Robbers, Spiders, and Mexico-size Watermelons!

We are always excited to receive news from the group of cousins, friends, and Spanish-speaking friends getting ready for the VBS in Mexico.

Above, balloons help with teaching a Bible verse.

Rose (now signing her name as "Rosa" in her text home!) is one of the robbers and cousin David is the other in the skit of the Good Samaritan. I laugh and laugh at her costume--just a baseball cap turned backwards, a bandana, and sun glasses. And the neat thing is that the ooor journeyman is cousin Ezra, who loses his crocs to this out-for-blood bandit!

I really don't know if having a stubborn donkey is reading too much into the story of the Good Samaritan, but knowing donkeys, it is probably very true!

The kids loved the skit!

One of the games played with a little girl dashing around one way and a boy the other.

"Rosa" and Pearl eating "grande" (i.e. Mexico-size) watermelon slices!

A horrifying spider was found on one of the girls' beds, and here it is about to be dispatched!

They said it had baby spiders and egg sacs all over it!

Well, other than spiders, the cousins and friends are having an absolute blast. 

God sent a downpour yesterday to freshen the air and send water in the middle of the worst drought in 100 years, Rose texted. 

Yesterday afternoon or evening, the group walked over to the community hall to decorate it for VBS and to practice skits. Before going inside, they washed their hands and feet in water that was coming off the roof. There is a VERY short supply of water, so they are having to rough it.

 

"The Best Revenge"--To Live a Joyful, Godly, Productive Life

The best revenge, I read one time, is to live well. 

I think this or a similar quote was in one of Dr. Laura Schlessinger's books, and I thought about it again this morning when I was overwhelmed, as I am every once in a while, with memories and thoughts about a situation that still causes me pain every time I think about it. 

(which is why generally it is a good idea to just stop thinking about it). 

It was so full of pain that we had to leave it far behind--and we had to learn to stop carrying the pain of it with us.

Even when others choose to continue acting in ways that cause pain to us, we have a choice,

like the hands above.

Do we hang onto our toads of pain, bondage, unforgiveness, resentment, and revenge,

or do we seek to overcome by letting go of our toads and keeping our hands open to the opportunities, joys, and fullness of life that God intended for us to have?  

I reminded myself that I have found ways to overcome, and one of those ways is to lay aside those hurts and memories and go on living joyfully, godly, and productively.

When Hannah's young friend was here for a day, I enjoyed watching them having fun together and helping together with pulling mint and rhubarb, and then washing and cutting and freezing that rhubarb that is still bearing.

When Crystal passed her tests after her week of ACE supervisor training last week and texted me this picture, I was filled with joy.

Despite problems we have faced, God hasn't allowed our lives to be fruitless and barren. He is helping our children (my most important priority) to make right choices and to live in joy and peace. This week Sam was the only one on call sometimes at the fire station since the chief and assistant chief were both gone. He was the one on duty when different medical calls came in. He was the one checking blood sugar of someone basically unconscious, administering the first aid glucose (whatever you call it, he says it is like toothpaste, really yucky!) and calling in AMT backup. This morning while the rest of us were gone to church, he was on another call, with similar responsibilities, arriving to church quite late, but having helped to save a life in simple ways.

Last week, cousins arrived from Missouri on Thursday, in time for supper. They rotated the tires on our van in preparation for them and Carrie and Rose driving it down to Mexico (right through Albuquerque where Crystal was busy on her last day of training) to help out on a mission with a Vacation Bible School. 

I watched as they had a little time that evening to ride the horse while switching belongings from their minivan to our larger van.

 

 The best revenge is to live joyfully. 

The best revenge is to have none.

To let God retain the right to vengeance and to justice.

To remember that apart from His grace, all I myself would deserve would be eternal vengeance.

And that if I would desire to obtain mercy in the last day,

I must also show mercy to others.

  Rather than plot my vengeance and live with bitterness oozing from my life,

I choose to live with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, and love.

And then God Himself fills up my life with a fullness I could only imagine!

When You Can't Breathe--Every Breath Comes from God

  Yesteray morning as I was hunting in the coat closet for leather gloves to send along with Timmy and Danny who were soon leaving to do yard work for someone,

something went down the wrong pipe.

 Suddenly, I couldn't catch a breath--at all. 

I felt like I couldn't get enough breath to cough.

I inherited my mom's propensity to choke on next to nothing, and I've had some bad choking spells, but this one was, I think, the worst I've ever had. 

What must have been a little glob of sticky phlegm had suddenly gotten stuck in my windpipe, and no matter how hard I tried, for some seconds, I was not getting much of anywhere with getting any breath.

 I was making motions at the girls with eyes that must have been popping out of my head 

and then went hurrying toward Jonathan, who was coming in the door at that moment. 

He gave me a whack on the back, and suddenly he, the two girls, and Timmy were all looking at me with alarm.

 I wheezed in a tiny bit of air and choked it back out, wheeeeeezed in another bit of air, and coughed it violently back out. 

I must have sounded beyond horrible, trying to get air. 

Jonathan stayed right beside me, watching, and somehow I suddenly felt I was getting a tiny bit of air. 

Cough, cough, choke, struggle!

Whew!

 

My whole chest prickled after that, and today I ache from the violent coughing.

I literally thought that might be the end of me.

I had been so worried about my middle children staying safe from vehicle accidents; I had heard Jonathan's story about the rattlesnake; and I remembered Sam telling about the white sheet of light and the BOOM of apparent lightning right where he was a couple days ago. 

And then I choke on a tiny dab of phlegm and glimpse death's door myself!

I went out later to the front porch and sat on the porch swing and cried. 

Jonathan and I had an extra long hug before he left, and our "I love you's" were much more tender and heartfelt than usual.

It reminded me once again of how our very breath comes from God.

In just a second, I was without air and knew I only had seconds or minutes to get it back. 

I wasn't thinking of praying, I wasn't thinking about God, I was just thinking about trying to get my breath.

Every second that we breathe in and out (rarely noticing it) is from His mercy.

I was so thankful that I could look back only an hour before that choking spell

 to tender moments with Jonathan as we were waking up, 

to happy moments puttering about tasks in the kitchen while everyone was doing chores. 

No fights, arguments, anger, fusses, complaints.

I wasn't even fussing at the dogs!

Not every morning is that great, I confess. And that is why I try to make things right quickly if I have been wrong or had a bad attitude. 

Because I know that every breath is from God.

Today, the morning was especially peaceful.

And every moment of it, every breath of it came from God.

"To Play a Wrong Note Is Insignificant"

"To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable."

---Ludwig van Beethoven

 I saw this quote a few weeks ago on the cover of a notebook of music that belonged to our young friend, the pianist for the Penn View quartet. I thought it good enough to take a picture of. 

I had seen this quote in action that very evening.

This young lady with her heart in the song she was singing fumbled at one point in the song.

She had been playing the piano and singing from her heart, but when she raised her hand in testimony, suddenly she couldn't remember quite where to come back in on the piano.  

Had she not fumbled, I'm not sure I would have remembered her testimony.

 As it was, I still have the picture indelibly etched in my memory of a beautiful young lady with shining face raising her hand in testimony--even though she fumbled right afterward and struggled to regain her place in the song, for she played by ear.

Some of us are like that, too. We cannot play all the music of our lives by note--or by rote.

We play things by ear, and sometimes, even within our best efforts to do God's will, we get something wrong.

We are spontaneous, and sometimes right in our very efforts to do the right thing and glorify our Savior, we fumble.

We flub up.

We make a mistake. 

Then we are suddenly out of place and can't get back in line right away. 

We feel humiliated and are afraid our mistake ruined everything we did right.

But what if our mistake caused the right thing we did or the cause we stood for 

to be etched in someone's mind?

What if our mistake on the piano caused someone to remember our heart and hand given to the Lord we love? 

What if our mistake, as well as our beautiful song, brought glory to God, too?

Whether we are musical or not, the point remains the same.

To make a mistake while doing your duty, living your life, or trying to do what is right

is insignificant. 

Getting back into the harness and continuing to endeavor to live for God and glorify Him is what is important.

"To play a wrong note is insignificant;

but to live without passion and purpose is inexcusable."

Mountain Lion Meatloaf--for Real

 Ranch Haven is a place where deer and wild turkeys come to feed, 

but also a place where young people and children are not allowed away from the property because of the possibility of bears!

It's a place where wild game is served!

Including Mountain Lion Meatloaf!   

Yes, that really is Mt. Lion Burger, if you can read it on the packaging.

This picture was taken during devotional time one morning.

Janae Zeigler (daughter of John) was there a couple days to help, having moved into the area to help take care of an elderly person who ended up dying only a few weeks after she arrived.

Here she is hanging decorations on the walls.

Jonathan put in a window and air conditioning unit in the room off the platform of the horse barn-turned-tabernacle. I absolutely love watching to see what my hubby can do. I am super proud of him.

He also came to the rescue when three ladies couldn't manage to lift the lid of the chest freezer which had a wanted item in it, because there was too much stuff being stored on the lid!

How we did laugh about that incident--Jonathan halfway crawling into the chest freezer while the ladies held up the lid!

I'm slicing onions for the hamburger meal here. I washed so many pots, pans, and utensils! But I loved it! I also peeled potatoes, filled water dispensers, wiped counters, organized many supplies, delegated jobs, cleaned a trash can, mopped the restroom, and whatever I could find to do.

But one highlight was this wild game meal.

On the plate above is mountain lion meatloaf and elk gravy. Delicious!

When Rhubarb is Almost as Tall as You Are--and So Is Your Little Girl!

 Last week I picked rhubarb that was almost as tall as I was!

Alaska doesn't have much over on Colorado this year!

Up in  Alaska last year, I saw rhubarb that was waist high.

The trouble is, it isn't just rhubarb that is growing tall.

It's my littlest daughter. 

The other day she was cleaning her room and decided to throw away a bunch of old hair bands that were too small and not the kind she likes anymore.

When she saw me taking a picture of them in the wastebasket, you can imagine what she was thinking!

"Mom's going a little crazy, you know."

Mom's a little burnt right now, like the blackened stumps in the burn scar of Black Forest not far away, right?

Actually, I was just feeling nostalgic for one small moment, about my little ones all grown up now. 

And I explained that to her, while staring into the wastebasket!

Gone are the days when little children got all excited over ladybugs, teaching their mom to value 

simple things, 

little things,,

God-created things.

Hard to believe, I've gotten through 26 years of raising babies and toddlers and youngsters and school children and teenagers. They all survived, and even thrived, I think.

Now they are old enough that I can occasionally take part of a day to jump into the truck with Jonathan and go see the house he is building over in Black Forest, where a house burned down several years ago in the forest fire. 

Now a new one is going up, thanks to Jonathan and his work crew...

...like the new bluebells all growing so pretty near the blackened stumps.   

Rattlesnake and Lightning Strike! It's a Good Thing God Is Awake!

A couple days ago Jonathan, Sam, and another man were working down south of the Springs down in the desert area where a bunch of new homes are going in. The other man was marking where the septic system was to be dug for one of those new homes when he heard a loud buzzing sort of rattly noise!

He backed up fast and this is what he saw!

 

Needless to say, suddenly the day changed a little bit! The big rattlesnake slithered back into its hole--right where the septic system was to go! 

Jonathan walked down there later to see if the snake was out again, and sure enough, it was!

He got the above photo of it. 

The concrete man from California who does concrete work for Jonathan, when he saw the photo and counted the rattles, said that rattler is 8 or 10 years old. 

Grizzled old rattler!

The men are trying to figure out how to exterminate that snake, and they can't figure out who would want to buy a house in that area, but most people live indoors almost all the time nowadays.

The very next day, which was yesterday, I was going about my work, worrying more than usual, not because of the snake, but because of my middle son off very early in the morning with Rose and Danny to go fishing up in the mountains (after offering to work off a list of things for me at home Monday),

and then he was traveling the rest of the day to bring back something he was purchasing. I was worrying about him pulling a trailer behind our van on the hours of roads and down steep mountain passes.

Little did I know that while I was home doing some summer cleaning (and praying), weeding and picking fresh lettuce from our garden (and praying), I was worrying about the wrong person in our family. 

I should have been worrying about Sam. 

Not really, of course, but while I was praying over and over again for my middle son and passengers, Sam was down at Midway in the desert all over again, working with a fellow worker.

They were walking along in the grass, with only a few clouds in the sky and the sun shining,

when all of a sudden, there was a sheet of white and a simultaneous BOOM!

Both he and the other guy ducked, like, What in the world???

All they could figure was that lightning struck, if not right where they were, then very, very nearby, perhaps not touching down. 

Our instructor at the Hunters Ed class last week told us that Colorado is the state with the second highest number of lightning strikes in the nation, second only to Florida.

When Sam came home with his story, I had to laugh about how I was worrying about the wrong person.

How terribly human that is! We simply do not know where the next danger is coming from.

But God does. 

And God is awake.

Praise God! He is always awake and watching over us!