Barb Twigg
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Oh, the Sweetness of a Friend!
Hi everyone — Ann here, and a happy Advent season to you all! In the spirit of Christmas, I'd wanted to pick one of the stories from the Gospels to talk about today, but which one to choose? These stories are all so full of wonder. After some thought, I finally landed on a favorite…
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When a Spouse Leaves the Faith — Part 3
Hi friends, Ann here! When a spouse leaves the faith — part 1 When spouse leaves the faith – part 2 I’d like to thank those SUMites whose stories have helped inform the last two posts on this topic. It is an intensely difficult path. The grief of a lost shared faith in marriage is…
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When a Spouse Leaves the Faith — Part 2
Ann here again! When a spouse leaves the faith, Part 1 Today we're going to continue with the above topic, and I thought I would start with a little story: Last year, I attended a ministry conference. We were a small group, perhaps 100 in the room, and Auckland is a small place so we…
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When A Spouse Leaves Their Faith — Part 1
Ann here! Today I want to talk about a path that is walked by so many here, and it's a really difficult one: ‘When a Spouse Leaves the Faith’. In our community we have many a story to tell about how we found ourselves in a SUM. In my case, for example, I was far…
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Church, We Are Crossing Over!
Dear friends, Ann here! I had a different post planned today, but that can wait until next week. Instead, I thought I'd share a few impromptu thoughts given the present events. We're watching wide-eyed as the US election plays out, and then across the Atlantic many Europeans are entering their second lockdown. It's all pretty…
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On Shedding the ‘Unequally Yoked’ Badge
Hello friends, Ann here! It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote, but in my last post I shared a story from our archives where the Holy Spirit had given us a caution about using the ‘unequally yoked’ label too much. To catch up, you can read that post here. Today I'm interested…
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Taking Off the Badge
Hi friends, Ann here! We’re currently looking at past words that God has spoken to our community. To catch up, here are the recent posts: Part one – 'Museum of SUM' Part two – 'God is Calling our Spouses' Now, this next word I’m going to share is one where the Lord gave us an…
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Waging War With God’s Words
Hi SUMites, Ann here! As you know, we’re currently looking at past words that the Holy Spirit has spoken to this community. In our archives there are places where the Lord has said something specific to equip us, and I’m in the process of pulling these words out, in date order, to see how the…
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A Word: God is Calling our Spouses.
Hello friends, Ann here. Today I’m continuing from my post last week about this blog being like a wonderful museum of God stories. If you missed it you can catch up here. In that post, I described how God has given our community the occasional prophetic word over the years: words of wisdom or promises specifically…
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Our Coatings of Protection
Hi SUM family, Ann here. Last week I had a ‘moment’ in my SUM life, as we do, that turned into a good wisdom lesson for me, so I'm going to share it today. It was about God's protection. I was reclining in my favorite armchair before bed one night, cocoa in hand, when something…
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The Museum of SUM
Hi SUMites, Ann here! Lately, I've been thinking about how much this blog is a museum full of interesting stories. I wonder if any of you find it so? And, within it there are places where God has answered some of those questions we talked about in our last post. That's what I wanted to…
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What’s Your Biggest Question for Jesus About Your Marriage?
Hello friends, Ann here. Recently, I popped a question onto our Facebook page, asking ‘What’s your biggest question for Jesus right now concerning your spiritual mismatch?’ Many of you will have seen that post, but some won’t. I found the responses so helpful in relation to my own path, that I thought you might too.…
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The Day God Surprised Me
Hi friends, Ann here! We can walk through this SUM path feeling weary, right? But there are moments where God brings us a surprise gift to cheer us up. Today I want to encourage you with a little story: It's about the day I discovered Bryce’s favorite friend had unexpectedly become Christian. If you need…
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Wrapping Up Our Series on LOVE
Dear friends, Ann here. Today we wrap up our series on love. Here in our SUM community there are many different marriages. Some have spouses who are easy to love; others have extremely challenging situations. But in every relationship – easy or hard – love is not easy. Nor is it simple. And even with…
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When Love Makes You Unpopular
Hi friends, Ann here! As we sit in 1 Corinthians 13, it occurs to me how many facets this little word ‘LOVE’ has. It’s easy to think of love as being kind and patient; it’s easy to think of it as being something like a hug. It is truly that. But there’s another side, and…
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Dealing with a Difficult Person
Hi friends, Ann here! With our coffees at the ready, how about we take a look at this challenging gem today in 1 Corinthians 13: "Love keeps no record of wrongs" (1 Corinthians 13:5, NIV) It is a noble thing to not keep record of wrongs. But do any of you have an ‘extremely difficult…
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Clashing Cymbal or Lapping Ocean?
Hi friends, Ann here. Today we begin our series on LOVE, and in a moment I have a light-hearted story to share. But first, speaking of love, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your loving support after Lynn's announcement this week. This community is pure joy to me and I look…
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Our Summer Study: It’s a Wrap!
Hello friends, Ann here. Today I wanted to write a final word on our Summer Study to properly wrap it up. We’ve spent the last few posts looking at Jesus and the Church as the ultimate spiritual mismatch. And prior to that we raced through so many Bible characters. I hope you enjoyed it as…
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A Royal Wedding and Our Earthly Marriages
Hi friends, Ann here. I remember, as a 5-year-old girl, being mesmerized by the wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles of England in 1981. Little girls are funny like that. They can be the ultimate dreamers. Knowing this, my mum bought me a little hard-backed book about the wedding and I would pore over…
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Jesus and the Church: The Ultimate Marriage Story
Hi friends, Ann here! I hope you've enjoyed our race through different Bible marriages this summer. We had much to look at and there were some marriages we didn’t even cover, such as Hosea's. Alas, summer is nearly over. In the middle of this summer study I received a message from one of our friends,…
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This Woman in the Bible is a One-Hit Wonder
Hello friends, Ann here! Today I’m going to write something different than what we hinted at in the last post. The Holy Spirit changes our plans sometimes, and I believe he wanted us to look at this Bible character next. Are you ready to meet her, this next one, this dark horse? Well, here we…