have you found to fit every one in? You may have some wonderful ideas that you could share with others. Also, what about keeping your house in order in a small home with a growing family? Where do you keep everything? How do you eliminate clutter? I’d love to hear how you do it so I can share it with others.
This is the specialty of Above Rubies. It is like mothers sitting around a table together, sharing their ideas and helping one another with their challenges. I know your ideas are going to help so many mothers.
Please type LARGE FAMILY IN SMALL HOME in the subject heading.
WORSHIP IN THE HOME
What a blessing it is to fill our homes with worship? What ideas do you have for worship and singing praises to the Lord with your little children and your older children? I’ll look forward to hearing these ideas too.
Type WORSHIP in the subject heading.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SENDING TESTIMONIES
Type only one space between sentences.
At the end of your article please put the following information in this way:
YOUR NAME (in capital letters)
Use lower case for the following:
City, State, Country
Email
Name of husband and children and their ages in this format, e.g. Sam and Jane Wonder are blessed with Johnny (12), Jane (10) and Jennifer (7).
Send by email attachment to:
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Put the correct title in the subject heading. This is the only way I will pick it up. I get thousands of emails and it will get lost in the list unless you have the correct subject heading.
Thanks so much.
Oh by the way, I am always open to hearing fresh testimonies of what God is doing in your life as a wife and mother.
CANADA HAS NOT RECEIVED MAGAZINES
I am so very sorry dear Canadian readers, but you have not yet received your Above Rubies #71. They have been waiting at the Above Rubies headquarters in British Columbia since early June. Why have they not been sent out? Because there is no money to send them out! This is very sad as Canada is not a third world country. We should be getting enough donations to send out the magazines in Canada. Of course, I know that life is busy and we forget about such things.
So dear Canadian readers, if you have forgotten about this, and you feel in your heart to send in a donation, send it to:
BC AND WESTERN CANADA
Above Rubies, General Delivery, Grovedale, AB T0H 1X0
Or:
EASTERN CANADA
Above Rubies, PO Box 48006, R.P.O. Lakewood, WPG, MB R2J 4A3
ABOVE RUBIES IN AFRICA
We have just completed sending out the Above Rubies to Africa. I want to cry every time we package the African magazines. We have so many crying out for hundreds of magazines, some for thousands, but we could only send limited numbers. It costs us $10.10 to send only eight magazines! And we sent hundreds and hundreds of these packets!
ABOVE RUBIES SEMINARS FOR AUGUST
17 – 18 AUGUST, KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEEE
2926 Topside Rd. 37777 Louisville, TN (10 minutes south of Knoxville)
Friday evening, 5:00pm-8:30 pm and Saturday, 9:00am- 5:00pm
Dinner will be provided on Friday evening and lunch on Saturday. Registration is $30 and is due by August 10th to:
Kimberly Rivera, 1865 Stonebrook Drive, Knoxville, TN 37923.
For more details or information please feel free to call Kimberly at 865-769-9102 or email her at
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or call Jennifer Pierce at 865-539-6317.
24 – 26 AUGUST, CALIFORNIA
11th ANNUAL FAMILY and LADIES CAMP
Pine Valley Bible Conference Center, out from San Diego
Contact: Gary and Trish Evans, Ph: 951-681-4858
Email:
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UPDATE ON SERENE AND PEARL’S CDs.
Serene and Pearl have at last finished their Lullaby CD. Oh you are going to love it. It is too good for babies and little ones only. You will want to play it all day yourself. It will be advertised in the new magazine I am working on now.
Their recordings will hopefully escalate in the next few months. We have just purchased a small shed from the Amish people which we are fixing up for a studio. Up until now, their studio has been one of the bedrooms in Pearl’s home. This makes it very difficult as all children have to be out of the home when they are recording! When the new studio is ready, Charlie, Pearl’s husband, who is their producer, will be able to spend much more time on these projects. We are hoping that eventually he will be able to be full-time producing this wonderful family music.
Serene and Pearl have now written 10 new songs for the new album they are starting immediately. These are songs for husbands and wives. You’re going to love this CD too. And Charlie and two other guys have started laying down some tracks for the CD for fathers. These three men are wonderful fathers and anointed songwriters and musicians. We have so many exciting projects coming up. By the way, you will be interested to know that Pearl first met Charlie when he was producing the first album they recorded in Nashville.
FINANCIAL HELP FOR ADOPTING FAMILIES
From Donna Barber at GLOBAL ORPHAN OUTREACH
www.globalorphanoutreach.com
The adoption journey is filled with joy, excitement, anxiety, anticipation, and yes, sometimes financial stress. The adoption costs keep climbing more every year with average costs to adopt a child falling between $12,000-50,000.
We know that after spending countless hours doing your homestudy and putting together your dossier, that the process of researching and applying for adoption grants can be overwhelming and time consuming. Global Orphan Outreach exists to make it possible for loving families to be united with the aid of grants which make funds available for adoptions. We procure and submit grant applications on behalf of you, the prospective adoptive parent.
We can assist you with the applications for adoption grants. We will research which grants are best for you, apply and fill out all paperwork for those grants for you, have them ready for your signature, and have them ready to be mailed in pre-addressed envelopes (much like an accountant who prepares your taxes). This service is available for any family adopting internationally or domestically. A portion of our proceeds are donated to orphans worldwide.
I am an adoptive mom of five children, two domestic and three International. I also have five biological children. I have worked in the adoption field for five years, most of them with an International Adoption Agency. Through this, I was made aware of the many families needing help to navigate the adoption grants needed to finalize their adoptions. Our family was blessed with adoption grants and I know the importance of needing grant money to complete an adoption. I have invested much time into grant organizations and foundations that give funds for the purpose of adoption as well as other resources. I've traveled abroad to visit orphanages, included Acres of Hope, Liberia, from where we adopted our children. I have seen firsthand the need for loving homes for these children and have made a commitment to enhancing the lives of these children.
Global Orphan Outreach homes to help many families. Just last week we did an Ethiopian Convention and an agency contacted me after wards about the many Ethiopian families who want to adopt the children of their dead relatives due to them dying of Aids there. These Ethiopian families live in American and have to follow adoption laws here. Unfortunately for them, they also have to pay the same fees as Americans for the adoption of their nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandchildren. They were so disheartened and felt that only “rich” Americans could afford to adopt from their home country. While they are grateful for that, they so want to be able to afford to adopt as well. They were very excited to hear that there was an organization that could help that become a reality. We look forward to what this will mean for their families and for the beautiful children waiting in Ethiopia.
If you need any help with grants for your adoption from anywhere in the world, contact us:
Donna Barber or Jeanette Turbeville
W6126 Hraban Road, Tony, WI 54563
Phone 715.415.4401 or 715.749.3607
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Website: www.globalorphanoutreach.com
VALUABLE INFORMATION
From the Seng family,
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Greetings! Please watch and disseminate this 3 minute video explaining how the contraceptive pill works as an abortifacient. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiCU46_lWeE
TESTIMONY OF INFERTILITY
“Through the last six years or so I have had the opportunity to read a copy of Above Rubies, but I have never gotten past the first two or three articles before I have begun to weep and have had to put it down. I have tried many times, as I love the idea of being a stay at home mum, a home schooler, a godly wife and a faithful Christian witness, but as the Good Book says in Proverbs, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
My heart was sick. It seemed so many godly hopes had been deferred in the last six years. It started with pregnancy complications and eventual still birth of my precious son Elijah John on the 10th of September 2001.Two weeks earlier I had been admitted to the birthing unit with contractions five minutes apart. On checking, they established that my waters had broken and it was probable that I would give birth that night and that my baby would die.(I was only 24 weeks pregnant).
I prayed and laboured all that night and at 5am the next morning everything stopped! God had answered my desperate prayers and I was still holding onto my precious baby! Baby’s heartbeat was strong and I was well. The next day they moved me to a private room and sat back and waited for me to go back into labour. I didn’t. After the first week, the nurses started believing me when I said that God was going to save my baby and they better get prepared for a miracle. The nurses moved me to whichever room had a patient that needed cheering up and I spread the love of God wherever I could. I believed, without doubt, that my baby would survive, I had prayed and begged God, I had witnessed to everything that moved in the hospital and I was expecting a miracle.
It was a Sunday and the nurse came around to do my obs in the morning. She put a dopler on me but couldn’t find a heart beat, but said not to worry as the baby may just be in an odd position and that they would have another go at midday obs. Still no heart beat! She still said not to worry and that she would send the doctor in on the evening rounds with a better machine so that I could hear those comforting galloping horses.
The doctor came and he could not find a heart beat! He sent me down for an ultra sound. There was no heartbeat – just the lifeless little body of my cherished baby. I chose to be induced straight away. I wanted to hold and see my baby before he deteriorated too much in my womb. I was admitted into the birthing suite and was induced. My labour progressed and nine hours later I was the proud mum of a perfect darling stillborn son whom we named Elijah John.
I wish I could say that I sailed through the next few years after Elijah died without questioning God or feeling so grieved that I wanted to die, but it wouldn’t be true. I was in a great struggle. How could God who loves me, take my baby? I had believed with all my heart that my baby would live, I did not doubt for a moment. He still died! I will probably never know this side of heaven why that happened, but what I do know is that my God is a God of Love. He loves me, He promised to never leave me or forsake me and His promises stand true.
About three months after Elijah died, John and I decided we wanted to try again. We tried and we tried. Months turned into years, About two years on, I decided to see a specialist about my infertility. Both John and I were tested to see if they could find any problems. John’s tests came back clear and mine came back with a hormonal imbalance. We decided to take a course of Clomid which was supposed to increase my chances of falling pregnant. After the 6th course my hormone levels had not changed and I was not pregnant.
My specialist suggested that my next option was IVF. John and I looked into IVF but after many testimonies of couples who had spent thousands and thousands of dollars, came close to divorce and suffered medical side effects without ever successfully having a baby, I decided that IVF was not for me.
This bought up a whole new set of feelings. I felt ashamed. I felt like I had robbed my husband of the opportunity of having his own children. I felt like a second class woman. All of my friends were having babies, my sisters, my cousins. My church had a baby boom and we were left behind. Every time I picked up an Above Rubies the longing for my son and for more children was overwhelming. If a woman’s greatest calling is to be a mother, then how on earth could I expect to ever have a godly and good life. NO CHILDREN = NO MOTHERHOOD = NO BLESSING.
It was a typical day in my life. Once again I was in tears. It was Mothers Day and I was a mother but not a mother. It hurt. I cried out to God that it was too much to bear. I had reached the end of my tether. At that moment, God spoke into my heart and said, “If I do not give you any children will you still love me in 10 years time? Will you still be a Christian? Will you still serve me?”
My immediate answer was, “Of course I will, I know the truth. I can hope in nothing else for my salvation.”
I then felt God say to me, “Then why are you acting like you won’t love me or serve me if I don’t give you any children right now?” It was a wake up call. I was trying to manipulate God with my grief; I was trying to convince Him that if he didn’t give me children and I fell away that it would be His fault. Yet God in His longsuffering convicted my heart and was faithful to hear my repentant prayer and start me on a healing journey.
My attitude changed and my marriage changed. My joy came back. I regained my sense of humour. God showed me some of the great character building he had been doing in my heart. My empathy and compassion for others grew. I began to witness with more gusto and I yearned to be a better wife and friend. God showed me the truth that my worth was not based in riches, beauty, fame or how many children I had, but by the price that He paid for me on the cross at Calvary.
In September 2006 John and I were talking to some friends when they mentioned that they had begun training to be Barnardos foster carers. We had considered foster caring earlier but had decided we would be unable to cope with having to give anymore children back. They went on to tell us of a special program in Barnardos called the Find a Family Program. This program is used to find long term carers and ultimately adoptive parents for hard-to-place children. We talked it over that night and decided we would be willing to make enquiries.
We began our training and qualifying process straight away. In June of 2007 we got a call to say that we had been matched with a sibling group of three children and would we be interested? We said yes and a meeting was arranged to view their family history and profile and make a decision if we would be willing to proceed. The court had ordered that these children were to be placed with a childless couple who would be willing to go forward to adoption if the opportunity arose. That was us!
When we first saw the pictures of our soon-to-be-babies I was overwhelmed. They were so beautiful - a girl aged five years, a boy aged three years and another little girl who had just turned one! Triple blessing!
We are now in the last stages of the process of receiving our children. We have moved to a larger home to accommodate our new arrivals and I am busy preparing everything ready for their arrival. Many people think we are crazy to give up an easy life with no children to worry about, but they don’t know the heartache of facing a future with no children.
I am off to dig out my aprons, move my cutlery down a drawer so my five year old can help me set the table, look into homeschooling options and all those other great ideas given in Above Rubies. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the faithful testimony you shout through your magazine, that OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!
HEATHER MANDICH
Albion Park Rail, NSW, Australia
email:
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Many, many blessings to you and your husband and precious family. Don’t forget to pray for me as I continue preparing the new magazine, and hopefully it won’t be too long before it arrives in your letterbox.
Love from NANCY CAMPBELL