Watch the Clouds!

Most of you reading this will be aware of the false prophecy that the rapture would happen last Saturday. This devotion Ray wrote last year seems to be appropriate this week!

Watch The Clouds.

Read Matthew 24:15-35.

Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him Rev.1:7a)

Clouds fascinate me. I enjoy discerning faces and shapes they create as they flit across the sky. They remind me that the Bible is laced with references to God in the company of clouds. He spoke from Mt. Sinai shrouded in dark clouds.(Exodus 19) That left a lasting impression to Israel’s national psyche.

Part of the reason Jesus was crucified was because He said, “…I tell all of you: (The Sanhedrin) in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of Heaven.” This is a quote from Daniel 7:9-14 and the Jewish leaders knew its links with Yahweh and the promised Messiah. The crucifixion tried to prevent this promise. Instead it fulfilled other scriptures and His resurrection guaranteed the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to return. In Acts 1:9-11 His ascension is recorded and confirmed the future expectation. It was visible. It was from the Mount of Olives. It was with the clouds. In Zechariah 14: 4 foretold an event yet to take place which links an Old Testament prophecy to Jesus and the reading from Acts.

Today we wait for it. When we pray, “…Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven…” we are making a faith statement as well as expressing our hope! This is the great expectation and motivation of Christians especially under harsh regimes. When the Lord returns on the clouds the longing for righteousness, justice and peace on earth will become a reality. Until then we walk by faith and keep our eyes on the clouds. As 1 Corinthians 16:22 puts it ‘Maranatha’. (come O Lord)

Thought for the day. No one will be able to counterfeit that event.

Ray's devotional books are now available in Christian bookshops!

Don't forget the book launch of our three new books at Ringwood Church of Christ in Melbourne, Saturday June 4th at 2.30pm !

Special Days

I won’t mention how many years ago today I was able to tell my husband, “Gaylene has arrived!” After two baby boys, this was extra special to have our daughter.

So today is that beautiful woman’s birthday – and she may be just a little cross with her mother for putting this on her blog! She teaches other mother’s children now, and from the way she speaks about “her kids” has a very loving heart towards them all – even the “naughty” ones in her classes.

As I came to write this blog today, although separated by distance, she is very much in my thoughts, heart and prayers right now. Memories abound. The day she won first prize in the toddler section at a Baby Show. As proud as I was of her, that day I decided I hated Baby shows. Every baby in that crowded hall was really beautiful in his or her way and every mother there was convinced HER little one should have won!

Then there are some funny little sayings from those early before school age days. One springs to mind and still makes me smile. Her brother had been in trouble and sent from the room to his bedroom. Her calm, matter of fact little voice said, “He likes his fwiends, he just doesn’t like muvvers.”

Her first day at school. The first time at a cousin’s special birthday party when I looked across that room and suddenly saw our little girl in high heels, a beautiful dress and realised she was on the verge of becoming the lovely woman – inside and out – that she is today.

Special Days always bring back memories. We celebrate many of them over our lifetimes. Of course there are Days like Christmas, Easter, ANZAC and Remembrance Days we share with millions of others around the world, but we also have our own Family Days. These of course include birthdays, anniversaries, even very personal ones we may not always feel the need to share with anyone else. One such that springs to my mind is way back when I was sixteen and I had travelled for nearly three hours with my Dad in the car back to his appointment with his cancer surgeon. It is not a time I want to dwell on, especially those tears I shed only witnessed by a kind nurse and my loving Heavenly Father after I was able to leave the hospital room Dad was admitted into for those last few weeks of his life. Somehow, I remember that time more vividly than his funeral.

So not all Special Days are necessarily ones we want to remember. Some bring back memories of pain, tears, decisions we made we wish had not. They are not days to celebrate, to dwell on. We may still need to deal with the memory, commit what is in the past to the God who “demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ (His only Son) died for us.” (Roman 5:8) I am just very, very glad that one tremendous Day, as we have responded to that love of God, we will have all tears wiped away as we see Jesus face to face.

But until then...

Let’s enjoy Special Happy Days like my beautiful daughter’s Special Day! Last year she celebrated a “special” birthday milestone at Disneyworld in California. Mmm...I wonder what you do today – besides teach those children of course.

Happy Birthday Darling Gaylene! We are very proud of you and thrilled that you are so committed to the God who loves you!

And I do hope after this blog you still love your "Muvver"!

Exciting when New Books arrive!

Ray’s devotional books arrived last week.
My Justice at Baragula arrived last Monday so we have several boxes of books to store away until they are all sold – or given away, so watch this blog! I just checked one Christian bookshop on the internet and Ray’s books have started to arrive on their shelves in cities across Australia while mine are still to make their appearance.

I even eventually managed to work out how to “create an event” on Facebook to let folk know about the book launch we are organising – or at least the first one in Melbourne, Victoria, on Saturday, June 4th at 2.30pm at Ringwood Church of Christ. This will be followed by afternoon tea and the friends of our daughter, Gaylene, are kindly catering for us and would appreciate an RSVP so there will be sufficient goodies.

Now we can also announce the names of the kind folk who are going to launch our books.

John Sharpe, the minister at Ringwood will launch From Eden With Love. We do thank John for all his support.

We are thrilled our dear friend, Jacquiline Purnell, will be home from Bangkok and is launching CHILDREN: God’s Special Interest. She has worked for years with children and has written the forward to this book for Ray. Jacqui and her husband David have worked for many years with World Vision and he is currently their South-East Asian Development Manager.

Delightful, talented author Amanda Deed  will be launching my Justice at Baragula. I was not at all surprised when her challenging Christian novel, "The Game”, won the 2010 CALEB award for Christian Fiction.

Ray is donating the royalties from his devotions about children to the Khayelihle Children’s Village in Zimbabwe, and those from his devotions for married couples to the Australian Christian Lobby which supports Christian Marriage.

As well as all the excitement about our books we have been busy with other activities this last week. It has been very encouraging to receive feed-back about my talk last Thursday at the local Women Aglow meeting. As Ray teases me, I spend days preparing a talk but then get away from my notes as my heart takes over. How could anything else happen when talking about the outward appearance of Christians and their inward appearance that should shine the beauty and fragrance of Jesus to those we meet. As Isaiah 53:2 (NIV) says about the promised One, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him...” yet despite the horror of Him dying on a cross, for those of us who have learned to love Him as Keith Green’s song says,
“O Lord, you’re beautiful,
Your face is all I seek.
For when Your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.”

Another old song should be our daily prayer. “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, all His compassion and purity.” If only that could be true!
Our prayer is that at least though our writings we may share snippets about the Lord Jesus Christ that will encourage readers to want to know Him as their Saviour and Lord  - and also intimately as their best Friend.

The winner of last weeks giveaway, Outback From Baragula, is Michelle Dennis Evans. Congratulations! Please send me your postal details to mary@mary-hawkins.com and I will have it in the mail for you.

Another Book Giveaway

Very exciting!

We are expecting Ray’s books to arrive any day! He has been receiving emails that boxes of his books have arrived in Adelaide at the Churches of Christ Global Mission Partner office and from other friends and family too in Queensland and New South Wales. My book, Justice at Baragula is still at the printers but should also be arriving on our doorstep – and in bookshops during the next 2-3weeks.

After finishing preparing my talk for the Women Aglow meeting in Beaconsfield tomorrow morning, I managed to “create an event” on Facebook – my first one. Weell... I did try earlier but didn’t send it to specific folk and now they are probably getting the invitation twice – hopefully no more than that! This is announcing our book launch in Melbourne, Victoria at the Ringwood Church of Christ, Saturday 4th June at 2.30pm

Promotion of books takes TIME! And I’m discovering doing three at once even more complicated. I guess my main problem is trying to do and be involved in too many other things at the same time.

Trying to help readers know whether they can recommend books, authors often offer free copies – Weell... as many as we can afford of course. In later posts I will be giving away Ray’s two books also, so I do suggest if you are not already a Follower of this blog that you become one so you do not miss out. As mentioned in my last giveaway draw, I am giving you an opportunity to read my first two Baragula books before Book Three, Justice at Baragula hits the bookshelves. Unfortunately again I need to limit the draw for Book Two, Outback From Baragula, to readers in Australia and New Zealand. Later in the year when our books will be available as e-books we will celebrate that by more giveaways of them to – everywhere in the world!

About Book Two in the Baragula single title, inspirational romance series:

Meet folk from Baragula again in OUTBACK FROM BARAGULA when Matthew and Emily’s friend, Steve Honeysuckle, heads west to the Davidson’s outback cattle station and Matthew’s sister, Jillian Davidson. He loves his mountain home while she loves the endless plains of the outback. He has strong faith in God, she has none, but together they have to face the dangers of the outback to find Jillian’s missing twin brother and Davidson Downs’ stolen cattle.

To enter the draw, you must leave a comment here. The draw will be Tuesday evening the 10th of May next week Please return to see who the winner is. I will need contact details to send the book to the winner.

ENTER THE DRAW NOW BY LEAVING A COMMENT!

It’s been a very busy week. I was rostered to share a post on http://www.internationalchristianfictionwriters.blogspot.com blog There I wrote about Resurrection Sunday and Easter Monday and ANZAC day. Yesterday I should have written something for my readers here. Instead, I found myself trying to finish editing a manuscript my brother, Stan Pedler, wrote.


This is a photo of myself with my brother Stan and sister Shirley.

A few years ago I did some editing on this story for him but early last week I saw a notice about a contest for unpublished writers and really wanted him to enter his “Joanna Downs”. As I read through the historical story again of an English couple who left their home to carve out a life for themselves and others in western Queensland back in the nineteenth century, I began to realise how much I have been learning myself since my last efforts on this manuscript!

When our children were younger, they used to listen with fascination when Uncle Stan told them stories of unusual people he had met and incidents both good and not so good that had happened during his days of farming on the Darling Downs in Queensland. Of course, he also especially enjoyed telling them stories about their mother when she was growing up! Stan is a wonderful story teller and also has a great imagination, but he is still learning how to put stories down on paper in acceptable ways to submit to editors – or at least that has been my observation so far.

For over 15 years he lived on Thursday Island right at the northern tip of Cape York and very close to New Guinea. After much sadness in his life, there the Lord gave him a ministry to Torres Strait folk through a Christian bookshop and sharing first Christian videos and in later years Christian DVDs. There are folk in the world today that Christ has transformed through my dear brother’s efforts and I am very proud of him.

However, even before Stan went to Thursday Island he started to write. Since he bought his first computer he has now written fifteen books. These he has simply printed a few copies out, including covers, bound them himself and given to interested family and friends to read. He writes different kinds of books from myself but I have lent them to some friends here who read widely and they enjoyed them so much they keep asking me when Stan will write another book! There are some great yarns among those books, but they do still need to be revised and edited. I would so love to see them published! However, over the years my dear brother has had little confidence in himself regarding his spelling and grammar especially.

Stan can do so many wonderful things, including not only using all kinds of large farm machinery, but he flew his own plane, sailed his own boat from Brisbane to Thursday Island and around the Torres Strait Islands. I keep telling him if he can do all these, he sure can learn some of the techniques of novel writing!

Oh well, his manuscript will be entered in this contest next week. I would so love it to at least be short-listed! I would love an editor and publisher to see the potential in his writing. I want to see him have the same delight as I have had of holding his own published book in his hands, seeing them for sale in bookshops!

But there are two more – so far – sequels to the Joanna Downs book. I wonder how I can make time to help him with the editing of those too. Hmm... perhaps less time on writing blogs – and Facebook – could be a start?

And this also makes me wonder just how many great story-tellers there are who sadly never do see their books published.

Book winner and Book Three

A big thank you to those who entered the draw for the first book in my Baragula series, Return to Baragula.

The proofs for Book Three, Justice at Baragula, arrived yesterday and I've been very busy today checking them for the Title Manager at Ark House Press so they could get to the printer in time for the release of the book in May. Sorry the draw for my book giveaway had to wait. Our son arrived right when I needed someone to select a piece of paper from all those with names on of those followers who left a comment.

I am delighted to be able to congratulate Mandy! Your book will be sent as soon as you send me your postal details.

Afraid my eyes have been glued to this computer screen too long today so this post needs to be kept short.

Justice at Baragula is the 18th story I have written and will be my 19th title released. Amazing! Now I need to knuckle down and think very seriously which book will be my 20th - a real milestone. There is still one manuscript I called Delayed Dreams that was rejected and still languishing neglected in a box somewhere. Should I rewrite that one? Should I finish writing Her Outback Cowboy or should I think about seeing if my second inspirational romance book, Damaged Dreams, could be re-packaged and re-printed? That really needs to happen now before I look at Delayed Dreams again.

So, what do I do now? The first thing is to pray of course -which I can assure you all I have certainly been doing.

Do any of you remember my second Heartsong Presents book, Damaged Dreams? Anyone read it?
And afraid this has to be enough tonight here. I need to stop, stretch, do hand and finger exercises - and exercise discipline to stop checking my Facebook home page!

Once again, a very big thank you to you all. I will have another draw for Book Two, Outback From Baragula in the next few weeks!

Giveaways, Guests and Greetings

Australian and New Zealand followers, you still have until before next Wednesday to leave a comment and be entered in the draw for Return to Baragula. Do remember you need to leave a comment AND be a follower to be in the draw.

As I mentioned last week this is Book One in my Baragula series. There will be another giveaway contest for Book Two, Outback From Baragula, before Justice at Baragula, Book Three, is released in May! Not long to wait for that book now, so do check back here! I will be including overseas followers later when I can offer them the e-books Ark house Press have said will be released as well!

Ray and I have been really blessed with hosting overnight guests this last month or so.

In fact, just after I typed that last sentence two lovely friends arrived to share with us. They have become “Grey Nomads” with a camper-van travelling around Australia and we have not seen them for many, many months. They returned to Tasmania for several weeks to see family and friends and we are so privileged to be included in their visit! (And that information is so you know I do have a bit of an excuse for this blog post being late – once again!)

I have truly had a feast of fellowship with guests these last few weeks. Jo-Anne Berthelsen and her husband stayed a few nights with us and while our long-suffering husbands also enjoyed fellowship as fellow ministers, we enjoyed sharing “writer talk”. We are both published by the same company, Ark House Press, and I am really looking forward to reading her next book, Helena’s Legacy, scheduled for release in June. Jo-Anne is also a wonderful speaker – as we discovered when she was the main speaker at the Baptist Women Ministries’ conference in March. Do click on her name to go to her website and learn about this lovely woman who blessed me so much during our time together.

(However, I'll make sure I don't stand in front of the stayed glass of our door next time. I promise you that is not a halo!)

 Last week we were privileged to also have John Mackay stay overnight with us. He is the International Director of  Creation Research - the man the media has called "The crocodile hunter of creation." and an international speaker http://www.creationresearch.net He had several appointments in our area and was great to renew fellowship with him in this way and be informed, blessed and challenged by his message. This photo was taken with John and another member of his team at Brady's Lookout between where we live and Launceston - a beautiful place.

With still catching up on the hundreds of neglected emails, organising book launches for Justice at Baragula  and Ray’s two books in Melbourne (June 4th – more details later) and Launceston as well as family and other commitments, this of course does mean I haven’t written anymore of my new manuscript. But I do know God IS in control! The time to write will come.

And now I must finish here and get back to checking the proofs for that new release in May.

Please remember the draw for that first book in the series, Return to Baragula. The draw will be Tuesday evening and announced next Wednesday.