Astonishment

Dear Friends,

    On Friday afternoon I sent an update telling about my vision of  forming a Friends of South Shore Ministries Fellowship, and then went immediately to my office to meet with someone who was stopping in for a visit.  At the conclusion of our visit, the women said, “I  want to tell you about this vision that I have that I am hoping can get started.”  She then went on to say that she wants to start getting groups of people together to come be a support system for South Shore Ministries, as well as come to the new store for mini seminars, every so often, perhaps on a Saturday late afternoon, or early evening.  She said she has a group of about 25 people to start this endeavor.  At first I thought her vision was in response to the email I had just sent out, but then I realized that she would not have had time to read it, and she, had, in fact not had time to read the email.  She told me she already had in mind when she wanted this group to meet for the first time, the first week in December.  So it looks like the Lord has already prepared the hearts of the people to get the Friends of South Shore Ministries Fellowship started.

    Yesterday, the person who is going to manage the Pleasantville store wondered where we could get a truck for pickups, etc., when we get into the new store.  Today, someone, who did not know about our truck concern, told me they have a truck and that it is available for our use whenever we need it, and that person is willing to even drive it for us.

    The next concern was how we were going to fill up that huge store in time for a Grand Opening in October.

Today, on my email, someone said they have a BARN filled with thrift store items, . that they now need to get rid of, and wondered if we could use what they have, telling me they have the trucks and the drivers who can get the merchandise to our new location. 

    So, it looks like, now that we got the definite word that we will be getting the new location, that things are moving forward rapidly.  A store supplies catalog even came in the mail today.  A fast glance through it made me realize that we need to get clothing racks, shelving units, pricing guns, hangers, cash register, telephones, signs made up, etc., etc, etc., etc.,  We made up our first COMING SOON flyer to give out to our present customers, so people can start looking forward to our Grand Opening. 

    Your continued prayers are much appreciated.

Thank you for your prayers,

With LOVE from,

Sandi

Wake-up Call

Dear Friends,

    It is now two years since that September morning when I woke up and discovered the lump that changed my life.  The diagnosis that came three months later, of course, served as a wake-up call to changes that needed to be made in my life, as well as to the reality that life on this earth does not go on forever.  So, as those of you who have been receiving these updates all along know, I have been working diligently to make the essential changes in my life.

    Part of the Healthy Living Program that developed out of this process included dealing with any unresolved conflict.  I have probably driven a lot of people crazy, as I worked my way through issues, but it has been great to learn how to get rid of all inner conflict, and how to now not allow any upset to linger in my heart and mind and spirit, when the resolution is as simple as obeying the Go and Tell (not Go and Yell) mandate given in Matthew 18:25, when someone offends me, or sins against me, before the sun goes down, as mandated in Ephesians 4:26, so that satan is not able to get a hold of the situation, as Ephesians 4:27 says will happen,  and turn it into ongoing hurt, anger, bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, which only serves to have my life led by satan, when my desire is to have my life led by the Holy Spirit.  And if I know I have offended, or sinned against another person, for me to go to them and apologize, and ask them if they will forgive me, and listen carefully for their answer, and for me to make any necessary changes or restitution. I am not responsible for how the person responds, but rather to just honestly do my part to bring about resolution. Sometimes people assume that other people know they have offended them, and therefore, hold them and themselves in bondage, waiting for them to change, when all along they are oblivious to the fact that their words or actions have caused upset, because the upset person never told them.  Or a persona is upset with another person, but never tells them, and thus holds the person and themselves in bondage waiting for them to come apologize for something that have not even realized caused an upset. 

    The other area of my life that needed to be handled, was to make arrangements for the ministry that the Lord entrusted to me to be able to continue,   when I am no longer able to continue on this earth.  With us finally getting a large enough location to accommodate all facets of the ministry, we will now be able to take the necessary steps to develop a Friends of South Shore Ministries Fellowship, supported by people who will be willing to help in the various ways needed to keep the ministry going.  For all of this I am very grateful. 

Your prayers through these challenging two years have been very much appreciated.

Thank you for your continued prayers,

With LOVE from,

Sandi

A New Store

Dear Friends,

    Today, Thursday, September 10, 2009,  I met with the owner of the Sid Brooks Furniture store building.  I asked him if we could move in and have the first month rent free, then pay month-to-month for the next three months. Then,  if everything works out, to negotiate a contract to purchase it, if that is God’s Will for this ministry.  I also asked if we could pay $4,000 a month for the 14,000 square foot building for those three months.  To my delight, and to the delight of the real estate person who was with me, the answers that we got were Yes!  Yes! Yes! and Yes! 

      Now, the way this happen was that I greeted the owner, who I never met before, and asked him if he knew Jim Barnard.  He got a GREAT BIG SMILE on his face, and said YES! I grew up with him.  I’ve known him since we were kids!  From that moment on, I sensed in my spirit that everything was going to go as I needed it to go, so this DREAM STORE would be ours, with us having no money to put anything down for security deposit or first month’s rent. Of course, I let everyone know that this meeting would be taking place at 3:30 PM, so I knew that many people were praying for God’s Will to prevail.   I am so happy.  I am happy that we are going to be back in Pleasantville where the need is great for our kind of ministry, and that we are finally going to have the kind of space that we need to handle all facets of the ministry properly.

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to all you who prayed for us today.  And thank you to Jim Barnard for being who you are, thus immediately giving us favor in the heart of our future landlord.

    The other good news is that last night we put the announcement on our website: www.spiritualrenewal.com  inviting people to chip in $5 or $10 or more dollars so we can get the clothing racks, display counters, shelving etc. to get the store up and running.  Two people have donated through the website so far, and someone else came into the Northfield store to make a donation.  Your prayers that we get all the up front money that we will need, in a timely manner,  to get this store up and running by October 1, are much appreciated.  We will send a receipt to all those who donate to the Chip In fund through the website.

    As all of you know, I have been praying for something to happen, so this ministry can keep going when I am no longer able to keep going.  I now have the assurance that, with the help that we have for the new store, and with having the store being big enough to work comfortably in it, the ministry will be able to keep going.

Thank you so very much for your prayers and your support and your encouragement,

With LOVE from,

Sandi

Be careful who you listen to

A couple of days ago, I wrote about Gossip, and how lethal it is.  Today I would like to address the issue of being swayed against another person based on the Gossip that I hear from someone.  How am I to know if the “warning” against another person is to be heeded or dismissed as Gossip?  Since Gossip serves no usual purpose, other than to tear down another person, it is first of all good to always be asking the Lord to not allow myself  to be deluded or deceived by the words that someone tells me against another person.  When I am  truly endeavoring to hear from the Lord, and am quiet enough in my spirit to hear from Him, He will prick my spirit, if what I am hearing is Gossip from someone that should be disregarded.  Gossip can only be safely carried forth to GOSSIPERS, in order for it to be Gossip.  So, if I don’t feed into the Gossip that someone is telling me against another person,  their words will serve no useful purpose for me, thus they can easily be dismissed, causing no harm to the talebearer, to me,  or to the one who is being talked against.  When someone is telling me something against another person, I listen carefully to detect their motivation for telling me what they are telling me.  Is it for the purpose of sharing information, so that person can be helped, or is it a warning that the person they are talking against might  potentially cause me some kind of harm.  If I purpose in my heart to not feed into gossip, that will keep my heart and mind and spirit open to the one being talked against, so I can get to know them from my own personal perspective, unclouded by any gossip  I have fed into.  WhenI feed into gossip, I take sides with the Gossiper against the one they are gossiping to me about.  Then when I try to interact with the one I have taken sides against, I am put in the position of “betraying” the one I  have allowed to feed me gossip.  That puts me in the position of having to choose between having a relationship with one person or the other, when the Lord would want me to be free to interact with everyone.  That is why gossip is so lethal.  That is why the best thing I can do for myself  is to make the decision to not allow myself to feed into gossip.  I keep in mind that if someone is talking to me about another person, that the day will come when they will be talking about me to yet another person.  That is what gossipers do.

Fresh Air

What has gone by the wayside, as I am reconfiguring my life because of the change in my husband’s life, is getting sufficient fresh air and sunshine.  My husband is not as inclined to go for walks like he was in the past, so I have to work out a strategy that will get the walks in, without a walk being planned.  For example, last night we went to a concert in Ocean City.  We could have parked near the Music Pier, but what we did was park six or eight blocks away, so we had a good walk before and after the concert.

Gossip

 I wrote about the topic of gossip a few years ago, and got such a great response, with people telling me how helpful it was for them, that I thought I would get my blog reactivated with that topic.  GOSSIP is when you are talking about the down side of another person, saying negative things about them, when they are not present to explain themselves or to defend themselves.  The GOSSIP serves no useful purpose other than to tear down another person.  God’s Word, however, tells us to dwell on that which is praiseworthy in another person.  Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to focus or dwell on the not-so-praiseworthy attributes of another person.  When we focus on the praiseworthy attributes of another person we are serving God.  When we focus on the not-so-praiseworthy attributes in another person, we are serving satan. Gossip is demonic.  Gossip holds people in bondage to satan. 

As I prepared to get back to blogging, I reviewed where I left off.  I realized that I stopped blogging  around the time of my surgery in November 2007.  So, I never got to share on this blog that I received the diagnosesof breast cancer on December 6, 2007.  I opted not to go through traditional treatment, but rather to start a green leafy vegetable juicing program, and to check my lifestyle and my eating habits.  I kept a diary of the process I went through, which I plan to now input into this blog for the benefit of anyone else who would want to follow the Healthy Living Plan that was developed out of my decision.  It is a ten-step plan that includes nutrition, hydration, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, conflict resolution, spiritual growth, life long learning, stress reduction, and music.

September 1, 2009

Dear Friends,

I am back from my trip to Colorado, refreshed

and invigorated for the next phase of my life. 

The best thing for me to do now is to post on

this blog, the updates that I sent to my prayer

supporters while I was on the trip,  and when

I got back last night.

So those of you who have already read my

Update might want to start reading this

blog starting on Wednesday, 9/2/09.

Getting Back on Track

Dear Friends,

Before I started this blog, I checked to see where

I left off.  As I am typing this I still don’t know

if I am doing this correctly, so I will publish

this to see how it goes/

Getting back to Blogging

Today is 9/01/09. I plan to get back to blogging starting today, but wanted to use QuckPress just to see how this works

Trip to New York

Dear Friends:
I am feeling much better. We made the trip to New York and back without me even having to take one pain pill. One of the people we met in New York was a relative-in-law that we did not know we had, whose son plays as the kicker on the Holy Spirit football team. His last name is Farrell.
When we got home last night (Saturday) I felt well enough that I thought perhaps I would also feel well enough to go to church, so, just in case I could make it, I practiced two of the praise songs on the clarinet that were scheduled to be played by the church praise orchestra (I always wanted to play in a church orchestra, so I call the group at our church a praise orchestra instead of a praise band. )
One of my resolutions for when my life gets back to normal is to resume some aspects of my life to how it was many years ago, before I had the setback of the brainstem injury. Basically, I want to factor routine chores that others have been doing for me for all these years, which means going to bed earlier and getting up earlier to get everything done, etc. Someone told me at the very beginning of this present dilemma to live my usual life to the best of my ability during the “waiting-for-information time”, so I went to bed early to make certain that, if I did feel well enough to go to church, I could start that new plan immediately.
What a surprise it was for me when I woke up Sunday to the phone ringing at 9:20 AM with someone offering me a ride to church. 9:20! Yikes! So, with no time to even think about how I was feeling, I scrambled out of bed, got ready, and was out the door by 9:35… with not one single chore even thought about.
When I got to church, plans were being worked on for how music would be provided in view of the fact that for the first time that I can ever remember, we did not have an organist, a pianist or a substitute for either one. So the praise orchestra became the music, with a fast run through of the hymns, the doxology, then deciding on and practicing an offeratory and a prelude. But we did it.
I hope to start my chore plans tomorrow.
I continue to enjoy peace that passes all understanding. The way I like to describe it is to think of a cork sitting in the bottom of an empty glass. That cork represents peace in my life, when everything is going well. When this dilemma began, I went through a bit of time where my peace was disrupted. When I reached out and asked for prayer, the prayers were like water being poured into that glass, which caused the cork to rise and float gently on the top of the glass of water. Ever since I asked for prayers, that is how it has been for me, except for the night when I drank hot chocolate immediately before going to sleep. Nothing distressing that I hear or read while I wait for the results has been able to disturb that peace. Your prayers continue to be MUCH APPRECIATED.
Thank you for your prayers.
With LOVE from,
Sandi Cleary

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