Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and each year it awakens thoughts of cupids, cards, candy and candlelight dinners.  On that day, the "pressure" is on to express love in a tangible way that makes our significant other's heart dance with romanticism. 

Have you heard the story behind the Taj Mahal in India?  It's quite the symbol and memorial of love.

Emperor Shah Jahan, in the seventeenth century, ordered the construction of the magnificent building, as a memorial to his wife.  They were married in 1612, and she died in childbirth in 1631.

The devoted husband immediately ordered the construction of a towering edifice on the bank of the Jumna river, as a memorial.  The Taj Mahal, commenced in 1632, was 22 years in construction, and, at one point, involved 20,000 workers daily.

For over 325 years, the imposing structure has intrigued people who have been moved by its sheer beauty and the story of the love which prompted its construction.

You read that and say, "What love!" - or do you say, "What?...that's love?"  Imagine 22 years of construction to prove to the world his love for his wife.  Most of us would be thrilled if our significant other would spend 1 hour tackling that "To-Do" that's been on the list for way too long.

I am glad that the love Larry and I share goes deeper than a memorial or a 22 year construction job.  Buildings deteriorate and, in time, the Taj Mahal will be in ruin and only a beautiful memory. Earth's greatest testimony to love, however, is more enduring and not subject to decay.  The Bible describes that testimony or demonstration of undying love in these words: "We know what real love is from Christ's example in dying for us." (1 John 3:16)  What love!

Our love is built first on the foundation of Jesus Christ.  It was God who truly brought us together.  But, we have to work at our love and commitment. It doesn't "just happen."  We feel that next to God, our greatest investment is in our marriage and relationship.  Then that love flows into the relationship we have with our children.  Without love, marriages, homes and families crumble.  Without love, church bodies split.  Without love, communities are simply a group of people living a mundane life or an endless rat race, fighting to get ahead.  I like what Smily Blanton put in his books years ago.  Life really does boil down to love or perish:

Without love, hope perishes.

Without love, dreams and creativity perish.

Without love, family and churches perish.

Without love, friendships perish.

Without love, the desire to go on living can perish.

To love and to be loved is the bedrock of our existence.

Do you tell those you love, "I love you?"  Do they hear those words and understand how much you treasure them?  As we grow older, we realize more than ever the value of those three powerful words.  They may know that you love them, but they need to hear the words!  Those words speak of acceptance, love and security.  Appreciate those you love…there is no guarantee as to how long we'll have each other. Life is fragile, but love is eternal! Let love reign in your hearts and homes!

Happy Valentine's Day,

Greetings from Florida! Sounds nice - doesn't it…yes, it is.  I'll take this weather over the Midwest weather any January day - ha!

We've been here in Florida for nearly three weeks. We've nestled in to making booking calls, catching up on mail, preparing messages, and making phone calls to many of our ministry partners who are facing life and death situations, illnesses, broken hearts and relationships.  It's been a blessed time of being able to minister into their lives.

2014 was a great and full year and for the first time in 49 years, we came off our tour in November exhilarated and thrilled, but exhausted!  With that in mind, and our age, we listened to that inner voice urging us to designate this time to "be still and know that He is God".  The New American Standard bible says, "To relax, and let go, or to cease striving."  This is both my and your invitation to lay down our cares and seek Him and bask in His presence. Larry and I needed this quiet time to "recharge" our spiritual and physical batteries. We have more or less hid away to spend time in prayer and reading and sermon preparation. We have been blessed to be able to attend some incredible churches with powerful messages from some of God's great messengers.  We have been able to use this time to gain clarity and focus for this year and see how God opened up doors with connections and ministry opportunities for the rest of this year. We are being refreshed and filled so we will be ready to hit the road up and running again for the rest of 2015 - Praise the Lord for His divine timing and guidance!

As you know by the news, this life is not going to be easier or better, but isn't it encouraging knowing that God is faithful and greater than any of our problems?  All He asks of us is to tuck up close to Him, let His arms wrap around us as they shield and protect us from the storms of this world.  If we do that, not only will be make it through, but we will walk this life in victory and with a peace that passes all understanding.

Maybe you're reading this today and have been fighting the storms of life - maybe you too need to "Be still and know" that He is God (Psalm 46:10). I just read this poem entitled "True Rest".  Let me share it with you.  Maybe you too need to decide to pull away from the demands of life, snuggle up into God's word, be still and hear His voice speak to your heart, and then you will experience true rest.

True Rest

My dear child, I know you're weary 

With nothing left to give. 
You've worked long and hard 
Now you feel frayed and worn.

Come with Me to a quiet place 
Away from all the noise and busyness. 
Let Me wrap My arms around you, 
Enfold you in My love.

Let Me whisper peace to your heart's storm, 
Soothe your troubled brow. 
Listen to the love song 
I composed just for you.

In Me is true contentment. 
In Me you will find what you long for. 
Come with Me to a quiet place 
And receive rest, strength, and peace.

May you feel God's peace upon you this day. May it give you joy and laughter and good health!

Happy New Year - 2015!

Seems like I just get to the end of 2014 - and I feel like I'm on top of a monster roller coaster getting ready to descend on this New Year…ready or not! Ha!

Larry and I were so delighted to be able to spend Christmas with all of our family that live in Nashville, TN. They treated us like royalty and spoiled us with lots of fun, events and laughter. Of course…lots of delicious food and treats. 

Until three Christmases ago, they all fought blizzards, snow and icy roads and frigid temps to come home, and then they approached us and said, "It's much easier to bring you and Dad here to Nashville for Christmas with all of our work schedules." We thought about it and so yes, this is our third Tennessee Christmas in Nashville, and we love it!

After a full year "on the road", and coming home in November/December exhausted, we love looking forward to this new tradition. It gives us something to really look forward to after a long tour on the road. The first day we spent in the recording studio preparing for a new CD to come out at early summer to celebrate our upcoming 50^th wedding and ministry together anniversary, which will be in October.

Part of the vacation we stayed at LaShawn and Liam's and then moved over to be LaDawn's with her and near our two grandchildren.  It was also so much fun spending a lot of time with Donovan. Just being with him…is entertainment. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve at LaShawn's and Christmas Day dinner there. The highlight of the vacation was when LaShawn hosted a music night at her home.  LaDawn brought over her drum kit, LaShawn on her piano, and Larry on a big upright dog-house bass. It was just like the old days, "The Larry Lundstrom Family."  We were a bit rusty, but we sure had fun and made great memories.

We flew back to South Dakota on December 29^th and have been busy preparing to leave January 8^th for Florida (I know, I know…someone has to suffer in warm, sunshine climate - ha!). 

We are excited to spend time in preparation for this coming year. We've been busy booking and it's going to be a wonderful year for evangelism! We are anxious to share the simple Gospel story and the privilege of giving the free gift of salvation to all who wish to receive it. Jesus says in Revelations 22, "Behold, I come quickly…" We believe that quickly is coming soon, and we anxiously want to have a part in seeing people's lives changed by the power of God.

We pray that you too will look forward with anticipation in 2015 to draw closer to Christ than ever before - we need Him now more than ever!  God bless!

Gloria

It's nearly Christmas!  Excitement is in the air.  Christmas carols ring, Christmas programs entertain, twinkling lights shine, and egg nog fills our cups!  All of these Christmas festivities let us know that Christmas is coming full-speed ahead.

Larry and I aren't usually home this early from the road so it has been nice that we have been able to attend several Christmas events.  After a Christmas dinner last night, I told Larry, "I'm so glad we can come HOME where it is warm and not have to still be out there fighting ice, snow and bad weather on the road."

 We have had an awesome year of evangelism with hundreds making decisions for Christ.  Now, we are excited to slow the pace down and spend Christmas with all of our family in Nashville, TN.  With all of their busy work schedules, they have determined and requested for us to come and spend Christmas with them.  So again, we will enjoy a Tennessee Christmas!  We miss all of them so much and we are greatly anticipating seeing them soon!

Last week, we spent four days having check-ups in Rochester, MN.  In the doctor's office, one of the first things they did was hand me an 8 ½ x 11 sheet and requested that I place a checkmark by the symptoms I was experiencing.  There were well over 100 different boxes to check covering a full gamut of  conditions including heart disease, cancer, other maladies, surgeries, aches and pains, and much more.  Guess what….I checked only four boxes!  I turned to my doctor and exclaimed, "Wow!  I feel really good after reading all of that-I am blessed!"  Of course, one can't be my age without a few ouches-but after walking through the halls of the hospital and meeting so many people struggling with numerous various diseases---Larry and I both feel blessed.  We haven't gotten our test results yet but we are trusting God for good reports (as good as they can be) and that we will be good to run another 100,000 miles!

In this joyous season, we realize that many are sad, broken-hearted, and have felt great grief over the past year as they have lost loved ones.  There will be many empty chairs at the Christmas dinner table.  I would like to share this following poem with you as it is so timely.

I've had my first Christmas in heaven, a glorious and wonderful day.

I stood with the saints of the ages, who found Christ, the truth and the way.

I sang with the heavenly choir.  Just think!  I, who loved to sing.

And oh, what celestial music we brought to our Savior and King.  We sang the glad songs of redemption, how Jesus to Bethlehem came.   And how they had called His name Jesus, that all might be saved through His name.

We sang with the angels the song they sang that blest morn, when shepherds first heard the glad story that Jesus the Savior was born. 

Oh family, I wish you had been there.  No Christmas on earth could compare with the beauty and glory I've witnessed in these few days that I've been here.

You know how I always loved Christmas, it was such a very special day, with all of my family around me.  Yes, now I can see why I loved it, and oh, what joy it will be when all of you are with me to share in the glories I see. 

So dear ones on earth, here's my greeting.

Look up 'til Jesus appears.  And oh, what a Christmas awaits us beyond all our partings and tears.

Please remember to take moments to share about Jesus, the Christ Child, with those that are lost, hurting, and broken.  In the midst of all the busyness of Christmas, may you still focus on the Christ, who is the Giver of Peace and Life!

Gloria

Greetings from Sisseton, South Dakota! Brrrr! With this early onset and blast of winter, I've been telling Larry every day that I'm so happy we are not fighting this weather on the road in some mountain area or other dangerous venture.  After a long year, it's nice to be in our cozy warm house and have the opportunity to work out of our Home Office.  Here is the article Larry wrote for this month, as well as a quick note of thanksgiving:

Let Me Be Thankful First….

What if there was not a Thanksgiving? What if a day of the year wasn't designated to it? For Americans, there is a tradition of observing Thanksgiving Day each November. It's promoted as a National Holiday and happily so - but it makes me wonder, if there wasn't a holiday, how much giving of thanks would there be?

Gloria often prays, "God, thank you for the bad things that never happened today that we'll never know about until we get to Heaven."

How often has God intervened at a moment to protect us from an accident, storm, fire, tornado, or some other crisis? I believe there were many times we were delayed for some reason, and only God knows what that reason was…and we benefit. The famous bible scholar Michael Henry was once accosted by thieves and robbed of his wallet. He wrote these words in his diary:

"Let me be thankful first because I was never robbed before; second, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed." 

What a great attitude of thanksgiving! We can always find something to be thankful for. Recently, Gloria and I encountered a couple taking a vacation by Amtrak train. Frustrated she complained, "When we left Nevada, the engine on the train caught fire. We had to go back and get another engine and were delayed a few hours. Heading off again for California, we almost hit a man walking on the train tracks, and we had to stop, so we were delayed again. We were so frustrated until we got the breaking news that the earthquake hit Napa Valley, which was our destination."  She smiled thoughtfully, "You know what, I guess if it hadn't been for the fire in the engine, and the man on the tracks that delayed us, we well could have been in that earthquake and only God knows if we would have wrecked. So I guess it turned out for good."

If we really would take the time to think and thank God for all He has protected us from, and all that He has given us, we'd all have a more grateful and thankful heart and appreciation for God. Our mailbox is filled with letters of gratefulness sharing what God had done - provided for them, protected them, healed them.  Even more touching, are the grateful hearts that are thanking God for bringing them through the tests and trials, loss of finances, loss of mate or child - they have found that God is truly sufficient and will be there for and with them. God inhabits the praises of thanks from His people.

Larry and I are always grateful, but during Thanksgiving week especially, we are reminded of God's faithfulness and blessings to us. We are so thankful that we were called to evangelism and have invested 49 years in ministry (we don't "spend it" on the road we invest it on the road).  We're thankful for all the lives that have been changed, and for all our friends, families and partners who have prayed for us and supported us, sending us to reach the lost. Thank you, thank you! 

We pray that you have a wonderful thanksgiving this week with your friends and family. Take the time to appreciate them. Life is uncertain and you never know when you will have the opportunity again.

Larry and I plan to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and family.  She turned 99 last week and we are so grateful to be spending another holiday together!  Have a great week - don't eat too much, ha! Go for it!

Gloria

Greetings from Sisseton, South Dakota!  Larry and I just flew into Fargo, ND from Florida. 

We drove our motorhome out there to get it into a safe and warm climate, away from the upcoming arctic and snowy South Dakota winter that we're sure will be upon us soon. 

It was 82 degrees when we left Florida and it's supposed to be down to 28 degrees tonight in South Dakota - ouch. 

We will be glad to be here for my mom's 99^th birthday on November 16^th. What a milestone! She gave birth to twelve children, which now with all the marriage and children there are about 130 in our immediate family.  She's been doing amazingly well until about a couple weeks ago when we nearly lost her.  This family knows how to hit the throne room for prayer, and she's made a huge turnaround. The doctors are amazed.

I am blessed and have been grateful to have her in my life for 70 ½ years - wow. We will have a small party for her, not a big one as originally planned, due to her health.  She is truly been such a blessing to all of us and her love for family, God, the Word and for prayer have truly created a legacy.

Larry and I celebrated our 49^th wedding anniversary with our friends Bob and Sharon Conklin from Hutchinson, MN.  It was nice to visit with friends that we've known for many, many years and who used to do scheduling for us.  Now we start our journey toward our 50^thanniversary in 2015…time flies!  I thank God every day for my wonderful husband, who is my best friend, a great father to our children and grandchildren and a passionate evangelist. 

With this being Thanksgiving month, Larry and I are reminded we are so thankful to have friends and family like you who are so precious to us.  The other day my brother Dale sent me an email that I want to share with you. It is challenging and hopefully it will bless you like it did me:

WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN WHEN WE PRAY?

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. 

We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.  My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received."

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them."

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally! At the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment

Section, "my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.

"How is it that there is no work going on here?" I asked. "So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy."

"And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day."

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are envied by and more blessed than three billion people in the world."

"If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm. You're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

"Okay. What now? How can I start?"

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special, and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. Have a good day. Count your blessings. And if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are!

Gloria

{Don't Forget to Vote!!}

Be sure to vote today! 

What a privilege it still is to have a part in making decisions... Do it!

September 3^rd… can it be?  It seems that we just came home from our 4 month winter tour in May and here we are now preparing for a fall tour. Yikes!

What a great Labor Day weekend it was! We held a special rally at Twin Lakes Christian church with Pastor Percy and Debbie Kallevig.  We remember him since he was about 7-8 years old. What a joy to watch him grow up and do so well in ministry.  They are very special to us and our family.

"We always get good results at the altar when you come!"

Percy Kallevig

Senior Pastor

Twin Lakes Christian Center

Elk River, MN

There was no labor in the Sunday morning service - it was total freedom! It was also exciting to see so many drive in to join us for the special service.  Two women, who are sisters, touched my heart as they approached me and thanked us for staying on the road all of these years, as their father came to Christ under the Lundstrom ministry, and lived for God until the day he died.  They tearfully smiled, "Because you have been faithful to share Christ, we know Dad is in heaven." 

Larry and I always enjoy seeing our long-time friends who drive in to see us. These are people who we have had a connection with for many years - like Fern Bolin and daughter Sandy Schwartzkopf.  Many years ago, Larry and I used to host Holy Land tours and Fern and her husband, Pat, and family graciously kept our two daughters for us while we were gone.  Our girls were just little and loved all the excitement of being out of the bus, in the country, and in a big house with a play room and a family who dearly loved them.  Fern must be all of 4 foot 11 inches and now LaShawn and LaDawn are 5 foot 9" and 5 foot 10"!  Wow!  How the years have flown by. Thanks Fern and Sandy for being a blessing to us!

Wish I had time to take photos of all the facebook friends who came out like, Darwin and Marie Lay, or Paul and Karolyn Apple, who have been faithful partners for many, many years. Another couple we were delighted to see was Lyn Sahr and his wife, Lonna, who is the Executive Director for Ruby's Pantry, a food distribution from Pine City, MN . 

He said, "What a thrill it was to be at the Twin Lakes Christian Church in Elk River to reunite with you. It brought tears to my eyes to see the two of you singing and sharing Christ as a testimony to his faithfulness. In 1981 you were at our small mission church in Wisconsin and we experienced 14 inches of snow in mid-April but God was there and souls were won. It is our prayer that you will have many years of victories to come!"

As I write this, the radio is on and the world news makes one tremble…as another journalist is be-headed.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit, who can give us peace in these troubled times.  There's a song that is going through my mind right now, entitled, "Where Would I Be Without Jesus".  How true.  How could we sleep at night? How could we have any peace amidst all the chaos in the world?  It would be impossible, if we didn't have His promises of "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  If ever we needed the Lord, we need Him now. 

Looking toward the future, we have a weekend of ministry planned at:

Verndale Family Life Church

402 NE Clark Dr.

Verndale, MN  56481

Saturday, September 6^th at 6:00pm

Sunday, September 7^th at 10:30am

For more information, please call the church at: 218-445-5568.

We'd love to have you join us for an exciting weekend!

Gloria