Skip to main content

Posts

WHAT IF....WE'D SAID NO?

We’ve always been an odd sort of couple in some ways.  Just ask anyone who knows us.  Over fifty years of marriage we’ve tended to commit to, get involved in, plan, orchestrate, and participate in just about every opportunity to serve that came our way.  Now, some might say we over committed, that we stretched ourselves too thin, paid a cost that was too great.  While that may in some small way be true (you might want to get our kids opinion) we probably wouldn’t change a thing.   Most of this over achieving practice began early in our marriage.  It just sorta crept up on us.  We became heavily involved in church activities including picking up kids on the church bus, three times a week, working at church camp, teaching classes, participating in Bible hour and vacation Bible school, and then leading the youth group. I can’t even tell you how many pots of chili I made on a very small stove at our fall retreats or how many miles Big Al drove that barely road worthy bus. There were banque
Recent posts

Ponderings from the Pandemic and the Storm

Easter was already weird.  Who would have ever imagined when 2020 began fresh and new that we would all be staying home due to forced quarantines and social distancing as a result of a pandemic?  Who would have believed that the entire country would just shut down?  Who could have imagined that we would be worshipping from our homes livestreaming with our fellow believers?  Before now we all thought pandemics were a thing of the past, only to be read about in the history books.  But 2020 has shown us different.  All of these things we would not have believed could happen did.  So, Easter 2020 found us all at home having small family gatherings with egg hunts for a single child in some cases.   For our family this Easter included four generations of us confined to the same house.  The mix includes 6 adults and one toddler.  We decided to make the best of this Easter by worshipping our Lord and Savior, continuing with an egg hunt for our great granddaughter, Brighton, and having a t

It's A Wrap!

How can it be over so soon?   After all the change that 2017 brought, we started this year planning our first season as "Love Goes".  I spent weeks planning our travel itinerary, securing reservations at campgrounds, and making contact with places we would be serving.  Now here it is the end September, the trip is over, and we are back at our home base in Monroe, Louisiana.  We have been home for a week processing all that we have seen, heard, and experienced over the last few months.  I just now feel like I'm ready to try and communicate what a blessing and joy this new role has been and how grateful we are for those that have come along side us to make this possible.   We began this journey on April 12th when we left Monroe.  We traveled north with stops in TN, NC, and VA to visit family along to way.  Then it was on to Huntington, Massachusetts, to serve at The Retreat at Norwich Lake, a ministry of the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch.  We spent the next 8 w

On the Road Again

We’ve done this all before.  And I still think God may have confused us with some adventurous, change-loving folks.  We never imagined that our lives would be so full of change, uncertainty, and oh so many steps of faith.  When we were young we thought we would get married, have babies, and live in the same town where we were born and grew up.  We pictured raising our kids, growing older, and retiring to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  We never really seriously pictured life outside what was familiar and comfortable.  Not once did we consider that life would take us to NY to live and work on a Children’s Ranch, to Mexico to do medical missions for several years, and then to Africa to do the same.  And we certainly never expected that in addition to abundant joy and blessings we would experience so much heartache, disappointment, and loss along the way.  And yet, here we are in a new season, leaving the familiar, beginning a new chapter, and taking a huge leap of

Holding On Till the Blessing Comes

In our ladies' class at church we've been doing the Beth Moore Study, The Patriarchs.   I love all of Beth's studies.  She has such a gift for digging into God's Word and bringing out the truths in new and fresh ways.  When I'm involved an a Bible study there is usually one particular morsel that just jumps out at me and shows me a truth in a new way.  Even stories that I have read and studied many times before have the capacity to do that and I love it when it happens. This time was no exception.   This study takes the student deep into the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  When we were exploring the life of Jacob we got to the part where Jacob has left Laban's home with his family and possessions and is preparing for a reunion with his brother Esau.  The journey finds Jacob camped by stream with part of his family.  In Genesis 32, verse 24 it says that Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.  During the struggle Jaco

Do You Want to Get Well?

Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.   Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.   One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.   When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” John 5:2-6 “Would you like to get well?”   Are you kidding me?   Who asks someone that has been sick for 38 years if they want to get well?   What kind of ridiculous question is that?   Of course he wanted to get well!   Why in the world would Jesus ask such a question?   There is another example in scripture of Jesus asking what seems to be a peculiar question.   In Matthew 20:29-34 there is a story of two blind men who, when they heard Jesus was coming, sat by the road side hoping he would heal them.   Jesus stopped and asked them, “What do you want me to do for you?”   What?!?!?   They were blind.   What else would they want this ma

Never Enough

I have two dogs.   Both of them have great temperaments, are wonderful companions and an unlimited source of entertainment.   However, one of my two dogs is dominant and, I am embarrassed to say, somewhat selfish.   When I feed the two of them, she seems intent on eating both bowls of food.   When I give them rawhide chews, she will promptly gather both and guard them.   She does the same with doggie toys.   I can’t use the dog food dispenser because she will eat the entire container at one time to avoid sharing.   Thank goodness she is a dog and not a person. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is not limited to dogs.   Recently I visited the home of a relative of an acquaintance.   It was one of those houses that will cause someone like me to stand with mouth hanging open.   I’m a pottery, bouquet of herbs on the table, rustic décor kind of girl.   This house was huge, opulent, extravagant, and complete with a home theater.   When I see that kind of excess I can’t he