NO TEARS IN HEAVEN

  This is a counted cross stitch peace I did back in the late 80's and it hangs in our main bathroom here at our home.  I did this piece during a period when I was healing from a great hurt and shedding a lot of tears and it brought me comfort at that time.

Since our beloved Suzette left us 6 months ago today (May 19th) I look each day at this PROMISE from the Living Word and it brings comfort to know Suzette is in a place where she is not shedding any tears!!  Our oldest son, David, made reference to this on the phone to me the other day and spoke of thinking about how much it meant to him that hangs there and made such an impact that he hadn't really thought about until now. 

More importantly, it is an encouragement to be happy and enjoy the life I have: my wonderful husband, Mickey, the children and grandchildren, my wonderful church, the ministries I am involved in, my many friends.  Just the wonderful life God allows me to live, day in and day out, in spite of the worse loss imaginable, that of a child. 

Since there are no tears in Heaven and we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses it becomes doubly important to me that Suzette is looking down with great happiness, watching and observing all I am doing.  I know that this will not be possible if I am sad or crying because that would make her cry and there are no tears in Heaven!!!!

So I CHOOSE, you know it is a choice, to be happy and grateful for the years I had to be her mother here on earth and the eternity I will spend with her in Heaven.

THERE ARE NO TEARS IN HEAVEN

The King's Kitchen & the blessings

I have been wanting to do an update on The King's Kitchen ministry where we feed between 50-54 shut-ins a hot meal each Tuesday.

Here we made a small change and sent them a fresh salad of lettuces and carrots with cucumber, tomato, and sliced ham on the side.  Dressing choice, garlic bread, a dessert and milk also accompanied the salad.

 Here is our ever faithful Kent getting the hot buttered rolls ready on another occasion.......

 as our faithful cook, Sherry, is taking a second look at the lasagna that is the main dish this day.

 Mickey busy putting some of the milk into the cold chest.  Our delivery teams carry 2 chests:  the blue for cold items and the red for the hot meal.  Earl, 1/2 of the husband and wife team of Earl & Ruthie, standing by for action.

 Betty & Jacki, ready to deliver the meals, but I had to get this picture because we thought it was so cute they both showed up with boots on.  We have 5 teams of 2 people each who deliver for us.

Every post I've done about The King's Kitchen has talked about the way God has blessed this ministry above and beyond what we could have ever expected.  It has been self-supporting, with individual donations, from day one and not 1 cent of tithe money has been spent on this ministry.  That is such a marvel to Mickey & I as we see this happen each and every week for the past 21 1/2 months since beginning.

We were in for a blessing that surpassed our wildest imagination this week, Tuesday - November 15th - when we walked in to the kitchen to find 4 huge garbage size bags and a huge box full to overflowing from Pa*ner*a Br*ead!!!  Our Pastor's wife, Michele, has just launched a new ministry, Right Direction, which is an after school program of tutoring for 1st through 3rd grade children from the 3 elementary schools here in Coweta.  It is being held on Monday & Thursdays and began with 85 students on November 7th. Our church had been on the waiting list for over a year to receive their day old items and in God's timing it became available this Monday, November 14th.

 We had already begun to sort through the bags, which were a mixture of everything before I thought to begin to take pictures.  Here are some of the partial opened and emptied bags.

 Kathy, who works in both The King's Kitchen & New Directions ministry as she is sorting and bagging the bagels.

A huge tray of muffins, cookies, bear claws, etc.

 Bags of sliced loaves of breads.

 An assortment of round breads and bagetts'.

left to right-KENT w/King's Kitchen - MICKEY director of King's Kitchen - STEVE Pastor - JACKI Children's Pastor - NANCY Kid's Pastor - JENNIFER w/The Food Pantry & New Direction - SHERRY w/ King's Kitchen

Some of the staff and team as we rejoice and celebrate the Lord's abundance to not only New Direction but The King's Kitchen, The Food Pantry, Thanksgiving with the Humphrey's and other ministries of our Coweta Assembly of God.

You can see the wonderful time we have as we serve our Lord and enjoy His abundant blessings and each other.  Mickey & I are so very honored to be part of this Body of Christ.

THE BEAUTY OF AUTUMN

 The beautiful Autumn Blaze maple tree in our back yard as it shows off it's beauty in the bright morning sun on an autumn day in November.

 Another view showing the contrast between the green honeysuckle and the bright yellow Silver Maple tree in our front yard.

As I looked at this Autumn blaze of color I thought of Mickey and I being in the Autumn years of our lives (soon to be 79 and 74).  I pray that as we live out this period of our life spans we will bring joy and the beauty of our Lord to those who look upon us.

He also took a picture of these two roses, close together, which are all that are remaining of the climbing rose bush which is usually covered with blooms.  To me this was a symbol of how God is allowing the 2 of us to remain , side by side, into these autumn years.

Thank you JESUS

THE POWER OF BOOKS

I've posted a lot about the books God has used over the years to influence me in my Christian walk.  On September 9th I blogged about the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan and commented on this very thing. 

What has been equally as interesting is that a young man, who helps us with The King's Kitchen, Kent has been instrumental in my reading all but two of the last 11 books I've read.  During our time in the Kitchen I discovered Kent loved reading as much as I do and he began sharing his recent "finds" with me.  I just LOVE the way God works, because some of these books, especially starting with Not a Fan, Radical and the two I am going to share today I probably never would have picked off the shelf myself because of the titles and the covers.  Thank you Lord for using Kent in my life in such a way. 

This is the 15th book I've read this year.  It's another good one but, in my opinion does not measure up to Not a Fan or Forgotten God.  After reading Forgotten God, by Francis Chan, I had to immediately go to the Christian bookstore and buy Francis book, Crazy Love.  Kent had been telling me about it and I knew it would be one I had to own myself and will read many times over what years I have to come. 

This is absolutely one of the most powerful books I've read to date.  Of course, as God does, it has come into my life at just the right time!!!  My WOW (Women of the Word) Tuesday night Bible Study group was just finishing up the book, Born For Battle, which we had been studying since I began the group on January 18th. 

After reading Crazy Love I knew it was the next study for us.  Here is a recent picture of the WOW Woman as we begin this newest study.

(back row) Sandra, Britney, Cindy O, Kathy R, & Betty

(front row) Connie, Thelma, Wantha, Susan & Jeanne.

(Absent and not in the picture) Norma & Carmel

(Also participating with us from afar - in AZ) Kathy W

We are all excited about what God has done in each of us already this year and know He has just begun in molding and making us in the vessels He wants us to be. 

I'll keep you posted............GET THE BOOK and find out yourself. 

COOKING PUMPKINS

Last year Mickey & I tried cooking the pumpkin to use it for baking.  We had a terrible time and when we were finished it was a lot of work and did not taste good at all.  At my bible study Tuesday night I asked the gals if they'd like to have my pumpkins and immediately 2 of them told me I should cook them and make puree to cook with.  SO......with their instructions we decided to give it another try.

First Mickey cut the top off, and cut it into 3 pieces. 

  Then I took the pieces and cleaned out the pulp and seeds.



Mickey cut the large cleaned sections into these smaller pieces ......

So we could boil them.  It took about 45 minutes until they were soft. 

Then we dumped the first pan full into the sink and let them cool as we began boiling another pan full.  This food grinder that we used to puree was my mother's and has to be probably 50 years old and it works like a charm!!!  They don't make appliances like they use to.

Mickey is using the food processor as I am peeling the skins off and handing them to him.

This is what the wonderful result looks like as we puree each pan full.

Four pan fulls later here is our finished product, ready for the freezer and to be used for delicious pumpkin breads and I might even try a pie, although I'm not a very good pie baker.  We ended up with these five 3 cup containers and the one 2 cup or a total of 17 cups of pumpkin.  Thelma told me pumpkin was selling for $2.50 a can this year and this would be equivalent to 11 cans or $27.50.

Thanks Thelma & Betty for encouraging me to take the time and effort to prepare this!!!

When I bake the first item I'll let you know if the final results are good.  I'm believing they are going to be great!!!

Tennessee Trip - October 19-23, 2011

Son, Marc, Grandson, Aric, Mickey & I left bright and early at 6 a.m. on Wednesday the 19th for Tennessee to visit Mickey's 3 nephews (son's of his deceased sister Jane and deceased brother-in-law, Ronnie. Jane was the youngest & only girl among the 6 children) and his younger brother, Jerry, who live in Clarksville.  Mickey & Jerry are the only remaining siblings.

The trip had been planned and when the word got out wonderful things began to happen: we picked up our sister-in-law, Helen, in Memphis; another sister-in-law, flew in from PA, and a niece flew in from TX.  Another niece who lived about 100 miles away was suppose to come but didn't make it. 

At Memphis, when we picked up Helen, Mickey & I switched to Helen's car and Marc & Aric followed us on to Clarksville and our destination at Nephew Wayne's beautiful log home. 

This is Uncle Jerry (in the hat) giving Marc his greeting hug as he returned from the Nashville airport after picking up his daughter, Mickie, from TX and sister-in-law, Sally, from PA.  Diana, Marc's cousin and wife of Billy in the background.  Jerry & Mickie had spent the afternoon at the airport after her plane landed at noon because Sally's departure had been delayed and she was late in arriving. 

Mickie, Susan, Sally, Helen & Diana with Nephew Wayne, who was our host.

Marc & Aric having a ball riding the 4 wheeler at Waynes place with horses, a donkey, goats, chickens, ducks, & 2 dogs.  A real change of pace for our city boys!!

(left to right back row)  Nephew Wayne, Nephew Billy, Grandnephew Jake (younger son of Billy).
(middle row) Son Marc, Susan, Mickey, Grandson Aric, Brother Jerry.
(front row) Kaycee Step-daughter of Wayne, Sister-in-law Sally, Sister-in-law Helen, Niece Mickie.
Wayne's wife, Laura, was talking the picture and Katie, her daughter, had already left for school.

Aric & Kaycee at a separate table at the cafe as we were eating breakfast because there were so many at our table we ran out of room.  

Marc & Aric had gone with Wayne early one morning on some business and then to pick up his Jeep which was at the shop being lettered.  Then we met them at the grave site when Jane & Ronnie are buried.

Billy has a beautiful 100 acre farm, they purchased, in addition to their lovely 2 story with basement home in Pleasant View.  The farm had an old log cabin on it and Billy & Diana have restored the 2 story cabin, along with modernizing it with heat, air, etc. 

The gang on the front porch of Billy's cabin:  Aric, Helen, Susan, Sally, Wayne, Jerry, Mickey & Marc (Mickie was taking the picture)

Friday night we drove into Nashville to attend the Grand Ole Opry.  First we all went out to eat at this fabulous, and delicious, fish restaurant.  (left side) Billy, Wayne, Sally, Helen, Marc, (end) Kaycee (right side) Jerry, Jake, Katie, Susan, Mickey, Aric.  What a grand time and the show was so good!!!!!

Mickey with Nephew Wayne, Jane's oldest son and a carbon copy of his father, Ronnie. We met Wayne & Laura in Branson 2 years ago when they got married.  You can see that here. It was a very special time.  

Saturday we made a trip north into Kentucky where the 3rd Nephew, Joe, lives and leases many thousands of acres that he farms.  All the guys before we left:  Jerry, Mickey, Marc, Wayne & Aric.

Marc driving one of the huge John Deere tractors with grandson, Aric once we got to the farm.  There was another huge computerized tractor that the farm worker was operating and he took 2 at a time with him.  Amazing what the equipment does.  That one was drilling wheat as various ones rode along in it.

I took 126 pictures and they were all so great and we had such a wonderful time.  It was hard to select just 12 shots to try and tell a little of our trip and time.  Except to say it was fabulous and we plan to "do it again" next Spring but next time our daughter, Jacque, and son, David, will also be making the trip with us

Hope you enjoyed my little travelogue.

A BLESSING & MORE EXCITEMENT - during my friends visit

Not only did our friends, Joan and Jim, get whisked off to Oolagah the day after they arrived but they were awakened at the bright and early hour of 7:30 a.m. with 6 workers on top of our roof, banging,  scraping and making all sort of loud noise.  Of course, we had warned them of this happening the night before when we all went to bed!!!!

Men at work at day break

Lots of noise and activity early on this October 20th morning.

The joy of all this is that they were completely finished by 4:30 that afternoon.  They had removed the 2 previous old roofs and replaced them with a brand new one.  The shingles are actually a rust color, to blend in with our reddish trim and the brown stone, but the sun was shining too brightly in this picture and it looks grey.

A better picture, from the back, showing the true roof color.

Now for the BLESSING part of our roof story.  MUCH to our surprise this brand new roof was covered 100% by our insurance coverage rebate!!!!  All we paid was $40 to have 2 extra vents put in over the garage.

Our God DOES meet all our needs and blesses us above and beyond just as The Word proclaims.