Intermountain Christian Fellowship

We live to share the Good News in love.

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Autumn 2023 Update

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Dear Support Team, Family, and Friends:

It’s been quite awhile since we’ve written here on the ICF blog. Thanks be to God, we’re alive and well!

How we thank our Lord for all you who stand behind us with prayer, financial support, and encouragement as we seek His strength to fulfill His unique calling for us to Montana and beyond!

The late-summer/fall season came rushing upon us, with duties and privileges like:

  1. A couple of “celebrations of life”
  2. A joyful mountain-creek baptism service
  3. Assisting with a couple of church “situations”
  4. Youth groups
  5. Men’s Leadership Breakfast and Fellowship at our Great Falls residence
  6. The privilege of being in attendance at the August 14 wedding in Alaska of our grand-nephew Taylor Davis

At that wedding popular “Aunt Karen” as usual took time for special activities with several younger children in the vicinity. Incidentally, our pilot nephew-in-law Jeremy Davis—in true Alaska style—landed Taylor’s bride, Linnaea by helicopter right on the lawn near the wedding site!

And speaking of unusual entrances of a bride: who could forget Watson Snyder and Naomi Roghair’s Utica, Montana wedding on July 29, when lovely Naomi in her wedding dress rode in on horseback at full gallop?!

Naomi, Watson, Susan, & RT Snyder

It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words; so we hope y’all can imagine full descriptions for the following somewhat random photographs. Enjoy a glimpse into some of what’s been going on recently in our ministries and relationships.

Helen Louise Palagi, 1929-2023

Introductory lines of Helen Palagi’s published obituaries read as follows:

“Helen Louise Palagi’s deepest desire was fulfilled on July 17 2023, when she met her Savior face to face. From the moment she came to know Jesus decades ago, she loved Him with all of her heart and lived her life in service to Him.”

Oh, and how honored Karen and I felt when her family members asked us to minister in word and song at Helen’s August 26 Great Falls Memorial Service and Sand Coulee Graveside Service! It would take a book to begin attempting to relate just some of how Helen helped and encouraged us and countless others as she shared and lived the Gospel and love of Christ.

We received an uplifting early August letter from one of our leading Highwood young women, 18-years-old Sarah Davison, who was preparing for her September 2 departure for university. I think Sarah would be ok about my quoting an excerpt from her letter:

“I want to give everything to God, my every waking minute, and I do not want to wait another second debating whether or not I should do this: I would be grateful if you could baptize me.”

With Grahame, Sarah stands under a Highwood Creek bridge on August 27
Sarah gave her testimony of faith in Jesus before family and friends, and we baptized her.

The group pic with barefoot Sarah shows a few of the people (including Karen and me) who gathered that memorable afternoon for the baptism and Montana-style barbecue.

Middle School and High School Sept. 6 Highwood Youth Groups when we began lessons about the attributes of God.
Karen with Joe & Julie Young’s winsome eldest daughter Anna as on Sept 7 she worked energetically at our place to help with preparations for upcoming Men’s Leadership Fellowship and Breakfast.

With love in Christ and deep gratitude,

Grahame, for Karen and me

Nicolson Family Newsletter 2016-01-17

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Photo of Grahame Nicolson at Benefis Hospital
Grahame Nicolson at Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, Montana USA

January 17, 2016

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for your thoughts and prayers with regard to Grahame and to our family. We appreciate you and them (the thoughts and prayers!) SO much as we navigate this challenge, placing our small hands in Jesus’ broad ones.

We wanted to update you on Grahame’s medical condition, of which some of you may have become aware.

Late last week, after a couple of days of his not feeling well in combination with a keen headache, Karen and Grahame sought medical help. His doctor immediately scheduled a CT scan which revealed that he had suffered a significant stroke.

He was transferred to the ER where preliminary tests and exams were conducted. Grahame was subsequently admitted to the hospital. After a week of careful attention, he was stabilized enough to be moved to a post-stroke rehabilitation center in Great Falls, Montana on Saturday afternoon, January 16.

We are grateful to report that Grahame is currently highly mobile—unlike many stroke victims. He is able to walk and move freely, although he was required to remain in bed while in the hospital, with IV tubes and monitor sensors affixed.

He is highly verbal—his ability to speak, hear and express himself is excellent. He is, in a broad sense, presenting himself with his unmistakable “Grahame-ness!” Needless to say, he is making many new friends among his hospital caregivers.

He does have some cognitive challenges and will have rehabilitative work to undergo in order to heal completely and minister in the manner that he and Karen have historically done. We covet your love and patience as we work through this process, by God’s grace and in His time.

In light of these things, here are some current requests for prayer, from us as a family:

    1. We ask you to thank the Lord for sparing Grahame’s life.
    2. Please pray that God’s will be done, even as we pray for Grahame’s full recovery. We recall Paul reminding us in Romans 14:8 that “whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
    3. Please praise the Lord for His care for us, in Jesus, especially in knitting together Karen and Grahame. We thank God that he chose to bless Grahame with a wife and partner such as Karen.
    4. We ask that you would pray for the healthcare professionals—many of whom are dear friends—attending to Grahame. We pray that the Lord would give these doctors, nurses, and specialists great wisdom, intuition, humility, and grace as they tend to Grahame and to his recovery needs.
    5. Please pray specifically that the medications Grahame needs to balance the different aspects of his condition would be effective and that his body would adapt to and accept those medications so that his system can establish a new balance.
    6. Please pray for stamina, courage, patience, and grace for Karen as she ministers to Grahame. She has been with him at the hospital since he was admitted, sleeping only intermittently, and doing this with soldier-in-Christ grace!
    7. Pray that the rehabilitation Grahame will be undergoing would allow him to function at the level that the Lord wishes for him.

In the midst of this earthly challenge for Grahame and for our family, we rest as mortal humans upon two great promises and truths from the Bible:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea.”—Psalm 46:1-2

“For we are convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 8:38-39

You are all so very dear to us. We feel blessed and encouraged to be able to share this with you and to know that you will join with us in prayer!

Your fellow pilgrims-in-Jesus,

The Nicolson family

P.S. If you’d like to share an encouraging word, please leave us a voicemail at +1 (406) 640-4230. Or, you may mail a note to:

Grahame & Karen Nicolson
PO Box 9
Ulm MT 59485
USA

Thanks!

Revealing the Granny Smith Apples and Tea “Mislead”

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Photo of Grahame Nicolson
Grahame Nicolson showing part of the answer to last week’s “mislead” article on the icf.io blog.

In this blog post I will reveal the nature of my October 1 subterfuge. Several people (including by way of e-mail) have been crafty enough to nudge at some aspects of the “mislead,” but so far no one has shaken the mysterious kitty fully out of its burlap sack.

So what’s the deal? Well, first of all, the written material I composed in Granny Smith Apples, Tea, and a “Mislead” is true. Secondly, my still-life photo is certainly of green apples beside a teacup and saucer combination.

“Now, wait a second,” you might ask, “if the picture is as it appears to be and your brief essay is factual, how are we being misled?”

Please read on.

Okay, about the October 1 still-life picture…. The tea cup and saucer combination is actually the same size as the miniature one I’m holding with my fingertips in today’s photo. And the apple perched on that tiny cup is the same size and variety as the fruit (small green crab apples from our own tree) in the earlier image. Of course, the apple in my right hand is a fresh, crisp, full-size Granny Smith…yum!

Now about the written material…. My composition about Granny Smith apples and properly brewed, truly-hot tea is factual (and I hope informative). Yet, what happens for most people is that as they look at the photo and read the article, they naturally, but mistakenly assume that the visual image accurately depicts the message of the story!

A statement I’d like to add here is that people who truly know me will usually confirm that while on the one hand I’m obviously an imperfect human being—and sometimes an annoying one at that—dishonesty and manipulation do not appear to be among my besetting sins. However, by reflecting on this “apples and tea” item, I believe we might detect one subtle factor in our occasionally being led astray from the truth: a person whom we mistakenly think we can trust might easily contrive to take us in wrong directions.

It is my earnest prayer, of course, that by God’s grace I will always be worthy of the trust my family and close friends tend to place in me.

So although to borrow the words of Paul’s confession to the Corinthians, “…being crafty, I caught you with guile” (2 Corinthians 12:16) actually creating any kind of deceit really does go sharply against the better side of my Christian character. But, yes, here I must confess that in Granny Smith Apples, Tea, and a “Mislead” this man you also probably trust has—albeit for the ultimate purpose of “providing a practical lesson”—resorted to uncharacteristic subterfuge.

In a future icf.io blog entry I will provide that promised “practical lesson remarkably well illustrated” by today’s and last week’s postings.

Love to all again from Grahame

Granny Smith Apples, Tea, and a “Mislead”

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Photo of Granny Smith apples and teacup
Can you spot the “mislead” in this photo?

For reasons obvious to people who know me, I particularly enjoy Australian or Australia-related foods and healthy beverages. Crisp and sweet-tart, Granny Smith apples, either in one of Karen’s famous apple pies or fresh with fine cheese are among my favorite fruits.

The Granny Smith cultivar (a plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding) actually originated in Eastwood, New South Wales, less than 20 miles from where I grew up. The bright-green fruit variety’s developer was Maria Ann Smith, a popular orchardist, who in 1868 reportedly chanced upon its first seedling among some ferns near a local creek. After she and her husband Thomas had raised a large family, Maria became widely known as “Granny Smith.” By the mid-1970s, almost half of Australia’s apple crop was Granny Smith apples, and since the 1980s an October “Granny Smith Festival” draws many thousands of people to both Eastwood and the nearby town of Ryde.

Oh, and another typically Australian delight is carefully brewed, truly hot tea. Karen follows the strict rule of bringing the water to a full bubbling boil, pre-heating the china pot and china cups, and allowing the tea leaves fully, richly to steep in the hot, hot water. Yum!

Well, what then is the “mislead”? There is a kind of “trick” in this blog entry. Study my still-life photo and the story above to see if you can decide how I have attempted to mislead you. To award a prize, we will draw from names of those who correctly identify my trickery and submit their answers in the comments below.

Also, you won’t want to miss a future blog article in which I will provide a practical lesson remarkably well illustrated by today’s posting.

Love to all from Grahame

“Hey, Mister, I forgot to tell you….”

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Blossoms photo
Blossoms remind us of new life, especially as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
[Photo by Grahame, scene created by God]
 

Noted 19th Century theologian R. A. Torrey used to tell about an encounter between an affluent gentleman and a street urchin in Scotland. The story went something like this:

Years ago, on Princes Street, Edinburgh, with its beautiful setting, one of the many shop windows displaying art treasures attracted the eye of a passing wealthy gentleman. He was gazing intently at a painting of the Crucifixion, with the Savior extended on the Cross, the multitude watching, Mary and others standing by.

It had a been a long time since this man had allowed any thoughts like those suggested by the canvas to enter his mind, but the artist’s graphic portrayal brought back poignantly to the gentleman memories of truths he had learned as a child.

Then he became aware of the presence at his side of a little ragged boy who was also looking intently at the painting with its moving story of Calvary.

The street urchin piped up, “Mister, that’s Jesus on the cross. They nailed Him there with that crown of thorns on His head and killed Him, Sir. Jesus was the Son of God. He became a man so that He could die for us. That’s Mary His mother standing there, looking at what they did to Him.” The gentleman felt a lump rise in his throat as the boy continued, “And He died, Sir, for our sins and they buried Him yonder.”

It was too real, and the man turned away to continue his walk down Princes Street.

After he had gone several yards, he heard the pattering of feet running after him. He then felt a tugging at his coat. Turning around he saw it was the ragged laddie who had been describing the Crucifixion painting. The boy exclaimed breathlessly, “Hey, Mister, I forgot to tell you, He rose again!”

Two Applications of Resurrection Truth

Application One: Jesus Rose Again, a Truth to Proclaim

Dr. Torrey’s story drives home an essential point, doesn’t it? After His atoning sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus did rise again from the dead. And after reflecting on the wonders of Calvary on a “Good Friday” observance and / or after celebrating Communion it’s important and powerful for us to proclaim one of the most undeniable facts of all history: “Jesus rose again.”

The Apostles certainly all felt that way. Two examples:

1. Right before the Crucifixion Peter denied Jesus, but later Peter saw and dialoged with the risen Savior. Hear the old fisherman’s new boldness in Acts 2:22-24: “…listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

2. Paul who had been persecuting Christians met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road. Soon, at risk of his own execution, Paul went everywhere preaching the Gospel and making statements like what he writes in 1 Corinthians 15:19, 20: “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead….”

Hymnist B. D. Ackley wrote this challenge:

He rose triumphantly, in power and majesty –
The Savior rose no more to die;
O, let us now proclaim the glory of His Name,
And tell to all, He lives today!

Application Two: Jesus Rose Again, a Truth that Motivates

In John 14:19, shortly before He is to die on the cross, Jesus promises His resurrection to the confused disciples; and in that promise He also provides a dynamic motivation for them and for us to love and serve Him forever: “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.”

As I look back over a half century or so of following and serving the Risen Christ and forward to what He may yet have in store for me, I sometimes privately paraphrase Kermit the Frog like this: “It ain’t easy being Grahame.” (It’s likely many of our readers might easily replace my name with their own.) And yet, when I reflect on the many ways in which “because Jesus lives, we will live also” both in the now and in the forever, I just want to drive ever onward with Him and to lay rubber all the way into heaven. Bill Gaither1 said it well:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow;
Because He lives all fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

Response Questions

1. How does the truth of Jesus’ resurrection influence your thinking and your way of life?

2. What encouragement does the truth of Jesus’ resurrection bring to you?

A Contest

A nice prize will be awarded to the first person who tells us in the comments section below what verses from which Old Testament psalm does Peter quote immediately following Acts 2:22-24?

This contest is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Chris Caldwell!

A Constant and a Contest

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G&K with Bible
The Constant Word of God

 

What is a “constant”? A constant may be defined as something that is unchanging or invariable.

Here’s a lyric we’ve adapted that celebrates the “constant of all constants,” an amazing book that in the photo you see uniting Karen and me as our hands hold it:

The Bible Stands by Haldor Lillenas

The Bible stands like a rock undaunted ’mid the raging storms of time;
Its pages burn with the truth eternal, and they glow with a light sublime.

The Bible stands though the hills may tumble,
It will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble;
We will plant our feet on its firm foundation,
For the Bible stands.

The Bible stands like a mountain towering far above the works of man;
Its truth by none ever was refuted, and destroy it they never can.

The Bible stands every test we give it, for its Author is divine;
By grace alone we expect to live it, and to prove and to make it ours.

Our friend, Gail Good recently gave us the book He That Is Spiritual, a classic study by Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer on the biblical doctrine of spirituality. Wow! In Dr. Chafer’s typical style, the pages are saturated with Scriptural foundations and specific apropos biblical references. I’ve been reading a few pages at a time and have been red-pen underlining as I go. Not only are the teachings providing a sound, interesting review of genuinely biblical pneumatology, but they are filling me with thanksgiving for the “constant” written word of God that “stands like a rock undaunted ‘mid the raging storms of time” and that unites Karen and me with a marriage that only the Lord Jesus Christ could build.

By the way, in the photo above the Bible is opened to our personal marriage-theme verse, Psalm 48:14.

Now to the contest…

Recently at one of our monthly YLG (Youth Leadership Group) meetings in Conrad, sister and brother Brittney and Dustin Steele of Valier showed up with their written work on an extra-credit challenge involving the chapter and verse location of many, many quotes in Basic Christianity by John Stott. Way to go, Brittney and Dustin! You will each be receiving a little prize. Well, now here’s the contest for this blog entry:

The quotes which follow are related to the Bible as the constant of all constants, as that which “stands like a mountain towering far above the works of man.” A prize will be awarded to the first person who responds in the comments section below with the correct book, chapter, and verse references for all seven quotes.

In my research and meditations I generally use the New American Standard Bible, but because the King James Version (KJV) is usually more readily available for internet or concordance searches, the quotes are drawn from the KJV.

1. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

2. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night….”

3. “So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.”

4. “All Scripture is given by inspiration from God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness….”

5. “Knowing this first that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

6. “Every word of God is pure: He is a Shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.”

7. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

Karen and I are excited to see who will be the first correct responder!

May you know the Lord’s peace and joy today and always.

Love from the Nicolsons

Update: This contest is now over. Congratulations to the winner, Trent Zempel!

Grahame’s “Gold in the Pan” Philosophy of Ministry and a Contest

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Photo of "gold in the pan"
What is the “Gold in the Pan” Philosophy of Ministry?

The Philosophy

Since a few days ago when we enjoyed three separate phone conversations, the first with a 17-year-old girl, the second with a 21-year-old guy, and the third with a 20-year-old guy, I’ve been reflecting on a personal ministry principle I’ve called “seeking for gold in the pan.”

New-to-Montana-ministry people are often wise enough to seek mentoring and advice from Christians who’ve been around the area for a long time; some of those humbler young men and women even come to Karen and me for guidance. One of my little nuggets (excuse the pun) of wisdom is that we always need to be seeking for gold in the pan.

My comparison relates our work to that of a prospector who dips and washes his / her way through a lot of gravel, constantly looking for bright glisters of true gold. Of course in serving the Lord among people we do our best with God’s strength to reach all the souls around us, but there are times when He makes it clear that He is entrusting us with a small percentage of deeply committed and called ones.

As a prospector with tweezers lifts the little nuggets from the pan and sets that gold aside for special care and refining, so we need to be watching for certain individuals into whom God directs us to pour our teaching and lives. Those three young people we talked and prayed with recently as well as a deeply committed couple we pre-marital counseled are all, praise be to God, examples of “gold in the pan.” What joy to be permitted by the Lord to watch Him mature them and call them to special fields of service with and for Him!

A good question to ask myself: Am I a nugget of God’s “gold in the pan”? And another: Do I look around myself for a couple of noticeably motivated individuals the Lord might enable me to nurture in their human and spiritual development?

The Contest

A nice prize awaits the first person to answer these three questions correctly:

1. In the photo above I took of tiny pebbles with several little gold nuggets that belong to Karen, how many pebbles are there?

2. In the same photo, how many gold nuggets are there?

3. The number of nuggets is equal to what percentage of pebbles?

This contest is now over. Congratulations to the winner, William Alexander Dyrland-Marq!

Grahame’s September Jubilee Celebration

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Photo ofthe SS Oriana berthed in Sydney Harbour and waiting for 19-year old me to board on a stormy, windy September 20, 1963, the day I "set sail" for North America. 50 years ago!
The SS Oriana berthed in Sydney Harbour and waiting for 19-year old me to board on a stormy, windy September 20, 1963, the day I “set sail” for North America. 50 years ago!

 

My salty old Latin teacher, Miss Butler, would surely have been able raspily to proclaim that the infinitive jubilaré means “to shout for joy,” and that our noun jubilee is derived from jubilaré which actually dates back to the Hebrew word for a ram’s horn trumpet.

Unfortunately for one uninterested young bloke (me), there was not much shouting for joy in her Parramatta High School classroom. However, this month I am thankful for Sally Butler who hammered endless conjugations into us because I know that the first person singular, present tense, active voice for that verb is jubilo, meaning “I shout for joy.”

And I am presently doing a little shouting for joy here and there because the faithfulness of God has made September 2013 to be a Golden (50-year) Jubilee month in my earthly life.

My widowed mum and my sister later emigrated to Canada, but the last time I ever saw my dad, Carl Nicolson, on earth was that 50-years-ago morning when he climbed up onto some pilings at the outer end of the pier and stood alone waving to me until distance and mutual tears put us out of sight from each other. Yes, on that trans-Pacific voyage on the SS Oriana I was leaving everything and everybody I knew for places and people unknown.

Scroll forward five decades… Wednesday night of this week took Karen and me to one of our regular assignments, a 180-mile (290 kilometer) round trip to Denton, Montana where Denton, Coffee Creek, and Hobson teens meet for youth group. We had not seen most of the young people and sponsors since June at C – N Camp. What a hug fest when several precious kids came running over to us with open arms as we entered the church basement! After supper we enjoyed shout-for-joy worship and lesson time during which I taught from Mark 4:1-20 and concluded by challenging us all to be “Mark 4, verse 20 people.” We then closed the meeting by prayerfully singing together:

“Jesus, Jesus, Lord to me—Master, Savior, Prince of Peace; Ruler of my heart today—Jesus, Lord to me.” 1

As I accompanied the singing with my guitar, I could look at all the youth and sponsors’ beautiful faces, voices of praise and commitment belonging to a second and third generation of people to and with whom we have been privileged to minister. I can still see and hear that Wednesday night song in a little Montana town, and my heart is filled with praise to God for this Jubilee month of memories, reflection, and hope for the immediate and eternal future.

“My Jesus, my Savior, Lord there is none like You,
All of my days, I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love.
My Comfort, my Shelter, Tower of refuge and strength.
Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship You.

Chorus:
Shout to the Lord all the Earth let us sing,
Power and majesty, praise to the King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar,
At the sound of Your Name.

I sing for joy at the work of Your hands.
Forever I’ll love You, forever I’ll stand.
Nothing compares to the promise I have in You.” 2