Traveling and Staying Healthy on a Vegan Diet

There are many healthy ways to order your foods if you find yourself in an airport and not knowing what you can eat safely on a vegan diet. Mexican restaurants are a great choice because they seem to have black beans and rice along with salads sometimes with lemon and lime slices and guacamole, which is a good alternative if you are trying to stay vegan while traveling. Another way of keeping healthy on your journey is to plan ahead and make sure you have lots of fruits and vegetables handy. We like to pack little ziploc bags filled with grapes or grape tomatoes to snack on when we are on road trips. However, when you are flying, it is not always easy with all of the regulations to have these same snacks. I recommend staying hydrated and avoiding the processed and packaged foods as much as possible.

Always ask for water every time they offer drinks on your flight. This will help you to stay hydrated and avoid some of the cravings for candies and other temptations. On my last flight, I sat next to a lady who was eating a banana and some peanut butter. I almost wanted to ask her if she was vegan! I thought this was a great idea for a snack and most airports have foods like this, if you get creative. It can actually be fun piecing together a meal of vegan foods, from restaurants inside of the airports if you have the time.

Find a travel agent that will assist you in ordering a healthy vegan meal for your flight. I do this regularly for my travel customers, so I know that most airlines offer this choice for international flights. It is fairly easy to stay vegan with all of the options out there. When choosing a vegan meal, just remember to place your order at least 24 hours prior to departure. They will need time to prepare your food for you, so make sure you don't wait too long. If in doubt, make sure you have some vegan snack bars in times like these. These can be a life saver!! If you are one of those who needs your green barley juices, you can bring your powder form of barley grass with you on your flights and a mixing spoon and enjoy your barley drink with water during your flight. This will help you to stay alkaline and create an environment in your body that resists sicknesses that are lurking around every corner when you travel.

Have a safe and healthy journey!

~Tabitha L.

We are Christians passionate about serving the Body of Christ with missionary and humanitarian airfare for their missions travel. We specialize in providing missions teams and individual missionaries with helpful resources for their missions trips including a store which can be found on our website. http://www.cheapmissionstrips.com

Faith Like a Child

I was helping Faith (our 2 year old) brush her hair this morning, and was explaining to her that some children don't have a mamma or a papa....  She looked up at me and said, "Don't have cuddles?"  I said, "No, they don't have cuddles either..."  It is amazing how, even the little children can understand these things, and are moved to respond with compassion for these little ones who have no one to love them.  We have much we can learn from them.

Cancellations and Refunds with Humanitarian flights

Many people ask me all the time how the cancellation and refund process works with the humanitarian flights. I have dedicated this to all of my adopting families and others who have questions about cancellations and refunds with humanitarian flights, so I can hopefully help to answer them here. Some benefits of using humanitarian airfare include the fact that these flights are refundable, minus airline penalties and fees, if you should need to cancel the flight prior to your departure date. Most flights out there on the internet are non-refundable, but the humanitarian flights are not in that category.

Missionary and humanitarian flights, unlike most flights, are refundable, minus airline penalties and fees if you should need to cancel and request a refund. These are not total refunds of 100% of your flight cost, but they do help tremendously, since most other flights are non-refundable. There are many other benefits to using humanitarian airfare as well. Humanitarian flights are changeable and usually the first change after departure does not have an airline penalty, so the change fees are much lower than changing a regular flight that you will find. Also, since humanitarian flights are only able to be accessed by a missionary and adoption travel agent, you can also expect much better service than using an online travel engine to purchase your flights.

The cancellation process for humanitarian and missionary flights can take around six weeks before you will see the refund applied back to your credit card. However, many people notice that their refunds show up closer to two or three weeks after the cancellation has been processed with the airline. There are always going to be multiple charges and credits with any refund of this nature, and many times you will need to add up the costs and credits which should all equal up to the amount quoted to you for your refund.

Sometimes an adopting family will need to cancel just the return portion of their flight for various reasons, and re-book with another airline at a later time. This is a case when the family would be very thankful that they have humanitarian flights vs. published flights. The humanitarian flights are refundable, even for just the return portion. This is always just a partial refund, less airline penalties and fees, but still helps tremendously to preserve some of the loss that would otherwise be incurred.

Generally, families who use humanitarian flights, especially for adoption travel, are very happy with them if they need to make changes to their return date. There are sometimes unpredictable circumstances that cause families to be forced to cancel their flights for adoption travel, and when these things happen, they are always very thankful that they have used humanitarian flights rather than anything they could have booked on their own.

I hope this helps in answering some of your questions!

Safe Travels!

Tabitha Lovell, International Travel Manager

The Doe Waiting for Her Adoption

Yesterday, the doe in my yard reminded me how all creation is groaning and waiting for it's redemption. WOW! To think that all nature and created things will be delivered from the bondage of corruption with the Children of the Lord. Are you a child of the King? Are you groaning and anticipating the Savior to deliver you from your bondage and waiting for the adoption and redemption of your body? This doe reminded me of this because I saw her eating in fear of danger, with no rest. Each time she put her head down to eat a blade of grass, she fearfully looked around to see if there was a predator coming to harm her. I believe this is part of that groaning and anticipation to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God that the Bible talks about!

I have been so blessed to serve so many adopting families with their travel internationally, but I just realized as I was reading these verses, that I am waiting for my adoption too!  The Children of God are ALL waiting to be adopted fully and completely!  Did you realize that even we groan within ourselves, when we see the corruption of this world we are living in, we groan for the day when our adoption will be complete and we will be HOME with our Savior!!!

Rom. 8:22b  Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Are you waiting for your adoption to come through?  Let the Lord Jesus give you new HOPE today.  Let Him show you that you are not only waiting for an earthly adoption, but a Spiritual adoption that will be complete one day as you remain abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Without Him, we have NO hope at all!  

I can't WAIT for that deliverance day when we will be face to face with the Savior! In my heart, I groan for this along with this doe, to be totally free without any bondage of corruption, without any predators lurking to steal away the JOY of Jesus anymore! OH, how I LONG for that day!! Do you long for it too? If you repent of your sins and surrender your full faith in Jesus Christ, the Precious Lamb of God, He will cover you with His blood and you can walk in faith with Him all the way to Heaven! 

As you read these verses, remember the doe today who is longing for her deliverance and groaning for it. Won't you turn to Jesus today? Won't you join these saints who are waiting for their adoption day?  Jesus promises that if you come to Him, you will surely find rest for your soul.  The Spirit of the Lord is groaning too.  He is praying for us in our weaknesses, GROANING with us as we wait!  What a Precious Father we have, who sympathizes WITH us in our weaknesses.

Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us[b] with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

God bless you as you seek Him today!

Be ENCOURAGED today!!!!

~Tabitha Lovell

www.cheapmissionstrips.com

Divine Encounter at the Lost River Cave

Yesterday was such a beautiful day with my sweet family!  We decided to stop off and look at the Lost River Cave in Bowling Green Kentucky, that we have heard about.  We have a "picture ministry" where we will ask someone to take our picture and then we will use that opportunity to share the gospel with them! So, we met a couple at the entrance to the cave, who we shared with for hours yesterday in Bowling Green. The wife is Jehova's Witness and the husband Muslim. We were able to show them from the Bible SO many things, exposing so many of the false teachings they are soaked with in these two man-made religions.  They were not in agreement in their own marriage because they are both holding on to these opposite religions.  It was sad for us to see this because we were thinking of that verse in the Bible that says "How can two walk together if they are agreed?"  Amos 3:3

We are praying for them now, that the two of them will be able to be ONE in the Spirit of the Lord, surrendering their religious ideas to Him and humbling themselves to the Truth of the Word of God.  I was able to share my testimony with the wife, because she said herself that she is not born again.  So, as we were walking back together to our cars, I was able to share my testimony with her.  She thought that the only ones who could be born again are the 144,000 in Revelation.  I just shared my testimony of how the Holy Spirit of the Lord came to live inside of me and how I was saved.  They did not have such testimonies, so I believe the Lord really spoke to their hearts.

When I talk to a Jehovah's Witness, I always see so much head knowledge, but nothing deep inside of their hearts to match what is in their head.  It is all just a man-made, false religion with absolutely no hope of salvation.  I am not afraid to speak to them anymore like I once was.  I was fearing that I would not have an answer for them.  But really, the answers are so simple!  We can share our testimony and share how we need to be BORN AGAIN or we will not enter the Kingdom of God.  Also, there are SO many scriptures about hell that they avoid.  They do not believe there is a hell.  So, we need to show them because IF they do not repent and trust in Jesus as their GOD and Savior, they will end up there, in the VERY place that they disbelieve exists.  

SO, I challenge you.  Look up all the verses about Hell and keep them handy for the next time you may meet one of these people.  It may be just what is needed for their false doctrine to be exposed and for them to see the LIGHT (Jesus) who is desiring that they be led out of that false religion and into His Kingdom!  

I encourage you to take a step of faith in this direction.  They need to hear your testimony and so do the Muslims.  They don't have a testimony of salvation and they do not have any hope of salvation or eternity in Heaven.  We really need to shine the Light and bring them this hope before it is too late!

God bless you as you seek Him!

~Tabitha

www.cheapmissionstrips.com

Wickedness All Around

Last night, I awoke from a dream that felt so real.  I want to share it because I believe it may be something the Lord is going to use to encourage the Body of Christ in these days we are living in and the days ahead of us.  In my dream, I was in an urban neighborhood, possibly in Louisville, but somehow in my dream it felt like this city represented all of the cities in the United States.  There was wickedness all around.  Everywhere I looked, there were people robbing and homes being destroyed.  People were in a panic, wondering around on the streets, feeling vulnerable, like someone was going to take from them.  There was a sense of deep poverty that had brought many homeowners to a place of complete desolation.  Their homes were without electricity and people were using some sort of a massive type of bubble wrap to insulate their homes all around in order to keep out robbers from breaking their windows.

My husband and I were in a back yard for one part of the dream and there was a flying saucer type of instrument in the sky that fell into the back yard where we were sitting.  This flying saucer was radiating with some type of harmful radiation coming out of it.  Kevin immediately hurled it away from the area we were in as far as he could throw it, but someone in the government had placed this into the atmosphere to harm innocent people with the harmful radiation waves inside of this.  In my dream, there was an overwhelming sense that perilous times are ahead and we need to prepare ourselves spiritually for these times, by drawing deep roots with the Lord now, so that when these perilous times come, we will be sound in our faith.

In my dream, there was a spirit of suicide that seemed to be lingering around.  It seemed that the way that the world and those who were not abiding in the Lord were dealing with the pain and poverty and destruction, was to kill themselves.  Aside from the spirit of suicide, it seemed that people's hearts were failing them all around because of the wickedness that they were encountering.  There was no love, no comfort anywhere, only desolation and absolutely no peace.  There did not seem to be any safe place to turn in the world anymore.  All that people were holding onto seemed to be stripped away, almost overnight.  There was no longer television to soothe and comfort the pain.  It seemed that everyone was each man for himself, and no one was looking out for the needs of anyone else.  There was a sense that each person was in a survival state of mind and they were willing to kill, steal, and destroy in order to survive.

I woke up from this dream with two verses on my heart very strong.  I think it is healthy to have a fear of God in our hearts.  Even the Bible tells us that we should fear the One who can cast our bodies and souls into Hell, rather than living in the fear of man.  However, in the last days, the love of many will grow cold because of the wickedness all around.

Matthew 24:12  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

This was the first verse on my heart which caused me to fear the Lord when I woke up.  I say this because we will be tempted when perilous times come, to forsake the Lord and walk in sin like the rest of the world, but we must not obey the devil when we are tempted, we MUST obey the Lord and walk in His will for us no matter what evil may befall us.

The second verse on my heart when I woke up was that if we endure to the END, we will be saved.  This gave me so much hope, yet fear coupled with it as well.  I have this fear of the Lord in my heart that keeps me close to Him.  I fear walking away from Him and His incredible love for me, and not finishing the race.  I fear taking my eyes off of Him when all I can see is evil all around.  I can not imagine that this would not be a temptation if my eyes ever beheld anything this terrible on the earth.

I just realized that these verses are in the same passage just now as I write this!  WOW!  The Lord is good.

Matthew 24:13  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

I am so encouraged now to share the gospel more and more.  Jesus is our only Hope during perilous times.  I have had some adversity in my walk with the Lord, and I believe that we can never leave Him.  He is our only  Hope and we can never abandon His Love no matter what we will face on this earth.  Let us go forth with bold love for our Master with a heart like Peter who said, "Where would we go, Lord?  YOU have the Words of Eternal Life!"  Let us keep this ever before our hearts and continue to take even more earnest heed to those things we have learned, so that we do not fail in the day of adversity that lies ahead.

Here is an encouraging passage to encourage our hearts to trust and obey our Precious Lord in the time of tribulation to come.

“He who would love life and see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,  and his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." 1 Peter 3:10-17


God bless you as you seek Him~
Tabitha

BBC 4-26-11

BBC 4-26-11