Pretending it's Spring!

Hot Dog--comin' right up!

Saturday afternoon turned out to be cold, and a little windy,but very sunny. So my sweet hubby decided we should go to my Dad's farm (one hour away) and clean up the yard. There were lots of branches and limbs down from when they had the ice storm. We weren't able to leave until about 2:30 pm, as I went to Bible Quiz in the morning. So, he thought we could make an outing of it, and have a "weiner" roast, since we would have a fire going to burn the brush. The house is empty, except for a cardtable and chairs, but it does have water and heat. I also have a coffee pot there, so what more could we ask?

We spent nearly 2 hours, cleaning up branches, etc and burning them. Then while he was finishing some other things, I roasted our hot dogs, and prepared a lovely inside picnic. We had hot dogs with all the trimmings, cold baked beans, pringles chips, and pepsi. (I had already had a couple cups of coffee during a "warm-up" break from working.) Actually, Lynn had lemonade which is a great drink for picnics. Lynn had spoiled me a bit, and even brought some tapioca pudding for me to have for dessert, as that is one of my all-time favorites.

Lynn went out after our meal, and using his chain saw, cut down a tree that was growing out of control by the creek that runs through the farm. So it was well after dark when we started home.

So that neither of us would fall asleep, I entertained Lynn by singing. For some reason, I started singing some of the old choruses that we used to sing in youth group, way back when. Also sang some of my favorites, like "It is Well with my Soul" and "the Love of God". At any rate, we considered it a "working date", and had an absolutely wonderful time.

Bible Quizzing, Now and Then

I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; ...teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:18,19

The quizzing "stance"

I had the privilege of going to watch a Bible Quiz Meet at our church. Erin, the teenager I am mentoring, is on one of the teams at our church (we have 2 teams). There were 6 teams and 4 churches involved in this meet. There were 3 rooms of quizzing going on at one time, and each team played every other team there at some point. Then they set up an "A" and "B" bracket for the final quiz-offs, based on how many games they had won.

I had told Erin that I was on a Quiz team when I was in high school. I thought it might be done differently now, but I discovered that it was very much the same. The seats have buzzers, so that when the question is asked, the first person off their seat is allowed to answer. So as you can see above, most of them sit with there hands on their knees, leaning forward, so that they can just push up quickly. This takes a little practice to do well; if I remember correctly, I wasn't as fast as I would have liked to be getting off the bench.

Emily, Jacob, Erin, and Kevin

There are 20 questions per round; if an individual quizzer answere 5 right, he/she has "quizzed out" and is not allowed to answer any more questions. Erin did really well, and quizzed out one time.

A few of the rounds got really exciting and were tied after the 19th question. Erin's team had a round where they were tied at the end, and went to sudden death overtime. They answered correctly and won the round. Very exciting!

The trophy--team and individual

Their team was in the "B" bracket for the play-offs, and they placed 2nd in their bracket. Also, they had a mini individual tournament, where a quizzer went 1 -on-1 with another quizzer. Erin won 1st place in her division in the individual quiz-off. I was very proud of her! I think she was pleased that I came to watch.

Erin and I

( I don't know why I so often close my eyes when my picture is taken!)

I gave Erin a little gift and a card telling her I was very proud of her accomplishment. She has a rock collection, which I realize seems a little unusual. I had picked up some rocks in the Valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath, when I was in Israel. I gave her 2 of those rocks. I told her whenever she looked at them to remember that when God is on your side, you can face any giant that comes your way. I could tell she was really pleased. I'm sure most any other teen might have thought it was a little wierd, but I knew it would be something she could appreciate.

Watching the quizzing brought back memories of my quizzing days, and also reminded me that I really need to start a Bible memory program again. Our pastor's wife has been encouraging us to memorize just one verse a week. So this week I started on a very simple verse, but one that will help in difficult times--Psalm 25:15. My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.

Choices

I've been reflecting a lot recently about the choices we have. I am very grateful to God that He gave us free will. But so many times it gets me in trouble! Many of you know, I'm going through some challenges with me son. However, it has become clear to me that there is very little I can do, except to pray and to praise. Some things we have choices about, and some things we have to trust to the Lord. How thankful I am that we can depend on Him. I wrote a poem, and decided I would post it here. (Some time ago, someone suggested that I should post some of my poems, so here is my most recent one).

CHOICES

In God’s perfect plan, He made a way,
For us to make our own choices each day.
Sometimes we chose well, sometimes bad,
We surely often make His heart sad.

So many choices we are allowed to make,
What career we’d like, and what way we’ll take.
Where we will live, city or country,
Who to marry, and who our friends will be.

In some things we have absolutely no control,
We don’t understand, and it grieves our soul.
We would never chose to suffer great loss,
Yet He chose to suffer for us on the cross.

No matter what the circumstance may be,
I know the Lord’s working it for good, you see.
As my love for Him grows greater still,
I chose to seek and follow His will.

So many promises we find in His Word,
When we pray, we will always be heard.
He gives peace and joy, we can’t comprehend,
And for every need, on Him we can depend.

So, I’m making a choice to give Him praise,
I want others to see Christ in me all my days.
Many times I will fail, but He gives strength to the weak,
He will guide and direct me when I listen to Him speak.

Thank you, Lord, for blessings you bestow,
With praise to You, may my heart overflow.
May I be an encouragement to others, I pray,
Help me to serve you joyfully each day.

The 4th 'P'---Praise!

I just read the Anchor Friday post from Joan. She gave us the 3 "P's' for successful weight loss. I have to admit, I'm totally not there yet. I just recently started back to committing to losing some weight. I don't have a good place to exercise in the winter--as I'd much rather walk than do floor exercise ( Ugh!). But I did lose 1.5 pounds in the last week. I decided to add another 'P' to the one's Joan gave--Praise.

I was reading Psalm 100; in my Bible it says "A psalm. For giving thanks"

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Knw that the Lord is God. It is He who has made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good, and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

I know there are others like me that have some challenges with their children. I believe we have the Lord's promise, that if we are faithful and if we will honor Him with our praise, He will be faithful in working in the lives of our children.

Praise is a choice we make, so I am chosing to praise Him, even in the things that are tough, such as weight loss and trusting Him with my son.

Peace Like a River

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

Isaiah 26:3 You (God) will keep in perfect peace him(her) whose mind is steadfast, because he(she) trusts in You.

Isaiah 48:18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

A river in Cayes, Haiti

The title of one of my blog friends is Peace for the Journey and she has written about peace at times, and her background has John 14:27 on it. Then today another blog friend shared a scripture picture of that verse on her blog about encouragement.

As I was working on my Bible Study this morning, there was a whole section about "peace like a river". I had never heard it described quite like that before, and I wanted to share it with you, as it really spoke to my soul. (I don't think the author of our book will mind, as I'm sure she would want others to be blessed as well. The book is "What Happens when Women say 'Yes' to God by Lysa Terkeurst.)

She said that"God chose a very unique word to describe His peace--a river! A river is not calm and void of activity. It is active and cleansing and confident of the direction it is headed in. A river doesn't get caught up with rocks in its path. it flows over and around them, all the while smoothing their jagged edges and allowing them to add to its beauty rather than take away from it. A river is a wonderful thing to behold."

Beth Moore said, "To have peace like a river is to have security and tranquility while meeting the many bumps and unexpected turns on life's journey. Peace is submission to a Trustworthy Authority, not resignation from activity."

I thought about this today as I was going about my activities (including going to the dentist!) and I realized that having God's peace is a choice I make; and it's not being able to have everything go my way, but rather to allow his peace to permeate my soul even when things are difficult.

Praise the Lord--we can have His 'peace like a river' flowing in us whatever the circumstance.

Comfy and Cozy, Caring and Sharing

In my previous blog I said we were going to be making blankets for the Hope Center, which is for unwed mothers. However, this ladies night out event was to make blankets for troubled teens who are part of a program called the Whitington Homes--Transitional Life Skills Program. These are girls 14-21 years old who come from abusive or neglected home environments, or from the Department of Child Services. Some of them are pregnant or already have a baby. They actually live in apartments together (4 to an apartment) and have 24/7 supervision to teach independent life skills, and provide emotional and educational support. The director of the program was there, and told us about the program. I was very impressed with what they do. They have 5 apartments, so they can take up to 20 girls at a time and they are there from 6 months to 2 years, depending on how they progress. SO-O-O, the blankets we made are actually for these girls.

Since I was thinking more about babies, I bought pink fleece for one side and pink blue and white striped for the other. Erin and I worked along with 2 other ladies. We would work on one blanket at a time. I had no previous idea of how these were done. You basically put the 2 pieces of fleece together, wrong sides together. Then you make slits all around the edge, 5 inches long, and 1 inch apart. Then you just tie each of these slits in a knot so it is knotted all around the edge.

Erin and I with our pink/pink striped blanket

It's hard to see here, but you can kind of see the knots around the edge. They really look cute when they are all finished. Many of the ladies had brought really colorful fleece; the other one we worked on had cute cats on one side with plain cream color on the back. We really had fun doing this. Plus I learned a ton of information about taking care of Alpaca's from Erin while we worked. She was very knowledgeable about all of that; probably more than I ever thought I would want to know!

Kr Krystal and Linda

These are the 2 ladies we worked with. You can see the cat pattern on this one. I was very impressed with all the different patterns and how cute they all looked.

The Finished Product

As we finished our blankets, we "packaged" them by folding in thirds and then rolling them into a blanket roll. When we got them about half rolled, we tucked a little piece of paper inside that said something like, "Made especially for you with Love, Woodburn Missionary Church." Then we tied the roll with ribbon. The one Erin and I did is in front--the pink and blue striped.

I'm not sure how many we made but LOTS of ladies participated. Of course, no evening is complete without some snacks--ice cream, pretzels, cookies, coffee or hot chocolate. It was a really fun evening.

Before we left, Erin asked me if I like candles. I said I love them! She said, good, because I make them. Her grandma and grandpa gave her a candle making kit for Christmas when she was about 11-12, and she has made candles ever since. She wanted to know what scents I like, as she also adds scent to them. What a gal. I'm really enjoying getting to know her.

Adventure in Mentoring

Good Picture of Erin--not so good of me!

Our church has recently started a program called the "Titus Project". It is based on Titus 2: 4-8 where older men and women are encouraged to teach the younger.

I decided I would like to get involved in this, though I haven't been around teen-agers for a long time. Since this is a one-on-one project, the youth leaders paired up adults with the teens that wanted to participate. This is Erin Gruber and I, taken at a sort of "kick-off" luncheon and game time.

I have really enjoyed getting to know Erin. She is definitely not a "crowd-follower". She's sort of quiet but seems to know her own mind. She is in FFA and is raising Alpaca's. I think it is kind of a family project or business. They live on a farm. She is on the Bible Quiz team at church. This was one thing that helped us bond a little, as I did Bible Quizzing as a teen. She is doing really well in it, and I plan to be at their next quiz meet. Erin is a junior in high school. She's taking a photography class, learning to develop pictures and is real excited about that.

A week ago Saturday I took Erin out for lunch. We went to Applebee's and both had delicious salads--she had the chicken Caesar and I had the oriental chicken. We talked the whole way there, and all during lunch and had a really good time. (Both of her parents told me on separate occassions that Erin really had a good time going out with me).

Tonight there is a ladies get-together at church. They are making fleece blankets for babies of un-wed mothers at the Hope Center. Erin and I are going to attend. They have assured me that you don't have to know how to sew or be a seamstress to do this. So it should be interesting. But it will give us an opportunity to work on a project together.

I am not convinced that I am going to be a very good mentor. But sometimes I think teens just need an adult other than a parent to talk to. Hopefully we can develop a good relationship. For now it's been really fun just getting to know her.