Jonathan Turns 50!

Jonathan turned 50 this week!
We invited his clan to a picnic to celebrate Sunday after church, and his brother Rob took this picture
which he kindly forwarded to us. Sorry he wasn't in it! His wife Julie is standing next to me, and Jonathan's brother Dave and wife Ruth are standing next to Jonathan. His sister Esther and her husband Jon are at the left end, and his uncle George and Aunt Irina at the right end, next to Jonathan's parents.We really appreciated Dave and Ruth traveling 6 hours in from Albuquerque to celebrate Jonathan's 50th.

I found these chocolate 50-cent coins at an after-Easter sale, for little party favors.

I had the younger children write poems about their dad, and here is Hannah's (original spelling intact).
I Love My Dad
I love my dad; he is so smart.
He has a kind and tender heart.

He likes coffee in his mug.
He likes to give his doters a big hug.

I half to help him with his sock.
Because the dog did bite him what a shock!

Dad has so much power.
He can and will take a shower.

His birthday is almost in May.
But one day you may pray that he has hay.
by Hannah Lucas

Here is the poem I wrote:

 

  On Jonathan's 50th Birthday

In April of nineteen sixty-seven,

A little boy was sent from heaven

To join his mom and dad so brave

And be a brother to little Dave,

To his siblings, Esther and Barbara and Rob.

These tykes gave their parents quite the job!

And so for a few years young Jonathan

Learned to walk and talk and run.

His family moved when he was six or seven

To West Platte, house number thirty-two eleven.

He went to Emmanuel Christian School

And attended church at Grace Tabernacool.

His classmates were Herbert and Lefever’s Ken

Who studied with him with paper and pen.

From People's Bible College he graduated

With outlines and info all stuffed in his head.

By this time this boy had become a young man,

With blackening hair and cheeks of tan.

He learned a lot and learned it well

From Triple A Stucco and Steve Speidel.

He learned chicken wire was for more than hens

And stapled it for years and years on end.

 

For some of those years he also would clump

Around in houses with Durwin Bump,

A licensed electrician he almost became,

But stopped a bit short, he would always claim.

Deep down in his heart was a little space

Which always was lonely regardless the place.

He'd traveled to China and all fifty States,

Alaska and even Hawaii were great.

But nowhere in all those fifty states

Could he find the one to be his soul mate.

When packing to travel to a New Jersey home

Where Dave and Ruth had ceased to roam,

A rainbow hovered overhead,

Letting him know his hopes were not dead.

Somewhere back east there was something for him,

So with fresh hope he started, out on a limb!

A lovely new home he built for his brother

Before moving back home to live with his mother.

On a trip back to his home in the west,

He fell asleep at the wheel, and his car came to rest

In the median after being hit by a truck,

But he was still alive, just down in the muck.

But from then on he knew, and always would know

God had a purpose for his life, it would always be so.

But the east had not proven a wife to produce,

And his hopes were somewhere in a lost caboose.

Till one day Joy Ganger shared a cassette

Of an eastern girl whom he could not forget.

That girl was a missionary to far off Ukraine,

And thoughts began stirring in Jonathan's brain.

He wrote her, and amazingly, she wrote him back,

Now the hopeful caboose was back on track.

She quickly became his favorite pen pal,

And in a few short months, he married that gal.

Together in Ukraine they worked four tough years,

With joys and sorrows, excitement and tears.

Eighteen years later they've raised seven kids

And the term "I do," became, "I did."

They built a home on the prairie land high,

And I suppose they'll be there until they die.

This man who is fifty years old today

Has traveled the world and likely still may,

On Mission Helps trips doing all that He can

To fulfill the great Divine Master's plan.

Fifty years in this world, mostly Colorado,

But what the next fifty will be, who's to know?

On his 50th birthday, his dog-bitten hand

Produced conversation starters very grand.

And just in case the skin wouldn't stick

There were butterfly stitches to make his skin click,

Plus a whole strong round of antibiotic

Which is something he wouldn't purposely pick

For his 50th birthday to celebrate,

No, such things don't make a birthday that great.

But whether better or worse, or sick or in health,

Whether poverty-stricken or in Solomon's wealth, .

This Jonathan Lucas is now fifty years old,

And my poetic tale has been told!

Breakfast at Midnight--and Waffles for Supper!

Sunday evening, Justin and Melanie Stanton, our pastor's daughter and son-in-law and also assistant pastor while the pastor was away to IHC last week,  

decided on a somewhat spur-of-the-moment get-together for church people after the service.

Justin's job is to deliver waffle batter to businesses and hotels, and he decided to have "breakfast at midnight!"

Melanie and he set up two waffle makers in the church basement (i.e. Foothills Fellowship Hall or some such name as he called it :) and cooked waffles for everyone who stayed.

Of course, most of us stayed!

We hadn't eaten waffles in a very long time, and it was fun getting to fellowship with church folk as well as with Christian and Holly Walker who are pastoring in Federal Heights

and who spoke for our evening service since our pastor was gone.

I waited for the cheddar and bacon waffle, and had real maple syrup on a second one, as well as a few bowls of popcorn. 

They also served chocolate waffles and icecream!

We enjoyed watching our hungry friend Tim wolf down waffles and icecream. 

What a unique experience!

At home, Timmy hatched several baby quail from eggs in his incubator.

They hatched on Easter morning!

Timmy is always into something new!

He hopes to sell eggs to people who will pay a lot for healthy quail eggs that are known to be good for so many things. 

Here Carrie is putting together a little gift basket for the neighbors that Rose, Timmy and Danny work for three times week.

Her husband had to return to the hospital after back surgery, and we wanted to take a get well basket.

There were jars of pickled beets, peach jam, and strawberry jam.

We put them in a little basket with a burlap strip underneath.

The dear lady wouldn't take the basket without giving the children some things herself in return!

She gave them three jars of her own jelly plus gatorade!

You just can't outgive these generous-hearted ranchers out here on the prairie!

I feel so blessed and thankful to have this lady just a short ways down the road where the younger children can learn to work for others a bit and earn a little money at a young age.
So our busy lives have been spruced up lately with waffles for supper
and jellies from neighbors!
Thank You, Lord, for all the little blessings, too many to count!

Crystal Brings Music Home--and We Rescue a Sleeper at a City Intersection!

It was such a joy to listen to Crystal playing beautiful arrangements on the piano in her free time at home

when she wasn't at cleaning jobs or helping her mom and sisters, or catching up in college studies.

She played a couple hymn arrangements as preludes or offertories both Sundays she was home, and I appreciated that she didn't have to have a big audience to be willing to play.

Due to so many church people traveling or sick, some Sunday School classes were canceled, and it was just a few people there for Sunday School.

It was great missionary training!

Or pastor's wife training.

Or just training in willingness to serve regardless of the size of, presence of, or lack of audience.

Sometimes the audience need only be the size of One.

Are we willing to serve when only One sees and hears?
Easter Sunday evening while chores and dishes were being done, Crystal was playing some of my favorite arrangements like "The Lord is My Light and My Salvation," "The Holy City," which my brother used to sing as a solo, " "The Palms," and "Panis Angelicus" ["O Lord Most Holy]. I sang along with her, my voice squeaking and cracking on the high notes.

It was so unbelievable that it was my own daughter who had worked so hard and practiced so much at college till she could play these difficult arrangements with the amount of ease that she did. 

How I have loved music and wished so much that I could play like that, but I  just haven't been able to. All my sisters play well, and my daughters are learning, but all I can do is try to sing along.

But enough about me and my poor abilities (or lack thereof).

“He must increase, but I must decrease," 
Ann Voskamp quoted in a post I read Monday.
It had been a long time since I checked out any of her posts, and here the theme was about platforms and serving!

She wrote,

"In a world where there are 93 million selfies taken a day and counting — the strange thing is, for all the striving to be seen:  The more exposed we are, the more unknown we can feel. 

Fame and feeling noticed —- isn’t the same as being known and feeling loved."

It’s a conversation to have when you’re bending low in dirt, planting small seeds, dirt under your fingernails:
A platform is whatever one finds under one’s feet—and the only thing that is meant to be under a Christian is an altar.
The only call on a Christian is not to pick up a microphone, not to pick some stairs to some higher platform, but to pick up a cross and come die.

The only call on a Christian is to build every platform into the shape of an altar, to shape every platform into the form of sacrificial service.

Every platform, every microphone, every podium is meant to be a nail—fixing us to Christ, the only One lifted up...


"When our culture places a premium upon stardom — we live in perpetual dark.
Culture that is fixated on stardom misses the light of extraordinary people doing holy, ordinary work."

"Serve from a real place," she wrote. "A platform isn’t about remarkable marketing; it’s about serving in a remarkable way. 

 It’s about serving from a real place of humility, authenticity, and vulnerable transparency.

"Cease striving to get to a higher, greater platform—and start praying to go lower to serve greater.
Jesus’ platform was a place of serving from His real humanity, as He walked and talked and broke and gave away His real life...
A platform is a holy place to kneel down and wash the very real wounds of the hurting. Jesus’ platform wasn’t about pushing his agenda or ‘product,’ but about caring for people’s afflictions and pain."

"A platform isn’t about self-serving, but is about...bending low ...
... The Seed Life, a way to believe in the eternal answers found in small things that do the best work in hidden ways.
...we plant seeds, the knees of old jeans worn and dirt-laden with the bending, with the brave beauty of going lower."

Thank you, Ann Voskamp! I couldn't say it better.

 Reading these words, I was convicted about my frustration with having the added job of trying to treat and dress Jonathan's hand over and over when I would rather have been doing other things over Easter weekend and beyond. 

Somehow, these words from one of my sister Heroes in Humility helped me gain a proper perspective about what really matters in the sight of God.

And so I swallow my frustration with not knowing quite how to treat and dress such a serious wound, and do the best we can with doctor-prescribed antibiotics, essential oils, coconut oil (thanks to a friend of a sister and a clerk at Home Depot who both recommended it) and various bandaids and bandages and poultices with garlic and comfrey. 

On our way to Sunday School again last Sunday, we were already running nip and tuck to not be late, when we discovered someone in trouble at their wheel at a busy city interesection.  They were off to our right, in the left turn lane at the intersection. 

"Something's wrong!" I said, after another vehicle had driven around the stopped vehicle with tinted glass to our right,  that wasn't going when their light was green. As we proceeded on our way. I looked through that windshield and saw the person's head tilted back instead of awake and alert. 

"Shall we go check?" Jonathan asked.

I thought of Crystal who had been asked to play for Sunday School, and her lovely arrangement she had practiced to play for prelude. 

But in the same second I thought of that, I thought of the priest and the Levite and the Good Samaritan.

And without a moment's hesitation, we found a place to turn around.

Preludes can be dispensed with.

Beautiful music, however well practiced, can wait on the priority of caring for someone in need.

Church platforms do not take priority over helping in an emergency.  

Our children learn more from our deeds than from our words.

We whipped into the parking area of the business across from the busy intersection and I jumped out of the van, while Jonathan called 911. Other vehicles were again waiting, somewhat trapped, behind this vehicle.

I tapped on the window, and when there was no response, I tried the door.

Unlocked, it readily opened.

A young fellow,  dark-skinned and black-bearded suddenly started rousing.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Jonathan reached inside with his long leg to push the emergency brake.

Little by little the man came to, mumbling that he had been on his way home from work and must have fallen asleep.

The poor, exhausted man!

It took him a bit to come to fully. Suddenly he exclaimed something which I will not repeat, and started to drive forward, stopped by the emergency brake. 

I refrained from releasing it for him, wanting him to know what he was doing, and to do it for himself. He quickly released it and took off, leaving Jonathan still on the phone with emergency personnel who decided it was likely not a medical emergency!

That was quite the excitement for the day!

My First Neice Engaged over Easter Weekend!

So happy to share the announcement of my first neice's engagement, which happened over Easter weekend in Vermont!

This is my sister Dorcas's oldest daughter, Annette, and her fiance is Samuel Johnson, from Michigan.
I'm posting these pictures Annette and Dorcas sent family, with permission.

He's from a Christian home-schooled family of ten children.

So now it is so fun calling my sister in Vermont and chatting about the fun weekend the newly engaged couple spent over Easter, 

and plans for the upcoming wedding in July.  

So I have two nephews married, one with a baby girl, and another nephew is engaged to be married the end of May.

But this is the first niece to get married!

It's so exciting!

Below was my favorite of all the engagement photos Annette sent.

Of course, I love rainbows, and my sister Dorcas told how the sky was dark and a bit rainy that Easter Sunday,

but she saw the sun peeking through and wondered if there was a rainbow. 

And there was!

.

Not only did it seem like a perfect backdrop for a newly engaged couple on Easter Sunday,

but it reminds me that God's promises do not fail.

As I wait my turn for my children to find friends and spouses,

I know that though He may choose to ask us to wait a while, He will not fail us.

He has called us to be separate from the world, but He will not ask us to walk alone.

First of all, He will be with us, and in the big picture, that is enough.

But in the smaller picture, He is preparing someone for each of our children.

As James Plank preached Wednesday night at Inter-church Holiness Convention (which we watched online), there are "seven thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal," and we don't have to hide in a cave like Elijah did, thinking he was the only one who cared about God,
There are other young people out there who are interested in doing God's will,

seeking the lost and singing His praise,

living outside the cave and outside the box,
not all cookie cutters but all with a mind to serve God and others.
Not of the world, but in the world.
Reaching out into our communities with caring and grace.
Samuel Johnson, whom Annette is marrying, is already a member of the city council,
and Samuel Lucas (who happens to be our son) was just accepted as a member of the local volunteer fire department!

Sam had to provide a background check, driving record, physical exam, and high school diploma.
They accepted his home school diploma!
He didn't get home till 11:30 Wednesday night after training and questioning, but he was accepted.
Jonathan and I are thrilled.
Maybe we are supposed to be worried about all the dangers he may face, but instead we are thrilled and thankful--and Jonathan is already teasing the Rookie Fireman!

Whole Family Home for Easter!

Easter Sunday was such a happy day for us with Crystal home!

I wanted a family photo for Easter, but the boys quickly disappeared when we got to the park for a picnic, so I had to be content with just my girls!

Hannah absolutely loves her big sister!

 

Crystal had been asked to play the piano for Sunday School singing, and she also played a beautiful arrangement of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" for prelude, and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" for the children's march offering.
I can't believe my daughter can play like that! She has been taking piano lessons at Penn View, and has certainly made good progress.

At our pastor's wife's request, Rose and Carrie played a handbell offertory duet called "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" with bells that belong to a lady at church. 

 The day after Crystal arrived home, she, Rose, and Carrie started practicing together for the offertory for the Easter service. 

Here's a "behind-the-scenes" picture.

An extra table set up by the kitchen table so the bells can spread out.

and Crystal had been practicing the piano accompaniment back in PA.

Now they could actually practice together!

Easter Sunday morning, Jonathan's right hand was all bandaged up from the dog bite Friday, so we had to pitch in to help button, zip, buckle, and pull on socks! 

I'm sure he felt very, very manly!

 Here's a photo of him at the Urgent Care 24-hr. ER after his wounds had all been cleaned and were getting ready to be bandaged.

The children were all gathered around the first morning we had to dress his hand ourselves. Danny wanted to take pictures!

So here he is!

But enough of the gore. I just spent a while helping Jonathan research natural ways to pull infection out of a wound. He has a doctor friend he has remodeled for, who permitted him to come in this morning for a check up. The doc gave him a shot of high-powered antibiotic, as his hand was swollen and red. (Would appreciate any prayers on his behalf as the doctor said if we can't get the infection under control, he'll have to send Jonathan to a hand surgeon to cut his hand open again and clean out the wound!)

Rose made him a poultice, we put on frankincense oil, and I have water boiled for comfrey leaves for his hand to soak in later.

We also read other grandmothers' remedies such as soaking an infected site in salt/epsom salt water to draw out infection. 

He's not sure he could stand the stinging that would happen with that one!

Below, just after church Sunday, Jonathan took us to the Broadmoor area of town where there are banks of daffodils blooming.

(He's driving with his left hand!

Several deer were browsing in among this bank of daffodils!

Praise God for the risen Christ, for blooming flowers, for His hand upon us and His presence with us even in hard times.