This wonderful lady has written a devo type book called "Hungry for More." It was birthed from her experience living overseas and processing with the Lord. I asked Kandy to answer a few questions for me. It took all manner of self-control to not ask her questions like, "In your tenure overseas, how many grandma's did you lay out cold while trying to board the bus?" I kept it mature and lovely.
I fit Paul's description in 1 Corinthians 1:26 to a tee. I'm not really wise, not very mighty and surely not noble. But He has given me my task as His transmitter - called to transmit what I hear from God to those around me.Give us a little background into who you are and why you decided to pick up a pen and start writing?
Living overseas for twenty years showed me my worst and His best. I've found that being squeezed is the very best way to find out what is really inside of you. Having His favor is more than sufficient because weakness truly is the way that His energy gets completed in me.
At some point early on, I began journaling my discussions with God, so my book is merely a condensed version of years of journals. Kinda like the "best of" series. Once the girls were grown, Father wouldn't let me alone about getting it out to others and I began knocking on the doors of publication.
Talk to someone older than you. They've seen the buffet, probably nibbled at most of it, and can guide you toward the most savory morsels. Ask them, "What do you wish someone had told you when you were my age?" and "Tell me a scripture that has become real to you and why." You'll probably get lots of food for thought.As we lead up to Christmas what are ways we can remind ourselves that we need fed things that satisfy and not just what tastes good at the time?
When you have children living with you, almost every verse that catches your heart seems to pertain to parenting. The Word is moves within you, breathing, speaking and changing you moment by moment. Yet, my true "ah-ha" moment came through the story of the centurion (Matthew 8:5-13). I had never really understood that story, but the Father revealed that authority is given to the submissive. If I was to have authority of speech and action to my girls, then I had to be under the authority of Christ in those same areas of my life. If my daughter lied to me, I realized that I had no authority to change her behavior until I allowed the Father to clean up any deceit in my own life. If I was concerned about how she was spending her time, then I had to allow the Father authority to direct how I spent mine. Once I began to submit to Him in these tiny areas of my own life, I found that my girls began to submit to me as I my prayers and words now had power. ( Chapter 9 is devoted to this idea in Hungry For More: Feasting through the Word).When you were in the trenches of motherhood, when you found yourself at the end of your rope, what verse or verses did you cling to? Why?
It would be easier to say how He didn't stretch me. Wow….in my patience (can Chinese queues be any more frustrating?), in my tendency to speak before I think (kinda helps when you don't know the language), in my tendency to thnk that my way is the right way (living cross culturally changes all your preconceived ideas), in my extroversion (living among a million people gives you an appreciation to be alone), in my responsibility as a mentor (just because you don't have one doesn't mean you can't be one), in my ability to hear and obey (there are a lot of voices in a animistic society - you learn to listen intently for the One that's True)…..and the list continues.How did the Lord most stretch you as an overseas worker?
At first, it was Mexican food. Cheese wasn't readily available and we had to make our own tortillas. All that sauciness reminded me of Tex-Mex and home. As the years progressed, my tastes literally changed and I discovered how much easier it was to explore foods with readily available ingredients. My cooking broadened to include lots more tastes and ethnicities. Kinda like my life, I guess. I am learning to be content in whatever grocery store I find myself. I know how to get along with a wet market; and I also know how to live near a Whole Foods Supermarket; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of a shopping cart or a simple hand basket; both of having ready made pie crusts and having to make your own. Yup, I can do all things through Him who shops with me.What food did you crave the most while living outside of America?
To simply move women from hearing about the Word to breathing Him. If doing stuff for God doesn't get kudos with Him anyway (Galatians 2:16), then let's discover together how to let Him do the life, instead of doing it ourselves.If you could summarize your vision in your ministry with women, what would it be?
We always get bogged down somewhere in your soul. If you are a thinker - then you are going to get entangled with rationalizing it all out. If you are a feeler, then you are going to get wigged out through your emotions. We've got to live an inside out life - one where our spirits are in charge. After all, that's the place where, as a Christian, our spirits are already plugged into Christ (Romans 8:15-16). When we source our lives out of the existing connection we have with His Spirit, the overflow is amazing (1 Corinthians 2:12; John 7:38).What have you found to be the most common ways women entangle themselves, finding it hard to breathe and live in freedom?
