Oh Hi de Ho it's a blowie blustery day out...Just capturing some thoughts here...
These entries are typed in journal style unperfectly and uncooked, honestly and real. Not much editing goes here, so please bear with me dear reader. : )
It's been interesting lately, there have been some really yuck days, one was a real pistol with a jury duty summons to boot. Let me tell you, it was a bad day. That's okay though because the Lord will slip a scoop of delightful grace to gracefully lighten our loads here, yes indeedie. I'm still flabbergasted by the yuck but am so thankful to the Lord for His grace and mercy. He knows just what we can take can cannot take. I have to relinquish it to Him and as far as that jury summons? There must be a reason.
I love going to the little wee walmart and little grocery store in Smalltown...Do you know I sometimes get more fellowship there than at many a church? Those people are darling and I love them. They have humility. Mar. and I had so much fun, we even found a little white Christmas tree for her bedroom at Dollar General! It's a few feet high and it solves the custody battle between the first wee little tiny white tree between she and Lea. They have separate rooms here at the new house. At first they thought they could put the wee little tiny tree behind the cammode in their ajoining bathroom. They figured that wouldn't work though.... : ) We even found some little Christmas pens for Marianna's girls at the Chinese mission with jingle bells, snowmen and darling felt trees. Soooo perfect for them!
Where else can you go, where no one cares what kind of car you drive, what kind of car they drive and has a minute to say hello and hey. All the while you get to travel down a beautiful ranch road to get there with glimpses of sweet creatures of the Lord, deer etc., and we even see some beautiful elk at a country estate.
Smalltown reminds me of the old movie, Meet John Doe 1941. Oh I love that movie....It was showing the night I got home with my baby girl, Rebecca in November of 1993. It has Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in it...You must see it! You can see it in entirety HERE. "Beware of the Heelots" (You have to see the movie to know what that means) Hee-hee ; ) (You won't regret it though) In one of the closing parts Barbara Stanwyck talks of the cross over 2000 years ago. Beautiful, so beautiful.
And that's not all...One weekend Mar. and I went to USO town and had a ball. We were going to the wee grocery store and took a little bypass on to USO town with a twinkle in our eye...Ha! Hubby was doing work at home along with my other daughters expecting company. It was a great escape in a sweet way and it was literally like we were in the middle of "It's a Wonderful Life" stage set. Frozen in time. God knew I needed that. Oh did He.
Been busy thinking of Christmas. I'm making some things and buying some, (see flylady.net holiday tips) We do have a rather tight budget this year. Hubby is a Real Estate Broker, self employed bills to pay for our own company trying to sell our old house. Phew.
My baby Rebecca was so lovely in her ballet recital last week. She had a lovely solo to Clair de Lune and it was so sweet. We are so very blessed to have a Christian ballet studio, each recital has a Bible theme too. Costumes are kept modest. Sometimes we have different views on what modest is but that's life eh? I know that teacher is a praying teacher and tries hard. Ms. Sharon we call her. She's an older lady with grandbabies of her own, she stresses dancing with your heart and leaves out anything that would pertain to vanity. She sits on the floor with the girls and prays with them and talks after each class. Where else do we see anything like that? My baby-Becca? The baby I took home in 1993 from a birth center with glorious midwives who loved us and took care of us? The baby who would have been delivered by Ron Paul if we would have gone to the hospital. I always like to put in a plug for that, no matter what, Dr. Paul is sincere and puts actions behind his words.
In fact when I was at the little grocery store I was standing in line in front of a sweet lady who watches Dr. Paul take his walks. She tells me her friend's five babies were delivered by him. Always interesting. The same lady also loves Smalltown and tells me she couldn't be drug away from here. She moved here from california 30 years ago and never looked back. We talked and laughed and gleaned from one another.
Last Sunday was my oldest little girl Lea's birthday, she is now 29.
We had a glorious day, a totally glorious day. We all took a drive to the huge Midtown-Downtown big city old, old Methodist church. It's not far from where hubby and I were both born. We were both delivered by the same doctor and do you know our mothers have the same first and middle names?
I must tell you it's been difficult financially for us lately, my hubby is worried I can see. It's been difficult socially for me, many we know have gone into some movements and churches that seem so prideful and arrogant, some seem cliuqish to me. I'm not understanding how people can be this way..it breaks my heart and if I'm feeling like this, Ms. Homeschool mom? How are others feeling?
I needed to say that to say as we entered this old beautiful Methodist church and quietly walked up into the balcony we were just in heaven. We sang, God of Ages, For the Beauty of the Earth, the Doxology. They had a handbell choir and my husband I both were moved to tears during the songs. We cannot put our finger on it but we felt so loved there, I don't know why, perhaps a sweet smile here and there....Yes, the people were kind. But we also felt the Lord there. Both of us became emotional. I became so emotional I had to precariously reach down for a kleenex praying my nose would wait for me. The sermon was excellent and it was a great feeling to be able to sit under this pastor's sermon, the doctrine was right and we could say amen. One of the other pastors who prayed who prayed for our servicemen prayed such a sincere prayer, it was so touching...so very touching. Veterans were asked to stand up of all ages, families too. The pastor had a country accent that was charming, a bit surprising for Midtown. (I too have an intense country Southern belle accent if you are wondering). Many are shocked to meet me in person after a telephone convo, my accent doesn't quite go with the look. It's funny...quite funny. One of the most sweet compliments was given by a Dr. of Math courting my daughter Lea once. He was Canadian born and thought our accents were charming dahlings.
The crowd of people was interesting, since this is inner-city there were all kinds of people there. Many older couples, just darling, modest clothing even a few hats. I saw one older lady, an Elizabeth Elliot type, maybe a Jane Addison but a bit heavier? Her gray hair was back in a ponytail. She had her purse with the strap crossed over her chest, long skirt like many there, penny loafers with dark blue ankle socks and blouse. I wondered to myself who she was, if she was a doctor or philanthropist or a widow living in a quaint apartment. My pediatrician for our girls is like that, a simple man. He always wears blue and drives a very old blue car, (I think he likes blue) I think his simplicity is wonderful. I later saw the simplegrey haired lady at the bus stop. Interesting.
One thing that touched my heart was a young black youth with studious eye glasses on with a sweet looking family including a nicely dressed grandma. He went all the way down the balcony stairs and up to the altar on his knees to pray at an altar call. Another man went up front to re-dedicate his life to the Lord. One of my daughters later said he was telling a man, "You should hear my testimony".
They had a prayer room I passed by where I saw people in twos, one praying for another for various things, one I'm sure is healing as it was in the program. They also have what they call a Stephen ministry where one goes side by side another to encourage and help people with crisis in their lives. Isn't that wonderful?
Hubby and I were so very touched there, we'll probably be back. We felt loved there. Out in the lobby there was a lady I had eyed who had sat up on platform with the men ministers, she didn't speak but I'm imagining she was there as a minister which probably comes in handy for other women. She was probably in her later years but very beautiful in a sweet simple way. She reminded me in the face of Glenda from the Wizard of Oz. Strange I know but she had a sweet face and a loving smile. She made eye contact with me and our family, we're hard to miss with four daughters. In the bathroom people talked, it wasn't an icicle growing atmosphere. I can't explain it but the Holy Spirit was very present.
We later went to a great Greek restaurant where you order at the front and we ate outside, it was great. Then we went to a most wonderful Mediterranean grocery store that had just opened it's phase II in Midtown, parking garage and all. We had coffee and just enjoyed ourselves.
It was a good Sunday. God is with us. Immanuel.
Won't you sing with me? I love this song, and it comes to mind as I write this. We have both Michael Card and Steve Green both here in this video. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Michael Card but I did listen to Michael Card sing this when I was expecting my Baby-Michelle in 89 and 90...We have many of his cds as well as Steve Green's.
Such memories. I also can say we have met Steve Green and talked with him more than once. He is a very real loving Christian, he took his time talking and visiting with our family more than once. Genuine, a gem of the Lord.
Our God is with us Immanuel.
Much love, ~Amelia
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