Gateways to Joy

Hi dear friends, So many of you still write to me asking about Elisabeth Elliot.  She passed away this morning.  Here are a few links that talk about her passing. http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/june/died-elisabeth-elliot-missionary-author-gates-of-splendor.html http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/elisabeth-elliot-influential-missionary-and-author-died-morning http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/15/elisabeth-elliot-has-died-heres-what-the-wife-of-a-martyred-missionary-meant-for-thousands-of-women-like-me/ xo, Angela blog subscription  | twitter | facebook

It is cold in Houston and I love it!  I got up this morning, ready to design. Instead of going to my office, I decided to work in the living room on the couch. When I went to check my email I saw where someone had left me a message and referred to me as Val. Actually this happened a couple of days ago, and I sent a reply asking the lady if she wanted me or Valerie.  This morning when I checked my inbox I saw where she had responded and said she wanted Valerie, so I sent Val the information. It has been a while, I think May was the last time we corresponded, since I heard from Val.  Anyway, I sent her an email and then went to FB to message her.  While on her FB page I saw a picture of Valerie and this pretty lady.  Now Valerie has a lot of pictures on her FB, but for some reason I was drawn to this lady so I clicked on the link and was taken to her blog and other things. Here's a link to Juana Mikels  and I will give you a hint: photo cre...

After praying this prayer, Betty was martyred in China in 1934. To learn more about Betty Scott Stam's you can purchase a book here about her life. xo, Angela   blog subscription  | twitter | facebook

Many of you have inquired about injuries that Lars Gren and his wife Elisabeth Elliot Gren sustained in their car accident.  As of June 14, 2012: Lars is in Ma., staying with friends since he is not able to drive til Aug. per Valerie.  He fractured a c-2 in his neck and had surgery for a screw to be fused to the bone, and is not getting as well, as quickly as he'd liked. Lars and Valerie had to make the decision to put Elisabeth in a facility because Val could no longer care for her. Elisabeth's stay in the facility will be brief, as Val plans on taking her back to Ma, once she returns from the UK {Val is helping her daughter Elisabeth with her 4th baby}. For those of you who would like to send Elisabeth well wishes, I have her mailing address, just e-mail me and I will give it to you. Many have asked if you could download the picture of E.E & Val.  I'm afraid that you can't.  I really do appreciate you asking before taking the liberty to do s...

M any of you have asked about the interview of Elisabeth Elliot's daughter.  I've decided to put the link on this page to give you easier access. I do ask that you do not copy, download and/or save the pictures without permission.  I have more pictures of the family to put up, but am trying to see if my request will be honored first, it wasn't on my last blog. Anyway, please enjoy the interview and if you have questions I'd loved to hear from you. Interview with Valerie Elisabeth Elliot {Update from daughter Valerie Elliot She A video interview with the slang missionaries wives and more pictures of Valerie & Family .  Please don't download, print or forward pictures.  I can see if this is done and will be force to take the pictures down.  That would be sad, as many have asked to see Elisabeth Val and the family. So please simply look at the pictures and enjoy. Thank you.  Enjoy! xo, Angela blog subscription  | twitter | facebook...

My husband began a new career in sales— meat salesman in particular.   I was back home. We were doing much better financially, but we still had a lot of debt to clean up from the previous months. One account that had been severely damaged was our rent in the apartment where we lived.  We were charged an astronomical amount {in our eyes} for late fees.  An amount which preceded our rent.  We couldn't renew our lease unless we paid the fees.  We did pay the rent and an agreed amount of fees, but we didn't renew the lease.  We moved, instead, a couple of blocks away to a cheaper apartment. At this point, I'd been home for a couple of weeks.  Reading Elisabeth's book, and listening to her tapes. Sometimes Elisabeth would have her daughter Valerie on her program and Valerie would talk about what it was like being a stay-at-home mother with eight children whom she home schooled. "Eight children?"  "Home school?"  "What kind...

W e had left Galveston in the middle of the night.  My husband drove the 26 foot U-Haul  which held all of our material possessions, and the kids and my mother rode with me in my new car as he led us to the fifth largest Metropolitan city.  "Houston here we come."  I remember saying.  Big dreams.  Big things.  New beginnings awaited.   God was finally smiling on us .  This is what I had always suspected a child of God would experience—heaven on earth, the anticipation of good things to come.  I was excited!  I had my two babies finally, a boy 15 months, and a girl four months.  And The Art Institute Of Houston awaited. I was enrolled as an Interior Designer major.  My heart was set on designing air crafts & luxury hotels.  My long term goals ... travel and move to the Big Apple.  My husband and I had already talked about putting the kids in the best private schools.  We were s...

M y first gateway to joy experience and my first encounter with Elisabeth Elliot are two different experiences which I will share with you next week.  Today, I would like to share with you why I added "s" to "gateway," and why I wanted to start this link up.   I added the "s" to gateway because it has been my experience that God uses many "gateways" to lead us to points in our lives of where He wants us to be.  As I shared with you in yesterday's post : God purposely led the children of Isreal "by the way of the wilderness."   His gateways are always meant to direct us and get us onto His path by whatever means He deems necessary. The other reason I added the "s" is because I didn't know if legally I could use "Gateway to joy."   Gateways may not even be legal as it is still so closely named to "Gateway to Joy."   I will just wait and see what happens.  If the name changes you know why. ...

'C hild of My love, lean hard, and let Me feel the pressure of they care; I know thy burden, child I shaped it; poised it in My own hand, made no proportion in its weight to thine unaided strength; for even as I laid it on, I said I shall be near, and while he leans on me, this burden shall be Mine, not his . So shall I keep My child within the circling arms of My own love.  Here lay it down, nor fear to impose it on a shoulder which upholds the government of worlds.  Yet closer come; thou art not near enough;  I would embrace thy care so I might feel My child reposing on My breast. Thou lovest me?  I know it.  Doubt not then; but, loving Me, lean hard." ~ May Prentiss Smith "Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you.  He will never let righteous be shaken."   ~ Ps. 55:22 Thank you dearest readers!  I am so proud to say that no one has tried downloading the pictures of Valerie & her family!  I asked and you responded...

I n January 1956 the world was shocked when learning that five American missionaries had been speared to death in the Equardorian jungles by the Auca Indians who were reported, at that time, to be the most savage tribe on earth.  "What seemed to all the world like a tragic ending of the missionaries' dream to reach this isolated tribe was only the first chapter of one of the most breathtaking missionary stories of the twentieth century" In the video below the wives of the five men speak of their husbands. Below are some pictures of Jim & Elisabeth Elliot's daughter Valerie Elliot Shepard and her family.  For any of you who have Elisabeth's book The Savage My Kinsman , she's the little blond haired darling who is all grown up now with not only children of her own, but grandchildren too.  Valerie gave me access to these pictures to share about a year and a half-ago now.  I had them up on one of my blogs, but took them down because folks were dow...

W ords of Elisabeth Elliot after finding out her husband and the father of her young daughter Valerie had been murdered:  "I found peace in the knowledge that I was in the hands of God.  Not in confidence that I was not going to be killed.  Not in any false sense of security that God would protect me, anymore than He protected my husband, the four missionaries or Honorio from the wooden lances.  Simply in knowing that He held my destiny in His two hands, and that what He did was right." Isn't this why we love her so?  In her life we see ... not perfection, but a desire to live out what she had been taught about the Bible and God all of her life.   Perfect she is not.  A woman who loves her God and worked diligently to live out her faith she most certainly is. Let us learn from the legacy that Elisabeth has left for us to set the bar for living out God's Word high in our lives.  Let us remember, likewise, that God i...

I sent an email to Valerie Shepard {Jim & Elisabeth Elliot's daughter} today to get an update on her mother.  So many of you have written me inquiring about our dear Elisabeth.  Here's what Valerie has said that I can share with you all—my dear friends: Our family has 3 sisters (our daughters) getting married this summer! One in June, one in July, and one in Sept!! We are very thankful for each new fiance and see how God has given them to our girls. We are continuing to plant Christ Coastal Church here in Southport, and we're thankful for the Lord blessing us with a faithful few. Would appreciate prayers for God to increase our number and for us to find another facility to rent (we meet in our living rm. now) and for God to send at least 2 other couples who are committed to our vision- that of reaching un-churched people here in Brunswick County. Theo is planning on going to a Christian college in the fall, not sure which yet. Sarah has one more year of hig...

 FYI: ' Walter & Valerie Shepard  As many of you know, I love Elisabeth Elliot.  It is through Elisabeth Elliot, my mentor, that I came to accept and learned how to accept God's will for my life.  Last year, Valerie, Elisabeth and Jim Elliot's daughter honored me by letting me interview her.  She was vague because she has plans on sharing her family story in some manner in the near future, but knowing how I felt about her mother and how much this interview would mean to so many of you she spoke with me via email.   How does your family celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas? We had company often for Thanksgiving, and we always had a " Pilgrim reading " and saying what we each were thankful for around the table. For Christmas we were not often inviting people for dinner because our older children wanted " just family ". We always opened stockings around 7-8 AM, had a Breakfast of baked apples, and either a sweet bread or their favorite "s...

A h my dear friends, hello and welcome back! It's late and I'm tired.  But I'm oh so glad to have this opportunity to meet with you again and share my heart-felt words. Our Internet service has been down.  We switched from ATT Uverse to Clear. Tonight I had a chance to stop by an old friend Ann Voskamp .  As usual she ministered to my soul in only the special way God has given her the ability to do.  I got a chance to listen to her speech at the Relevant Conference , boy was that speech fitting. There are several things that Ann said that hit home with me, but one of the things that continued to ring loudly in my mind is I am a woman born to blog for such  a time as this.  Ann contiue using the phrase "Such women you are for such a time as this..."  Guess what?  My dearest friend it's not by accident that I heard that speech and it's not by accident that you are reading this post.  You too, regardless of where you are in your Chri...