"Guard your heart with all diligence, for life springs from it." (Proverbs 4,23:XNUMX)

herbs and flowers

For over a year I have been very busy with herbs and flowers. Through my training as a herbalist, I learned a lot about herbs and, above all, how to process them, especially the flowers. I became more and more aware of the gifts God has in store for us in nature.

Most people almost only see the negative in this world because these bad things are so widespread and piling up. Or there are people who stick their heads in the sand and pretend that there is nothing wrong.

But through dealing with flowers, in connection with the Word of God and the soil of the heart, my thoughts have been directed much more towards the gifts of God. Because the beauties in his creation, and my thinking will be more and more geared towards dealing with the beautiful things in this world that still exist. In doing so, I noticed that I had started to talk to my fellow human beings in a completely different way.

I collected and dried a lot of flowers last year, made hydrolates, vegetable oil extracts and tinctures so that I am now able to bring joy to other people with my flower teas, soaps and creams. I point out the giver of all good gifts, usually with a Bible card or a book. In this way too our Creator and Redeemer can be glorified.

Then other thoughts came to me: If many blossoms and fragrant plants grow on the soil of our hearts, we are perhaps more of a fragrance for people. What is the soil of our hearts on which these beautiful blossoms are supposed to grow?

Our heart consists of thinking, feeling and wanting. If we occupy ourselves with beautiful thoughts, our thinking will change imperceptibly day by day. This includes first and foremost the Word of God, His promises, the life of Jesus and then God's garden in nature. These images are stored in our brain and the more of them there are, the more happy hormones are released when we remember or talk about them.

Brochures as a mirror of my experiences with God

I've got the booklet right now flowers as medicine finished and added a few thoughts about the love of God on this topic, because everywhere in nature, when we look at beautiful plants and flowers, the love of God radiates towards us. Then the thought occurs to me: "By looking we are transformed," and I notice how nature helps us to think more about the love of God. Two plants particularly appeal to me, the marigold and the damask rose. One shines yellow like the sun, but hardly smells and the other exudes a scent and presents us with its noble, delicate beauty.

So last summer I captured rose scents and dried flowers for blossom teas, oil extracts and to make hydrolates and scented creams. This has now resulted in a work that I would like to point out in this article. But other brochures have also been created, such as: The seven best years of my life, those were the years 2007 to 2014, the time when my husband Peter and I lived together here at Bethel Farm.

This time of writing, when I let all the beautiful experiences and experiences with God pass me by, caused a great gratitude in my heart. I didn't have any dark periods after Peter's death; God put people by my side out of sheer love, and now that I've been living alone on the farm for six months, my gratitude for the goodness and love of God has grown even greater. But I won't be alone much longer. God has another task for me...

Ten reasons that keep me at Court Bethel

I keep being asked if I will stay at court, some are seriously worried about me, but I can only see the love and goodness of God here on this piece of land. Therefore, I would like to share with you in this newsletter what God is doing here. If someone asks me, don't you want to go to your children? Then I say: "Yes, of course, but I haven't been able to see it until now. On the contrary, I'm experiencing things that clearly show me that I should stay here."

1.) Here I am completely dependent on God, because in my weakness I cannot do much myself. This is a good prerequisite for learning more about God. Because I depend on his help to find people who will do the work that my dear Peter did for me.

2.) God keeps giving me wisdom to do the right thing in difficult situations, so I can only praise and praise him. For example, he directs the weather. We had almost no winter this year, so I didn't have to shovel snow and I could drive my car unhindered to people, to go shopping or to the community.

3.) I started health courses here three years ago and met very nice people. If I went somewhere else, I wouldn't know anyone. I did a good job here. Since I can no longer organize public courses myself (for health reasons), I have very few opportunities to get to know people elsewhere. Here I have very dear neighbors, former course participants and friends. All these dear people receive the Word of God from me. I have been able to pass on many Bibles and »Great Controversies«.

4.) Neighbors came and visited me to say: »Heidi, we want you to stay here. Please don't go away. We also want to help you if you need it.«

5.) The community gave me the herb rings for free when they were fixing my landslide. I often thought, how am I supposed to cope with all this? Put on herb rings, fill them with soil and and and... Then things happened that amazed me even more. Working with herbs is a great blessing for me, especially for my own health.

6.) God placed Michaela by my side at the time I was attending herbal training so that I could fully concentrate on my studies and all new tasks. The first months I helped her with her problems and then she helped me.

7) In addition, my wish was granted to be able to go on vacation by the sea again. I was allowed to spend three weeks with my children on the Croatian island of Korčula. I will never forget this beautiful time. Michaela looked after the dog and the farm.

8.) There is no Adventist here. I am completely alone. But I experience God in a special way. He gave me Karla, my neighbor, as a friend who asked for Bible studies on her own. Every Sunday we eat together, study the Word of God and then do handicrafts or collect chestnuts and walnuts. In the Bible studies I learn to respond to the simple thinking of the people here and to speak to them much more in parables and examples from nature and life.

9) When I visit elderly neighbors, I usually sing spiritual songs to them and pray with them. This has already resulted in many Bible discussions, but also valuable experiences. So in February I visited an elderly woman from the neighborhood. When I got there I got a fright. The 88-year-old woman was lying terminally ill in bed, breathing heavily and on an oxygen machine. She already had water in her lungs and had just returned from the hospital. I sat down next to her and held her hand. She asked me to sing to her. I didn't have a songbook with me, so I sang "God Is Love" which I knew by heart. After that I prayed with her and encouraged her to rely fully on Jesus who loves her. Two days later, when I came back, she was already in bed without oxygen. I massaged her hands and feet with a homemade St. John's wort ointment and was able to talk to her for a long time and talk about Jesus. When I sang with her, "God will carry you, do not be fainthearted," she sang along with the song. Though she didn't know the lyrics, her lips formed the words of the song. Then the next time she was already sitting in the kitchen, washed and cared for by her son and I could massage her battered hands again and talk and sing to her. That's how God uses me in an area where there are no Adventists.

10.) Another time I was visiting a family. Eight people sat around the table. I was immediately able to speak freely about God. It wasn't preaching, I got answers and questions. I was there for two hours and everyone listened intently as I told them about Jesus' imminent coming, our Creator and Sustainer, and prophecies related to the refugee crisis. That got her attention. A year ago I gave this family the book From shadow to light given. Now they were quite interested to read it.

The dustbin

Now I would like to show you another picture of how I, as a woman, can deal with difficult situations on my own, because God always gives solutions. This time it was Werner, a fellow believer, who gave me this tip. Our driveway is 700 meters long and I have to take our rubbish and paper bins up to the street. A strenuous undertaking for me. Now I hang the bin on the trailer hitch and drive very slowly up to the street.

woodwork

Hardly anyone has any idea what it means to live in the country. Today people are used to simply turning on the heating and their apartment is already warm. Country life means heating with wood, processing it and procuring and trimming it anew every year. If I don't heat it up myself and put more wood in, the house is cold. Many dear friends and siblings have helped me so far.

God's love through a kitten

In the fall, when I was working with the refugees, I often came home in the dark. One evening, as I was getting out of the car in the garage, I heard a soft meow. I couldn't believe my eyes: A young, severely emaciated, injured kitten was sitting here and was hungry. It was still very shy. But when I fed him food every day, he became more trusting and the wound on his leg healed very quickly. Now this kitten has become my dear companion, Mohrli, my beautiful tomcat who never leaves my side.

New issues: God's pharmacy for our health

By the grace of God I was able to write and prepare six volumes this winter:

1.) The seven best years. In this booklet I describe the seven years here at Bethel with Peter, from 2007 to 2014, until his serious illness, the experiences with God, his help in difficult situations, the construction work and work on the farm, the health work in the vineyards, natural disasters and life with the animals.

2.) Smoothy, the green revolution. Here I show what value green plants and herbs have for our health, how we can keep our blood pure and clean and do our work full of energy. The booklet also contains recipes with pictures.

 

3.) Herbs as Remedies — Introduction: Here I have compiled a compilation of how herbs are classified and how they can be used for our organ systems.

4.) Nettle, garlic & co, the seven most important remedies. I prefer to work with these herbs because they have the most efficient active ingredients. Everyone should know about them and be able to use them in an emergency.

5.) flowers as medicine. Blossoms are wonderful to use for teas, ointments, natural soaps, hydrolates and creams. In various steps, shown in pictures, it is shown how you can make these extracts from flowers for ointments, soaps and cosmetics.

6.) Rediscover chestnuts as food and medicine. A lot of old knowledge has been forgotten. There is much more you can do with sweet chestnuts than roasting them in the fall and winter. Horse chestnuts, with their healing properties for the veins, can also be used to make wonderful products for external use.

For the time being, these booklets are only available in black and white, but will probably be available in color from the summer. May God give us grace to remain brave and strong until His coming, and to enjoy the beautiful gifts of nature.

This wishes with all my heart with Maranatha

Heidi

Continuation: Shortly before heart surgery: safe in God

Back to Part 1: Working as a refugee helper: In Austria at the front

from Hoffnungsvoll leben, herbs and cooking workshop, Schlossberg 110, A-8463 Leutschach, , Homepage: www.hoffnungsvoll-leben.at, Mobile: +43 664 3944733