I Honored My Father

I Honored My Father

The morning Neil's nephew was to be Bar Mitzvah,  Neil and I were met in the parking lot of the synagogue by the rabbi. "I understand you two believe that Jesus is the Savior," he said. "Yes." He looked grim. "In that case I have to tell you that you won't be allowed on the bema. You'll have to stay seated. You will not take part in the service today."

We went inside and were seated in the packed sanctuary. One by one everyone from teachers to neighbors, Jews and Gentiles, were called up to take part in the Torah service. We were the only ones who had remained seated. Outside I sobbed----not for me; for Neil who wasn't able to participate in David's Bar Mitzvah. My sister-in-law came up to us and said, "Cheryl, I'm sorry but that's just the way it is." I snapped at her. "You know that BOOK everyone read out of today? Neil and I spend time every day reading it! What do your friends do with that book?"

I was angry and handled my feelings wrong, but my heart was broken. At that moment I knew what it meant: "Let the dead bury the dead; I knew that when my beloved father would die I would not be allowed on the bema to pay my last respects.

Twenty years passed. My dad had developed Alzheimer's  Disease and was in the hospital with complications. I had preached and begged and explained and read and sang everything I knew over the years to bring him to a saving knowledge of Christ. He seemed to 'like' the idea, but I never heard a commitment. When we were in the hospital that morning I said, "God! I don't ask for signs, but I need a sign that my father has accepted you as his Lord and Savior."

A stranger entered the room not long after. He walked passed all of us and stood against the wall by the window. "The angels are here to take Joe Samelson to heaven today," he announced. My heart leapt!  My sign! I knew!

It was Thanksgiving week-end. The rabbi was out of town and couldn't be reached to come back. My mother called Chicago to get the names of rabbis who could come officiate at my father's funeral. He brought us together interviewing the family about my father. Everyone said a few sentences and then it was my turn. I poured out the memories of my father. The rabbi said, "Cheryl, do you think you could do the eulogy for your father?" My heart exploded!

That night I practiced in my childhood bedroom. I  wept as I practiced  the words I would say. I said them  over and over and over  until I could say them with joy, not sorrow.

I suddenly realized: NOT ONLY COULD I APPROACH THE BEMA FOR MY FATHER. I WAS ABLE TO HONOR HIM BY GIVING THE EULOGY.

My precious father, Joseph Samelson, loved us all fiercely and dedicated his life to giving us all what we needed, no matter what the cost to him. The greatest gift he gave me was allowing me to honor him at his funeral.

God's Hands and Our Hands

 Women with a Vision Bible Study

Written by Cheryl Skid

God's Hands and Our Hands

Psalm 95: 3-5

3: For the Lord is a great God and A great King above all gods.

4: In His hand are the deep places of the earth the strength of the hills is His also.

5: The sea is His and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land.

Original Language

Deep Places   Mechkar. There are four consonants in this word: mem, chaf, koof, and resh. The meaning is changed by the vowels that appear as dots and dashes under the consonants. But the root is what matters in Hebrew--it's what matters to me. It's where I dig for meaning to open Scripture. So I dragged down my 3000 page Hebrew English Dictionary that I bought from a traveling dictionary salesman in Ashdod 1966. And this is what I learned: deep places means research, study, inner depth.

Strength  TOAPHOT. Interesting that this word is plural, noted by the OT ending (feminine plural) The word means strength, height, eminence, strength, power.

Hills HAREEM. Why would the psalmist use such a lofty word in conjunction with hills? Hills aren't even high? They certainly aren't majestic? because hareem, in the Hebrew is mountains. Mount Everest is HAR Everest.

Formed YATZAR.  create, manufacture (see the word man in that word--which implies by hand?) fashion, form, produce, contrive, devise.

Dry YABESHET (in the Strong's it has a th on the end--and if you listen to the recorded pronunciation on line, the man says TH at the end. Plain and simple, Israelis don't pronounce th--ever. When I taught English in Ashdod and tried to get the students to say it by sticking their tongues between their teeth and blowing they dissolved in giggles)  This word means dry land or mainland. The word 'land' does not appear in the Scripture.

Let's look at Scripture to Learn More

Read the following Scriptures to discover what God's Hands produce, provide or accomplish.

Genesis 49:24 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How can you receive help from God's hands, judging from that Scripture?

2 Chronicles 6:4 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What came first? God's mouth or God's hands? ________________What can that teach us about how we conduct our lives and expect to experience success? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hebrews 10:31 gives another aspect of God's hands. What can you deduce from this Scripture ? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Let's take a look at what the Word says about our hands.

Ex 35:25 Women were praised for using their hands in this example. What kinds of things do you do with your hands that are praiseworthy? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lev 7:30. What do you think is the implication of bringing the offering with one's own hands? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deut 14:19. How has God blessed the work of YOUR hands? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deut 31:21 What kinds of things can we do with our hands that are corrupt and anger the Lord? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Judges 2:14. Sometimes God uses other people's hands to punish His own beloved people. Does this confuse you? _________________________________________ Can you think of examples? _______________________________________________How does good come out of it? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mark 8:23 is one of many examples in which Jesus used His hands in ministering to people. What other examples can you name?  What do you think is the implication of the importance of Jesus' (and our) hands? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do Work

Start looking around to see all the things God created and thank Him for them!   Take a look at your hands. What are they doing?  If you are doing creative things with your hands consider gathering a group of women and teach them your craft or skill? If you aren’t doing anything creative with your hands, find some who is, and learn!

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Talk to us! How has this lesson blessed or challenged you!

Women with a Vision is a not-for-profit organization which means your donations are tax deductible. Your donations help me travel to places where women are dry and thirsty for the Word of God and for Christian fellowship with women of like mind. If you would like to help fund these mini-teaching missions please send your tax-deductible donation to

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P.O. Box 693

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Kim's Eyes

It was 1967 and I was a student at Indiana University where I was studying English and living off campus in an apartment. No one I knew in those days had a vehicle, so we walked to classes through that huge campus of 40,000 students in all kinds of weather. Since we had no phone in the rooms and no internet we never knew if classes were called off for snow. Oh! How I remember trudging through snow drifts, my fashionable wool pleated skirts worn mid-thigh with knee socks on my short legs. One winter was brutal and the freezing storm left a half- inch crust of  ice on top of the drifts. I got to class and read on the board "class canceled".  I rubbed my blood-red knees and thighs that were nicked with deep scratches from the ice and headed back home.

A bright spot in my cold story:

I met Kim when we shared a class in Ballantine Hall. Kim LOVED life! She saw beauty everywhere. While others whined about homework, rain, or lousy dates, Kim rejoiced. She would point and exclaim over the beauty she saw all around her as we walked from Ballantine Hall to other buildings in which we shared classes.

Kim was blind.

I was not a believer, so I didn't even put two and two together that God was the source of her joy. I just knew that Kim was amazing and overwhelmingly grateful when I didn't see a lot for which she could be grateful. She would squeal and exclaim about how pretty the creek looked or how beautiful the sky was. She didn’t want a service dog or a cane. She wanted to walk holding hands. She wanted to hold MY hand.

I invited Kim to dinner.  As soon as she walked into my apartment she began exclaiming about how cute everything was. Her hands eagerly touched every object on my shelves and responded about each that it was so adorable.

I did hear Kim complain once: about being short! Since we were the same height I could commiserate with her. I gave her a huge hug and said, "Kim! We're same size but your heart is MUCH bigger than mine!"

A Call To Africa!

 "We're in St. Louis and need to see you now!"  The voice was husky and foreign. Bishop Samuel and Lady Theresa Thiong’o wanted to come over immediately. What a shock! I hadn't seen them for ten years when I had met them briefly in the home of friends. I'd written to them steadily over the years, encouraging them in their work, but we'd never sat down face to face. In less than an hour the two beautiful dark black people were seated in our living room drinking tea.

"Cheryl we need you to come to Kenya and speak in a women's conference this summer."

I told them I couldn't because plans were made to go to Israel that summer. "You can." They insisted. "You can and you will."

The four of us who were going to Israel added Kenya to the trip. We arrived in Nairobi at 1 in the morning and were met by NO ONE. We waited an hour and I said, "I'm calling them."  A horrified fellow traveler said, "You can't call anyone at this hour." Bishop answered the phone groggily and instantly was awake! "I thought you meant 1:00 in the afternoon!" Since then I never leave any room for doubt: 9:00 before lunch or 9:00 when it is dark at night!

They arrived in an hour and we were off, first to spend the night in a home in Nairobi then off to Kitale.

We got settled into the guest house where we were shown our accommodations and given instructions on washing the hair (using a Tupperware container) and how to flush the toilets using a bucket of water.

We arrived in the church where we saw written on the chalk board "Women with aVision Conference". Suddenly I felt a little squeamish. "Lady Theresa, what other women are speaking?" She told me that this was purely a Women with a Vision conference. There were no other speakers.  We sped into action. We had no idea we were IT presenting to the women for four days morning, noon, and night.

They started to arrive, beautiful women, all on foot, who had been traveling, some for days. Most had babies on their backs and many had sleeping mats on their head. Oh no! Oh God! We'd better be good. We'd better be worth it! The sacrifice these dear women were making.

Outside were men near cooking pots. Before them were mounds of peas and corn and rice....mounds that were waist-high. The men were preparing food for our conference!

The conference was wonderful! The women held us, wept and said, "We didn't know that women in America had troubles like we do!" It was an amazing four days that we have held in our hearts all these years.

It is time to go back. Would you like to go?

With love from Cheryl, the Thiongo’s and the orphans we support--all of whose parents died of AIDS

Why I Left Direct Sales

I love sales! There is a challenge in making the people connections .  There is a challenge in gaining people's confidence. There is a challenge in closing the sale.

But I don't sell anymore.

I was born again in 1978 very quickly afteward was recruited as a distributor for Shaklee Corporation. I loved the products, the plan and the people. I got rid of everything in my house that could be replaced with Shaklee products and started contacting friends.

In a short time we were assistant supervisors then supervisors. We traveled to the plant in Norman, Oklahoma and to states where top sales people held conferences.

I had seen the signs which were none too subtle. Neil and I attended Jewish Marriage Encounter (during the phase when Neil was trying to woo me out of Jesus back to Judaism) and met a couple who couldn't get enough of us. Sada said, "Whatever you two have, I want." Instead of leading Sada to the Lord I signed her up as a Shaklee distributor. We spent hours and hours and hours together. 

We attended a conference in which Scripture was used, and instead of Jesus, Shaklee was inserted. People were given the opportunity to purchase busts of Dr. Shaklee.

Everyone I saw became a candidate for Shaklee:  they needed the business opportunity, the better health, or a non-poisonous way to clean their homes.

I was addicted to adding people into my business. I did not have one friend to whom I had not sold or whom I had not recruited.

Many people can do business and also ministry. I was told by leaders that if I could just blend the two I'd be a phenomenon of success.  But I couldn't. I had to choose. I chose evangelism. I chose fervor for Jesus. I simply could NOT justify spending minutes talking about a business when I could be attending the soul and spirit.

 I did finally share my faith with Sada. Since she is also Jewish I gave her a jewel of book called Raisins and Almonds which is simply a compilation of stories of Jews who saw the truth about Yeshua. She called me saying, "Our friendship is over. I have never felt so used and betrayed."

Interesting: she  never felt used when I was building my business on her sales ability, but she felt used when I offered her a free gift of a glimpse of my Savior.

More! I had recruited ALL of the members of our Jewish encounter 'family' into Shaklee. The"Love Family" met once a month sharing stories of ourselves and our marriages. It was wonderful! The Love couples became some of Neil's and my best friends. After Neil joined me in Jesus we decided that we needed to 'fess up' and tell these Jewish folks who we were. I invited all of the women to the Magic Pan for lunch and told them the story of how I came to faith in Jesus.  They listened politely and even smiled at me. At 8:30 that evening the phone rang. It was a husband of one of our Jewish love friends. "Our Love family is one couple too big."  I thanked him and told him it must have been difficult for him to have made that call.  We never saw or heard from any of them again.

 I gave up my business because I simply COULD NOT mix Jesus with my profit. Was it right? I don't know. I still use the Shaklee products. If I sold anything, it would be Shaklee. But I sell nothing--except the joy and love in my heart for Jesus, and that's free.

Being in sales gave me one gem that I've kept in my heart all these 32 years. "80 % of  sales are made on the fifth call." I learned to be tenacious. Just because someone doesn't want to hear about how Jesus changed my life the first time or the second time or the third time doesn't meet it is a forever 'no'.80 % of the sales are made on the fifth call.

How Did a Jewish Woman Fall in Love with Palestinians

When I lived in Israel there were no Palestinians. There were Jews and there were Arabs. I never heard the word Palestinian until it referred to Arabs whose land was won by Israel during the Six Day War and  wanted it back.

While I was teaching in Ashdod I was engaged to a Madrich Gadna at the same school. A Madrich Gadna was a person who taught the mandatory high school class in which young men and women were trained to be soldiers. Once Israel mobilized for war he left and became a tank commander in the Sinai Peninsula. When he returned to Ashdod he brought me a paper he had found. It was a spelling test of an Arab student that confirmed what I had come to believe. Arabs hated Israel and wanted to obliterate it. The spelling paper was full of words used in war time: bombs, explosives, war planes.

I came back to the US sure of one thing. Arabs were the enemy of Israel and therefore the enemy of me. I had no place in my heart for Arabs.

Thirteen years after the war I had a sudden and revolutionary experience with Jesus Who changed everything. Almost everything. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. We know the words, but is it our truth? Arabs are part of the world. Did I love them as Jesus did? I was about to find out.

During a meeting of Women with a Vision Debbie said, "Cheryl! I want you to meet Maryam, a Christian Arab." My smile remained on my face but I felt my eyes freeze. I muttered something, but of this I was sure. I would not meet Maryam. I had absolutely NO desire to meet Maryam. Maryam was an Arab, Christian or not. No. I did not put 'meet Maryam' in my Daytimer.

But God.

A few weeks later our son Nathan wanted to buy a notebook and wanted to buy it from Grandpa Pigeon's. . Those were two unlikely desires. Nathan didn't care about school or notebooks, and he didn't like cheap stores. This was a set-up. We walked into Grandpa Pigeon's and got in line behind a young woman and a slightly order man. I heard them speaking a language I recognized as Arabic.  My love of people overtook my mindset against Arabs and I asked, "Where are you from?" The young woman answered that she was from Bethlehem. I  knew immediately that she was a 'Palestinian' because if Jews lived on the same block they would say, "I live in Israel." Since this woman named the city instead of the country, it told me she didn't recognize Israel as a state. She introduced her uncle and said he was visiting. Then she said, "I am an Arab but I'm a Christian." The smile on her face was dazzling. I said, "I am a Jew but I am a Christian." Suddenly the environment around us became electric. Simultaneously we began shrieking in delight, jumping up and down and hugging each other. I told her my name. She said, "My name is Maryam." Yes, the very same Maryam I had vowed never to meet.

Maryam and I became best friends. For the first time ever, I listened. I listened I listened. Things I had refused to consider were IN MY FACE. I heard about atrocities. I heard about houses that had been taken. I'd heard about checkpoints, and violations, and beatings by Israeli soldiers. I listened. The wall I erected around my heart with the big sign "No Arabs Allowed" crumbled.

Not only did I accept Arabs into my heart, I started LOOKING for them so I could listen to them.  I came to realize that Palestinians above all, want to be heard.

In three weeks Neil and I are going to Phoenix to stay in the home of our dear friends John and Maryam Yatim. God has a plan. And this time I am going to embrace it!

Why I Do or Do Not Believe in Miracles by J.B.

I was 20 years old and serving in Ashdod, Israel as a volunteer with Sherut La'am. It was May of 1967 and everyone knew war was impending. The gulf of Aqaba had been blocked, and the many surrounding Arab nations were watching. I was a teacher of English and French at Ashdod Junior High School.  Almost all of the students had a father or brother who had been mobilized.

I had received a visit from the member of the Sachnut (Jewish Agency) telling me that I was being evacuated along with the other foreigners. I declined. After having been in Israel only 11 months I said, "I'm staying. To me, to die for Israel is to die for God." 12 months beforehand I was training on a large tricycle as part of the Little 500 at Indiana University. I had come to Israel full of bruises on my legs from a tricycle.. Now I stood at the door and told the gentleman that I was staying to help in the war. To think that 11 months ago my silly brain was on tricycle races!

  My idea of war was World War II when my father served for 4 years as a bombadier on the Flying Fortress or of Viet Nam when my cousin's wedding dress hung 2 years while she waited for the return of her  helicopter pilot fiance.  I was prepared to stay for a war which I assumed would last  years.

During this time of mobilizattion for war I gave a writing assignment to my 8th graders: Why I Do or Do Not Believe in Miracles.  I came across a composition written by a young man I'll call Jacob B. I'm not changing the spelling or syntax.

"Subject: Why I do or not believe in miracles.

I do not believe in miracles because, if I can say, miracles belong to fairy tales and we are not child. to believe in fairy tales. Above all we are in the twentieth century. The world has done one step forward and the people became civilized and forgot the fanatical thoughts and also the old storys.

Now we have to work hard all the day, to ameliorate our situation. We have not free time to think of the Silliness. This is a reason why a man of our time don't believe in miracles. During the time the man want to live in the moon. I say that the miracales must not have sense and they will continue to have no meaning forever."

A month later I was in the bomb shelter at the school with Jacob and his classmates.