End of Year Ceremonies.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Reminiscing . .

Have I been absent from the blogging world of late?

Yes

And I know this irritates me more than it even registers with you . . .

We are leaving Saturday for our bi-annual trek north to visit the churches, friend and families that support us. So I've been in the hub of preparations, and getting presentations ready and such . . .aside from that we have a visiting group with us this week that leave on Friday.

So I console myself by imagining all the "free" time I'll have on our trip to peruse my bloglines and bloggity friends . . .

Meanwhile, going through some old pictures and ran across the time Heather and I hung out . . .

The mamas

The daughters

The son (*ack!* can this really be before my own two sons were born!!! It is! It is before! *ack!*)

The meltdown (yes, my girl -*roll eyes*)

My brother (who's lady gets the credit and thanks for letting us visit this place) says that it is known as "The Happiest Place on Earth" because the kids make a deposit there . . they go in giddy and leave all the "happy" there.

And since I missed "My Walk Monday" let me leave you with a verse that is really ministering to my spirit this morning: Isaiah 33:2, 6, 22

"O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you.

Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of distress. . . .

He will be the sure foundation for
your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear
of the LORD is the key to this treasure. . .

For the LORD is our judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us."

Crazy Days!

Wednesday we left for the states to do some errands and doctors appointments and meetings and such. We also had to pick up some stuff for a group we've got coming down tomorrow. We got back home tired and late last night (Thursday) only to find that the refrigerator was left open a crack. The inside temperature registered a breezy 92degrees.

Yup.

So, dealing with that (go ahead, use your imaginations, cause it was that bad) we both dropped into bed.

This morning I could barely get up. My hubby was delusional because he was rousing me with such motivational language as "Come on, get up, lets go do some pilates!"

But the baby was protesting the delay in breakfast so I kind of lugged lugged lugged over there and began our daily round of activities involved in dress and feed.

• then Rita showed up with her two toddlers
• I find out that our phone is getting no tone but we still have Internet. I call the phone company to get that addressed
• and then Pastor Carlos came over with Yadira - both needed to talk to either my hubby or myself
• Phone man shows up (amazingly fast for here!!!) and is buzzing around all this activity
• we set up Yadira on web cam to talk to our friends and former missionaries who now live in Texas
• Gaby shows up (Carlos sister)
• I go pick up my daughter from school and come home to find out we have no water
• I make lunch for all the small people in this house and Rita and myself, everyone else heads out - I guess the telephone guy too, cause I don't see him here anymore . . .and the phone is working
• I take Rita and her family home - now it is just me and the kids again . . .

*Whew* I put on Cars for the kids and sit down on the couch and promptly fall asleep only to be awakened by baby reminding me that it is his turn to eat.

I'm going to go feed him now . . but I'm just wondering how I'm gonna get the last minute set up done for this group if my day continues much more like it has?

It's 95 degrees as I type, and we all need a shower . . . .pray for that water folks!

It's not a bad day, just a crazy one . . .and here I was hoping to linger here at blogging and visit some blogging friends . . .

A shout out to you all anyway!!!

[[[Hugs]]]

Laugh with Me

Short Ones

An atheist is someone with no invisible means of support.

Arkansas State trooper pulls over a pickup truck on I-40. He
says to the driver, "Got any ID?" Driver says, "Bout what?"

A rock store was closed by the police -- they were taking too
much for granite.

What is a computer's first sign of old age? Loss of memory.

"The Insomniac," by Eliza Wake

Notice! Take lettuce from top of stack, or heads will roll!

A letter carrier's career is a mail-dominated profession.

A guy goes into a second hand shop to buy one for his watch.

A job at the nursery can lead to a budding career.

Didja hear about the Broadway actor who broke through the
floor boards? He was just going through a stage.

The Italian government is considering installing a clock in
the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The reason? What good is it if
you have the inclination, but you don't have the time?

A farmer called his pig Ball Point. Well, it wasn't it's real
name, just a pen name.

When the unemployed actor got a job with a demolition
company, he finally brought down the house.

If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid
someone will clean them?

If you ate both pasta and antipasto, would you still be
hungry?

Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?

Received from Bills Punch Line.

Brought to you by GCFL.net: The Good, Clean Funnies List
A cheerful heart is good medicine... (Prov 17:22a)
The latest GCFL funny can always be found on the web at
http://www.gcfl.net/latest.php

My walk Mondays

Two days ago a deaf women asked me, in tears, if she should grant her husband the divorce he is demanding . . .

Two weeks ago I was made aware of an abusive relationship . . .

Two months ago another deaf lady tells of a happening that is causing her great shame . . .

And I have been feeling so unqualified, so unable to meet these needs. To give the right counsel . . .

There are so many things that I need to work on - just me - how could I help anyone else? Isn't there someone more studied, more ready, more qualified to handle this than me?

Well, yes, perhaps, but the point is . . . they are not here! I am.

There is some serious spiritual bleeding going on, and there may not be a hospital near by, but I sure can administer first aid!!

So I am going to learn about ministering to the spirit, though prayer, and being able to hear, really hear God's Spirit. And I am going to be ministered to - to help assure that my own spirit is healthy to be able, then, to help others.

I am learning about The significance of sowing and reaping.

It's going to be a process. I know. And I'm rather excited about it.

There are spiritual laws at work that are as real and affecting as gravity, whether or not you believe in them.

Luke 6:37-38 says:

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be
condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you.
A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured
into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

If you take this verse in context - the part about "give, and it will be given to you" what is it talking about?

Forgiveness

What does forgiveness look like? It is a giving of the case to God.

• it's a decision, not a feeling
• it is acknowledging what happened, not denying the pain or anger
• it accepts that we can not go back to the way things were, not living "as if it never happened"
• it is not forgetting, the aim is to come to a point where the memory will no longer cause us pain
• forgiveness is not reconciling ourselves to a person who is unwilling or dangerous
• it is to accept and live with the consequences, not to be in denial, or continually grieving or blaming . . .
• it is the giving up of my right for retribution or restitution (that's in God's hands)
• it does not maintain a list of offences or hurts or a list of all we'd like to say
• it means dealing with my own hurts and offence and nothing to do with the guilt or innocents of the offender
• it is not necessarily a one time deal, it is only the beginning of the healing process
• it does not grant instant trust, the offender is responsible to rebuild/earn that trust. Earned trust is restitution
• forgiveness is a gift from God and something we do with His strength and grace, not our own

To harbor unforgiveness towards someone is like drinking poison and expecting the offender to die.

That's just to start off this week.

Recipe

How to get a little jiggy with it.

Get your largest coffee cup and fill it up with your regular joe.

Add one tablespoon of instant coffee.

Prepair coffee how you would in any normal circumstances . . . a sugar or two, some creamer . . .

and the piece de resistance; add some instant chi latte and voila!

Just this side of legal.

For 10 minuets of peace.

My walk continued . . .

When I was in college I got my major in cultural anthropology. One of my classes studies these people, the Yanomami. And let me assure you, the typical anthropological attitude towards missionaries is one of extreme antipathy. (There's your college degree at work!)

One book I've kept over the years was written by Napoleon A Changnon called "Yanomamo: The Fierce People". He had particular issue with the missionaries getting in a huff about "chewing tobacco . . .taking extra wives, or most annoyingly, insufflating their hallucinogens and chanting to their hekura spirits." (pg.206)

Do you know what it means "insufflating their hallucinogens"? They take a long hollow pole, one guy, with all his might, blows the hallucinogens into the nostril of the other. Yeah, fun stuff. Changnon wrote of his experience insufflating some hallucinogens and he says "I called out to Ferefereriwa and Periboriwa, hot and meat hungry hekura, and asked them to come into my chest and dwell within me."(pg.208)

Changnon concedes that a few of the missionaries "were downright humane-given their ultimate goal of destroying Yanomamo religion." --yeah, that enslavement to darkness . . .

Years later, this book came out "Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman's Story" by Mark Andrew Ritchie. Mark wrote down the story dictated to him by "Jungleman" a powerful shamen that converted, and - wouldn't you know - be of the people that Changnon worked with. How interesting to read Jungleman's side of the story.

One thing that I found interesting in both this book and in the book "Growing up Yanomamo" by Michael Dawson is that whenever worship and praise was played/sung all the hekura fled, wouldn't come near, and it was a particular peeve of the shamens.

So - today, I'm going to have praise and worship going just in case there are any hekura hanging about . . . .

Overheard

Grandma "Whew, I'm pooped!"

2 year old son "You are poop?" (very sincerely)

"No."

"Did you go poop?"

"No."

I can just hear his brain trying to compute . . .

"Little poop?"

"No"

"Big poop?"

"No, it just means I'm tired."

I'm busting up overhearing this, and am surprised that Grandma must be too pooped to find this funny!

There is no good reason for this post.

I've been watching too much LOST.










My hubby is starting to look like John . . .

Somebody clue me in here . . .

Maybe I've been an ostrich of late, but we've had two separate inquiries to our safety in regard to all the violence that has been happening in Mexico . . .

um . . .

What are they talking about? Tell me, what's on your news?

I seriously know nothing . . .

My walk

So, I just finished reading a fun and easy book called "Growing Up Yanomamo" by Mike Dawson.

1 of 10 children this missionary couple had, Mike was born and raised with the Yanomamo.

It was a book lent to me, so I have already returned it . . and for that I am sorry. I am sorry I can not quote you some of the book here *sigh* because although it was fun to read of hunting monkeys and wild boar, getting stupidly close to anacondas, and him holding his breath while a jaguar hunted him, I was mostly touched by how in tune the yanomami where to the spiritual world.

All this world will pass away, it is mortal. My body, my flesh, my things, the items that seem so permanent to me, like the sun, the universe, and even time itself ,will all pass away. Yet our souls remain, God is the great I AM and that means never changing . . the spirit world is eternal. So in essence it is the more "real" of the two worlds and we are . . . a puff of smoke, a flash of light.

Why then do so many deny the existence, and workings of the spiritual or that it surrounds us? Hmm? Because we can't see it? Like the baby before it gets the idea of permanence goes through that stage where if he can't see the thing, then it just ceases to exist. It is a belief that is both dangerous and stupid.

In Spanish there are two verbs: ser and estar. If you use the babel fish translators they will give you "to be" for both of them. But one is used for something that does not change, and another for something that may.

'To be' or not 'to be'?

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Anyways - ser is the not-changing verb of 'to be', "I am a woman." would be translated with the ser verb. "Yo soy una mujer." Even if I had serious surgery, my chromosomes would give me away; I am a woman and that won't change. But if I were to say - "I am tired." I would use the estar verb "Estoy cansada." Because that will change (soon, hopefully, please) . . .

God's I AM never changes, never has, never will. He is the Great YO SOY!

How can I, changing from one nano-second to the next, think of my existence here as more "real"?

Back to the book, these yanomami were sitting around the fire with Mike when they asked him what was so different about the white man and them so that if the white man wants to be covered from the bugs, he goes out and makes clothes. If he wants to cross the ocean he makes a boat and does so. And if he wants to, he goes builds a ship and walks on the moon. What is the difference?

Unable to quote from the book I will paraphrase here: Mike couldn't respond and the talk around the campfire grew silent as they pondered this until one of the yanomami spoke up and said he knew! See, Mike's forefathers served the Creator God, and He is the giver of wisdom and so the descendents have been blessed . . where as the yanomami forefathers serve Satan and have been enslaved by him and his spirits and, therefore, kept in darkness.

Could you just chew on that for a moment.

This is getting long - so I'll continue next Monday . . . .