A Proverbs 31 Woman

I'm thinking of my mother today, who went home to be with the Lord eight years ago...she was a Proverbs 31 woman.  How I love her...how I miss her!  This is the woman of God I wish to become...

The Virtuous Wife

    ¹⁰ Who can find a virtuous wife?
      For her worth is far above rubies.
       ¹¹ The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
      So he will have no lack of gain.
       ¹² She does him good and not evil  is
      All the days of her life.
       ¹³ She seeks wool and flax,
      And willingly works with her hands.
       ¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
      She brings her food from afar.
       ¹⁵ She also rises while it is yet night,
      And provides food for her household,
      And a portion for her maidservants.
       ¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
      From her profits she plants a vineyard.
       ¹⁷ She girds herself with strength,
      And strengthens her arms.
       ¹⁸ She perceives that her merchandise is good,
      And her lamp does not go out by night.
       ¹⁹ She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
      And her hand holds the spindle.
       ²⁰ She extends her hand to the poor,
      Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
       ²¹ She is not afraid of snow for her household,
      For all her household is clothed with scarlet.
       ²² She makes tapestry for herself;
      Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
       ²³ Her husband is known in the gates,
      When he sits among the elders of the land.
       ²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
      And supplies sashes for the merchants.
       ²⁵ Strength and honor are her clothing;
      She shall rejoice in time to come.
       ²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom,
      And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
       ²⁷ She watches over the ways of her household,
      And does not eat the bread of idleness.
       ²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed;
      Her husband also, and he praises her:
       ²⁹ “ Many daughters have done well,
      But you excel them all.”
       ³⁰ Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
      But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
       ³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands,
      And let her own works praise her in the gates.

Why Are You Afraid Of The Blood?

Have you watched “The Passion Of The Christ,” lately? Surely you have not bought into the smear campaign that Hollywood and the unbelieving world wrought against “The Passion,” with the idea that it is “just too violent to watch….oh, how could they have shown so much blood…oh, my, I just can’t watch it!”

Why are you so afraid of the blood? It is the BLOOD of Jesus Christ which has paid the penalty for our sin, and makes it possible for us to be reconciled to God! When I see the blood, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness, with amazement, with joy, and with humility that Jesus Christ shed that blood, bore that pain, endured the shame of the Cross…for me. Jesus commanded us to remember Him this way – remember the Blood that He shed, and the Body that was broken for you and for me. Let us not be afraid of it, but humbled, grateful, and deeply aware of the great, high price that He paid for you and for me by shedding that precious, beautiful, ruby-red blood!

You may not understand it all, and neither do I, but let me ask you this – have you tried? Are you seeking the Truth? Have you asked God to help you understand what the Cross is really all about? Have you read the Bible, or read the accounts of the crucifixion of Christ yourself, or are you just going on what you have heard other people say? I challenge you to READ GOD’S WORD…find out for yourself what the Scripture tells us about our need for a Saviour!

We had a great need; we owed a great debt. Jesus paid the price, according to God’s Law, and God said He was pleased with Jesus, and the sacrifice that He made. Jesus was perfect and sinless. That is why He is called the spotless Lamb of God – sent like a perfect, innocent lamb to the slaughter. God has said that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin! (Hebrews 9:22) That precious blood paid the price for my sin, and makes it possible for me to KNOW that when my body dies, my spirit, my soul, will live forever with Him in eternity.

I have hope for the future, and am not afraid of the blood…and I am not afraid to die, because those of us who believe in Jesus, and have repented of our sin, and accepted Him as Lord and Savior will spend eternity with Him. Consider the following:

• Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die…” (John 11:25-26)

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• Jesus said, “He who hears My Word, and believes in Him Who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)

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• Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in...”

• Romans 10:8-10, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

• ⁴⁸ He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. (John 12:48)

• “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ³⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? ³⁷ Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

• ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Easter, 2011

It’s time for you to wake up, friend – arise, come out of the darkness, tear away the shadows – you must realize that Jesus Christ is a Real Person; He really lived on earth, and was crucified in the manner described in “The Passion Of The Christ. He was resurrected from the dead, with more than 500 witnesses who attested to this fact – that they saw Him ALIVE! You can choose not to believe it if you want to, but your unbelief does not change the facts, nor does it change God’s love for you. He has said that it is not His desire that ANYONE should perish, but that all men should come to repentance – that includes you. (2 Peter 3:9)

You say, “Oh, but that movie made it seem worse than it really was, because it couldn’t have really been that violent…” Why not? Lashing, whipping, beating a man ‘til He was unrecognizable couldn’t have happened? In Isaiah 52:14, the Scripture says that His appearance and His “form” were “marred more than any man,” more than the “sons of men.” In other words, no one had ever been so cruelly beaten as was He.

Consider this prophecy, made by Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus ever lived…

Isaiah 53

"1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty, That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;

And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.

12Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors."

What will it take for you to believe? When you will accept that you cannot live your life the way you want to, and still have forgiveness of sin, and the hope of eternity? Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want to have true peace in your life?

Do you understand that if you have not given your heart to the Lord Jesus, that Satan, the enemy, has taken you captive, and has a plan, a will for your life? (2 Timothy 2:26) You are walking in the will of Satan willingly if you are not following Jesus. You are blinded, and you cannot see Truth. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Jesus said that those who reject Him reject God Who sent Him.

Jesus said in Mark 8:34-38,

I beg you to open the door of your heart and let Jesus come in. Don’t be ashamed of Him…don’t be afraid of His blood…receive His forgiveness, accept His Lordship, and allow Him to save you…let His blood do the work that it was meant to do. Let Him cleanse your heart and life of all unrighteousness, and be made right with God. He loves you so.

Amy Stockwell

Lokatia and Brightness

Friday night I met a sweet young girl named Lokatia, and her friend, Brightness. Lokatia is 11 years old...she and Brightness attended our CityCelebration - our community outreach event, in a market area of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. I noticed the girls on the front row while I was singing; they had beautiful, inquisitive smiles...happy and curious to know what the Americans were doing here in their town...

At the time of invitation, after the singing and testifying and preaching about the Lord Jesus and what He did on the cross for us...those two girls, along with about 40 others lifted their hands, and said they wanted Jesus Christ to be Lord of their lives!

As we were leaving, Lokatia and Brightness came over to me, and as I greeted them, I asked them...what did you learn tonight? Why did you lift your hands and pray with David? Lokatia said, "I accepted Jesus into my heart!" I asked, have you ever heard of Jesus before now? Have you ever heard of how He loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life? She answered, "No, I have never heard of Him...but now I have Him in my heart!"

I praise God that He is able to speak to our hearts, to show Himself to those who do not know Him...to reach out from heaven and touch the hearts of two young girls in Zimbabwe...whose names are now written in the Lamb's Book of Life!

Photos from Mission Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Another Beautiful Day In Bulawayo!

Wednesday, March 17, 2011

Another beautiful day in Bulawayo!

We have spoken to more than 20,000 people, telling them about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! What a joy! I have loved singing in this place. Tomorrow, the first of our CityCelebrations, a community outreach event. 

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof!" Psalm 24.

Bulawayo belongs to Jesus!

Beautiful Bulawayo

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Dear Friends,

Thank you for continuing to pray for us! I began an email to you on Tuesday, but did not have the opportunity to finish and send…and much has happened since then! In our school programs, we have spoken to more than 20,000 students! Almost all of them received the Good News about Jesus with joy! Only God knows exactly who and exactly what happened in their hearts, but we are joyful that we have the privilege of telling them what Jesus did for us on the Cross, and how they can have a personal relationship with Him!

Yesterday morning at 7:30am, I spoke to 1,300 students, ranging in age from 5 to 14. It was a beautiful morning…bright sunshine, cool breezes – a gorgeous day. The children were all lined up according to age, outside…they were so well-disciplined, so respectful! I started with music – sang several songs, and then gave my testimony, and shared with them that God loves them, that He created them, and that they are so very special to Him. I talked with them about how Jesus died on the cross for their sins, and that they could receive Him to be their Lord and Savior, if they would turn from their sin, and trust Christ to save them. I encouraged them to work hard in school, to say, “No,” to the things that can destroy their lives, and say, “Yes!” to Jesus! I used my favorite scripture – John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting, eternal life!” – with Jesus, in heaven, forever! It was such a joy for me…and they all responded enthusiastically to my altar call. I saw many hands “go up” even before I had finished explaining to them how to receive Christ.

Yesterday, after our last school program (David and I did one together at noon for about 1,600 students! It was awesome!), we stopped by the home of our NEST (National Evangelist Support Team) leader, Godknows, and his wife, Ndaidzive, where they live with their two children, Haniel and Jamal (7 and 4,) and 7 other boys who are orphans, between the ages of 13 and 18. The nine of them live in a small two-bedroom house made of concrete, with an aluminum roof. They have a small sitting area in the front, and a kitchen in the back; outside in the back, an outside toilet and another room with faucet/running water for bathing. The seven boys share a bed; sometimes a few of them sleep on the floor in the sitting room.

They have a vegetable plot in their front yard and on the sides, growing tomatoes, cabbages, and lemongrass, but only when they have enough water from rain to water the garden (the gardens are mostly empty now.) They do have several fruit trees – mango, lemon and avocado, which are bearing beautiful fruits. It was a joy to see them in their home; I hope to share some photos of them with you later. They pay $150 per month to rent this home. Grocery prices in Zim are very similar to those that we pay in America; fuel is about $6.00 per gallon. Godknows does not have a car; he walks most places, and takes a bus to town to go to the internet café, in order to receive emails and information from us and others.

Would you continue to pray with us that God will provide so that we can keep helping our national teams, helping men who love God, are serving in full-time evangelism – men like Godknows who have families, and who are caring for orphans in their homes? It weighs heavily on David's heart that we have had to cut their monthly support in half because of the decrease in giving to our ministry in the last year, and some of them less than half - now, instead of $100-200 per month, we can only send $50-100 to each of them. We must leave the ministry of discipleship and follow-up in their hands after we leave...that's why we are training them for ministry and trying to help them do it. Would you consider talking with one or two of your friends, and asking if they might be able to give $50 or $100 per month to our ministry, so that we can send it to help men like Godknows?

We are in a battle here in Bulawayo; it is a spiritual battle; a battle for the hearts and minds and souls of precious people who need Jesus. The doors are wide open for us to preach the Gospel; I wish we could stay for months and months, and preach in every place. These people WANT to hear about Jesus; they WANT to know Him and serve Him.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5: "3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ..."

The enemy does not want us to tell people about Jesus...he tries to hinder us with frustrations, problems, disasters, and so many "unexpected" things. But we know we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us and I am so glad that I belong to Jesus!

Romans 8:31-37: "31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We love you...thank you again for praying for us and for sending us with your sacrificial gifts.

Amy and David

PS: Visit the two links below on YouTube to see David speaking on Brokenness at our conference last Saturday. Part One is 15 minutes; Part Two is 3.46 min. I know it will be a blessing to you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMEF0E-nQlc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2d0yw8dXE

www.davidstockwell.org

A New Year; Mission in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

David and I are so privileged to be able to work together in ministry, and to spend our lives focusing on sharing the love of Jesus Christ wherever God allows us to go. I'm excited about my new blog, and look forward to sharing our experiences with you from time to time through this blog.

Our team has been on mission in Zimbabwe, having departed the US on Tuesday, March 8. We arrived in Bulawayo on Thursday, and began our ministry with a Leadership Development &Training Conference for pastors, evangelists and Christian workers. Today, our team begins speaking in local schools, talking with young people about drug and alcohol abuse, sexual purity, and AIDS, and things that can destroy their lives....and then sharing the Good News about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and how Jesus can change their lives!

An excerpt from a note to our families:

We are fine in Zimbabwe and have just gotten internet access this evening with a neat little "jump-drive"-like tool that allows us to connect almost like a cell phone. Our lodging and hosts are all just terrific; we are comfortable and enjoying cool breezes and beautiful, quiet sunsets and sunrises.

Our travel over here was fine except for some minor "hiccups" with luggage and customs...our sound equipment and other items necessary for ministry often cause a stir with local workers...

Godknows, our NEST co-leader here in Zimbabwe, has done a great job setting everything up. Our conference yesterday and today had an attendance of about 100 each day, and we had some wonderful times of worship and praise. I have never heard David speak so passionately and with so much power and anointing as he spoke last night and today, on having a passion for souls, on brokenness, on spiritual warfare...it was awesome! I could hardly sing, I was so overcome, when it was time for me to sing "Something Happens...!" God's spirit was and is moving and working, and we are looking forward to the rest of our ministry here.

Tomorrow we will all be at different churches, and then Monday begins our school ministry.
Thank you for praying for us; please continue to do so! I will post pictures when I am able...We love you and I am so glad I get to be here ministering in Zimbabwe...

Much love,
Amy and David