Thank you Veterans, Veteran’s Day 2012

Yesterday our church dedicated three new flagpoles in front of our church to our veterans and active servicemen. It was a beautiful ceremony and honored our 84 year old member of Trinity Life Baptist Church and WWII veteran Carl Wood. He is a really sweet guy and funny. When he spoke he started at his birth and covered his 94 years but it wasn’t too long, he was great. He also worked at the Veteran’s Hospital for thirty years after he got out of the Army, the last three as the director (head honcho). I, for one, am very impressed. I’ve only known him as a sweet old retiree. He even worked at Sam’s Club thirteen years after he retired from the hospital opting not to sit home but staying busy. If he had not begun losing his eyesight he would probably still be working. We were even on Channel 4 news at 9 last night. Well, not me but Mike made it on there along with quite a few members and of course, Carl and his lovely daughter, Barbara Ripley (they kept calling her Riley so I wanted to set that record straight).



My husband was asked to speak during the first service. The Senior pastor who was not in the first service told me three people came up and told him how moving Mike’s speech was so he asked him to speak again at the second service. I’m so proud of my husband for so many reasons and one of them is his heart for God. He wore his uniform and looked so dashing. The picture above is just as he said amen in the dismissal prayer. So Pastor was not being disrepectful by not bowing his head. The other pic had him looking at his watch so I thought this one was better. Didn't want you to think Mike was a longwinded pray-er.  Then we moved outside for the dedication and he was asked to pray again. Guess Pastor Russell thought he need to get prayed up.

Here is his speech from the first service in case you missed it or just want to hear from a veteran in the Viet Nam era about his service experience. Believe me, it’s worth it.

Mike speaking

Background data, Mike and I knew each all our lives because our dad’s worked together. When he was stationed in Japan, he wrote a letter to my dad and mailed it to the house. He said if anyone in your family would like to write, I’d love to get letters from home. Mom swore he was aiming that at me which I knew she was crazy but I wrote to him anyway because I’ve always had a bit of a crush on him anyway. You know, the older man and all. So that’s how we ended up married. It was love at first letter.

We are from a family of servers. My dad was in the army and went to India, Mike’s dad was in the Army Air force and went to Italy, Mike's mom was in the Marines and went to Hawaii as a pastry chef, and my son went to Egypt and Iraq as a medic. And we have lots of friend that served as well. The picture below is from church yesterday. My husband is the one in uniform next to the lady in the red blouse (that’s me) and my friend, Val, is standing in front of me, her husband Joe was in the Air Force. The lady next to Val holding the baby is Jill. She has three boys and her husband Jonathan has been to Afghanistan so many times I’ve lost count but he is at this moment in the states on his way home for good. He has or is receiving a medal (or medals) for saving the lives of many people in a suicide attack on our service men not too long ago. He was injured as well but made it back to keep fighting. Praise God for his bravery and service.



So today, on this Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2012, I say thank you to all our veterans and active duty service members for serving our country. Thank you for the sacrifices you’ve had to make and thank you to the families for their sacrifice as well, and sometimes the ultimate sacrifice. Our country would not be free today were it not for our men and women who serve.

Good News is Meant to be Shared

If you don't believe in prayer, let me be a testimony to God's grace and answered prayer.

I was up until 1:00 a.m. looking for a very important paper. First, I looked in the last place I remembered keeping it (my sewing chair compartment under the cushion). Then the next place where I keep important documents, (the jar on my dresser) then the third (several different places I have files like actual drawers). No luck, so then I just tore up the house searching through drawers, closets, bins, book shelves, and more files while keeping my poor husband from having a good night's sleep. I looked in the living room bookcases, the craft room drawers, buckets of junk, any possible place I could have put this huge envelope with an important document. I wouldn't have put it just anywhere. . Would I?

Finally, sweating and exhausted I went to bed. I was praying the whole time. I tried to let my mind relax so God could send me a mental telegram, audio, visual, some sort of message of where to look. I had a fleeting moment of a placing it in a shallow type box and it was gone. Of course, I know I had it in the chair and it's a shallow type box. So much for that glimpse.

The next morning I checked a couple of places I thought of that I might have missed in my ravaging of our crowded, full of junk, space. Nothing. I called Autumn when I got to work after the girls had been delivered to school, and she began looking as well. The first place she checked while on the phone to me was the same spot I had already looked. Under the sewing chair cushion. Yes, not the best place for important papers but it was so important I knew it was safe there, no one ever looks in it. It doesn't have much in it and so not that hard to look inside. We both lifted the two round boards and shuffled the two doilies around. Nothing. Like it was going to materialize.

I talked to Mike on my way home for lunch and told him about how I need that document and I know God will take care of it so please pray that I find it. 

Just before I hung up, Mike said, "I'll say a prayer."

I said "Great."

So I hang up and stand in my sewing room scanning all the possible hiding places I could have stuck a large envelope that could be brown, white, or not even that large, it could be over sized letter envelope. I just knew it was in an envelope. I say to Autumn, the last place I kept it was in that chair. Mom and I took it out one day and looked at it so I thought I moved it to the bedroom to a drawer for safe keeping. Yet, I looked in the drawers and didn't find it.

After all my prayers for God to show me where to look, I just had to look one more time in the chair. I opened it and still, no envelope. Like I said, hardly nothing is in the chair anymore. I picked up the boards, nothing, moved the two doilies on a card. Nothing. I start to put the boards down when something white caught my eye. An envelope folded in two. Not small, just a large envelope folded over. I grabbed it, looked at Autumn with wonder in my eyes.

"Is that it?" She asked. I knew it was it the minute I saw the flash of white. She exclaimed, "I looked there! I even lifted the boards, too."

"I know," I said, "So did I." I thought I did anyway.

I am here to tell you, I serve an Awesome God. A Supernatural God. If that envelope was there, it was invisible to our human eyes but for whatever reason, it was there right before I dropped the cushion down. God answered our prayers. I immediately texted Mike. We had been off the phone for maybe 30 seconds. "I found it!"

"Great, that's wonderful." He texted back. I couldn't stand it, I had to call. Good news is meant to be shared. Not just texted!

　

Do not tell me God isn't real. He is my Savior, my Salvation, and my Mentor.

Without Him I could do nothing
Without Him I'd surely fail
Without Him I would be drifting
Like a ship without a sail.

Without Him I would be dying
Without Him I'd be enslaved
Without Him life would be worthless
But with Jesus thank God I'm saved.

Oh Jesus, oh Jesus
Do you know Him today
Please don't turn Him away
Oh Jesus, my Jesus
Without Him how lost I would be
Without Him how lost I would be.

A dear friend of Mom's passed away this week. I can just imagine the joy and excitement in Heaven when she appeared at the Pearly Gates. I know Mom was front and center and shouting, "Welcome Gladys!" louder than anybody. And Glady's precious husband Paul planting a big ol' kiss on her angelic lips.



Here's a little poem I just wrote. Hope you like it.


Time slowly passed,
On Earth, nothing lasts.
There's the inevitable signs of aging.
The wrinkles now show,
Aching muscles go slow,
And politics on the news is enraging.
Morals are slack,
The leaders laid back.
The State of the world is a horror.
If God hadn't promised
He surely would vomit
Destruction like on Sodom and Gomorrah.
But His promise He gave
And by dying He saved
All us sinners just for the asking,
For forgiveness of sin
It's the ticket to win
Life with Jesus Christ everlasting.

Like I said, Good news is meant to be shared.