spiritually mismatched marriage
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In Our Homes We Are Fresh as a Daisy!
Hi dear friends, On Monday I talked about a particular feature of our Christian life in our homes: That on the one hand we're engaged in fierce battle against the powers of darkness; but on the other, much of our faith life is about enjoying the abundant life of Jesus by receiving his love and…
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Representing Jesus to Our Families
By Ann Hutchison Hi SUMites! I just had a realization that gave me a giggle. I went onto our Instagram page, scrolled down, and realized that I have put so many pictures of weaponry on there. We have at least two sets of boxing gloves … a sword … a spear … a few videos…
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Alissa Berglund Salvation Testimony
This week one of our dear SUMites, Alissa Berglund, sent us the following story. This was one of the salvation testimonies we heard of a few weeks ago behind the scenes, and since then Alissa has been writing it up, knowing just how much it will encourage us all. We're so happy for her, and…
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Bold Speech in Our Homes
Dear friends, It's Ann here, and today we’re looking at our final story in Paul’s life. A story about Bold Speech. Yep, Bold Speech! It’s funny to talk about bold speech here in our community because a motto of our ministry, for years, has been ‘Winning him without words’. Most of us will know that…
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Are You Fighting the Right Battles?
Hi SUM family, Ann here. What a treat to have Martha write for us on Monday — Thank you, Martha! And, phew, the titles of our latest blog posts may look like we're being challenging. Are you kicking against the goads? was Martha's post. Now, mine is titled: Are you fighting the right battles? That…
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Saint Paul — What a Man!
Dear friends, Welcome to our Summer Bible Study on the Apostle Paul! It's Ann here, and I can't wait to dive in to some of his stories, taking a leaf or two out of his book. Somewhat ironically, only this past Saturday I had a more difficult time as a Christian than I've had in…
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Perishing vs Being Saved
Hi friends. For today's post here’s a little video that I just did live on our Facebook page. Enjoy! Ann
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The Ice Cream Van
Hi again dear SUMites I said in my last post that the Holy Spirit had given us two playful pictures to hold at the moment. The first one I described in the last post. The second one I'm sharing today. We are children to Jesus, and sometimes he will use playful analogies with us. What…
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Another Spouse Gets Baptized!
Ann here! Teehee … I bet the title made you eagerly open this one. And, you won't be disappointed with what you read next. God glorifies His name through this community. Sometimes we have to wait a little while between testimonies, but they always come. I remember just before COVID spread through the world I…
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The Way We Fight Giants
My friends, Ann here. I have a problem. Here I am writing a series on how to fight giants using the example of some fear I've been battling … But this week the fear has gone completely! So, that's inconvenient because I'm trying to write about it. Maybe the giant wasn't enjoying the fight and…
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Battle Series: We Won’t Start With The Giant!
Hi SUMites! Today we’re embarking on our series entitled ‘Fight that Giant!’ If you missed the introduction to this series you can catch up here. I’m rubbing my hands together at the thought of writing these upcoming posts, for 'giants' — That is, spiritually difficult things in our lives — are nasty critters. As we…
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Reflections on Attending Church Alone
Dear 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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The Curious Move of Jesus in My Home
Ann 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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God’s Move in My Family
Dear 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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Holy Week Here at SUM
Hi 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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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 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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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…