Blessing Upon Blessing - Marcia Lee Laycock

I love traveling. The ability to go off to foreign places has been one of God’s gifts to me over the years, in spite of the fact that my family has never been wealthy. 

My first adventure came during university when a friend urged me to put my name on the list for a trip to Spain being organized by the faculty of the geology program. I balked at first. “There’s no way,” I told her. It was almost the end of the year and I was almost broke. But when I was offered a seat the pieces fell into place and off I went. Traveling around Spain, Portugal, France and Switzerland opened my eyes to the wonders of Europe and gave me a thirst for more.

Then I found myself in the Yukon and travel to anywhere was expensive. “But everyone has to have a honeymoon,” my new husband said, so off we went to California, arriving in San Francisco on Chinese New Year. Now that was a cross cultural experience!

Not long after, we made the leap of faith, landed in Bible College on the flat Canadian prairie and then moved one province to the west to begin ministry in our first church. I thought our traveling days were over. A pastor's salary didn't leave much in extra income. But God had more in store for us.

After seven years it was time for a year-long sabbatical. “Papua New Guinea,” a missions expert advised us, “That will be a good place for you to go.” I wasn’t even sure where PNG was, but God made the doors open and before I could voice all the ‘what ifs’ we were there. Life in the third world was both challenging and exhilarating as God opened our eyes to the need to trust Him every moment of the day. At the end of that year coming home was harder than going, but slowly God worked in our hearts and minds and souls and we adjusted once again to life in Canada.                                                                                                                                          An opportunity provided through our church's affiliation with The Associated Gospel Churches of Canada took us to Israel not long after, and then seven years later God moved us from our comfort zone again, to begin a new work in a small community. As a church planter, my husband’s salary dropped into the bottom of the barrel once more. And once again, I thought our traveling days were over.

But God had another plan. It included eighteen months of cancer treatments and a slow recovery. “Take your wife somewhere warm,” the doctor said. Impossible, I thought, but before I could list all the reasons why not we were floating on the warm waters of the Caribbean. 

A cruise was not something I had ever envisioned in my future but when my husband’s mother turned 90 she decided she wanted to celebrate with the whole family – on a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska. When she was 92 there was one more trip on her bucket list – the long cruise to Hawaii, and she wanted me to go with her. I had to think about that for just a second or two.

Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, the Yukon, Alaska, Papua New Guinea, Israel, the Caribbean, Hawaii. Not bad for someone who thought she’d never leave the borders of her own province, let alone her country.

Yes, it’s been a joy to see it all, to experience so much. But even more, it’s been a blessing to see what God wanted to teach us through it all. There have been many lessons about trust, about His provision, about His generosity and love. With every adventure we learned more about Him.

“Surely you have granted (us) unending blessings and made (us) glad with the joy of your presence.” Psalm 21:6 
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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in The Word Awards. Marcia also has three devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Hot Apple Cider books. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan.

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded on Smashwords or on Amazon. It is also now available in Journal format on Amazon. 

Her most recent release is A Traveler’s Advisory, Stories of God’s Grace Along the Way.

Visit Marcia’s Website

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Journeys - M. Laycock

I love hearing stories of people’s lives, how they came to be where they are now. I especially love it when they acknowledge that God has designed that journey for them and want to shout “praise the Lord” when they recognize his grace and mercy along the way.

I’ve been thinking a bit about journeys in the past while, perhaps because of the release of the first volume of my latest novel, a young adult fantasy called Journey to a Strong Tower book one in the Ambassadors Trilogy. It’s been a delight to write these books, detailing the harrowing journeys of two young people whose destinies are intertwined and bound by the parameters of God’s love. It’s a fantasy but it has its root in reality, as all books do. 

I believe all of us are on a journey designed by God. I once wrote a suite of poems that was broadcast on CBC called Journey to Each Other. It detailed the path my husband and I took to find one another, and our Saviour, in Canada’s far north. As I wrote those poems I was overwhelmed with God’s amazing plan and the deep love He has for us all – a love so deep that He details every step of our journey on this earth, all to His glory.

Reading the books of the Old Testament which detail the journey of the Hebrew nation is inspiring for that same reason. The record reveals the protection and plan of God and the strengths and weaknesses, the victories and failings of the Israelites  – “The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. In spite of this you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go” (Deut 1:30 – 33).

And it is because God told Moses to record that journey that we are able to read about it. Numbers 33:2 says – “At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey.”

I believe God still tells us to record the journey, to write down both in fiction and non-fiction, the details of how He has kept us, protected us, and yes, carried us throughout our lives. By this testimony we glorify Him and remind ourselves of the greatness of our God. 

And we can certainly acknowledge, with Moses, the truth of these words – “The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness” (Deuteronomy 2:7). 

So write the record of your journey. Broadcast it in every way you can, all to God’s glory.

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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. Her second novel, A Tumbled Stone was also short listed in the contemporary fiction category of The Word Awards and her work is short-listed in three categories this year. 

Marcia also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. 

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded here. Visit Marcia’s Website

When Crumbs are Enough - M. Laycock

Our Bible study group pondered over one of the miracles of Jesus the other night. It’s a passage in Matthew 15 that describes how the crowds followed Jesus to a remote area, bringing the lame and blind and demon possessed before Him. And he heals them – thousands of them. Then the passage says that he had compassion on the people because they had not eaten for three days. So He told His disciples to find food for them. Food for 4,000 people. In the middle of nowhere. No restaurants nearby, no caterers ready and willing to serve, not even a village where they could get a few vegetables and bread. 

 

Of course the disciples are nonplused. They tell Jesus what He already knows. They don’t have the means to feed so many. Then He asks them a simple question. “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) We can imagine the disciples showing him the seven loaves and the few small fish. Then Jesus tells them to have the crowd sit down. I wonder what they thought then. Did they think there was going to be a riot if they did not provide food for so many? Did they think Jesus was foolhardy to make it seem that they could? Why was he expecting so much of them?

The miracle that occurs then showed them, and us, that he was not foolhardy. Neither was he expecting too much of them. He knew exactly what they had and what they were capable of. But this was the God of the universe, the one who created those few loaves and fish. The miracle that occurs then showed them, and us, that even a small offering was enough, when it was put into the hands of a mighty God.

When I published my first devotional book, Spur of the Moment, I thought it would be a very small local effort. I was nervous about ordering 500 copies and I was amazed when they sold out quite quickly. I was even more amazed when I saw that little book travel to some very far away places – places like India and England, Mexico and the South Pacific. Then God started to show me what He can do when a small thing is put into His hands. 

I began receiving letters and emails and even a few phone calls telling me how that small book had changed their lives. 

God had a plan. It was not my skilful inspiring words that can change someone’s life. It was God’s Spirit that moved the hearts of his people through the words in a small devotional book. And sometimes he does it through a mystery or a romance or a fantasy novel. God has a plan to heal and restore, to instil a renewed faith and to bestow joy beyond our wildest dreams upon the lives of His people, through our words. 

So, how many loaves do you have? Does it seem like only a few crumbs in the face of a great need? Be encouraged. Jesus will take those crumbs and make them enough. In fact, He will make them into an abundance of blessing as they are fed to those who hunger for them. 

So offer them up. Then stand back and watch.

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Visit Marcia's webpage - www.marcialeelaycock.com

Download her devotional book for writers of faith - www.smashwords.com/books/view/58017