Author Archives: Maggie

March 2015 Letter from Roger and Maggie Bruehl

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                                                                                                                                                                March 6, 2015

Dear friends,

What do you think of when you hear the term “auditor?” Do you think “evangelist?”

I have the privilege of leading the Cru audit team of four auditors. They audit all of our ministry leaders yearly and ministry accounts every 3 years on a rotating basis.

One of the auditors is Larry Kent; someone you might guess is an auditor. As I got to know him, I discovered his real passion — Sharing the gospel.

Larry has developed a tract called, “Smiles.” It has been translated into over 100 languages. He gives it out freely from his website, http://www.on-tract.com , to anyone who wants to print it.

“Smiles” has had amazing result. Every time I see Larry, he’s bubbling over with a new story of how it has been used. One email came from Kenya:

It is my pleasure to inform you that the Lord is doing miracles over here through the tracts we’ve 2015-03 Pl pictrue 1been giving out in Streets, Bus Park, Market & Schools. I was surprised yesterday when 32 students searched for me. They found me in the church compound & they said, as they were going through the tract on Sunday when they were in studies, that they felt something like a land breeze hovering around their gathering of over 80 students. So out of them 32 took an initiative of looking for me & I led them to salvation.

Secondly brother, today in the evening have received a strange phone call from a man called Tobias. This man said, he has been a Muslim for 18 yrs since 1996 but when he read the tract which his son came home with, he got to know JESUS & I led them to salvation together with his family of 6 people over the phone. I will visit him soon. There are more & more testimonies that I cannot all explain brother.

2015-03 Pl pictrue 2Vijay from Nepal wrote: I am very excited to knowing your ministry. Here I would like to share my interest to you that if it could be possible to print your tracts into Napali, it would be great.

From Pastor Buckya in Banledesh: We are printing 60,000 of your tracts in 3 languages (Banjara, Teluga and Koya). They will change many people lives from darkness to holiness. Please pray for our team. We need strength, wisdom and good health to reach many unreached villages.

What a privilege to work with someone like Larry!  It reminds me how God wants to use us in our own unique ways. The world has gotten smaller with the web. While Satan may be using it for evil, people like Larry are using it to “let the whole world know.” Thank you for your prayers and support which allows me to work with someone like Larry.

 

Roger Bruehl

P.S.  If you want to see a video of how Larry starts a spiritual conversation, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H35CyLmfIzQ&feature=youtu.be

Forward – “Get Out of Our Way!”

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2011-5-22 Great Wall“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. (Genesis 19:9)

Since the word “forward” is my word of the year, I did a Bible search of when it is used. I neatly printed the verses and placed them on my desk — which lead them to being buried under piles of papers.

This morning, it re-surfaced. “Get out of our way!” shouted at me at the top of the page.

Lot was harboring visitors in the evil city of Sodom. Men gathered outside his door and wanted to sexually abuse them. Instead, Lot offered his daughters, but the visitors (who were angels) stuck the evil men with blindness, allowing them, Lot and his family to escape.

It’s an ugly story. But the part that jumped out to me was the, “Get out of our way!”

Moving forward is about clearing obstacles.

Most of my obstacles are in my head or heart. Fear. Doubt. Organization. Memory. The list goes on.

What intensity do I have? Not an exclamation point. I’m not breaking down doors. I’m not risking my life. Instead, I work on overcoming them little by little, in far less dramatic ways, in casual ways…

Am I too casual in clearing my obstacles? Is it time for me to tell them to “Get out of my way!”? Do I feel the pressure, the urgency, necessary to move forward and break through?

Lord, help me to attack my obstacles because of my passion for you. Help me to move forward in ways that please you. Lord, let me feel pressure from you to break through. Amen.

Fearful Forward

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2011-5-22 Great WallIt’s such an innocent word, forward. When I picked it as my word for the year, I was thinking that I wanted the opposite of backwards, something that would not push me too much out of my comfort zone. It wasn’t like courage or boldness, right?

And yet it is, because it encompasses those words and even more.

You see, when you pick a work like forward, you don’t know where it is going. It may take courage or boldness or waiting or patience. I think I was hoping more for the waiting and patience.

But this week, in order to move forward, I’m going to need the courage and boldness. You see, I’ve been working on a book. Shhh…I’m scared to even write it, to hope for it. It started last year in the midst of cancer treatment. So many ask how I live in the middle of life and death. So I started writing things down, moving forward.

Then, at chapter 5, I got scared.

What if I die before it’s completed? What if no one wants to publish it? What if they do? What if it’s not “good? What if it is good and sells a ton and they want me to do interviews? The “what if’s” were overwhelming me. In fact, the more affirmation I got on the project, the more fearful I became.

I took a break from the project, but it didn’t gone away. I need to move forward.

New week is the Florida Christian Writers Conference. I signed up for it months ago. I’ve been assigned 2 publishers and a seminar leader to pick up at the airport. I can’t back out. Look what this “moving forward” has gotten me into!

Now I have to move forward — I can’t leave people at the airport! But my little introverted self is terrified. Just as I am working myself into a full blown panic attack, a blogger I follow wrote

I think being gentle with my soul looks like grace. It looks like taking a deep breath and enjoying the moment. It looks like letting go of the should’s and ought’s and could have’s. It looks like smiling at the mistakes and moving on. It looks like compassion for ourselves.(Gina Butz)

I should have picked the word “grace” or “compassion” for this year. But since I picked forward, pray I will “enjoy the moment” and keep moving ahead.

What scares you? How would giving yourself grace make a difference?

 

February 2015 Letter

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2015 Cartogram

February 9, 2015

Dear Roger and Maggie,

 

This map puts 2015 in perspective. We tend to think of the US as the center of the world. But if a map represented nations not by land mass but by population, this is how it would look. Australia and Canada hardly exist while India becomes massive, larger than China. Islands of SE Asia were the biggest “ah-ha.”

 

Information like this helps us realize where resources (prayers, workers, finances) could to go to reach lost sheep with the gospel. Before the re-occurrence of her cancer, Maggie was able to help Steve Douglass (President, Cru/Campus Crusade for Christ) initiate a study to determine a baseline on our vision that “Everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.”

 

The results are in and illuminating. Europeans have the highest awareness of who Jesus Christ is (not a surprise), but are least likely to say that they know a true follower of Jesus (sad). Awareness of Jesus is low in Africa, yet it was the highest continent to know of a true follower of Christ. And despite all of our churches, North America’s responses made it the third lowest continent to know a true follower. Generally, when asked how responders know the person who is a true follower, family (32%) or friend (37%) were the highest responses. (If you would like to see the full report, go to click here).

 

Putting the map and the survey report together, we need to build networks of family and friends in areas of large population. In Africa, those who know Jesus need to make him known. And in our own nation, we need to live lives that cause those around us to know that we are true followers of Christ.

 

Our church’s small group is studying, “Walk Across the Room.” Amazing conversations have been started just in the first week as individuals reached out and make themselves available. One man, who had cut off a co-worker when she was rambling on an IT issue, went back and apologized which, much to his surprise, opened up a conversation about his church who teaches about putting faith into action.

 

Thank you for your prayers and support so that we can work on projects like the survey.  We appreciate your encouragement to us, as we, in turn, encourage others in their walk with God. Pray about what the survey and map means as far as next steps in our lives as well as yours —

Roger and Maggie

2015 -01 New Year’s Years Letter

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Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year is what you write on the top of a Christmas letter that didn’t make it on time! Last week was a rough week in the family (including a hospital stay) that scrapped the best of plans, but we’re coming out of it and are grateful.

 

It has been a good, hard year. Maggie started with aggressive chemo treatments which, praise God, did their work, bringing her cancer marker down from 12 to .4. She continues on a maintenance dose with some side effects, but for the most part, is doing well.

 

I celebrated 44 years with Cru this last summer. The ministries I supervise are stepping into new areas of growth with exciting opportunities and challenges. They solidified their leadership and support base for which I give God all the glory.

 

Becky and her family are doing well in Orlando. The boys are in high school and over 6 foot tall(and stretching to beat me!). Her work at Clinique is stable even with economy shifts. Jason’s company was bought out which is challenging but stable.

 

Jessica and her family moved to a different house in Fort Lauderdale. They transformed their back yard from a jungle to a mini-Key West paradise. Rick’s mother, Lori, moved into the guesthouse and is working locally. The kids are having fun with Cheer and soccer. We love having them nearer to us.

 

James’ company has also gone through transition this past year, but seems to be solid at this point. Zachari is also over 6’ (we have tall boys!). His half-sister, Chloe, is still fighting brain cancer, so continue to pray for her.

 

Amanda is our “escapee,” living in downtown Grand Rapids. She moved to a new position with the Reformed Churches of America in their donor department. Her big accomplishment was a charity bike ride from GR to Chicago — go girl!

 

Time has a way of flying by. It seems just yesterday we were newly married, starting out with little more than a prayer. We feel so blessed with family and friends. Our hearts go out to those who are suffering this year, in pain or estranged. We pray that they will find peace this next year, and that they will come to know the One who delights in them —

 

 

 

“He led me to a place of safety; He rescued me because He delights in me.”   Psalm 18:19

Roger and Maggie Bruehl ● 267 Bayou Circle ● DeBary, FL 32713

 

Forward — Taking off Rules

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2011-5-22 Great WallI’ve been surprised lately with the effect rules have in my life. A broken leg and then fighting cancer have forced adjustments the last couple of years, but as I think about “forward,” I’m realizing the deeper role they have played.

I didn’t see them coming at first. I was just doing what made sense. I couldn’t walk so I made a “rule” to hobble along on my walker. A walker doesn’t do stairs, so I made a “rule” to delegate the reason I mainly went upstairs — the laundry. I got tired at night, so I made a “rule” to take a nap in the afternoon.

But then, rules begat rules. If I took a nap late in the afternoon, I couldn’t fall asleep at night. So…the rule became, take a nap by 3 pm. And as I began to walk again, I made a “rule” that I could work on the laundry, just not carry it up and down the stairs. I began to see how the Pharisees got into their legalism!

Rules then became subconscious. I became tired mid-afternoon, whether or not I needed a nap. I didn’t try to carry laundry even when I was able to walk stairs. I was limiting myself without realizing I was doing it.

And I think I made a “rule” not to expect to move forward. Maintaining status quo was hard enough. In fact, just not dying felt pretty good.

So right now I’m feeling like a train who just realized it’s not moving. It’s all coupled up to freight cars, but not going anywhere. Between not remembering what it is like to move (what comes first, second, etc.) it’s not sure it should move (is it on the schedule to move? What track should it be on? What is the destination? Should I toot the horn or not?)

So I have a choice…to stay where I am or to move forward. There is risk involved. I might fail. It takes effort to do what use to come naturally.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

I know what it is like to be enslaved to sin and freed. Our physical frailties also enslave us. They can be healed and we can be freed again. Emotional fears can be even stronger than physical limitations, but it’s as I exercise my muscles in faith, I can feel His strength.

Forward…taking off the rules.

What rules have you made that limits your moving forward? What are you going to do about it?

Dripping with God’s Love

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1992 - Darlene's porch wagan - MarmaladeI love word pictures, and Margaret Feinberg draws a beautiful one in her blog:

“With cool water droplets streaming down Jesus’ face, Mark 1:11-12 records: “And a voice came out of the heavens: ‘Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased.’ And immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness” (NASB).

Jesus isn’t just baptized in water — He’s baptized in love.

Drenched in the divine delight. Immersed in the holy affection of God.

The same baptism you and I are invited into. Not just when we become followers of Christ,but each day. Each hour. Each moment.

We are meant to live as those who drip with God’s love.”

This morning, I’m trying to picture what I would look like today if I were “dripping with God’s love.”

How about you?

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/01/one-secret-weapon-everyone-needs-for-every-battle/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aholyexperience.com%2F2015%2F01%2Fone-secret-weapon-everyone-needs-for-every-battle%2F&utm_content&utm_campaign=A+Holy+Experience+Blog+Posts

Mission Accomplished

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2011-5-22 Great WallI took some notes after reading an article in Real Simple (“Mission Accomplished”, September page 145) that seemed appropriate this time of year when I’m thinking about how we to move “forward.”

  • Choose a Goal
    1. Zero in on something specific and measurable
    2. Make it just hard enough (range goals)
    3. Check that the goal is within your control
    4. Review your skills (performance goal vs. learning goal)
  • Master the Logistics
    1. Break down the goal
    2. Create a detailed agenda
  • Stay motivated
    1. Check in frequently (accountability)
    2. Plant daily reminders
    3. Spread the word – when you write it down and share, you are 33% more successful
    4. Learn from your mistakes
    5. Celebrate victories, large and small
    6. Reassess if necessary

It’s not “rocket science” but just good reminders, something I need to sit down and do. I’m still trying to figure out what “forward” looks like. As I do, I’ll post.

After all, I need every 33% advantage I can get!

What goals are you working on this year? How can I celebrate with you?

Forward

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2011-5-22 Great WallI’ve resisted the movement of people picking a word for the new year rather than a resolution. I’m not sure why…maybe because I hate eliminating options, maybe because I was afraid of failure, maybe because it was vague.

But this year I was challenged individually and prayed about it. And I woke up one night with a clear sense of a word.

Forward.

I started out with a feeling of disappointment. It’s not a very dramatic word. It’s the opposite of “backward” and who wants that for a word for a year? It’s not sexy like “courage” or bold like “strength.” It’s not promising like hope. It just kind of sits there, inching along.

But when you have been where I have been this past year, dealing with cancer, trying hard not to go backwards, it’s not a bad word. My cancer has once again been declared as “stable,” another not sexy, bold or promising word. I’ve fought physically, emotionally and spiritually this last year. I’ve wanted to retreat within myself.

Even with the most amount of hope the word “stable” can muster, I don’t just want to stay where I am. I want to move again. I want to move forward. I have to confess I don’t really know exactly what that looks like or where it is. Each time I wrestle the disease down, each time I draw in my life because of physical limitations, I struggle to know how to expand into the grace of extended time.

Do I go back to doing what I was doing before things got desperate? Projects I was working on got wrapped up, just in case “something happened.” Some projects moved on with other people taking responsibility. Some things don’t seem as important as they did a year ago. The same was true with relationships — some wrapped up while others moved on.

So, do I go back to what I knew or move forward? I’m familiar with back; not so much with forward. And since I’m not as strong as I used to be in many ways, could I even do the things I used to do? A few things I tried this last month (like facilitating a meeting) didn’t go so well. I’m not the same person I was before this last year battling cancer.

A verse comes to mind: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13

It feels like a good thing to do, even if it is a strain. Straining is not dependent on the amount of strength you have. It’s going beyond what you think you can do. I will strain to move forward because, even though I don’t have clarity of what “the goal for the prize of the upward call” is, I know it is good. And I know God will be faithful to show me what this all means…as He uses the word in my life this year —

Forward.

Medical Update 11/07/14

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2011-5-22 Great WallMy oncology appointment went well yesterday. After 4 weeks off chemo because of low white blood cells counts/diarrhea, I’m back on an even lower dose than before. To give perspective, in the last year I’ve gone from 25 to 10 to 5 and now 2.5. Correspondently, my cancer marker went from 12 to 3 and has stabilized at 4.   If I continue to have side effects from the drug but my cancer maker stays the same, there is a glimmer of hope that I could go off any chemo! That would be so nice.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but I can’t help but smile.