With Love to India

Pastor Sherry Oliver and husband Ron Oliver

To all of my dear friends in India and those who may wish to join this circle of friends I send this greeting in the love and respect gained from our relationship in Jesus Christ as our Savior, Brother, Mentor and Lord.

Due to ill health it has been much too long since I have been able to come and see you in person. I do miss you all greatly. I also miss our adventures in serving the Lord together. I miss our chai times together talking and laughing after ministry and the wonderful spicy Andhra dinners you so gracefully prepared.

I trust that you have continued growing and serving the Lord in the strength and grace of His Holy Spirit. I would love to hear of the paths He has led you to follow and the surprises He has given you along the way.
Your testimonies of what God is doing now with and through and around you would be a great encouragement to me and to the others in our Christian family circle who may choose to read this simple blog.

The heaviest thing on my heart for you at the moment is to remind you all that whenever God calls you to do anything He will provide all that is needed. The key is to do what He is calling you to do each day; to know in the gentle way He leads, how He brings a thought to your mind or a knowing in your heart or speaks a word to you from the Bible about what He has for you in each and every day. Then you must step out to do what He has shown you and trust that He will provide the way and the means to do it. Do not go forward in something that you are not sure He has called you to do, even though it may be a good thing. We can waste much time and effort and even money in doing good things when what He calls us to do would be much more productive even though we cannot see where it will lead from our place of being today.

Do not do a thing only because you believe it is expected of you by others. Do not do a thing because it would make your ministry grow or because it would make you seem more important. Bigger ministry is not always better. Jesus did not plant any number of churches and spend His time overseeing them. He built into the lives of individual people by his simple teaching and healing and caring daily along the way wherever the Holy Spirit led him. He spent more time with the 12 who followed Him and the others who welcomed Him into their homes, like Martha, Mary and Lazarus. The great deeds He did are those of the Holy Spirit, the great words He spoke were the words of the Heavenly Father brought to Him by the Holy Spirit. He did not do a thing unless He saw His Heavenly Father doing it. He was a carpenter. He could have built strong buildings in which to meet, but He did not. There was a time for carpentry and there was a time to step out. Those times were chosen by the Heavenly Father and led by the Holy Spirit. It did not matter to Him that the things He was doing seemed unimportant to the religious leaders and important wealthy or government people. He simply followed God and in God's timing. He did not step out a day too soon.
He did not go ahead of the Spirit even when He knew where the path was leading.

I would be very pleased to have each of you write back with comments or questions or a letter letting me know how you and your family are doing. It is my hope that this will also become a circle of encouragement for each of you, not only encouragement from me, but from one another also. Our hearts are knit together as one in Christ, even though some of you may be strangers to one another.

May God bless and keep you and make His face to shine upon and give you grace for the tasks and difficulties ahead of you each day.

My love to all of you,

Sherry Maamma

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out.

Come to me. Get away with me
and you'll recover your life.
I'll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me
...and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

- Matt 11:28-30 (Message Bible)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

God has truly bound our hearts with His love and I dearly miss you all. The Lord has been pressing me and squeezing out the oil (I think) which is not a fun process but which will hopefully prepare me to keep my lamp burning until the Bridegroom comes.

I miss you all so much and since I haven't been able to travel over and see all of you in India this year I thought it would be good to have a way to continue encouraging and teaching one another. Please feel free to write responses to my blog entries so that we may continue to share and grow in Jesus love for us together.

May He bless you with much joy,
Sherri Maamma

With Love to India

Friday, August 03, 2012