These thoughts came during my time of prayer and meditation in the Philippines. I thought I would share them with you as a way to help you understand a bit more about what God is working in me as my life goes enters into this new phase of life. During this season I feel like God would have me reorient my life towards recognizing the beauty in the world.
Beauty is one of the distilled essences of love. Where love abounds the aroma of beauty is present. Where love is confronted by hatred beauty is suppressed, but because love can never be eradicated, beauty will always be sensed, even if only in the smallest way.
In the end, judgment is God’s radical work to restore beauty when all other methods fail. JE LILLIE
It’s been a busy week! Brenda booked three more shows fo “My Hiding Place”. This means she will be here in The U.Ss. through the beginning of July at least.
Reviews have been so exciting and have affirmed that God is really anointing this project.
Here are some things people are saying;
“I WAS SHOCKED TODAY…stunned…wowed! I cried…I almost sobbed! I had Missionary Brenda J. Lillie in today for our Sunday morning service to do her dramatic performance of “My Hiding Place: Recollections from Corrie Ten Boom”. It was AMAZING.”- Pastor Dan Peloquin
“You nailed it! An amazing story told by an amazing storyteller!” – Wendy Brouliette
“Such a wonderful roller coaster of emotion; delivered by a truly talented woman. Bravo!”- Michael Murphy
“Beautiful ministry performance of The Hiding Place by Brenda J. Lillie. This power packed rendition of the story of Corrie Ten Boom is wonderful for any size church due to the conscious, minimalistic approach to props and technology. We could have been her toughest critics being well acquainted with the Ten Boom story from my own missionary service in Holland and my wife being Dutch (and her grandmother knowing Corrie from Haarlem). However, my wife and I were greatly touched by the legacy of the Ten Boom Family accurately portrayed through this 2-part dramatization. Bravo!!!”- Pastor Eric Capelli
“My Hiding Place” is the compelling true story of Corrie ten Boom. Written, produced, designed, and portrayed by the talented Brenda J. Lillie, Missionary to the Netherlands. This powerful, passionate, and inspiring production is more than an outstanding play – it is an experience! It’s a story of love and forgiveness. God is truly present in this amazing performance! A must see! – Pastor Robin Di Prima Koroskenyi
If you would like to book her for a show she is opening tours.
While Brenda has been ministering in this show, Jesus has been rewriting my schedule. Ministry has become much about prayer and caregiving for me. I have been meeting with people all week, praying with people all week, meeting practical and emotional needs all week. In between have been great swaths of prayer lasting 2 hours or more at a whack. It has been amazing!
God has also been allowing me to figure in several hours of writing a day. While I miss the office and the constant contact with leadership I feel like these adjustments have opened up avenues of ministry I have not explored for years. It has been so good.
Two days before Brenda and I left for The Philippines, Cornerstone Church (the church where Amanda and I serve) began 21 days of 24/7 prayer. While I could not be with the congregation during much of this season of prayer, I did spend a good deal of time in the presence of the Lord. I sat for many hours WONDERING about the new direction my life is taking and the new direction the church is taking. Here are some of the things which came to mind in my WONDERING:
“In order for me to discover the things which are going to be really important to me on this new path, I must reduce my life in its complexity. I must embrace the things which are truly important to my nature and do those things. Further I must begin to encourage others to learn what is important to their natures and do those things. ” Pondered 1-20-20
As I think about this I realize it flows out of something I have discovered about myself. I entered the ministry out of a great desire to connect with God and to help others do the same. I am now and have always been a contemplative. Prayer, worship, meditation and study are sort of my jam. I also realize the place of contemplation is where my greatest power resides to make a change in the world.
This season is a gift from God allowing these strengths of mine to have more room to grow. This season is also balancing/ limiting the activities which distract me from the contemplation which is mine by nature.
Finally as I embrace my thing it gets me out of the way so other people can do their thing. Then if they will simplify their lives they will be able to embrace whatever their jam is like I am now embracing mine!
My motto for this year is SHIFT YOUR FOCUS TO WONDER. In sharing that with my artist’s group back in January one of our artists wondered what God meant by wonder… that is, was I supposed to shift my focus towards looking at awe-inspiring things? Or was I supposed to shift my focus to ponder things more?
Now that I am in my third month of “SHIFTING”, I think God meant a little of both. On January 13th my sister and I embarked on a 10 day journey to The Philippines to attend my son’s marriage to Kristine Bernadette Causing Barrameda.
Those 10 days filled me with awe for sure.
I was awestruck by the fact that I was being privileged to witness such a sacred moment in the life of someone I had actually helped bring into the world.
I could not be prouder of the man he has become. I could not be more honored that a family a world away has entrusted us with the care of their beautiful daughter. I am awestruck that God has chosen to add another godly young woman full of talent and power to our family.
During that time I was often struck dumb by the overwhelming beauty of my daughter-in-law’s homeland. And I was floored by the total otherness of this place called The Philippines. Kristine said in the wedding video that she and Joe were from different worlds and she was completely truthful when she said it.
But during those 10 days in the developing nation that is The Philippines I was more than awestruck. I was left to ponder what God was and is DEVELOPING in me. Honestly, to my way of thinking what is transpiring inside of me is as foreign to my knowing as The Philippines was to my experience.
I am daily aware of the fact that my current spiritual reality is new ground for me. I have no memory of this place and precious little context to explain it.
I have often said to my boss that what God is going to do in our church may leave us looking somewhat unchurchy. If that is so for our congregation, it means that as individuals we are going to experience things that take us out of our understandings of who and what we have been. That is certainly something that might require some wondering.
I am mindful that historically, most powerful moves of God leave the people involved scratching their heads. As those moves DEVELOP people are left to fall back on the only thing that doesn’t change in the midst of life-altering change. That would be the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Well I am wondering at what God is doing in my life this year and I am wondering what to do about it. In all the wondering I am securing myself to God who is showing me through prayer, through the solid ground of His Word, the Bible and through the fellowship of believers. In that security I am DEVELOPING into the new thing that God wants me to be, in order to do the new thing that He expects from me as a part of Cornerstone Church.
Now what has God shown me in the midst of all this wondering……
Our fellowship has a very structured method for our member missionaries to raise funds. When Brenda came home last April she jumped right into using that method and following the rules to the “T”. While not great rule lovers we Lillies tend to be pretty stringent rule followers in most things.
Sadly the rules which are set up and which work for many of our member missionaries do not work well for all and they didn’t work at all for Brenda. She was actually losing money and driving herself nuts (literally) in the process.
Come October she was emotionally and spiritually exhausted and everyone who knew her understood that she could not go on with the process as it stood. Brenda’s leadership gave her three months sabbatical. Brenda used that time to pray and recuperate.
During that time God gave her an idea for a new play called “My Hiding Place.” The play is about a real life Christian heroine of the twentieth century, Corrie TenBoom. Brenda got permission from the TenBoom museum to write and perform the piece and began setting up shows for her return to ministry.
The show has made all the difference. It has activated Brenda’s creative bent and hitched it to the fundraising need. Bookings have begun to come in and the show is a roaring success. I have seen it three times now and each time I am moved to tears. Further the anointing is on this thing. 14 people have received Christ since the beginning of the year and Brenda has prayed with a host of people who profess Christianity but continue to walk in bitterness and unforgiveness.
Here is Brenda’s booking schedule. She is currently looking at breaking out of New England she is currently working on a tour of some Southern States and Pennsylvania. Anyone interested?
It was such a busy weekend at the Vicarage, I haven’t finished all the work it created yet…and it is almost Thursday. Part of that work is this post which I started writing on Monday morning and had to keep putting off until now.
The sad thing about getting behind like this is that life events don’t just stop so you can catch up. Oh no! They just keep rolling in so the work you didn’t get done when it was supposed to be done, keeps getting pushed back behind the work that you have to do today until saying things like “It was a very busy weekend”, really don’t matter because it is almost next weekend.
But I really want to tell you about the weekend we had here at the Vicarage.
Amanda started the weekend off when one of her friends who works at an adult dayhab in our area was burned out of her home. Amanda put out the call for clothing and essentials and spent a good deal of time gathering those items for delivery this week.
In the meantime Brenda left for a weekend tour of Connecticut. She performed her show, My Hiding Place, in Bristol on Friday night, taught a teen seminar in Greenwich on Saturday, and then preached twice on Sunday in Farmington.
Monday she started jury duty and got selected for a case she has been sitting panel for since.
For myself, I have been holding down the home front. Saturday our artist’s community set up an art show at one of the local libraries.
Sunday of course was church and then housework. I think I did something like nine loads of laundry this week! Of course none of us including the people who stayed here in Massachusetts have yet recovered fully from our trip to the Philippines. Some things have changed with Mom since we left and that leaves us all a little worried about her health.
So we watch and wait and work and wonder what is coming next for the ministers of the Vicarage. In the end, we can only deal with things as they come along. All of us are learning to just live in the moment and rejoice in the busyness and the blessedness of serving God in it.
Amanda picked us up at Boston Logan Airport at 9:30 A.M. yesterday. Because of the time change we arrived in Boston at the same time we left South Korea! Can you say jet lag?
Actually it hasn’t been that bad. We got home at noon and visited with Melanie, James, Daniella and Mom for a bit. Once the Franklin family headed home to Lynn, Brenda and I took naps for a few hours. Once I was up I pushed myself to stay up until about 11 P.M.
This morning I began getting back into routine. I was up for prayer at 4 A.M.. I walked the dogs and then went to the store for mom’s papers, scratch tickets and morning cigarettes. Then Amanda and I headed off to the church for staff/ board prayer.
Cornerstone is in a 21 day season of fasting and prayer. The church is open to those who sign up for prayer 24 hours a day. So I prayed for an hour and then had meetings until about 10:30.
Then it was home for some lunch and a nap before walking the dogs again. I did a little house work and then sat down to catch up on some writing. Which of course brings me here.
As I prayed this morning the Lord really impressed upon me, through the writings of other congregants in our congregational prayer journal, that the winter season of our church is over and we are heading into a Spring time season.
The Scripture the Lord gave me to meditate on as He impressed the idea of Spring on me was 2 Samuel 11:1
“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”
The word of the Lord to me was that Spring time is a season of spiritual warfare. In this Spring that is upon us we will have to fight as the armies of Israel did. If we do we will possess the land. Conversely, if we make David’s mistake and do not join the fight then we will be taken.
Well the count down has begun! We are now just over two days from our trip to The Philippines to take part in Kristine and Joe’s wedding.
The preparation to leave has our heads spinning. I typed out the list on how to manage the house for Amanda and Melanie who will be caring for Mom Jacopo, Mercedes and the Vicarage while Brenda and I are away. I have sat with the families from the church who will be helping them out during our away time. I picked up Mom’s meds, did some grocery shopping, got money out of the bank for their needs while I am away, bought the dog food and the bird food and the cat food. I still have to clean my car, do the bills, pack and clean my office.
But as the time approaches Brenda and I are reminded that our leaving for there does not mean life stops here. So much is going on this weekend and in our absence.
Brenda’s show debuted last night to rave reviews! It is a powerful show folks. If your church or community would like to book this show you can contact Brenda at Brenda J. Lillie For the Netherlands on Facebook.
Meanwhile our church is getting ready for 21 days of fasting and prayer. I feel like this is one of the most important moments in our church’s history.
Today after we open the 24/7 prayer and fasting I am heading off to Special Touch Ministries for our monthly gathering in Westminster. Then I have the 11P.M. – 1A.M. shift at prayer
Tomorrow, Brenda is preaching in Taunton MA and I am leading worship at Cornerstone and then Amanda, my Nephew Tyler and I are heading off on a little journey to wrap things up before Brenda and I take off on Monday for…
The Vicarage is what we call our home. We call it that because it is a place where we three ministers of the gospel live. I know…I know…we are not really vicars but I couldn’t bear the thought of calling our little cottage the parsonage. It just doesn’t ring right. It is not just the place where we live though. It is the place where we ministers have grown up. Actually there have been Lillie’s on this block in our tiny town since the year 1940. From my back yard I can see the house where my father grew up.
But the Vicarage is not the Vicarage just because we live there. This old house has housed ministers of three different churches over the course of its life. God keeps putting His men in this house and I have to believe there is a reason for that. We have a purpose here in little Winchendon. We have a job to do which has been assigned by God. He has provided us a space from which to do it. The present troubles facing us do not compare to the power of the promise we have been given.
When last we spoke, one of the things I told you was that Brenda was put on sabbatical after her conferences in August. Her leadership told her she needed to take off through the end of October. I was relieved because she was emotionally and spiritually exhausted (and anyone who has ever done the work of full time ministry knows how difficult spiritual exhaustion can be).
During her time away from the itineration trail Brenda sought spiritual guidance and spent a lot of time praying. The Lord led her during that time to write a one woman show based on the life of Corrie TenBoom one of the 20th century’s great heroes of the faith. Corrie Tenboom’s name rises to the level of Graham, Bon Hoeffer, Elliot and Mother Theresa.
That show is almost ready to go up. The first production will be on January 10th. I have sat through two workshops of the play and a few rehersals. It is gripping.
As Brenda once again hits the itineration trail she is offering the show as an outreach to churches and civic groups. Here is a snippet she did for our church during the month of November. She was out of costume but worked it into a presentation she gave to our church. The full production is being hosted at Cornerstone in April.
Brenda is travelling across Southern New England with the show and is also looking at a tour in Michigan. She is wiling to tour your area as well and will come for the cost of travel and a love offering. If you would like to book her contact me in the comments section below.
Notes From the Vicarage 