Lonnie's Surgery

I do believe that Lonnie is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, Wednesday the 31st. I am putting this here rather than in the prayer requewsts, because there is such a long list of requests and I would like your attention directed to praying for a successful surgery.

Heavenly Father,

I hold your servant, Lonnie, up to you and ask that you prepare her for surgery by giving her a heart filled with peace and the knowledge that the Great Physician will be in that operating room with her and will sit with her through recovery.

I ask that you guide the surgeon's hands, Lord, and that the surgery be successful and without incident. Restore Lonnie's energy and remove every trace of depression from her. Grant her a speedy recovery. When she is over-doing it (and she WILL try to over-do it) nudge her with a reminder that she is to take care of herself and not worry about "things getting done" as you are in the process of knitting her body and spirit back together.

I pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you Jesus for what you are about to do for Lonnie.

Where is our Dear, Beautiful Auntie Sharon!???

Have not heard from you in awhile. Come back... Come back...

Me as Religious Education Director at St. Pius in Billings - this was an award party in my honor - and I was truly honored!

When we lost everything in our fire some amazing blessings came our way. One of those blessings was an opportunity to move to Billings. Phil was offered a job selling pipe for a company out of Salt Lake, Waterworks Equipment Co. It was a big jump in wages, so we packed up all our belongs, which was all the wonderful things people had given us. When we got to Billings, many great opportunities opened up for us. We lived there 20 years before returning to Great Falls. The scripture on the banner above meant a lot to me, and I lived that way. He did direct my paths. And one of those paths led me into Religious Ed director. I loved the job. It was very rewarding. I've been searching for that scripture so I could tell you to read it in your bible and pray with it often. But - I can't seem to find it. Do any of you know where it is? If so, please post it here. Thanks.

But - it is so true. If we truly do seek Him with all our hearts. Really want to know Him. Really listen for his direction. Really trust Him. Really love being in His presence and talking to Him - He will direct our path. He will lead us. We just need to get to know Him so intimately and thoroughly that we can recognize His leading. That is so important in this day and age. There is so much out there that is false, and it is hard to discern the real from the false. If you worked in a bank, you would spend time in your training learning money. You would learn how it feels, the color of it, the print on it - everything about real money. You don't study the counterfeit at all. You just get to know the real so well that you learn to recognize the fake when you come across it. That is the same with God and His leading and His teaching. If you study the word of God, spend time with Him, learn of Him, you will be able to recognize the real from the counterfeit. And you will know when it is He who is leading you. So seek Him with all your heart and He will direct your path.

This is a newspaper article about our fire. I tried to put it as a comment under "Don't you know my Mommy prays, but it wouldn't go there for me"

I'm not sure why the Tribune published this article. But, I always thought it was because the gas company didn't want to be responsible in any way for this fire. The fire cheif told us it was caused by a leak in the gas pipe next to the back door, which was ignited by the fireplace. It was just a miracle that it didn't explode while we were there. The fireman told us we would not have been able to get out of the house - even if we had our hand on the doorknob - that's how hot and how fast it went. This was one of many articles in the paper about our fire. We just thank God for the many blessings that came out of the ashes.

oops!

I should have put the afore said comment under the comments of the "Let's tell funny stories" post! Sorry.

Having fun at M-K campground

These are the pictures that go with the story of me being demoted!
The first picture is Karen, Patsy, Debbie and I (taking the picture) playing scrabble.
The other picture is Debbie sitting on top of the rock that Chad wanted to go up. Please notice the creek running by way down there on the right hand corner of the picture.

Let's share humorous faith stories

I think it would be fun to share some of the stories that we've been through with our history of faith and church. We probably all know some. we could include a picture, too, if wanted.

I'll share first:

When we lived in Billings and Karen and Rick's kids Chad and Brea were just little tykes of about 4 and 2 years old. We all got together to play games at the kitchen table. The family room was just below us and we sent Chad and Brea down there to play as they were too small to understand our game we were playing. They were playing, we were playing, and all were having a great time. We heard what they were saying. Chad said "Let's play Bible Study" and Brea said "okay". To which Chad replied - "You be the bible, I'll be Jesus".

Prayer requests

Please click on to the prayer requests and answers. If there are any you would like to add, please do. And if there are any answers to the prayer, please post it, so we can all join together in a prayer of Thanksgiving. Our God is an awesome God!

Answers to prayer

Let us know your answers to your prayers so we can thank God.

Share in the faith testimonies of others

I am reading this wonderful little book titled "The Secret Things of God", and on page 45 this is what it says:

"Read about others' faith stories and hear their testimonies. The bible says that seeing what others have done and what God has done in their lives helps our own faith. Do an internet search on testimonies of Christians or other research. You will be amazed at what God is doing around the world."

This is the purpose of this blog. I couldn't believe I read these words in this little book. That is how God speaks to me. If I ask Him if this blog is what He wants me to do, He answers in many ways, and this was one that let me know He does want us to share on this blog. There are many ways God speaks to us, and usually we are surprised when He does! I was very surprised and got excited about this when I read these words that just jumped off the page at me.

Trust is a very big part of our faith walk. We have to trust and believe and have faith that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. This little book goes on to say "Trust is a muscle that can grow as you learn to be certain that He can bring about what you cannot see. Of course you can't see it YET! It will only come into being as you take that step, the step of trust".

So - let's trust God and take that step of faith and believe He is calling us to share our faith with others to help us and them grow in faith. I am very much in awe of how God works. If I have an idea in my mind, I begin to do a little research on it and begin to write, and before I know it, something is on the page that I know is not me. I am not a writer. I believe God works through me in the power of the Holy Spirit when I am obedient to His voice. And I believe He does the same for anyone who seeks Him and His wisdom.

'Don't You Know My Mommy Prays?'

When I was five years old, living in Great Falls, Montana, I was attending my siblings' band concert with my mom, the author of this blog. In the middle of the concert, a man asked if my mother was in the audience and declared that we should go home because our house was on fire.

Being five years old, my memories of this night are a bit sketchy, but I do remember a few things clearly (funny how your mind works; to this day, some 30+ years later, whenever I smell a burned house, memories of my childhood come flooding back to me). I'm not sure how we got there, but I'm sure my Mom ran out of the concert with me in tow to the car outside. The next thing I do remember is being in the car on the street in front of my house. I don't specifically remember flames, but I do remember the lights from the fire trucks. We spent quite a bit of time there and being so little, I was passed around to all kinds of horrified relatives who happened to be there.

I'm sure these details will be corrected in the comments, but what I believe happened was that the gas line to the house somehow caused an explosion that witnesses said caused flames to shoot out of windows on both sides of the house, curl up around the roof and join above the house.

I'm not sure who it was, but I think it was Aunt Donna who asked me if I was scared or worried because I appeared to be taking these life-changing events in stride without crying or showing much distress at all. "Why would I worry? Don't you know my mommy prays?" was my response. I remember clearly at the time knowing with all certainty that the fact that our home was burning up in front of our eyes, that there was absolutely no reaason to be concerned, because my mother spent a good portion of each day praying to God. This was sure to result in our lives not really changing in any negative way, and probably would result in God blessing our family with some new path that would be revealed in time and everything would turn out.

How well placed my faith in my mother's prayer turned out to be. Looking back, I can see why my Mom was hysterical that night. I am the youngest of seven, and there was never a time where the whole family was out of the house at the same time. The whole house burned to the ground, and all of our families posessions were lost. Of course, with such a big family, there was very little money.

Miraculously (literally), everyone was out of the house that night. Mom and I were at Chuck and Debbie's band concert, and who knows where everyone else was, but no one was home. If they had been, they surely would have died due to the violently fast and hot nature of this fire. Even our dog, Sam was rescued from the back yard by neighbors. The only thing I know of that died in that fire was our cat.

You can see how devistating something like this could be for a family in our situation in the mid-70s. But, what turned out happening, was truly a miracle. That night we were taken in by relatives. No small feat looking back on it. A young married couple with seven kids and no material posessions moving into my Dad's sister's house with her own husband and ten kids. Somehow that worked out.

I remember getting a lot of new stuff from people who heard about our plight and donating things to us. Dad said that one man in town told him to take the whole family to the shoe store and to buy everyone a new pair of shoes. The bill had been taken care of. That was a big deal for our family. Think what new shoes for a family of nine would cost today.

Somehow we wound up in a rental house that turned out to be perfect for what we needed. But we weren't there long when Dad got a new job in Billings. This turned out to be the perfect place to be at the time. Everything did work out. I'm sure my Mom will add more details to this story, but our lives were all changed for the better (in the long run).

My point in this long-winded story is that I have always been able to look at my mother's faith in God as an inspiration and as an anchor during uncertain and difficult times. My Mom thinks I am really laid-back and happy-go-lucky and take a non-challant view of life and my future, but it always seems to work out in my favor. I know that it works out because my mommy prays. The confidence I have always had in many of my decisions in life can be attributed to the fact, that in the back of my mind, I know that my Mom, who is a perpetual worrier, is praying like crazy for me, my brother, and my five sisters. Furthermore, God listens to her. One way or another, my Mom's prayers are answered, and there is really no reason for me to get worked up, because God has a plan for me. There really is nothing that will happen to me that will not serve God's purpose. My mother instilled in me that God has a plan. We may not at first see the purpose, but it will become clear in time.

I have arrived!

Yes, Mom. Whatever you did seems to have worked. I can post now. I'm a big girl now!

profiles and wish list

Click on the names of the people who are in this blog and read their profiles and wish lists. If you haven't filled yours in, it's fun to do that. We'd like to read all about you. I'd like to post my picture on there, too, but have to figure it out somehow. I will! I'm waiting for some more stories of your faith walks and answers to prayers, etc. I know we'd all like to hear about you. How about a funny story of church experiences you have had in your life? Or something you've learned that really made a difference to you or someone you know. What is your favorite scripture reading? Why is it your favorite? Do you have a favorite story you've heard or read and could share with us? I'll start telling stories and doing the writings, but it sure would be fun if more of you wanted to write things on here, too. How about it?

God bless you all!

HEY Look at Me..I'm posting

Just a few lines to say that I was able to do this one. Never saw this stuff for Evesdropper. So maybe someone could re invite me to evesdropper, as it never did this, what I am doing here. Does that make sense?

My prayer for all of you and myself is that God will equip us with whatever it is we need to fight our everyday battles, and from that, develop the character He wants us to have so we are able to continue fighting the battles of everyday living.