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Born to Be Lovers
Read more: Born to Be LoversImage courtesy of SawBear at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Hi! Ian from wintry Down Under. Love! It tends to be something we compartmentalize, don’t we? It’s how we feel about our spouse and children, our parents and there’s this industry around romance, the books and movies. Strangely, or perhaps not so, it’s actually not talked about a lot.…
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What to Do When Facing a Scary Giant
Read more: What to Do When Facing a Scary GiantHello friends, It’s Ann here and, with a smile on my face, I’m introducing a new series which we'll start next Friday: FIGHTING THAT GIANT! In other words, spiritual warfare. We can always do with a fresh look on how to walk victoriously. And I know that many of us are in situations right now…
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A Continued Testimony: My Family and Church
Read more: A Continued Testimony: My Family and ChurchHi SUM family, Ann here. A few weeks ago I shared about how my teenage son Miles is now attending church with me. Amazing, amazing, amazing! If you missed that story, you can catch up here. Today I want to give you an update because I know how encouraging testimonies can be. Specifically, I want…
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Love Suffers Long … And We Celebrate!
Read more: Love Suffers Long … And We Celebrate!Dear friends, hello! It’s Ann here, writing from a sunny Auckland. I’m smiling because this past fortnight was a treat seeing Lynn, Ian, Martha, Tiffany, and Dineen all take trips down memory lane to write about our community. Mirroring that, it was super encouraging to read the comments. Thank you!! We celebrate the work of…
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Celebrating 15 Years of Ministry: It Just Keeps Getting Bigger and Better
Read more: Celebrating 15 Years of Ministry: It Just Keeps Getting Bigger and BetterBy Martha Bush “Mama, you are the Christian in your marriage, but you are not showing respect to Daddy,” my two grown daughters said to me. And with that, they shoved a book in my hands, called Love and Respect, and said, “You need to read this, and get your act together!” In that moment,…
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Where Are You Planted?
Read more: Where Are You Planted?Hello there, Sumites! So great to be with you today to celebrate the 15th year of this beautiful ministry! I mean, community. Because that’s what this is, more than anything. A community. God’s taught me a lot about unity over the years. I still remember when the Holy Spirit significantly shifted our thinking here at…
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Celebrating 15 Years! – God works in mysterious ways!
Read more: Celebrating 15 Years! – God works in mysterious ways!Happy 15 years dear SUMites. Ian here from Sydney, Australia. I thought I’d share how I found this community that is very dear to me. Some of you may be familiar with my story but for all of you newbies you might find it interesting how a man from Down Under stumbled across this safe…
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SUM Community, Let’s Party!
Read more: SUM Community, Let’s Party!By Ann Hutchison My friends, today is an auspicious day: A certain someone turns fifteen. Nope, it's not one of our children, it's this ministry. Fifteen years ago today this blog had its humble beginnings with its very first post! Books emerged. A YouTube channel. Friendships. Testimonies. We've seen salvations of spouses, restorations of marriages,…
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Reflections on Attending Church Alone
Read more: Reflections on Attending Church AloneDear friends, Ann here! Today I want to chat about one of our topics that is an old favorite: Attending church alone. I type this with a smile, but it's a wry smile. Whether or not we've got into a routine, I think most of us would say that Church-plus-SUM is super tricky! I shared…
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Sow Bountifully, Reap Bountifully
Read more: Sow Bountifully, Reap BountifullyAnn here! I have a little thought for us today: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 (NKJV) Sowing. In a spiritually unequal marriage? Perhaps we can pause and think about this for a minute. When we’re in a spiritually unequal marriage,…
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The Curious Move of Jesus in My Home
Read more: The Curious Move of Jesus in My HomeAnn here! When you're driving in the dark it's a great place to talk to a teen. With both sets of eyes fixed on the road nothing too intense is going on. That's probably how a teenage boy likes it, and it's where my son and I found ourselves last night as we drove home…
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Teenage Testimony Time Again!
Read more: Teenage Testimony Time Again!My dear friends, Ann here. Thank you so much for your lovely comments on Monday’s post. It was as if the whole SUM community sent up a cheer of excitement to hear that my one teenager had joined church. The Body of Christ. And we cheered because we get it. We get the pain. We…
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God’s Move in My Family
Read more: God’s Move in My FamilyDear friends, Before I continue to share my story from Passover, I need to tell you about one of those less wondrous 'SUM moments' — Because it forms the backdrop to what I share next. It was one of those moments in church. All that happened was I turned around to see some kids having…
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Introducing Jesus Round the Dinner Table
Read more: Introducing Jesus Round the Dinner TableBy Ann Hutchison I lit the candles, put some serene music on, and let the aroma of lamb waft through the house. It was Passover evening, just a couple of weeks ago, and I'd made my family a special meal. "Ok, family," I called out. "Let’s have dinner!" And so my three came to the…
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It’s Okay to Doubt
Read more: It’s Okay to DoubtImage courtesy of FAVPNG and workablequantit26 Hi Sumites, Ian here. Another Easter has passed. Ann led us through Holy Week and I thought I’d share some thoughts on one of the stories we read post Jesus’ resurrection. Thomas and his doubts When Jesus first appeared to the group of disciples in the Upper Room on…
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Focus on Jesus, And … Things Bloom!
Read more: Focus on Jesus, And … Things Bloom!Dear SUMites, Ann here. I hope you enjoyed our little experience of walking together through Easter. I have to say it was a great discipline for me to focus solely on Jesus that week. On the topic of 'focusing solely on Jesus', when I first started writing for this blog a few years ago I…
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Heavy Stones and Dry Bones – A Poem by Charumathi R. Rao
Read more: Heavy Stones and Dry Bones – A Poem by Charumathi R. RaoHeavy Stones and Dry Bones – A Poem by Charumathi R. Rao She walked down the dusty path, very early on that Sunday morn, A bag of spices in her hands, teary faced and heart forlorn. She’d seen him stripped and beaten blue, a crown of thorns upon His head, All He’d said had…
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The Slithering Snakes of Holy Week
Read more: The Slithering Snakes of Holy WeekWe've now got to the middle of Holy Week. My friends, one thing we see in the Gospels is that those Pharisees were an absolute pain in the backside! No, not just a pain. It's serious. Their rejection of Jesus is really, really bad. Really bad. Jesus shares pearls of wisdom that final week. His…
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Monday of Holy Week
Read more: Monday of Holy WeekIt’s Monday of Holy Week in Jerusalem. With just three days to go before the crucifixion, Jesus is walking around Jerusalem ministering to others. In love. Miraculous, amazing Jesus. I cannot imagine the turmoil within his soul as he dug deep to carry out those last ministry tasks, knowing what he would endure next. At…
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What Does Hosanna Mean – Passion Week Starts Now!
Read more: What Does Hosanna Mean – Passion Week Starts Now!SUM Nation. Lynn Donovan here. Gang, it’s TRIUMPHANT ENTRY Sunday. Do you know on this day the people of Israel believed their Messiah arrived. AND INDEED HE DID. This story is very familiar to Christians world-wide, but there is so many nuances and unsaid statements that we completely miss. Here is one. The disciples and…
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Holy Week Here at SUM
Read more: Holy Week Here at SUMHi SUM family, Ann here. This time of year is ever so special. It’s a time when we lift our eyes collectively to the cross of Jesus. There’s such value in faith routines, and I know many of you have routines that you follow, year after year. For me, one treasured routine is to follow…
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Top Three Tips for Thriving in a Spiritually Mismatched Marriage
Read more: Top Three Tips for Thriving in a Spiritually Mismatched MarriageAnn here! Today I had an interesting faith conversation with a man with whom I cross paths occasionally. I know him in a professional rather than social capacity, but whenever I see him we have a good chat. So, I'll call him a 'friend-acquaintance'. Anyway, today I saw him for the first time in a…
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So, We Roll up Our Sleeves as Workers!
Read more: So, We Roll up Our Sleeves as Workers!Dear friends, I hope the past few posts down memory lane have been interesting to you. God loves this community – His SUM family – and wants us to walk in hope! Wrapping up this series on past words from the archives, I guess I have a couple of thoughts: It's so important that…
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A Wave is Coming
Read more: A Wave is ComingHello friends, Ann here! I hope these recent words from the archives have been refreshing your souls. Don’t we need it right now! After a year of sitting through this pandemic, we certainly can do with a little spark of fresh stuff. So, let's roll up our sleeves and carry on a little longer with…