September Surprises

September has been packed with surprises, and it's not over yet. We ended the month of August and began this month celebrating Alan's graduation from Chaplain Training (blog and photos to follow) and had a great time with the McClellands and E&K Scherrers. Knowing that the McClellands would be posted to Germany 2 days after we left made our farewell rather difficult to say the least! But knowing that Justin had arrived home for leave while we were gone, made our home-going something to anticipate!

The first of our surprises was that John and I got dead-dog sick with Bronchitis (why do they always say "dead-dog sick"?) and poor Justin had sick parents to start out his leave with! Fortunately, that was the only bad surprise in the line-up, because a week later, who should just show up at the door? KATIE! John, Justin, and I just couldn't believe our eyes! When she had heard that Justin could possibly deploy before Christmas, she made reservations to come and see him while he was home. It turned out to be a pretty fun week - as you might imagine - and it was such a blessing for John and me that we got to see our older kiddos (and the babies) on one weekend, and then got to see our younger kiddos the next weekend! It did us good!

This is Andy and Ryan. They were Kate's accomplices in the surprise and had picked her up at the airport. And Ryan said he just wanted to return some books!!The next set of surprises came from the garden. The green bean vines that had done absolutely nothing all summer long, and that I had given up for loss, were suddenly dripping with beans! How had that happened? The first picking yielded about half a bushel, so we got dinner and several future dinners out of it; and though the second picking (below) yielded less, there will still be plenty for dinner and some to put up. The second garden surprise came when I went over to the long neglected compost pile and found acorn squash growing! And I didn't even plant them! Apparently some seed from last winter took root, along with the seed of some tomatoes. What fun! One of them is pictured below with the green beans.Just a few nights ago, Jupiter made his appearance in close proximity to the full moon. It was a beautiful sight to behold and I was surprised that my camera was able to capture at least a semblance of it. It was such a night, so clear, and even with binoculars we could see every detail of the moon's surface. Then just this morning I had the nicest surprise when I walked out in the backyard and found my old friend, Gail, on her way up to the barn for granddaughter Felicity's riding lesson. How fun is that to step out your backdoor and find an old friend? Gail's daughter, Megan, loved horses and riding as much as Eric, Katie, and I did, and spent many, many hours (years?) out here and with us at horse shows. Between horses, homeschool, and FCS, we spent lots of good times together. So, it sure was fun catching up - and what did we talk about? Grandchildren, of course. What else?

And finally, before September is out - and there are a few days left - we are hoping, hoping for another surprise - that being one of employment. But, yes or no, the Lord has blessed us and kept us fully to this day and He will in the days to come as well.

Do You Consent?

If you've read any of the original writings of the Founding Fathers, you saw that history clearly records that the Founders established our nation upon Biblical principles. As they wrote the Declaration of Independence, and then the Constitution, they drew upon Scripture to instruct them in the ways of wisdom and liberty.

The Declaration states that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed -." In the years prior to the American Revolution, 1 Samuel 8 was a favorite text preached in churches throughout the colonies. The same passage was Thomas Paine's primary theme in his pamphlet "Common Sense." It's time well-spent reading this passage, but for sake of space here, I'll just give you the story outline:

The Israelites decide they no longer want to be a Theocracy, they want a king like all the other nations, so they go to Samuel to ask him to appoint a king for them. Samuel goes to God about their request and He tells him to grant the people their request, for they have forsaken God as their king and want to go after other gods. But - and here's the kicker - God gives them advance warning about how a king will reign over them. A king will:

Make slaves of them and their children.

He will take a tenth of their produce and give it to his servants. (Try about 50% these days.)

He will take their employees and make them his own servants.

He will take a tenth of their possessions.

Then God warns them that they will cry out to Him for help, but he will not hear them because they have chosen to go after false gods and have rejected him. So, Samuel tells this to the people, and they reply, "No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." Then Samuel agrees to do what they have consented to, and he appoints them a king.

The nation of Israel consented. They consented to sell themselves and their children into servitude. Why on earth would they have traded their independence for that?! For a couple of reasons that we can see in this story: ( 1 ) They wanted to be like other nations. They wanted to be cool. ( 2 ) They were lazy and abdicated their responsibilities. They wanted the king to "go out before us and fight our battles."

American Christians have consented to the government we now have. We've run after the latest and greatest ideas, trading time-proven wisdom and principle for fads. We have been lazy. We've abdicated our responsibilities and now want the government to fight our battles for us. There are hungry people in the street? Oh, the government will take care of them. Can't afford to pay your medical bills? Oh, the government will take care of it. You're company has mismanaged its way into oblivion? Oh, the government will take care of it, after all, it's too big to fail. Our President promises a government that will take care of you from cradle to grave if only you will surrender your consent and abdicate all personal responsibility. Why, President Obama will give you money and refrigerators and new kitchens.

The government is not "them," it is "us." "We the People" have given our consent. Will you continue to consent, or will you withdraw it?

The Choice Before Us

In my last post I queried as to what might be the next step that we as Christians should take in regard to the demise of our nation. Two or three things have come to my attention since then and I'd like to begin with this portion of John Winthrop's stirring sermon "A Model of Charity." Winthrop wrote and preached this sermon to his congregation in 1630 as they sailed across the Atlantic from England to the shores of Massachusetts. It's as relevant to us today as it was to those brave souls almost 400 years ago. We would do well to heed the admonition and the warning that Winthrop gives to us in these words:

"The end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord the comfort and increase of the body of Christ whereof we are members that our selves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world to serve the Lord and work out our salvation under the power and purity of His holy ordinances.

Now the only way to accomplish this end and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah, "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humble with our God." For this end we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality, we must delight in each another, make others conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as His own people and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of his wisdom power goodness and truth than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us - when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: The Lord make it like that of New England. For we must consider that we shall be as a "City upon a Hill."

The eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work, we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-work through the world; we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God's sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

"Beloved there is now set before us life, and good, death and evil in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His ordinance, and His laws, and the articles of our covenant with Him that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced and worship other gods, our pleasures, and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it."

Therefore let us choose life that we, and our seed may live; by obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him, for He is our life, and our prosperity."

What to do?

These are perplexing times. Sometimes I just have to turn off the TV and radio and not listen to any more news! It's all bad, bad, and worse; and just when I think I've heard it all, I hear more! At the suggestion of friend and author, David Zanotti of The American Policy Roundtable, John and I went on a one week TV and radio fast - just to be quiet our minds and think more about what God has to say about all these things. Basically, it boils down to "He is Lord of lords and King of kings." Thank God!

Keeping that in mind, I was seeking the Lord today on behalf of our nation, primarily with the concern I had about the Federal Government casting its lot against certain states. Everyone - unless they live in a cave - knows that Arizona, after exhausting all efforts to have the federal government protect the border, passed a law saying that, basically, "the law is legal." We have since seen the legal and semantic storm of fury that the government has wrought upon that state. Then there's Louisiana and another example of the government not protecting national borders, this time from the devastation of oil. The state could have protected itself, foreign aid was ready to assist, but the federal government blocked them and then didn't do anything until long after it needed doing. Then there's Texas. Because Texas said "no" to government subsidies that it didn't need, the government has singled that state out to make an example of it by withdrawing further aid. (Maybe other states should follow that example.)

Then there's a long, long list of legislative actions that have taken place against the will of the people - nationalized healthcare, who-knows-how-many bailouts, the recent overturning of Proposition 8 in California, ad nauseum. There is a ground swell of uproar and protest at the violence done to the Constitution, but the Administration and Congress continue to stop their ears; and when they do respond it's to tell us how stupid we are.

Then today I see that 12 states have decided to ignore the law that requires them to send absentee ballots to overseas military personnel in time for them to be returned and counted towards an election, and that the Department of Justice has decided to ignore their defiance of the law. Not only does this disenfranchise those who are laying their lives on the line in the service of this nation, it's also interesting to note that those 12 states had supported Pres. Obama in the 2008 election. (Do we see selective law here?) The Department of Justice also turned a blind eye when white voters were intimidated by New Black Panther Party members, and yet the Administration is working tooth and nail to obtain voting privileges for illegal immigrants.

It's enough to make your head spin and spin and spin.

As I ponder these things, embattled states and embattled citizens, I can't help but wonder where does this lead? As a Christian my first preference for effecting cultural change is through the long, but sure process of reformation rather than the abrupt, knee-jerk process of revolution. Reformation has a live-able, workable plan for change. Revolution just has change, and I think we've had our fill of that. I still believe that this country yet has time for the processes of reformation to take hold of right principles, and to take our country back to its Constitutional foundation. But that time is very, very short. Like maybe the 2 1/2 months left until the November elections.

I detest the thought of revolution. "But, God," I prayed, "You always work reformationally!" Then it occurred to me, not always. The history of our nation reminds us that after the colonists tried and tried to continue to function under the established covenants between themselves and the Crown, they finally came to the unwanted decision to cut themselves off from a ruler who had forsaken those laws, and hence a covenantal lawsuit was drawn up by the colonists against King George and England. We know that lawsuit as the Declaration of Independence.

I pray that we don't come to that this time around. I pray that the Church would repent of her sin and return to God that He might heal our land. I pray that God would raise up righteous leadership that desires to serve rather than be served. I pray that He shows us mercy! In the meantime what do we do, what can we do, as all these things play out? This is what we do, regardless of what happens, we will "...do justice, ... love kindness...and walk humbly with [our] God."

Summer-izing

Oh, my, this is a long entry! But, never fear, it's just a photo-summary of the summer, at least up to this point. The summer's not over yet, and we have some momentous events yet to take place! So other than tending horses, boarding dogs, trying to keep gardens going, doing house-refurbishing and attempting to keep cool in record heat, this is what we've been up to! And it's been a grand summer!

Memorial Day weekend was an appropriate time for Eric to come home after six months of deployment in Afghanistan. It was a joy and a relief, and Eric got to meet his new son for the first time!

Backtracking a month to May, we had the great blessing to go to a couple of weddings; the first one was in Fort Worth and was the marriage of the daughter of our dear friends, David and Kathy. Here are all four girls, minus son, Michael. L t0 R are Margaret, Mary, Alice, and Ann. These kids were just babies yesterday!

While in Ft. Worth, we stayed with some other dear friends, Randy and Cheryl, and had a great time together. We had lunch at Joe T. Garcia's, and it had been a loooooong time since John and I had eaten there!

Not only is it fun to see old friends, it's also fun to great fun to see their grand-children! Aren't they precious?!

The next May wedding was up in the mountains of Southern California outside the little town of Julian, best known for its quaint western roots and its amazing apples, and therefore its equally amazing and delicious apple pies. Our niece, Laura, was married there - it was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful time of being with family.

Cousins Sarah, Lisa, Kristin, and Katie. It's crazy seeing them all grown up. Weren't they running around playing Barbies and putting on plays just yesterday?

Grandma Molly, Katie, and Grandpa Orv. The girls always love being with their grandparents!

Jim and Dee Anna, whom we always love spending time with.

Alan, having joined the Army to become a Chaplain, left for Ft. Jackson to spend his summer at school and in training. Before he left, he and Kristin took a little time away and the boys came to Nana and Papa's house for some summer fun. 2 boys+2 cans of shaving cream+water=a lot of fun!

Wedding #3, along with vacation, took us to sunny South Texas where, among many other things, we enjoyed the Corpus Christi Hooks playing at our favorite minor league stadium, Whataburger Field! How can you lose with that combination? Baseball, sea breezes, and Whataburger!

Niece Courtney and new husband, Justin, leave their wedding reception for their honeymoon. Justin is a pilot, hence the paper airplanes amongst the birdseed! The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a ton of fun with lots of cousin-dancing.

We had lots of relaxing time, too, while down south. We spent as much pool and beach time as was possible. Here Omari and Mama Pops enjoy shady breezes by the pool.

An apres-wedding brunch with Paula, Uncle Victor, Eric, Patty, Alan, and many others you can't see. Note the large coffee carafe. We went through a few of those!

At another eating opportunity we got to catch up with my baby cousin, Liz,and her husband, Julio, and daughter, Genevieve. Liz had lived in Thailand for several years and it was wonderful to reconnect with her.

July 4th is approaching and Papa and the boys sidle up to Uncle Sam.

One of the highlights of the summer for me was going to the beach with my cousin, Teresa, and our little grandsons, Jacob and Omari. Teresa and I are only 3 months apart and have been going to this same beach since our babyhood. It was very special for the two of us to go once again, only this time with our grandsons!

Daughter, Kristin, with her sons, on the same beach she played on as a baby; as did her mother and grandmother!

Eric, Kelly, and Omari - evening at the beach. It's the perfect time to be there!

On another evening "Unca Ewic" takes the boys crabbing. Patrick looks on intently as Eric slowly pulls in the crab line.

Cousins Gilbert and Andrew decide that the net is the best way to go after the crabs.

Gilbert tries the line again while Patrick looks on. Warm sun, warm water, fresh breezes ... it's a great way to be a kid!

I love this photo of all the little men marching through the water after the big man.

A 2nd trip to South Texas takes me first to San Antonio where one must eat at Casa Rio on the Riverwalk, and then on to the Frio in Leaky for a Choir Reunion.

It had been 30 years since old choir buddies met, and there was so much to catch up on, so much laughing and story-telling to do! Even our choir director, Miss Garrett, was able to join us. It was a very special time.

Still laughing, and Miss G is calm as ever!

In May, Justin had departed Tennessee for southern Georgia, Ft. Benning and Boot Camp to be exact. Here he is on the evening before his graduation, at the close of Family Day. It was good to see how well he had survived!

Proud Dad and proud Son following graduation ceremonies!

Proud Mama,too! After graduation, Justin was assigned to Ft. Sill for artillery training. At lease he's behind the weapons, I tell myself.

Thus sums up May, June, and July. It's now August and life rolls swiftly on. In 3 days a young man will join us as a boarder for his freshman year at New College Franklin, Alan graduates from Chaplain training on Sept. 2nd and moves with Kristin and the boys to Germany! Justin also will go to his new post in Texas in September and John begins his new career as a Business Coach and Sales Trainer. It's exciting, it's scary, and it's all in God's hands!

A Face of the Times

If you are reading this, I can reasonably assume that you are beyond Jr. High/Middle School age, and if that's the case I can also reasonably assume that you've been taught at least some modicum of history involving America's Great Depression of the 1930's. Besides reading or listening to how dire those times were, you would also have seen photos of those times - of the men, women, and children who suffered want and woes. Those were hard times.

These are hard times, too. It may not look as bad now as it did then, but we are not so much an agrarian society as we were then, and the false facade provided by credit cards have masked the dire difficulties that many people live in today. This morning on the radio, embedded in the newscast, was a foreclosure statistic for our area. Currently, as many as 1 home out of 125 are in foreclosure. That's a lot of homes. That's a lot of families.

It has been 17 months since John lost his job. In all that time we've not had income enough to cover our living expenses, but we did have sizable savings tucked away and things are beginning to look up in the employment department. So, we've been able to keep our home, have lived carefully, and have watched the hand of God help us again and again.

Yesterday, I was at the gas station filling my tank with my weekly allotment of gas when a man approached me. Now this gas station is very public and very popular since it has the lowest prices in our area, so I wasn't afraid of him since so many people were there. This man came up carefully and reluctantly, and said, "We're from Grassland. We lost our home in the flood. Things haven't worked out and we're trying to make it down to Shelbyville to live with my in-laws." He paused. Now I've seen a lot of pan-handlers in my lifetime, but there was a kind of pain in this man's voice and eyes that I'd not seen before - at least not in real life. But, then I remembered those Depression-era photos of broken men and women and realized that this was what was standing before me.

"I don't do this kind of thing, but I have to now. We have about 40 miles to go and our tank is empty. Do you have a couple of dollars to spare? I thought maybe I could borrow a little here and there." His voice was choked and tears were brimming in his eyes. If he was a fake, he deserved an Oscar. But the pain in that man's face was as obvious as the hard tan and worn clothes that he wore. His wife sat in their small car parked at the curb looking straight ahead.

I told him that I understood what it was like to be in the middle of a hard time, that we'd lost our income, that God had provided for us, and of course I had a couple of dollars to share with him. He dropped his head in humiliation and expressed his thanks with profuse apology. As I went to check my wallet, I discovered that all I had was a $10 and a $20 which had to last another 3 days. Remembering God's faithfulness to me, without hesitation I took the $10 and told him that I didn't have a couple of dollars but could give him $10. He almost looked frantic at that point and after stumbling for words said, "I'm not any sort of predator or anything, but if you'd like to give your address to my wife we will pay you back." He was pleading as he sought to distinguish himself from the average bum. Again I told him that God had provided, that I had enough to share, and someday he could help someone else out who was down on their luck. He took my hand and shook it, saying thanks only with tearful eyes. As I left, he and his wife were putting some gas in their tank.

I don't tell you this to brag on what I did. To the contrary, I look back and wish I'd given him the $20. My heart breaks for this family, and for all the families that find themselves in these kinds of straits. Time are hard. God is faithful.

Out of the Mouths of Funny Babes

I found four day-planner calendars recently while looking for some old yearbooks and photographs. They date from 1983-1986, years that my two eldest were very young and when my third-born arrived. Looking through these calendars with all my ordinary day-to-day notes was sure a trip down Memory Lane! It was poignant and surprising ... how did I manage to get all that stuff done with multiple little children?? It makes me tired just reading it! One thing, though, that tickled me greatly was reading my occasional comment about what one of the children said that day.

1983

Kristin: says "Bye-bye" while walking away.

Candy canes are "K-k's" or "Cuppy-cuppy"

Santa Clause is "Tanta Cause"

Jingle Bells is "DeeBoBo"

Gingerbread Men are "Dindo-mah-bey"

It's pretty clear that Kristin's lingual abilities really kicked in about Christmastime.

Eric, 4, wanted to "kill some Easter eggs" that year .... meaning that he wanted to dye them. 'Kill', 'dye'... you know.

1984

Eric: "I have two arm-skulls!" Skulls meaning bones - I laughed about that one for awhile.

About Peaches, our dog: "Peaches is broke-housen." Of course, I still talk like that to this day.

1986

Kristin comments about Eric who is hiding: "We don't have a little boy any more!"

Kristin: In April - "Can we have a Christmas Hunt?" meaning that she wanted to hide candy canes and hunt for them.

In December - "When do we get to gun the Easter Eggs?" She apparently hadn't gotten the holiday traditions

straightened out, and she got stuck on the dye word, too, just like her brother did.

Eric: (And this just cracked me up.) "O Lord, your kingdom is good and indigestible!"

1986

Upon learning they had a baby brother:

Eric: "Does he like jets?"

Kristin: "I knew it was a boy."

Some things just never change.

I wish I'd written more things down over the years, and sometime perhaps I'll find some other notes while I'm looking for something. A little while back I saw a small notebook that was devoted to writing down kids' sayings, so I bought one for Kristin since her boys are at the age of uttering those entertaining things. In 25 years or so, I know she'll get a good laugh when she reads that little notebook.

In closing, let me share with you some recent cute quotes from my young grandsons.

Gilbert, age 4: "The moon isn't plugged in. It doesn't have batteries, either."

Patrick, age 3: "C'mere, Bobert!" (translation: Come here, Gilbert!)

I know we're going to have many more years of entertainment out of the mouths of babes! Now, what are some favorite sayings of your children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews? Please, entertain us!