Monthly Email Updates with Photos (.pdf)

Mary's monthly email updates. Click on the red link headings to view the entire email in Adobe Reader.

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Catch the Wave - March (19k).pdf
Kroy Ellis and Pastor Jim gave such an informative, insightful, and exciting presentation on Jerusalem’s Destiny that many want to know more about this city that God chose as the place where He would put His Name. Kroy’s testimony about how God worked in his life through the prophetic word and personal guidance is also helpful to you who want to know more about how God moves in our lives to find and perform His will....

Look at the Glory of God - April (24k).pdf
I remember standing in the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin, Poland a few years back. In the midst of memories of the horrors of the holocaust, with hundreds of little shoes piled up fifty years after the fact and the shower rooms and death chambers still trying to tell us the story, I marveled as I looked up and saw such a blue sky overhead. There in the camps the walls were crying out, but up above, the glory of God overruled....

Taking the Gospel to Africa - May (34k).pdf
I remember. Years ago that was the fear. If you became a Christian, God might send you to Africa as a missionary. Or, you would be witnessing to someone on the street and out of the blue they would try to divert your attention and hope to catch you off guard by asking, “But what about the heathen in Africa?”

Well, folks, there aren’t so many heathen in Africa any more and the “dark continent” is shining with a lot more of the light of Jesus Christ these days. As to being sent there, yes, God just might send you to Africa. I’m now going back there for the third time....

Taking the Gospel to Africa - Mozambique - June (30k).pdf
Mozambique became the 60th nation where MCM mission teams have gone. Stephen, Sue, and I thank you for your prayers, as they were all answered, from the luggage, timing, weather, finalizing contacts, staying healthy, everything! We worshipped with the Maputo International Christian Fellowship and called in the nation at their Sunday evening prayer service. We declared the prophetic word at that service and everyone prayed for Mozambique. It was truly set up by God.

On Monday we met Delci at the House of Ants. I’ll be writing about this unique ministry to 500 children at the outskirts of Maputo in my message of the month [See Missions - Mozambique]. This Brazilian woman, a Presbyterian, has devoted her life to the poorest of the region. Her commitment to Christ challenged us and her love for the children inspired us.

The $800 we brought House of Ants along with the suitcases of clothing, toys, and supplies came as a surprise, and as an answer to prayer. You see, in Mozambique there is no public education, no free schooling for children. Everyone has to pay, even the poorest of the poor. So, House of Ants pays for schooling for as many children as they can. The bill was due, and we were God’s way of providing the means for paying the school bill. Every dollar went for
education.....

Maputo, Mozambique Pictures - June (67k).pdf
...The first pictures come from Casa das Formigas (House of Ants), a residential home caring for 500 children daily. Read more about the faith-walk of its founder, Delci, in my message of the month for June [See Missions - Mozambique]....

Summer Update - July (44k).pdf
Summer’s here and most of the nation is celebrating our freedom, Independence Day. Like this beautiful little fish, who is all alone and away from “school” and a support group, we often think of freedom as being independent, on our own, and not under the tutelage or influence of another. The interesting thing is that in the Word of God, true freedom comes as we recognize our utter dependence upon our Creator, entrust our lives to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, and yield control to the Holy Spirit as our Paraclete.....

MCM Missions Update - Aug. (107k).pdf
...As we celebrated 13 years of ministry Saturday night at our Africa Night Fellowship Dinner, I looked out at the people who attended. I was so happy to know that many of those who came had received the opportunity to fulfill their callings and destinies in Christ at Craighouse®. Many had been on mission trips, from Jamaica to Singapore, to Jerusalem, to Eastern Europe, to Africa, to Antarctica, to Europe, to Brazil, to Chile, to Argentina, etc. People had witnessed for Jesus on all seven continents through MCM....

Creating Your Own Destiny or Destiny in Christ? - Sept. (80k).pdf
Recently, someone gave me a prayer based on the premise that we can “command the morning” and create our own destiny, not our destiny in Christ—just our destiny. As I went through this prayer I was greatly disturbed, not just because scripture verses had been taken out of context, misconstrued, and used for personal gain, but also because I could see something brewing in the caldrons of hell, a deadly potion so intoxicating, so fascinating, so appealing to the flesh, that it could tempt the very sons of God to miss all that God has for them in Christ.

I prayed about this and asked the Holy Spirit what He was saying to the Churches, and this is what I received August 11, 2006:...

Leading the Thirsty to Living Waters - Oct (51k).pdf
Leading the thirsty to living waters is something we do regularly at Craighouse. It involves getting over ourselves in order to pay attention to someone else. It means seeking connection with people who may have different backgrounds, different "worlds," and different ways of looking at things than we do. It means, therefore, asking questions with a sincere desire to know someone, being authentic, and giving what we have....

2007

The Year 2007; Rev. Jackie's Power Lunches - Jan (88k).pdf
I believe 2007 will be a year of prosperity for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe we will see the Spirit of Burning and Judgment moving across the globe but we will also come to understand that it is through judgment that deliverance comes to God’s people. I believe that many will come to repentance and faith and thus the gospel will begin to prosper in their lives. In an atmosphere of perfect judgment will grow a division between the holy and profane and more believers will abandon their desire for compromise, corruption, and complacency in their walk with Christ....

Ethiopia Mission Report and Pictures - Feb (80k).pdf
There is no place on earth like Ethiopia. It has its own unique culture, history, calendar, way to tell time, geography, and church. It is truly another world....
...
To our surprise we find that Ethiopia is considered the head of all African nations. The Eighth Africa Union Summit was preparing to meet at the U.N. building starting Monday, January 29th. Leaders from 40 African nations come together to discuss the problems and issues of Africa. They came with their entourages, Mercedes cars, flags, and much excitement. Security was high. The weekend God chose for us to be here was no accident....

Ethiopia and Access to God - Feb. (68k).pdf
If anything stood out on our mission to Ethiopia, it was access to God. The prophetic word to Ethiopia was well received. The people in the Assemblies of God church in Addis Ababa applauded, cried “Amen,” and participated with outstretched arms pointing North, South, East, and West. This 14,000 members and growing church has come to the knowledge of Christ opening the way to the Father through His Blood sacrifice. They freely come within the veil even as they meet Christ without the gate.

But in Axum, a place whose culture extends back to the Queen of Sheba, kings and kingdoms, the Falasha Jews, and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, access to God blurs in a blend of progressive revelation. Women and children cling to gates of a church open only to men. The free grace of the gospel is cloaked with the garments of a religious system of ritual re-enactments designed to help illiterate people understand the Bible’s message but which can also become a religion of works-righteousness, a form of godliness but denying the power of God...

Ethiopia - Out of Water and Vision of Engedi - March (112k).pdf
While we were in Ethiopia, we had only one 8 oz. bottle of water a day rationed since we had decided to carry with us as much as we could for the street children in Addis Ababa. That meant that by the time we got to the last day of the mission trip we were out of water and dry, dry, dry....

Are You Passionate for the Gospel? - April (114k).pdf
Jesus Christ shed His blood to cancel the guilt of our crime. In addition to showing His own love for us by dying the death we deserve, He became a ransom, forgives our sins, takes away our condemnation, gives us the basis for a clear conscience, brings us to faith, absorbs the wrath of God, and “does the devil in.” He reconciles us to God, frees us from bondage, secures our resurrection from the dead, opens access to the Holy of Holies, and shows us that the worst evil is met by God for our good and for His greatest glory.

Jesus didn’t stay on the cross....

Follow Me and I Will Make you Fishers of Men - May (141k).pdf
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Peter and Andrew were fishermen. They knew how to catch fish. But they straightway left their nets and followed Jesus into the unknown. Jesus transformed their lives. He still transforms lives today....

How We Spend Our Days - June (164k).pdf
How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. We are, today, the sum total of the choices we have made day by day over the years....

Hanging Between Life and Death - July (117k).pdf
The world’s a big place. You can barely see the two people walking along the shore in this picture, but they are there. Sometimes we feel that way; we feel very small in a great big world. We may seek power, to feel like we are more in control, but essentially, we hang at the fulcrum between life and death, death and life. We live at the edge of existence, somewhere between the beginning and the end.

I just went through an experience that abruptly demonstrated this to me....

Barnabas Distribution a Success in Belle Glade, FL - Aug. (138k).pdf
Ten of us (Rev. Jim took the picture) trekked up to Belle Glade, Florida, July 21st. Any kind of missions work, local or global, requires a spirit of adventure. Our MCM team certainly has that!...

Mother Teresa and Identifying with Christ - Sept. (70k).pdf
Mother Teresa intrigues people of all faiths and even people with no faith. Maybe it’s because she won a Nobel Peace Prize or because the Roman Catholic Church is considering her for sainthood. She is widely known for her great works among the poor of Calcutta and for the Order of the Missionaries of Charity which she founded.

Time magazine recently featured her in their September 3, 2007 issue in an article entitled “Her Agony” by David Van Biema. Apparently, Mother Teresa battled dryness, darkness, loneliness, torture, and doubt of the very existence of heaven and even of God for some 50 years after receiving a call from the Lord in a vision. She describes a dark night of the soul that never lifted but for a brief moment. She may have been right when she wrote in 1951 “that the Passion was the only aspect of Jesus’ life that she was interested in sharing: ‘I want to…drink ONLY (her emphasis) from His chalice of pain.’” (Time, page 41)...

Praying Psalm 5 - Oct (150k).pdf
We experienced a shortfall in funding of $4,000 this summer. Shortfalls mean cutbacks in ministry, and, of course, lead us to pray all the more earnestly to our Heavenly Father. He is the Source and Sustainer of MCM since its inception in 1993.

While praying for everyone connected to MCM, as I do, I was lead by the Holy Spirit to Psalm 5. This psalm of David is in itself a prayer for protection and guidance....

Christmas - Dec (89k).pdf
Do you have Christmas traditions in your family? Do you have certain foods you associate with Christmas Dinner, someone who always hands out the packages, special dinnerware, decorations passed down from the generations? Do you have a tradition of giving certain gifts only at Christmastime and/or a tradition of giving to others less fortunate? Do you put up the tree on a specific date?

These are ways we bring continuity to Christmas in our individual families, but one thing we do as Christians remains constant for the past 2007 years. We marvel at the glory of the Incarnation and wonder that our God should be so gracious as to send His Son to be our Savior....

2008

Learning from Buddy - Jan (144k).pdf
“Just a stray.” That’s what the woman across the street called her cat Buddy. Buddy likes to come visit us. Just as darkness descends, he makes his way across the street to the safe place between our house and the garage. I have a place there for him. He’s rarely hungry, but I bring him out a little cat food and some clean water and I have a nice blanket for him to lie on. But one night he showed up with a one-inch gash in his forehead and cuts; so I took him in a cat carrier to his owners to let them know he had been injured, most likely by a raccoon....

Lives Transformed - March (106k).pdf
Seeing lives transformed brings me joy. Like Paul said, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thess. 2.19, 20) Over the past 15 years of Mary Craig Ministries, we have seen hundreds of lives transformed by the power of the gospel. We specialize in small group ministry because Jesus demonstrated his interest in the one. He died for individuals. He took time to minister to people individually. He may have spoken to crowds, but He discipled twelve. He may have fed thousands, but most of those left when He began giving “hard sayings.” He may have inspired multitudes, but when He started revealing the cost of following Him, only a few remained....

Mission to the Rhineland - May (96k).pdf
We recently returned from our mission to the Rhineland. The prophetic word to Belgium is on our website in the prophetic section 2008. We were there to root out and destroy ancient strongholds and to build and to plant the kingdom of God, among other things.

Netherlands was another target nation. While Rev. Jim Craig and I were in Amsterdam, two of our Board Members, David & Betty Patten, were in New York City. There they prayed a prayer strategy concerning the roots of New York (which the Indians deeded to the Dutch and which went back and forth between being New Amsterdam and New York
before ending up as New York)....

Don't Ignore God - May (79k).pdf
Our son has a 3x5 index card wedged into his bedroom mirror. It says, “Don’t ignore God.” I thought about that reminder one day as I sat watching the people of Amsterdam go about their daily routines. Jesus said in Matthew 24.38 that “as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”...

The latest on the the Barnabas Project - June (187k).pdf
More than five years ago the Board of MCM set out to glorify God by displaying His goodness and graciousness to all; to advance the Christian faith through representation and recommendation; to minister to Jesus by serving His people; and to be in a position of being blessed by God by being a blessing to others. With this in mind, we set a goal under the direction of the Holy Spirit to break the strongholds of the curse and remove barriers to the blessing of God by serving as a “paraclete” to those in need of a Barnabas through symbolic, strategic, and specific acts of good done in Jesus’ Name and for His glory.

The Barnabas Project seeks out forgotten people and communities in the South Florida area and targets them for blessing, a little lift up, a little encouragement, to give them hope. The Barnabas Project has gone everywhere from Belle Glade, Florida, to Homestead, Florida, and many places in between. It began with a handful of people and one small truck and has grown and grown into major distributions....

MCM 15th Anniversary -- Look at God! - Aug (150k).pdf
Fifteen years ago this ministry began because Dr. George Callahan of New Covenant Presbyterian Church challenged us to organize it behind the three-fold call I had received. That call was to bring healing and restoration to the body of Christ, to prepare the Bride of Christ for His return, and to call to repentance and resurrection those nations where God would send me. Fifteen years later we are an international ministry with a thriving community outreach called Craighouse®, an expanding Barnabas Project, media ministry, and a world mission outreach that has taken 34 mission teams to 63 nations on all seven continents....

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Race for the Crown - Sept (121k).pdf
We’re in a race, not to earn or merit eternal life, because eternal life is a free gift of God’s grace merited by Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again that those who heartily put their confidence, reliance, and belief in Him might receive Him. In receiving Christ, we receive eternal life; for Jesus lives by the power of an endless life.

We’re in a race for the believer’s crowns. We are to endure hardness and fight the good fight of faith. We are to overcome. We are to fulfill the destiny that is ours in Christ Jesus, living out the purpose for which God created us. We are to be witnesses unto Him that loved us and that brought us out of bondage, out of darkness into His light, redeeming us with His own precious Blood....

Light of Christ in Culture of Death - Dec (94k).pdf
Dusty, dry, dead religion, cities of the dead, pyramids built for the dead, temples to the no-gods, desert regions, deceptive hidden rooms in the tombs of the pharaohs, people walking around in fear of the next terrorist attack and possible death; yet in that spiritual darkness there was the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a light shining in that darkness.

It was a mission filled with contrasts. Against the spiritual darkness with its apathy, the mocking, and the ridicule of Jesus’ miracles, stood the Truth. Even as some pastors took their theology from movies like Bruce Almighty and others taught that Jesus is not the only way to God as one travels on the journey that leads to everlasting life, the Truth came forward in the Word of God, that Word which some denied as being inerrant and infallible....