Cheryl's Corner

What do you do when your passion for the Lord has disappeared? What do you do when you feel empty, dry and numb and because of that, you feel like you have nothing   to give? What do you do when guilt and fear of failure cloud the truth of God’s great love and grace? This is where I am right now and it’s a painful place to be. Yet, as I’ve started to talk about these emotions I’m experiencing, I’m strangely comforted by the fact that everyone who follows Christ, has experienced the same struggles. How did I get to this place? The answer that keeps popping up is simple, but complicated. I’ve been so distracted. It hasn’t been just one distraction. It’s been many; big ones and small ones.   Life is busy, and there is always something fighting for our attention and time. The problem is I didn’t fully realize how distracted I was and how much it was affecting my relationship with God. Until last week that is… This past week when I was supposed to lead ...

Recently I moved from the rapidly-growing town of Binbrook, to live with a friend in the city!   Packing my stuff (you never realize how much stuff you have until you move!) jogged my memory and it made me go back in the past. Some wonderful memories were brought back and some not so great memories were also brought back. For whatever reason, God brought back grade 6 in particular. Grade 6 was a dark time in my life. I was being teased at school and every day I would cry and beg not to have to go to school. My parents went through a lot that year as well. Towards the end of that year I started entertaining thoughts of taking a whole bottle of pills so that all the pain would be over. I even tried to run away one night.   It is a season of my life that is still hard to think and talk about.  The next year my parents decided to homeschool us and sometimes I wonder where I would be if I wasn’t ever homeschooled. I think I would definitely be a very different person ...

I’ve had the privilege of working at a nursing home for the last few years, and many of the residents have become just like grandparents to me. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of wonderful people but a few residents in particular have found a special place in my heart. After being away for a couple of weeks, I went into work one evening last week for a staff meeting.   During it I found out that one of the resident ladies I’ve been closest with had taken a turn for the worse and was close to death. It was a struggle to pay attention to the rest of the meeting and afterwards I went upstairs immediately to visit with her. When I asked the nurse if it was okay if I visited with her for a while, I found out that she had passed away while we were having our meeting. It’s always hard not to get to say goodbye to residents, but to be so close to being able to see her one last time, broke my heart. I had considered going into work early that day to say hi to everyone before the meet...

It has been said that the third time is a charm and while that isn’t always the case, it proved to be true for our Mexico missions trip this summer!   It was our third trip there and I think we were all impacted, more than any other year. We always work with the same missionaries and church, and this year we got to see fruit from our continued relationship with them and how God is opening new doors of opportunity for them.   The first week we were there we helped run a camp for kids in the community, and the second week worked up in a village up the mountains called Mimbres. It was a completely new experience for all of us. Life there is very different, the houses are small and simple yet the people are so hospitable, they grow all of their own food and there is not very much running water. We also ran a camp for the kids there and had opportunity to help lead a church service each night we were there. What happened in those two weeks, I believe will extend way past those...

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.   After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.   When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. Can you imagine being in this situation after healing a girl in the name of Jesus? Paul and Silas were just following the call they had on their life. They had no power themselves to demand an evil spirit to come out of someone, it came from God . How would you respond?   Would you plead for rescue, complain it’s not fair and let frustration take over, and fall asleep in exhaustion?  This is how Paul and Silas responded:   About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.(Acts 16) Singing definitely wouldn’t be my natural or fi...