When the Bees Swarm About Your Head

A few weeks ago another swarm of honeybees appeared in a tree in our yard. 

Here it is!

Timmy and I rushed to the ranch store to pick up another bee hive.

You only have minutes sometimes to capture the bees before they will fly off somewhere else.

Timmy and Danny and I are rushing around to set up a table and the hive under the bees.

Thousands of bees there, like the many thoughts and anxieties that sometimes come swarming into our hearts and minds--and lodge there if we let them.

Timmy smoked the bees first to settle them down a bit.

And we have to kind of smoke our anxieties a little with puffs of promises. 

"I will never leave you nor forsake you."

"My God shall supply all your need."

"When I am afraid, I will trust in You!"

And the bees calm down. 

But there they sit--all collected around the new queen bee.

The Anxiety Queen. 

The Big One.

Whatever that is in our life. 

The one big anxiety that the others kind of collect around.

How quickly and effortlessly Timmy simply brushed those bees down into the hive. 

Plop!

A big glob of them fell in.

 Plop!

There go hundreds more!

Jesus, when the anxieties and distresses and worries and fears swarm about my head,
and take up residence on my helpless little pine branch, 
O Heavenly Beekeeper,
with Your effortless brush,
brush them into the hive of Your care and goodness!

May every uncertain, swarming honeybee of anxiety be turned into a calmed, assured
resident worker bee that will soon be buzzing out and about finding the sweet nectar and pollen of Your promises and power and care to bring home to the hive to turn into honey to bless someone else!
 "Casting all Your care upon Him for He careth for you."

Ward French's 80th Birthday--and Carmen Durkee's Baby Shower

This weekend we enjoyed attending two special celebrations.

First was our dear friend Ward French's 80th birthday celebration Friday evening.

 It was held at our friends Robert and Fern Lefever's home.

 The photo on the cake was this photo of Ward as a youngster standing on the back of a cow--

and ending up in the newspaper.

 This incident ended up in the newspaper, too--Ward raising a chicken which had a habit of sometimes laying an egg inside an egg.

That's right--this was not just a double-yoker. It was a double egg!

That got into the newspaper, too!

 Fern, Eunice Gault, and Cindy Kearney all did a lovely job of preparing all these delicious edibles...

 for the ever-growing crowd of people that crowded into--and outside--the house!

We outdoor Lucases, of course, joined the crowd outdoors--

where Crystal, Carrie and Rose arrived about 7:30 after leaving Missouri at 6 a.m. and traveling all day to try to get back in time to celebrate with Ward, whom our whole family dearly loves. 

 Out on the deck by a crackling fire, we talked about everything from the miracle of the Florida Hurricane Irma being rerouted by God's Almighty Hand and Hobe Sound folk staying safe--

to how our former pastor, the Goodwins, were when our girls were in Missouri helping them this week--

to the announcement of Ned and Judy [Hunt] Sherman's new baby girl born that day.  

 It was a fun evening!

May God bless dear Bro. French, who has such a heart to help everybody any way  he can.

Then the very next day while the girls were back at work at the restaurant or receiving puppy customers, I took Hannah to Littleton where we'd been invited to the baby shower for the

Michael and Carmen Durkee family. 

 Sheralyn Cruz had done a delightful job of decorating.

I loved these pink and white bouquets in the blue jars.

 And the duckies in the vases with blue pebbles (thanks to Pinterest, Sheralyn shared with a smile!)

There was a game to see who could keep or capture the most plastic babies!

When I set mine down to take a picture, Carmen's oldest girl got mine!

Hannah won that game with 13 babies!

I loved this cute woodburned decoration with pictures of Michael and Carmen's first three babies, and a space for the expected little one, too!

Dads and granddads and friends were all included.
Michael's dad was great with keeping the little kids entertained and happy--including hiding little plastic babies in the most unusual places--like high up in the ceiling somewhere, and then lifting a little girl up to find it!

Time for cupcakes!

 Michael and Carmen opened gifts and cards together.

I thought it was nice to include the dad, because after all, there wouldn't be a baby without him!

 There were some gifts for the three children, too, like sidewalk chalk,

crayons, playdough and even several brand new clothing articles about the right size for each one

that I found on clearance at Walmart a few days ago!

I remember the one baby shower our church had for me, when someone brought gifts for my other children, not just the baby, and that meant so much to me and my kids!

A couple months ago when we were at a job Jonathan had in the mountains, we were going through the Walmart in that town and discovered cartfuls of baby clothing on clearance for $1 a set!

I picked up bunches of it for layette bundles the girls like to do for Christian Aid Ministries

but also with future baby showers in mind.

So for just a few dollars, I could share some brand new sets of onesies, sleepers, bibs, socks, burp rags, etc. I am so glad for how God sees my desire to give, and young mother's needs--

and He provides in such amazing and sweet ways! 

 This darling card came from Michael's parents.

It says, "Locally grown!"

 It was so fun getting to be part of this sweet little celebration. 

I wanted to get the pictures right on my blog, so especially our friends the Albertsons could share in it, too, from afar, as they are friends with these folk.

We hope to worship with the Durkees and Cruzes in the morning.

Not a Hair of Your Head Shall Be Lost

Almost every day one puppy or another has some kind of crisis, traumatic experience,

or woeful disappointment.

And the whole world hears about it.

So  Mama Dog comes hurrying around acting extremely worried, concerned, anxious, and otherwise caring toward the puppies she has completely forgotten about, avoided, escaped from, and otherwise left to fend for themselves.

Some mama dog must have growled at it, nipped at it, or otherwise scared the living daylights out of it, for not a hair of its fur seems to be missing, much less any deep wound or scrape or blood.

No major issue--just fear, hurt feelings, a nip here or there to teach a lesson.

And so in the midst of the news about hurricanes in the southeast,

wars in the Mideast,

wildfires in the Northwest,

nuclear tests in North Korea, 

earthquakes down south in Mexico and Guatemala,

 persecution of Christians worldwide, 

and then the ordinary problems of every day life like fraud alerts letting you know that someone used your credit card online in the middle of last night,

and quarterly taxes are due tomorrow

and the kids are not happy about having to do dishes--and chores--and school--

we sometimes end up overwhelmed--like the puppies--and need Someone to cry to--

Someone Who cares better than an overwhelmed mama dog.

Most of the ironing was done this morning when my  heart ended up too heavy to finish, and I unplugged the iron and went for my Bible.

There has been a lot of feeling alone lately, and the verse Jesus told His disciples, "All men shall hate you," was going through  my mind.

I had just read it a day or two ago. 

I had packed lunches for my men, made breakfast,

 ironed a bunch, hunted for something, taught Spanish class to my students, taught and checked lessons, and gotten back to ironing while the kids were on break.

And that is when I broke, too.

 I unplugged my iron and got my Bible and went out to the front porch swing,

glad the kids were in the back yard.

"Jesus, I need Your comfort!" I cried out to Him.

It is not easy to make decisions based on the principle's of God's Word and conscience instead of based on what our friends are thinking and doing.

It is not going to be easy to face being "hated by all" for His Name's sake.

But when I looked up that verse in Luke, this is what I found.

"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; 

and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. 

But--BUT--BUT

not a hair of your head shall be lost." 

 Not a hair of your head shall be lost. 

That is Carrie cutting the thick poodle hairs off our poodle's head and ears.

But Wow!

Not a hair of our head is going to be missing if we stay true to Jesus and His Word.

They might despise us, betray us, hate us and even kill us,

but Jesus said,

"Not even a hair of your head shall perish." 

Matthew Henry writes, "You shall suffer no real damage by all the hardships they shall put upon you...Though we may be losers for Christ

we shall not, we cannot, be losers by Him in the end."

That was enough to send a weary and lonely mother off her porch swing and back to her ironing and teaching and cleaning and cooking and dusting.

Lord, my hair is getting kind of thin.

But thank You for looking after all the things that concern me most--

especially the keeping of my soul and the souls of my family!

FL Church Shelters 90 People from Hurricane Irma

So we heard that during Hurricane Irma, this Ft. Myers Spanish Church pictured below
[picture taken almost a year ago]
that Jonathan and Mission Helps had helped build,
sheltered about 90 people.

There have been few updates about the condition of this church now, due to inability to communicate,
but we are thankful that everyone in it remained safe, as we understand.
Jonathan was reliving the days he had worked there with the Mission Helps teams, setting up the trusses and having everything hurricane-proof to code. 
Would it hold?
Would it stand the storm?

Jonathan had made plans already to be going to Ft. Myers in October sometime to help begin building the all-purpose building next to this church.

Here is Pastor Rigoberto on the day the church family moved in to the new sanctuary.

We've also seen pictures of a mission on South Turk Island devastated by the hurricane, and so far there is no word in from other missions.

We're concerned about the other missions where Jonathan has roofed in Grand Turk or North Caicos Island. 

Jonathan is feeling pulled in all directions with the many needs--sort of like this mama dog must be feeling when we caught this scene on camera, with two families of puppies all wanting to get their share!

We got such a kick out of this sweet, patient mama!

This sweet mama not only lets her own puppies sometimes have a little nibble, 

but she has a tender heart for the other puppies, too, whose mama has no time for their nibbles anymore

(and with good reason, of course!)

So as Hobe Sound Bible College evacuates to Alabama and tries to determine when to go back home (will there be gas enough for the vehicles?) and my uncle and aunt wait to go back home to near Tampa from South Carolina where they hung out in their motor home,

and another aunt and cousins make minor repairs,

we continue our day to day living, 

doing school,

studying and teaching and checking lessons,

doing a bulletin board,

hanging wall maps where we can find all the places we talk about,

raising and selling puppies (and cleaning up behind them, like today when I came back from delivering my boys to their job and had to pick up two trash bags that had gotten scattered!)

and keeping hopping double time with my three oldest daughters gone to Missouri!
If they took pictures, I may have pics of that later.

Lord, we pray for Your presence and help to all those suffering various devastations and crises,

and be with us in our uneventful days!

May we always have tender hearts for those who are hurting!