Please Pray

Happy Sabbath

I thank God for another good week. 

I thank the Lord for an experience my mother shared with me earlier this week.  When she was down with my dad at the vacation home, she was outside and a car pulled up near the house.  A young lady got out and approached my mom.  The vacation house is my grandmother’s house.  It was one of  10-11 homes on the street.  It was paved I think for the first time back in the 80s because I remember summers down there and all the dust around.  It’s in the country, not in a convenient area to walk, drive, and there is no mass transit that takes you any where near the road.  My grandmother’s house was a four room house (living room, two bedrooms, and kitchen.  When my dad married my mother, he helped around the property and built a bathroom so they wouldn’t have to use the outhouse that my mother feared most nights because of the snakes and other creatures sure to be lurking in the dark.   The house next door, a Ms. Ladonia had passed away and so my dad purchased her lot and tried paying people to tear that house down so the taxes would be less.  The guys took my dad’s money and didn’t tear the house down so my dad went down by himself and demolished it on his own.  I think combined its about 3 acres of land, but I’ll have to check with my parents.  My aunt had a trailer on the opposite side of the path that lead to this neighbor’s home.  That path was not supposed to be there because they didn’t maintain their shrubbery and lost the original path that led onto their property, so the new path cut through my grandmother’s property.  My great uncles owned homes across the road and my great aunt still lives in the house adjacent from my grandmothers.  The road is a family road and although there has been a new neighbor here or there, everyone for the most part is related to us in some way. 

Well the house that had the path which cut through my family’s property, their mom was thinking of burning the house down to cut down on the property taxes, but my mother happened to call her up and stop her before she was going to go through with this.  She had moved to DC and been in DC for some years and this lady decided to sell the house (not the lot but the house) to my mother who had such fond memories growing up on that road and playing at/sleeping over at the house.  That house was moved over across the field and connected to my grandmother’s home and now the house is about 10 rooms if not more from the original 4 rooms it long ago was.  My mother had a dream to work on this house and have it ready for thanksgiving so we as a family could head down there during the holidays, but I bought my house and I stopped her plan and I know she is disappointed with this. 

But I know that the Lord has it for this home to be built and to be so much more.  My mother used a week with my dad down there to clear rooms and get some dry wall into place.  My dad doesn’t understand how important it is to her and no one really is speaking encouraging words around this project. 

So she happened to be outside the day before they were going to leave and a car pulled up on the road by the path that cuts through the property.  A young lady approached and said that they happened to be in the area and wanted to check out the old homestead and others started getting out of the car.  This young lady turned out to be the daughter of the woman who owned the home and my mom knew her (had not seen her since she was 4 or 5 years old).  They expected the house to be gone, destroyed and were confused but delighted to see the house attached to my family’s property and new life breathed into it.  My mother had memories of several parts of their home and knew it would be a terrible move to destroy it, especially when she was working on expanding the house and making it a great family vacation destination.  Our property has the only two wells that provided water to the entire community, not just the few homes on our little dusty road.  My mother had been wanting to go down every other month but either my house plans, health issues, or something else came up in the way and she was disappointed time and time again.  God had it that out of 365 days in a year that the neighbors rode all the way there that very day to see what great things were happening.  My mother also usually is very relaxed and “homely” when she is out doing work but it was this very day that she decided to dress a little better and wear a hat and she thanks God that she wasn’t caught looking as crazy as she usually does.  The neighbors walked through the house and it is not just my family’s, but it is their home as well.  It really is.  When the house is finished, they and anyone else in the neighborhood is welcome to stay  and not have to check into a hotel. 

My great and aunt and cousin have keys to the house as they live across the street and can keep an eye on it. 

Only God can make timing like this.  I hope others can see it and will get behind this project because it is going to be something wonderful and I know for myself, I want to be apart of it. 

I went to church today and decided to go to the one in my home town.  There was a topic that I was looking at prior to going (adultery) and I was surprised that it was brought up during the service.  I was shocked to hear that someone else had fallen into this sin but prior to coming, I thought about how perfect I was on the path but satan was throwing things in my way to tempt and in his plans try to use me to get others off of their walk with the Lord.  I remember the thoughts and feelings, how strong they were but I remember choosing (thank God) not to disappoint my Lord and not to be used for destruction by the enemy. We have to constantly pray and guard our hearts and minds.  If you see any way you may cause someone else to stumble, don’t tell yourself that it is their problem and not yours.  Remove yourself and change what you can.  Anything beyond your control, give it to Jesus but first move of defense for yourself and offense for the enemy is to remove yourself and prayer.  Today I sat hearing someone asking for prayer for a couple that was hurting from adultery.  There are men in the church that I have to be mindful of how I am when I am in the same space.  I have to sit far away and if I can’t do that, I will focus my attention on my son or something else.  I have caught some looking at me.  We need to examine our motives and our hearts.  I pray that we all keep our focus on Jesus and not allow the enemy to come in and distract.  The sermon today was about agape love.  When we have real love, agape love for one another, we can fellowship with one another with pure minds and hearts. We won’t be distracted, embarrassed, afraid, envious, competitive, selfish, and so many things that are not evidence of real love. 

The church, myself have a long way to go to being perfect in love. 

Please pray for me.  Please pray for the churches.  Please pray for my sister who texted me today asking for prayer because she made a mistake that may cost her, her job.  She is a believer and when there are two or more gathered in Jesus’ name, prayer is heard and great things happen.  Please pray especially for her.  She is the sole provider for her mother (my dad’s exwife) and her daughter and she has been at her job for many many years.  I don’t know what the Lord has in store for her, but I ask that she have a stronger relationship with Jesus and that she is financially secure, no matter what direction this takes. 

Please pray and God bless you

Through the Ice Storm

Happy Sabbath

I thank God that right after Sabbath last week, I received a call from my mechanic.  He said my car was ready Friday but he forgot to call.  My phone is usually not charged and when I am home, I have it on silent mode and never have it close to me, but it was God’s will I had the phone in hand when he called me at what was 5-10% battery power that night.  Their business is supposed to be closed by 4:30pm but he called me around 7pm so I headed over and was able to get my car and everything I really wanted fixed was repaired.

I paid for things outside of the body work and the bill ran up over $700 but he let me go with $400 charges.

I am mighty glad because I knew the brakes on the other car I was borrowing from my parents was not great on the road and if I had to deal with slick conditions, I would not be able to really stop in time.  The week went great and was challenging, but it became extra challenging when Thursday came around. 

I had three appointments for that day and knew that a winter storm would be affecting the area, but expected rain to wash everything away.  I headed out and completed my first two meetings and was on my way to the third one which I expected would give me a dicey return drive home when I was done.  I was only 15-25 minutes into my drive when I noticed my car was losing control quickly.  I opted for back roads thinking everyone dealing with the storm would be on the main roads and slow m down.  After hitting more ice, I decided to call and cancel the meeting for the afternoon.  I used my gps to find another route to head home for what was supposed to be 40-45 minutes away from where I was.  I saw secondary roads getting backed up and didn’t think much of it and when I came to base of a hill which I would climb, I noticed a car having trouble at the bottom.  I saw everyone else going up the very same hill with no issues so I decided to follow my gps and proceed. 

My car just couldn’t handle those hills and the area I had to travel through had many rolling hills.  I tried pushing the van of a girl in front of me and almost blew my transmission trying to get the move on that same hill.  I had to ignore my gps because it was taking me towards more and more hills and if I left my car in park, my car would still be sliding down.  It came to a point I had to use the bathroom and I thought about what I told myself to do that morning.  Last time I was stuck in traffic, I had a stomach bug so I made sure a plastic bag was in the car, but on Thursday I didn’t think to get a cup in case I had to go, if you know what I mean.  I prayed and prayed during and after the first of four hours I would be stuck out there and the Lord put a convenience store chain that I frequent in my sight line.  I got gas, used the bathroom, was allowed a free cup, and got back on the road to deal with more hills, driviers losing control and getting way too close to my just repaired car, and driving 2-20 miles per hour for most areas, even going miles out of my way to avoid what would be an area that yields inevitable accidents just to get to my parent’s home to pick up my son.  My son got home 30 minutes late and he fell asleep on his bus by the time he rolled up and I was surprised I was there before him. 

I thank and praise God because I could have been stranded out there.  There were so many accidents and people ran out of gas.  I heard that on I78 that there was over an 30 mile back up where cars were stuck in ice and snow, out of gas and drivers went to sleep because there was nothing that they could do to really stay alert.  They were out there for 12-18 hours, I still don’t know how long.  People have to use the bathroom.  People have health conditions like diabetes or may have been heading to the hospital because of some complications or childbirth.  So many things could have happened but I thank Jesus that it went the way it went for me and my family.

I thank the Lord that my home is coming together.  I thank the Lord that my son is learning at church and listening.  I can tell through his prayers.  I pray for the youth of the churches I visit.  They have so many distractions and influences around them vying for their affections and I want them to continue walking in the direction the Lord has for them to go.  I have seen children get baptized but not too long after pick up the bad habits of other youth at school and in the world around them.  I know the parents who several are elders if not pastors are crying out for their children and asking for the Lord to intervene.  I want to see them doing well.  I want to see them and my son developing healthy and strong relationships with Jesus.  I want to build my relationship as well.  Pray for the youth and thank the Lord for what He has blessed you with.

Thank Him for yet another day to change and grow with Him.

God is good.

God is Good, God is Great!

Happy Sabbath

I want to thank the Lord for a wonderful week and Sabbath.

Right after I wrote what I wrote for last week’s blog, I received a call from my friend who asked if they could come over and pray with me.  It’s been a very important thing to me to have this house blessed, especially after moving in and after what I experienced, I knew I needed this to happen sooner rather than later.  I accepted the state of my home (it is still coming together but it looks less than the shambles it was in when I started).  The pastor, my friend and her mom came and prayed in my house and I am thankful for that.

I am also thankful that things did not get out of hand with my son at the hospital.  Saturday, he was not feeling well and that was the main reason we stayed home.  After the group left, he really started throwing up and complaining of stomach pain.  I thought it would run out of his system faster especially since he was drinking water and doing breathing treatments (has asthma) but it just kept getting worse so we left at 3am on Sunday (day light savings time) and as I was driving, I was not sure if the hospital I preferred to take him to still accepted his insurance.  I couldn’t reach anyone at the emergency department and so I decided instead to head on to my town’s ER hoping there would be no line and that they would be able to help him.  I got there and there was no line. He was seen pretty much right away and we stayed there no more than 3 hours.  They gave him medicine that stopped his stomach pain so he could breathe normally and when we got home at 5am (was 6am unchanged), he was able to sleep peacefully through the rest of the night and into the late morning.  Turns out it was a stomach bug going around because I first had bad symptoms on Friday and when he was supposed to see his therapist on Monday, she cancelled saying that she too had to go to the hospital for the same issues.  She came on Friday this week and told me her husband and a couple other people she knew also got sick. 

So Sunday, he recovered praise God.  Since he recovered, I decided it would be good for us to go for a ride and we went to the store to get some nice things for our home.

On Thursday, I received a text from my mechanic and came to find out that the company responsible for my car damage had sent them a check to repair my car.  My son and I had eye doctor appointments in the afternoon and I needed to drop my car off with them so they could get to work on it before heading to the eye doctor.  I drove to the auto shop and my mechanic drove my car back to his shop after I stopped at my parent’s home because I would need to borrow one of their vehicles to get around.  I took their car back to my  house and spent time with an unplanned raking of leaves with my son who thoroughly enjoyed jumping in piles and helping me.  We were about to take off down the highway with the car to the appointment when I realized there was no gas in the car. 

I thank Jesus that two gas stations are not too far down the street.  Prayed all the way there and made it and was able to fill up before going to the appointment which we were almost late for.  I am also thankful that we both were able to be seen at the same time. 

I was excited so we went to the eye glass shop and I thought to purchase one pair for myself and two for my son but ended up getting two for each of us and it hit me hard in the wallet.

I had Comcast come out yesterday to set up our internet.  I scheduled this because earlier this week, I received an alert that I used 18 gb of data and my plan gives me 6 gb and I supposedly only had 8 gb available from previous roll overs.  I wanted to watch 3ABN last Sabbath and that hour or so definitely is going to hurt me in the pocket almost as bad as the eye glasses and the aviators that my son picked out for me.   On top of this, my mechanic called me on Friday saying that the bill for the work I was authorizing him to do would run about $600, $600 of which will have to go on a credit card because I don’t have the money in the bank to deal with it.  I told him I could handle only about $400 and he said he would see what he could do.  I had no idea it would be this much and I am hoping that the bill will run much lower.  I need the sway bar links fixed and an oil change.  He wanted to replace the motor mount but that is no big deal. He did it before when I had my last accident I think in 2017?  I am low on money and trying to get my head above water.  I am hopeful that the Lord will work things out but I don’t like being in debt. 

Sabbath service was great (except for my son acting up during tithe and offering time).  Lunch was great. Fellowship was great and Sabbath school was fun. I am home with my son now and want to do some bible study and spend the rest of the day singing. 

It’s been a great vacation week and I am hopeful for a wonderful new week to come. 

My Family Needs Prayer

Happy Sabbath,

I had an interesting week but there are two things that concern me that I need prayer for.  I didn’t go to church today because my son is sick.  I initially thought it would be myself but I guess we both have a stomach bug.
I didn’t try to keep track.  It was either Tuesday or Wednesday that I was home and I had this dream that scared me.  I then went from the dream to the presence of something trying to take over me.  I prayed about it and went on about my business.  Now last night I decided to stay with my son in his room for the first time.  Yesterday was a warm day and I am not trying to use too much heat if I don’t need it.  I made sure the thermostat was turned off because it was hot.  I was up and down with my son all night long and close to 3am, I had this thought that the heat needed to be turned on. I am lying in the bed with my son who is sleeping. Next thing I know, the heat starts blowing through the floor vent in his room.  I was confused because I knew the thermostat was off.  I got up to see that air was blowing through all floor vents and the thermostat switch was pushed all the way over to on for heat.  I turned it off and headed back to his room to see if he would be willing to get up and use the potty but he refused.  He would cough on and off much like he is doing now and he had a runny nose.  I prayed in my heart and went back to bed to experience the same nonsense I experienced that Tuesday or Wednesday night.  I had to pray rebuking the enemy because I don’t have time for this nonsense. 

I am not sure about Sunday last week, I may have honestly forgotten to turn the heat off then.  I was too tired an lazy I didn’t bother to check the matter but last night I knew the heat was off. 

Please pray for my family and my new house.  I want Jesus to be here.  I want the Holy Spirit to be here.  I don’t want the enemy to enter here. 

AS for my week, I had a busy and productive week on the job.  Bills were paid on time, praise God.  I spent some evenings enjoying playing my piano, unpacking some boxes and relaxing in my room.  My son was able to explore the backyard before Sabbath started and the weather was mild and felt great.  This morning I looked out the kitchen window and spied a blue jay flying to perch on the fence at the bottom of my hill before dipping off into the neighbors back yard.  I have many beautiful colors in the back yard and it is a beautiful sight to behold sitting in the kitchen or plant gallery (I don’t have a dining room table so the space is my plant gallery. 

I thank God for helping me to get home yesterday.  I went to my first two appointments on time and decided to use an hour to type up my service notes.  I called the optometrists office and thankfully was able to schedule an appointment for my son and myself as we both need glasses. When I realized I was 15 minutes behind for traveling to my last site, I took off driving and my stomach started to bother me. My stomach was hurting me bad and I was not sure what it was.  I got to a major highway to find it was backed up and I had the choice to either commit to sitting in traffic or using the last few seconds to escape and head north bound and add 10-15 minutes more to my commute but give me the option to pull over at a store or rest stop if I had to use the bathroom. I chose northbound and the pain in my stomach went from me feeling like I was going to vomit to diarrhea.  At certain points, I even felt like I was going to pass out.  I arrived at my destination and used the bathroom, saw my client and when I went back to my car, the feeling started all over again. I then went to a supermarket a block up the road and used the bathroom, bought some seltzer water and chips before getting back on the road and keeping myself composed. 

I got my son and took him home and he was coughing and complaining that he was sick.  Now this morning or afternoon I should say he has the same bowel issues and is having breathing difficulty and nausea.  So I poured out my soy milk (he is allergic to soy so he didn’t have it.  I guess it wasn’t the soy milk after all.

I thank God we are both home.  I thank God that we have the things we need and our home is comfortable.  I thank God for good people like my church sister who I’ve known since I was 4 years old. I asked for prayer and I really mean it.  I have come too far to give up and turn high tail now.  Pray for my home, for Jesus to be the center of my life and my son’s.  For Jesus to reach my family and for His presence to be in our homes.  Pray that my son feels better, that the truth makes it to more people and that we are not afraid to speak and do what is right even when facing frightening and possibly painful circumstances.  I pray for courage, guidance, and strength.  I pray for unshaking trust in God. 

Happy Sabbath