I got an amazing email this week from a woman who shared how a compliment on her necklace led to an opportunity to share the gospel with a stranger. It is evidence that God can use the tiniest little thing to open a door if we are willing to be obedient and "make the most" of the opportunity.

Here is her story...


How God used this necklace! On a short little roadtrip, I had stopped at a gas station in Alabama for some water bottles and candy for my kiddos. I quickly got what I needed and got back in my van and realized I had completely forgotten to buy water bottles. I had all the candy we needed for the short hour and half ride home to Springville, yet I was so absent minded to forget our water! Aggravated with myself, I went back in the gas station and purchased the water. The attendant was a sweet Indian lady with the signature mark on her forehead. She saw my necklace and commented on how pretty it was. She asked me if it was a symbol for something. I proceeded to take the necklace off and show it to her up close. "Ah it's a flower!" She said. I turned it over and showed her the Bible verse on the back Lamentations 3:22,23

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

I asked her if she was familiar with the Bible. She wasn't. I asked her if she practiced any type of faith and she informed me she was Hindu. She said she goes to a Hindu temple. I asked her if she had heard of Jesus Christ. She had not.
She had not!
In Alabama. Bible Belt central. She had not heard of Jesus Christ. Our merciful Father had opened a door for me to share the Gospel with this precious lady. There was someone in line behind me but I could not NOT share the good news of Jesus Christ with her! It is only by the grace of God that I can share this Gospel. I told her about sin and Jesus and the cross and His resurrection and Heaven and how we can do nothing to earn grace. So not only did she hear the Gospel, but so did the person behind me. :) I asked her name and told her I would pray for her. I got back in my van and told the kiddos we had to make one more stop. I found a store where I could purchase a copy of the Word of God for her to have. I drove back to the gas station, walked in and gave her the Bible, and showed her the book of John. I told her that was a good place to start reading, and she wrote it down on a sticky note and stuck it in the Bible. I learned that day that the fields around us are plenty and that we must be attentive to planting Gospel seeds. God used my forgetting to buy water and turned it around to bring the Living Water to a lost soul. All glory to Him. He used a necklace I purchased months ago for a sweet friends adoption fundraiser, and used it for so much more...to plant Gospel adoption seeds in a lost soul. My finite mind can only see a small bit of a much bigger picture that God is orchestrating in every detail of our lives!!!

This encouraged me and challenged me so much. I want to be this bold! 
Boldness, risk, and fearless faith have been themes in my Bible studies lately. How many opportunities have I missed because of fear? God is always working around us. HE prepares hearts. HE draws people to him. The Bible says no one comes to God unless HE DRAWS THEM (John 6:44) He does the work. All I have to do is be available, aware, and obedient. The Life-changing Bible study Experiencing God (Blackaby) points out that God is always at work around us. When someone ask us about God or about our faith, it is because God has already started something in their hearts. He is drawing them. In those situations we should drop everything and respond. Blackaby goes on to say that by showing us where he is already at work, God is inviting us to be involved and be used by Him. It's like a flashing neon sign that says "Start here".


So why am I not more bold? 

Idolatry. I, like many people, worship the approval of others. I thought about how I might have handled the same situation. In that gas station with the Hindu woman, I probably would have worried about making the guy behind me wait, or seeming pushy, or doing a bad job of presenting the gospel, or just making a scene. I may have given her my necklace and hoped she would google the verse when she got home but I probably would not have taken the time time to dig deeper, ask questions, and risk embarrassment. I probably would have missed the opportunity. Thank you God for drawing this to my attention...again.

Continuing to pray for boldness and opportunities.

P.S. When I asked if I could share this story, the sweet author of the email replied "yes, you are welcome to share this testimony wherever you would like, but please leave out my name so all glory will go to GOD for it is due Him!!

Glory to God!

Valentines Adoption Fundraisers Now Available

Valentine Day is right around the corner. Now is a great time to sell!
If you are trying to raise money for your adoption, email us about
our fundraising packages.
You don't pay for the pieces until after you sell them and you can
return any unsold pieces, so there is no risk.
We have worked with hundreds of families and ministries.
Email us at compelled@compelleddesigns.com for more information.

Like us on Facebook for Specials, updates, and new designs
 Compelled Designs
Visitit our website
www.compelleddesigns.com

Beads from Bolga

My sister, Rachael, brought back all these incredible beads from
Bolgatang, Ghana. They are handmade from melted down glass
bottles poured into molds. Below is a photo of one of the kilns at
the bead maker's workshop.

We have been having a blast making bracelets with the beads all week.
Here is a sample of some of the pieces that will be for sale at the Baba Boys
fundraiser on Thursday.

baba boys

New Africa Necklaces

A sweet adopting family that has sold several of our fundraiser bundles called and asked us to work on some Africa necklaces for an upcoming event. They are adopting from Ghana which holds a special place in my heart because my twin sister, Rachael, moved there in January (One week after her wedding). She and her hubby, Ben, are the new foster parents to 5 boys and one dog named Subaru.

Rachael and Ben were featured in B Metro Magazine!
You can read about them on their blog www.bababoys.org

So needless to say as I got to work on my friend's Ghana necklaces, I got carried away. I'v made over 20 designs and am still going. They are so fun to make! I'm slowly but surely getting them uploaded to the website, but here is a sneak peak...

See more designs at www.compelleddesigns.com/catalog/Africa-24-1.html

I didn't Know that I didn't Know

My family and I watched The Passion of The Christ a few nights ago. I saw it n the theater when it first came out, but I forgot. In my mind I lessened the suffering and the torture and what it really meant for Him to say "Father forgive them" as they hammered the nails in.

In honor of Christ sacrifice this Easter I want to make known what His forgiveness has meant to me. Here is my story or at least this is how it began. There is so much more that has happened since.

I didn't Know that I didn't Know

I grew up in church, the daughter of a minister and thought I was "saved" at a young age. Most of my life I thought of myself as "good". People had always told me I was good and even labeled me a "goody-goody". It wasn't until college, though, that God really changed my life, opened my eyes, and showed me the truth. I was living on my own, completely self-sufficient, working several jobs and going to class. I was enjoying being single. I worked days at a minor league baseball team and spent nights hanging out with friends, flirting, going out dancing or to see bands. I was arrogant, selfish, and full of pride. I bragged about everything. And even though I had so much going for me, it never felt like enough. I was constantly looking for the next thing to make me happy. I stayed so busy. When I went to church it was mostly out of routine until I finally stopped going all together. Then one day an old friend from my youth group days came back in town. We started dating. He was different from the crowd I had been running with and it felt good to be reminded of those days. Being around him and talking about God made my new life seem empty. One night, alone in my apartment, I picked up my guitar to play. I went through stacks of sheet music looking for a praise song to play. They had once been all praise songs, but now there was only one. So I picked up the song "Take My Life" by Third Day and played it. The words spoke to me and I stopped and said them to God as a prayer...

"How many times have I turned away?

The number is the same as the sand on the shore

But every time You've taken me back

And now, I pray You do it once more

Please, take from me my life

When I don't have the strength

To give it away to you"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP_uMWULQN0

Over the next few weeks God faithfully and gently answered that prayer. One by one all the things in my life that I was prideful about began falling away…My job, my plans for school, my group of friends, my roommate and close friend moved away, my health and self image. It was wierd how some of these things just came to an abrupt halt. Then finally my boyfriend ended our relationship. When he did, he pointed out some things about me that I knew were true. I was very easily angered. I snapped at the slightest offense.  I was full of myself.  God allowed me to experience a time of extreme loneliness I believe to focus my thoughts on him. I spent so much time praying. I realized that He was the only one who could fix my life, fix the things in me that were broken. That I NEEDED Him to make me different! Then one morning I went to my friend's wedding. They read the love chapter from 1 Corinthians 13

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

I had heard those verses many times, but this time I HEARD them. God brought to mind specific parts  of my life where I was not patient or kind. I was proud and angry. I had hurt or disregarded people. I realized I didn't have a single quality on the list. I didn't have love. I realized like a smack that I WASN"T good. Immediately I remembered a song I learned when I was little based on 1 John 4:7-8 that said "He that loves not, knows not God. For God is love." I realized I didn't know God. I couldn't stop crying. I had to leave the wedding early. I began reading the Bible, praying, searching with my whole heart.  My childhood salvation experience had nothing to do with repentance. But this time I was overcome by my own sinfulness and God's grace to love me anyway. I committed everything to Him and asked for forgiveness. I was asking God specific question and he was answering me with his Word. For the first time I experienced a back-and-forth relationship with God. God began speaking to me in themes. He was revealing my sins to me one by one and cleansing me. For a week everything I read was about anger. Every book I was reading spoke about anger. Every preacher preached about anger. And I felt convicted over specific instances and people I had hurt. I apologized to the people I needed to and I asked God to change me in this area. Then the theme of my Bible study changed to slander, then pride, then selfishness, etc I KNEW God was speaking specifically to me. 

The same verse kept coming up over and over in book, sermons, conversations. I began writing down every time it came up and the list just got longer and longer. The verse was Ephesians 3:20 "He is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine." This has become my Life's verse. I had made my own plans based on my own shallow and selfish desires. My goals were meaningless and self serving.  But God was calling me into an amazing adventure, giving me a new purpose and new desires and showing me that is has so much more for me and is able to do SO MUCH MORE than anything I could plan or comprehend.

 All my life I had thought I was saved. I thought I knew what a relationship with God was like. I didn't know that I didn't know. I was just doing what I saw everyone else at church doing. But I was bored. Reading my Bible and praying were boring to me because one-sided religion without  a real relationship with Christ IS boring. Hearing from Him is what makes it exciting! Everyone thought I was saved and so did I. I thought that if I went up front at church and prayed the prayer and just believed that I would be safe from Hell. I thought believing was enough. But it isn't enough! Even the devil believes that Jesus died and rose again. Jesus said to the disciples "Follow Me" and they got up and left everything. They committed everything to Him and they experienced amazing miracles. He ask us for the same. You cant just believe. You must also get up and follow Him. That means living your life for him. Committing it all and telling him he can use your life for His glory. It means that you don't just read and have a quiet time to check it off your list, but that you actually seek to KNOW him, that you ask Him for direction, that you ask questions and listen for His answers. I believe there are SO many people who think they are saved like I did. That they are missing so much. of what it is to know Him. The Bible says

"wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and MANY enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matt. 7:13-14)

It also says

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day MANY will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me (Matthew 7:21-23)

That means that there are MANY people who think they are saved like I did. They have the appearance of being saved and they are even doing good church work, but they don't know Christ personally. They aren't really following Him.

There were so many times in High School when I felt like there was something missing. I thought "is there really all there is? Shouldn't I be feeling something more?" I even wondered "What if God isn't real? What if there is no Heaven?" There were so many doubts.  But I have this great memory of this one day in college after I had become a true follower when God spoke to me in a specific way through something I had read in scripture that day. I KNEW I was having a conversation with God and I had this epiphany! I remember thinking "Oh my goodness I'm never going to have to feel that doubt again. Theres no question anymore. I know Him for myself and I'm experiencing Him for myself." So, If you are wondering too, stop right now and ask God for wisdom. This is the most important piece of advice I can offer. The Bible says God gives his wisdom freely to anyone who ask (James 1:5). So just ask Him for it. Ask Him to give you wisdom and spiritual understanding and start seeking to know Him. I can't begin to tell you what a difference He has made in my life! This new life is real and its exciting and fuflling. I don't ever want to go back to being distracted by stuff that doesn't last. There is nothing in the world like seeing God call you to do something, being obedient to what He ask, and watching amazing things happen! It is not always easy. There are ups and downs. But God is big and He is good and He is sovereign. I can't wait to see where He leads me next.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr-RvWSH9ng

A HEART FOR ORPHANS

The past couple of months have been so exciting  and crazy busy.  We have made some major changes around here and God is doing BIG things. I had been praying for a while that God would give me a new business model, a way to sell jewelry as more of a ministry than a business. Through a series of events and conversations with friends He gave us the idea to do adoption fundraisers. One morning, when the idea was still new, Matt (my husband) and I went to hear a guy speak on doing business as missions. Afterwords Matt told me he had been praying and that he felt like God was telling him to sell his business and that we were supposed to be doing the jewelry business together. It's pretty funny if you know my husband. He's a contractor who likes hunting, football, Nascar, and Duck Dynasty. But that is just God :) So we took a couple steps that felt like leaps and started moving in that direction. Since then we have had so much confirmation that God is leading this. He has continued to turn our hearts to orphan care in bigger ways. He has blessed the business like crazy. Orders are pouring in. And he keeps surprising us with the coolest connections to people and ministries that draw us deeper into His adventure and His work. One such connection is with a ministry we LOVE LOVE LOVE. Lifeline Childrens' Services. Not only do they facilitate adoptions, they partner with the foster care system here in town reaching out to the children, parents and workers. They help birth moms domestically and abroad. They have a ministry called (UN)adopted that helps orphans all over the world that either aren't available for adoption or are hoping to be adopted. They help the local churches in these countries start sustainable projects to help their own in their communities. And they advocate for children who need life saving surgeries who otherwise might not receive it. I was sitting at the Know More Orphans conference reading their brochure and one of the points on it really caught my attention. $1,000 can give a baby in China life-saving heart surgery. The same surgery over here in the U.S. could cost half a million dollars. Some of the surgeries cost more. Some cost less. But they are all so much more affordable than they are here. And they are all reachable goals. It's crazy to think that someone's child's life hangs in the balance over $1,000. Many children born with severe illnesses or defects are abandoned at orphanages because the parents are desperate to get them the help they can't afford. Matt and I couldn't stop thinking about it. So after meeting with friends at Lifeline we felt compelled to try to help fund at least one of these surgeries. So here it is...For the month of November 75% of the sales from heart necklaces at Rebekahblocher.com will go toward helping a precious child through Lifeline.

 

We are selling them in bundles too so you can take care of several gifts at once and save money.

I'll update this blog post on Monday with some more information about the kids awaiting surgery but I wanted to go ahead and get the word out. So please help us by posting on FB, tweeting, and pinning!

Journals for Preemies

I just finished my first journal for Footprints Ministry. I found a couple great hardback journals in the Dollar section at Michaels that are perfect for recovering with scrapbook paper. I wrote a couple verses throughout the inside on the cover and left a little blank spot for the new mommy to put her little one's name. This is a really fun project and a great way to support a cause that means so much to moms who have new babies in the NICU. This project is perfect for church groups, womens' groups, scrapbooking clubs, etc. I think it is also a fun thing to do with your kids to show them a tangible way to love others. Our next Footprints meeting is coming up soon so get them in as quick as you can. Thank you to everyone who is participating! Check out www.NICUfooutprints.org