Sniper Uses My Nephew's Bedroom for Lookout for Active Shooter!

Today we learned that my brother Hoshea's family and his son's family had a long night of excitement and anxiety!

Hoshea is my brother who lives in North Dakota and ministers near the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.

Hoshea's daughter Katie was spending the night with her brother Joseph and his wife Mariah when she was awakened by a great banging on the door. It was the police, telling them to evacuate because there had been a shooting across the street and the shooter was still loose!

It was 1:30 this morning up there when this happened. The neighbor across the street had shot his brother-in-law and was now in a terrible stand-off with police. My brother Hoshea and both sons, Joseph and Andrew, are on the emergency teams in the area, so they ended up helping go around evacuating two city blocks and diverting traffic. Once a bullet whizzed right over my nephew Joseph's head. There is a bullet hole in Joseph and Mariah's privacy fence. 

At one point, a sniper was using Joseph's bedroom window as a place to keep a watch for the active shooter, since Joseph's house was right across the street!!

(These pictures are actually ones I took of the storm the other day!)

Anyway, there was quite a standoff with police, and SWAT teams ended up having to break windows and use tear gas, and I don't know what else. But finally, they have the shooter in custody.

Hoshea's wife Laurie had a chance to pray with the mother of the shooter as well as the mother of the brother-in-law, and another relative. A news article I found about it claims no one was killed but Hoshea told me, "How often do you believe the media?" He was right in the middle of the situation and he says "everybody around here knows the man was killed."
He is really disgusted with the media getting their nose into these situations and being in the way and a big pain plus then spreading inaccurate stories that shouldn't have been publicized to start with till the investigation is finished.

So many tragic things happen there on or near the reservations. Pray for my brother Hoshea and his family as they are constantly ministering to people in such tragic situations. Almost every newsletter has new stories of tragedies that Hoshea and his family minister to, from funerals and wakes to trying to comfort a little Sunday School girl recently whose sister had been killed.

When I called Hoshea, he had just gotten home from boarding up the broken windows at the house where the shooting had occurred.

Praise God for protecting them in this very dangerous situation.

My Sister Iva and Boys Arrive

This week Iva and her two oldest boys Kenny and Reggie arrived to pick up Elisa, but not until after spending over three days stuck in the middle of Kansas with car problems!

Our Sam and a friend, Steve, who was on his way through Kansas Sunday, drove 4 1/2 hours to go help, taking new calipers Jonathan had run into town Saturday night to pick up for them since they couldn't get the parts in the middle of Kansas!
Steve left Sam there with Iva and boys, having done all he could, and went on his way. Thus Sam was stuck with Iva and boys for three days because the problem ended up not being the calipers after all, but a master cylinder, which the experts at the dealer took a couple days to try to diagnose.
Long story short, Iva and boys finally arrived, and here Timmy and Reggie are arm wrestling!

 One of the first things the children did was sit down and practice their guitars and mandolin together. Rose and Timmy have been faithfully practicing and trying to learn.

In the afternoon, most of us went outside to work in the back yard and gardens, which had gotten totally grown up and out of hand in the last couple weeks while we've been busy with camp meeting, tent meeting, VBS up at Denver, and camping over Timmy's birthday.
It was so fun working together with my hard-working sister Iva, who enjoys outdoor work and has a bit of a "green thumb."
We pulled weeds and oversaw the boys mowing and weedeating and getting the back yard spruced up.

We got done just in time for a big storm to sweep in upon us. Sheets of rain swept down, drenching the children who were out running around covering gardens from the hail and helping the calves get to shelter.

After the worst had passed, we ladies got busy in the kitchen. Elisa makes prize-worthy pie crusts, (which taste extra good because she makes them dry and flaky and her recipe has 1 tsp. salt per crust) so she made the crusts for blueberry pies, and Iva and I found a recipe for mostly fresh blueberry pie, and baked two others.

I wanted lattice tops, which Elisa kindly did for us!

The baked blueberry pies were yummy, but this one without a crust topping and with only a cooked blueberry glaze on top of fresh blueberries was absolutely stunning! I'd say it's my favorite blueberry pie I've ever tasted.

Supper together before Iva and children left to travel back home, via my parents in Missouri.
My dad had experienced a health issue recently and two siblings and an in-law have traveled down to see them in the last couple weeks.
Thankfully Dad is doing better. 

We were going to make lasagna and had the sauce and cheese part all cooked and mixed and then discovered we didn't have enough lasagna noodles! We substituted twirly pasta and it came out fine! Also we had green bean casserole. Two big pans of it and we ate almost ALL of it up!

After supper we went to see how much the pond had filled up from the rain, and Rose saddled the horse for the cousins to ride.

It was such a pretty evening.

We were so thankful that Elisa had been able to have a job during her 7 weeks here, working at the restaurant where Crystal and Carrie work. Also, we helped her get a Colorado permit so she could get her driver's license, and she passed her driver's test!

Now for a little while, it's just our own family here together again, since Crystal is back from Africa and starting back into her job at the restaurant.
She's praying about what to do this fall, whether to attend Penn View, or to stay and work here where she has a job, and take online courses from GBS toward graduation, and finish her major next year at Penn View.
Pray with her and us for God's will in her life.

Sorting Winter Gloves in Summer

A while back, Hannah decided to pull out all the winter gloves and mittens and sort them.

It was quite the task. We threw a few bad ones away, and stored the rest in a box in the basement for next winter.

And we kept a few upstairs to use for working in the garden and around the house.

Gloves are great for working in the dirt--

and leather ones keep you from getting splinters. 

And sorting them helps manage them.

Sometimes thoughts and ideas pile up like winter gloves.

They become an unmanageable jumble in your mind.

Some are useful, some aren't.

We don't have to keep all our thoughts around. Some thoughts just plain have holes in them and need to be rejected and thrown away.
Some are just plain worn out from much wear. We need to think new thoughts!

Others need to be stored in the basement of your mind, where you can find them in time of need.

I read once that Corrie ten Boom kept a notebook to jot down catchy phrases she heard from others in order to share them with others and in her messages
because short clips and catchy phrases will stick and you will remember them.

Clips like--
"Being family is determined more by behavior than blood."
"Pick your battles. Accept people for who they are or who they are not. It's OK to love from a distance."

"Just because some people are fueled by drama does not mean you have to attend the performance."

"Sometimes it seems that the louder a person claims sainthood, the bigger the horns they are hiding."

"Remember to take care of yourself. You can't pour from an empty cup."

It's good to sort your gloves out in the summer, so that they will be matched, organized and ready for use in the winter.
And sometimes we have to sort out our thoughts in a quiet time with God
so that we can meet life's challenges and be armed with truth rather than lies,
so that we can be protected from the cold shoulders and the icy stares and the dirt that is smeared on us, and the splinters and hurts that poke right into our skin and sit there to annoy us and drive us crazy.

Lord, help me as I sort out my thoughts today. Show me which ones coming to my mind that I need to reject. Show me the holes in them, the lies, the inconsistencies. Teach me to throw those out.
Show me the thoughts and ideas that I need to store until later, how to jot down a to-do list of duties that come to mind so that I can focus on one thing at a time and be reminded later of the next thing;
how to write out dreams and goals so that I can see the big picture while taking care of the myriad details of daily responsibilities.

And show me the thoughts that I need to match with your truth and promises.
For my left hand glove of worry, match it with Your right hand glove of peace.
My glove of fear match with Your promises.
My glove of distress match with your faithfulness.
My glove of question, match with a Scriptural answer.
My glove of hurt match with Your healing.
My glove of weakness match with Your strength.
My glove of mistake or sin or falling short in any way match with Your pardon and cleansing.
My glove of desire match with Your will!
Amen.

When God Meets You Under the Clothesline

This morning God met me under the clothesline.

 It's one place I can go by myself and be alone with God--away from the constant activity and noise indoors. And today, as usual, I was talking to Him. 

Not many words. Just a few questions.

 I was feeling bad for a stuck place that I was seeing in my life.

Why couldn't I have overcome in that area? Why couldn't I have handled this worry better?

Why do I keep doing this kind of dumb thing?

There I was under the clothesline, hanging up Indus Kitchen shirts and towels.

And asking, "Jesus,why did I do that?"

Some people always have a pat answer to anything wrong in your life, like, "You aren't really saved," or "You're not really sanctified," mostly because it gets them off the hook of going any deeper than pat answers and fun cliches that put other people in a deep pit of despair while they can prance around the top of the pit feeling spiritually superior. 

I felt He told me, "You didn't trust Me," and I started to go down. Not trusting God is bad, and He'll probably punish me big time. I deserve to be really punished for that.

God needs to beat me up and make me feel really horrible. I need to suffer a really bad consequence.

Instead of letting myself feel terrible, and condemning myself and punishing myself, and wondering how awful the consequence would be, I kept asking questions like I learned to do at Caring for the Heart. I asked a second question there under the clotheslines.

"Jesus, why didn't I trust You?"

And then I was just quiet. I just was standing there hanging clothes, and pulling more clothes out of the basket when something totally unexpected happened.

I was surprised by peace.

It was a total shock. I had done something dumb all over again because I had worried and I hadn't trusted God. And when I went to ask Jesus about it,
He gave me peace.

I didn't deserve peace, but He gave it to  me.
And with it came the words, "He is for you."
I had kind of forgotten.
God really is for me, not against me. He isn't waiting around to bop me over the head and whale me with a cat-o'-nine-tails for my lack of trust in those moments.
He wants to remind me that He cares for my worries.
He wants to carry my burdens.
He wants me to serve Him in restful joy.
He wants me to win.

I came inside, still startled at this beautiful peace, which suddenly turned into unexpected joy. I couldn't believe the joy. I hadn't even said I was sorry for not trusting God. I had just believed Him when He whispered that was why I had done this dumb thing.
And I had just come to Him for answers and help.

Saying sorry helps a little.
Asking, "Why did I do that?" and waiting for an answer helps a lot.
He showed me I need to remember that He is for me.

 He needs me to remember He has promised to take care of me, my reputation and everything precious to me.
Like this baby bunny that one of the children put with the kittens and our mama kitty sheltered with her paw, I can rest under the arms and eyes of God.

There had been undeserved peace.
There had been unexpected joy.
Now there was unutterable love.

 "Jesus, I can't tell You  how much I love You!"

"My Name is Anna, Too."

One day a while back, we met a really sweet couple who take care of a house property that has been turned into a house church with about 40 people attending. After visiting a while, she asked my name, and I told her, "Anna."
"Same as mine," she said quietly.

There wasn't any particular surprise or excitement in her quiet response.
Just observing that we had the same name.
I wonder how many Anna's there are in the world.
There was a young Anna sitting right next to us at the Good Samaritan appreciation dinner I wrote about a few days ago. I am sure there are many others. How does God keep us all straight?
How does He manage to send needed grace and help to the right one at the right time?
It was interesting talking to this couple. They showed us the house church and talked about the property. The man told Jonathan and the children about the huge catfish that lives underneath the water lilies.

 He told us that the coolest place on the property was under the willow across the pond, because of the way the winds turned through the trees and over the water. He would stand there on hot days to cool off while he was mowing and taking care of the place.

This other Anna showed us through the second story of the house where they worship, and how it was set up with nice padded chairs on both sides of an L-shaped living area, with the pulpit and sacrament table set up diagonally in the corner. She said that some of the people love to sit during worship and enjoy the view of the pond and wildlife out the windows! I had just gotten this photo of geese, a wild turkey, and a deer all in the same snapshot! The couple asked me for a copy of the photo.

It was as we were about to leave that the lady asked my name, and I said, "Anna."
"Same as mine," she said.

Then Jonathan, who had been visiting with her husband, said, "She's also the second oldest of nine children!" (As am I!) So I had to get a picture with her!

She had been raised in the Missouri Ozarks, but she and her husband pastored in Maine for a number of years, and then moved to Colorado where he worked at Focus on the Family and she at a Bible College.

I enjoyed so much getting to see where a church group was meeting in a sort of out-of-the-box way,

more like in eastern Europe where we spent years with people who often worshiped in schools or homes for the simple fact that they had no church in which to worship.

There were 40 people in that house church. There were 42 up at Denver where we worshipped a couple weeks ago. Nearly 200 at campmeeting Sunday morning and perhaps around 50-75 or more Sunday evening at tent meeting. How does God keep us all straight?
How does He know just when to send peace when a troubled Anna [or Hannah or Joanna or Susanna or Ann or Annette or Anne or Stan or  Dan or Peter Pan] comes to Him?
How does He not only know our name, but He knows exactly which Anna we are of the millions of them in the world?

He cares about our name. He cares about our reputation. He cares about what others are saying about us and about the true things and about the false things and about the stupid only half true things. He cares about our burdens and distresses. He cares about our needs and our desires and our limitations and our humanity.

"He knoweth our frame,"

He knoweth our name.

He is the One Who "gives strength to His people," whatever their name.

And He will bless His people with peace.

Putting Meat in the Freezer--Do You Need Meat or Milk?

A few weeks ago we put up our steer into our freezers.

It was quite the family affair.

For lunch we had FRESH hamburgers! They were sooo good!

Good, home-raised, grass-fed red meat full of iron and minerals helps me feel better.

Better than just drinking milk.

In the Bible, Paul lamented that the Hebrews were having to be fed milk all over again instead of good meat. They were having to be taught again the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ instead of growing up and maturing into adult Christians, able to discern between good and evil.

Bro. Paul Kaufman shared last week in tent meeting about the difference between purity and maturity and how church leaders and older Christians should not expect young people to get up from the altar and suddenly act like older, seasoned adult Christians.

Dr. Kaufman said that it takes time and experience to grow young people into the seasoned adult Christians that they need to be later in life.

(Thanks, Bro. Kaufman, for being real and honest about that, and for recognizing the value of time, growth, experiences, mistakes, and perseveravce rather than putting all the emphasis on a single experience or a first or second work of grace.)

I knew what he was talking about. I know that I had very real salvation and entire consecration experiences,but boy, have I ever had to go through a lot of hard knocks to learn what it means to be and to act in mature, Christlike ways.

I'm still reading and appreciating and learning from books like Changes that Heal by Henry Cloud, and Boundaries by the same author and John Townsend.

(Here we're eating in the living room since the kitchen table is full of meat mess.)

Paul in the Bible wrote, "But solid food [meat] belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Heb. 5:14)

Ever wondered why God has allowed so many things in your life that were difficult?

He wanted your  spiritual senses exercised until you can wisely discern between good and evil.

He wants you to be wise, and be able to become a wise teacher of others to help them on their way to God.

He wants you to mature, and not to remain a baby or a small child spiritually, but to understand the things of God, and to grow in understanding Him and His desires for you, as well as to learn to avoid the appearance of evil, or anything that would lead to evil. 

He wants you to know your boundaries, your limits of time, energy, and love, so that you can be at your best for God in what He wants of you, and not necessarily fulfilling everything that everybody else expects of you.

He wants you to respect those boundaries and limits in others as well, to accept their "No's, when they are unable to perform to your expectations.
In these pictures, we are enjoying the fellowship picnic two Sundays ago up at Denver when the Allegheny Wesleyan College quartet was there with the Sanders family.

There were about 42 people in attendance that morning! Quite a number of visitors and children. 

Pray for us this week as our family goes up there as many days as possible to help with the VBS Tuesday through Sunday.

After Paul urged the Hebrews to leave the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ behind and to move on to perfection, he says, "But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you...

do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

So the best way to grow and mature is to get busy for Jesus and allow ourselves time and grace for spiritual growth in HIM.