A warm hello and much love to all of you wonderful readers, friends and family!

I feel so sad that I haven’t kept things here very up to date this summer. Please forgive my tardiness in doing so. It has been a beautiful, full summer dripping with God’s blessings and grace and presence! I pray yours has been equally wonderful!

Tomorrow marks one year since my dad’s Homegoing. We still miss him very much and our home is flooded with memories of him, but God has been so faithful to our family in every way! We rejoice in knowing that he is whole and healed and perfected and finally gazes on the face of his Jesus and fellowships with all those saints who proceeded him to Heaven. Oh the faithfulness of Jesus! It is truly unfathomable!

I spent a week with my darling friend, Leah in Nashville in June! It was such an amazing God-adventure and just the most precious gift to see her after THREE LONG YEARS and to see with my eyes the HUGE, AMAZING things God has done in and through her beautiful life! The fellowshipping and listening to her mighty God-stories and hearing her play the piano and guitar and sing like an angel as she shared the songs God had written through her! We fed the homeless of Nashville together one evening along with some other beautiful people involved in the ministry there. We went out and loved on the precious inner city children and fed them hot dogs. The blessings just went on and on and on! Wow! What a joy! How overwhelmingly amazing is the beautiful Body of Christ!

After leaving Leah, I returned to the beautiful country, Primm Springs to be exact, to volunteer at Above Rubies Ministries for two weeks. It was, as always an incredible blessing to see the precious Campbells again and all of their family and to just work for the Kingdom, through ministering to precious mothers and families in over 100 countries! I am always so intensely blessed when I leave and this time was no different. The Campbells are like family to me and this summer made my 4th year with them! Thank You Lord for this beautiful ministry after your heart!

When I returned home, my garden was screaming to be picked, so I was thrust into a rampage of bean, pepper, squash, zucchini, and cucumber picking and processing. Now, the beautiful tomatoes are ripening. I have brandywines, pineapples, german stripe, razzleberries, romas, and some delightfully sweet, juicy bite-sized golen cherry tomatoes. Today, I made kamut rolls with fresh dill from the garden. Last week, I made homemade raw pesto with my garden basil which is so delicious! We had a fresh tomato and basil pizza on Saturday. Mother and I cook together almost every day in the summer, as the crops are ready to be picked and cooked and go straight to the table! What a gift it is to have these beautiful crops! What a blessing from God’s generous hand! I cannot imagine a summer without a garden! It is a passion of mine.  I am so very blessed!

God has also presented me with an amazing opportunity this summer. He has called me to lead a girl’s Bible Study called, “Bright Lights” by Sarah Mally. Many of you will know about this neat ministry. I am so excited I could squeal! It begins next month and I would so appreciate being saturated with your prayers as I attempt to minister to young girls in a very critical time of life.

Mother is doing fairly well, though her arthritis acts up from time to time. God has been faithful to give her strength and comfort in the loss of my dad and we are so grateful for His endless mercy. My Grandma is also doing well. Lord willing, we celebrate her 91st birthday next month! She is so blessed!!

I cannot believe how very fast summer is zooming by! In no time at all, we will glance out the window and see snow flakes! I have been convicted lately to ask God for the grace to savor every moment of my days EVEN MORE, taking nothing for granted. Time is such a precious gift from God!

Dear readers, I PRAY that you have enjoyed issue no. 8 of WFTM! I pray it has caused your mother heart to “wake up” and desire to nurture those precious people God has placed in your life. I do have only a few copies left of this issue and would be happy to send you one if you would like. Just leave a comment or e-mail me at candace@watchingforthemorning.com .

In everything that I do in every day life, I seem to always be mindful of Watching for the Morning and the next issue. I am very excited about the next one, number 9, which will be full of testimonies of God’s faithfulness! Oh, you’re all going to love it, I know! It’s going to be so encouraging to all of you as you continue to wait for God’s best and keep busy in the Kingdom. I can hardly wait! I wish I could tell you that is finished and ready to go but that is not the case at all. I have the vision and the outline and it is in the beginning stages, but I am very, very low on donations right now. It cannot be printed until I have at at least $800 more in donations. I am confident that as with all things, God will bring it about and send it forth to all of you precious readers in His most perfect, ordained time! But right now, I cannot tell you when that will be. So, we will just wait on the Lord and see what He has in store and when He is ready to launch this new issue forth. I so appreciate your prayers as I begin to put this issue together! It must be breathed from God’s heart, not mine. It is His dream and He will bring it forth exactly as He wants.

I am also still accepting articles for the upcoming issue. You are more than welcome to e-mail them to me at candace@watchingforthemorning.com . Remember to proof read the material BEFORE sending. Thank y0u so much for your faithful prayers for this ministry!

Don’t forget, dear readers to stop by the 1,000 Gifts page and post some of the gifts God has poured out on you…big or small! I am up to four hundred and something and it has been such a blessing to just keep a list of His tender mercies! Won’t you join me? You will be so happy that you did.

In closing, I would like to share with you something that God has been showing me lately. He has prompted me to dig deeper, to press harder, to seek Him with a relentless heart even more-so. You see, I thought I knew Him, all of Him, but He loves to surprise us with new facets of Himself! He has done a really good job at doing that for me this summer! He wants us to know that He is endless. He is past figuring out but we are blessed when we learn all we can about Him, His perfect-loving and just character and enter into deeper levels of intimacy with Him. You see, we NEVER STOP GROWING in the Lord Jesus if we are true followers of His! We don’t reach a certain place and build a house and live there. We keep moving and trucking along. We are truly called to be sojourners(1 Chronicles 29:15)! We should be skipping and dancing (sometimes we may even be crawling, but as long as we keep going!)  up and down the mountains of God’s heart to learn more of Him, to know His heart deeper. We should be devouring His Word over and over and over again and spending time in silence before Him just to hear what He wants to tell us. Oh, how He loves to commune with His daughters! We often come dragging ourselves to His feet thinking we’re doing Him a favor or we’re fulfilling some type of obligation. We need to realize afresh that it is an HONOR and a PRIVELEDGE and a GIFT to enter the presence of the Most High God…and to be able to so BOLDLY because of the precious blood of Christ.  We simply cannot allow ourselves to grow unmotivated, complacent, or apathetic when it comes to our time and communion with Him. It is in His presence, in our quiet closet of prayer that we are “real” all fronts and masks aside. We gaze on His holiness and we become highly disturbed at our own. We are overwhelmed by His love and grace and as we consistenly return to His feet, it is impossible for us to stay the same. Yes, He changes us from glory to glory (2 cor 3:18) as we abide in Him and ask Him to daily purify our hearts. Doesn’t that make you so excited?! We have no power to change ourselves, but He does and He is so willing if we come with a humble, honest , seeking heart!

Dear sister, if you have failed to make your daily time at Jesus’ feet in worship, prayer and Bible feasting happen, there is no condemnation, but God loves you too much to let you have joy unless you change things. The truth is, there is no joy outside His presence. It’s in His presence only, that there is fullness of joy(Psalm 16:11)! There is no way around it. No joy can be found outside or away from Him.

There is a God who loves you more than you can even fathom Who continuously stands at the door of your heart knocking, desiring for you to invite Him in, and if you do, He promises to come in and dine with you! How intimate our God is! That He would walk into our hearts, sit down at our table and have dinner with us! How awesome He is!  Oh what love and longing His heart holds for us! Won’t you open the door?

Won’t you set up a meeting time with Him each morning and each evening? The more you show up, even if you do not feel like it, the more God will work in your life and the more your heart will be aligned with His truth. You will eventually long for this time with the Lover of your soul with great desire as you consistently train your heart toward Him by being faithful in practical ways.  

I urge you sisters, make time for the Lord your top priority, serve your family and loved ones, minister to the hurting and lost as God leads, and do not forsake fellowshipping with the Body of Christ. Seperate yourselves from the world, but do not be afraid to go out with the Body and your believing family and be a shining light to them. They are hungry! The fields are so white with harvest! But the laborers, friends are so very, very few (Luke 10:2). Also, God often allows us to be “missioanries” inside the Church. Don’t neglect an opportunity to lovingly share God’s truth on issues of life and marriage and other controversial subjects to those who may not be like-minded but are clearly searching for God’s truth and have a teachable spirit, according to the Holy Spirit’s prodding.

We must be diligent in feeding our spirits well and pouring our lives out for the Kingdom, for the days are evil and the coming of the Son of man is ever upon us.  May we watch and pray and keep our lamps full of oil. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

May the Lord pour out His abundant blessings on you and your families! May He quiet you with His love and shower you with the tender surprises and affections from His right hand. May He grant you grace and contentment as you wait for Him more than your dearest, wildest earthly dream! May He grant you grace as He continues to cheerfully, lovingly and patiently mold your heart into one that looks like His own!

In Jesus’ Love,

Candace