When Some of Us Were Sick

I don't know how it happened, but four of our family got sick,

and the other four stayed well!

It was a nasty bug, and some of the children were quite ill for a week. 

I read aloud a few chapters from this fascinating book as the children recovered.

It's about an English veterinarian who discovered that people often told him about their own problems when he was there to help their animals.

He found that what people needed more than anything else was faith.

He saw how faith made a difference in the lives of some of his country clients, no matter how poor or unkempt some of them were. And those observations made him change his goals in life, give up his well-paid veterinary practice and go to Divinity School for three years in order to become a minister. 

Such an interesting story!

Here is chicken soup I made for the sick.

I pulled out another new book I recently ordered to read to Hannah.

It was called Blue Hen and Her Babies,

the story of a mother Bantam who loved babies. She raised ducklings, guineas, and finally 40 chicks!

It compared this mother hen loving all her babies the same

to how God loves us all the same.

Thursday evening of that week, Sam was able to be at the Trump rally at the World Arena in town.

He had to arrive several hours early, and if a buddy of a friend hadn't held a place for him in line,

he probably would not have gotten in. 

He thinks there were about 9 or 10 thousand people inside the arena, and about as many outside.

Moving Trucks, Guard Rails, and Valentines

Wednesday night we joined friends for a work night moving Pastor Josh and Kayla Durr's belongings to the parsonage which is soon to receive final inspection.

Our van almost got stuck in all the snow, but the moving truck got out without too much problem.

Hannah with an icicle.

While waiting on supper and the moving truck, Jonathan put together a rail to guard the door that doesn't have a deck outside it yet, so the house can pass inspection.

Buzz built front door steps.

Everyone helped unload belongings into the new parsonage.

Jonathan measuring the rail.

The next night, Sam texted me, asking if it was okay to bring two extra people to supper.
You never know what will happen when you text back, “No problem, Sam. They’re welcome.”

And those two extra people arrive, one nicknamed Alabama because he’s from Alabama, and his friend from Kentucky. One with an Afro and one with a pony tail. One who has lived homeless before, and one who is a Mormon. One who works for Jonathan (Alabama), and the other his friend "Kentucky," whom he lives with. They were wanting to borrow our trailer, but since it was still loaded, they came all the way home with Sam to help him unload it, and Sam (I am so glad he felt free) asked if the guys could have supper with us.

We welcomed them inside and showed them where to wash their hands and where to pull up a chair to the table or where to sit on a bench with the rest of the boys. And Jonathan called on Danny to pray for the food, and owners of both Afro and Ponytal said, “Amen,” along with others of us.

The owner of the Afro says, “I haven’t sat down to dinner like this in a minute!” (which must mean “in ages” in Kentucky) We pass around mashed potatoes still in the pan, corn in a bowl, and Salisbury steaks, scooping the gravy out for on the potatoes. There is bread and butter and jam, and no dessert. But who needs dessert when all the food is home-cooked, and there is love around the table?

Kentucky and Alabama keep thinking and talking about their grandmas, because our dinner and our home and our woodstove and iron skillets remind them of Grandma.

“Everything tastes so fresh!” Kentucky with the Afro notices. We explain that we cook from scratch, and even the corn was  home frozen.

Just like their grandmas. Their grandmas used to put up corn like that.

After supper, the children bring in puppies to pet as usual, and we pull out a Bible. Gingerly Jonathan opens it and I suggest just a Psalm instead of Acts  where we’ve been reading. Jonathan picks a random Psalm, 41, and starts reading. “Blessed are they who consider the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed in the earth…The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.”
"Oh, boy, they probably think this Psalm is weird," I thought, getting more nervous by the minute.
Jonathan kept reading to the end, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.”

I giggled nervously as Jonathan closed the Bible. Jonathan was nervous, too. Wives can tell. Husbands don’t usually giggle, but they have little funny sounds that they do, too. That Psalm sure sounded religious, but they probably thought it was weird, I worried.

Kentucky, the Afro, gave a huge blink.

“Cool!” he exclaimed. Pause. “You know, that is really interesting, because I was just helping the poor recently.” And he started into one of the best Bible commentary applications I’ve ever heard. Instead of us trying to comment on the Bible, Kentucky was commenting on the Bible. He told us how he had discovered a man recently who was about to be evicted from his home, and how he had taken the man to a Chinese restaurant and gotten him plenty of food to last a bit. Then shortly after doing that, Kentucky was paying for gas at a convenience store when he noticed the clerk trying to shoo a homeless man out of the store. Kentucky spoke to the homeless man, noticing that his gloves were in bad shape.  Kentucky bought the man gloves, hand warmers, and a tobaggon (Kentucky colloquial for sock hat).

“The man told me, ‘God will bless you,’” Kentucky told us. “I was like, I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Well,” I said, “You got a good dinner tonight, something you haven’t had in ages!”

He had to agree. Later he asked Jonathan, “What was that? Book of Mormon?”

“No,” Jonathan explains, “just a Bible.”

Kentucky told him that once he was given a Bible, but it was so small he could hardly read it. When he asked for bigger print, the guy gave him a whole shelf full of different Bibles. But there were so many, he had no idea how to get started.

“We just try to live and do what the Bible says,” Jonathan shared.

Both Alabama and Kentucky thanked us warmly for the meal, and Alabama invited us that when he gets his apartment ready, he wants to have us for a meal in return for tonight.

“I can bring something!” I assured him. “We would be happy to come!”

While the young men were outside in the cold unloading the lumber from the trailer, Jonathan confessed to me that he hadn’t really wanted to let those guys come for supper. He just didn’t feel like it tonight. I hadn’t felt like it either. It had interrupted my project I was in the middle of. Neither of us knew how to reach out to two young men like that--Afro andPonytail, Kentucky and Alabama, pure heathen and Mormon. But people are more important than projects. And whether we knew how or not, we simply opened up our home and let them sit with us at our supper table.

And God did the rest.
Yes, you never know what will happen when your son brings two extras home for supper.

Valentines Day morning, we had omelettes and...

heart-shaped berry scones.

A picture Danny copied and drew and then whittled the frame for a cousin's birthday.

On Valentines evening, I thought it was very special when Jonathan came home bringing two bags of Valentines Day treats from "Alabama," whom Sam was spending the evening helping.

One bag was for Sam and one for Jonathan--beef jerky, peanut butter cups and other treats, and Alabama had given treat bags to the other work guys on his crew that day as well.

I just thought how sweet the Lord is to bring other things into Sam's life during  hard times like Valentines Day when he is no longer in a relationship.

The Lord cares about each detail in our lives.
 

Sweet Baptism of a Friend

This morning we had the privilege of attending the baptism of Mandy, a sweet friend of our family. 

Her mother reached out to me about six years ago to do some home school activities and take some field trips and hikes together. We've been steady friends ever since.

We don't have to agree on every point of doctrine or worship style to be friends.

but we do have to mutually respect each other, be honest with one another, and be open-hearted.

This family became friends at a time when we were struggling with intense loneliness and deep hurt, 

and the big thing I've appreciated about Mandy's mother is her honesty. She will be very up front with me about their boundaries, beliefs, and other things, and I respect that. I can be friends with someone who is honest, respectful, and kind even if I don't agree with them.

But there are so many values that we share, it's easy to be friends.

A meal for the nearly 300 people was served at a nearby high school cafeteria.

There seemed to be no end of desserts!

This church has roots in Eastern Europe, and the ladies are amazing about bringing their best.

One of our fruit pizzas is in the top left, and I loved this cake shaped like an X, for a kiss, I assume.

I love desserts surrounded by berries!

Beautiful drink setup.

After the meal and a prayer of thanks, the cafeteria and halls rang with the voices of the church people, 300 strong, singing praise to the Lord for all His benefits to us.

We got to sit with a family of six children, and on the way in, I was overhearing two fathers walking down the hall near me discussing the blessing of this time of life when his several children are small.

It was so different to hear parents counting several young children as a blessing instead of bothers.

There was a beautiful atmosphere of love there, with brothers and sisters in Christ reaching out to one another with hugs all over the place.
After the after-the-meal prayer of thanks (an Eastern European tradition of praying after the meal as well as before it), three hundred voices were lifted in a beautiful, four-part acappella harmony
as they sang a song of praise to God for all His benefits to us.

I do not have to agree on every point of doctrine or church practice to accept these dear people as fellow Christians. I appreciate all who are seeking to follow Christ.

But we do relate in special ways to folk who have roots in Eastern Europe since we spent several years in Ukraine. The young man sitting next to Sam in church was reading along in a Hungarian Bible. 

It was a very, very special day!

Firewood or Furniture--Dead Pine Trees Transformed

A little over a week ago, we spent Saturday sawing and loading firewood at a spot in Black Forest where Jonathan got permission to cut.

The trees were beetle-ridden and dead, but not as dead and rotten as the burned trees around them.

We stood far away as Jonathan sawed down this very tall tree.

Timber! There she goes!

Then Jonathan sawed it up.

And the older children and I hauled the firewood chunks to the truck and trailer.

This third tree Jonathan sawed down was about to go down when wind kicked up and sent the tree in exactly the opposite direction of where it was supposed to go!

Whew!

Thankfully, it did no damage that direction.

The limbs were growing every which way, and the guys had to climb clear up to saw them.

Carrie sat on the end of the log to keep it steady for her dad. 

We were also able to load a heaping little trailer full of firewood for the Frenches who came out 

and brought their trailer and helped saw and load.

These beetle-kill trees went into firewood, but other people have found more value in beetle-kill logs than to merely use them for firewood.

A few weeks ago, Jonathan reserved a room for him and me at Tudor Rose Chalet near Salida,

on our way to a funeral.

That room had furniture made from beetle-kill logs: bedstead, night stands, and mirror.

They were beautiful!

I had taken along our own supper--leftover rice with a stirfry on top, 

and an electric skillet to heat it in our room!

The next morning we had a lovely breakfast.

This was such a lovely place, with a goldfish pool to welcome you as soon as you step in the door of the B&B.

Ever seen an aloe vera plant this enormous??

I loved the antiques hanging around the sitting room.

And the plants growing in the window.

Other people had rooms upstairs.

The outside of the place.

Scene from Tudor Rose B&B, as we headed off to the funeral at Monte Vista.

Beetle-kill trees teach us a lesson.

They can be useless to some. "Sure, come cut them down and take them away for firewood."

They can be useful to others--for firewood. We gained heat from them.

But then they can be approached by others with a dream, with an eye for making treasure out of trash. 

And the next thing you know, you have beautiful furniture built from what others throw away or burn.

What already dead idea or hope is lying dormant in our lives?

Maybe it just requires a renewed vision and a dream and the touch of the Artist's hand!