Marsha's Blog

 Good morning! I’m sure you already know this, but I came across this word, "Gaslighting" lately. I’ve heard it, but never had given it much thought. Now that I have, I think I may be a victim. When I asked Google, this is what she had to say (she tried to write this blog for me, but I told her gently and firmly to back off).  Anyway, determined to continue on my own, here's what I learned. Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse or manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in the victim's mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to gain power and control over the other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition. Does that sound familiar? I was thinking to myself, "This is a new thing"…  but wait, wasn't maybe Eve the first victim of gaslighting when Satan said, or should I say 'suggested' that she might be missing out on a fuller life by being 'restricted...

 Thank you for all your kind comments about my blog last week.   Unfortunately, the 'boy' I wrote about had a bad seizure which resulted in a head injury and a trip to the hospital. But he is recovering and appreciating your prayers. Poor kid, but grateful for lots of loved ones.   And, if you've seen the news, you may have noticed that the volcano I was watching over my shoulder while we were there has finally blown up! No injuries reported, and so far, no major lava flows. Last week, I asked you to pray for the people in Hawaii who struggle with their ideas of Pele, the goddess of Hawaiian volcanos. There seems to be a strong reluctance to interfere with her, and especially with her lava flows.  However, I read yesterday that German geologists have discovered that most Hawaiian lava is rich in gold deposits. This may help them lay aside their superstitions! Stay tuned …. Because I'm still sore (WHEN is she going to stop whining about her ribs?), I had a '...

Good morning to all you faithful readers out there!   I'm happy to report that we are well and truly HOME now. I realized as we meet our friends here, that they don't trust us to stay put for long.  The common greeting is not, "Oh! Glad you're back!" but often includes a more cautious, "How long are you here this time?" I was getting chided by someone who means well this morning, when I heard myself rising in defence.  "It's what we do.  When Tony's teaching and preaching, in the words of Eric Liddel from the movie, ‘Chariots of Fire’, we ‘feel God’s pleasure’.  And sometimes we need to seek far and wide for those opportunities."  Another reason we enjoy traveling is that we get to meet so many interesting people with whom we might not otherwise have crossed paths.   Today I'd like to mention some folks we just met who really are making a difference.   First of all, you may remember when I wrote about our friend Abe san in Japan who...

I don’t remember a time when ‘home’ looked as good as it did a few days ago.  Maybe it was the 29 hr ‘cheap’ flight I’d found that took us from Hawaii thru Japan before we got home to Australia, I don’t know.   Last year, we made a 4-month doin’ our thang journey, which resulted in the decision that next time we’d pull it back a notch or two.  So when it came time to gear up for this year’s discipleship workshop in Hawaii, we managed to hone it down to 40 days, squeezing in a cruise, seven flights, two car rentals, and in a bold austerity move, made use of Honolulu’s trolley system in order to get around town (with only a few cries for help to our local friends who have a car.  Now we’re thinking we may go back to the 4-month idea, with scheduled times to stop and smell the pineapple and macadamia nuts.  I have to admit this trip was hard in some ways. Tony broke his little toe and then he got food poisoning.  Then I took that swan dive on the mountain...

 Well, in the words of the writing workshop that I just led yesterday, let me introduce you to the use of “the hook’. Borrowing from a famous author, I could describe this last week as “the best of times; the worst of times”. Makes you want to keep reading eh?   Last Sunday, as you were reading my blog, my sister and I were enjoying a sunny little hike to a lookout in Kauai, Hawaii.  She, husband and son joined us for a few days before we did Tony’s Discipleship (Anagaion) conference here, at the invitation of Puna Baptist Church on the Big Island of Hawaii this weekend. The trail was not difficult.  It was listed as having “roots and being occasionally muddy”…  no sweat for a 75 and 81 yr old.  After all, we grew up in Colorado, this was a walk in the park.  So being the always trailing behind younger sister, I ‘helped’ her by giving her a hand thru a steep and a bit roughish patch, and she carried on. Then I began then to wobble …… and weave……an...

 Here we are, still in Hawaii and with hearts full as we see and experience the generosity and commitment of all of the fellow labourers we work with here.   Tony read to me out of Oswald’s “My Utmost for His Highest” this morning, it touched a nerve in me.  Here’s what Oswald had to say:  “Some of us always want to be illuminated saints with golden haloes and the flush of inspiration, and to have the saints of God dealing with us all the time. A gilt-edged saint is no good, he is abnormal, unfit for daily life and altogether unlike God.”   Wow…   That was my reaction this morning. “Wow”; and “Oh yeah, I can relate to THAT, up close and personal”. I’ve told most of you this story before, but lest I still have some glitter that needs knocking off, let me share it with you again.  So we were working in a Japanese church in Sydney.  As with any church, there were some people in the congregation that, well, let’s just say we didn’t ‘res...