Fruit That Lasts Is Available for Purchase!

If you are searching for the perfect Easter basket, baby shower, birthday, or godchild gift what better than a book that presents the Gospel in a fun imaginative way. Kristi Smith & Nena Jackson of 2 Ordinary Women: 1 Extraordinary God ministry present their new children’s book, Fruit That Lasts.  The book can be purchased on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, or by contacting Nena Jackson @ nenawjackson@gmail.com   

Amazon

BarnesandNoble.com

The Birth of 'Fruit That Lasts' - Our Latest Assignment From the Lord

 Long lasting friendships are the best - especially when the friendship goes all the way back to first grade, which means Kristi and Nena have been through all kinds of interesting stuff together! The best by far - and we TRULY mean by far - is our ministry, 2 Ordinary Women: 1 Extraordinary God. When a friendship is grounded on the foundation of serving Christ and mighty faith in our Lord then spectacular miracles happen. We have come accustomed to expecting miracles - small ones and great big ones. We also get to experience the most awesome joy because we never know what the Lord will assign for us to do next. Even though we always know the ultimate purpose of any of our assignments will be to create a vehicle to lead others to Christ, we are blown away by the creative ways the Lord chooses.

We just simply come together for regular prayer time (on the phone since we live 8 hours away from each other), and ask God, "What would you have us do next, Lord? What is Your exciting assignment for us, two ordinary women, who have learned that living a life devoted to You is the only way to live out our time on earth?" THEN...we listen and watch for His direction, which comes in the most supernaturally imaginative ways - ways that only our amazing Lord and Savior could do. We continue to ask for gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we can become more and more intimate with Christ. The Holy Spirit residing in us is the absolute key to being able to understand what the Lord is saying.

One such time was in 2012 when Kristi had a vivid dream where the Lord revealed that we would write a book together called, Fruit That Lasts. We had a wonderfully amazing peace that this assignment was for a later time and that the Lord would show us when to begin and the specifics of what to write. It is very cool to learn to rest in the Lord's timing when He communicates something for the future. The human side of Kristi and Nena would want to rush and begin the assignment right away but the Holy Spirit prompts us so profoundly when to wait and when to act.



Extraordinary God 2013 photos

After Extraordinary God 2013 - a beachfront worship service that we coordinated at The Kiawah Island Sanctuary Resort, we began asking God what was next. Through much prayer we both sensed that the Lord wanted us to seek His guidance about what to write for Fruit That Lasts. Since our ministry is 2 Ordinary Women: 1 Extraordinary God, we assumed our book would be a women's devotion book so we began to research different fruits mentioned in the Bible and looked for ways to connect those to a weekly or monthly devotion format. The research was quite fun but just didn't seem to be in full alignment with the Lord's plans so we pressed in with more prayer. The idea sounded like it would be pleasing to the Lord but we have learned to seek the 'peace that surpasses all understanding' and we did not have that. The really neat part of doing assignments together is that we ask God to give us both peace so we TRULY know. We have learned so well to respect when one is hearing something different. Now...we have to admit that there are times when Kristi or Nena will be shocked when one is hearing something different from the other so we seek Him in prayer and He brings us both in alignment. It is the coolest part of walking together with the Lord.

After praying about the women's devotion book, the Lord began revealing scripture to Nena about trees that bear fruit. First He revealed Ezekiel 47:12 'Fruit trees of all kinds grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.' Next He showed her Genesis 1:11 'Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.' Then He directed her to Revelation 22:2 'On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. Next He took her to Psalm 1:3 'That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers.'

The more we prayed the more we just knew our book would focus on fruit that grew on trees and couldn't wait to listen to see what the Lord said next. We were in absolute awe of the scripture that He had revealed and how three of the scriptures were in the beginning (Genesis), middle (Psalm) and end (Revelation) of the Bible. We still had no idea what type of book we would write BUT we rested in God's timing of each step. He always has the most awesome surprises so each day is filled with wonder.

In January 2014, Kristi had a strong urge that she and Jeff were to come to Charleston for a long weekend so we could spend time in person praying about Fruit That Lasts. She knew the Lord would reveal amazing details about the book once we were together. On Saturday morning we decided to walk over to Hampton Park, sit by the pond and listen to God. It was during this time that we heard clearly from the Lord that Fruit That Lasts was a children's book, which literally made us laugh out loud.

Having fun with Burger King crowns

The Lord also revealed the most incredible aspect of the book, which was that we would share the Gospel to children by using a fruit tree analysis and photosynthesis.
In an instance, he showed us that the book would have trees planted by water and the water would represent God. The water would help the trees grow and develop branches with leaves. The leaves would reach to the sun, which represents Jesus, which gives them the light energy needed to produce blooms. In order for blooms to turn into fruit they have to be pollinated. God revealed we would use the wind to present the Holy Spirit, which provides the necessary pollination to produce fruit that lasts. 

We left the park that day filled with excitement and still a bit surprised that God wanted us to write a children's book. There was a definite assurance in us that in no time He would be pouring out the specifics of what we were to write.



Rue Rue and Nena

A few days later, God put it on Nena's heart that the book would have 'tree characters' representing Kristi and her. Nena would be a pomegranate named Poly Pomegranate, or Pom Pom for short, while Kristi would be a fig tree named Franny Fig. We also heard from the Lord that the book would have older trees with heavy crops of fruit that represented our own grandmothers, Nana and Rue Rue - two women of God that prayed earnestly for both of us throughout our lives.

Nana

 As weeks past, we had a blast writing a rough draft of the book and designing Pom Pom and Franny. Kristi even surprised Nena with a painting of Pom Pom for her birthday in March. We also knew that the book would be for young readers and be written in poetry form with subsequent chapter books for older readers. Next Kristi began writing the beginning verses of the poem.



Unfortunately, during this time frame Jeff received a diagnosis that his cancer had spread. We began putting all of our focus on having faith in God healing Jeff and put Fruit that Lasts on hold. In June, Jeff was hospitalized with pneumonia and was very sick, which meant that Kristi spent days and nights at the hospital. It was during this time that God began speaking boldly to Nena that Kristi was supposed to be writing the poetry for the book. Nena wrestled with the Lord over this because she didn't want to share this with Kristi because of all she was going through with Jeff's illness. The Lord was persistent that the time was now and told Nena boldly to tell Kristi that all He wanted her to do was to hold a pen and paper then He would do the writing. 

Tears welled up in Kristi when Nena shared this message from the Lord because she had just received a gift in the hospital from a friend. The gift was pretty paper and fun colored pens so Kristi knew the message from the Lord was correct. She obeyed and the poem flowed effortlessly out of her and onto the pretty paper. Fruit that Lasts was born and Kristi felt like she was floating on a cloud. Also, on the first day that she picked up the pen and paper, Jeff's white blood cells dropped and he began to get better. He was soon feeling well enough to be released from the hospital! Was this connected to Kristi's obedience to begin allowing the Lord to write through her? We definitely believe so!



Pom Pom & Franny 



After the poem was complete, Nena found an on-line site that we could use to create a prototype of Fruit That Lasts while Kristi and her family began painting the illustrations for each page - which flowed out on paper as quickly as the poetry did. The Lord was moving through Kristi and the experience was absolutely beautiful!



There is another special repeating feature in the illustrations for Fruit That Lasts – rainbows. We view rainbows as God's way of 'winking at us'. During the beachfront worship service at the Sanctuary Resort on Kiawah Island in July 2013 the Lord literally gave us a ‘fireworks-like’ show of rainbows throughout the evening. We knew the rainbows were the presence of the glory of the Lord with us when we received this verse from a dear friend the following morning - 'Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.' Ezekiel 1:28. 

Nana &  Rue Rue in Fruit That Lasts

So now we present Fruit That Lasts, a children's book that we pray will be a wonderful tool for grandparents, parents and others to share the amazing Good News of Christ to their little loved ones. The first copy of Fruit That Lasts was given to Aubrey Jane Baker, Nena's first grandchild that was born on March 29th, which was the same weekend that Kristi wrote the first verse of the poem for the book. God-incidence? Absolutely!

Aubery Jane Baker - 4 1/2 months

We joyfully dedicate this book in memory of our faithful grandmothers, Nana and Rue Rue and in honor of Aubrey Jane Baker and our many other grandchildren yet to be born.

A Time to Give Thanks

A week ago, I was wrestling with the Lord over the nutrition plan that Jeff is currently following because of the difficulty of living it out.  Quite frankly, Jeff is healed in the name of Jesus, but tired and weary of the tediousness of his particular plan.  He spends many hours a day preparing food, juicing, taking supplements and what not.  Don't get me wrong, every minute of it is SO WORTH IT!!! But I have felt for a long time that the degree to which we are following this plan might not be necessary. However, we are certain that God led us down this path, feel that it is "our creek" (see the story about the act of obedience required of Naaman for healing 2 Kings 5:11), and had to hear from God in a very convincing way that we could stop "washing in this creek" in order to feel good about it.

So I did what I have done many times and I layed out a fleece like Gideon. The Lord brought to mind the scripture "Be still and know that I am God" so I asked him to convince me by showing it to me. 

Later that morning I went to Christmas village with my sister and gasped when I saw a hand painted sign with that verse on it. Wow, God, that was quick!. But this is BIG so could you do it again?

During the week, I picked up a devotional book of a coworker's and the devotional I opened to had the scripture in it!!! (Don't miss this, I rarely look at that particular book and what are the chances I would OPEN to a devotional with this scripture in it?) Thank you Lord.  I'm beginning to believe. Again?

And then..... the best was yesterday morning when I was reading through the blogs Nena and I have written, reflecting on how God SPOKE Extraordinary God into existence when I first heard Him whisper "Beach", not knowing that Nena had planned Easter beach events on the very beach that He was speaking about, how His Glory had SHOWN UP, and then I came to a blog Jeff had written.  The ONLY blog that Jeff had written! I about fell off the couch when I saw this picture posted on that blog!

If you don't believe me look back at the blog dated May 21, 2013 and appropriately titled "Taking a Stand of Faith".




Isn't it sweet of God to renew my confidence in the fact that He speaks into MY life by my reminding me through the blogs, and then to speak again?!!!!! Extraordinary!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!! The God who CREATED THE UNIVERSE SPOKE into my little ole life and convinced me (and later Jeff as I retold him the story) that we no longer had to swim in this creek!!

As if this was not enough, Friday, November 15th ended up being an EXTRAORDINARY day! One for the Smith history books! Shortly after my revelation, I was going through the mail and opened Brady's acceptance letter to UAB, Brady started on a National spiritual modified fast lead by Jordin Rubin called the Daniel Diet (how the Lord led us to this is another great testimony), and our family traveled to Orange Beach
to celebrate in advance the good results that God has assured us we will get on November 26th when Jeff has his six month scans.  We are celebrating in FAITH, because once we have the scan results, it will be FACT.  Just like the fact that it DID NOT RAIN OUT Extraordinary God, despite the weather
predictions! We stood in FAITH and it became FACT! We serve an EXTRAORDINARY God!!! It's all over but the rainbows...

Christmas in July

We woke up very early Sunday, 7/14 - the day of Extraordinary God since Susie, our gracious hostess on Kiawah Island, had an early morning flight to the Bahamas.  We were full of excitement and joyful anticipation about what our Abba Father had in store! As we lay awake in bed, one of us commented that it felt very much like Christmas morning! We didn't know what gifts lay beneath the tree, but we certainly knew that our Abba Father had already given us a beautifully wrapped present by allowing us to be a part of this extraordinary event! We had felt his presence in a mighty way all week long, but we knew that this day would be extra special and well - EXTRAORDINARY.

While laying there, the Lord impressed upon us that we should walk down the beach and pray in front of the Sanctuary Hotel where we would set up for the event.  We jumped out of bed, put on a comfortable outfit, and began to search for disposable coffee cups for the journey.  As the Lord would have it, the only disposable cups that Suzy had were Christmas cups! This only added fuel to our fire!

We were hopeful that the weather would be as beautiful as it had been during the day on Saturday, but it was not to be. Seeing the clouds,we were even more thankful that the Lord had answered our prayer the day before and allowed Moore Arts Movement a sunny day to play on the beach and in the pool.  The morning of the event, the clouds had reappeared overhead, rain was threatening and the winds were whipping.  

It appeared that God was going to require us to exercise our faith right up until the time of the event.  We were prepared to do just that and headed out for the Sanctuary Hotel, Christmas cups in hand.

What awaited us at the hotel was more glorious than any Christmas present we had ever received! Terrance, one of our partners, had been prompted weeks earlier to pray that a rainbow would appear on the day of the event.  A rainbow did not seem likely as the wind whipped around us and the skies were black and heavy with rain. When we arrived at The Sanctuary we thanked God that we FELT His mighty presence and would also welcome His VISIBLE presence. Kristi began writing EXTRAORDINARY GOD in big letters in the sand right in front of the hotel. When she finished we turned around to face the ocean and noticed the skies had parted and, in the clouds, was the most beautiful rainbow we had ever seen! God's visible presence was there!  

We had just received the best Christmas gift ever and we jumped up and down, much like we might have done when we were younger. We took pictures of the rainbow and sent them to Terrance and Matthew so that they also would be blessed! We were full of praise for our EXTRAORDINARY GOD!!!!!

We drank in the beauty of the rainbow, but quickly had to turn back towards home in order to prepare breakfast for our guests. As we walked home, the rain began to fall and soon the wind was blowing quite forcefully.  The wind and the rain continued as we all got ready for church and as we walked into the sanctuary of Church of Our Saviour, we had the opportunity to speak words of faith about the weather to just about everyone we saw.  We shared the story of 2 Chronicles 7:13 several times and walked by faith, surely not by sight, as the service began.

The Lord was sweet and the rain was replaced by sunny skies as we worshipped in His sanctuary enjoying a preview of what Moore Arts Movement had in store for the afternoon.  

We had moved from darkness into light as we praised our heavenly father through prayer, praise, dance and song! We basked in the feeling of sun on our faces as we made the final preparations for the event.

When we began to set up that evening on the beach we had to make a quick decision to completely reverse the direction of the service because of the wind. The Lord had given us knowledge that we needed to have everyone speak with the wind so the crowd could hear everything. Unbeknownst to us, we then set up the service so that Matthew gave his testimony right where he washed ashore in 2005.

The skies remained sunny as the event began and the first words of welcome included a praise to our God for doing just as He said He would in 2 Chronicles 7:13 and "closing up the skies"! Extraordinary!

Then, although it had not been in the script, as Kristi introduced Terrance, she told the crowd of the rainbow that she and Nena had witnessed that morning. 

The knowledge that we had been praying for a rainbow allowed the crowd to enter into our full measure of excitement as they saw our Lord and Saviour light up the skies with a fireworks display of rainbows, concluding in a double rainbow near the end of the event.  It truly was one of the most EXTRAORDINARY displays of God's presence that we had ever witnessed!

If you look closely you can see the double rainbow. One is to the left of the other.

Our evening of worship included David Childs providing beautiful praise music accompanied by Emily Richardson on percussion, with Moore Arts Movement dancing with their 'toes in the sand', Christal Brown-Gibson's amazing special music, 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?' singing two sweet numbers and Matthew Pridgen's testimony. The evening concluded with a wonderful time of prayer ministry that included salvation, healing and deliverance. We hope you enjoy reading every word of Matthew Pridgen's blog (see link below) for a beautiful reflection of the full evening that our sweet Lord gave us, which was more of an EXTRAORDINARY 'Christmas in July' gift than we could have ever imagined! (Enjoy the pictures of the event at the conclusion of this blog.)

http://reawake.org/miracles-at-extraordinary-god-2013/

P.S. The next morning Susie emailed us from the Bahamas to see how the service went. She had lifted us up in prayer the whole evening. We couldn't type an email fast enough to share an update including the beautiful display of rainbows that God had provided. Later that same morning she was spending quiet time reading the Bible and God directed her to Chapter 1 of Ezekiel. God spoke to her in a mighty way when she read verse 28 and she knew God was showing her something about the rainbows at Extraordinary God. God, You are so amazing and we love you so much!

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. Ezekiel 1:28

Extraordinary God is here!

The time has arrived and all the prep work for Extraordinary God has been completed. There is one more wonderful piece of the advertisement left to happen which is for The Sanctuary to include our event information in the 'Pillow Turn Down' service for all their guests Saturday night!

We have safely arrived on Kiawah Island and are anxiously awaiting Moore Arts Movement's arrival. (We are beyond blessed that Jerry & Susie Keefe have opened their home up to us for the weekend!) There is a definite buzz in the air about the event and we are humbled to be a part of the Lord's plans. 

NOW...there is just one aspect of the event that is 'interesting' and that is the forecast of rain. A number of people have reached out with concern about rain chances so we immediately went to the Lord in prayer to seek His voice. We knew the Lord had taken us this far on a journey filled with amazing signs and wonders so we knew He also had a plan for the weather. The Lord has gifted us with unwavering faith for every aspect of this event so we began exercising faith that it would not rain Sunday night.

On Wednesday morning (after a wonderful time of faith prayers about the weather for the event) Nena attended a praise & worship service and was turning to one of our theme verses, 2 Chronicles 7:14, that we have been mediating on over the last month. Her eyes were drawn to verse 13 instead. The verse began (we have chill bumps right now as we write about this awesome sign from God)

“IF I SHUT UP THE HEAVENS SO THAT THERE IS NO RAIN...”

Wow, God!!! Nena was blown away,

BUT…that wasn’t all the Lord had to say about the weather. 

THEN…Terrance, a dear friend and prayer warrior, then asked Nena to turn to James 5:17 which read, “Elijah was a human being even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.”!!!!!!! 

Additionally, another worshipper, Steve, read a message he had received from his wife (right after Nena shared 2 Chronicles 7:13 and how we were staying in faith about the weather), which said, “Faith is a gift.  God rewards those that exercise it.”

We stand in awe of the fact that we serve a Living God who hears our prayers and speaks into our lives!!! With the event just one day away, we are anticipating mighty works from our Lord…including the weather! We love you Lord!

We Covet Your Prayers!

 I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength! Ephesians 1:21-23

Come, Holy Spirit, Come. Weave this verse into every second of "Extraordinary God". We are blown away by the utter extravagance of your work in us and those you have brought along side of us! We look forward to seeing your Glory on Kiawah beach in less than two weeks!! We need your endless energy and boundless strength to finish this good work that You have started.

This week's prayer praises:

• The banner has been placed on John's Island!
• We have received additional funding from various sources.
• Advertisement distribution is underway and progressing well.
• The music has been decided on and coordinated between the performers and the dancers.
• A few precious people from Church of Our Saviour have offered to coordinate and provide the meal for the children from The Biblical Center on the night of the performance.
• Church leaders have been contacted and we anticipate a good response from the people that they invite.

This week's prayer requests:

• Pray that the Lord will prepare the hearts of all the people that will attend, whether they are vacationers on the island, people coming from other parts of Charleston or those traveling from out of town.
• Pray for the Lord to bless each person that is a part of our service and their families.  Pray for the Lord to give them full protection.
• Pray for God's favor in continuing to provide the money for the fundraising budget.
• Pray for each aspect of the advertisement that will take place for the event - posters, email blasts, banners, Facebook and flier distribution. Specifically pray for time, ideas for, and locations for posters advertising the event.
• Pray that the Lord will fill the buses provided by The Biblical Center with people who want to attend the beach event and need to know the power of a Living God.
• Pray for a vision for prayer services prior to and after the event.
• Pray in faith that the Lord will provide beautiful weather for this event.
• Pray for all aspects of the technical equipment to work well from set up to completion of event.
• Pray for traveling mercies for every one involved and for everyone to remain in good health.
• Pray for God to supply people to act as prayer ministers during and after the event.

Come seek the Lord along with us! We are confident that He has something EXTRAORDINARY in store!