THE CHRISTMAS TIME

     Didn't take the pictures, but had a wonderful time at my daughter's home and taken there by my son at 7 on the Saturday evening and brought home when it was about 10.  My husband was there from 8 to 9:30, b/c before that he was playing piano at a church and then going again and would be doing the piano and would be able to drive home about 12.  He got home about 12:30 of the morning of Christmas on Sunday.  WELL, he went to others churches at 7 in the morning and got home at 10:30 and a couple hours later we went to the Bhutanese and we at their church from 12:30 to 3:00.  AND Dave took me home and went back to our church to do some cleaning.  Anyhow, I've said too much.  I'm still sleeping most of the time from about 7:30 or 8:00 at the evening and getting up about 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning.  All I can show you is our present time Christmas things AND they will be here until sometime in February.  Love to see them and won't get them out for weeks and weeks.  Anyhow, bless you and thank you.  I'm talking too much as usual.  Sure love and miss many, many of you!  Pray for many of you, and worship and glorify the Lord and focus on Him and Heaven!!  

31ST ANNIVERSARY!!

     Our wedding was at September 21st on a Saturday afternoon, 1985.  A huge blessing for me!
      Now, our day on this Wednesday it will be September 21st, of course. To share it now is pretty important.  I'm a very happy lady!!!  My husband is a real treat to-and-for me and to-and-for many other people.  In a few years he's working in our church, playing piano or organ at 3 other churches, and teaching piano to some kids or adults, and fixing computers for a lot of people and giving them around and about.  In this 31 years things have changed.  BUT, as usual, he's a special treat.
     A special situation was when we were in
Uganda and a special photo for us during our 10th anniversary time.  And we were there before and after that for a stretch of time.                 
       Amazingly, we were in Paris to see some friends after we had left Uganda when visiting our "son's"wedding in Uganda.

  Then we were in Paris for a couple days and we were on the
anniversary in September.  In Paris, up on that special place that afternoon when we were on the Eiffel Tower and Seine River was our 14th anniversary day.  What a blessing that was!!!
     Anyhow, I'll just show the two of us in July this year, b/c we've not had pictures taken.  I'll try on Wednesday, BUT he works at two churches all day on Wednesday, and might not get home and the weather is indicating it may be thunderstorm during that day.  So, I'll be home and he'll be around.  We'll go for lunch or dinner at some point some day.  He's a wonderful person!!

DAVE'S A BLESSING... TO ME AND MANY!!

Grand Marais, MN, at Lake Superior, November, '12

      Dave is a special person!!  He's been a wonderful husband for the 30 years when God put us together.  And he's been a great step-dad for my daughter and son, and the grandkids love him strongly!  He works physically at our church -- doing a lot of the fixing situations -- and plays piano and/or organ at 3 other churches ... Wednesday evening, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning [possibly with up 3 of them and he's driving around and about re: the timing from 7:30, 9:00, 11:00].  And he has several piano students.  Doing what he can.  AND he and one of our main friends, Gary, have been redoing some of the stuff in our house.   Anyhow, he's wonderful.  I'm a strongly blessed lady.  Even with my brain and body issue that's a challenge, he is patient re: me.  

OH... and he just arranged for me to be on a plane March 19th [early in the morning] to Portland and will be picked up by my sisters who live about 60 miles from Portland.  Then I'll also be in Tacoma a few days later and then there for about a week. [ BTW, all my sisters are a few years younger than me!]  Then back down to the Portland area April 8th in the early evening I'll be on the plane to Omaha and, because of the way our hours change, I'll be here about midnight.  BUT he arranged this so I can see my sisters, nieces, nephews, family friends and lots of other friends.  As I've often said, I was born in Portland, was in Tacoma several times until I was 23, and visiting very frequently since then, but not living there, even when I was in California, Nebraska, and Oklahoma ... and Uganda, Costa Rica, Morocco.    I'll be so excited to be at the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound and see Mount Rainer, and, when on the plane, coming in or going out of Portland, will definitely see Mount Hood!  And the Columbia River on both the Washington and Oregon side for many  many miles and to swing by Multnomah Falls, one of my favorites. So, we'll see how things go.  Since I can't drive, I don't know how I'll be taken around.  But I'll do what I can, when I can, where I can. 

Dave and I focus on this and do it:  

Worshiping and glorifying and praising to and for the Lord is all that counts!! 

THE END OF "THE GRINCH" AND "INNKEEPER" FOR ME!!

 

I'VE DONE "THE GRINCH" SINCE I WAS 14 IN 9TH GRADE IN TACOMA WHEN MY ENGLISH TEACHER HAD ME MEMORIZE THAT STORY... AND MOST OF US HAD NEVER HEARD OF IT, B/C THE BOOK WAS ONLY PUBLISHED A COUPLE YEARS BEFORE THEN.  AND I DID IT AT OUR SCHOOL IN TACOMA [AND WAS EVEN ON A CHILDREN'S TV SHOW ] WHEN I HAD JUST BEGUN AT THAT DECEMBER, '59.  FOR 55 YEARS I'VE DONE IT IN VARIOUS LOCATIONS ALL AROUND OUR NATION AND IN UGANDA. 

DID THIS ABOUT 6 YEARS AGO, AT A LARGE FILLED CATHOLIC SCHOOL.  THERE WERE ABOUT 400 KIDS AND I WAS ABLE TO DO IT AND DO IT AND DO IT!  AND, THAT YEAR, ALSO AT A LOT OF OTHER SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, HOMES, AND LOTS OF OTHER PLACES. MY HUSBAND WAS WITH ME THAT DAY AND A FRIEND/SPIRITUAL SISTER TOOK THE PICTURES OF ME.

LAST DECEMBER, I DID IT FOR THE BHUTANESE KIDS AT THEIR CHURCH AND EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN'T ALWAYS KNOW ALL THE WORDS, THEY SMILED AND LAUGHED AT WHAT I ... THEIR "GRANDMA"... WAS DOING.

THE OTHER STORY WAS GRABBED ONTO ME 41 YEARS AGO, "THE INNKEEPER'S DAUGHTER".  JUST READING IT WHEN MY DAUGHTER HAD RECEIVED IT AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT.  THEN, AND WHEN MY DAUGHTER WAS 8 IN 3RD GRADE SCHOOL, SHE HAD ME COME AND READ THAT STORY.  THE TEACHER WAS PLEASED.  I DIDN'T HAVE IT MEMORIZED THEN, BUT DID A GOOD JOB.  I WAS 32 YEARS OLD THEN. AFTER THAT, I MEMORIZED IT AND A FEW TIMES PUT ON "ABIGAIL" CLOTHES SO THEY COULD SMILE.  OH,  AND BTW, THE "INNKEEPER'S" STORY WAS SPECIAL TO ME, B/C I, AS A YOUNG KID, WAS A FIGHTER AND FILLED WITH ANGRY, AND "ABIGAIL" WAS DOING THINGS, TOO, AND THEN SHE CAME TO JESUS WHEN HE WAS BORN AND MARY SHARED WITH HER AND HER LIFE CHANGED.  MINE, TOO!!

FOR YEARS I'VE DONE BOTH OF THOSE IN THE VARIETY OF PLACES  AS USUAL, AND WAS PUT IN SPECIAL SITUATIONS.  WELL, LAST YEAR I DID BOTH OF THE STORIES, BUT I USUALLY  NEEDED TO KEEP THE "INNKEEPER" BOOK IN MY HAND RATHER OFTEN.  DIDN'T READ IT OFFICIALLY, BUT JUST GRABBED A WORD IF I WAS MISSING A PIECE.

NOW I CAN'T DO IT AT ALL. I'M 70 AND MY BODY AND BRAIN WON'T LET ME DO THE MEMORIZATION. I'M DISAPPOINTED, TO SAY THE LEAST.  I'VE DONE SO MUCH SO LONG. BUT GRATEFUL THAT THE LORD DROPPED IT ON ME WAY BACK THEN AND HAS USED ME MANY TIMES AND MANY PLACES! 

ANYHOW, I'LL TOSS THIS ON.  IT'S BEEN TORN A BIT. I HAD IT GIVEN TO ME ON THE OMAHA NEWSPAPER BACK IN DECEMBER, '81, AS I RECALL.  IT WAS A REAL BLESSING TO BE PHOTOED AND PUT ON THE NEWSPAPER!

 

SPIRITUAL MAPPING/HISTORYING

This was a ministry that was dropped into my life about 15 years ago, and accepted by some and thoroughly disliked by some others.  All I can truly say is that the Lord laid it on me.  Spiritual mapping is studying the history of areas where other gods were worshiped, were sacrificed to, and even recently people continued to carry it on.  I have hundreds of files in my file cabinets.  Both locally, nationally, and internationally.  I have to trust Him for the consequences.  The wonderful consequences are becoming a teacher and sharer AND meeting some pastors and spiritual friends who have remained in my life.

When I drove up to northern Minnesota on September 8th to visit my dear friend/"sister", Susan Jones, I rested at her house for about 3 days, because I was exhausted after helping to the delivery of one of my Bhutanese babies.  Had not had enough sleep for 4 days, and then hit the road.  

On  Saturday the13th, I drove north to Baudette, MN, right on the

Canada border to see some very dear friends/pastors, Dave and Mary ("Ducky") Gens.  Dave is a wonderful guitarist and singer and music writer and sharing it around and about.  For a stretch of time a few years ago, he rode his bike, keeping his guitar and his clothes, and his sleeping bag.  He rode hundreds of miles around and about, in Minnesota, and sharing the Lord through his words and his music, sometimes just being in a park by the roads.  I met him nearly 10 years ago, and he was still doing that and he'll be 65 in December.

And, while he was gone, his wife was the speaker and teacher and

minister.  They've both done helping with and for each other and the people in their town.  I've been very impressed when there and was able to explain some of the spiritual issues and MY Dave came up and they so enjoyed him that a few years ago they asked us to move up there and they'd get us involved both in churches and helping through apartments in that area.  We wanted to be there and a number of other places in northern MN, but the Lord kept us here in Omaha, and we can do much in either place, while serving the Lord.  That's what counts.

After with them for a few hours, I drove back down to Susan's, and that was about 130 miles.  The next day, I drove to another town, Crookston, about 60 miles north from Susan's area, and one of my dear friends, Stacey,  was for me to be with her.  What a treat she was.  She drove us around and about, looking at the significant spiritual challenges, both locally and historically, many we'd talked about before and looked at a few years ago.  She also reminded me that Dave and I had given quite a number of computers to people from other nations in the '06 stretch of time.  And, when I asked about a Sudanese fellow who I met when he was on a bike and cold much of the time during that stretch of Fall, I remembered visiting with him in a fast food place with her back then.  Well, she said the blessing I was then was that I bought him bus tickets for a stretch of time and he could adjust and arrange from his new job.  Wow!  I didn't remember that.

I had connected with her in '05, and went up to teach her about spiritual mapping through the ministry/company I was involved with.  Well, when teaching, other pastors in the local area were where I pulled in.  It was a pizza place and the 10-ish of us ate and I shared.  One of the pastors, Craig and Sonja, who had been living in a town about 40 miles south, became my friends, too.  They had been in YWAM for several years, heard of this ministry there-- a special time in Jamaica, for instance-- and were very positive about this.  They encouraged Stacey to be with me then.  When I see her, we rejoice together.  She's only a little older than my daughter, so I consider her a daughter, not just a friend. 

When leaving her place, I drove south to see Craig and Sonja, and

reached there just about dinner time and shared with them too long about what I was going through.  So enjoyed that time.  They put up with my yammering and prayed over me as I was heading out.  It was about 9:15 and dark and I needed to drive back north a bit to stay on main roads instead of being on the side roads through the farms and smaller towns from their place to Susan's, because deer and skunks and lots of other danger could be on the roads  So I drove miles further, to stay on the main highways; it was so much safer.

When I reached Susan's it was about 10:30.  I was a tired cookie.  And it took a couple days to restore. It was a huge blessing of being with these people who always thought of me as a good teaching, a good preaching, a good sharing person.  Can't not rejoice.

The main wonderfulness of this trip to northern Minnesota, gone for 11 days, was to see MANY dear friends, again.  Not just these, but a significant number of others.  Love so many!!  And am loved by many.  What a blessing.

 

GLORY AND PRAISE

AND ELIZABETH AND HER HUSBAND

BLESS MANY,  HELP MANY, DRAW MANY 

TO THE LORD.

AND PRAISE AND GLORY TRULY ENTER THE LORD

MORE AND MORE.

[IT WAS A BLESSING TO BE WITH YOU, 

TO TRULY KNOW YOU.]