Anne Marie Miller

Blog

  • weekend thought: what is influence?

    a friend of mine was talking about mother theresa yesterday…how she was significantly influential, but “to influence” was never her pursuit…” she only wanted to love and care for the sick, the unloved, the least, the dying. to allow the actions of jesus to be expressed in her everyday life.

    it made me think of this quote from an oswald chamber’s sermon:

    “The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and “the lilies of the field”? simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.

    If you want to be of use to God, maintain the proper relationship with Jesus Christ by staying focused on Him, and He will make use of you every minute you live? yet you will be unaware, on the conscious level of your life, that you are being used of Him.”

    i pray to be this kind of influencer.

  • wowzers!!

    $10 to Prevent Malaria

    so, i thought 50 nets in 50 hours would be a challenge for you guys.

    BOY WAS I WRONG!!

    you have already donated 68 nets! in less than 24 hours.

    so…i’m raising the ante!

    let’s make it 100 nets.

    32 to go.

    AND…moviepastor.com will match the next TEN NETS DONATED!

    so, if you buy a net now, leave a comment here and also at his blog. because that just freaking rocks!

    let’s hit 100!!

    ready, set, go!

  • the fifty hour challenge…can you do it?

    what if everyone in the city of detriot died?

    that’s the impact malaria has on the world EVERY YEAR. around one million people, including 750,000 children, die from malaria. and what sucks is that it’s completely preventable!! because of poverty, families can’t afford to buy nets or pay for treatment.

    today, 3,000 children died from malaria…while we were all talking about what we’d do with an extra ten bucks.

    but with ten bucks, you can make a change. you can bite back.

    ten dollars provides a mosquito net that will protect a child from mosquitoes for THREE YEARS. it also provides education and treatment for those who have malaria.

    i’d like to present a challenge to you. april 25 is world malaria day. and i want to see at least 50 people from this blog community donate at least $10 to buy a child a net in the next 50 hours (by 7 pm CST on Friday).

    50 nets in the next 50 hours.

    super easy.

    Malaria Prevention

    FIRST…

    click HERE to donate through compassion international’s malaria fund.

    SECOND…

    click HERE to leave a comment and let me know you’ve donated.

    THIRD…
    spread the word. post about this on your blog. steal the graphic!

    here’s the code:

    50 hours. 50 nets. let’s do it!!

  • if i gave you ten dollars

    what would you do with it?

  • nashvegas recap

    I had a great time in nashville, getting to hang out with so many truly amazing people, some were old friends, and some were new.

    i met brock face to face at the compassion dinner last night and because he remembers stuff much better than me, i am stealing this from him. the guest speaker at the dinner was tony neeves, (VP of international development for compassion)…a lovely british gentleman with humble and challenging thoughts.

    one that stood out to me was “children in poverty aren’t the problem. children in poverty are the solution.” he went on to say that these children are “bundles of potential” — and if they receive positive support, they have the potential to be world-changers in the best way possible. yet if they aren’t loved, aren’t cared for, they have the potential to be world-changers in the worst possible way.

    wow.

    other things (from brock):

    third world people press their faces against the windows of our lives because of technology, internet, tv etc. and they feel as if they have no hope. it is because they are seeing soap operas and game shows on tv and see how we live. they cant afford a bowl of rice. they realize they have nothing and have no hope.

    also, churches in western world are far more introverted than third world churches. this must change.

    and, third world churches are growing fast in some areas not because of a great pastor or sermons but they are loving people and meeting needs. then the community sees the love and want what they have.”

    a few other highlights from the trip:

    i honestly don’t listen to much christian music. but i did when i was 13. a little bit of me thought it was cool when toby mac walked into starbucks. then i realized how truly cool i was when jenni went to hug him. (julie, i thought you’d get a kick out of that!) :)

    I got to hang out some with mark and stephanie lee. mark plays the guitar in amazing ways for a band called third day. again, it’s probably been a good decade since i really listened to third day, but as I saw them play at a showcase, some of their new material really really touched me in ways only god could know.

    it was just truly amazing to reconnect with some of the uganda bloggers. twice.

    i really wish i could link to everyone I met and hung out with but i am about to have to drive. so to all of you, thank you for making us feel so welcome!!

  • churches that rob each other??

    ever since returning from africa, i’ve wondered something.

    is it just me, or does THE CHURCH seem to have its funds distributed fairly unequally?

    if we are all THE CHURCH (made up of individual, local churches)

    and, if we are shown an example in acts 2:44-45:

    All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.


    then why:

    is there a hard working children’s pastor making $75/week and who gets his office furniture from the side of the road because his church can’t afford to buy him any?

    are churches closing because they don’t have enough money to sustain ministry?


    edit: and i won’t even go into listing things that are broken in churches around the globe and in impoverished countries.

    when:

    other churches are building multi-million dollar facilities…in the same town, on the same road, right across the street from each other?

    …i could make this list longer, but i am sure you get the point.

    like really.

    why?

  • INPUT WANTED ON MAD CHURCH DISEASE COVER ART!

    as i’ve said before, this whole book writing process has been fun because of the input you all have. so, after having some initial chats about direction and look and feel for the book, they have landed on two concepts.

    these are the drafts, and as such i need to explain a little bit.

    the words behind the title are true (but anonymous) stories that people submitted through the mad church disease website during the month the surveys were open. this is how people REALLY feel.

    in the first image (A), these are reversed out from the texture. in the second image (B), what the plan will be is to print out the chosen pieces of the stories (and change their font/type size, etc. to make some stand out) and use a photograph of that behind the illustration. currently it is just a similar photograph of bible verses. but, you get the idea!

    the marketing and creative directors and i have already talked through these with a few opinions from some lifechurch.tv staff, my agent, and some friends. so we kind of already have a “gut” feeling and some thoughts on changes…but this is where you get to help confirm us (or scare us in another direction!)

    what do you think? what do you like? not like? what would you change?

    would love to hear your thoughts!!

    Cover ACover B

  • death. here is your sting. why?

    i hadn’t got online yet. my computer has been acting funny so i rebooted. as it started up with the reassuring whirl of a hard drive booting, i turned on my space heater, and returned to my desk.

    opening up firefox [the browser of choice], my eyes skimmed down my news section as i typically do every morning.

    my heart got stuck in my throat, and i couldn’t breathe when i read this headline:

    SCHOOL FIRE KILLS UGANDA CHILDREN

    I clicked, tears already welling up in my eyes.


    An overnight fire in dormitory at a Ugandan junior school near the capital, Kampala, has killed at least 19 girls. 

    The BBC’s Joshua Mmali at the scene says distraught parents are wailing as rescuers work to retrieve bodies.

    “Preliminary investigations indicate that it was homicide,” Police Inspector General Kale Kaihura said, reports AP news agency.

    Our reporter says it has been established that the hostel’s doors were locked from the outside.

    Two adults are also reported to have died in the fire, which police say started at 2200 local time (1900 GMT) on Monday.

    It is not clear how many children were in the room, which had 63 beds.

    A Red Cross worker told the BBC that it is difficult to identify the bodies as sometimes only pieces of bodies are being found.

    all my mind can see right now are the all the girls sophie and i played ball with two afternoons. their smiling faces, their bright eyes, their laughter. their silliness as they would catch and tumble and drop the ball. the sing-song in their voices.

    to clarify, the school in the story is not the school we visited. but i have no doubt the girls are just like the ones we were playing with. hugging. loving. laughing with.

    linet, the i sponsor from uganda is nine. i just cannot imagine it.

    my heart is breaking today, probably in the deepest way since returning from africa. i keep crying. i am really glad i have an office to myself right now.

    i am about to email our team that went to uganda with the story. so i also ask you pray for their hearts.

    but most of all, please pray for the girls in the school, their parents, and the country of uganda. what a horrible tragedy to face.

    if you would like to sponsor a child from uganda, please click here.

    EDIT: Sorry, here is the link the the article.

  • How do you know it’s God?

    Question of the day…HOW DO YOU KNOW IT’S GOD?

    Some more christianesque catch phrases.

    “God is blessing this” or

    “You know it’s god doing this or that…”

    A lot of people show up to a church and we say “God was moving…”

    But what if it’s not God?

    What if it really is slick marketing, charismatic leaders, feel-good buzz, and a show?

    There are “cult” followings (I mean that in a non-religious sense) to other things…Apple, The Rolling Stones, American Idol, LOST, Starbucks, etc…which all have some notion of remarkableness. Some kind of success.

    How do we know the result of our efforts are “God?”

    Or are they our cultures’ response to sensationalism?

    Can they be both at the same time?

    How do you know the difference?