Our Stance of Hope!

Our Family!




Brandi Dawn Leister

We love you Brandi, we are missing you with the Father's Hope!


In 2009, us Leisters, living in Kenya visited the USA ( I am sure I have mentioned this before ). As a family we gathered for this once upon a time occasion, giving us an unforgettable opportunity to have a Family Portrait taken. Something I have always enjoyed!

This Portrait was taken by a wonderful friend and family member, Ange Movius! She has an incredible eye when looking through the lens of her camera and a tremendous heart for God! You can see what a success these two create when she makes a photo! Thank you Ange, you have been given such a gift!

Once, while I was sitting in our church sanctuary praying, I received an open vision! God showed me a huge Portrait setting! It was incredible, hundreds of thousands of people standing side by side, it just seemed to go on and on!

God’s joy and righteous pride was all around me! I knew that I was looking through the Infinite, eternal eyes of the Father as He snapped the shutter, just like a Photographer would! This was His, Family Portrait!

Looking through the Father’s eyes is such a honor and most definitely gives us a different perspective than our human eyes let in! As I looked with amazement at what Holy Spirit was showing me, I began to catch what it was that He really wanted me to see.

Even thought the Portrait seemed full, every now and then there was a gap, where just a silhouette appeared and sometimes more than one! I knew that whole connected groups were missing!

The silhouettes were not just empty spaces where the others could have squeezed together and made the picture look more symmetrical and complete. The silhouettes were defining shapes of missing family members, that can not be replaced!

God knows our name, He knows who we are inside and out, He formed us before we were! We are His children!

His heart opened to me and I felt His loss for those missing but also His tremendous, undeniable Hope in their return!

I remember thinking of Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal son in Luke 15:11 “ There was a man who had two sons. 12) The younger one said to his father, “ Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them.” NIV

Not long after that, the younger son grabbed his stuff and set off for a distant country to squander everything that had been given to him! Soon he was living like the pigs of that country!
Remembering who His father was and how much he had given up, he decided to humbly go back! (Phyllis Leister paraphrase)

20) “ but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” NIV

Holy Spirit nudged me and I could feel Him compelling me to look at the position of the Father! The Father’s Stance was, a Mountain Top one, of watching, searching, drawing his son back by the shear will of His Hope and then not waiting for his son to get to him but running out to meet him!

Horace and I love our Family Portrait, we keep it, right where we can see it everyday! Each one of our family members mean so much to us, it hurts! We know that their lives represent generations of lives not yet seen!

They are each a precious gift from our Heavenly Father! And like our Heavenly Father we look at this Portrait with a different perspective than most people would! There is a silhouette in this picture! Someone is missing and can not be replaced, because she is missing there are others missing as well. Our hearts yearn for their return!

As a family we have several prodigals and with this knowledge, I remembered the picture God painted for me, in Luke, of the Father’s Hope, inspired by His love that can not be denied.

1Corinthians 13: “ 4) Love Is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ) Love never fails!”

This picture of God’s great Love and His proceeding Hope has inspired me to a Mountaintop watch for our Prodigals!

Let each of us who have children missing from our own and so the Father’s Portrait, join in His active Hope, as His heart searches for each of them! He will find them and carry them back with the Hope that we share! I know that their return will be celebrated in both Heaven and earth!

Luke 15:4 “ Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home, rejoicing,….. “ NIV

As I share all of this, my prayer is, that we be encourage to make Hope an active part of our Motherhood! Not just for those in our immediate family but for those in God’s worldwide family! Many are still missing because they have no hope and have not heard or see this love of the Father described in 1 Corinthians 13. Let’s take our Mountain Top Stance for them also.

And may our Stance of Hope in a eternal Family, designed by God, inspire our children to see themselves as very intricate, essential members of this Family, that they may take their Stance too !

Phyllis Leister Loving the Father

Citizens of a Heavenly kingdom!

This last week, I had a dream. In this dream I was with all my family! How happy I was and glad to be among them! I love and cherish all of you so much and miss not being with you!
The dream went on and I saw an open book, Hebrew’s 14:11 was written there. I remember waking up thinking “ there is no Hebrew’s 14”! So I looked up Hebrew’s 11:14, I wrote it here with a couple extra verses:

“ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14) People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15) If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16) Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them!” NKJ

Does God’s word ever challenge you like it does me? Have you read Hebrews 11? If you haven’t, I pray that you will! If you have, did you ask yourself; how these people stood in the place of faith that they did? I have, I ask myself “ did God just make them different or can we all who believe stand in that place and withstand what they did?

While reading a very interesting book, I read this: “We are not members of a religion but Citizens of a Heavenly Kingdom, it resides in us and we take it where ever we go. It has the power to change where ever we are and whom ever we are with. “

I liked this, I know that it is our purpose and our Royal position, as Son’s & Daughters of the king (John 1: 12, Galatians 3:26, Romans 8:14)), to lead others to a right knowledge of His kingdom (Matt. 28: 19 “ therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you ..! )

I just read an article online, interviewing children about who their mothers are to them and what they do for them!

The answers of course were adorable and very entertaining! “ My mother is suppose to kiss me when ever I feel bad about myself!” one little boy said. Don’t you just love that, I do!
There were many answerers but not one that stated, “ my mother is suppose to introduced me to my Savior & King!”

One Mother’s Day about 6 or 7 years ago, when all our children and grandchildren attended church with us!
Our Pastor gave a wonderful sermon on “ What makes a Mother “ his verbal description included unlimited quantities of mercy, love and kindness!

I remember smiling to myself as I caught the eye of my grown children sitting about the sanctuary, envisioning the mother they had grown up with!

My purpose as a mother, after I received Christ as my Savior, has always been to make sure that my children would never wonder who Christ was ( like I did for 23 years) and always know that they were Citizens and Heirs of His kingdom and never doubt it! I desired for them to have an opportunity to serve their king and His kingdom, young!

They were to be tough and not fear, so that when it came for them to stand and not fall, they would! “Buck up, you are not truly hurt” was a common statement heard at our home!

My children would see themselves as Royalty in the strictest since, being as Christ, although being a king He humbled himself, serving mankind on to death that all might have life everlasting.

“ What did “you” do?” they would hear when ever faced with childhood conflicts. I would always challenge them to see their part in what was happening!

Doing my best to remove from their path any stumbling block of confusion, they heard God’s Word spoken frequently, so much so that at times, “please mom, no more!” were words I came to know, not that they deterred me!

From the time our youngest birth son, was 8 until all our grown children were married with children of their own, we did foster care, over 150 children who needed temporary care & a home came and went.

Thankfully as our family grew, so did I and some of my tactics took on a softer feel but my purpose never changed! It was not always a calm & comfortable home and many times I forgot that it is God’s mercy that leads us to repentance!

Needless to say, the looks I received back from my children that day were ones of humor and Knowing!

Later as we gathered for our Sunday Family Prayer ( something I truly miss but knew then, was a limited time gift) I expressed my thoughts to them and apologized for being the “Warrior Mother” instead of the soft Cuddly one! What could they say, they forgave me!

Right about now you are wondering where I am going with all of this! Well, I am hoping that this is more than just a confession that my methods have not always been the right ones!

The encouragement I am trying to convey is this, even though, obviously, we want to establish a motherhood of love & mercy with our children, let us not forget that we are building a structure here that can not be moved! An architectural “Masterpiece” in this instance, built on the Rock of our Salvation!

We can never start to early or to late, building a Motherhood that characterizes our children’s rightful Identity & Citizenship and points them toward their true home & country! Like the men and women of Hebrews 11:14, God has prepared a city for all of us.

We have our 2 youngest daughters with us here in Kenya! The eldest has often said to me “ Mom, am I different?” Yes! Troyanna, you are different, Praise God! This family has always been different, Peculiar I hope!
Psalms 90:1 “ LORD, through all the generations you have been our home.”

Have a Blessed Mother’s Day!
Loving the Father! Phyllis Leister

The Great Tapestry!

My friend Bea!


Does'nt reading, just take your mind so many places? While reading the book of Hebrews; I was reminded of a Great Tapestry!

The creation of a tapestry is much like that of a painting, the unique color and texture that is used by the weaver to persuade the visual story, just waiting out of sight, to come into view, is much like that of a painter with an empty canvas.

Tapestries have been used since at least Hellenistic times. Some being preserved as far back as the 3rd century BC. These works of art were used to tell many a life story. Hanging on walls for warmth and remembrance!

Each individual thread picked for it’s color & shape, placed in the exact position, destined to ultimately bring a successful completion to the finished work!

I believe our life story ‘s, grow and build in resemblance to these tapestries!

Beatrice Likalama is a recent gift to my life, another gold tread! We met in Dec. 2008! Referred to me by a friend, she applied for work here at Tumaini Children‘s Center!

With 11 infants & toddlers, 2 exhausted preteen daughters and one exasperated husband, at home. I found myself with a couple day stay at a Kenyan hospital!

Treated basically for, exhaustion & sever dehydration, I was ready to repent and seek help!

God is so good! All the time! ( Psalm 103 ) Bea was willing to work for what we were offering and did not back away even after I explained the continuous, repetitive work of dishes, diapers and household cleaning we were expecting of someone willing to help us!

I could not imagine anyone wanting to do what my heart was compelling me to do, in the day to day care of these wonderful, needy, orphaned children!
God tells us that pride comes before a fall and I had definitely fallen, to the end of my physical self!

I could describe Bea to you, as my housekeeper, because we now have 4 women who work with us under her in the house but truthfully she has become, so much more! She is my dearest friend & partner in faith!

Bea is a Pastor’s wife, her & her husband Francise, Pastor a Calvary Baptist Church here in Eldoret Kenya! Bea is a Mother of mothers ( something we will talk about in the future)! She gathers and guides the Mamas in her church and where ever she finds them.

Each mama young & old are another opportunity for Bea to spend day & night hrs helping them to see the work of God in their lives! Counseling, encouraging, exhorting, loving with the unlimited love of Christ, she tries to lead them to a closer walk with their Lord !

Shedding care filled tears for all mamas, Bea and I join in prayer and fasting once a week! What a honor it is to call her my friend and sister in Jesus Christ!

She said to me just this last week “ Mama Phyllis, Do you know, God loves Mamas! Mamas were those who tenderly went with Jesus’ body to the tomb, they got to see him first, after He was risen!” Oh how he loves us!!!!

Our Father God is not only a Master Painter but a Master Weaver as well, of course, being the Master of the Universe all art flows from Him!

From the beginning of my walk with Him, God has Graced me with great mothers of faith, each one a golden thread woven with precision in and through my life, Bea being the most recent!

There have been so many before her! I thought about listing all of you but it would take much more space than I have here!
I hope & pray that you know who you are and that all of you share this life with me!

Never forgetting the specific thread of faith, courage, exhortation, unlimited love of Christ, God used you to weave into my life, forever changing my story, for eternity!

I realize, I have known the same kind of Hero’s, described in Hebrew’s 11 !
So many wonderful mothers, young and not so young who have mothered me in their Spirit of Faith!

Remember when; we were talking about the artistic force that brings life’s breath to our art? Well, it begins with God and then He brings in a great collaboration of His faithful!

I hope you will read all of Hebrews 11 for the 1st time or the 100th! God left the door open for many more Hero’s of Faith to stand on these shoulders! My prayer is that you will know some and become some!

The end of this scripture says, (Hebrews 11: 40 ) “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’’

Woven together like threads of a great Tapestry. God knows that it will take us all, to bring about what He desires for each of us and this world, Christ’s perfection!

Philippians 3: 12 “ Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

We are God’s soil, out of our motherhood grows the fruit of all the promises of God through Christ!

Pressing on together, let us join Hearts and Spirits across time & continents to continue this most important mastery of motherhood!

A desire for excellence opens Heaven’s gates for us! Not a pride for perfectionism but a true desire to see our lives take on the excellence of our king!

Loving the Father, Phyllis Leister